Flavia Solva was a municipium in the ancient Roman province of Noricum. It was situated on the western banks of the Mur river, close to the modern cities of Wagna and Leibnitz in the southern parts of the Austrian province of Styria. It is the only Roman city in modern Austrian Styria.
The Celto-Roman dwelling on the banks of the Mur river that should later become Flavia Solva was founded around year 15 while Noricum was still a Roman protectorate. This precursor consisted of a small cluster of wooden buildings, and did not follow a grand layout plan. It is believed that the Celtic element in its population came from the hill settlement on the nearby Frauenberg which had a tradition tracing back to neolithic ages. Very few remains from this phase have been found.
Shortly after the annexation of Noricum as a Roman province, the place was made a municipium around year 70 by emperor Vespasian who added the name of his Flavian dynasty to the local name Solva which might have referred to the Frauenberg settlement (which remained important as a worship site for Isis Noreia, a local adaptation of the Isis cult), or to the nearby river Sulm. The construction activity that followed resulted in an almost entirely new city of stone buildings, with a layout that approximated the ideal of a Roman provincial municipium: rectangular insulae (sized about 60 by 70 meters) within a grid of broad (ca. 6 m) gravel-paved streets. Some of the apartment houses in these blocks had hypocaust heating, similar to what is known from comparable Roman cities; however, Flavia Solva had neither an aqueduct nor canalization. The 80 x 35 m ellipsoid amphitheatre (apparently the only one in Noricum) consisted of wooden benches on stone foundations.
The city was situated at the crossings of a Roman road connecting Poetovia (modern Ptuj in Slovenia) to Ovilava (modern Wels) and the Danube in Upper Austria with a minor trade route connecting the administrative center at Virunum in the Carinthian basin across the Koralpe and through the Sulm valley to Pannonia. However, the wealth of Flavia Solva seems to have been derived more from agriculture than from trade, and was relatively modest. In the Roman sources known to today's historians the city is mentioned only once, in Pliny the Elder's Naturalis historia (Vol. 3, chapter 24, 146). [1]
The administrative district of Flavia Solva covered much of what today is central Styria. Its approximate borders probably were the Eisenerz mountains in the North, the Koralpe in the West, the river Drau in the South, and the river Lafnitz in the East. In spite of its important local role, the city was never fortified.
Flavia Solva and its surroundings had developed a modest degree of provincial luxury, with the villa rustica as the typical form of aristocratic countryside residence and agricultural cultivation, when its peaceful development was ended by its first destruction in 166. At this time the Marcomanni breached the Danube limes between the fortifications of Vindobona (modern Vienna) and Carnuntum, penetrated northwestern Pannonia and eastern Noricum using the Roman road system tracing the ancient Amber Road along the eastern fringe of the Alps, and could be stopped by emperor Marcus Aurelius's hastily assembled militia only shortly before reaching Aquileia.
Flavia Solva was rebuilt (though originally much smaller) under Marcus Aurelius's son and successor Commodus, and flourished again a few decades later. By the early 3rd century, the city had a well-organized public fire brigade as evidenced by the Tabula Centonariorum membership list dating from 205.
Flavia Solva lost much of its importance during the late 4th century when the region suffered more incursions. The city was destroyed again in 405 (most probably during the Germanic invasion of Italy by Radagaisus), but some isolated finds referring to emperor Marcian suggest that a residual settlement must have remained at least until the 450s. At this time, most of the remaining population had moved back uphill to the Frauenberg where they established a new fortified settlement. The associated cemetery, which was identified only in the 1990s, is the largest from this latest Roman times known to exist in the eastern Alpine region.
The ruins of Flavia Solva were still a landmark during the Middle Ages although its origins were long forgotten, and they served the population as convenient quarries for construction material. The Renaissance period, and later on Romanticism, precipitated renewed interest in Roman history. During the 19th century, many gravestones and a considerable amount of stone artwork was incorporated in the nearby Schloss Seggau where they can still be seen. However, it was not until 1845 that Richard Knabl, a local parish priest and amateur historian, identified the site near the modern city of Leibnitz as the remains of Flavia Solva.
Flavia Solva has been a major focus for Austrian archaeology since the early 20th century; unfortunately (but typically) because construction activity constantly precipitated emergency digs. Road construction, the expansion of nearby Wagna, and a sewage trench that was dug across the site in the 1970s have caused much irretrievable damage. Over the decades, an area of 650 x 600 m (comprising about 40 insulae) has been excavated to some degree, although much of the finds are not visible today because the areas were reclaimed for agriculture or buried under modern buildings. A considerable piece of land which geoprospection has shown to harbor ruins has been placed under government protection. However, the full extent of the ancient city is still unknown.
A bone flute with three finger holes, [2] presumably a shepherd's instrument, was excavated in such a well-preserved state that it can be played today. [3]
The Styrian exhibition of 2004 had its focus on Flavia Solva. The Joanneum at Wagna maintains a permanent exhibition.
The Marcomanni were a Germanic people that established a powerful kingdom north of the Danube, somewhere near modern Bohemia, during the peak of power of the nearby Roman Empire. According to Tacitus and Strabo, they were Suebian.
The history of Styria concerns the region roughly corresponding to the modern Austrian state of Styria and the Slovene region of Styria (Štajerska) from its settlement by Germans and Slavs in the Dark Ages until the present. This mountainous and scenic region, which became a centre for mountaineering in the 19th century, is often called the "Green March", because half of the area is covered with forests and one quarter with meadows, grasslands, vineyards and orchards. Styria is also rich in minerals, soft coal and iron, which has been mined at Erzberg since the time of the Romans. The Slovene Hills is a famous wine-producing district, stretching between Slovenia and Austria. Styria was for long the most densely populated and productive mountain region in Europe.
Noricum is the Latin name for the kingdom or federation of tribes that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. In the first century AD, it became a province of the Roman Empire. Its borders were the Danube to the north, Raetia and Vindelici to the west, Pannonia to the east and south-east, and Italia to the south. The kingdom was founded around 400 BC, and had its capital at the royal residence at Virunum on the Magdalensberg.
Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 kilometres (6 mi) from the sea, on the river Natiso, the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times. Today, the city is small, but it was large and prominent in classical antiquity as one of the world's largest cities with a population of 100,000 in the 2nd century AD and is one of the main archaeological sites of northern Italy. In late antiquity the city was the first city in the Italian Peninsula to be sacked by Attila the Hun.
Leibnitz is a city in the Austrian state of Styria and on 1 Jan. 2023 had a population of 13,014. It is located to the south of the city of Graz, between the Mur and Sulm rivers.
The Mur or Mura is a river in Central Europe rising in the Hohe Tauern national park of the Central Eastern Alps in Austria with its source at 1,898 m (6,227 ft) above sea level. It is a tributary of the Drava and subsequently the Danube.
Enns is a town in the Austrian state of Upper Austria on the river Enns, which forms the border with the state of Lower Austria.
Noreia is an ancient lost city in the Eastern Alps, most likely in southern Austria. While according to Julius Caesar it is known to have been the capital of the Celtic kingdom of Noricum, it was already referred to as a lost city by Pliny the Elder. The location of Noreia has not been verified by modern researchers.
Magdalensberg is a market town in the district of Klagenfurt-Land in Carinthia in Austria.
Gleinstätten is a market community in southern Austria which had 4,232 inhabitants in 2019.
The Sulm is a river in Southern Styria, Austria. It is 29.3 km (18.2 mi) long. Its drainage basin is 1,121 km2 (433 sq mi). Its two source rivers Schwarze and Weiße Sulm both originate at the eastern slopes of the Koralpe. It flows eastwards towards the Mur through the districts of Deutschlandsberg and Leibnitz. The Sulm valley runs from the Western Styrian hill ranges to the Eastern Styrian hills and lowlands.
The Sausal is a small mountain range in the southwestern parts of Austria's state Styria. It thrusts up from the northern banks of the Sulm valley, west of the district town of Leibnitz. Its highest point, the summit of the Demmerkogel, rises 671 m above the level of the Adriatic Sea. Large parts of the Sausal have a mediterranean-type microclimate. Together with the rich soil this is the basis of its extensive vineyards, which are the cornerstone of the local economy. Tourism flourishes as well.
Kitzeck is the central settlement in the Sausal mountain range in Southern Styria, Austria. It is the highest-altitude wine-growing community in Austria.
The Universalmuseum Joanneum is a multidisciplinary museum with buildings in several locations in the province of Styria, Austria. It has galleries and collections in many subject areas including archaeology, geology, paleontology, mineralogy, botany, zoology, history, art and folk culture. It is the oldest museum in Austria as well as the largest universal museum in central Europe with over 4.5 million objects in 13 departments and 12 locations in the Styrian cities of Graz, Stainz, Trautenfels, and Wagna. To reflect this status and its growth over the last two centuries, as well as to present a more recognizable image internationally, the Landesmuseum Joanneum was officially renamed to Universalmuseum Joanneum on 10 September 2009.
The Latobici or Latovici were a Celtic tribe dwelling in Pannonia Superior, around present-day Drnovo (Slovenia), during the Roman period.
Claudium Virunum was a Roman city in the province of Noricum, on today's Zollfeld in the Austrian State of Carinthia. Virunum may also have been the name of the older Celtic-Roman settlement on the hilltop of Magdalensberg nearby. Virunum (Virunensis) is today a Catholic titular see.
Richard Knabl was an Austrian parish priest and epigraphist who, though he lacked formal academic training as a historian, became a prominent contributor to our current knowledge of the Roman period in Noricum and western Pannonia, especially on the territory of modern Styria.
The Pannonian Limes is part of the old Roman fortified frontier known as the Danubian Limes that runs for approximately 420 km (260 mi) from the Roman camp of Klosterneuburg in the Vienna Basin in Austria to the castrum in Singidunum (Belgrade) in present-day Serbia. The garrisons of these camps protected the Pannonian provinces against attacks from the north from the time of Augustus (31 BC–14 AD) to the beginning of the 5th century. In places this section of the Roman limes also crossed the river into the territory of the barbarians (Barbaricum).
Erna Diez was an Austrian classical archaeologist who undertook significant work on Roman art and the archaeology of the provinces of Noricum and Pannonia.
The gens Secundinia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. No members of this gens are mentioned by ancient writers, but a number are known from inscriptions, dating entirely or almost entirely from imperial times, and concentrated in Gaul, Germania, Noricum, and adjacent areas.
46°46′00″N15°34′03″E / 46.766744°N 15.567417°E
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