12 Doonan 2004, 47.
13 Matthews, Pollard & Ramage 1998.
14 Matthews, Pollard & Ramage 1998, 203.
15 Özdogan, Marro & Tibet 1999; Özsait 2002; 2003; Özsait & Özsait 2002; Dönmez 1999 – to mention a few. In her new book on the Pontic kingdom, Erciyas (2006, 53-62) offers a summary of all the surveys conducted in Pontos.
16 Alcock 1993, 48.
17 For the beginning of the era, see Perl 1968, 299-330.
18 Callataÿ 1997, 8-9 & 33-36.
19 Leschhorn 1993, 83-86. McGing 1986, 66. Justinus 37.4.3.
20 An inscription from Phanagoreia dated to the year 210 (88/87 BC) published by Vinogradov & Wörrle (1992, 159-170), and another newly found inscription from Olbia dated to the year 220 (78/77 BC) published by Krapivina & Diatroptov 2005, 167-180.
21 Leschhorn 1993, 418.
22 Leschhorn 1993, 106-115.
23 Waddington, Reinach & Babelon 1925, 176, no. 19.
24 For the earliest occurrence of the era in the different cities, see Leschhorn 1993, 481-484.
25 Anderson, Cumont & Grégoire 1910, no. 66.
26 Pliny (NH 7.24; 25.3) reports that it was a well-known fact that Mithridates spoke twenty-two languages and never required the service of an interpreter. Gellius (17.17) offers the figure of twenty-five, and Aurelius Victor (De vir illustr. 76.1) claims that he spoke fifty languages.
27 For inscriptions on wood in the Roman period, see Eck 1998, 203-217.
28 IK 47, p. 1-2.
29 French 1996, 86-87.
30 Anderson, Cumont & Grégoire 1910, 109-187.
31 Burnett, Amandry & Carradice 1999, 236-238. The legend on a Julio-Claudian coin formerly read as Ε[ΤΟΥΣ] ΜΑ (year 41) turns out to read EΠI ΒΑΣΙΛΑ. Basila served as legate of Galatia sometime during the first decades of the first century AD.
32 For more examples of the impact of the Antonine Plague, see Duncan-Jones 1992, 108-136.
33 Olshausen 1974, 153-170.
34 Marek 1993, 157-187.
35 Marek 1993, 170, no. 48; 184, no. 104.
36 See Marek 1993, 135-155; 187-210, for the inscriptions from Pompeiopolis and Hadrianopolis. See Anderson, Cumont & Grégoire 1910, 46-108, for the inscriptions from Neoklaudiopolis. In Hadrianopolis, two statue bases for Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, respectively, testify to the fact that inscriptions were erected before the practice of dating the inscriptions was introduced in epitaphs.
The Roman Army as a Factor of Romanisation in the North- Eastern Part of Moesia Inferior
Liviu Petculescu
From antiquity, the territory between the Danube and the Black Sea known today as Dobrudja represented a geopolitical unity. Reflecting this fact, at the beginning of the Late Empire the Romans organized a province, Scythia Minor, whose borders almost correspond with those of Dobrudja. In the present study I will leave aside the southern extremity of Dobrudja and deal only with the main part of the region, the 15,485 sq km lying within the modern state of Romania.
The Roman army entered Scythia Minor for the first time as early as 72-71 BC, during the war against Mithridates when M. Terentius Varro Lucullus, proconsul of Macedonia, conquered the Greek towns of the coast.1 Yet, ten years later, the army of another governor of Macedonia, C. Antonius Hybrida, was destroyed by mutinous allies near Histria and the Roman control of the region was lost for about three decades. Not until the end of the civil wars did Rome have another army available to fight in this remote area. In 29-28 BC, M. Licinius Crassus, the Macedonian governor of the time, campaigned successfully in Dobrudja but the Romans annexed only the Greek towns of Histria, Tomis and Callatis, giving the rest of the country to the Thracian client kingdom. However, the praefectus in charge of the Greek cities also kept a military control of the Danube line.
When Claudius suppressed the Thracian state in AD 46, its part south of the Balkan mountains was organized into the province of Thracia, while the territory between the Balkans and the Danube was added to the province of Moesia but does not seem to have been garrisoned permanently for nearly a quarter of a century.2 Anyway, only after the reorganization of the Moesian limes by Vespasian – implying also the establishment of the classis Flavia Moesica – are the first Roman auxiliary military units stationed in Dobrudja attested.3 Even later, after the division of Moesia and creation of the two new provinces of Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior by Domitian, and the occupation of Dacia by Trajan following the ardous wars of AD 101-102 and 105-106, the limes on the Lower Danube acquired its definite shape which remained basically unaltered until the end of the Principate. Thus the Danubian frontier between Viminacium and Novae, heavily manned to resist the Dacian attacks, was abandoned and some of the military units previously quartered upstream from Novae were sent north of the Danube into the new province of Dacia and the part of the kingdom of Decebalus annexed to Moesia Inferior. The remaining units that were available to be quartered elsewhere were transferred eastward by Trajan to guard the Danube’s right bank as far as the river delta (Fig.1).
Now, at last, the legions were settled in Dobrudja: legio XI Claudia at Durostorum immediately beyond the present-day Romanian border and legio V Macedonica at Troesmis. Moreover, from the first half of the second century AD the garrison of Dobrudja certainly included the following auxiliary units: ala I Vespasiana Dardanorum at Arrubium, ala II Hispanorum et Aravacorum at Carsium, cohors I Cilicum milliaria sagittariorum at Sacidava, cohors I Germanorum at Capidava, cohors I Lusitanorum Cyrenaica at Cius and until AD 144 at the latest, cohors II Mattiacorum at Dinogetia and Barboşi. However, since on the limes between Durostorum and Dinogetia there were at least two other auxiliary forts at Sucidava and Carsium, it is probable that the number of auxiliary units permanently settled in Dobrudja was larger than attested so far. Besides, the northern sector of the frontier including the forts at Dinogetia, Noviodunum, Aegissus, Halmyris and the bridgeheads from Barboşi and Aliobrix, was perhaps manned exclusively by classis Flavia Moesica after the removal of the cohors II Mattiacorum.
So from Trajan to Marcus Aurelius the garrison of Dobrudja consisted of c. 6000 soldiers from legio V Macedonica, 3,500-4,500 auxiliary cavalry and infantry, the bulk of the classis Flavia Moesica – whose number is hard to estimate, yet I believe could at least be of 2,000 sailors and soldiers – and probably small vexillations of legio XI Claudia; that is, a total amount of c. 12-13,000 troops.
After the transfer of legio V Macedonica to Dacia in AD 167-170, on its former sector of the limes one could meet detachments from legio I Italica based at Novae, sometimes in association with those of legio XI Claudia, but one couldn’t know if they were stationed here permanently or only temporarily. After the Marcomannic Wars the garrison strength of the north-eastern part of Moesia Inferior dropped to c. 8,000 troops and this number seems to have been maintained without major changes during the third century AD.
The relatively limited strength of the Roman army in Dobrudja during the Principate was determined by the characteristics of its borders. In itself, the Lower Danube represented a difficult obstacle, and beyond the river bed proper there were plenty of marshes and lakes. Westward of Dobrudja the river divided itself creating two huge marshes known today under the names of “Ialomiţa bog” and “Brăila bog”; northward, there are numerous lakes, and further northeast the Danube Delta. Accordingly, in this region the Danube has only few fords at: Durostorum, Carsium, Dinogetia and Noviodunum. Of course, during the hard winter frost the river could be crossed on ice in many places and in fact in the past the Dacians had often taken advantage of this situation.