SABA´RIA
SABA´RIA (
Σαουαρία), an important town in the north of Upper Pannonia, was situated in a plain between the river Arrabo and the Deserta Boiorum, on the road from Carnuntum to Poetovium.
The town, which seems to have been an ancient settlement of the Boii, derived its importance partly from the fertility of the plain in which it was situated, and partly from the fact that it formed a kind of central point at which several roads met.
The emperor Claudius raised it to the rank of a Roman colony, whence it received the surname of Claudia. (
Plin. Nat. 3.27;
Ptol. 2.15.4.)
In this town Septimius Severus was proclaimed Augustus (Aurel. Vict.
Epit. 19), and the emperor Valentinian resided there some time. (
Amm. Marc. 30.5.) Owing to this and other circumstances, the town rose to a high degree of prosperity during the latter period of the Roman Empire; and its ancient greatness is still attested by its numerous remains of temples and aqueducts. Many statues, inscriptions, and coins also have been found at
Stein am Anger, which is the modern name, or, as the Hungarians call it,
Szombathely. (It. Ant. pp. 233, 261, 262, 434; Orelli,
Inscript. n. 200 and 1789; Schönwisner,
Antiquitates Sabariae, p. 45; Muchar,
Noricum, i. p. 167.)
[
L.S]
