Castra of Răcarii de Jos is an

ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

fort near the town of Răcari (formerly Răcarii de Jos), near

Brădești, Dolj Brădești is a commune in Dolj County, Oltenia, Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the we ...

county, Romania. The fort is on the left terrace of the River Jiu and about 70 m SW of the railway station. It probably guarded a military port on the Jiu River. The fort walls measure 170 x 145 m. Its position far behind the Dacian Limes suggests it was used for policing the centre of present

Oltenia Oltenia (), also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions – with the alternative Latin names , , and between 1718 and 1739 – is a historical province and geographical region of Romania in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Da ...

. An adjacent civil settlement (

vicus In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus ...

) had an area of up to 40 ha (many times larger than the fort) and lies partly beneath the train station.Castrul roman de la Răcari, în curând sit arheologic vizitabil https://cvlpress.ro/26.05.2011/castrul-roman-de-la-racari-in-curand-sit-arheologic-vizitabil/ Castra of Racarii de Jos - Praetorium - Plan

Castra of Racarii de Jos - Praetorium - Plan

History

The fort was originally built during the Dacian Wars (101–102 and 105–106) by a

vexillation A ''vexillatio'' (: ''vexillationes'') was a detachment of a Roman legion formed as a temporary task force created by the Roman army of the Principate. It was named from the standard carried by legionary detachments, the ''vexillum'' (: ''vexill ...

of the

Legio V Macedonica Legio V Macedonica (the Fifth Macedonian Legion) was a Roman legion. It was established in 43 BC by consul Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus and Augustus, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (later known as the Roman Emperor, Emperor Augustus). and ...

. A larger fort made of earth was built sometime after 157 according to coin founds, and garrisoned by a Numerus Maurorum (i.e. a unit of Moors, probably cavalry). Later, around the year 200, the fort was rebuilt in stone. The stone fort suffered two complete destructions, one in the 220s (under

Elagabalus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, 204 – 13 March 222), better known by his posthumous nicknames Elagabalus ( ) and Heliogabalus ( ), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short r ...

) after which it was rebuilt on the same plan, and a second time during the great Carpic invasion (around 247) when major changes were made to the layout. Coins were discovered up to

Decius Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius ( 201June 251), known as Trajan Decius or simply Decius (), was Roman emperor from 249 to 251. A distinguished politician during the reign of Philip the Arab, Decius was proclaimed emperor by his troops a ...

(r. 249–251) and monetary circulation stopped at 252, but this seems to be general in Oltenia. It is likely that the fort was still occupied until the Roman withdrawal from

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 thus ro ...

in 271. In the Roman-Byzantine settlement a surprising number of late Roman coins were discovered two of which date from 522 to 527 (

Justinian Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

), important because they come from the area of the 2nd–3rd century fort around which the civil settlement developed and thus indicating its continued existence during the 5th–6th centuries. By all appearances, the inhabitants were in touch with the late imperial administration.

Archaeology

The first archaeological excavations were carried out between 1897 and 1898 by Grigore Tocilescu and Pamfil Polonic who discovered rich ceramic and numismatic material, glass objects, bronze, iron, bone, fragments of colossal statues, pieces of military equipment, weapons, fibulae etc.. The discovery of several thousand fragments of bronze statues of three Roman emperors near the perimeter of the castle was remarkable. Archaeology in 1928 and 1930 produced a report.Oltenia IX Archives, no. 51-52, 1930 Research was resumed by the National Military Museum in 1991–92. From 2003 several annual research campaigns were led by Dr. Eugene S. Teodor of the National History Museum of Romania and Dr. Dorel Bondoc of the Oltenia Museum.

References

Sources

*Gr. Florescu, Castrul roman de la Răcari-Dolj. Săpăturile arheologice din 1928 şi 1930, Craiova 1931, p. 1–28. *Nicolae Gostar, Numele antic al aşezării de la Răcari, SCIV 5, 1954, 3–4, 607–610. *A.T. Laurian, Istriana, Magazin istoric pentru Dacia, II, 1846, p. 65–127. *E.S. Teodor, D. Bondoc, M. Duţescu, D. Ştefan, S. Răduţă, în Cronica cercetărilor arheologice din România. Campania 2003. A XXXVIII-a Sesiune naţională de rapoarte arheologice, Cluj-Napoca 2004, p. 251–255. *E.S. Teodor, D. Bondoc, D. Bălteanu, în Cronica cercetărilor arheologice din România. Campania 2004. A XXXIX-a Sesiune naţională de rapoarte arheologice, Jupiter-Mangalia 2005, p. 288–289. *Gr.G. Tocilescu, Fouilles et recherches archeologiques en Roumanie, Bucureşti 1900. *D. Tudor, Castra Daciae Inferioris (VIII). Săpăturile lui Gr. G. Tocilescu în castrul roman de la Răcari (raion Filiaşi. Reg. Oltenia), Apulum V, 1965, p. 233–256. *D. Tudor, Gr.G. Tocilescu şi arheologia Olteniei, SCIVA, 27, 1976, 4, p. 573–579. *D. Tudor, Oltenia romană, ediţia a patra, Bucureşti 1978. *C.M. Vlădescu, R. Avram, O. Stoica, L. Amon, Cercetările arheologice în castrul roman de la Răcari. Campania 1991, Oltenia. Studii. Documente. Culegeri, III, 1998, II, 1–2, p. 80–85.

External links

*
Şantierul arheologic RĂCARIRoman castra from Romania – Google Maps

Earth
Roman Dacia Roman auxiliary forts in Romania History of Oltenia Historic monuments in Dolj County {{Dacia-stub

History

Archaeology

See also

References

Sources

External links