Original scientific paper
Post-Roman Town in Southern Pannonia: the Example of Siscia
Hrvoje Gračanin
orcid.org/0000-0001-5018-6083
; Department of history, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Goran Bilogrivić
orcid.org/0000-0002-1108-4380
; Institute of Croatian history, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Based on the example of Siscia, the article reconstruct the fate of a Roman town in the South Pannonia after declining and disappearance of Roman rule. Particular attention has been awarded to the period from the fifth to the seventh century. In spite of the very fragmentary data of written records and relatively few archaeological finds, the context of which is frequently unknown, the article tries to establish main elements of the gradual dying out of urban structures of Siscia and draw main lines of transformation of late antique town into early medieval settlement. In the fourth century, Siscia was undoubtedly one of the most developed towns of Pannonia. By becoming administrative centre of Pannonia Savia in the period of the Tetrarchy, she experienced new ascent. She was very vivid as an urban centre also at the beginning of the fifth century, on which testify relatively numerous coin findings and remnants of architecture. Imperial civil and military administration still functioned. Still, contemporary conflicts and military events left deep trace, particularly since the 430s, when Siscia became a defensive outpost towards the areas under the rule of the Huns. The intensity of life diminished, but it was not interrupted, which may be followed in archaeological materials. Certain finds point to presence of both Roman and Germanic population. New impulses to former area of Roman Savia came with the establishment of Ostrogothic rule, and so, it may be assumed that urban life of Siscia also benefited from it, even though nothing firm may be concluded about its intensity because of the lack of sources. After the end of the Ostrogothic rule, the decline of Siscia as urban settlement continued. Soon after, the episcopal seat remained unfulfilled, but Christian cult continued in the area in the seventh century, as well as the life of Roman population, which lived to the Avaro-Slavic conquest of the area. The period of the Avar rule in Siscia is not well known, but archaeological finds, even though only sporadically found, point to the continuity of settlement in the area of former Roman town, in the central and southern part of which was most probably located early medieval settlement. The coming of the Frankish rule enabled new rise of the town, which probably then became the centre of the duchy of Lower Pannonia.
Keywords
Siscia; urban degradation; settlement continuity; Late Antiquity; the Early Middle Ages
Hrčak ID:
136355
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2014.
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