Tres Protomae (ISM II, 53), Sc[apt]ia (ISM II, 137), I Urb…(CIL III, 14441), Urbin…23, Rami…(ISM V, 117). Even more significant is the presence of veterani et cives Romani consistentes in the vici: Quinctionis, Nov…, Bad…24, V…(CIL III, 14442), …stro (ISM I, 138). In addition, the site of vicus classicorum obviously settled by veterans of the fleet, but where there are only cives Romani attested proves that one has to consider the presence of the veterans also in other settlements or at least in the sites producing evidence for Roman citizens as the vici: Secundini, I Urb…, Turris Muca (ISM II, 141) and Ulmetum.
The vici settled by veterani et cives Romani, are known mostly in regio Histriae, which is partly due to the existence of better evidence for the rural sites of this area. However it is hard to see the concentration of all the inscriptions specifying veteran communities in the northern part of Dobrudja as purely casual. Therefore it results in one having to consider this region as having been extensively populated by the Roman administration, partly with veterans. An additional proof of the systematic politics of colonization of this area is that in vici Quinctionis and Ulmetum there were, besides the Roman citizens, also attested Bessi consistentes. And if Lai consistentes from vici Secundini and Turris Muca were in fact, like the Bessi, other Thracian colonists and not simply laoi, it means that in this part of Moesia Inferior it was common for people of different origins and social status to settle in the same vicus. The reason for using such a procedure consisted probably in the limited number of men available for colonization during the short period of time assigned by the Roman authorities for the development of the land.
A completely different situation is to be found in the territory of Callatis where neither communities of Roman citizens nor even rural settlements of Roman type were known except perhaps Amlaidina, if its designation as vicus in a single, funerary Latin, inscription was correct (ISM III, 237). So one can infer that the peculiarity of the proper town of Callatis succeeded in keeping its traditional Greek character all over its rural territory.
Everywhere in the Empire the Romans built roads in order to facilitate the military traffic and the running of the imperial post cursus publicus. Hence it must not have been pure chance that the series of milestones known so far in Dobrudja begins in Trajan’s reign when the number of troops quartered in the region dramatically increased and the limes was thoroughly refurbished by the erection of several new fortifications along the Danube.
Determined by the natural conditions, the network system completed by Trajan consisted of three main roads, one along the seashore, another along the Danube bank and the third running from south to the north through the middle of the land, linked together by secondary transversal roads (Fig. 2). Built by the soldiers for meeting the demands of the army and the state administration, the roads were naturally used also for the transportation of civil goods and persons and greatly promoted the economic development of the country to which they came. So it is no surprise that all the settlements of some importance were placed on the main roads, especially where they crossed with other roads. However the impact of the famous Roman roads on the local population was not always positive. On the contrary, we know about the complaints of the people from Laikos Pyrgos and Chora Dagei in regio Histriae, who asked the governors of Moesia Inferior in AD 137-141 and 160 respectively, to be spared from the abuses they were subjected to by the cursus publicus administration, otherwise they were on the point of leaving their villages and moving away from the roads (ISM I, 378). Anyway, as proved by the milestones and some of the beneficiarii inscriptions, the network system of Dobrudja was constantly maintained in good condition and guarded by the army, even during the terrible crisis of the third century AD, and was entirely restored during the Tetrarchy and House of Constantine.
Fig. 2. The roads of Roman Dobrudja (second-fourth centuries AD), after Bărbulescu 2001.
Due to the shortage of manpower in the provincial administration, the Roman authorities resorted to the army, which supplied the necessary substitutes, who had the great advantage of not demanding additional expenses.25 If the procedure of giving soldiers administrative tasks appeared as early as the beginning of the Principate, it developed gradually until the end of the third century AD according to the strengthening of the imperial power and the decreasing of the prerogatives of the self-governing provincial communities. Not surprisingly, this process is to be found also in Dobrudja where, apart from the presence of a lot of beneficiarii, some of them acting as a police force, the direct involvement of the army is attested in the regulation of boundary disputes. Thus, in AD 177-178 landmarks were put in by the tribunus cohortis I Cilicum between civitas Ausdecensium and a Dacian community (IDRE II, 338); in AD 198-202 by the commander-in-chief of the Moesian fleet, praefectus classis, between the villa of Messia Pudentilla and vicani Buteridavenses (ISM I, 359-360); and in AD 229, inside the territory of Capidava by one legionary centurion (ISM V, 8; 57-58). It seems obvious that the use of the army for marking the controversial limits of communal and private estates, or of the individual plots, was due both to its capacity of imposing the observance of the dispositions taken in the name of the governors and to the technical expertise on making measurements of the land.
At the end of this survey it is worth emphasizing the main aspects of the impact of the Roman army on the local societies in the northeastern part of Moesia Inferior. From the beginning of the second century AD the presence of nearly 15,000 troops together with their followers in a small rather scarcely populated region, except for the seashore with its three Greek towns, profoundly influenced the subsequent development of the country. As all the military units were quartered along the Danube frontier, this part of Dobrudja was completely Romanised. Nevertheless the role of the army extended far beyond its forts and the civil settlements developed near them in the inner part of the region, where numerous rural settlements organized in Roman manner are attested. Even in the territories of the Greek towns of Histria and Tomis there are numerous vici settled at least partially by veterani et cives Romani, led by magistri and using Latin. And, significantly, if in the old Greek colonies of Histria, Tomis and Callatis the population still predominantly spoke Greek, one met in each of them a conventus c. R. or a tribe of the Romans. A large part of these Roman citizens were veterans and Latin speakers.
In conclusion, with the exception of the Greek towns, which kept their traditions despite the strong influence of the Roman civilization, the rest of the territory of Dobrudja was thoroughly Romanised during the Early Empire, especially as a result of the presence of a considerable number of troops.
Notes
1 For the Roman military activity until the inclusion of Dobrudja in the province of Moesia see Vulpe 1968, 13-48; Suceveanu 1991, 23-26 with bibliography.
2 See Kolendo 1998. At variance with the traditional opinion, Suceveanu repeatedly asserts that Dobrudja was not annexed to the province of Moesia before the time of Vespasian, when the first Roman military units are attested to have settled in the region (Suceveanu 1991 a, 28-29; Suceveanu 1991 b.). Yet the horotesia of Laberius Maximus (ISM V, 67-68) mention in AD 47 the first defining of the borders of Histria by a legatus of Moesia.
3 For the Roman army in Dobrudja during the Principate, see especially Aricescu 1977 and Matei-Popescu 2001-2002.
4 Doruţiu-Boilă 1974, 8.
5 Suceveanu 1977, 62-65.
6 Vulpe 1968, 167.
7 Suceveanu 1998, 138.
8 Barnea 1988, 53-60.
9 Scorpan
