Flavia Solva

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Location sketch

The Municipium Flavia Solva was a city in the Roman province of Noricum and is located in the Leibnitzer Feld near Leibnitz in southern Styria ( Austria ).

location

Today Flavia Solva is in an open field about 40 km south of the Styrian capital Graz in the area of ​​the market town Wagna . In Roman times it was in the southeast of the province of Noricum, on the west bank of the Mur . The river was also the connection to the Roman road network, the Amber Road ran southeast of the city and connected Carnuntum with Aquileia . Flavia Solva is surrounded by rather impassable hill country. This hindered the transport links.

history

Flavia Solva (2004)
Marked course of Roman city blocks (2013)

A Celtic settlement already existed on the site of the later city in pre-Roman times . The region around Solva is considered to be the settlement area of ​​the Noric tribe of the Uperacii . In the late Augustan period, after the occupation of Noricum by the Roman Empire, the settlement grew into the vicus , wooden buildings of unknown extent have been excavated. In Claudian times, the residents of the nearby settlement on the Frauenberg, which was then abandoned, are likely to have settled here.

Emperor Vespasian raised the settlement, along with a number of Pannonian settlements that were loyal to the four emperors in AD 69, to the status of a city and was now named after the ruling family of the Flavier Municipium Flavia Solva. Solva was the old Illyrian name for the Sulm river . The old settlement was leveled and rebuilt as a planned town based on the Italian model. The city center consisted of stone buildings, while on the periphery the houses consisted more of wood and clay framework. The city probably did not have a city wall.

Excavations revealed only a long oval amphitheater on public buildings . The forum, unknown for a long time, is now believed to be in the area of insulae 25 and 26. The thermal baths were also located here. Sanctuaries are still unknown, but the large cult area on the Frauenberg belonged to Flavia Solva. Water supply and sewer systems are also not yet known. Assumptions by older archaeologists that the city did not have such an infrastructure is now doubted, even if there are no such finds. The famous thermal baths in the city could hardly have been supplied with well water alone, and the surrounding hills offered plenty of water.

The individual insulae mostly housed residential and commercial units. The casting of bronze brooches has been proven. Around 30 built-up insulae are known.

To the north of the forum there was a quarter with workshops, while in the south there were mostly spacious houses.

A clear layer of destruction, dated 170 to 175, is mostly attributed to the Marcomannic Wars. The Germanic tribes could have destroyed the city in 170 on their passage to Aquileia. However, this interpretation is controversial. At that time the whole city was probably destroyed. The reconstruction was quick, but on a smaller area. The population is likely to have decreased due to the plague that was around the time. Areas on the outskirts remained undeveloped, the insulae division in the center was partially dissolved.

After 275 major modifications can be detected. For the rest of the 3rd and 4th centuries there was no evidence of destruction. On the contrary, there was an economic boom at the end of the 3rd / beginning of the 4th century, with major renovations of the residential buildings, some of which were luxuriously furnished. Exact dates are not possible, but the city is likely to have been continuously populated at least until the second half of the 4th century.

At the beginning of the 5th century, the city was largely deserted. The urban population, as in large parts of Noricum, could have withdrawn to nearby mountain ranges, such as the Frauenberg. Settlement of late antiquity is proven by two lead seals from Emperor Markianos from 450 to 457 and animal brooches. There is evidence that military was stationed in Flavia Solva in the late 4th and early 5th centuries and later at Frauenberg.

territory

Several vici belonged to the territory of Flavia Solva, including those of Gleisdorf and Kalsdorf bei Graz .

Preserved excavations

Today some foundations have been exposed on the edge of Wagna. These are built over with a pavilion on stilts, in which there is a pastry shop and an ice cream parlor, and can be visited. The remains of the underfloor heating of a Roman house are protected against weathering and vandalism with a glass roof. The course of the wall remains and blocks in the ground you have z. Some marked with metal shafts on the excavation field. In Seggau Castle near Leibnitz you can visit numerous Roman gravestones in the inner courtyard. In 2004 the Styrian State Exhibition took place around these excavation sites .

  • Foundation walls of a Roman house (2004)

  • Underfloor heating (2004)

  • Ice cream parlor about Roman excavations (2013)

  • Half-relief on a column in Flavia Solva

literature

Web links

Commons : Flavia Solva  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Thomas Fischer : Noricum . Zabern's illustrated books on archeology, Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein 2002. ISBN 3-8053-2829-X , pp. 84f.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Verena Gassner, Sonja Jilek, Sabine Ladstätter: At the edge of the realm. The Romans in Austria. (= Austrian history 15th BC - 378 AD). Ueberreuter Verlag, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-8000-3970-2 , pp. 139f., 165, 318.
  3. ↑ Erna Diez : Flavia solva. The Roman stone monuments at Seggau Castle near Leibnitz. Austrian Archaeological Institute, 1949, p. Iv.

Coordinates: 46 ° 46 ′ 8.3 "  N , 15 ° 34 ′ 7.4"  E