In the year 2004 Romanian archaeology marked the jubilee of two of the most representative Dobrudjan archaeological sites: Histria and Capidava. In September 1914, after the third (and last) campaign ended at Ulmetum (Pantelimonu de Jos, Constanţa county), Vasile Pârvan headed for Histria, the old Milesian colony on the bank of Sinoe Lake, to start vast archaeological excavations, that have been going on ever since.

Ten years later, in the year 1924, Vasile Pârvan appointed one of his assistants, Grigore Florescu, later a reader in epigraphy and antiquities at the Faculty of Letters, the University of Bucharest, to start archaeological excavations in a Roman camp on the Dobrudjan Danube bank, "leaving the choice to us".   

Professor Doctor Radu Florescu photo at:

http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/Digitalarchives/5Sites/Capidava/Capidava.htm

The previous year Grigore Florescu had found at Seimenii Mari - 6 km downstream Cernavodă - two milliaries and had identified traces of ancient dwelling on a surface of a few hectares (more precisely a defence tower from a later period and small dimensions, next to a civil settlement), however not enough for the issue to tackle, according to his own words. The decisive factor in choosing the young epigraphist is mentioned in the Preface of the first monographic volume of Capidava, that he signed in 1958: "On the one hand the rescue of the fortress [1] , and on the other also its position in an important ford of the Danube, crossed by a road running from the Carpathians and crossing the inland of Dobrudja up to the sea, at the Greek cities of Tomis and Histria, used to be solid reasons for starting the excavations in this location".

That is how the systematic archaeological excavations started at Capidava eight decades ago. This very jubilee was celebrated in 2004. This celebration is owed foremost to the exceptional endeavors of two remarkable researchers from two successive generations, father and son, Grigore and Radu Florescu. On this anniversary both equally deserve the homage paid to the archaeological site on the Danubian limes of Moesia Inferior - be it even posthumously.

See also:

Centrul Naţional de Cercetare şi Documentare în Domeniul Muzeologiei "Radu Florescu"

Archaeology enthusiasts who use the Internet can take good advantage of the generosity of the host, CIMEC, that made available a selection comprising a part of the oldest images of Capidava preserved in the archive of the site: topographic surveys and planimetric surveys of the fortress, photographs from pre-war excavations (in part unpublished) and of their initiators etc. There is also one of the beautiful vignettes on parchment at Notitia Dignitatum where the Roman fortification of Capidava can be seen, mentioned at half distance between Carsium and Axiopolis also on the segmentum VII of Tabula Peutingeriana. Many of the excavation photographs selected had already been published by Grigore Florescu, as illustrations for his excavation reports in the review Dacia (III-IV, 1927-1932; V-VI, 1935-1936; XI-XII, 1945-1947). The quality of the photographs preserved in the archive of the archaeological site of Capidava (in comparison with their modest variant published in the prestigious review mentioned), as well as the difficulties of the direct access of many Internet users to the respective scientific literature are the reasons why we resumed them in this way. Last but not least, by the very institutional appurtenance of Professor Grigore Florescu, the initiator of the archaeological excavations at Capidava, these images naturally pertain to the exceptional photographic testimonies of the early days of Romanian archaeology preserved in the archive of the National Museum of Antiquities and gathered in a unique online documentary base by CIMEC.

 [1] The quarrying of the limestone massif on which the fortress of Capidava used to stand by the company of the brothers Ghenciu from Brăila, at the time of Vasile Pârvan's visit in 1912, would seriously damage half of the north curtain of the fortress, and, usually, its whole Danube side. When the quarrying ceased  due to the support from the Historic Monuments Board following the active involvement of Vasile Pârvan also Grigore Florescu was able to begin the archaeological research of the fortress during the campaigns from 1924, 1926-1927 and the following years.

  Urbanism in Roman Dacia

       http://sthweb.bu.edu/archives/index.phpoption=com_awiki&view=mediawiki&article=Roman_Dacia

  This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License
 It uses material from the Wikipedia article " USA"
 Roman province of “Dacia Traiana” on the territory of today's Romania. For the late Roman province of “Dacia Aureliana” on the territories of modern Bulgaria and Serbia, see Dacia Aureliana.
Roman Dacia[1], also Dacia Traiana[2] or Dacia Felix[3], was a province of the Roman Empire (106-271/275 AD).[1][2][4] Its territory consisted of eastern and southeastern Transylvania, the Banat, and Oltenia (regions of modern Romania).[3] Dacia was from the very beginning organized as an imperial province and remained so throughout the Roman occupation.[5] It was one of the empire’s Latin provinces; official epigraphs attest that the language of administration was Latin.[6] Historians’ estimates of the population of Roman Dacia range from 650,000 to 1,200,000.[7]
In 119, the province was divided into two departments: Upper Dacia included the Transylvanian Plateau;[2] and Lower Dacia incorporated the Banat and almost half of Oltenia;[5][7][3] the latter was later named Dacia Malvensis.[2] In 124 (or around 158), for military reasons, Upper Dacia was divided into two provinces: Dacia Apulensis and Dacia Porolissensis (north-western Transylvania).[5][8] During (or soon after) the Marcomannic Wars this scheme was modified again: military and judicial administration was unified under the command of one governor having two other senators (the legati legionis) as his subordinates and the province was called simply Dacia or Three Dacias (tres Daciæ).[5]
The Roman conquest was followed by a period of peace, stability, and prosperity.[3] But the province’s political life was not without perils from the start.[7] First came the Free Dacians who, allied with their old friends the Sarmatians, frequently attacked the province.[7] After the quieter rules of Commodus (180-193), Septimius Severus (193-211), and Caracalla (211-217), the invasions of Dacia, in particular the invasion by the Carpi (a Dacian tribe) in alliance with the Goths, were a serious problem for the emperors.[7]
Agriculture, stockbreeding, and commerce flourished in the province.[3] New mines were opened, and ore extraction intensified.[3] Dacia began to supply grains not only to the military personnel stationed in the province but also to the rest of the Balkan area.[3]
Dacia was a highly urban province: no fewer than 11[1] or 12 cities are known, 8 of them of the highest rank (colonia);[7] but the number of cities was fewer than in the region’s other provinces.[6] In Dacia, all the cities developed from military camps.[1] Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa (Sarmizegetusa, Romania) was the financial, religious, and legislative center of the province; it was the seat of the imperial procurator (finance officer) for all the three subdivisions.[1] Apulum (Alba Iulia, Romania), where the military governor of the three subdivisions had his headquarters,[1] was not just the greatest conurbation of the province, but one of the largest in the area.[5]

However, it became more and more difficult to keep Dacia within the boundaries of the Roman Empire;[4] thus Dacia was the last province to be added to the Roman Empire and was the first to be abandoned.[3] In the 250s, as the Carpi  (Free Dacians)advance intensified, Dacia’s inhabitants began to seek refuge south of the river Danube, in Moesia.[6] Our sources from antiquity imply that Dacia had already been lost during the reign of Gallienus (260-268), but they also report that it was Aurelian (270-275) who relinquished Dacia Traiana.[9] Aurelian, in desperate attempt to save the rest of the Roman Empire, evacuated his troops and civilian administration from Dacia, and founded Dacia Aureliana with its capital at Serdica (Sofia, Bulgaria) in Lower Moesia.[2]
The fate of the Romanized population of the former province of Dacia Traiana has become subject to a spirited controversy.[7] One theory holds that the Latin language spoken in ancient Dacia, where Romania was to be formed in the future, gradually turned into Romanian; in parallel, a new people, the Romanians were formed from the Daco-Romans (the Romanized population of Dacia Traiana).[4] The opposing theory argues that the Romanians descended from the Romanized population of the Roman provinces of the Balkan Peninsula.[6]
Trajan conquered the Dacians, under King Decibalus, and made Dacia, across the Danube in the soil of barbary, a province which in circumference had ten times 100,000 paces; but it was lost under Imperator Gallienus, and, after Romans had been transferred from there by Aurelian, two Dacias were made in the regions of Moesia and Dardania.
—Festus: Breviarium of the Accomplishments of the Roman People (VII.2)10]

        Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa- Dacia Apulensis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Plan of the settlement

Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica was the capital and the largest city of Roman Dacia, later named Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa after the former Dacian capital, located some 40 km away. The city was destroyed by the Goths. Today Ulpia Traiana remains in ruins, with a partly conserved forum, an amphitheater, and remnants of several temples.

The wall surrounding the city experienced a great development and at its peak it had 15,000-20,000 inhabitants, being the most populous city of the province. The metropolis stretched over 32.4 hectares and comprised the Palace of the Augustals, the Roman forum (square), amphitheater, temples (dedicated to the gods Liber Pater, Nemesis, Aesculapus, Hygeia, Silvanus, Mithras, Jupiter Dolichenus and others), houses, workshops, aqueducts and so on.
The Palace of the Augustals was located in the center of the city, being the location of a high college for priests, which had an important social role. The building had a quadrangle shape, with numerous rooms and a large central court. The forum was the center of the political life, the place of the most important meetings.
The amphitheater was the largest construction: it had an elliptical shape (90x70 m or 300x233 ft), having 4,000-5,000 seats, two main gates, which served for the entrance and exit of the gladiators, and two service gates. The benches were made of marble and stone in the first rows, and from wood in the case of the upper seats. The access to the seats was made via 12 large gates. After the abandoning of the Dacia by the Roman troops, the natives employed the amphitheater as fortress against the attacks of the migratory people. This is also the best preserved building of the ancient city. The high temple, built in the Corinthian style, was the largest cult edifice from the Roman Dacia: 46.3 m (154 ft) long and 34 m (113 ft) wide.
Through the placement of the edifices, elegance, refinement of the marble works (gushers, temples and so on), Sarmizegetusa was amongst the most beautiful cities of the Roman empire.  
 

http://cimec.ro/Arheologie/UlpiaTraiana/album/pop/13.html

 History of Researches

http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/UlpiaTraiana/istoric/istoric_en.html

A city in Roman Dacia, founded by the first governor of the province, Terentius Scaurianus, between 108 and 110, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian the city got also the name of Sarmizegetusa, borne by the capital of the Dacian Kingdom of Decebalus, situated 40 km E from the new building, and from 222 to 235 it would bear also the epithet of metropolis. Founded in southern Transylvania, in the south-west of the Haţeg depression, on the place of a camp of the 5th legion Macedonica, Ulpia Traiana is populated by veterans of the Dacian wars, receiving from the foundation the rank of a colony, and its inhabitants benefiting from ius italicum. Spanning about 30 ha and numbering 20.000 - 25.000 inhabitants, strongly fortified, Ulpia Traiana was, duirng the 2nd-3rd centuries, the political, administrative and religious center of the province of Dacia. The forum, the palace of the augustalia, the thermae, the amphitheatre,the public and private edifices are extant.
The scholarly Interest in the Sarmizegetusa antiquities emerged as early as the 15th century. The first to study the Roman vestiges at Ulpia Traiana was the cleric Joannes Mezerzius who began to gather inscriptions from the year 1495. Of the 36 inscriptions from Sarmizegetusa, Mezerzius succeeded in identifying the Romanian village of Grădiştea as the old capital of Trajan Dacia. A significant contribution to the knowledge on the epigraphic monuments of Ulpia Traiana would have the Transylvanian chronicler and historian Stephanus Zamosius, the Italian engineer Aloysius Ferdinand Marsigli, a military in the service of the Austrian emperor.
The first random excavations at Ulpia Traiana must have been undertaken by Johann Michael Ackner, who on the 10th of September 1832 discovered in the precint of the ancient city a mosaic of 8.15 m x 6.45 m representing the goddess Victoria surrounded by other deities.
In 1871 at Deva, the Society of History and Archaeology of the Hunedoara county was founded, that organized the museum in 1882 and between 1881-1883 conducted archaeological excavations at Ulpia Traiana. In 1921, the Roman vestiges were put under the control and protection of the Historic Monuments Board, the Transylvania department. Under the aegis of this prestigious institution beginning with 1924 they organized the first scientific excavations.
Between 1924 and 1936 vast excavations were carried out at Roman Sarmizegetusa under the leadership of the renowned antiquity historian and archaeologist Constantin Daicoviciu. The last important excavations from the interwar period were conducted by Octavian Floca, in the autumn of 1936. In 1948, Octavian Floca resumed the researches on the territory of Sarmizegetusa, when he excavated at Hobiţa and found a farm (villa rustica).
The large scale researches were resumed at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa in 1973 by a large team including Hadrian Daicoviciu, Dorin Alicu , Ioan Piso and others. The results of the 10 years of campaigns (1973-1982) consisted in the uncovering of more sacred and profane edifices, the most important discovering being the mausoleum built by mid 2nd century, found in the west cemetery of the ancient city. 

Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa

 http://museum.worldwidesam.net/en/ulpia/ul_intro.htm

Was the capital of the Roman Dacia - raised at the bottom of Retezat Mountains, in the South-Western part of the Hateg region. The town was at 8 km from the pass between Banat and Transylvania, which old name was Tapae, today Iron Gates of Transylvania.
The settlement date of the capital is not known exactly. An inscription discovered at the beginning of the 14th century, in the village Gradiste - Sarmizegetusa says: "On the command of the emperor Cesar Nerva Traianus Augustus, son of the divine Nerva, was settled the Dacian Colony by Decimus Terentius Scaurianus, its governor". The name of the governor shows the settlement of the new town was done in the first years of the conquering of Dacia (after some opinions in 106-107, after others 108-110).
The settlement of the colony was marked also by the emision of a coin (sestertius) at Rome, from the Senate order, dedicated to "the best ruler", Emperor Trajan.
The choosing of the place of the town by Trajan (Traian) was not at random. The metropolis had some strategic and economic advantages. The Retezat Mountains at the South and Poiana Ruscai Mountains at the North were natural barriers difficult to cross for the eventual invaders. The capital which territorium was from Tibiscum to Micia till the entrance in the Jiu pass, was developing in peace, defended by the Roman camps Tibiscum (today Jupa), Voislova, Micia (Vetel) and Bumbesti.
By Ulpia Traian crossed the imperial road from Danube and made the link between the North of the province to Porolissum (Moigrad).
The antic city had an area of 32 ha surrounded by walls. In the hearth of the city were to main roads (cardo maximus oriented North-South and decumanus maximus oriented East-West), at its crossing being the main public building - Forum. But the city was not only inside the walls. Outside the walls, on a great area, were the villae, the craftsmen workshops (brick makers, glass blowers), the temples and other public or private buildings. Also outside the walls were the cemeteries of the city (sepulcreta) identified at East and also at the West. The population was around 25,000 - 30,000 people.
Archaeologists have discovered and brought to light the constructions from the old times of Ulpia Traiana, as many objects which are hosted in the museum from nearby.

 http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2368/1877441684_ede6cea202.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wZuOjLNTxew/SCqEC0jzALI/AAAAAAAAAcY/RSIN7wWv5mw/s320/daciafilm+-+Sarmizegetusa+Ulpia+Traiana-Templu+Mare+curte.jpg

 FORUM
The forum build by Traian, the civic and political-administrative center, was in the middle of the town, at the cross road ot the two main roads which crossed Sarmizegetusa from East to West and from North to South, Cardo and Decumanum.
Its entrance was monumental and had the aspect of a triumph arch on which was graved the inscription from the colony foundation. In the front of the entrance, bordered by four huge columns was the altar dedicated to the foundation ceremony. On both sides were artesian wells made from marble and decorated with statues. In the corners were the offices of some associations, as the handicraftsmen board which was in the Eastern corner.
The forum was composed first of all from a public square surrounded by the porch with columns and paved with lime and marble. In this square were many monuments and statues, some of the foundations are seen today. After that was a basilica, a big hall for several mettings, which have had a monumentale facade towards the yard, bordered by buttress. On the Eastern side of the basilica was a tribunal, the platform on which the judges were sitting (most of the time the two mayor of the town) and under which a prison was arrranged. On the basilica's side there were several rooms that were offices (ex. the archieve of the colony), as well as offices of some associations and corporations as was the augustals board. In the center of the side was the curia, the metting hall of the local council. Under it are two underground rooms, which were the thesaurus of the town. On its right is a passage to the second forum (initally the commercial market), which was built later and which was the religious center of Sarmizegetusa.

Frescă romană, descoperită la Sarmizegetusa

http://www.gds.ro/Cultura/2011-07-30/Fresca+romana,++descoperita+la+Sarmizegetusa 

Cultura - Camelia CIOCĂNARU

 

APULUM-ALBA IULIA

History

 http://apulumarchaeology.wordpress.com/urban-archaeology-in-apulum/

Fish Dish                                                         Moulded Disk

   VOTIVE STATUE OF LIBER PATER DISCOVERED IN COLONIA AVRELIA APVLENSIS (IIIrd century A.D.)

http://apulumarchaeology.wordpress.com/252-2/

http://arheologie.ulbsibiu.ro/publicatii/ats/ats%209/bea.pdf

http://apulumarchaeology.wordpress.com/

 Photos at: http://www.google.com/search?q=www.apulum-archaeology.com&channel=linkdoctor&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=992&bih=484

The modern city is located near the site of the important Dacian political, economic and social centre of Apulon, mentioned by the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy and believed by many archaeologists to be the Dacian fortifications on top of Piatra Craivii.^{[citation needed]} After the southern part of Dacia became a province of the Roman Empire, the capital of the Dacia Apulensis district was established here, and the city was known as Apulum. ^[2] Apulum was one of the largest centers in Roman Dacia and the seat of the XIII Gemina Legion. 

 http://apulumarchaeology.wordpress.com/252-2/

 The southern gate (porta principalis dextra) of the XIIIth Legion Gemina’s camp (restoration).

 Castrul roman Apulum (Romanian only)

De la Wikipedia, enciclopedia liberă; http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castrul_roman_Apulum

Castrul roman Apulum
Poarta "Principalis Dextra"
Tip	Castru de legiune
Tip construcţie	Zid de piatră
Perioadă de activitate	106 - 274
Unităţi prezente	Legiunea a XIII-a Gemina Legiunea I Adiutrix
Dimensiuni şi suprafaţă	750 x 500 m2 (37,5 ha)
Davă preexistentă	Apoulon?
Unitate administrativă	Dacia Apulensis
Legături directe cu castrele	(Ighiu) • (Stremţ) • (Sebeş) • (Cigmău)
Cod RAN	1026.01
Cod LMI	AB-I-m-A-00001.01
Amplasare	46°03′59″N 23°34′20″E / 46.06639, 23.57222
Localitate	Alba Iulia

Castrul roman Apulum a fost unul dintre cele mai importante centre ale stăpânirii romane de pe teritoriul Daciei. El a fost construit în zona fostei aşezări dacice Apoulon. Construirea castrului a fost determinată de cantonarea în această zonă a Legiunii a XIII-a Gemina, dislocată din Vindobona, actualul oraş Viena. Legiunea avea rolul de a păzi ţinutul aurifer şi drumul de transport al aurului către Roma.

În imediata vecinătate a castrului s-au dezolvat aşezările romane Colonia Aurelia Apulensis, iar mai apoi Colonia Nova Apulensis.

Referinţe

 Legături externe

• Roman castra from Romania - Google Maps / Earth

Tibiscum

http://www.caransebes.ro/

 The first traces of habitation here might date as far as Dacian times. Dacian ruins have been discovered recently near Obreja, a village 7 km away. As the Romans invaded Dacia, they built a castrum named Tibiscum, which was dug up by archaeologists near the nearby village of Jupa, a castrum which later grew to be a full city. Tibiscum is considered one of the gates of Christianity in Dacia, having an important role also in the Romanization of the local people.
During the Middle Ages, the local people continuously inhabited the area.
Various studies have been carried out investigating the distribution and chronological change of bead types.[13][14]
Several bead manufacturing sites have been identified on the continent, by the presence of waste glass, beads and glass rods. Two late Roman to 5th century sites have been discovered at Trier and Tibiscum in Romania
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caransebe%C5%9F

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_glass
For the first time in history in A.D. 101 the importance of Banat is signalled in the course of the Dacian Wars, from a fragment kept from the remarks of Emperor Traian. During the Roman Dacia, six kilometres from the actual hearth, the roman Tibiscum (Jupa) fort was found, built in A.D. 106. It is possible that on the territory of Caransebes there was a roman settlement, too. At Tibiscum fragments of Dacian ceramics and Dacian tumulus were discovered (I –II century A.D.).
The name of Tibiscum appears to be of thraco - dacian origin, meaning “swampy place”. From this place the roman troops, led by Traian, went to Tapae (which is probably localized in the area of the Zeicani train station, after the Bucova village), where the Emperor Traian defeated the Dacians (Dio Cassius – Roman History).
After the occupation of Banat and Oltenia by the Romans and after the peace agreement between the Romans and the Dacians (102 A.D.), along with the organizing of the province, the bases for the military garrison of Tibiscum are put, through the construction of a small fort made of earth, followed by a bigger fort. On the right side of the Timis River they also build another fort, which remains there until the year 170 A.D. At Tibiscum several roman legions were placed: Cohors I Sagittariorum, Numerus Palmyrenorum, both was brought from Syria, Cohors I Vindelicorum, from Raetia and Numerus Maurorum, from North Africa.
In A.D.118-119, the Dacia province is put under the exceptional command of Quintus Marcius Turbo. The Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa Colony erects two statues, one at Sarmisegetusa and the other at Tibiscum, for the bravery he had against the enemies who wanted to conquer Dacia. In A.D.170 Tibiscum is destroyed by the marcomans or by their allies, the free Dacians. The roman defense in Banat falls and the Marcomanian war lasts until A.D. 180.
During the rule of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus (A.D. 193-211) imposing monuments are built at Tibiscum. It is possible that the civilian settlement near the military fort received the rank of town, and so the roman town Tibiscum joins the other 11 roman cities in Dacia.
After the retreat of the roman administration to the south of the Danube (in A.D. 275, during of the rule of Aurelian), the remaining locals continue their lives, evidenced through the reconstruction of some buildings and the discovery of important monetary treasures.
Between the years 306-337, under the rule of Emperor Constantine the Great, the area north to the Danube is again controlled by the Romans. After 313, at the same time with the making of Christianity the official religion in the Roman Empire, at Tibiscum develops an important ecclesiastical centre.
The Huns, the first nomad population of Turkic origin, invade Europe in 375 and occupy our lands for a short time. Together with the death of Attila (453) the Hun conglomerate is disbanded, so that in the time of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (527-565), both banks of the Danube were under Byzantine rule.
In A.D. 558 the Avars, a tribe of nomad shepherds of Turkish origin, are mentioned in our area, led by Bayan (558-605), and in 559 the Kutrigurs, nomad people related to the Huns, led by Zabergan, allied with the Slavs and the Bulgarians, entered our lands. Because they represented a permanent threat to the Byzantine Empire, in the year 593, the generals Petru and Priscus lead a victorious expedition against the Slav and Avar tribes.
In the year 602 the Danubian defence lines fall, through the mass migration of the Slavs to the south of the Danube.
The first archaeological findings from the Caransebes area, which mention the existence of some settlements of the local sedentary population, different from those of Slavs or Avars, date from the 8th and the 9th century in the Potoc area and on the Romanilor Street.
A diploma released by Emperor Basil II the Bulgarohton of Byzantium (976-1025), in 1020, mentioned an “Episcopal Roman camp” in Dibiskos, perhaps old Tibiscum from the Romans’ time, and the neo-Latin population who lives to the North and South of the Danube appears under the name of Wallachians.
http://www.caransebes.ro/istorie/istoric/istoria_en.htm

Castrul roman Tibiscum

 De la Wikipedia, enciclopedia liberă: http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibiscum 

Castrul roman Tibiscum
Ruine
Alte denumiri	Tibisco, Tivisco Tibiscus, Tibiskon
Tip	Castru auxiliar [1]
Tip construcţie	Palisadă şi val de pământ (faza I) Zid de piatră (faza a II-a)
Perioadă de activitate	101 - sec. VI-VII
Unităţi prezente	Cohorta I Sagittariorum Cohorta I Vindelicorum milliaria equitata[2] Numerus Maurorum Numerus Palmyrenorum
Dimensiuni şi suprafaţă	320 x 170 m2 (5,4 ha)
Unitate administrativă	Dacia Apulensis
Denumire loc	Peste ziduri
Localitate	Jupa

Tibiscum (Tibisco, Tibiscus, Tibiskon) a fost o aşezare dacică, apoi oraş în Dacia romană, cunoscut ca municipiu (municipium Tibiscensium) pe vremea împăratului Gallienus (253-268), rang la care fusese ridicat, probabil, sub Septimiu Sever (193-211). Oraşul se găsea la ieşirea râului Timiş din munţi şi vărsarea râului Bistra, lângă Caransebeş, azi localitatea Jupa.

Complexul arheologic
Sunt vizibile ruinele unor construcţii importante şi ale unor ateliere din castrul roman şi din aşezarea civilă romană Tibiscum. Aşezările romane de aici au fost şi rămân cele mai importante vestigii ale antichităţii clasice din Banat.

 Note
^ Castrul Tibiscum
^ Tactica, strategie si specific de lupta la cohortele equitate din Dacia Romana, de Petru Ureche  Bibliografie
Academia Republicii Socialiste România, Dicţionar Enciclopedic. vol IV, editura Politică, Bucureşti, 1966  Legături externe
Complexul arheologic Tibiscum-Jupa
BARĂCILE SOLDAŢILOR ROMANI DE LA TIBISCUM, de Călin Timoc
Municipiul roman Tibiscum
Roman castra from Romania - Google Maps / Earth
Vezi şi
Listă de castre romane din România
Adus de la http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibiscum
Categorii: Banat | Castre romane din România | Cetăţi dacice | Dacia romană | Localităţi romane pe teritoriul Daciei 

Porolissum -Dacia Porolissensis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porolissum

Porolissum was an ancient Roman city in Dacia. Established as a military camp in 106 during Trajan's Dacian Wars, the city quickly grew through trade with the native Dacians and became the capital of the province Dacia Porolissensis in 124. The site is one of the largest and best-preserved archaeological sites in modern-day Romania. It is 8 km away from the modern city of Zalău.

History

The reconstructed gateway of the castrum

In the following decades, the fort was enlarged and rebuilt in stone (possibly under the reign of Marcus Aurelius), and a civilian settlement developed around the military center. When Hadrian created the new province Dacia Porolissensis (named for the now sizable city) in 124, Porolissum became the administrative center of the province. Under emperor Septimius Severus, the city was granted municipium, allowing its leaders and merchants to act independently. Although the Romans withdrew from Dacia in 271 under Aurelian and the city was abandoned by its founders, archaeological evidence shows that it remained inhabited for several centuries afterwards.

Even though the city was founded as a military center in the middle of a war, the garrison of Porolissum seems to have lived in peaceful coexistence with their Dacian neighbours - several Dacian villages that were apparently founded after the city of Porolissum have been uncovered by archaeologists on the surrounding hills. There are also some inscriptions mentioning city officials with Romano-Dacian names, indicating close cooperation on a political level.

Excavations

Roman house

  

Amphytheater at:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1155/1427262504_b5dab28ed9.jpg

Limited archaeological work at Porolissum began in the 19th century, but it was not until 1977 when Romanian archaeologists began larger-scale, systematic excavations. The excavations by a number of teams are ongoing and have uncovered remnants of both the military installations and the civilian city, including public baths, a customs house, a temple to Liber Pater, an amphitheatre, insula consisting of four buildings and a number of houses. The main gate (Porta Praetoria) of the stone fortress has been rebuilt. Current excavation work undertaken by a joint American-Romanian team is focusing upon the city's forum.

From 2006, another project, "Necropolis Porolissensis", is running focused on the cemetery of the municipium Porolissum, on the spot known as "Ursoies".

References

• Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites - Entry for Porolissum, retrieved March 29, 2006
• Porolissum.org - an Overview of the archaeological excavations, retrieved March 29, 2006
• STRATEG. Strategii defensive şi politici transfrontaliere. Integrarea spaţiului Dunării de Jos în civilizaţia romană 

POROLISSUM (Moigrad) Sălaj, Romania.

The most important military center in NW Dacia, a Roman town with canabae, in a region of hills and valleys, near Moigrad and Jac.

The name, of Dacian origin, appears in ancient sources (Ptol. 3.8.6; Tab. Peut.; Rav.Cosm. 4.7).

Before the Roman conquest, there was a Dacian settlement on the Citera hill, and on the Măgura hill a Dacian cremation cemetery (1st-2d c.).

Porolissum gave the name to Dacia Porolissensis, created by Hadrian in 124. There was a strong military garrison here in two camps. On Pomet hill is one of the largest camps (226 x 294 m) in Dacia. Built first of earth, it was rebuilt of stone. Inscriptions discovered at the gates testify to the rebuilding of the camp under Caracalla, and to the hasty rebuilding under Gallienus. The interior wall is 1.5 m thick and has two ditches.

At a distance of 700 m NE on Citera hill is another smaller camp (66.65 x 101.10 m) first built of earth and later rebuilt of stone. The gates have squared towers at every corner projecting from the interior wall with trapezoidal towers inside. There is an inner and outer ditch. Stationed at Porolissum were Cohors I Brittonum milliaria Ulpia Torquata pia fidelis civium Romanorum, Cohors V Lingorum, Numerus Palmyrenorum Porolissensium Sagittariorum civium Romanorum (which later became Ala Palmirenorum Porolissensium) and Cohors I Palmirenorum Porolisensium.

The civil settlement, inhabited chiefly by veterans, developed on the S and W terraces of the camp. Porolissum, an important center for trade with the barbarians, was probably a customs station. Entering the province from Porolissum were roads that started from Aquincum and ended at the mouth of the Danube, and there ended here the main thoroughfare that started at the Danube and linked the most important centers of Dacia.

Under Septimius Severus the town became a municipium. Coins prove that it continued to be inhabitated after the withdrawal of Aurelian in 271.

The town had no stone precincts but was defended from barbarians by limes consisting of a stone wall alternating with an earth wall and a ditch strengthened by small earth castella and stone towers.

Excavations at the civil settlement have revealed the baths, an insula composed of four buildings closely aligned private dwellings, and a temple to Liber Pater. More recent excavations have concentrated on the amphitheater, the palestrae, and the necropolis with incineration tombs and small mausoleums on the Ursoieş hill.

The amphitheater, 100 m from the SW corner of the camp on Pomet hill, is on a terrace. Originally built of wood, it was later rebuilt of stone in the year 157 by order of the imperial procurator Tib. Claudius Quintilianus (CIL III, 836). The arena, elliptical in form, has an axis 60 m long. It is bordered by a stone wall, built in opus incertum and plastered on the side facing the arena. At the E gate, which has two rooms on either side, traces of the wooden piers of the first stage of construction have been discovered.

Among the finds are four military diplomas, one of which dates from August 11, 106, a time at which Dacia was already a Roman province. Bronze statuettes, an equestrian statue of the emperor Caracalla, inscriptions and sculptural monuments, gems of local cutting, are all to be found at the Museum of History and Art in Zalău and in the History Museum of Transylvania in Cluj.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

C. Daicoviciu, “Neue Mitteilungen aus Dazien,” Dacia 7-8 (1937-40) 323-36; M. Macrea et al., “Santierul arheologic Porolissum,” Materiale şi cercetări arheologice 7 (1960) 361-86; (1962) 485-501.

VESTIGIILE DE  LA POROLISSUM IN CETATEA DE LA TARGU MURES

Rezultatele săpăturilor arheologice efectuate în perioada 2006 - 2010 în cimitirul aşezării romane de la Porolissum, situat în hotarul satelor Moigrad şi Jac, şi al cimitirului medieval care suprapune aşezarea romană sunt prezentate într-o expoziţie al cărei vernisaj a avut loc ieri, la Muzeul de Istorie şi Arheologie din incinta Cetăţii de la Târgu Mureş. Iubitorii de istorie au posibilitatea să parcurgă aspecte legate de viaţa cotidiană a omului roman, de practicile vestimentare, de bolile existente şi tratamentele aplicate. Vizitatorii sunt invitaţi să parcurgă drumul din cimitir, de-a lungul căruia pot descoperi un rug funerar roman sau pot admira un leu funerar de o valoare artistică deosebită, o raritate a artei romane provinciale, sau piatra funerară a unei fetiţe numite Cleopatra.

IAR PE LOCURILE POROLISSUMULUI SE AFLĂ CELE MAI MULTE TEZAURE DACICE

Descoperirile din ultima vreme atestă că zona Depresiunii Şimleului are cea mai mare densitate de tezaure dacice din ţară. Sunt cunoscute 24 de tezaure pe teritoriul Sălajului, descoperite în ultimii 150 de ani. Ultimul a fost descoperit de arheologul Horea Pop,  în anul 2009 şi constă în 20 de monede de argint. Aceste informaţii au atras şi căutătorii de comori. La cetatea dacică din Marca au fost găsite 70 de gropi lăsate de braconieri. Pe tot teritoriul Daciei au fost descoperite 230 de tezaure. Numai în Sălaj au fost găsite 23 de tezaure dacice (plus unul din perioada stăpânirii celţilor, la Stîna – secolele III-II î.Ch.),  deci zece la sută din întreg numărul. Din punct de vedere cantitativ, e vorba de 13 kilograme de argint, mai mult de o zecime din toată cantitatea de piese descoperite în ţară.
Multe din tezaurele găsite în Sălaj se află la alte muzee din ţară şi din străinătate. „O parte din tezaurul de la Sărmăşag se află la Muzeul Naţional Maghiar din Budapesta. Mai sunt piese la Muzeul de Artă din Viena, apoi la Sfântu Gheorghe, Cluj, Oradea. Au ajuns acolo pentru că pe vremea când au fost descoperite, Sălajul nu avea muzeu. 

The Porolissum Forum Project, a joint American-Romanian archaeological project 

http://www.porolissum.org/

 2004

 Phase 3. An unanticipated discovery was a large hypocaust system on the east side of the N-S wall. There were no indications as to the function of this heated area. It may, thus, represent a heated space within a public building or a bath complex.

Phase 4. We suspect that this structure was utilized well into the post-Roman period, either according to its original function or to serve another purpose. A portion of the N-S wall was demolished at an unknown time to create a crude passageway, suggesting that the area served a different function in the post-Roman period. Two sherds of lead glazed pottery (4th-5th centuries AD) were revealed in related strata on the west side of the Roman N-S wall, providing an approximate date for the duration of activity in this area prior to the destruction of the forum building. The building containing the hypocaust system was destroyed by fire, but not before it had been stripped of its internal furnishings. 

 http://www.novaroma.org/

BAI ANTICE ROMANE IN MUNTII BANATULUI

Arheologii au stabilit că romanii se relaxau la saună într-un complex situat între râurile Bistra şi Timiş.Cercetătorii au scos la iveală un complex de clădiri de băi termale cu servicii similare celor din marile centre care îi scapă acum pe bănăţeni de stresul cotidian.

Cercetările efectuate de arheologii bănăţeni în zona Caransebeş au adus la suprafaţă, în 2003, un întreg complex de terme vechi de 2.000 de ani, dar foarte asemănător cu un centru spa al zilelor noastre.

 Dacia Malvensis

Arutela

A front view of Arutela, with the Porta Praetoria to the east. Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 2007  

  SUCIDAVA-CELEI-CORABIA

 Secret Fountain, Sucidava, Celei

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3196/2992833767_b04bc26d23.jpg

 Paleo-Christian Basilica- 449 AD

 http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3034/2993687002_e24f4747c6.jpg

 http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3284/2992844945_6d8dd048f5.jpg

 Brick with Christian fish symbol

  Hypocaust

  http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3072/2992828955_84754921a3.jpg

 Sucidava-Byzantine foot-bridge built under Constantin the Great

http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucidava

Sucidava, vechea capitală a tribului dacic al sucilor, este situată în vatra oraşului Corabia (judeţul Olt), pe teritoriul fostului sat Celeiu.

Pe terasa superioară a Dunării se văd încă zidurile de apărare cu opt turnuri complet dezvelite ale oraşului roman târziu Sucidava (secolele IV-VI), care, împreună cu cartierul actual, acoperă o parte a oraşului roman din secolele II-III, mai puţin cunoscut. Au mai fost identificate băile romane (thermae), o bazilică paleocreştină (secolele V-VI) şi străzi pavate.

Cetatea se remarcă prin „fântâna secretă”, o capodoperă inginerească, menită să aprovizioneze cu apă aşezarea în timpul asediilor.

 Legături externe

• Roman castra from Romania - Google Maps / Earth 
•  Vezi si
• Listă de castre romane din România

  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucidava 

Coordinates: 43°45′52″N 24°27′33″E / 43.76444°N 24.45917°E / 43.76444; 24.45917

Ancient city of Sucidava - ruins

Ancient fortress of Sucidava - walls plan

Ancient settlement of Sucidava

Sucidava, (Sykibid after Procopius^[1], Σucidava after Parvan , where Σ is prononce sh, ^[2], is a Dacian and Daco-Roman historical site, situated in Corabia on the north bank of the Danube. There can be found: the first Christian Basilica in Romania, the foot of a Roman bridge over the Danube built by Constantine the Great to link Sucidava with Oescus (today in Bulgaria, in Moesia), there is also a secret underground fountain which flows under the walls of the town to a water spring situated outside.

From archeological point of view the coins found at Sucidava show an uninterrupted series from Aurelian (270-275) to Theodosius II (408-450). The archeologic evidence show that in AD 443 or 447 the city suffer from hunnish attacks, still the city was restored under Justin I 518-527 or Justinian I 527-565. Around 600, it seems that the Roman garrison abandoned the city.^[3]

References

External links

• (Romanian) "Archaeological Excavation Report"
• Photo gallery
• Gabriel Vasile, "Analiza antropologică a unui schelet descoperit la Sucidava - Celei (judeţul Olt)", Cercetări Arheologice, 13/2006, at National Museum of Romanian History
• http://www.threemonkeysonline.com/als/_sucidava_romania_eu_expansion.html

Notes

Moesia/Scythia Minor

 CAPIDAVA-Roman Castrum

 Histria (Sinoe) on Pontus Euxinus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histria_(Sinoe)

Ancient towns and colonies in Dobruja (modern coastline shown).

Ancient Histria or Istros (Ιστριη, Thracian river god, Danube), was a Greek colony or polis (πολις, city) on the Black Sea coast, established by Milesian settlers to trade with the native Getae. It became the first Greek town on the present day Romanian territory. Scymnus of Chios (ca 110 BC), the Greek geographer and poet, dated it to 630 BC. Eusebius of Caesarea, some centuries later, dated its founding to 657 – 656 BC, at the time of the 33rd Olympic Games. The earliest documented currency on Romanian territory was an 8-gram silver drachma, issued in Histria in the year 480 BC.

Archaeological evidence seems to confirm that all trade with the interior followed the foundation of Histria. Traders reached the interior via Histria and the Danube valley, demonstrated by finds of Attic black-figure pottery, coins, ornamental objects, an Ionian lebes and many fragments of amphoras. Amphoras have been found in great quantity at Histria, some imported but some local. Local pottery was produced following establishment of the colony and certainly before mid-6th century. During the archaic and classical periods, when Histria flourished, it was situated near fertile arable land. It served as a port of trade soon after its establishment, with fishing and agriculture as additional sources of income. By 100 AD, however, fishing was almost the sole remaining source of Istrian revenue.

Around 30 AD, Histria became a Roman town. During the Roman period from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, temples were built for the Roman gods, besides a public bath and houses for the wealthy. Altogether, it was in continuous existence for some 14 centuries, starting with the Greek period up to the Roman-Byzantine period. The Halmyris bay where was the city founded was closed by sand deposits and access to the Black Sea gradually was cut. Trade continued until the 6th century AD. The invasion of the Avars and the Slavs in the 7th century AD almost entirely destroyed the fortress, and the Istrians dispersed; the name and the city disappeared.

Geographic setting

Ancient Histria was situated on a peninsula, about 5 kilometres (3 mi) east of the modern Romanian commune of Istria, on the Dobruja coast. The ancient seashore has since been transformed into the western shore of Sinoe Lake, as the Danube's silt deposits formed a shoal which closed off the ancient coastline. The current Sinoe Lake was at the time the open northern bay, while another bay on the southern shore served as the port. The acropolis with sanctuaries was established on the highest point of the coastal plain. The settlement itself, erected in the 6th century, was 1/2 mile (800 meters) to the west of the acropolis. The settlement had stone paved streets and was protected by strong wall. Water was collected along 12.5 mile (20 km) long aqueducts.

Archaeology

The ruins of the settlement were first identified in 1868 by French archaeologist Ernest Desjardins. Archaeological excavations were started by Vasile Pârvan in 1914, and continued after his death in 1927 by teams of archaeologists led successively by Scarlat and Marcelle Lambrino (1928–1943), Emil Condurachi (1949–1970), Dionisie Pippidi, Petre Alexandrescu and Alexandru Suceveanu. The Histria Museum, founded in 1982, exhibits some of these finds. The excavation project and site also features prominently in the film The Ister.^[1]

Archeological research in Histria managed to identify and classify several layers on site. The layer stratification can be divided primarily between the Archaic and Classical periods:

Archaic Greek layers

 

The Apollo sculpture's inscription.

Archaic Greek layer I (630–600 BC)

In around 600 BC, Histria suffered its first destruction.

Archaic Greek layer II (600–550 BC)

A new wall was erected, probably due to another destruction of the city.

Archaic Greek layer III (550–500 BC)

Another destruction of the city has taken place, probably in 512 BC, when Darius I undertook a war against the Scythians. ^[2]

Classical Greek layers

During the classical period, there was continuity in the cults of Apollo Ietros; Zeus (Gr. Polieus) and Aphrodita. A new wall with a single tower was erected. During the classical period many written sources describe the political organisation of the area. The Odrysian kingdom was involved in fighting with the Scythians ruled by Ariapeithes and Histria was situated between the two kingdoms. Due to that, most probably, Histria town was forced to join the Delian League. In the 5th century BC, these colonies were under the influence of the Delian League, passing in this period from oligarchy to democracy.^[3] From an economic point of view it was during this era that the first Histrian coins were minted: a didrachma, oboli and bronze coins.

Classical Greek layer I (500–425 BC)

The town was regressing in the period of Athens's Peloponnesian Wars.

Classical Greek layer II (425–350 BC)

The town was dismantled for a second time in the 4th century BC, during the war between the Scythian king Ateas and Macedonian king Philip II.^[4]

Hellenistic layers

Remains of the grand deity temple.

During the Hellenistic period, there was continuity in the cult of Apollo Ietros, Zeus (Gr. Polieus) and Aphrodita. A new temple for a grand deity was built. There is also evidence of the cult of Athena, Poseidon, Helikonios, Taurios, Demetra, Hermes Agoraios, Heracles, Asclepios, Dioscurii and others. A new wall also appears, protecting a 10 ha area. During the Hellenistic period Histria had become an important supplier of grain for Greece.^[5] However, the economic power of Histria was represented by trade.^[6] In the Hellenistic period, the gymnasium and the theater were erected.

Hellenistic layer I (350–300 BC)

The town was once again destroyed around 339 BC. During the period 313–309 BC, a rebellion of Pontic towns took place.^[7] Miletus however awarded Histrians equal political rights, or so-called isopoliteia.

Hellenistic layer II (300–175 BC)

Around 260 BC, Byzantium was involved in a dispute with Histria and Callatis (modern Mangalia) over Tomis emporion (Εμπόριον, market) (i.e. modern Constanţa). Another destruction of the city, somewhere around 175 BC, was most probably wreaked by Bastarni passing through after being called upon by Macedonian king Philip V or Perseus to reinforce the army.

Hellenistic layer III (175–100 BC)

Mithridates installed a military garrison in Histria, which probably caused the third destruction of the city in the Hellenistic period. During the rule of Mithridates staters are minted in Histria.

Detail of the Thermae I building.

Hellenistic layer IV (100–20 BC)

Burebista arrived in Dobruja. The Hellenistic period was ended by Marcus Antonius who was in charge of the eastern Roman government, and was defeated by Octavian at Actium

Roman layers

Early Roman layer IA (30–100 AD)

Continuous with the Hellenistic period. A new thermae (Thermae I) was built. This period is considered by historians, thanks to two inscribed artifacts, as the second founding of the city.

Early Roman layer IB (100–170 AD)

In around 170 AD, a part of the town was destroyed.

Early Roman layer IC (170–250 AD)

The town suffered serious destruction from which it never recovered. The main theory is that it was destroyed by a Gothic invasion. Another theory presumes that the town was destroyed in an earthquake.

A Roman sundial.

Late Roman layers IIA (after 250 AD)

Gallery

Thermae I	Thermae I	Thermae I	Basilica
Basilica	Basilica	Histrian minted coins

External links

• The Histria Archaeological Site
• Histria's New Look - A 3D Model
• History Microregion Sinoe - by Doctor Archaeologist Catalin Dobrinescu

Ancient references

 See also

• Civitas Tropaensium
• Halmyris
• List of ancient towns in Scythia Minor
• Peuce Island
• Tropaeum Traiani

Coordinates: 44°32′51″N 28°46′29″E / 44.5475°N 28.77472°E / 44.5475; 28.77472

 TOMIS COINS

Perseus Project database, coins of tomis. Search for Thrace, Tomis at CoinArchives.com ... Search for Tomis at Incitatus Coins. Coins Main Page. Browse by Sear ...
www.wildwinds.com
http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/thrace/tomis/i.html

  Tomis- Constanta

Constanţa (Romanian pronunciation: [konˈstant͡sa]; historical names: Tomis, Greek: Κωνστάντια or Konstantia, Turkish: Köstence, Bulgarian: Констанца) is the oldest living city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanţa County and the largest city in the region.

A number of inscriptions found in the town and its vicinity show that Constanţa lies where Tomis once stood. Tomis (also called Tomi) was a Greek colony in the province of Scythia Minor on the Black Sea's shore, founded around 600 BC for commercial exchanges with the local Getic populations. Probably the name is derived from Greek Τομή meaning cut, section.

According to one myth dating from Antiquity, found in the Bibliotheca, it was founded by Aeetes:

"When Aeetes discovered the daring deeds done by Medea, he started off in pursuit of the ship; but when she saw him near, Medea murdered her brother and cutting him limb from limb threw the pieces into the deep. Gathering the child's limbs, Aeetes fell behind in the pursuit; wherefore he turned back, and, having buried the rescued limbs of his child, he called the place Tomi."^[3]

Another legend is recorded by Jordanes (after Cassiodorus), who ascribes the foundation of the city to a Getae queen (The origin and deeds of the Goths):

"After achieving this victory (against Cyrus the Great) and winning so much booty from her enemies, Queen Tomyris crossed over into that part of Moesia which is now called Lesser Scythia - a name borrowed from Great Scythia -, and built on the Moesian shore of the Black Sea the city of Tomi, named after herself."

In 29 BC the Romans captured the region from the Odryses, and annexed it as far as the Danube, under the name of Limes Scythicus.

In AD 8, the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC-17) was banished here by Augustus and died there eight years later. He laments his exile in Tomis in his poems the Tristia and Epistulae Ex Ponte. Tomis was "by his account a town located in a war-stricken cultural wasteland on the remotest margins of the empire" ^[4]. A statue of Ovid stands in the Ovid Square (Piaţa Ovidiu) of Constanţa, in front of the History Museum (the former City Hall).

The city was afterwards included in the Province of Moesia, and, from the time of Diocletian, in Scythia Minor, of which it was the metropolis. After the split of the Roman Empire, Tomis fell under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire. During Maurice's Balkan campaigns, Tomis was besieged by the Avars in the winter of 597/598.Tomis was later renamed to Constantiana in honour of Constantia, the half-sister of Constantine the Great (274-337). The earliest known usage of this name was "Κωνστάντια" ("Constantia") in 950. The city lay at the seaward end of the Great Wall of Trajan, and has evidently been surrounded by fortifications of its own

Successively became part of the Bulgarian Empires, the independent principality of Dobrotitsa/Dobrotici and of Wallachia under Mircea I of Wallachia.

 Moesia
by Rachel Maiwald

Tomis minted its own coins in order to prove its loyalty to Rome. Although the inhabitants of Tomis celebrated games in honor of the Caesars, Moesia never reached the full extent of Romanization. There is some evidence that the Moesians spoke Latin but most influence came from the Greeks. Moesia was never fully Romanized because there was constant movement of the native tribes.
The poet Ovid was banished to Tomis in AD 9. He lived there until his death in AD 17. Ovid was not fond of Tomis, or Moesia for that matter. He described the inhabitants as barbarians. Most of the disdain in letters was probably exaggerated but he was unhappy about being exiled so far from Rome. Some examples come from one of his books in the series Tristia .
When I look at this place, the manners of the people, the way they dress, and their language, and it comes to mind what I am now and what I was, so great is my desire to die that I complain that Caesar in his anger did not punish my wrongs with the sword. But since he once exercised his hatred for me mildly, I still hope for an easier exile in a different place. (Tristia 3.8, trans Evans)
He also wrote that the men could not plow their fields without bringing arms into the fields. The need to constantly arm oneself, even in daily work, was required to live life. Ovid's assertions are supported by a pre-Ovidian Greek inscription. The inscription states that a special militia had to be on day and night duty to deal with such attacks from the Goths and the Germanic tribes. An example of the incessant warfare comes from another letter from a book of the series Tristia (3.10).
Whether the grim force of the mighty North Wind freezes the sea's waters or those of the frozen river, immediately when the Danube becomes level with the dry northern blasts, the savage enemy rides over it on swift horses; an enemy strong in horses and far-flying arrows devastates the nearby soil far and wide.
However, some of the inhabitants spoke Greek and eventually became his friends. Overall Ovid did not paint a friendly picture of Moesia.
Ethnically the Moesians were a Thracian tribe settled in the country of Moesi. Little else is known of the tribe until they were subdued by Crassus in 29 BC.
The city of Tomis is still standing. Unfortunately the modern city of Constanza has been built over Tomis. Some excavations have taken place in or around the city. The artifacts recovered include a cache of sculpture and several coins. The sculpture includes a statue of Pontus (representing the Black Sea) and one of Glycon, a sheep-headed snake-god. There was also the discovery of the "Mosaic Building." The building was a large commercial complex that was three stories tall and supported a sixty foot cliff. Warehouses filed with amphorae were uncovered. A large bath house has also been uncovered.
Another god, Sarapis, tended to be worshiped by men of high rank: prefects, legates, and centurions. Sarapis combined the characteristics of many Greek gods with some of those of Osiris, god of the Egyptian underworld and the incarnation of deceased pharaohs. Most people would not fall under this category of worship and it is not clear who they worshiped.
The men who worshiped Sarapis were men of government. The government included a governor, praetors, quaestors, and legates, among others. The average length for a governorship was about three years. If the position was held for any longer, it was possible for the governor to establish as close, personal relationship with the local aristocracy. Maintaining a personal relationship would then have threatened the imperial power.
Moesia passed out of Roman control around AD 395 when Emperor Theodosius died. By now frequent attacks by the Goths were common. Rome no longer had the internal cohesion nor the man power to defend the border. The Romans lost an important military boundary. They also began to lose territory. The relationship between the Roman Empire and the Moesians was a symbiotic one. Rome stimulated agriculture and commerce, raised the standard of living, and encouraged city life. Roman peace provided for the transmission of Greek culture and art. In exchange, the Moesians provided a supply of grain for the Romans. The native inhabitants also supplied men for the defense of the Roman Empire.
Bibliography
http://people.usd.edu/~clehmann/pir/moesia.htm

2500 years ago, as part of Greek colonization in Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea), was founded Tomis. Tomis sees great prosperity due to the commercial exchange proceeded between Greek colonists and the native Gaeto-Dacians. From the 3rd century BC on rapid paces of development were registered in all fields of activity. Thus, around 300 BC, the Tomis settlement was the battlefield of wars between Lisymah, the Macedonian king and Dromihaites, the Gaeto-Dacian king in the Danubian Plane. Then, under the Roman domination, set up around 29 BC, Tomis made staggering progress. The history of the first years of our era came to the fore due to Publius Ovidius Naso, a Roman poet exiled here between 9 - 17 AC, at Octavian Augustus's orders. During the 2nd century, Tomis became residence of the province taking pride in calling itself, the biggest metropolis of entire Pont. In the middle of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century considerable efforts were made in order to restore the town. It was then when remarkable monuments were built: the Roman building with the mosaic, thermae, residential districts with paved streets, portals and sewers, underground galleries, etc. The wall of the precincts was built in the same period and was subsequently restored several times, the last time in the 6th century AC. Between 4 - 6 century AC the fortress becomes an archiepiscopal headquarter. The inscriptions, the Christian monuments and the four huge basilicas illustrate this historical part. During the 6th and even at the beginning of the 7th century, Tomis was violently attacked by the Slavs and the Avars. In the 9th century the region is reorganized by the Byzantine Empire.

Tomis is recalled by several Byzantine writers under the name of Constantia or Constanta. The town is also found on medieval nautical maps as well as on the Genoa's sailors ones. The economical and cultural role during the Mircea cel Batran's reign is not perceptible, but during the ottoman domination, when called Kostendje, the significance of the town was minor. Town's lethargy continues until the 19th century, when some harbour arrangements were started and the railway Constanta-Cernavoda was laid out, crucial moment for further development of the town. After the Independence War (1877-1878) the town merges out of the ottoman domination, regains its name of Constanta and becomes residence of Constanta region, integrant part of Romania. Harbour arrangements are made as well as constructions of roads, bridges, railways, town planning modernizations. Constanta was seriously affected by the two World Wars, the town being reconstructed each time; after 1945 the rising advance continues and Constanta becames one of the most developed towns in Romania. Nowadays Constanta is the biggest port in Romania, a powerful industrial commercial and tourist centre, a wide gate towards the world.

 TOMIS

In Tomis the great poet Latine Ovidiu has spent his last years of his life. He recorded in his works ("Tristele" si "Ponticele") precious information about the life and customs of the native Getaes. In Constanta one can see today the ruins of the Roman wall which closed the North-western part of the fortress and the ruins of the gates from West and North, on which was the exit from the fortress.

Many vestiges of the Tomis fortress are found in the city museum, among them being some special pieces like: the marble statue of the Godess Fortuna, the city protectress, with Pontos, the Black See God; a statue, also from marble, of the serpant Glycon (assian divinity).

Mormântul hipogeu roman "cu banchet" din Tomis - Constanța

 În România, la Constanța, în data de 25 februarie 1988 a fost descoperit un mormânt hipogeu, fost cavou de familie, construit în anticul Tomis în secolul IV. În mormânt se regăsesc două faze de depuneri funerare, o frescă reprezentând șapte personaje ce iau parte la un festin funerar și reprezentări cu o serie de animale cu valoare simbolică: păuni, porumbei, potârnichi și un iepure, dar și alte motive tradiționale din secolul IV. ^[3]

Cavoul – hipogeu de la Tomis este considerat de către specialiști drept cel mai reprezentativ monument al ideologiei păgâne de la Dunărea de Jos. În acest complex se găsesc imaginile unor divinități păgâne (Isis, Harpocrate, Hercule, Afrodita, Eros) alături de cea a defunctului și de scena așa – zisului banchet funerar, care conține elemente iconografice posibil creștine.^[4]

Note

1. ^ Glosar
2. ^ Egiptul antic…civilizatie sau mit?
3. ^ Proiect CJC pentru reabilitarea cavoului pictat hipogeu de la Zorile
4. ^ Câteva considerații privind antropologia morții la Dunărea de jos

http://old.cotidianul.ro/necropole_la_pachet_cu_lucrarile_urbaniste_ale_constantei-37347.html 

Cetatile dacice din Dobrogea vor deveni obiective turistice

Foto: www.capidava.ro

PUBLICITATE PE CD-DVD6 RON

Civitas Tropaensium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Civitas Tropaensium city wall

Civitas Tropaensium was a Roman castrum situated in Scythia Minor in modern Constanţa County, Romania. Its site is now the modern settlement of Adamclisi. It was colonized with Roman veterans of the Dacian Wars, was the largest Roman city of Scythia Minor and became a municipium around 200AD.

In 109 AD a monument named Tropaeum Traiani was built to commemorate the Roman Empire’s victories over the Dacians.

A smaller Trophy found at Adamclisi, a smaller copy of the original monument which has instaled at the eastern city gates during Constantine and Licinius.

The city was destroyed by the Goths, but it was rebuilt during Constantine the Great’s rule with improved defensive walls. Civitas Tropaensium survived until the Avars sacked it in 587, after which it ceased to be an important city of Dobruja and was no longer mentioned for seven hundred years.

built in 109 in then Moesia Inferior, to commemorate Roman Emperor’s Trajan victory over the Dacians, in 102, in the Battle of Tapae. The monument was erected on the place where legio XXI Rapax had previously been crushed (92 AD). Before Trajan’s construction, an altar existed there, on the walls of which were inscribed the names of 3000 legionaries and auxilia (servicemen) who had died “fighting for the Republic”.

Trajan’s monument was inspired by the Augustus mausoleum, and was dedicated to the god Mars Ultor in 107/108 AD. On the monument there were 54 metopes depicting Roman legions fighting against enemies; most of these metopes are preserved in the museum nearby. The monument was supposed to be a warning to the tribes outside this newly conquered province.^[1]

The original monument has long since disintegrated. The present edifice is a reconstruction dating from 1977. The nearby museum contains many archaeological objects, including parts of the original Roman monument. Of the original 54 metopes, 48 are in the museum and 1 is in Istanbul.

Trophy

The monument was decorated with a large inscription dedicated to Mars Ultor (the revenger). The inscription has been preserved fragmentarily from two sides of the trophy hexagone, so it could be reconstructed as follows ^[2]:

       MARTI ULTOR[I]
       IM[P(erator)CAES]AR DIVI
       NERVA[E] F(ILIUS) N[E]RVA
       TRA]IANUS [AUG(USTUS) GERM(ANICUS)]
       DAC]I[CU]S PONT(IFEX) MAX(IMUS)
       TRIB(UNICIA) POTEST(ATE) XIII
       IMP(ERATOR) VI CO(N)S(UL) V P(ater) P(atriae)
       ?VICTO EXERC]ITU D[ACORUM]
       ?---- ET SARMATA]RUM
       ---------------------]E 31.

The inscription from the main monument can be translated in this way^[3]:

“To Mars, the god of war, Caesar the emperor, son of divine Nerva, Nerva Trajan, Augustus, who defeated the Germans, the Dacians, great priest, for the 13th time tribune of the plebeians, proclaimed emperor by the army for the 6th time, elected consul for the 5th time, father of our homeland, after defeating the Dacian and the Sarmatian armies.”

http://www.bloganavazquez.com/tag/sarmatas/