The Lacus Pelso - the Lake Balaton and the hydrography of the Balaton highland in the roman age

Abstract

Water has been the most important settling factor for people of all ages, but for the Romans it not only played an important role in everyday life - in the form of drinking water and irrigation, among other things - but was also strongly linked to the communal bathing programme. Water also played a very important strategic role: it was the key factor in the development of some of the Empire's frontiers, such as
Pannonia, rivers formed part of the empire's empire. In addition, water and water-related activities were endowed with a sacral content (e.g. Apollo, Aesculapius and Hygieia were also worshipped as gods of baths and medicinal waters). Everyday life, the need for clean drinking water and baths gave rise to the practice of building water pipes and public works. The bathing culture, with Greek and Etruscan3 origins, appeared not only in cities but also in simpler forms in the countryside, in the villages. When villas were built, the richness of the landscape in springs, often with warm water, was a factor4 , so that the Balaton uplands were also very favourable. The aim of this article is to determine the Roman northern shoreline of Lake Balaton and its water level, which has long been of interest to researchers, by means of the elevation of (presumed) Roman villages and rural settlements. In the study of the lake's formation and shoreline changes, the spatial position of sites from different periods is of paramount importance, with the urban-poor northern shore being dominated by the villa farms.