K. Palágyi Sylvia szerk.: Balácai Közlemények 2005/9. (Veszprém, 2005)

GÁBOR, OLIVÉR: Suburbanum Sopianarum and Roman Villas around Sopianae

OLIVER GÁBOR SUBURBANUM SOPIANARUM, AND ROMAN VILLAS AROUND SOPIANAE 1. The Main Aspects and Problems of reseraching the villas in County Baranya a) Localizing and Researching the Villa-Centres and Their Structures In County Baranya, searching of the Roman villas is at an advanced stage, however there are certainly sites to be found. It is important though to make a difference between them and other rural settlements, villages, farms. The analysis of the age and range of medium size and big estates (either municipal or not) has happened in several waves so far. Further localizations may be achieved by the new inscriptions and other archaeological finds. Regarding the area around Aquincum, the foundations were laid by G. Alföldy, on the basis of Stajermann's work

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, already in 1959

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. This picture got refined later

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, and the range of 4

th century big estates is a well-known phenomenon

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. b) The Survey of the Areas belonging to the villas and the research of the subsidiary buildings The solution of the problem is partly theoretical, for it is based on written sources and studies of the Roman society, but on the other hand, it can be solved by the "site catchment" traditions of Anglo-Saxon research. At present, the research and excavation of such auxiliary buildings - apart from some exceptions, like Baláca, Parndorf, Eisenstadt, etc. - is at its beginnings in Pannónia. c) The original economic function of the villas, as well as the social rank of their owners in Pannónia is a question The research of the economic function of the villas, their relation to their surrounding and the towns, has been tried to be carried out already, with different results in different provinces. The analysis of the social composition of their possessors (who generally were not owners, since they were mostly owned by the state) has started, too, mainly by the inscriptions.

5 d) Types of the Villas The classification of the villas in Pannónia, on the ground of their architectural appearance, can first of all be done by the work of E. Thomas

6 and further refined by