Roman Military Equipment in the Northeastern Part of Moesia Inferior. I. The Capidava Cemetery

Cercetări Arheologice 32.1, 2025, 183-200
https://doi.org/10.46535/ca.32.1.08



Roman Military Equipment in the Northeastern Part of Moesia Inferior. I. The Capidava Cemetery

Authors: Liviu Petculescu

Keywords:

Moesia Inferior, Capidava, military equipment graves, swords, silver belt fittings

Abstract:

In the cemetery of the auxiliary fort and vicus at Capidava on the Danubian frontier of Moesia Inferior were discovered two weapon graves, one inhumation and one cremation of bustum type, placed in the same tumulus, each of them containing a short sword. Among the three cremations of bustum type of another tumulus there is one including in his funeral assemblage a belt set of silver fittings together with an attached knife sheath dated approximately from the last third of the 2nd century AD until the first quarter of the 3rd century AD. The silver openwork plates of curvilinear design of this set are freely assembled to make a unique belt according to the taste and/or wealth of his owner. So, it seems that the Capidava fittings were manufactured in a workshop from the northeastern part of Moesia Inferior, located perhaps at Durostorum, the base of legio XI Claudia.

After the Dacian Wars of Trajan and until at least the end of the 2nd century AD, but most probable also in the 3rd century AD, Capidava was garrisoned by cohors I Germanorum civium Romanorum. Consequently, the weapon graves and the one with the belt set belonged to soldiers or veterans of this military unit. The best analogy of the Capidava military burials is at Noviodunum, c. 160 km downstream on the Danube, where in a grave of a Moesian fleet arkarius were deposited a sword and the silver fittings of a baldric and two belts. Therefore, two of the Capidava military burials belonged probably to non-commissioned officers and the poorest one almost certainly to a private soldier.

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How to cite: Liviu Petculescu, Roman Military Equipment in the Northeastern Part of Moesia Inferior. I. The Capidava Cemetery, Cercetări Arheologice, Vol. 32.1, pag. 183-200, 2025, doi: https://doi.org/10.46535/ca.32.1.08

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