Viticulture and winemaking in Slavonija and Baranja in prehistory and antiquity
The consumption of wine in Slavonija and Baranja started in the Iron Age. Rather than grow grapevine or produce wine, local communities obtained the finished product through trading or bartering. Archaeological evidence from the Early Iron Age (vessels that were used to transport, mix, serve and drink wine) reveals that the consumption of alcoholic beverages was widespread at the feasts of the tribal elites. While they produced their own beer, mead and drinks made from fermented fruits, wine was bought from the Greeks, the Etruscans and the Romans, who were already accomplished vintners and winemakers. Drinking wine at feasts reflected economic power and high status in the society. Wine and other goods, usually bronze wine drinking vessels and olive oil, were imported from Roman Aquileia in the northern Adriatic, from where they were transported by land to Nauportus (present-day Vrhnika in Slovenia). In Geographia (Geography), Strabo elaborated that wine was transported in wooden barrels, and that all goods were reloaded onto ships and transported by the rivers Ljubljanica and Sava all the way to the Danube and farther to the East, to the Black Sea. This gives us the first real proof that wine was drunk in this area much earlier than Rome had taken full possession of the region. Strabo also makes a record that viticulture existed in Pannonia even before the Roman conquest, but was not very developed. Celtic communities might have been inspired by the contacts they made with Romans through trade to start growing grapevine in Pannonia.
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The Romans did not conquer Pannonia in a single military campaign. Rather, its conquest proceeded in stages. The first systematic conquests started in 35 BC, when Octavian attacked and conquered Segestica and established the military camp Siscia on the left bank of the river Kupa, which became his base for further conquest of Pannonia in the coming years. The conquest of Pannonia was completed with the end of the Pannonian Wars in 9 BC, a name that refers to Tiberius’ successful campaigns against the Pannonian tribes. The area was initially incorporated into the province of Illyricum, and as of Emperor Vespasian’s time, it was a part of the province of Pannonia. Emperor Traian split this province into two new ones, of which Lower Pannonia (Pannonia Inferior) encompassed eastern Slavonija, Baranja and Srijem. Diocletian redrew province borders, including most of this area into the province of Second Pannonia (Pannonia Secunda).
Roman conquests brought new cultural influences and changes in the local way of life, including intensive urbanisation. The vicinity of the Danubian Limes played a part in these changes, in addition to the increased trade and the arrival of traders from Italy. Since Roman soldiers were stationed in the region in large numbers, the imports of certain goods increased, including wine and olive oil, fish sauces, and fruits, which started to be imported regularly from the time of Emperor Tiberius’ rule. Large quantities of amphorae discovered in archaeological localities might provide the best proof of the fact. Some researchers have argued that amphorae were used to transport vintage or at least quality wines, while ordinary everyday wine for the soldiers was transported in wooden barrels. Reliefs on Trajan’s Column also prove that barrels were used for this purpose, as do the wooden barrels discovered during archaeological excavations at the Oberaden military camp in Germany, at Carnuntum (Petronell) in Austria, and at Gorsium (Tác), Arrabona (Győr) and Aquincum (Budapest) in Hungary. Five Roman wooden barrels from Aquincum, bearing the symbols of Legio II Adiutrix (2nd Supporting Legion), were the most important finding and the best proof that barrels were used to supply the Roman army with wine.
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Authors of the Antiquity did not have a particularly high opinion of this region, seeing as how it was riddled with marshes, and extremely cold in comparison with the Mediterranean, where the best wines were made. As a result, the initial vine plantings were very sparse. Strabo described the area above Dalmatia as hilly, cold and susceptible to snow, especially its northern parts, mentioning that grapevine was rarely grown in its hills and plains alike. Varro made a note that grapevine was planted even in regions that were considered unsuitable in his time (1st century BC), meaning further down in the continent, which supports Strabo’s note about the modest results achieved by viticulture at the time.
Roman historian Dio Cassius might have been the fiercest critic of the region in his 3rd century account, describing Pannonia as the most inhospitable of regions, its soil as poor, and its climate as harsh. Due to its terrible winters, the region does not lend itself to oil or wine production, except in very small amounts, and even then of poor quality, he wrote. According to Dio Cassius, the Pannonian diet was based on barley and millet, which were used to make beverages as well. Pannonians considered themselves stronger and braver than everyone else. The lack of all the implements of pleasant life made them prone to anger and bloodshed. Dio Cassius underlined that his observations were based on first-hand experience, because he served as the governor of Upper Pannonia for a time. Other authors painted a nicer picture of the region, however. In the 1st century, Velleius described how learning and the Roman language had taken hold in Pannonia. In the 3rd century, Solinus noted that the people here are strong, the soil fruitful, and the terrain flat, bounded by two famous rivers, the Drava and the Sava. The fact that the Romans carried out amelioration projects around Mursa (Osijek) and Cibalae (Vinkovci) as early as at the time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the late 2nd century, and later also around the river Vuka, tells us that Dio Cassius’ account was biased. These projects transformed the landscape and the local conditions completely, and an anonymous author from the 4th century described this region as a paradise on Earth.
When the wine crop failed one year, while the grapevine produced a high yield, Emperor Domitian (81-96) decreed that no one would be allowed to plant new vineyards in Italy, and that only half of the vineyards in the provinces could remain, while the remainder was to be cut down, because he felt viticulture had become too widespread, causing wheat to be neglected. Suetonius made a note of this in the Emperor’s biography, adding that the Emperor very soon rescinded his decision after a public outcry, including songs calling for his death. This attempted ban was probably driven by an ambition to give Italy a wine monopoly over the provinces rather than the wish to increase wheat production.
Sources also indicate that an emperor of Pannonian roots takes the credit for the expansion of viticulture in Pannonia. The decision to allow the Gauls and the Pannonians to have vineyards cost Emperor Probus (276-282) his life. The soldiers whom the Emperor ordered to drain the swamps around his birthplace Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica) and plant grapevine in Alma Mons (Fruška gora) and Aureus Mons (Bansko brdo) rebelled and assassinated him. In other words, grapevine was the death of him.
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