ARRUBIUM
(Măcin) Galati, SE Romania.
The origin of this center seems to go back to the 3d c.
B.C. when the Celtic kingdom of Tylis had to reinforce
its S confines with several strongholds. The name is certainly Celtic.
Arrubium, as much as Noviodunum, dominated the S arc of the Danube before it flowed into the Black Sea. At the time the Romans organized the limes
(Danubianus), building the fortifications for their legions, their alae, and their vexillationes on the right bank
of the river,
Arrubium must have already existed. It was
linked with the other centers on the right side of the
Danube, Troesmis and Noviodunum, by the great road
from Transmarisca that followed the course of the river.
Between the 2d and the 4th c. it became the seat of the
ala I Vespasiana Dardanorum (
CIL 3,7512), and at the
end of the 3d c. under Diocletian the great Roman road
that passed through
Arrubium was rebuilt (
CIL 3,7610).
Another piece of information (
Not. Dig. 39, ed. Seeck)
mentions the presence of a cuneus equitum catafractariorum, and thus in the 4th c. the settlement at
Arrubium
still existed. The last to mention this center is the Geographer of Ravenna.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. Vulpe,
Histoire Ancienne de la Dobroudja (1938) passim; id. & I. Barnea,
Din istoria Dobrogei (1968) passim.
D. ADAMESTEANU
