Aquincum

Aquincum, important town in the Roman province of Pannonia; its ruins have been excavated in northern Budapest, Hung., near the west bank of the Danube River. At its peak, the civilian settlement reached as far as the military camp that was situated in what today is the district of Óbuda, just over a mile to the south, where the ruins of an amphitheatre are found.

Before the Roman town was founded, the site was settled by the Celtic Eravisci people and given the name Ak-ink (“Abundant Water”) because of the nearby thermal springs. A Roman military camp established there by Emperor Vespasian attracted a civilian population by the mid-1st century bce. Other factors contributing to the city’s growth included the fertile flatlands next to the river, the ease of crossing the Danube at that location, and the substantial traffic on the important road connecting the fortresses along the Danube limes (imperial boundary). The remains of the Contra Aquincum fortress, built on the east side of the Danube to defend the crossing, are on the Pest side of the Elizabeth Bridge in Budapest. In 106 Emperor Trajan made Aquincum the capital of Lower Pannonia (Pannonia Inferior); its proconsuls included Hadrian, later emperor, whose palace was erected on Óbuda Island. From the early 2nd century a Roman legion was stationed there.

The city was classed as a municipium by Hadrian in 124 and a colonia by Septimus Severus in 194. After suffering heavily during the Marcomannian wars in the middle of the 2nd century, the city resumed its growth with the construction of a number of public buildings as well as an amphitheatre in the northwest and a 3-mile (5-km) aqueduct from the springs to the military camp. Emperor Diocletian made Aquincum the capital of the Pannonia Valeria province. As Roman forces withdrew in the age of the great migrations, not even the Danube was able to shield the city from invaders. The inhabitants gradually left Aquincum, and when the Huns arrived at the beginning of the 5th century they found it deserted. Methodical efforts to unearth the remains of Aquincum began in the late 19th century, and many of the finds from the excavations are on display in the Aquincum Museum in Budapest.