Troesmis was an ancient Roman legionary fortress, a major site situated on the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...

and forming a key part of the

Limes Moesiae The Moesian Limes ( la, Limes Moesiae) is the modern term given to a collection of Roman fortifications between the Black Sea shore and Pannonia, present-day Hungary, consisting primarily of forts along the Danube (so-called Danubian Limes) to ...

frontier system. Around this fortress the Geto-Dacian town later developed.TOCILESCU 1883a, p. 101Gheorghe Mănucu-Adameșteanu, ''Comuna Turtucoaia, punct Iglița, cetățile Troesmis est și Troesmis vest. Considerații privind locuirea medio - bizantină din secolele X-XIII''
/ref>http://www.turcoaia.ro/istoric.htmlAl. Simionov Ștefan - Troesmis, considerații topograficeRadu Florescu - Ghid arheologic al Dobrogei It was situated in what is now

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

near Igliţa-Turcoaia. Between 107 and 161, it was the home of the Roman

Legio V Macedonica ''Legio V Macedonica'' (the Fifth Macedonian Legion) was a Roman legion. It was probably originally levied in 43 BC by consul Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus and Gaius Iulius Caesar Octavianus (later known as the Emperor Augustus). It was bas ...

. '' Notitia Dignitatum'' shows that during 337–361, it was the headquarters of Legio II Herculia.

Destruction of the site

The site was concessioned to

Desire More Desires are states of mind that are expressed by terms like "wanting", "wishing", "longing" or "craving". A great variety of features is commonly associated with desires. They are seen as propositional attitudes towards conceivable states of aff ...

by the Ottoman Empire for farming activities. In 1882 Desire More started excavations, and the stones from the ancient site were sold as construction materials in Galați and Brăila. Suspected by the local Muslim villagers that the scope of the excavation is a treasure hunt, a local revolt started. With the help of Engelhardt, the French representative in

Danube Commission The Danube Commission (, , ) is concerned with the maintenance and improvement of navigation conditions of the Danube River, from its source in Germany to its outlets in Romania and Ukraine, leading to the Black Sea. It was established in 1948 b ...

, armed intervention stop the revolt. 24 epigraphic inscriptions were sent to France.Vasile Barbu, Cristian Schuster Grigore G. Tocilescu si "Cestiunea Adamclisi" Pagini din Istoria Arheologiei Romanesti Four of the inscriptions were published by

Theodore Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th centur ...

in 1864.

Research

From 1861 to 1867, the French government sent a team of archeologists led by Boissiere and

Ernest Desjardins Antoine Émile Ernest Desjardins (30 September 1823 – 22 October 1886) was a French historian, geographer and archaeologist. He was a younger brother of historian Abel Desjardins (1814–1886). In 1856 he began teaching classes in Latin epi ...

to Troesmis. The French team discovered 55 Latin inscriptions referring to the history of Troesmis,

and

Legio I Italica Legio I Italica ("First Italian Legion") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army founded by emperor Nero on September 22, 66 (the date is attested by an inscription). The epithet ''Italica'' is a reference to the Italian origin of its first r ...

. The research was continued by Gr. G Tocilescu, who destroyed ancient site walls in order to find and save the inscriptions.

Historical accounts

The Roman poet

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

provides some of the first documentary evidence of the ancient

Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It ...

n town of Troesmis as conquered by Pomponius Flaccus from the Getae and given to the

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...

king Rhecuporis in paragraphs 4.9.79 of his

Epistulae ex Ponto ''Epistulae ex Ponto'' (''Letters from the Black Sea'') is a work of Ovid, in four books. It is a collection of letters describing Ovid's exile in Tomis (modern-day Constanța) written in elegiac couplets and addressed to his wife and friends. T ...

to C. Pomponius Grecinus and 4.16.15 wrriten to "an envious man". The

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

geographer

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

also mentions Troesmis in Book 3, Chapter 10 of his work

Geographia The ''Geography'' ( grc-gre, Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις, ''Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis'', "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, com ...

as a station of the

Roman Legion The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period o ...

. The

Itinerarium Antonini The Antonine Itinerary ( la, Itinerarium Antonini Augusti, "The Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus") is a famous ''itinerarium'', a register of the stations and distances along various roads. Seemingly based on official documents, possibly ...

mentions it as well, locating it between Beroe Piatra Frecăței and

Arrubium Arrubium was a fort in the Roman province of Moesia (today's Măcin, Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to th ...

(at sq/m distance from the first and at 9 sq/m from the second) and attests the presence of the

Legio I Iovia. It is also mentioned in the

Tabula Peutingeriana ' (Latin for "The Peutinger Map"), also referred to as Peutinger's Tabula or Peutinger Table, is an illustrated ' (ancient Roman road map) showing the layout of the '' cursus publicus'', the road network of the Roman Empire. The map is a 13th-ce ...

at 8.3: Troesmis (at 23 sq/m from Beroe and at 8 sq/m from

). The Itinerarium Burdigalense also mentions it, as do the

Ravenna Cosmography The ''Ravenna Cosmography'' ( la, Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia, "The Cosmography of the Unknown Ravennese") is a list of place-names covering the world from India to Ireland, compiled by an anonymous cleric in Ravenna around 700 AD. Textu ...

, Hierocles and the

Byzantine Emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, to Fall of Constantinople, its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. On ...

Constantine VII.Laura-Diana Cizer, Toponimia județului Tulcea: considerații sincronice și diacronice, 303 pag., Editura Lumen, 2012 Image:Troesmis.jpg, Image:Troesmis2.jpg, Image:Troesmis4.jpg,

References

{{Authority control Former populated places in Eastern Europe Moesia Roman legionary fortresses in Romania History of Dobruja Historic monuments in Tulcea County