római kori villák történeti - Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem
római kori villák történeti - Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem
római kori villák történeti - Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem
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SUMMARY. THE EXAMINATION OF THE HISTORICAL<br />
ENVIRONMENT OF ROMAN VILLAS ON THE BALATON<br />
HIGHLAND<br />
The Roman legions appeared in the Hungarian Transdanubia at the beginning of the 1 st<br />
century A. D.: they developed a border region from this area, Pannonia province, and they<br />
organized its independent administration. The economic boom of the Severus-era brought<br />
economical recovery into the life of the province in the 3 rd century, which also led the high<br />
growth of the number of the villas. These manors ensured the food supply of the army:<br />
beside its military role Pannonia was also the agricultural hinterland of the Roman Empire,<br />
thanks to the favorable natural conditions. The barbarians attacks were a permanent risk for<br />
the province, but because their recurring invasions more villas were confirmed in the 3-4 th<br />
century. Despite the military forces Pannonia province was slowly eliminated, however<br />
some villas could serve as residences or houses in the later ages too.<br />
The presence of the Romans in Pannonia caused several changes in the<br />
landscape: they wiped out forests, they brought the lands under cultivation, they built villas<br />
and towns with channels and paved streets: they were chosen the ideal places for buildings<br />
on the proximity of the water, the wood-giving forests using for houses and heatings, and<br />
the Roman road network, and they tried to involve in the spectable a panoramic view as<br />
beautiful as possible. The villas concentrated into five groups in Pannonia: by the rivers<br />
Dráva and Száva, by the Lake Fertő, beside the Mecsek mountain, beside the city of<br />
Aquincum, and the biggest group with nearly hundred villas and over hundred other rural<br />
settlements known today, was on the Balaton Highland.<br />
The villas were not holiday homes of the modern sense, but they were cultivation<br />
and stock-raising adapted farm units. Some uniformity can be observed in the external<br />
appearance of the villas, which basic criteria is a main building with bathroom, or a bath in<br />
a separated building, and a line of outbuildings. Nevertheless these manors were usually<br />
divided into three major parts: the so-called pars urbana was the residential area, and pars<br />
rustica with the pars fructuaria were the economical and storage part of the villas. These<br />
parts were often physically separated by thin walls and fences. Beyond the walls the fields<br />
of the farm-units, the grapes and the forest were located. This land, the so-called fundus or<br />
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