If you are interested in the history of the Roman Aquincum, the best way is to visit the modern city, which is now Budapest, the capital of Hungary. The location of the Roman city is almost the same as the modern settlement. The excavation of Aquincum was so interesting, a key department of urban development, so still an important part of the city image. You can see different pieces of history in every corner. This is a great place for histor lovers, specially for Roman history fans! Wherever you look you see a little monument, statuette of relief-replica of the Roman presence. Romans conquered Pannonia, loved it and left their rich heritage for us to explore.
The Romans occupied the Transdanubian region in the second half of the first century AD. Aquincum was founded around 89 AC with deploying a garrison in the location of a Celtic settlement. Now this ts the Gellért Hill, still a wonderful place to visit. Every time you see it, remember, it was a Celtic oppidum!
From 106 AC to the end of the 4th century Aquincum was the center of Lower Pannonia. 2Nd and the 3rd century was the most powerful age for this region. At the foot of Gellért Hill there was a natural crossing at the river: that is the main road that leads to the Barbaricum, to the other side of the Danube, and that is still the main road to Middle-Hungary. This river-crossing needed special contol, because not just the Romans crossedthe Danube to visit the other side, but the Barbarians came to visit the new territory too! So Roman military troops were settled and the Romanization started.
the map of Pannonia Provincia source here
Celtic people learned Latin, the language of the invaders and also learned their culture. Somehow the native Celts became Romans, but deep in their heart Celtic rites were retained. This is what we can see mosty on the feminie tombstones: men Romanized better than women. Wives and daughters kept their Celtic clothes and ornament, and this habit is well-seen on the illustrated tombstones.
But not only Celts lived here. You can also find the traces of the Pannoni, Illyri tribes too. For the tribes see another post here.
The first legion camp was inaugurated at the age on Emperor Domitian. The presence of the legion was important not because it involved a significant increase in population, but because the member of the legion could only be a man with Roman civil rights, who were urban residents and also had higher educational attainment. The first garrison, the Legio II Adiutrix was relocated from Britannia to this area, with mostly Italians serving in ranks. They spread Roman customs such as daily bathing, visitnig publis baths, games in the amphitheatre and immolations for the Roman Gods.
imaginary landscape of Aquincum with the River Danube (military city)
The first legion camp was demolished in the 2nd century. The second camp was established under the reign of Emperor Traian, and was much bigger than the first one. Emperor Traian divided Pannonia int two parts: Pannonia Inferior and Pannonia Superior. Establishing headquarters boosted the evolution of the civil city too. The workers of the governor’s palace consisted of men serving in the legion: lawyers, economists, engineers, doctors and technicians. For warfare was always enough money in the Empire, the best specialists served in the Roman Army. When it was peace time (it didn’t happen often), they worked in the city constructions.
So this is the main reason that you can find two cities named Aquincum: one is the military and the other is the civil city. Aquincum had also two amphitheatres: ane for the military city and one for the civil city!
what it might have looked like 
Aquincum, the Roman city in context of the modern Budapest
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