Claustra Alpium Iuliarum
Location of Claustra Alpium Iuliarum outposts with modern national borders of Slovenia and neighbouring countries.
Claustra Alpium Iuliarum (
Italia and Pannonia that protected Italy from possible invasions from the East.[1] It secured the Postojna Gate, the land link between the eastern and western part of the empire, and thus the Claustra represented an inner border defense of the empire.[2] Unlike a linear rampart, the Claustra consisted of a series of interconnected fortifications with its center at Castra ad Fluvium Frigidum (in the area of today's town of Ajdovščina, the Vipava Valley); other important fortresses were Ad Pirum on today's Hrušica Plateau and Tarsatica, now a part of the city of Rijeka. They had been governed from the town of Aquileia
.
Development
In the year 6 AD the
Castra ad Fluvio Frigido (the remains of which are today still visible in Ajdovščina), which was the centre of the system,[3] and ended at Nauportus (in the area of today's Vrhnika). The hill fortress of Ad Pirum
was typically manned with 500 soldiers but could keep up to 100,000 soldiers. Ad Pirum’s walls were unearthed by Austrian and Italian archeologists and shown to be at a height of 8 m and a thickness of 2 m; the wall towers were 10 m high.
Battles
Claustra Alpium Iuliarum saw a number of battles. Early fortifications may have been useful in 169 when the Marcomanni attempted to enter Italy but proved inadequate when the Alemanni invaded Italy in 271. In 351 Constantius II took Ad Pirum during his fight against his challenger Magnentius. Most importantly, the Battle of the Frigidus took place in 394 between Castra and Ad Pirum. In this battle the eastern emperor Theodosius I prevailed over his western rival Eugenius and by his victory secured Christianity as the main religion of the empire.
After the 5th century the Roman fortifications fell into disrepair. Today selected sections have been restored by archeologists.
Further reading
- Kusetič, Jure; Kos, Peter; Breznik, Andreja; Stokin, Marko (2014). Claustra Alpium Iuliarum: Between Research and Management (in Slovenian and English). The Ivan Michler Institute for Spatial History.
References
- ^ a b Potocnik AJ. "Claustra Alpium Iuliarum". Archived from the original on May 24, 2010. Retrieved July 21, 2010.
- ^ a b c C.R.Whittaker. Frontiers of the Roman empire. A social and economic study. Baltimora & London, 1997. p. 197.
- ^ Pavlin, Primož. "Poznoantična utrdba Kastra (Ajdovščina)" [The Late-Antique Fortification of Castra (Ajdovščina)]. DEDI - enciklopedija naravne in kulturne dediščine na Slovenskem (in Slovenian). Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
External links
- Claustra.org. Website dedicated to Claustra Alpium Iuliarum.
Media related to Claustra Alpium Iuliarum at Wikimedia Commons
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