1 / what moves along the route

Austria · What was lost · Core and Edge

Austria 488 AD: the Romans who did not leave

The oldest account says Rome's people were ordered out of Austria in 488. Land records from Salzburg still list Romans paying tribute about 262 years later. So who is telling the story, and who is missing from it?

vizmaya desk · 20 October 2026

What moves along this route?

Three things move along this route: money, people and names. Pay came from Italy until it stopped. Then people were sent to Italy, and those who stayed are mostly found today as names in land lists.

The route has seven places, from Roman forts on the Danube to a toll post in the year 905.

Between the 488 order and the last named Romans lie 262 years

Sources: Eugippius, Life of Severin (Pearse translation); Deutsche Biographie; Springer chapter on Eugippius; Die Alpen im Frühmittelalter; König 2022. Solid dot: documented. Dashed ring: contested.

The pay stopped first

Border soldiers were paid with money from Italy. In one tale from the Vita, men sent to fetch the last pay were killed on the road. Without pay, the border guard faded away.

Their base, Batavis, is today's Passau, just across the border in Germany.

Fact

No money sent home

We looked for any record of migrants sending money home before the year 1000. We found none. The nearest thing is pay flowing the other way, from Italy to the border.

Gap
2 / the seven places
The west horseshoe tower of the Roman fort of Favianis at Mautern an der Donau
Photo: west horseshoe tower, Roman fort Favianis, Mautern. Wikimedia Commons, file page. Author and licence: see the file page.

A fort tower that is still standing

Mautern, on the Danube, was the Roman fort of Favianis. Part of its wall and a horseshoe tower can still be seen. The monk Severin lived here and died here on 8 January 482.

Fact

Five of the seven places sit on the Danube, the old border

Numbers follow the story order, not a travelled road. Lorch and Raffelstetten are about 5 km apart, so their markers are pulled apart to be readable. Sources: Lower Austria tourism, Archaeology magazine, JASSA. Coordinates are approximate.

The Heidentor, a large Roman stone arch at Petronell-Carnuntum
Photo: Heidentor, Petronell. Wikimedia Commons, file page. Author and licence: see the file page.

1. Carnuntum: the old centre

A Roman army base that grew into the capital of a province. Today there is an archaeological park and a huge stone arch. Most of the town is still buried under fields and vineyards.

Fact
Roman ruins of the Vindobona legionary camp at the Hoher Markt in Vienna
Photo: Vindobona ruins, Hoher Markt, Vienna. Wikimedia Commons, file page. Author and licence: see the file page.

2. Vienna: once the edge

Vindobona was a fort on the northern border. Today the Roman Museum sits over its officers' houses, found in 1948 when workers dug a canal.

Fact

The centre of today's Austria was once the edge of Rome.

Interpretation

7. Raffelstetten, about 905

A toll post on the Danube. The rules list salt, wax, horses and enslaved people. The text is kept in an archive in Munich, not in Austria.

Fact
3 / the route, then and now

The route in one table

Core means a place where Rome's power sat. Edge means a border or a margin. Status says how well the story at that place is documented.

#PlaceCountryLat, LonEraWhat happened or what is thereSourceStatus
1Carnuntum Austria~48.11, 16.861st to 4th c.Core. Army base and provincial capital. Today a park with a big stone arch; most of the town is still under fields.ArchaeologyDocumented
2Vindobona (Vienna) Austria~48.21, 16.37from the 1st c.Edge then, capital now. Fort on the northern border. A museum in central Vienna sits over the officers' houses.habsburger.netDocumented
3Teurnia Austria46.82, 13.454th c. to about 600-610 (dates differ)Core of the mountain province and a bishop's seat. Ruins and a small museum in St. Peter in Holz. Given up during the Slavic migrations.Austria-ForumDocumented
4Favianis (Mautern) Austria~48.39, 15.58c. 460 to 488Edge. Frontier fort where Severin lived and died. The 488 move began in this region. A wall and tower still stand.Lower AustriaDocumented
5Lauriacum (Lorch) Austria~48.22, 14.475th to 8th c.Edge. A Roman base. Local historians say Romans west of the Enns did not leave. What is visible today: not confirmed.OÖ MusealvereinContested
6Iuvavum (Salzburg) Austria~47.80, 13.055th to 8th c.Edge that kept. Land records up to about 750 still list Romans paying tribute. Later tales say Rupert cleared a ruin.KleinContested
7Raffelstetten Austria~48.26, 14.42903 to 906Edge. Danube toll post. Rules for salt, wax, horses and enslaved people. The text is kept in Munich. Exact toll site: inferred.König 2022Documented

Only Teurnia's coordinates come from a fetched source. The rest are approximate and need a map check.

Mautern, then and now

About 480

A Roman fort on the Danube. Severin lived here and died on 8 January 482. He advised settlers to gather here for safety.

In 488 his monks left for Italy and took his body with them.

Today

The fort wall and a horseshoe tower still stand. A Roman museum and a walking trail tell the story.

A dig in 1997 to 1999 showed the town's people kept changing, as some arrived and others left, over three centuries.

Sources: Vatican, donau.com, Groh and Sedlmayer, Austrian Academy of Sciences Press.

Fact

488: the order

Odoacer orders the Romans of the Danube towns to go to Italy. The Vita says the whole population left.

Fact: the orderContested: all left

Who wrote the story?

Almost everything we know about 5th-century Austria comes from one book, the Life of Severin. His pupil Eugippius wrote it in 511, in Italy, after his community was forced to move near Naples. We could not confirm where he was born.

Fact

A story told by the people who left can make the place sound emptier than it was.

Interpretation

5. Lorch: did the Romans west of the Enns leave?

Historians in Upper Austria say they did not. They point to village names such as Seewalchen and Einwalchen as traces. This argues against the Vita.

Contested
The excavated episcopal church at the Teurnia Roman museum in Carinthia
Photo: Teurnia, episcopal church. Wikimedia Commons, file page. Author and licence: see the file page.

3. Teurnia: a mountain capital, given up

In the late Roman age Teurnia was the capital of the mountain province and a bishop's seat. Its church and mosaics are still on the hill. It was given up when Slavic settlers arrived, around 600 to 610.

FactContested: exact date
Panorama of the old town of Salzburg
Photo: Salzburg old town. Wikimedia Commons, file page. Author and licence: see the file page.

6. Salzburg: the edge that kept

Land records written up to about 750 still list Romans and the land they paid tribute on. After that the label fades.

Fact

Later Salzburg texts say the founder, Rupert, began by clearing a ruined place. Scholars disagree on how much of the town carried on.

Contested
4 / what it means

Today the flow runs the other way

Austria once lost its Romans. Now it gains people. Here are the figures.

  • 2.53x2,327,064 international migrants in 2024 vs 920,045 in 2000. UN DESA
  • 27.8%2,509,000 people with a migration background in 2024, vs 1,812,900 (21.4%) in 2015. Statistik Austria
  • 10.2mProjected population in 2080 with migration, vs 6.9 million without. Statistik Austria, via news.at
  • $3.0bn$3,000,360,000 of personal remittances received in 2020, 0.69% of GDP. World Bank, via FRED
  • 262years between the 488 order and the last Romans named in Salzburg's records, about 750.

Who tells it which way?

The Vita

Odoacer emptied the province. The whole Roman population went to Italy. An 1892 German biographical dictionary repeats this.

Contested

Local scholars

Historians in Upper Austria (1973, 1983) and a Slovene study (1939) say the total move does not hold up. Romans stayed west of the Enns.

Contested

Salzburg's founding tale

Rupert cleared a ruin and started again. A recent overview says the Roman-descended community carried on, while a footnote records scholars who see a sharper break.

Contested

Sources: ADB 1892, Kos 1939, OÖ Musealverein 1983, Die Alpen im Frühmittelalter.

Hero insight

262

years after the order, Roman tribute-payers are still on the books

Austria's exile story was written by the people who left, yet Salzburg's own land records still name Roman tribute-payers around 750, about 262 years after the 488 order.

Fact

Sources and claims log

We logged 30 claims. 17 are verified, 7 are contested and 6 are unverified. The unverified ones are not on this page.

Still contested

  • Whether every Roman left in 488
  • Roman-era city sizes
  • Teurnia's end date (about 600 to 610)
  • How far Salzburg's town carried on
  • Remittance and Vienna share figures that disagree

What we could not find

  • Any record of money sent home before 1000
  • Where Eugippius was born
  • What is visible today at Lorch and Raffelstetten
  • How many Romans stayed and how many left

How to read the tags

Fact comes from a verified source.

Interpretation is our reading.

Contested means scholars disagree. Gap means we found nothing.

Photos, all from Wikimedia Commons (author and licence to be confirmed on each file page): Mautern tower, Heidentor, Vindobona, Teurnia, Salzburg. Method: each claim needs two independent sources or one primary source.

5 / how we checked it

  1. Austria, 488 AD: who stayed?

    Rome ran its northern border along the Danube. Then the money stopped, the army faded and the people were told to leave. This board follows seven places and asks one question: did everyone really go?

  2. Three things move along this route

    Money, people and names. Pay came from Italy until it stopped. Then people were sent to Italy, and those who stayed are mostly found today as names in land lists.

  3. The pay stopped first

    Soldiers were paid with money from Italy. In one tale, men sent to fetch the last pay were killed on the road. We found no record of anyone sending money home in this period.

  4. Six dates, 262 years

    Severin dies in 482. The Romans are ordered to Italy in 488. A monk writes the story down in Italy in 511. Salzburg records still list Romans around 750.

  5. Seven places, five on the Danube

    The tower in Mautern is one of them. Most places sit on the old border. Two, Lorch and Salzburg, are contested.

  6. A fort that became a capital

    Carnuntum was a centre of Rome's power. Vienna was a border fort. Today the roles are reversed.

  7. The route in one table

    Each place has a status: documented or contested. Nothing here is a guess.

  8. Mautern, then and now

    The wall and tower still stand. A big dig showed that the town's people kept changing over three centuries.

  9. The story comes from the people who left

    One book tells most of it. Its author wrote from exile in Italy. That may have made the place sound emptier than it was.

  10. Signs that some stayed

    Records near Salzburg list Romans paying tribute around 750. Historians in Upper Austria say Romans stayed near Lorch. Teurnia was given up later.

  11. Today the flow runs the other way

    Austria now has 2.53 times as many international migrants as in 2000. Without migration its population would fall.

  12. Three versions of one story

    The Vita, local scholars and Salzburg's own founding tale do not agree. We show all three and mark each as contested.

  13. The one thing to remember

    The exile was told by those who left. The land records say some stayed, 262 years later.

  14. What we checked, and what we could not find

    Thirty claims, 17 verified, 7 contested, 6 left off the page. No record of money sent home before 1000 turned up.