Capidava
Capidava, former Calichioi (Capidava – TP VIII, 3; ItAnt 224, 3; GeogrRav 179, 3; 186, 15; ND, Or. 39, 13; Hierokl. 437, 10; ConstPorph. De them. 47, 15; ISM V 77; IGLR 220)
Location: Topalu, Constanţa county (RAN 63063.01, CT-I-s-A-02600.01)
The archaeological site is located near DJ 223, with access from the towns of Cernavodă and Hârșova. The parking lot, the information point and the site museum (tourist information point) are being constructed.
Early Roman and late Roman fortification, located on the outskirts of Capidava village, was erected initially at the beginning of Trajan’s reign and then rebuilt or repaired in the late era.
The following constructive phases have been identified archaeologically: 1. phase at the beginning of the 2nd century; 2. rebuilding phase a fundamentus in the second half of the 3rd century, after the destruction of the first phase during the Gothic attacks (bellum Scythicum); 3. Constantininian and post-Constantininian phases with rectangular and U-shaped towers; 4. the age of Anastasius, with the restoration of curtain H and until the Slavo-Avar attacks of 580-581; 5. the functioning of the last redoubt, the late fort erected in the southern quarter of the fortress after 594/595, and whose usage does not far exceed the chronological limit of the last coins (follis from Heraclius, 612/613). The remains of the early era are less known, it is assumed that the fortification had the approximate dimensions of 105 x 125 m, and based on the epigraphic material we know that the fortification was occupied successively by cohors I Ubiorum (ISM V 24) and then by cohors I Germanorum (ISM V 16: 36), beginning with Hadrian’s reign. Stamps of the legions XI Claudia (ISM V 53) and V Macedonica (ISM V 54) were also discovered; later, stamps of the Legion I Italica (as well as a beneficiarius consularis, ISM V 41, probably in connection with the statio portorii, attested at Capidava).
Recent research in the area of military thermae related to the first castellum has pointed out the contribution of legio XI Claudia pia fidelis to the construction of the ensemble in the first decade of the 2nd century, with an expansion and repairs in the following decades; a second constructive phase dated with tegular material of the same legion (legio XI Claudia Antoniniana) is taking place at the beginning of the 3rd century, in the time of Emperor Caracalla; the edifice was probably destroyed in the following decades, as a result of the Scythian war (perhaps around 248-250), affecting the entire fortress and the habitation around it.
A military vicus, partially known from an archaeological point of view, developed alongside a civitas of the indigenous people who even convey the name of the place, around the fortification. Capidava is a customs statio, the presence of a consular beneficiary is also attested here. Headquarters of a territorium with several villae rusticae and rural nuclei, attested expressis verbis in a funerary inscription from Ulmetum under the formula territorium Capidavense (ISM V 77: C. Iulius Quadratus, quinquennalis territorii Capidavensis and princeps loci).
In the late period, the fortification was rebuilt after the Gothic destruction in the middle of the 3rd century, sometime between the reigns of Aurelian, Probus and the Dominate period, being occupied by new troops: cuneus equitum Solensium (ND, Or. 29, 13) and vexillatio Capidavensium probably part of equites scutarii (IGRL 220-221). The dimensions of the fortification, in the late period, were approximately 127 x 105 m, with the western corner and much of the southwestern side being destroyed by a limestone quarry from the beginning of the century, exploited until the 1920s. At an even later time, at the end of the 6th – beginning of the 7th century, the fortification was confined to the south corner area for a short time (post 594/595 – 612/613 or a little later). The resumption of habitation at Capidava was made in the Middle-Byzantine period, between the 9th – 11th centuries AD, in a hovel settlement reinforced with an earth and stone wall, above the old Roman fortress and its defensive walls. Six dramatic destructions and reconstructions of the hovel settlement (with 7 different habitation levels) have been documented for 200-250 years of the existence of this new settlement. It was estimated that more than 100 hovels/ level operated, each occupying 12-16 m2, for a population estimated around 700-1000 inhabitants within a fortified area of about 1.5 ha. The Middle-Byzantine Capidava has a floruit in the time of Basil II, to be definitively destroyed in the mid-11th century AD.
The military thermae (excavated) are in a public area, located approx. 100 m east of the fortress, in the same area, overlapping traces of habitation or from Roman, late Roman, but also Middle-Byzantine necropolises. Systematic excavations are ongoing, both intra muros and extra muros, at the locations mentioned.
The most important objectives researched at Capidava are the Roman-Byzantine church (6th century the main south gate and adjacent buildings (building C1), the guard corps (in fact, the horreum), the late Roman principia and late Roman/ Roman-Byzantine barracks, the port, the necropolises and the early military thermae ( 2nd – 3rd centuries). In each of these points, all the constructive phases listed above were investigated, and where it was possible including the first phase, that from the 2nd century.
Since 2015, the entire site has been in the process of restoration, through an extensive project carried out by the county authorities with European funds. The high degree of intervention on the monument considerably casts doubt on the chances of including the Archaeological Site Capidava Fortress in the UNESCO list for the Romanian section of the Roman border of the Lower Danube.
The investigations within PN Limes consisted of collecting data necessary to obtain a series of orthophoto plans, 3D modelling, respectively the taking of oblique photographs, for each research objective. On this occasion, field reconnaissance was also carried out in the territorium, respectively the necropolis area, the road to Pantelimonu de Sus (Ulmetum; the eastern boundary of territorium Capidavense?) and some tumuli existing on the route of this ancient road.
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
Gr. Florescu, R. Florescu, P. Diaconu, Capidava. Monografie arheologică. vol. I, Bucureşti, 1958; TIR L 35, p. 29-30; Suceveanu 1977, p. 66-68, nr. 8; Opriș, Rațiu 2017; Opriș, I. C., Rațiu, Al., Roman customs station from Capidava. Statio for publicum portorii Illyrici in the 2nd century AD and a hypothetical model for interactions with Barbaricum in the 4th century AD, in Bârcă V. (ed.), Orbis Romanus and Barbaricum. The Barbarians around the Province of Dacia and their Relations with the Roman Empire = Series Patrimonium Archaeologicum Transylvanicum 14, Mega Publishing House, Cluj‑Napoca, 2016, 89-109; Opriș, I. C., Rațiu, Al., Capidava – The Late Fortlet (end of the 6th – beginning of the 7th c. AD). Chronological Issues, in Limes XXIII. Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies Ingolstadt 2015/ Akten des 23. Internationalen Limeskongresses in Ingolstadt 2015, Beiträge zum Welterbe Limes Sonderband 4/II, Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege – Deutsche Limeskommission, Nünnerich-Asmus Verlag, Mainz, 2018, 763-771; Opriș, I. C., Rațiu, Al, Potârniche, T., Băile romane de la Capidava. Raport de cercetare arheologică preventivă, Cercetări arheologice, XXV, 2018, 3-27; Opriș, I. C., Contributions to the Study of the Middle Byzantine Defence Walls at Capidava (1912-2012), Brukenthal. Acta Musei, XIV.1, 2019, 101-119.