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[German version] [1] Left tributary of the Rhodanus Left tributary of the Rhodanus, modern Isère, has its source in the  Alpes Graiae as a mountain stream ( torrens: Plin. HN 3,33; maximum flumen: Cic. Fam. 10,15,3) and flows through the territory of the Allobroges. In 218 BC Hannibal marched upstream from the confluence of the I. and the Rhodanus (Pol. 3,49; Liv. 21,31). It was here that Q. Fabius Maximus beat the Arverni in 121 BC (Flor. Epit. 1,37,4). Further evidence: Str. 4,1,11; 2,3; 6,6; Ptol. 2,10,4; Cass. Dio 37,47. Lafond, Yves (Bochum) Bibliography P. Guichonnet (ed.), Histoir…

[German version] [1] Military post in Pannonia inferior Military post in  Pannonia inferior (It. Ant. 246,3; Not. Dign. occ. 32,9: Novas; 32,28: equites Dalmatae, Novas; 32,40: Auxilia Novensia, Arsaciana (Antiana?) sive Novas; cf. CIL III 10665). Remains of buildings, graves, ceramics and finds of coins north-east of Zmajevac near Osijek are presumed to represent the remains of Ad Novas. Burian, Jan (Prague) Bibliography A. Graf, Übersicht der antiken Geographie von Pannonien, 1932, 112 TIR L 34, 25. [German version] [2] Military post in Moesia Superior Military post in  Moesi…

[German version] [1] Roads and bridges, construction of see Roads and bridges, construction of Eder, Walter (Berlin) [German version] [2] Voting bridge The term pons (generally in the plural form of pontes) was also used for the narrow 'voting bridges' in Rome which members of the comitia had to cross on the way to cast their votes. It is argued that the saying Sexagenarios de ponte (deicere) with its incitement to throw sixty-year olds from the bridge (Cic. Rosc. Am. 100; Fest. 452; Macrob. Sat. 1,5,10) stemmed from the demand by younger voters to bar older o…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: (It. Ant. 264,4; 265,1; CIL III 3342f.; 3346; 11345). Roman camp and civil settlement in Pannonia inferior, modern Tác/Fejér (near Székesfehérvár/Hungary). Originally, G. was the centre of the Celtic Aravisci; during the Roman period, it was the intersection of the roads Sopianae─Aquincum and Sopianae─Brigetio. Rich archaeological finds attest to the importance of G. (remnants of buildings, burial ground). In the 1st cent. AD the camp which harboured the ala I Scubulorum was installed. The garrison was discharged…

[German version] Along with Frontinus and Hyginus, most significant of the Roman surveyors. He probably lived under Trajan and Hadrian in the 2nd cent. AD and in his work De condicionibus agrorum ('On the legal status of landholdings') described the forms of Roman land ownership and the working methods of gromatici ( groma ); what survives of it [1] relates to Italy. Burian, Jan (Prague) Bibliography 1 C. Thulin (ed.), Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum, vol. 1.1, 1913, 98-130.

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Thraci, Thracia | | Coloniae | Legio | Limes | Moesi, Moesia | Rome Roman legion camp and civil settlement in Moesia superior (Ptol. 3,9,3: Οὐιμινάκιον/ Ouiminákion; Procop. Aed. 4,5,17; 4,6,1: Βιμινάκιον/ Biminákion; Eutr. 9,20,2; Not. Dign. Or. 41,5;16;31;38; It. Ant. 133,2 f.; 217,5; It. Burd. 564,8: civitas Viminatio; Tab. Peut. 7,2: Viminatio) near modern Kostolac (Serbia). The settlement was located in the area of the Celtic Scordisci on the right shore of the Mlava near the mouth of the …

[German version] I. Ancient Orient Some Mesopotamian texts come very close to later travel accounts. An Old Babylonian text describes in detail a 38-day journey from Babylonian Dūr-Apil-Sîn to North Syrian Emar [1], two Old Babylonian tablets a journey of more than 6 months from Babylonian Larsa to North Syria and back [2]. The Neo-Assyrian ‘Zamua Itinerary’ [5] includes the description of a 4-day trip through the  Zagrus mountains indicating exact travel distances. Especially Neo-Assyrian reports of military campaigns from the 9th/8th cents. BC often contain longer …

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Christianity | | Coloniae | Moesi, Moesia | Pannonia | Rome Roman settlement in Pannonia superior ('Sicce', Geogr. Rav. 4,20; Σεγεστική/ Segestikḗ, Str. 7,5,2) at the confluence of the Colapis (modern  Kulpa) and Savus (modern Sava), modern Sisak in Croatia. The region had already been settled in the pre-Roman period. In 35 BC it came under Roman rule. In the 1st cent. AD the Legio IX Hispania was stationed there until 42/3. Under Vespasian, S. was elevated to a colonia, under Septimius [II 7] Severus designated Colonia Flavia…

A. Military camp [German version] [I 1] General The Roman soldiers always made sure that they were protected by fortifications. This also applied when they only stopped for a night on campaigns. In the evening of their arrival the field camp had to be set up and destroyed again on the morning of departure. The plural castra was the name given to any kind of military camp, the singular castrum certainly existed but was not used in mil. vocabulary. Castellum is the diminutive form of castra (Veg. Mil. 3,8) and also had a civilian meaning. The origin of the Roman camps is uncertain; because …

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Thraci, Thracia | | Coloniae | Daci, Dacia Garrison and civilian settlement on the Danube east of the ‘Iron Gate’ in Dacia inferior or Dacia maluensis, modern Turnu Severin (Oltenia, Romania). Near it was Pontes, where Apollodorus of Damascus erected the famous Danube bridge for Trajan. In the 2nd Dacian War D. was used as a military base by the Romans. In Trajan's time the cohors Cretum sagittariorum built a large garrison here, in which various auxiliary troops were later stationed ( cohors III campestris: CIL III 14216,8,10; co…

[German version] Celtic people that settled in the 1st cent. AD with other small tribes to the north of the  Marcomanni and  Quadi. Renowned as miners, they apparently owed the Quadi tribute. Apart from mining iron ore, it may be assumed that they manufactured weapons. Their location is disputed but it was probably in central Slovakia near the Slovakian Ore Mountains. In the Marcomanni Wars the C. sided with the Romans (Cass. Dio 72,12) and were later settled between the Danube and the Drava (Tac. Germ. 43,1; Ptol. 2,11,11). Burian, Jan (Prague) Bibliography J. Dobiáš, The History of Cz…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: | Moesi, Moesia Camp and civilian settlement in Moesia inferior, later Dacia ripensis (ILS 9275), formerly Mihajlovgrad, now M. (NW Bulgaria). An important military base from the 1st/2nd cents. AD, raised to a municipium around AD 161-163. Fortifications were built in the 3rd cent. against Gothic assaults. Evidence of continuity of settlement even into late antiquity. Inscriptions, coin finds. Burian, Jan (Prague) Bibliography TIR K 34 Sofia, 1976, 88  V. Velkov, G. Alexandrov, Epigraphische Denkmäler aus M. (Monta…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Thraci, Thracia | | Coloniae | Daci, Dacia Municipium and colony in Dacia Porolissensis (Νάπουκα/ Nápouka: Ptol. 3.8.4; cf. Napu[ce]nses CIL III 7996; N. in Lat. sources), the modern Cluj (Klausenburg/Kolozsvár, Romania), on the site of a prehistoric (Dacian) settlement (the place-name is evidently of Daco-Getic origin). The sources do not supply us with any information about the history of N. prior to Trajan's conquest of Dacia (AD 101/2 and 105/6). N.'s significanc…

[German version] Roman settlement in Pannonia superior on the Savaria-Aquincum road, to the north of the southwestern part of Lake Pelso ( Mogetiana: Itin. Anton. 233; Mogentinais: ibid. 263); probably modern Tüskevár (in the Veszprém-Devecser district of Hungary). From M. there was a branch road to Limusa and Sopianae. The Roman settlement grew up on the site of a Celtic one, but the indigenous element continued to play a role in the Roman period. Under Hadrian, M. became a municipium. There are records of a decurio, IIII viri and a flamen (CIL III 151881), a scriba (CIL III 4137 = 109…

This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre (Ἰσθμός; Isthmós, ὁ ( ho) or ἡ ( hē)) means primarily any connecting link between two things (e.g. the neck, Pl. Ti. 69e); in a narrower sense, any strip of land between two seas, as i.e. the Thracian Chersonesus [1] (Hdt. 6,36), but especially the I. of Corinth (e.g. Hdt. 8,40; Thuc. 1,13,5; 108,2; 2,9,2; 10,3). This I. corresponds to the fundamental definition in two respects - it links, on the one hand, the Corinthian Gulf with the Saronic Gulf, on the other hand, central Greece with the Peloponnese. The…

[German version] (περίπλους, 'circumnavigation', plural περίπλοι/ períploi), Greek description of a sea voyage and coast. In addition to explicit logbooks, many periploi were written as handbooks: these were limited to purely nautical issues, and recorded such features as harbour sites and points of anchorage, distances covered, climatic factors, and local peculiarities. The development of periplous-style literature reflects the significance of ancient voyages of discovery. Such voyages could be of political, economical, and military use, and were …

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Thraci, Thracia | Daci, Dacia (Τιβίσκον/ Tibískon). Roman base in Dacia superior (Daci with map) on the upper Tibiscus (or Tibisia, modern Timiş), a left tributary of the Danube (Ister [1]; cf. Ptol. 3,8,10; 3,8,1; Iord. Get. 24,178; Geogr. Rav 4,14; 4,18; Tab. Peut. 7,4), modern Jupa (county of Caraş-Severin, Romania); on road from Viminacium via Lederata to Sarmizegetusa, where a road branched off to Dierna. In the camp of T., (320 m × 170 m) auxiliary units were stationed ( Cohors I Vindelicorum, Cohors I Sagittariorum, Num…

[German version] Roman settlement on the road from Serdica to Philippopolis (It. Ant. 136; Procop. Aed. 4,11 Βεσούπαρον; Besoúparon), modern Sinitovo/Pazardžik, southern Bulgaria. Flourished in the imperial age. Thanks to its location, it retained its supraregional importance throughout late antique and the early Byzantine period. Its fortifications date from the time of Justinian I. Greek inscriptions and votive reliefs. Burian, Jan (Prague) Bibliography V. Velkov, Gradât v Trakija i Dakija prez kâsnata antičnost, 1959, 109 (Bulgarian with German resumé: …

[German version] A. Geography The members of a group of tribes of Thracian origin who lived in the northeastern part of the Balkan peninsula were referred to, in Greek, as Moisoí (Μοισοί), Mysoí (Μυσοί), and in Latin as M. or Moesae. Other tribes settled there as well, such as the Dardani, Triballi, Timachi and Skythae, who were later counted among the Moesicae gentes as inhabitants of the province of Moesia (Plin. HN 3,149; 4,3). After the territory of the Getae was incorporated into the province of Moesia inferior, its inhabitants as well were referred t…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Moesi, Moesia (Δινογέτεια; Dinogéteia). Roman fortification in Moesia inferior (Scythia minor) on the right bank of the lower Danube in a strategically important location north of Troesmis near the delta, modern Garvăn, Tulcea in Romania. A pre-Roman Geto-Dacian settlement is attested. In the Roman period the town (πόλις in Ptol. 3,8,2; 10,1) represented a significant starting-point for travel along the Pyretus into the Scythian hinterland. In the…