Carnuntum and Epigraphy
|
The world as we have come to understand it is often divided and categorized along the lines of empire and province, of heartland and periphery, and in terms of their overall value, the latter are frequently seen as generally less important than the cores they support, or are relegated to obscurity and forgotten. There are few places where this would prove a greater misconception than in Pannonia and Moesia, the Danube Frontier, and the communities which would arise along the river‘s banks. For all that it was a contentious and militant border between the Roman Empire and the ‘barbarians’ beyond, it was equally important in terms of commerce and politics. For historians, the communities which arose along the Danube Frontier, often around military forts, serve many functions. Their remains not only provide us with unique glimpses into the military-structure of the soldiers stationed within their bounds, but also more broadly into their lives and deaths, into the lives of the communities which developed around them, into the numerous cults and the shifting roles and values of those religions in the frontier, and into the broader political machinations of the Empire. Of these ‘outposts’ along the Danube Frontier, the fort at Carnuntum would prove to be one of the most important in many of the aforementioned spheres.
|
