Danubian provinces
TheDanubian provincesof theRoman Empirewere theprovincesof theLower Danube,within a geographical area encompassing the middle and lowerDanube basins,theEastern Alps,theDinarides,and theBalkans.[2]They includeNoricum,Dacia (TrajanaandAureliana), the northern part ofDalmatia,Moesia(Inferior and Superior),Scythia Minor,andPannonia(SuperiorandInferior). TheDanubedefined the region to the north, with theCarpathian Mountainsto the north and east.[3]These provinces were important to the Imperial economy as mining regions,[4]and their general significance in theEmpire of the 3rd centuryis indicated by theemperorswho came from the region.[5]
The Roman presence in the region can be described as having four phases fromAugustustoHadrian:military conquest underAugustus,and consequent military actions; the establishment of military bases along roads and river crossings underClaudius;the establishment ofcampsalong the river for stationinglegionsandauxiliariescarried out by theFlavian dynastyandTrajan;and further expansion into Dacia north of the Danube. Hadrian's approach was to defend and maintain, a policy that remained more or less in effect until the latter 4th century, when Roman control disintegrated.[6]The pattern of Roman settlement after the time of Hadrian became standard: a fort(castra),a military town(canabae)associated with it, and a town(municipium)developing two or three miles away.[7]
The Danubian population has been estimated as at least 2 million during the reign of Augustus, and 3 million in the 2nd century, but these figures are not based on hard data, and later archaeological investigations indicate a greater degree of development than had been recognized.[8]In the time of theAntonines,there were perhaps 3 to 6 million inhabitants.[9]
References
[edit]- ^N.J.G. Pounds,An Historical Geography of Europe 450 B.C.-A.D.(Cambridge University Press, 1973), p. 160.
- ^J.J. Wilkes, "The Roman Danube: An Archaeological Survey,"Journal of Roman Studies95 (2005), p. 124.
- ^Wilkes, "The Roman Danube," p. 124.
- ^Alfred Michael Hirt,Imperial Mines and Quarries in the Roman World: Organizational Aspects 27 BC–AD 235(Oxford University Press, 2010),passim.
- ^Barbara Levick,Vespasian(Routledge, 1999, 2005), p. 153.
- ^Wilkes, "The Roman Danube," p. 149.
- ^Wilkes, "The Roman Danube," p. 159.
- ^Pounds,An Historical Geography,p. 114.
- ^Pounds,An Historical Geography,p. 116.
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