{"id":131609,"date":"2023-02-17T16:44:18","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T16:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devrri.freshlemon.ro\/news-and-current-affairs\/newsflash\/limes-dacicus-131609.html"},"modified":"2023-02-17T16:44:18","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T16:44:18","slug":"limes-dacicus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/features-and-reports\/the-history-show\/limes-dacicus-id131609.html","title":{"rendered":"Limes dacicus"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

The frontiers are physical or
\nmental limits people have set for themselves, by their own free will or which
\nnature raised, to withstand people’s expansion bouts. Technically, archaeologists
\nlabelled the oldest frontier in the Romanian space using the phrase limes dacicus.
\n<\/em>It runs in the western half of Romania’s territory, along a distance of 1,000 kilometers. It is
\nthe frontier that Rome, conquering Dacia, traced, also physically, and which
\nstood the test of time, even to this day. <\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ovidiu \u021aentea is a historian and an
\narchaeologist with Romania’s National History Museum and with him, we made our
\nattempt to retrace the direction of that limit of the ancient world. <\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The
\nphrase limes dacicus<\/em> encapsulates the frontiers of the Roman province Dacia,
\nthe province which, during Emperor Trajan’s reign, was embedded into the Roman Empire
\nfor 160 years. The limits are physical but also administrative, for a province that
\nwas part of the Roman Empire. Physically, we’re speaking about the limits made
\nof what has survived on the ground,
\ntraces of the frontiers, more or less visible. It is an extremely diverse and complex
\nfrontier, the most complex frontier that has been documented for the Roman Empire which exists on the territory of a state, but also the longest one. On the
\nother hand, it is an administrative limit, since the Romans, well, it’s simply
\npointless for us to cling to the Latin word limes, <\/em>back then hey did not believe their
\nEmpire had any ending or any limitation on the ground. It is a materialization,
\nif you will, a tactical and a military one, in certain areas, being more of a mental
\nfrontier, material evidence of the then concluded agreements. All agreements
\nthey had with their neighbours had to be materialized on the ground through a
\nfrontier, through what today is, let’s just say, a ploughed strip of land. <\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

With the map of Romania in hand,
\nand heading from the west to the east, clock-wise, we tried to mark the most important
\npoints of the limes. Ovidiu Tentea:<\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There are two defence lines that were
\noperational in different timeframes. We have the inclusion of the Apuseni Mountains
\nand of the gold mining areas, on the ground we’re quite familiar with the legionnaire
\ncastra of Apulum (Alba Iulia) and
\nPotaissa (Turda), yet their emergence was tardier. The frontier was materialized somewhere further to the
\nwest, the data we have about that are not quite clear. Then it crosses the
\ncounties of Cluj and Salaj, through the area of the Meses Gate, where it is
\nbetter known and here we are, on the inner area of the Carpathian Arc, towards
\nthe north. We’re now eastward bound, we cross the mountains through the Ruc\u0103r-Bran corridor and we’re hitting the course of
\nthe Danube, along a route which has been more or less materialized on the
\nground, on the territory of today’s Arges and Teleorman counties. Here we have
\nthe cross-alutan line, the so-called limes transalutanus, <\/em>which ran concurrently,
\nor in different timeframes, with the line of the Olt river. <\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But how was a ground frontier materialized,
\nwhich was so long? Ovidiu \u021aentea:<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In antiquity, the frontiers were rather routes the
\narmy was marching along. According to the enemy or the climate conditions, or
\neven in keeping with the political circumstances, if you will, they were materialized
\non the ground, or not. For instance, in
\nBanat, we have two roads with no fortifications proper, yet we have two lines
\nof fortifications, which point to certain moments: to Trajan or Hadrian’s
\nreigns, to Antoninus Pius’s reign. Then there is the late 2nd
\ncentury, the crisis of the 3rd, therefore the frontier changes, being well
\nor less well-known. The most spectacular part of that segment can be found in
\nnorth-western Transylvania, in the Cluj-S\u0103laj-Bistri\u021ba
\narea, where very many towers are materialized, networks of towers defending certain
\nareas, where the troops were stationed, in fortifications. Signalling rules were very well-known, the earth walls,
\nthe fortified moats. The system was very complex, and also very well
\ndocumented. <\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The observation of the limes dacicus <\/em>reveals the
\ndynamics of a certain organization pattern, also telling us the existing limit
\nwas not set once and for all. Ovidiu
\n\u021aentea:<\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As we’re heading towards the north east and east the traces are not that
\nwell documented, but they close the Carpathian Arc on the inside, then, via the
\nSouthern Carpathian gorges, the connection was provided with the alutanian and
\nthe cross-alutanian line, respectively, so the frontier could be closed to the
\neast. Of course, there were enough troops, at least in the first half of the 2nd
\ncentury and until the crisis caused by the Marcomannic wars, when troops decreased
\nin numbers and large-scale operations were unfolding, so we get to know the major
\nwars of that time. After that, historical sources do not materialize them anymore,
\nbut we do know that in time, the number of troops decreased, which happened all
\nthroughout the empire, so we can only discuss that episodically. Early into the
\n2nd century, there is the first organization, during Trajan’s reign,
\nwhen the administrative aspect of that is rather less conspicuous, it is more
\nlike a military matter, it is a military district. After the first conflict of
\n117-118 AD, Hadrian is the first to organize that space administratively,
\nnaming it Dacia Superior, Dacia Inferior and subsequently, Dacia Porolisensis. So there were three provinces, with
\nthree governors. Which were reorganized, after Marcus Aurelius.<\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Limes dacicus <\/em>was the first civilization frontier of the Romanian space.
\nNow it has become part of the universal heritage. (EN)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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