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ROMANS IN AUSTRIA AND CENTRAL EUROPE
Carnuntum
Noricum is the Latin name for a federation of tribes that included most of what is now Austria and part of Slovenia. In the A.D. first century, it became a province of the Roman Empire. Its borders were the Danube to the north, Raetia and Vindelici to the west, Pannonia to the east and south-east, and Italia to the south. The kingdom was founded around 400 BC, and had its capital at the royal residence at Virunum on the Magdalensberg. [Source Wikipedia]
In the A.D. first century, the Romans conquered the Celts south of the Danube and set up a frontier colony. Although Noricum and Rome had been active trading partners and had formed military alliances, around 15 B.C. the majority of modern Austria was annexed to the Roman Empire, ushering in 500 years of Roman rule there. Noricum became a Roman province. The Romans built many cities that survive today. They include Vindobona (Vienna), Juvavum (Salzburg), Valdidena (Innsbruck), and Brigantium (Bregenz). As Rome's power declined, Germanic tribes from the north moved in and overcame the Celts.
European Provinces in Central Europe
Rhaetia et Vindelicia (roughly Switzerland, northern Italy,15 B.C.).
Noricum (Austria, Slovenia, 15 B.C.).
Pannonia (western Hungary, eastern Austria, northern Croatia, north-western Serbia,
northern Slovenia, western Slovakia and northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. A.D. 10).
In 2016, Archaeology magazine reported: The construction of a sewage system outside Bratislava has revealed more than 200 artifacts of high society, including jewelry, coins, clothing buckles, and a fine, intricate, one-of-a-kind silver belt. The belt — which may not have been worn around the waist — was in imitation of opus interrasile, a pierced openwork metalworking technique, and likely belonged to a woman of some standing. The finds date back to the 2nd to 5th centuries A.D., and were discovered in the vicinity of Gerulata, a Roman military camp. [Source: Samir S. Patel, Archaeology magazine, January-February 2016]
In the first century A.D., Hungary in was ruled by Sarmatians of the Iazyges tribe and acted as a buffer state between the Roman territories and the Dacians farther north. The region didn’t become fully Romanized until after the Marcomannic War from A.D. 166 to 188, which took place between Rome and several tribes, including the Germanic Marcomanni and the Sarmatian Iazyges: Rome won the war, and the region became a frontier of the empire until the fifth century, when it fell to the Huns. [Source Tom Metcalf, Live Science, May 5, 2023]
Switzerland Under the Romans
Switzerland is sometimes called "Helvetia." The name is derived from the Celtic Helvetii tribe that occupied present day Switzerland during Roman times. Caesar conquered and colonized the Helvetti. Between 100 B.C. and A.D. 400 Switzerland was known as Helvetia.
Statue of Hercules in Augusta Raurica, Switzerland
What is now Switzerland was a part of the Roman Republic and Empire for a period of about 600 years six centuries, beginning with the step-by-step conquest of the area by Roman armies from the 2nd century B.C. and ending with the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in the A.D. 5th century. The mostly Celtic tribes of the area were subdued jugated by successive Roman campaigns aimed at control of the strategic routes from Italy across the Alps to the Rhine and into Gaul, most importantly by Julius Caesar's defeat of the largest tribal group, the Helvetii, in the Gallic Wars in 58 B.C.
The Romans built a vast network roads through the Great St. Bernard pass and across what is now northern Switzerland. Sections of these road and ruins of temples and amphitheaters built beside them have been excavated and are open for visitors today.
Under the Pax Romana, the area was efficiently integrated into the Roman Empire. Its population assimilated into the wider Gallo-Roman culture by the A.D. 2nd century. The native aristocracy , was enlisted by the Romans. A network of roads connecting newly established colonial cities were built and region was divided among several Roman provinces. Roman civilization began to retreat from Swiss territory when it became a border region again after the Crisis of the Third Century. Roman control weakened after 401 AD, but did not entirely disappear until the mid-5th century after which the area began to be occupied by Germanic peoples.
After the fall of Rome Helvetia was invaded by Germanic tribes: the Alemanni in north and east and Burundians in the west. The Alemanni spoke a language similar to German and the Burgandians mixed their Germanic tongue with relation and came up with French. Because the mountains limited the mixing of these tribe, The division of Switzerland along these lines today can be traced to these A.D 4th century invasions.
Roman Sites in Switzerland
Augusta Raurica is a Roman archaeological site and an open-air museum in Switzerland located on the south bank of the Rhine river about 20 kilometers east of Basel near the villages of Augst and Kaiseraugst. It is the site of the oldest known Roman colony on the Rhine, it is home to the modest ruins of an amphitheatre and a theater: that forms an architectural unit with the temple across the street. The main forum contains the temple of Jupiter and a basilica. Parts of an aqueduct that supplied Augusta Raurica with drinking water from the Liestal are visible and accessible in Heidenloch in Liestal. A taberna, bakery, potter, tile kiln and portions of a sewer have been unearthed.
Zurich was founded in Roman times. Avenches (50 miles northeast of Lausanne) was a fortified Celtic town that came under Roman control in 15 B.C. Vallon (Canton Fribourg) boasts 1044-square foot Roman mosaic (the largest in Switzerland) with scenes of gladiators fighting wild animals. Orbe (north of Lausanne) is the home of a splendid Roman mosaic floor. Each deity depicted has a distinguishing feature. Venus, the goddess of love, is attended by a pair of cupid. Mars, the God of War, holds a shield and a spear. A mosaic in a different area shows oxen pulling a wooden cart with iron-rimmed wheels. Nyon (12 miles north of Geneva) features a cluster of three Roman columns, two of them connected by a frieze, sitting on a terrace above a formal garden. The small museum contains amphoras that once held fish sauce, cremations urns and a statue of the goddess Cybele who once, according to legend, drove one of her lovers mad to the point he castrated himself.
Carnuntum in Austria: Fourth Largest City in the Roman Empire
The Roman city of Carnuntum, which spread out over an area of about 10 square kilometers and had a large legionary fort and an amphitheater that could accommodate 8,000 people, was built on the Danube about 40 kilometers from present-day Vienna. It was occupied from A.D. 14 to 433, when it was sacked by the Huns. The Carnuntum ruins are about 45 kilometers east of Vienna and was a major military and trade outpost linking the far-flung Roman empire's Asian boundaries to its central and northern European lands. It was a key link in the European amber trade. [Source: George Jahn, AP, September 6, 2011]
Carnuntum lies on the southern bank of the Danube in present-day Austria. At its height it was the fourth-largest city in the Roman Empire, and home to maybe 50,000 people, including, for a time in A.D. second century the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius. A few remains are visible today such as the monumental Heathen’s Gate and the amphitheater. Most of Carnuntum’s sprawling remains are still buried underground beneath pastures. It recent decades, the site has been threatened by plowing, construction and looting by treasure hunters.
“To study the underground city without disturbing it, Wolfgang Neubauer, director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI ArchPro), has been using noninvasive methods, such as aerial photography, ground-penetrating radar systems and magnetometers. In 2011, a team led by Neubauer, identified a gladiator school at Carnuntum, complete with training grounds, baths and cells where dozens of gladiators lived like prisoners.
History of Carnuntum
Franz Lidz wrote in Smithsonian magazine: “In A.D. 6, during the expansion of the Roman Empire along the Danube and into present-day Germany, the future emperor Tiberius reached this spot and established a winter encampment.Carnuntum, as the camp would be called, flourished under the protection of the legions and became a center of the amber trade. The army and townspeople lived apart, but in symbiotic amity. “In the civilian city, large public buildings like temples, a forum and thermal baths were built,” says Neubauer. “The town had paved roads and an extensive sewage system.” [Source:Franz Lidz, Smithsonian magazine, July-August 2016]
“During its second-century prime, Carnuntum was a key Roman capital of a province that spanned the landmass of what is now Austria and much of the Balkans. The frontier town boasted a burgeoning population and a gladiator school whose size and scale was said to rival the Ludus Magnus, the great training center immediately to the east of the Colosseum in Rome. Toward the end of the glory days of the Roman realm, the emperor Marcus Aurelius held sway from Carnuntum and made war on Germanic tribes known as the Marcomanni. There, too, his 11-year-old son, Commodus, likely first witnessed the gladiatorial contests that would become his ruling passion.
“After a series of barbarian invasions, Carnuntum was completely abandoned early in the fifth century A.D. Eventually, the buildings collapsed, too, and merged into the landscape. Though archaeologists have been digging and theorizing at the 1,600-acre site on and off since the 1850s, only remnants survive — a bath complex, a palace, a temple of Diana, the foundations of two amphitheaters (one capable of holding 13,000 spectators) and a monumental arch known as the Heidentor (Heathens’ Gate) that looms in battered splendor at the edge of town.
“Stretching for nearly three miles between the modern-day villages of Petronell-Carnuntum and Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, Carnuntum is one of the largest preserved archaeological parks of its kind in Europe. For the last two decades Neubauer has quarterbacked a series of excavations at the site with noninvasive techniques. Using remote-sensing and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to peer through layers of earth, the researchers have located and identified the forum; the garrison of the governor’s guard; an extensive network of shops and meeting halls; and, in 2011, the storied gladiator school — the most complete ludus found outside Rome and Pompeii.
“Only a few remnants of the ancient city of Carnumtum remain, including the foundations of two amphitheaters. “The resulting 3-D images laid bare a sprawling forum. “We had discovered the main building of the city quarter of Carnuntum’s military camp,” says Neubauer. A computer analysis revealed foundations, roads and sewers, even walls, stairs and floors, as well as a cityscape whose landmarks included shops, baths, a basilica, the tribunal, and a curia, the center of local government. “The amount of detail was incredible,” Neubauer recalls. “You could see inscriptions, you could see the bases of statues in the great courtyard and the pillars inside rooms, and you could see whether floors were wood or stone — and if there had been central heating.” Three-dimensional virtual modeling allowed the team to reconstruct what the forum — all 99,458 square feet of it — might have looked like.
Austrian gladiator school
Roman Gladiator School Found in Austria
In 2011 it was revealed that some well-preserved ruins of a Roman gladiator school had been found in Carnuntum near Petronell-Varnuntum, Austria. AP reported” “The Carnuntum ruins are part of a city of 50,000 people 45 kilometers east of Vienna that flourished about 1700 years ago, a major military and trade outpost linking the far-flung Roman empire's Asian boundaries to its central and northern European lands."Source: George Jahn, AP, September 6, 2011]
Dan Vergano of National Geographic wrote: “At least 80 gladiators, likely more, lived in the large, two-story facility equipped with a practice arena in its central courtyard. The site also included heated floors for winter training, baths, infirmaries, plumbing, and a nearby graveyard. Within the 118,400-square-foot (11,000-square-meter) walled compound at the Austrian site, gladiators trained year-round for combat at a nearby public amphitheater [Source: Dan Vergano, National Geographic, February 25, 2014]
Mapped out by radar, the ruins of the gladiator school remain underground. Yet officials say the find rivals the famous Ludus Magnus - the largest of the gladiatorial training schools in Rome - in its structure. And they say the Austrian site is even more detailed than the well-known Roman ruin, down to the remains of a thick wooden post in the middle of the training area, a mock enemy that young, desperate gladiators hacked away at centuries ago.
The gladiator complex is part of a 10 square km site over the former city, an archaeological site now visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists a year. This is “a world sensation, in the true meaning of the word," Lower Austrian provincial governor Erwin Proell told Associated Press. The Carnuntum ruins, he said, were "unique in the world ... in their completeness and dimension". Officials said they had no date yet for the start of excavations of the gladiator school, saying experts needed time to settle on a plan that conserves as much as possible.
See Separate Article: GLADIATOR SCHOOLS AND TRAINING europe.factsanddetails.com
Concession Stands Found at Austrian Roman Gladiator Arena
In March 2017, archaeologists in Austria announced they found the remains of the bakeries, fast-food stands and shops that could have been the equivalent of concessions stands for a 13,000-seat amphitheater in the ancient Roman city of Carnuntum, on the southern bank of the Danube, which at its height was the fourth-largest city in the Roman Empire, and home to maybe 50,000 people, including, for a time, A.D. second century A.D. philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius. [Source: Megan Gannon Livescience.com April 4, 2017 |~|]
In 2011, a team led by Wolfgang Neubauer, director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI ArchPro), identified a gladiator school at Carnuntum. In a later survey, using noninvasive methods, such as aerial photography, ground-penetrating radar systems and magnetometers, they found Carnuntum’s “entertainment district,” separate from the rest of the city and just outside the amphitheater. |~|
Megan Gannon wrote in Livescience.com: “They identified a wide, shop-lined boulevard leading to the amphitheater. By comparing the structures to buildings found at other well-preserved Roman cities, such as Pompeii, Neubauer and his colleagues identified several types of ancient businesses along the street. “Oil lamps with depictions of gladiators were sold all around this area,” Neubauer said, so some of the shops likely sold souvenirs. The researchers found a series of taverns and “thermopolia” where people could buy food at a counter. “It was like a fast-food stand,”Neubauer told Live Science. “You can imagine a bar, where the cauldrons with the food were kept warm.” |~|
“They also discovered a granary with a massive oven, which was likely used for baking bread. Material that has been exposed to high temperatures has a distinct geophysical signature, so when Neubauer’s team found a big, rectangular structure with that signature, they thought, “This must be an oven for baking.” “It gives us now a very clear story of a day at the amphitheater,” Neubauer said. The survey also revealed that there was once another, older wooden amphitheater, just 1,300 feet from the main amphitheater, buried under the later city wall of the civilian city.” |~|
Last Roman Gladiator Arena Unearthed In Switzerland
In October 2023, archaeologists in Switzerland announced that they had uncovered the ruins of a Roman-era amphitheater — possibly the youngest on record — where gladiator fights were held Live Science reported: The oval-shaped amphitheater was built in an abandoned Roman quarry that had been in use until late antiquity. This clue, combined with the discovery of a coin dating to between A.D. 337 and 341 at the site, indicates that the amphitheater dates to the fourth century A.D., which would make it the youngest amphitheater in the Roman Empire, Jakob Baerlocher, an archaeologist at the site and head of excavations in Kaiseraugst, Switzerland, told Live Science. A few other clues point to a fourth century A.D. date, including the composition of the amphitheater's building materials, such as its stone blocks and mortar, which are "reminiscent of that of the late antique fort wall," Baerlocher told Live Science.[Source: Live Science, October 12, 2023]
Archaeologists discovered the amphitheater while monitoring construction work for a new boathouse on the Rhine River in December 2021. The amphitheater — in Kaiseraugst, a municipality named for the ancient Roman city of Augusta Raurica, which sits near Switzerland's modern-day borders with France and Germany — is the third Roman amphitheater discovered to date in Augusta Raurica, according to a translated statement from the Department of Education, Culture and Sport in the Swiss canton of Aargau, which announced the find on Jan. 19.
The amphitheater, which is about 50 meters (164 feet) long and 40 meters (131 feet) wide, sits in the valley of the quarry. Nearby is the Castrum Rauracense, a late Roman fort situated on what was the northern border of the Roman Empire in A.D. 300, just a stone's throw from what was Germania. The archaeological team unearthed a large gate to the south of the amphitheater, which was flanked by two entrances. On the arena's western side, the archaeologists found preserved sandstone blocks by another entrance. The inside arena walls were plastered, and the imprint of a post from wooden grandstands, or seats, was also visible.
Battle Between Roman Legion and Tribal Warriors in Switzerland
Lucas Schmid, a volunteer archaeologist using a metal detector in the mountainous Graubünden region of Switzerland, uncovered a 2000-year-old, silver-and-brass dagger that proved to be a vital clue for the discovery of a site where a long-forgotten battle between a Roman legion and Rhaeti tribal warriors in approximately 15 B.C. [Source: Bethany Dawson, Joshua Zitser, Business Insider, December 5, 2021]
The dagger, dated to around 15 B.C., was a rare find. Only four of its kind have been found in former Roman territories, the team behind the discovery explained. Business Insider reported: Schmid's find led to the discovery of hundreds of other ancient artifacts. A new investigation of the site, run by a team from the Archaeological Service of Graubünden, the University of Basel (Switzerland), unearthed spearheads, lead slingshots, parts of shields, coins, and hobnails from Roman soldiers. This discovery then sparked further explorations, revealing a battlefield.
theatre of Augusta Raurica in Switzerland
The Raeti were a confederation of Alpine tribes, whose language and culture were related to those of the Etruscans. Before the Roman conquest, they inhabited present-day Tyrol in Austria, eastern Switzerland and the Alpine regions of northeastern Italy. After the Roman conquest, the province of Raetia was formed, which included parts of present-day Germany south of the Danube. [Source Wikipedia]
The Raeti tribes, together with those of their Celtic-speaking neighbours to the north, the Vindelici, were subjugated by the Imperial Roman army in 15 B.C. and their territories annexed to the Roman empire. The Roman province of Raetia et Vindelicia was named after these two peoples. The Raeti tribes quickly became loyal subjects of the empire and contributed disproportionate numbers of recruits to the imperial Roman army's auxiliary corps.
Roman Offering Place with Rock Crystals Found in the Swiss Alps
On a plateau with an awe-inspiring view on part of the Ammertenhorn mountain in Switzerland archaeologists with the the Canton of Bern and the Bern Historical Museum found hundreds of Roman coins intermixed with 27 rock crystals. Ammertenhorn is within the Canon of Bern and about 105 miles southwest of Zurich. [Source: Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, March 15, 2023]
Aspen Pflughoeft wrote in the Miami Herald: Archaeologists believe this plateau was a holy site, possibly treated as a pilgrimage site, the release said. The types of artifacts unearthed are similar to offerings left at other Roman religious sites. Down the mountain from the plateau, archaeologists previously found a Roman sanctuary, officials said. An inscription at the Thun-Allmendingen sanctuary describes how locals left offerings to an Alpine goddess to appease, thank or ask something of her.
“It shows that the Roman population of the region didn’t only worship the mountains from afar, but also went up and close to them to deposit votive offerings,” the excavation’s project manager, Regula Gubler, told Newsweek. “The rock crystals we found occur naturally up there but may be part of the reason the location was considered significant (or) auspicious,” she said.
Roman-Era Swiss Alpine Resort?
In September 2023, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 2,000-year-old Roman wall believed to be part of a villa or temple at a location with a beautiful view. The building complex had various rooms and encompassed an of at least 490 square meters (5,300 square feet) near Cham-Oberwil in central Switzerland. The find was reported by the Canton of Zug’s Office for the Preservation of Monuments and Archeology. “Only a few structural relics of this kind from the Roman period are known in the pre-Alpine region,” Christa Ebnöther, professor archeology of the Roman Provinces at the University of Bern, said. “What is also astounding is the relatively good preservation of the remains.” [Source: Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, September 14, 2023]
post-Roman division of Switzerland between the Burgundians and the Alamanni lives on the distribution of languages in Switzerland
Popular Mechanics reported: The elevated location near Äbnetwald offers a view of the surrounding landscape. It is unclear exactly what the function of the monumental building was, though possibilities include a grand villa with a lovely view or a temple. Large numbers of iron nails found at the site hint at wooden construction on the wall foundation.“We were also amazed that the top bricks were even visible above ground,” Gishan Schaeren, head of the Department of Prehistory and Prehistoric Archaeology at Archeology Society Zug, said in a statement.
Archaeologists also found evidence that some elite people lived at the site, including imported Roman tableware called terra sigillata and some detailed glass vessels. During this time, amphorae jars typically held fish sauce, wine, or olive oil and provide some evidence that the Romans in the region traded with Mediterranean countries. Artifacts included 1) an amphora base, the shard of a mortar, 2) the rim of a small bowl of Roman tableware with a red coating (terra sigillata), 3) four coins in as-found condition, one of which was silver from Julius Caesar, 4) fragment of a gold object, 5) pieces of a square bottle and 6) a blue glass ribbed bowl.[Source: Laura Baisas, Popular Science, August 30, 2023]
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.
Last updated October 2024