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The Archaeology of Roman Southern Pannonia The state of research and selected problems in the Croatian part of the Roman province of Pannonia Edited by Branka Migotti BAR International Series 2393 2012 Published by Archaeopress Publishers of British Archaeological Reports Gordon House 276 Banbury Ro...

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Literary sources before the Marcomannic wars Alka Domic Kunic

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The Archaeology of Roman Southern Pannonia The state of research and selected problems in the Croatian part of the Roman province of Pannonia Edited by

Branka Migotti

BAR International Series 2393 2012

Published by Archaeopress Publishers of Briish Archaeological Reports Gordon House 276 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7ED England [email protected] www.archaeopress.com

BAR S2393 The Archaeology of Roman Southern Pannonia: The state of research and selected problems in the Croaian part of the Roman province of Pannonia © Archaeopress and the individual authors 2012

ISBN 978 1 4073 0985 9 Translated by Valér Bedő, Tomislav Bilić, Danijel Dzino, Branka Migoi, Sanjin Mihalić , Miroslav Nađ, Mirko Sardelić and Vlasta Vyroubal Proofread by Mirta Jambrović and Branka Migoi

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liTerary sourCes before The marComanniC wars* Alka Domić Kunić

placed Pannonia in space. Some authors chose the geographical approach, primarily taking into consideration the natural borders - rivers, mountain ranges, etc. The others put Pannonia into political borders determined by Roman administration, which often coincided with the natural borders. Florus places the people of Pannonia between the Sava and Drava, the two big Pannonian rivers (Flor. Epit. 2.24). The same information is repeated by two later authors, Jordanes (Jord. Rom. 216; 243) and Isidore of Seville (Isid. Etym. 14.4,16). This information originates from Titus Livy, a contemporary of the irst Roman emperor Octavian Augustus (31 BC - AD 14), who was already in his time considered as an authority on classical historiography.1 The Drava in the north and the Sava in the south determine the territory which was considered to be originally Pannonian (perhaps even in the ethnic sense) as early as the late Republic period and was the irst Roman conquered territory north of the Alps. From there Pannonia spread to the east - to the part of the Danube course were it is joined by the Drava and the Sava Rivers, and to the north - to the great Danube bend in Hungary. To paraphrase Pliny the Elder and Pomponius Mela,2 Pannonia proprie dicta, or the “real” Pannonia, covered that space between the Drava and the Sava for which Pliny (Plin. NH 3.25,147) states to be 120 000 steps wide (approximately 180 km).3 Even though other geographical and historical sources do not speciically mention Pannonian territory, they do imply of such ethnic and geographical determination of Pannonia Velleius Paterculus claims that in 6 AD, the year of the great Pannonian revolt (also known as the Bellum Batonianum, the war of two Batos) “all Pannonia” rose to arms (Vell. 2.110,2). From the following events (apart from Paterculus, Dio Cassius also wrote on the subject) it is obvious that the revolt spread to the territory south of the Drava, without including the territory between the Drava and the Danube. The Drava River as the north border of Pannonian territory is mentioned in Pliny, who describes the territory north of the Drava in one chapter (Plin. NH 3.24,146), and Pannonia

1. Introduction The passing of time has not favoured the preservation of the original written sources from the Graeco-Roman world. Only a few sources survived to the present day, and even these are not preserved as complete works, but rather as fragments and quotations. In this diminished canon very few texts mention Pannonia, its inhabitants, geography, and history. As far as we can tell Graeco-Hellenistic writers had little knowledge of the continental part of Europe, while the Roman historical sources (as well as the Greek ones from the Roman period) mention Pannonia only as one of the conquered territories, the war narrative being yet another chance to glorify Rome. Even so, reports on Pannonia were not limited to the subject of war; some of them touch on Pannonian natural and political geography, economy, ethnography, as well as cultural anthropology. However, these data are sporadic and tainted with prejudice of the Mediterranean world, and as such should be taken with caution. This paper deals with certain authors from the Greek- and Latin-speaking circle, whose common interest was the Pannonian territory. Their information on Pannonia are gathered and systematised according to speciic topics, with information relating to southern Pannonia of the early Imperial period taken into account. The purpose of this paper is not to critically discuss the quality and accuracy of the given information, as this was done in the paper by Dzino and Domić Kunić in this volume, but to bring the facts as related in the sources. The term Pannonia discussed in this paper refers mostly to southern Pannonia, with the north border on the Drava River, with the stress on the territory of northern Croatia (see note 23). The purpose of occasional stepping out of the given geographical frame is to gain additional insight of speciic elements of Pannonian geography or history. (ig. 1; for the distribution of ethnic communities in southern Pannonia see in this volume: Dizdar, igt. 1; Dzino and Domić Kunić, ig. 1; RadmanLivaja, Anthroponymy, ig. 1).

The title of Florus’ book is Epitome ex Tito Livio (Summary by Titus Livy), with a possible variant Epitome bellorum omnium annorum DCC (Summary of all wars in 700 years), which implies that Florus used the information provided by Livy. 2 Both authors use the term Illyrii proprie dicti (“Illyrians in the true sense of the word”) when referring to an ethnic community that lived in Illyricum, from where the name spread to the territory which Rome called Illyricum - dein sunt quos proprie Illyrios vocant (Pomp. Mela, 2.56), proprie dicti Illyrii (Plin. NH 3.22,144); Suić 1976. However, the parallel with the Pannonians and Pannonia has not been conirmed in the written sources. 3 In reality, the distance between the Sava and the Drava does not exceed 100 kilometres at any point. 1

2. Geography and natural resources 2.1. Space There were two basic ways in which classical cartographers The chronologies and titles of the sources that have been used are included in the list of full quotations following the text. *

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The Archaeology of Roman Southern Pannonia

Fig. 1. Map of the geography of southern Pannonia based on the written sources of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD (after Google Maps, modiied by T. Leleković).

in another (Plin. NH 3.25,147-148). The region north of the Drava, Transdanubia, will not be part of the Roman state until the reign of the emperor Claudius (AD 41-54). The territory was annexed peacefully since it had already depended on Rome for a considerable time, both politically and economically.4 Since Claudius’ time the region between the Drava, the Sava, and the Danube represents the southern part, while Transdanubia represents the northern part of the Roman province of Pannonia.

west of Mons Claudius and the Scordisci south of these mountains (Plin. NH 3.25,148), it is possible that he is using some illustrative source, perhaps the Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa’s world map (even though, and one can not be certain - the source might as well be of Hellenistic origin).6 Pliny accepted the alphabet listing of various communities in Pannonia, which already included the communities north of the Drava (Plin. NH 3.25, 148), sourced from the oficial documents that were drawn up primarily for the purposes of collecting tax and for recruitment. It is important to take into consideration the list of communities according to conventus iuridici (Plin. NH 3.21,142-143) in the province of Dalmatia because it contains several communities that were perceived by Rome as Pannonian in the ethnic sense. Strabo’s and Appian’s southernmost area of Pannonia, bordered with Dalmatia, stretches from the Iapodians in the west to the Scordisci and Dardanians in the east, extending all the way to the territory of the Delmatae and Ardiaei (Strab. 7.5,3; 7.5,10; App. 3.14). Pannonia with its north border on the Danube and expanding deep into modern-day Bosnia in the south, towards the Roman territory known as Dalmatia (originally Illyricum), should be viewed as a provincia in the literal sense of the word

The geographical approach to setting the borders of Pannonia was adopted by Strabo and Appian - the former being the contemporary of Octavian Augustus and his military activities in southern Pannonia around 30 BC, and the latter, even though a whole century younger, depends on Augustus as his main source (App. 3.14).5 A unique approach to the subject has Pliny’s Natural History (the only entirely preserved classical encyclopaedia), which among else contains information hinting at the borders of Pannonian territory. Pliny combines the geographical principle with information accepted from official documents. When he lists the communities that live along the Drava and the Sava (Plin. NH 3.25,147), seeing Pannonia as divided between two Celtic blocs - the Taurisci

Agrippa’s world map has been the subject of many studies: Detlefsen 1906; Hanslik 1961; Dilke 1985, 44-50. On Pannonia and Dalmatia: Domić Kunić 2003, 173, 180-181; 2004, 130-131. Possible Hellenistic sources are Posidonius or Polybius. 6

The annexation of Transdanubia: Tóth 1976, 200; Fitz 1977, 543; 1990; Mócsy 1979. 5 Appian’s sources: Šašel Kos 2005, 38-41, 393-397. 4

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Alka Domić Kunić: Literary Sources Before the Marcomannic Wars

– as the territory that is yet to be conquered or controlled, rather than as an already established administrative unit of the Roman Empire. Strabo’s information is contemporary to such understanding of Pannonia, while Appian also sources from the same period. Pannonia is separated from Dalmatia by a mountain range - a fact agreed upon by both Strabo and Pliny,7 the difference being that Strabo has the Bosnian mountains and perhaps the Dinaric massif in mind (Strab. 7.5,3), while Pliny thinks of another mountain range to which Velika and Mala Kapela in the north Adriatic hinterland are attached (Plin. NH 3.25,147). Claudius Ptolemy also places Pannonia to the north of Dalmatia (“Histria and Illyria”), viewing the whole region as Roman administrative units (provinces) (Ptol. 2.14,1; 2.15,1).

already in the Roman period.9 The Roman Republic adopted the Greek geographical experience along with its prejudices, and was using distorted information until it gained its own knowledge on the region in question. Octavian Augustus dramatically changed the Roman perception of Pannonian territory. During his reign the trading activities directed towards the Pannonian territory were established and reinforced, which was soon followed by concrete steps to connect politically this area to Italy. It is only from then on that one can talk of Rome’s clear view not only on hydrography, but also on other geographical characteristics of Pannonia. Augustus’ generals have brought irst-hand information on geographical features of Pannonian territory, the distribution and strength of ethnic communities, natural resources, and everything else that was important to the Empire regarding a newly conquered territory. A relection of this information has been preserved by Strabo and Appian. Both authors focus on Segestica, perhaps the most important trading hub in the western part of the region as well as the main strategic goal for Octavian Augustus during his Pannonian expedition in the 30s BC. While Appian gives only basic information on Segestica as a Pannonian settlement located on the River Sava (App. 4.22), Strabo puts weight on the settlement’s location on the tributary of several navigable rivers (Strab. 7.5,2; cf. 4.6,10; 5.1,8) and emphasises the importance of Pannonian river communications (the Drava, Krka, Ljubljanica, Kupa, Sava, and Danube) as the unavoidable segment of the European communication network. In the attempt to give his readers a clear picture of the Pannonian hydrography, but not knowing the region irst-hand, Strabo found himself entangled in the contradictions and inaccuracies, combining the unveriied information with correct facts.10 According to him, the important trading centre Nauportus (today’s Vrhnika in Slovenia) is located in the vicinity of the River Corcoras (the Krka) which lows into the Sava (Strab. 4.6,10; 7.5,2). In reality, Vrhnika lies on the River Ljubljanica, 35 km as the crow lies from the Krka spring with which it has no connection. In the Greek perception Ljubljanica was indeed considered to be one the Sava’s river branches; in these terms Nauportus is indeed “near” the Krka. The Krka does low into the Sava, but the Sava is not the Drava’s conluent, just as the Drava does not low into the Noarus in the vicinity of Segestica (Strab. 7.5,12).11 From the context of Strabo’s narrative one can conclude that the Noarus, otherwise completely unknown river (mentioned only here) is actually the Sava: the Noarus lows past Segestica (Strab. 7.5.2; 7.5.12), is joined by the Colapis

2.2. Geographical and climatic characteristics Classical authors emphasise three main geographical features of Pannonia - mountains, forests, and swamps. The only way to communicate through this unapproachable terrain (as seen by the Mediterranean world) was along the river courses. The two largest south Pannonian rivers, the Drava and the Sava, low in the west-east direction; with its south conluents the latter connected Pannonia with the Adriatic coast, and, by implication, the Mediterranean. There are three main rivers in Pannonia: the Danube, the Drava, and the Sava; they surround the area which was considered to be the core of Pannonian territory in the late Republic period - in this respect the Danube is only marginal, since only small part of its course connects the Drava and Sava in the easternmost part of the discussed territory. As already stated, the geographical determination of Pannonia as the region between the Drava and Sava originates from Livy - the earliest information being found in Florus’ Summary (Flor. Epit. 2.24), and the same being repeated ive hundred years later in the works of Jordanes (Jord. Rom. 216; 243) and Isidore (Isid. Etym. 14.4,6). Pliny managed to summarise the main characteristics of the Drava and Sava, referring to the Drava course as “a rather violent stream”, and to the Sava as being “more gentle” (Plin. NH 3.25,147),8 while Florus, Jordanes, and Isidore characterised both rivers simply as fast. From the Roman point of view, the main advantage of these rivers was the fact that they were navigable and therefore suitable for commerce; accordingly, these two rivers, along with the Danube, were the transport backbone of Europe, connecting its western and eastern parts. The Greek understanding of Pannonian hydrography was rather deicient and faulty, and was the subject of criticism 7 It is interesting to note that Pliny the Elder did not seem to know Strabo’s work: Dilke 1985, 62; Clarke 1997; Domić Kunić 2004, 148149, 159, 165. However, it seems that both authors (Pliny and Strabo) used the same sources, at least as far the region southwest of the Alps is concerned - most probably Polybius and Posidonius. About Strabo: Dzino 2006; 2008. 8 The hydronym Drava is derived from the Indo-European root *dra-, *dreu- (“run”, “hurry”), and the closest meaning is “a fast current”, while the root *seu- means “rain”, “liquid”, therefore Sava means simply “a fast stream” (Mayer 1959, 42, 101-102; Pokorny 1959, 204-206, 912-913). In such context Pliny’s etimology is perfectly correct.

The Greek knowledge on the region around the Danube and the reasons of its distortion over time: Domić Kunić 2003, 22-29; 2005; 2006, 67-69; 2009, 221-222. Example of the criticism in the Roman period: Plin. NH 3.18,127-128. 10 Strabo relied on the outdated Hellenistic sources, Eratosthenes and Timasthenes (3rd c. BC) who “were to a considerable extent ignorant of Italy, the Adriatic sea, the Pontus, and the regions beyond them on the north” (Strab. 2.1,41); Pannonia can be found in “the regions beyond them on the north”, Domić Kunić 2009, 221-222. 11 The mention of the Drava might be due to a transcriber’s mistake. 9

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The Archaeology of Roman Southern Pannonia

(the Kupa) (Strab. 7.5,2),12 and lows into the Danube “near the country of the Scordisci” who controlled the lower reaches of the Drava and the Sava (Strab. 7.5,2; 7.5,12). The inal point of the river trafic and Italic trade in Pannonia was the Danube, which is clearly accentuated by Strabo (Strab. 4.6,10; 7.5,2). The Danube, with its middle reaches determining the northern Pannonian border, passes through southern Pannonia in a small segment of its course. With the Drava and Sava as its conluents, the Danube actually outlines the southern-Pannonian territory. This easternmost part of southern Pannonia was dependant on the political alliance with the Scordisci, to which the sources ascribe mostly Celtic ethnic characteristics (Strab. 7.5,12). Strabo quite well knows the entire Danube course, from its spring to the river mouth, which can be seen in many places in his narrative in the 7th book, largely dedicated to the regions around the Rhine and the Danube. Appian, on the other hand, only states that the Sava lows into the Danube (Pliny adds that the Sava mouth is located near Taurunum, today’s Zemun, Plin. NH 3.25,148) and that the Danube is called Ister in its lower reaches (App. 4.22). Unlike the Drava, Sava and Danube, other Pannonian rivers have not drawn such attention of classical geographers. Apart from Strabo’s rather confused description of the river courses, which most likely includes a mention of the Ljubljanica (which lows past Nauportus), it is only Pliny who also mentions other Pannonian rivers and the location of their conluents. He states that the Colapis (the Kupa) lows into the Sava near Siscia, and the Bacuntius (the Bosut) near Sirmium. Apart from these two rivers, he also mentions the Valdasus (the Ukrina?) and the Urpanus (the Vrbas). It is a rather selective review of Pannonian hydrography, which Pliny justiies with the claim that it is only the mentioned rivers that are “noteworthy” (Plin. NH 3.25,148). His Naturalis historia contains one very valuable detail - information on two Sava’s river islands. The irst one is Segestica, actually a piece of land surrounded by the Kupa and the Sava courses. The second is the otherwise unknown Metubarbis, which Pliny states to be “the largest known island formed by the river” (Plin. NH 3.25,148). Metubarbis should be looked for in the lower reaches of the Sava, somewhere in eastern Slavonia or Syrmia, an area that was in the Roman period covered by swamps, so elevated parts of the land along the Sava and Drava courses could indeed have appeared as river islands.13

region was dominated by oak forests. Appian’s reference to Pannonia as a wooded land (App. 4.22) added, an image of vast thick forests starts to emerge. Forestation of Pannonia is mentioned by other sources, using this characteristic as an argument to justify the stereotypical image of its inhabitants: Florus is impressed with “gloomy forests” in the land of the Scordisci (southern Pannonia) and compares this frightening landscape with the crudeness of its inhabitants (Flor. Epit. 1.39). One hundred years later Herodian testiies that the “limitless dense forests” extended to southern Pannonia, that is, the western ...