The origins of the civil town of Carnuntum are still unclear, and research has made no significant progress in recent decades. Theoretical considerations suggest that the oldest areas of a vicus should be located along the main road. Another factor could be the so-called »Leugenzone« around the legionary camp, which was avoided for reasons of property rights. If we assume that the so-called Limes road (S113) was the main traffic route from the beginning, we would have to postulate that the oldest areas of the pre-municipal vicus were under the north-eastern quarter of the later colonia. When the forum was built, parts of an existing settlement were demolished and roads were blocked or relocated to accommodate the new city centre. It is likely that the roads S170 and S193 previously formed a continuous traffic axis. The S114, the cardo maximus of the new town, had to be partially rerouted to the east. Buildings were partially demolished and rebuilt, and in some cases completely cleared. The buildings that stand out from the conventional residential buildings in the immediate vicinity of the forum include a large apsidal hall to the west of the forum, a sacred precinct with a temple to the south of the forum and an unusually large, elongated building to the south-east of the city centre. The north front of this building 65.068 is only about 30 metres from the south-east corner of the forum. The building, measuring approx. 22–24 × 72 metres, forms the central part of an insula and may have served as a schola, a meeting house for a collegium.
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