COLONIA CLAUDIA SAVARIA
(Szombathely) Hungary.
A Roman city 108 km S-SE of Vienna on
the amber road from Aquileia to the Baltic Sea. From
this center the basalt-paved roads branched out to Brigetio, through Mogentiana to Aquincum, and to Sopianae.
The city is often mentioned in ancient documents. It was
founded A.D. 43 during the reign of Claudius, ca. 18 km
S of the large prehistoric center at the foot of the Alps
(Velemszentvid), on the former territory of the Celtic
tribe Boi. The early town developed during the reign of
Domitian; its inhabitants, who had the right of Roman
citizenship, were mostly settled soldiers and merchants.
During this time, to judge from inscriptions, it must have
been the center of the Pannonian emperor cult. The city
suffered greatly during the Quadi-Marcomannic wars between 167 and 180. It was not completely destroyed because, on the evidence of inscriptions, the town's most
prominent citizens of the 1st and 2d c. still lived there
at the end of the 2d c. According to Aurelius Victor,
Septimius Severus, legatus of Pannonia superior, was
elected emperor in Savaria in 193. During the persecutions of the Christians under Diocletian, Quirinus, the
aged bishop of Siscia died a martyr's death here. St.
Martin of Tours, converter of the Gauls, was born in
Savaria of a military family. The emperors Constantine
the Great, Constantine II, and Valentinian dated edicts
from Savaria. At the beginning of the 5th c. its environs
were occupied by Huns and federated German peoples.
Final destruction of the town was brought about by an
earthquake in 455.
The grid of streets was laid out as early as the 1st c.
A.D. Under Domitian the town occupied a small territory.
Known among its more important buildings are the Capitolium and the Curia, presumably in forum. The torsos of
large statues of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva have been
found. At the end of the 1st c. and during the first half
of the 2d, suburbs sprang up N and S of town. Cemeteries
also were there, with graves containing rich gifts of glass,
amber, ivory carvings, and bronze. After the Quadi-Marcommanic invasions, rebuilding was started at the
end of the 2d c. during the reigns of Commodus and
Septimius Severus. A city wall system was developed to
include the former suburban settlements. The former
Curia building in the center of town was rebuilt and
enlarged. The large public bath or palaestra was built
next to the cardo, and by 188 at the side of the basalt
road 10 m wide and leading S, stood an Iseum. In the
Iseum the levels of the altars, the marble carvings of the
central sanctuary, and the foundations of the neighboring
buildings remain intact. On the E side of this same road
stood a sanctuary of Jupiter Dolichenus with its sacred
area surrounded by a double wall. According to inscriptions, this sanctuary played an important role in the town's
life in Caracalla's time. During this period a considerable number of people moved in from the east. Though
the N and S cemeteries continued to expand, the W road
grew in importance and rich burial grounds were developed on either side of it. On the nearby hills to the W
was the theater, mentioned in the Passio Quirini. They
also erected large buildings in the new E sections of town.
A few mosaics indicate their richness. At the end of the
3d c., from 260 on, the city's environs must have suffered
from the Gothic invasions. The settlements outside the
town were destroyed, and the coin and jewelry treasures
found at nearby Rábakovács and Balozsameggyes were
buried during this period. In the ravaged territory the
presence of the emperor, who resided in town during
battles against the barbarians on the banks of the Danube, meant relative prosperity for the city. At this time
the main municipal building was changed into an emperor's palace. The size of the palace's bath is mentioned
by Ammianus Marcellinus, who also reports on the city
walls and gates.
Especially valuable remains of four centuries of Roman rule are the inscribed marble stones that record information from the reign of Domitian to the end of the
4th c. Bronze foundries and pottery kilns were found
during excavations outside the walls.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Plin.
HN 3.24; A. Victor,
Epitome 5;
Ant. It. 109, 122-24, 126; Cod. Theodos. Tit. leg. 1,
Tit. 10 de petitionibus leg. 6, Libri 12. Tit. 13 lex 3, Tit.
6 de susceptoribus lex 15; Sulpicius Severus,
De vita beati
Martini, caput 2;
Amm.Marc. 30.5.14.
S. Schoenvisner,
Antiquitatum et historiae Sabariensis
ab origine usque ad praesens tempus, libri novem (1772);
V. Lipp,
Savariai fölirattanulmányok, Vasvármegyei Régészeti Egylet Évi Jelentései (1873); I. Paulovics,
Lapidarium Savariense (1943);
Savaria-Szombathely topográfiája (1943); Gy. Géfin et al.
Szombathely (1961); P. Buocz,
A szombathelyi Savaria Muzeum kőtára, A Savaria Muzeum Közleményei 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30.
Arch. Ért. 89 (1962);
Temetők és városfalmaradványok Savariában 2 (1964); T. Szentléleky,
A
szombathelyi Isis szentély Das Iseum von Szombathely
(1965); A. Károlyi & T. Szentléleky,
Szombathely városképei és müemlékei (1967); L. Balla, “Savaria lakossága a II. század végén és a III. század első felében,”
Annales Instituti Historici Univ. Sci. Debreceniensis de L. Kossuth noninatae 1 (1962); E. B. Thomas, “Az 500 éves
szombathelyi lapidárium története,”
A Vas megyei Muzeumok Értesitője 1 (1963); A. Mócsy & T. Szentléleky,
Die römischen Steindenkmäler von Savaria (1971).
T. SZENTLÉLEKY
