City
Petavione
Pettau · Ptuj
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Petavione lay at a ford of the Drava, where the Amber Road crossed the river, and is today Ptuj in Slovenia. The Romans built a military camp here under Augustus, and the Thirteenth Legion was stationed in it for decades. When the emperor Trajan withdrew the legion, the settlement was raised straight to a colony of veterans. The ancient town actually stood on the right bank, facing the modern one, with an imperial palace outside its walls. Its Illyrian name survives in a striking number of spellings, and four sanctuaries of Mithras have been found here.