ULCISIA CASTRA
later CASTRA CONSTANTIA
(Szentendre) County of Pest, Hungary.
A Roman military camp, built at the beginning of the 2d c.,
14.41 km N of Aquincum (VIIII miles according to the
It. Ant. 266.10). The camp was rebuilt after its destruction during the invasions at the end of the 2d and the beginning of the 4th c. In the 4th c. its name was changed to Castra Constantia (
Not. Dig. ccc. 33.13.34). The Romans abandoned it at the beginning of the 5th c.; during
the migrations, it was the headquarters of an Avar tribe.
During the 2d c. the Cohors IV Voluntariorum, then the
Cohors I Antoniniana, in the 3d c. the Cohors Milliaria
Nova Surorum Sagittatiorum and part of the Legio II
Audiatrix, and in the 4th c. the Equites Dalmatae were
garrisoned here.
The large, trapezoidal auxiliary camp (134 x 205 m)
had square towers built inside the walls during the early
period; during the rebuilding of the 4th c. horseshoe-shaped towers were built on its four sides, and fan-shaped
ones at its corners. The camp wall was surrounded by a
double moat. Among the interior buildings only the
principia has been completely excavated; the questorium
and other buildings are only partly known.
The ruins of an extensive area of huts came to surface
at the W and S sides of the camp. There is a large
necropolis of the 2d-4th c. S of the camp. The one of the
4th c. lies at the site of the abandoned huts; an Early
Christian cella memoriae was discovered in it. The camp's
bath building was on the side facing the Danube, in front
of the praetoria. To the S and N of the camp, 2 km distant each way, are the ruins of small Roman forts. At the site of both camp and necropolis ca. 90 fragments were discovered, mostly of stone. All findings are in the
Ferenczy Károly Museum.
(See also Limes Pannoniae.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
L. Nagy, “Les monuments se rapportant
à l'Asie mineure, dans le cours moyen du Danube,”
Archaeologiai Értesitő; 52 (1939); id., “Indagini sul territorio di Ulcisia Castra,” Archaeologiai Értesitő (1943); id., “Bericht des Archaeologischen Instituts von Budapest,”
Budapest Régiségei 13 (1943); B. Saria, “Ulcisia castra,”
PWRE 9 A;
Tabula Imperii Romani L 34 (1968).
S. SOPRONI
