Aquincum sits in Óbuda, north of central Budapest, where a substantial Roman settlement once occupied ground near the Danube. The museum’s own guide distinguishes the Civil Town from the Military Town: the latter lay around today’s Flórián Square, while the Civil Town was about two kilometres away. The archaeological park preserves part of that civilian center, so visitors encounter urban remains rather than a single isolated monument.
Roman communities reached the Danube around the beginning of the first century. Aquincum’s Civil Town grew from a settlement of timber and clay buildings into a planned stone-built town during the second century. Under Emperor Hadrian it probably became a municipium around AD 124; under Septimius Severus it received colonia status in AD 194. These milestones mark a change in civic standing, not a sudden founding date for the entire settlement.
