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Frontiers of the Roman Empire – Ripa Pannonica in Hungary (RPH) Nomination statement Roman civilization. Its influence reached far beyond its actual boundaries in Europe and around the Mediterranean. Its culture framed and guided the cultures of Europe up to and including the present day. The frontiers of the Roman Empire form the single largest monument to this civilization. They helped define the very extent and nature of the Roman Empire. As a whole, they represent the definition of the Roman Empire as a world state. They also played a crucial role in defining the development of the successor states to the Roman Empire. The frontiers and their garrisons were also a crucial tool of Romanization on both sides of the border line. The frontiers also have high significance as illustrating the complexity and organizational abilities of the Roman Empire. With only the technology and communications of a pre-industrial society, the Empire was able to plan, create and protect a frontier of some 5000 km and garrisons of tens of thousands of men. It was then able to manage and use this system, on the whole successfully, for periods of many centuries, both as a physical barrier, and also as the basis for diplomatic and military intervention far beyond the actual frontier line itself. Physically, the frontiers demonstrate the variety and sophistication of the responses of the Roman Empire to the common need to demarcate, and control and defend its boundaries. This had to be done in widely differing circumstances, reflecting the interaction of political, military and topographical features. Mostly, the Empire faced a variety of tribal groups, but on their eastern front they were confronted by the Parthian Empire, a state of equal sophistication and complexity. In some places the boundary ran along rivers. Elsewhere it edged the desert and in other places it ran through areas with no natural barriers. In each case, the Romans developed a local solution, making use of topographical features and political circumstances to provide a barrier that was an effective control of movement across the frontier as well as a strong military defense barrier. The variety of physical remains has outstanding value in demonstrating the complexity and success of this society in using boundary fortifications to define and protect itself in ways appropriate to the local circumstances in each case.” The borders by the movement of legions along them, also played a particular role in diffusion of Christianity in this part of Europe. The Ripa Pannonica is a section of the borders of the Roman Empire. It is a complex example of a linear border defense system along a river which has been verified archaeologically. This is a form that comprised only a minority of the Empire’s borders – developed only along the Rhine, the Danube and the Euphrates rivers. The defensive system along rivers was a special type of Roman border defense that was adapted to the conditions of the terrain and did not require the construction of a continuous structure or earthworks as was the case for Hadrian’s Wall or the Antonine Wall that have already been inscribed in the World Heritage. It was a rational system of structures comprised of various elements with a high degree of organization. This system adapted itself to the prevailing interests of the Empire’s external and internal politics as well as the numbers of soldiers stationed on it, their equipment and their system of organization. This linear defense system was developed in its full and exemplary form in the 2 nd century in Pannonia, within the current territory of Hungary. The development of the river border defensive system and its periodic reorganization over 400 years to conform to internal and external political conditions bears record to Roman military doctrines and the sustainable development and multifaceted flexibility of its army. The significant value of the Ripa Pannonica, in addition to its historical lessons, lies in its archaeological sites which represent evidence of Roman architectural and engineering knowledge and how through the Roman system of border defense the political arrangement of the Roman Empire is more easily understood. The Empire’s periodical reorganization over the nearly 400 years of its existence and operation faithfully reflects the evolution of the system of relationships between the Romans and the peoples living across 48
Frontiers of the Roman Empire – Ripa Pannonica in Hungary (RPH) Nomination statement the border in Barbaricum. This Empire that stretched over three continents developed the Greco-Roman world culture in this part of Europe, and further disseminated it. The uniform arrangement of the Roman Empire, its common language and last but not least the movement of soldiers on the borders and between the most distant areas established the medium through which Christianity suddenly proliferated, providing the foundation for the future of Europe. In addition to the archaeological remains, its impact, which stretches far beyond the period that the Empire existed, is clearly evident to the present day in the spatial organization of towns and regional systems of roads as well as economic and cultural borders. 3.b.2 Outstanding Archaeological Value The Ripa Pannonica is a section of the several thousand mile border of the Roman Empire, which as a part of a whole exhibiting outstanding universal value naturally does not only share in this universal value, but contributes to its broadening and enhancement through its own particular features. From a historical standpoint the Ripa Pannonica and the armies stationed there, which made up the main strength of the Danubian army – within the three big military concentrations in the West, in the East and in the middle of the empire the largest military force – acquired extraordinary significance. This army obtained the throne for Vespasian in 69 AD and for Septimius Severus in 193. Both of these emperors founded dynasties and so the reign of their families ensured that particular attention was paid to Pannonia for a long time. Our area enjoyed a similarly exceptional appreciation under the later Illyrian emperors, including Aurelian and Diocletian. They succeded to reunite the empire which had splitted to more parts in the turbulent decades of the third century. Also the Constantinian and Valentinian dynasties originated from the Balcanic provinces. Crucial events and battles took place in Pannonia’s lands, which impacted and determined the fate of not only the province, but of the entire empire. Marcus Aurelius was victorious over the Germanic peoples in Pannonia and foraying out from Pannonia in the 170s. On many occasions it was here that the forces of the western and eastern empire clashed, between Ingenuus and Gallienus in 258, Licinius and Constantine in 314 and Magnentius and Constantius II in 351. During the time of the tetrarchy a Pannonian city, Sirmium, became an imperial seat and it retained its special position for several decades. The Ripa Pannonica enriches the universal value of the Roman limes World Heritage site with many unique archaeological elements. In addition to it being the longest riverside limes section in the nominations for the World Heritage, it should also be pointed out that it is here where the limes road has been the most thoroughly researched and included in the nomination up to this point. The sections of road that have been examined and mapped also show that the limes road was built according to the classic traditions of Roman road construction, and its path has been determined with precise geodesic measurements. As a result of this, the Roman military road is divided up into absolutely straight sections that are 5-10 or even 20 km long. A prominent characteristic of the Ripa Pannonica is that through the means of archaeology four centuries of history and border defense can be examined, studied and marveled at along its path. The Danube formed the border of the province and the empire starting from its conquest by Augustus until the 430s when it was abandoned, so it has an outstanding ability to represent the long historical development of Roman border defense. The various military structures on the riverside limes were continuously built up starting from the middle of the 1 st century. Archaeological investigations have successively shown the changes that occurred in border 49
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