CARNUNTUM
Austria.
Between Bad
Deutsch Altenburg (to the E) and the small town of
Petronell (to the W), ca. 40 km down the Danube from
Vindobona (Vienna), an important Roman military
stronghold on the middle Danube. The name is of
Illyrian origin. Because of its position in the road network, Carnuntum was strategically one of the chief cities
on the boundary between Noricum and Pannonia. It was
situated at the crossroads of two major trade routes: the
ancient tribal road along the Danube and the important
S-N connecting road from the Adria region (Aquileia)
along the E boundary of the Alps to Carnuntum. At this
point the amber route running S from the Baltic thrust
out toward the Danube—a major artery from early times
with the valley of the March providing a favorable passageway for invaders from the N. The geographical and
political importance of the site is thus reflected in its
history.
The early Illyrian-Celtic settlement of Carnuntum was
situated near the Braunsberg mountain by Hainburg, on
whose summit the oppidum of the Boii was set up as a
center of defense. After the occupation the indigenous
population settled in the Petronell territory (later to become the civilian city). Not long after the conquest of
Pannonia (12 B.C.), Carnuntum became a sortie base
for the military operations that Tiberius carried out
against the Marcomanni under King Maroboduus. As
such it is first mentioned, under the name locus Norici
regni. In A.D. 14 the Legio XV Apollinaris was transferred from Emona to the stone camp here which apparently was built under Tiberius. In this period too the E boundary of Noricum, with Carnuntum, was added to
the province of Pannonia for military and administrative
reasons.
In A.D. 62 Legio XV, detached to serve in the E campaign for a few years (63-68), was relieved by Legio X
gemina or Legio VII Galbiana (68-69). On its return
in 71, the legion once again served in Carnuntum but
was replaced in the latter part of Trajan's reign by Legio
XIV gemina, which was to remain in garrison here
to the end of Roman domination. Under Trajan (in the
years 103-107) the province of Pannonia was divided
into Pannonia superior and inferior and Carnuntum was
made chief city of Pannonia superior and thus the seat
of the governor. Hadrian visited the city during his tour
of the Danubian provinces in 124 and raised the settlement W of the camp tp the rank of municipium Aelium
Carnuntum. Often in difficult and dangerous times the
Danube fortress was to shelter emperors within its walls.
When Carnuntum, together with the Viennese basin, was
overrun in the Marcomannic invasion, Marcus Aurelius
began his counteroffensive from this spot. For two years
(172-74) Carnuntum was his headquarters. Here, too,
the emperor wrote the second book of his Meditations.
Twenty years later at Carnuntum the then governor
of Pannonia superior, Septimius Severus, was promoted
from soldier to emperor on the strength of his leadership
of Legio XIV and the city was made colonia Septimia
Carnuntum in 194. During the wars of succession in the
unsettled 3d c., Carnuntum in 260 was evidently one of
the centers of the usurper Regalianus. Since most of the
coins of this rival emperor are to be found around Carnuntum, he presumably had his mint here. In 308 Carnuntum was the site of a meeting of the emperor Diocletian
with Maximianus and Galerius on the succession to the
throne. The Mithraic altar set up on this occasion has been
preserved and represents the most significant historical
inscription from Austria Romana. The last known time
that an emperor stayed in Carnuntum was in 375. Valentian I rushed here to prepare a retaliatory strike against
various Germanic tribes. By that time, however, the city
had lost all its early splendor. The decline over the previous century had turned it into an “oppidum . . . desertum quidem nunc et squalens” (Amm. Marc. 30.5.2),
forcing the emperor to set up his winter quarters in
Savaria. As a striking illustration of this decline, about
700 inscriptions dating from the first three centuries were
found on the soil of Carnuntum, but only four from the
4th c. The end of Roman domination came with the invasion of Germanic tribes in 395. The fate of both camp
and city was sealed with the collapse of the boundary
as far as Vindobona and the final surrender of Pannonia
I to the Huns in 433. Carnuntum was last mentioned in
the
Notitia Dignitatum (34.24; 26; 28).
The site comprises three complexes differing as to area,
function, and administration: (a) the camp and adjacent
territorium; (b) the canabae; (c) the municipium, W of
the camp, also clearly separate from the canabae.
The camp is on rising ground between Petronell and
Bad Deutsch Altenburg (at road km mark 42) on the
banks of the Danube. It is irregular in plan, owing partly
to the configuration of the ground, partly to later changes
in construction (especially the bays on the E facade).
The outline resembles a rhombus. The N facade has collapsed where the river has undermined the bank. The
original area of the camp must have been approximately
500 by 400 m. The greater part of the surface has been
excavated. The sturdy circuit wall, which is 1.8 m thick
with rounded-off corners, has a trench system of differing
width and is fortified at irregular intervals with inward-facing towers. The via principalis, which lay exactly
where the cross-country highway runs today, had two
gates at each end with double towers and two passages;
likewise the porta decumana. It is no longer possible to
determine whether there was a porta praetoria. The interior plan seems fundamentally to follow the usual arrangement. On the other hand, because of the many
construction changes made over the 400-odd years that
the site was occupied (up to eight construction periods
have been noted at certain spots), much has become unclear. Projected excavation should help clarify as far as
possible the sequence of the strata and the plan of the
settlement in post antiquity.
The military amphitheater is situated on the territorium legionis. Placed, unusually, only ca. 100 m E of
the camp, it is nevertheless somewhat below the level of
the defenses. Laid out in a depression, it measures 98 by
75 m on the outside, the arena being 72 by 44 m. In the
middle of the arena is a basin (8 x 6 m and almost 4 m
deep). The governor's loge is in the middle of the S side,
the Nemesum by the W gate. The cavea with its wooden
seats could accommodate approximate 8000. The stone
building put up probably in the first half of the 2d c.
A.D. on the site of an earlier wooden structure was
founded by the decurio C. Domitius Zmaragdus of
Antiochia (Syria). Among the buildings on the territorium legionis was a large forum-marketplace, some 100
m SE of the camp. It has two porticoed courtyards, four
fountains, a portico on the N side and, with its outer
dimensions (182 x 226 m), corresponds roughly to a
quarter of the camp's area. This unusually large size,
which takes into consideration not only the population
of the surrounding region but also the neighboring Germanic tribes, testifies to Carnuntum's economic role as
a center of trade. The military necropolis extended from
the W camp gate to the civilian city along the Aquileia
road; it contains tombs dating mainly from the 1st and
2d c. Numerous tombs were uncovered around the civilian city, but as yet we have no clear idea of their chronology.
The built-up area of the civilian city extends at least
2 km E to W, ca. 1.5 km from N to S. The center (with
forum and Capitolium) has not yet been located. However, three monuments dedicated to Mithras and one to
Jupiter Dolichenus have been located.
The most striking building complex is the so-called
palace. The rectangular area (104 x 143 m), not completely excavated, is walled on two sides and porticoed
on the other two. Especially noteworthy is the transverse
wing on the S side—a rectangle (50 x 20 m) having
16 small rooms on three sides and, in the middle, two
octagons each measuring 6 m in diameter and a rotunda
4 m in diameter. The strikingly large apsidal area in the
N section suggested that this was an audience hall, and
that the whole complex may have been designed as the
legate's palace. The purpose of the complex, as well as
of the individual rooms, is still undetermined. The building work visible today dates from the 3d-4th c., while the
first construction period of this large-scale complex goes
back to the 2d c. Houses were uncovered in another sector of the excavation, in the so-called garden walk on
either side of the Schlossstrasse. The S row of houses is
thought to be the business quarter and the large complex
N of it, with a paved street alongside it, is interpreted
as a public bath building.
Two more monuments of a public character should be
noted in the civilian city, both situated in the S section
of the settlement. The first is the municipal amphitheater.
The plan (an irregular ellipse) measures ca. 130 by 110
m, the arena itself ca. 68 by 50 m. The monument had
a seating capacity of 13,000. Thus this second amphitheater is substantially larger than that of the camp. It
was presumably built under Hadrian. Of particular interest are some late structures built in the S gate of the
complex. The 4th c. Christian community erected a small
rectangular building here and inserted in the floor a six-sided basin made of plundered materials, in this way
creating a baptisterium with a font. The second most
noteworthy structure in the civilian city is the so-called
giant gate (Heidentor). It is the major regional landmark, visible from far off, and the only monument still
standing aboveground since Roman times. Today only
two piers, with a vault between them, are preserved;
formerly there were four piers set on a square plan, with
a groin vault supporting a superstructure. Originally the
monument stood ca. 21 m high; the remains are 14 m
high. It was clearly not a roadway arch, since there is
a cylindrical pedestal 1.8 m high in the middle of it.
The nature and date of this monument, which was
erected after A.D. 200, have not yet been determined (a
sepulcher? a monument honoring Septimius Severus?).
A number of stone monuments have been preserved
aboveground in the area around Carnuntum. These are,
aside from the arch, the two amphitheaters, the so-called
palace, part of the civilian city (garden walk), as well
as an open-air lapidarium and display of mosaics. Finds
from Carnuntum are for the most part in the Museum
Carnuntinum in Bad Deutsch Altenburg, others in the
Schloss Traun in Petronell and the Kunsthistorisches
Museum in Vienna.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. Kubitschek & S. Frankfurter,
Führer
durch Carnuntum (1923)
MPI; E. Swoboda,
Carnuntum.
Seine Geschichte und seine Denkmaler (1964)
MPI; H.
Stiglitz, “Carnuntum,”
RE Suppl. XII (1970) 1575ff; M.
Kandler, “Die Ausgrabungen im Legionslager Carnuntum
1968-1973,”
AnzWien 111 (1974) 27ff
MPI.
R. NOLL
