Scarbantia

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Scarbantia , also Scarabantia , was a Roman city on the site of today's Sopron (Ödenburg) in Hungary .

Origin of name

The ancient name Scarbantia or Scarabantia is derived from the Celtic root scarb or scara and means “scattered” or “separated”. Banta comes from Illyrian and means “place” or “settlement”. According to other sources, Scarabantia comes from the Illyrian skarb "spike, sting" and bantia "place, settlement, fortress", thus for example "castle settlement in spur position".

Settlement history

Pannonia was founded in 11 BC. Annexed by the Romans after the local Celts were defeated. The province of Pannonia was established in 10 AD . The importance of the ancient city lay in the connection to the Amber Road . This road ran from Aquileia on the Adriatic via today's Slovenia to Carnuntum . The ancient city of Savaria (today Szombathely , Ger. Steinamanger) was built next to Scarbantia . The trade route led directly through Scarbantia, and the settlement became the starting point for other important roads, including to Mörbisch, where a Mithras sanctuary was established. The second street led to the legionary camp Vindobona ( Vienna ).

The first mention of Scarbantia is found in Pliny in his Naturalis historia as Scarabantia Iulia . Research is of the opinion that Scarbantia is the Illyrian original form of the name, Iulia signals the establishment of a settlement under Emperor Tiberius, a member of the Iulian family. The name Scarbantia occurs in the Tabula Peutingeriana , a cartographic representation of the Roman road network (viae publicae) . The name was lost in the Middle Ages. In the 16th century, the ancient name of the city was rediscovered by the humanist Wolfgang Lazius in Sopron after he found an inscription M (unicipii) Scarb (antiae) in the so-called “Roman house” .

Research was carried out in Scarbantia in the 1950s, then more intensively in the 1970s. There were wall remains from the 1st and 2nd century AD, which were found at a depth of four meters and were covered by later buildings. The residents of Scarbantia were merchants and veterans who were settled as Roman citizens. The Celtic inhabitants of the Boier tribe were evacuated, but the Boian aristocrats were quickly incorporated into the administration of the city. The city was administered by the ordo decurionum , whose members were the decuriones .

Under Emperor Domitian Scarbantia was raised to a municipium (Municipium Flavium Scarabantia) . This had an architectural impact on the structure of the city at the end of the 1st century AD. A new road network was laid out, mud huts torn down and large apartment blocks built. The main street was paved, and a forum was built on the highest point of the city hill. There was an amphitheater in the city and a nemesis sanctuary nearby and an aqueduct leading into the city from the north.

After the Marcomanni and Quadi had crossed the Danube in the 2nd century, Scarbantia suffered heavy losses. The city became increasingly impoverished, which was evident from the grave finds. Under Emperor Marcus Aurelius , smaller Celtic tribes were resettled through the signing of clientele agreements . Around 300 AD, the larger cities along the Amber Road received fortification walls, including Scarbantia. This fortification was discovered during excavations in the 1960s. At the end of the 4th century there were renewed attacks, including by Marcomanni, Quadi, Goths , Sarmatians and Roxolans . After the defeat of Emperor Valens at Adrianople , Foederati were settled in Pannonia . In Scarbantia, mud huts built on rubble suggest the presence of the Celtic tribes.

In the 6th century Scarbantia came under the control of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I , under whom the city regained prosperity and many buildings were rebuilt. Weapons and luxury items such as glass and jewelry imported from Italy were also found. At the end of the 6th century there was a fire in the city, which meant the end of the Roman city culture.

literature

  • Károly Molla: Scarbantia. Ödenburg. Sopron. Budapest 1944.
  • Klára Póczy : Scarbantia. The city of Sopron in Roman times. Corvina, Budapest 1977.
  • János Gömöri: Scarbantia fóruma (The Forum of Scarbantia). Sopron 1985.
  • Zoltán Farkas, Dénes Gabler : The sculptures of the urban area of ​​Scarbantia and the Limes route ad Flexum - Arrabona (= Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani . Hungary Vol. 2.) Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1994, ISBN 963056730X .
  • Grete Maar: Introduction to the history of the western Hungarian city of Scarbantia - Ödenburg - Sopron. Edition Praesens, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-7069-0046-7 .
  • Herbert Graßl: Scar (a) bantia. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 11, Metzler, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-476-01481-9 , column 133 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Grete Maar: Introduction to the history of the western Hungarian city of Scarbantia - Ödenburg - Sopron . Vienna 2000, p. 17.
  2. ^ Hanswilhelm Haefs : The place names and place histories of Schleswig-Holstein with Fehmarn and Lauenburg as well as North Friesland and Helgoland (= place name studies. Volume 18). Haefs, Atzerath bei St. Vith 2004, ISBN 3-8334-0509-0 , p. 202.
  3. ↑ Pliny, naturalis historia 3, 146 .
  4. ^ Károly Molla: Scarbantia. Ödenburg. Sopron . Budapest 1944, p. 2 f.
  5. ↑ CIL 3, 4249 ; Klára Póczy: Cities in Pannonia . Budapest 1976, p. 24.
  6. ↑ Ptolemy 2:14 , 4.
  7. ^ Grete Maar: Introduction to the history of the western Hungarian city of Scarbantia - Ödenburg - Sopron. Vienna 2000, p. 25.