THE success of the recent movie Gladiator demonstrates continuing public interest in the ancient past. Hungary has some of the richest remains of the ancient Roman Empire. Sites such as Brigetio (Szôny), Arrabona (Gyôr), Aquincum (Óbuda), Campona (Budatétény), Gorsium (Tác), Savaria (Szombathely), Sopianae (Pécs), and Intercisa (Dunaujváros) were just a few of the flowering colonial seats.

After the Via Appia, Pécs has the largest system of Early Christian catacombs. There is a stunning bronze portrait bust of Emperor Marcus Aurelius is in the collection of the Museum of Antiquities of Pécs. Ruling from AD 121-180, his conquest of the Germanic tribes in the north is seen in the opening scenes of Gladiator, (with the aging Emperor played by Richard Harris). Known as the "Philosopher-Emperor", Marcus Aurelius wrote part of his Meditations in Pannonia (western Hungary).

Ongoing archaeological digs and research reveal more and more details about the varied peoples who lived in the western part of the Carpathian Basin under the mighty Roman Empire from the first to the fifth centuries AD. For more than 500 years, from circa 30 BC to 495 AD, the area between the Danube and the Dráva Rivers was known to the Roman world as the colony of Pannonia. It was the major northeastern defense-line of the Empire against surrounding Illyrians, Celts, Marcomans, Scythians, Germans and other "barbarian" tribes, a constant threat to the Romans. The crossing point of the valuable Amber Route from Rome to the Baltic was at the Danube, giving it further strategic importance. Pannonia was named for the resident "Pannon" tribes conquered by Julius Ceasar's heir, Augustus. His well-trained legionaires crossed the Julian Alps, pushing northward, along the left bank of the Danube. In his will Caesar Augustus wrote, "I have extended the borders of the Empire to the line of the Danube…" His successor, Trajan, conquered Dacia (Transylvania) in 106 AD. Legionaries were recruited from all parts of the Empire - those who came to Pannonia mostly hailed from Africa, Syria and Iran. At first turf and timber forts with earthen huts as housing formed the military camps surrounded by deeply dug ditches. The Romans were great engineers and developed highly practical and easily reproducible methods of building. They used bricks and concrete to make arches unknown in ancient Egypt and Greece.

They built their colonies on a classical urban plan based on the square and grid, with intersecting roads, the cardo and decumanus, north-south and east-west, and four gated towers allowing access to the walled-in city. The Commander's station, the altar, temple, and religious center, the public market, baths, and Forum were located in a public square in the middle.