CARNUNTUM (Kapvous in

See also:

• PTOLEMY (CLAUDIUS PTOLEMAEUS)

Ptolemy)  , an important Roman fortress, originally belonging to Noricum, but after the 1stcentury A.D. to Pannonia . It was a Celtic town, the name, which is nearly always found with K on monuments, being derived from Kai', Karn (" rock," " cairn ") . Its extensive ruins may still be seen near Hainburg, between Deutsch-Altenburg and Petronell, in lower Austria . Its name first occurs in history during the reign of Augustus (A.D . 6), when Tiberius made it his base of operations in the campaigns against Maroboduus (Marbod) . A few years later it became the centre of the Roman fortifications along the Danube from Vindobona (Vienna) to Brigetio (O-Szony), and (under Trajan or Hadrian) the permanent quarters of the XIV legion . It was also a very old mart for the amber brought to Italy from the north . It was created a municipium by Hadrian (Aelium Carnuntum) . Marcus Aurelius resided there for three years (172-175) during the war against the Marcomanni, and wrote part of his Meditations . Septimius Severus, at the time governor of Pannonia, was proclaimed emperor there by the soldiers (193): In the 4th century it was destroyed by the Germans, and, although partly restored by Valentinian I., it never regained its former importance, and Vindobona became the chief military centre . It was finally destroyed by the Hungarians in the middle ages . A special society (Carnuntumverein) exists for the exploration of the numerous ruins, the results of which will be found in J .

W . Kubitschek 'and S . Frankfurter, Fuhrer durch Carnuntum (3rd ed., 189) ; see also E. von Sacken, "

Die romische Stadt Carnuntum," in Sitzungsberichte der k . Akad. der Wissenschaften, ix . (Vienna, 1852) ; article by Kubitschek in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie, iii. part ii . (1899) ; Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, in., part i . P .