BURIDAVA
or Boridava (Stolniceni) Rîureni, Vîlcea,
Romania.
At first a Dacian settlement, then
Roman, located on the Olt river (Alutus). Ptolemy noted
a population of Buridavensioi in Dacia, and “Hunt's
pridianum,” dating from the period of the Dacian Wars
of Trajan, mentions a detachment of the Cohors I Hispanorum veterana as being Buridavae in vexilla(t)ione.
It was about halfway between Pons Aluti (Ioneştii Govorii) and Castra Traiana (Sîmbotin) (
Tab. Peut.). The
name is Thraco-Getic, and the settlement was the economic center of the Dacian tribe of the Bun, a name
identical to that of the Germanic tribe from Slovakia.
Archaeological excavations have disclosed the outlines of
the settlement and uncovered rich archaeological material,
now in the Museum of the city of R. Vilcea and the
Museum of Baile Govora. The Roman town, 1 km long
and 300 m wide, consists of numerous dwellings still unexplored, built with stone originating in the Govora-Buleta quarries and paved with pieces of terracotta. A
large bath establishment, not yet excavated, is in the center of the settlement. Its ruins have yielded the remains of
a life-sized, bronze statue of an emperor. The silver and
bronze coins cover the period from Caligula to Justinian.
The pottery found in the ovens and rubbish ditches is
Dacian and Roman, dating from the 1st to the 4th c.;
it attests to the continuity in the area of the native population under the Roman domination. The prosperity of
this locality was the result of the traffic along the Roman
road (6 m wide and built with stones from the Olt
river), salt exports shipped down the Olt to the Danube,
and sheep raising.
As a military center, Buridava was important during
the Dacian Wars of Trajan. “Hunt's pridianum” mentions
the vexillatio of the Cohors I Hispanorum veterana, of
which the epigraphic traces were identified in the camp
near Arutela. A large stone camp (ca. 50 x 60 m) lay S
of the civil agglomeration. It must have been built under
Hadrian by Cohors I milliaria Brittonum. Mixed stamps
on the bricks and tiles show the names of the Moesian
legions, I Italica, V Macedonica, and XI Claudia, with
the names of the brickmakers Iulius Aper and Cornelius
Severus. The same stamps bear witness to the presence
of the auxiliary troops, Cohors II Flavia Bessorum,
Cohors IX Batavorum, and pedites singulares. The last
constituted the personal guard of the governor of Moesia
inferior, who had established his headquarters there for
the purpose of preparing the second Dacian war. The
troops concentrated here under his command crossed
the gorge of the Olt in 105. In the meantime, the neighboring Dacian settlement of Bîrseşti was completely
razed and replaced by a Roman fort. Located 3 km from
Buridava, this fort was built by a vexillatio of Cohors
II Flavia Bessorum and Cohors IX Batavorum. The
vestiges of pottery and coins prove that after the abandonment of Dacia (A.D. 271) Buridava continued to
exist until the arrival of the Slavs and the Avars.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
CIL III, 14216, 25;
AnÉpigr (1964) 229;
(1966) 312, 313; (1967) 420.
G. Tocilescu,
Fouilles et recherches archéologiques en
Roumanie (1900) 120; R. O. Fink, “‘Hunt's pridianum’:
British Museum Papyrus 2851,”
JRS 48 (1958) 102-16;
R. Vulpe, “Les Bures alliés de Décébale dans la première guerre dacique de Trajan,”
Studii clasice 5 (1963) 223-47; D. Tudor, “Les garnisons de Buridava à l'époque de la conquête de la Dacie,”
Akte des IV Intern. Kongress f. griechische und lateinische Epigraphik (1964)
403-10; id., “Pedites singulares à Buridava,”
Dacia, NS, 8 (1964) 345-51; id., “Depozitul de vase dacice şi romane
de la Stolniceni,”
SCIV 18 (1967) 655-60; id., “Centrul
militar roman de la Buridava,”
SMIM 1 (1968) 17-29;
id.,
Oltenia romană (3d ed., 1968) 220-33, 311, 529-30;
id.,
Oraşe (1968) 367-69; G. I. Petre, “Cuptor de olar
cu vase dacice şi romane de la Buridava,”
SCIV 19
(1968) 147-58; I. I. Russu,
Die Sprache der Thrako-Daker (1969) 112; M. Macrea,
Viaţa în Dacia romană
(1969) 36f, 313f; R. Syme,
Danubian Papers (1971) 122-34;
TIR, L.35 (1969) 68-69.
D. TUDOR
