Pannonia Superior

• 1. Introduction

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  Pannonia Superior took shape in 103 AD, when Rome divided the older province of Pannonia into separate territories, with Carnuntum installed as its capital. The land it covered now lies scattered across five modern countries: Hungary, Croatia, Austria, Slovakia, and Slovenia. A governor posted at Carnuntum would later gamble everything on a bid for the Roman throne. Long afterward, a retired emperor standing in the same town would refuse a crown. He chose instead to protect a vegetable patch he had planted with his own hands. What made this frontier province a launching pad for emperors, and why did one ruler value his cabbages over absolute power?

• 2. A Governor's Gamble

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  Septimius Severus held the governorship of Pannonia Superior when he made his move in April 193 CE. He declared himself a candidate for the Roman imperial throne. His years in charge of the province ran from 191 to 193, ending the moment he set his sights on Rome itself.

  Publius Metilius Nepos was the first governor on record for the province, serving from 106 to 107 or 108. Lucius Minicius Natalis followed a few years later, holding the post from 113 or 114 until 117 or 118. Lucius Cornelius Latinianus governed around 126, and Cornelius Proculus took over from 130 or 131 to 133 or 134. Lucius Aelius Caesar held the position from 136 to 137. Titus Haterius Nepos followed in 138, then Lucius Sergius Paullus from 139 to around 142. Marcus Pontius Laelianus Larcius Sabinus governed from around 145 to 150, then Claudius Maximus from about 150 to 155. Marcus Nonius Macrinus took charge from around 159 to 162, followed by Lucius Dasumius Tullius Tuscus from about 162 to 166. Marcus Iallus Bassus Fabius Valerianus governed from around 166 to 169, and Gaius Julius Commodus Orfitianus from about 169 to 172. Sextus Quintilius Maximus held the post from around 175 to 179. Gaius Vettius Sabinianus Julius Hospes governed sometime between 182 and 191, and Prastina Messalinus took over after 185, serving until 191, just before Severus arrived. After Severus departed for Rome, Lucius Fabius Clio governed from 197 to around 201, followed by Tiberius Claudius Claudianus sometime between 201 and 207. Egnatius Victor held the post around 207, and the last name on record, Cassius Dio, governed sometime between 226 and 229.

  The list of governors ends with Cassius Dio, governing sometime between 226 and 229. Carnuntum's most dramatic day as a seat of power was still to come.

• 3. Crisis at Carnuntum

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  In 308, Emperor Diocletian chaired a historic meeting at Carnuntum with his co-emperors Maximian and Galerius, called to resolve rising tensions within the Tetrarchy. On the 11th of November that year, Diocletian and Maximian were both present in Carnuntum. There, Galerius appointed Licinius to serve as Augustus, filling the place of Valerius Severus, who had died at the hands of Maxentius. Galerius also ordered Maximian, who had tried to return to power after his own retirement, to step down for good.

  While in Carnuntum, local people begged Diocletian to reclaim the throne himself. They hoped he could calm the disorder stirred up by Constantine the Great's rise and Maxentius' usurpation. Diocletian refused. His answer became one of the most quoted lines associated with the meeting: "If you could show the cabbage that I planted with my own hands to your emperor, he definitely wouldn't dare suggest that I replace the peace and happiness of this place with the storms of a never-satisfied greed."

  Carnuntum kept its place at the center of an empire's drama. But the wider province was made of many other towns, each known today by a very different name.

• 4. Cities of the Province

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  Vindobona sat on the site of modern Vienna, in Austria, and served as a key city in Upper Pannonia. Across the border in modern Croatia stood four more cities: Siscia, now Sisak; Iovia Botivo, now Ludbreg; Aquae Balissae, now Daruvar; and Andautonia, now Ščitarjevo. A fifth Croatian city, Halikan, is known today as Sveti Martin na Muri. Hungary held its own share of the province's cities: Savaria, today's Szombathely; Scarbantia, now Sopron; and Arrabona, now Győr. Further south, Poetovio marked the province's reach into what is now Ptuj, in Slovenia.

  These ten towns marked the edges of the province. But the name Upper Pannonia would travel far beyond them, long after the empire that named them was gone.

• 5. The Name's Afterlife

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  By the 8th century, the northern part of the Frankish March of Pannonia carried the same name, Upper Pannonia. Centuries later, in the 12th century, the chronicler Otto von Freising used the name in a wider sense. He did so in a passage in his work, Chron. 6, 15. There, he applied it to Austria itself. The Roman provincial title had drifted across eras and borders to describe a very different political territory.

  By the 12th century, a name once tied to Roman governors and emperors marked something else entirely: the land the world now calls Austria.