Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Roman Conquest
In about 35 BC Romans conquered the area of today's Budapest that lies west and south of
the Danube. By AD 10 they had established Pannonia province, which was later divided in-
to Upper (Superior) and Lower (Inferior). The Romans brought writing, viticulture, stone ar-
chitecture and Christianity. At the end of the 1st century AD the Romans established Aquin-
cum, a key military garrison and trading settlement along the Danube in today's Óbuda that
would become the administrative seat of Pannonia Inferior in AD 106. A fortress, whose re-
mains are still visible, was built at Contra Aquincum in what is now V Március 15 tér in
Pest.
The Great Migrations
The first of the so-called Great Migrations of nomadic peoples from Asia reached the east-
ern outposts of the Roman Empire in Dacia (now Romania) early in the 3rd century AD.
Within two centuries the Romans were forced by the Huns, whose short-lived empire was
established by Attila, to flee Aquincum.
After the death of Attila in 453, other Germanic tribes occupied the region for the next
century and a half until the Avars, a powerful Turkic people, gained control of the Carpathi-
an Basin in the late 6th century and established their main base at the northern end of Csepel
Island. They in turn were subdued by Charlemagne in the early 8th century, and the area
around Budapest and the Danube Bend was incorporated into the Frankish empire.
