Seimenii Mari
Location: Constanța county (RAN 62921.01.01)
The Roman fortification was located north of Cernavodă, between Seimenii Mari and Seimenii Mici villages, on a plateau near the Danube. That plateau was known at the beginning of the last century by the locals under the name “La Cetate”.
After the analysis of the notes and the drawing submitted by Pamfil Polonic, some conclusions can be drawn, by comparison with recent aerial photographs. The fortification itself was destroyed at the end of the 19th century. The plateau with an area of about 60 ha was surrounded, according to Pamfil Polonic, by a Roman rampart with a length of about 2 km. Towards the east, a defensive ditch 15 m wide and 1-2 m deep was still visible at the end of the 19th century. In the drawing drawn then the rampart in its northern and eastern sections is depicted. According to it, the Roman fortress would have had a rectangular shape with sides of at least 80 m. Later, a tower was built with the eastern side of 20 m. Finds of Hellenistic amphorae have been reported in the area.
The ancient name of the fortification from Seimenii Mari was not mentioned in Itinerarium Antonini Augusti (224) or Tabula Peutingeriana (VIII, 3).
One should mention the discovery of two miliary milestones, dated 160 (ISM V, 1), respectively 200 AD (ISM V, 2.) and an official inscription (CIL III, 7487 = ISM IV, 246 = IGLR 205), dated 293-305 AD, which may have been erected above the gate of the tetrarchic fortification (burgus / praesidium) (IGLR, p. 213), whose thick walls could still be seen by Pamfil Polonic.
Part of the study:
Ovidiu Țentea, Ioan C. Opriș, Florian Matei-Popescu, Alexandru Rațiu, Constantin Băjenaru, Vlad Călina, Frontiera romană din Dobrogea. O trecere în revistă și o actualizare, Cercetări Arheologice, Vol. 26, pag. 9-82, 2019, doi: https://doi.org/10.46535/ca.26.01
Bibliography
Irimia, Date noi privind aşezările getice din Dobrogea în a doua epocă a fierului, Pontica 13, 1980, 66-118 (p. 103); Băjenaru 2010; Opriș 2019.