Transformation of the town structure in the Civil Town of Aquincum during the Severi (A. D. 193-235)

Abstract

Both the authors and the historians of the classical period definitely date the start of the crisis of the Roman Empire from the 3rd century, the period starting with the Severi. 1 At the same time, the little more than four decades of the Severus period following the devastation of the Marcomann wars marked one of the most flourishing periods in the settlements along the Danubian limes . Nearly all the studies and summaries on the topography of Aquincum refer to time from the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries to the first third of the 3rd century as a period of the most important changes in the aspect of the town. 2 The est imation of the features and extensions of the changes however is diverse. Opinions vary from the simple “ reconstruction ” following the devastation of the wars to a general “ town development ” , which included the marking out of the insula and street systems. Lajos Nagy interpreted the new aspect of the civil town, which can be seen to date, as “ the result of later town-planning operations ” . 3 According to Tibor Nagy, the major public and private constructions that started from the end of the 2nd century did not result more on the whole than “ significantly modified the former town aspect of the 2nd century ” . 4 Klara Poczy considered many new aspects and factors and also the results of recent excavations when she wrote with regard to the constructions in the military town of Aquincum in the 3rd century: “ The reconstruction carried out at the beginning of the 3rd century ... must have been very fast, and crowdedness, rough-and-readiness, uniformity of decoration characterises this new period. There was vivid construction activity in the civil town as well, which had by then been raised to the colonia rank, but to a much smaller degree than in the canabae . The