Pannonia

Pannonia was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now western Hungary, western Slovakia, eastern Austria, northern Croatia, north-western Serbia, northern Slovenia, and northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Background Geography and economy In the Early Iron Age, Transdanubia was inhabited by the Pannonians, a subgroup of the Illyrians, and the Great Hungarian Plain by peoples of Scythic culture. The Celts invaded in the Late Iron Age. Gallo-Roman historian Pompeius Trogus tells us that the Celts met with heavy resistance from the locals and couldn't overrun the southern part of Transdanubia. Some tribes advanced as far as Delphi, with the Scordisci settling in Syrmia (279 BC) upon forced to withdraw. The Celts founded many villages. Those that held prominent economic significance developed into oppida. As part of a new migration wave at the end of the 2nd century BC, the Boii left Northern Italy and established themselves as an important power at the Danube. Pannonia was connected to the Italian Peninsula by trade since the 2nd millennium BC. Amber from Jutland and East Prussia arrived to there through Transdanubia. Later in the 1st millennium BC, industrial products of the Veneti and Etruscans, and from the Este culture were brought here. The Celtic invasion broke trade between the inhabitants of Italy and the Germanic peoples through Transdanubia. There was no big rupture with the inhabitants of Transdanubia, however. Aes signatum ingots were in use in Pannonia as long as the 1st century BC. Independent tribes minted their own coins with the faces of their leaders. These were at first modeled on Macedonian, and later Roman currency. For one and a half century prior to the Roman invasion, the Celts and the Romans were in stable trade relations. Roman merchants brought industrial products in exchange for slaves and raw materials.