Pannonia Superior
Pannonia lay east of Noricum; it was reduced into a Roman province by Tiberius, and was divided into Superior and Inferior, the former comprising a portion of Hungary, the latter, Sclavonia. Vindobona, now Vienna, was situated in Pannonia Superior; as also were Acincum, now Buda; and Contra Acincum, now Pesth. Sirmium, from which the surrounding district Sirmia takes its name, was situated in Pannonia Inferior, on the river Savus, or Saave.
The wide extent of territory which is included between the Inn, the Danube, and the Save,-Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, the Lower Hungary, and Sclavonia, - was known to the ancients under the names of Noricum and Pannonia. In their original state of independence their fierce inhabitants were intimately connected. Under the Roman government they were frequently united.
Pannonia, in ancient geography, was a country bounded north and east by the Danube, conterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. It thus corresponds to the south-western part of Hungary, with portions of lower Austria, Styria, Carniola, Croatia, and Slavonia. Its original inhabitants (Pannonii, sometimes called Paeonii by the Greeks) were probably of Illyrian stock. From the 4th century BC it was invaded by various Celtic tribes, probably survivors of the hosts of Brennus, the chief of whom were the Carni, Scordisci and Taurisci.
Pannonia was situated in the great angle formed by the Danube in its mid-course, from the point where it turns from E. to S. to the confluence of the Save, where'it finally resumes its easterly direction. In the S. the whole course of the Save, with the exception of the r. bank below Sirmium, fell within the limits of Pannonia. Westward it adjoined Noricum and Istria, from the latter of which it was separated by the Alpes Juliae. The bulk of Pannonia, between the Danube and the Drave, is a series of plains of great fertility, though reputed unproductive in ancient times. The Arrabo (Raab) carries the drainage of the northern part of this district to the Danube: in the more easterly portion the waters collect in a lake of considerable size, called Pelso (Balaton). The southerly region contains the two large rivers Bravus and Savus, which hold parallel courses from the Eastern Alps to the Danube, and have their basins separated by a long range emanating from the Carnic Alps.
Little is heard of Pannonia until 35 BC, when its inhabitants, having taken up arms in support of the Dalmatians, were attacked by Augustus, who conquered and occupied Siscia (Sissek). The country was not, however, definitely subdued until 9 BC, when it was incorporated with Illyria, the frontier of which was thus extended as far as the Danube. In AD 7 the Pannonians, with the Dalmatians and other Illyrian tribes, revolted, and were overcome by Tiberius and Germanicus, after a hard-fought campaign which lasted for two years.
In AD 10 Pannonia was organized as a separate province - according to A. W. Zumpt (Studia romana), not till AD 20; at least, when the three legions stationed there mutinied after the death of Augustus (AD 14), Junius Blaesus is spoken of by Tacitus (Annals, i. 16) as legate of Pannonia and commander of the legions. The proximity of dangerous barbarian tribes (Quadi, Marcomanni) necessitated the presence of a large number of troops (seven legions in later times), and numerous fortresses were built on the bank of the Danube.
Some time between the years 102 and 107, which marked the termination of the first and second Dacian wars, Trajan divided the province into Pannonia superior, the western, and inferior,the eastern portion. According to Ptolemy, these divisions were separated by a line drawn from Arrabona (Raab) in the north to Servilium (Gradiska) in the south; later, the boundary was placed farther east. The whole country was sometimes called the Pannonias (Pannoniae}. Pannonia superior was under the consular legate, who had formerly administered the single province, and had three legions under his control: Pannonia inferior at first under a praetorian legate with a single legion as garrison, after Marcus Aurelius under a consular legate, still with only one legion. The frontier on the Danube was protected by the establishment of the two colonies Aelia Mursia (Esse) and Aelia Aquincum (Alt-Ofen, modern Buda) by Hadrian.
The first settlers on the site of what eventually became modern Vienna were Celts, about five hundred years before Christ. Shortly before the Christian era the land was occupied by the Romans under Tiberius, stepson of the Emperor Augustus; a permanent Roman camp for the thirteenth legion was established on the spot, and remains of this camp still exist. The first mention of the place in Roman literature is in Pliny's encyclopedia (about AD 77), where it is called Vianiomina, while the inscriptions extant use only the form Vindobona. During the reign of Domitian, Vindobona was a naval port, under Trajan it was the station for the tenth legion, the legion of the imperial family.
During his struggle with the Mareomanni Marcus Aurelius often stayed at Vindobona, at the norther border of Pannonia with Germania, and finally died there. It is related, and upon no doubtful authority, that at the birth of Commmodus (just nineteen years before he reached the throne) the parturition was signalized by many wonderful disorders in nature, and by many other deplorable calamities. On the day of his birth, the Tiber swelled suddenly; and so great was the inundation, that half of Rome was overflowed—multitudes of people and of cattle were destroyed—houses were torn down, and the surrounding country was so devastated, that many perished by the famine that ensued! Then came the earthquake; pestilence soon followed; and this was accompanied by myriads of noisome and destructive insects; the conflagration of several cities early added to the misery, — and lastly, the whole world seemed filled with rumours of war; which soon thereafter broke out in dangerous rebellions, and nearly at the fame time in many of the provinces! All of these fearful calamities failed not to make a deep and melancholy impression upon the mind of his virtuous father Marcus Aurelius ; who, when Commodus had reached only his fifteenth year, said to some of his friends, "I much fear the Roman Empire will scarce be large enough to contain the vices of my son Commodus!"
Marcus Aurelius (at that time in the 59th year of his age) was suddenly called from delightful retirement, to all the miseries of war; for the rebellious Marcomanni were once more in arms. Again at the head of his army, the Emperor fought several successful battles, when he was suddenly arrested by death [March 17, AD 180], at Vindobona - not without the suspicion of having been dispatched by his physicians, to please his son Commodus. The grief at this good Emperor's death was universal; and the honours paid to his memory filled Rome with statues and pictures of the " Good Emperor" — which it was the people's delight to call him. The senate declared all houses sacrilegious that had not some memento of the " Protector and Father of his Country."
In the film Gladiator, there are two reference to Vindobona: the servant Cicero, to get the attention of Lucilla, cries out "I served with your father at Vindobona!" In the other, Maximus asks if anyone among his group of gladiators had served in the army, to which one fighter responds, "I served with you at Vindobona."
Tertullian says the death occurred at Sirmich, in Sclavonia, — the stronger authorities sustain Rabbi Isaac: and Cartaphilus rejects the idea of Vindobona and Vienna being the same place. Vindobona, here named by the Rabbi, and elsewhere mentioned by Cartaphilus, can scarce be said to be the ancient name of Vienna, the metropolis of Austria, — though doubtless that great city was founded in long-after times upon the very site of the same Pannonian town on Mons Cetius, in which Philosophos died, and where Caracalla sojourned for a time, indulging in his characteristic follies and diversions. It would seem that while Vindobona takes its name chiefly from the river, anciently called Vindo, on which it was situated, so is Vienna now known only as Vien. Vindobona, however, being utterly destroyed, quite five centuries before Vienna came into existence, the latter city can scarce claim the former as its parent, or be at all entitled to its ancient name.
Under Diocletian a fourfold division of the country was made. Pannonia inferior was divided into (i) Valeria (so called from Diocletian's daughter, the wife of Galerius), extending along the Danube from Altinum (Mohacs) to Brigetio (0-Szony), and (2) Pannonia secunda, round about Sirmium (Mitrovitz) at the meeting of the valleys of the Save, Drave, and Danube. Pannonia superior was divided into (3) Pannonia prima, its northern, and (4) Savia (also called Pannonia ripariensis), its southern part. Valeria and Pannonia prima were under a praeses and a dux; Pannonia secunda under a consularis and a dux; Savia under a diix and, later a corrector. In the middle of the 5th century Pannonia was ceded to the Huns by Theodosius II., and after the death of Attila successively passed into the hands of the Ostrogoths, Longobards (Lombards), and Avars.
The inhabitants of Pannonia are described as brave and warlike, but cruel and treacherous. Except in the mountainous districts, the country was fairly productive, especially after the great forests had been cleared by Probus and Galerius. Before that time timber had been one of its most important exports. Its chief agricultural products were oats and barley, from which the inhabitants brewed a kind of beer named sabaea. Vines and olive-trees were little cultivated, the former having been first introduced in the neighbourhood of Sirmium by Probus. Saliunca (Celtic, nard) was a common growth, as in Noricum. Pannonia was also famous for its breed of hunting-dogs. Although no mention is made of its mineral wealth by the ancients, it is probable that it contained iron and silver mines. Its chief rivers were the Dravus (Drave), Savus (Save), and Arrabo (Raab), in addition to the Danuvius (less correctly, Danubius), into which the first three rivers flow.
The native settlements consisted of pagi (cantons) containing a number of vici (villages), the majority of the large towns being of Roman origin. In Upper Pannonia were Vindobona (Vienna), probably founded by Vespasian; Carnuntum (Petronell); Arrabona (Raab), a considerable military station; Brigetio; Savaria or Sabaria (Stein-am-Anger), founded by Claudius, a frequent residence of the later emperors, and capital of Pannonia prima; Poetovio (Pettau); Siscia, a place of great importance down to the end of the empire; Emona (Laibach), later assigned to Italy; Nauportus (Ober-Laibach). The martyrdom, about 303, of St. Florian during the persecution of Galerius proves that as early as the third century Christianity had gained entrance into Vienna. In 427 Vindobona together with Pannonia, to which it belonged, fell to the Eastern Roman Empire; in 448 it was ceded to Attila and after his death was independent. During the migrations Vienna was conquered and plundered by the Huns and Ostrogoths, most of its inhabitants taking refuge in the mountains. Vienna is first mentioned again in the Chronicles when Charlemagne advanced down the Danube in 791, destroyed the Empire of the Avars, and formed the East Mark out of the region between the River Enns and the mountains called Wienerwald. There is but little mention of Vienna in the succeeding era, which signifies that no legal changes had occurred within its walls.
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