CAPIDAVA
Dobrudja, Romania.
Roman military camp on the lower Danubian limes, between Axiopolis and Troesmis, at a crossroads of commercial and
strategic routes and near the point where the road crosses
the river into the Valachian plain. The first phase of construction was a rectangular castellum with interior towers, built by Trajan at the beginning of the 2d c. It was
defended by a system of ditches and a vallum, which was
modified by later reconstruction. After destruction by
Goths in the middle of the 3d c., the fortifications were
rebuilt. The walls are still visible. The plan was rectangular (105 x 127 m) with exterior towers, rectangular at
the gates and circular or polygonal at the corners. There
was partial rebuilding in the second half of the 4th c.
and at the end of the 5th c. On the site of the old city,
destroyed by the Huns, was constructed a fort defended
by a narrow rampart. At this fort was garrisoned the
cuneus equitum solensium (
Not. Dig. or. 39). At that
time Capidava was an episcopal center. A basilica with
three apses orientated toward the E has been discovered
from this period. The civil settlement developed in the
interior of the old city surrounding the fort. Capidava
survived until after Justinian's reign, when it was destroyed by the Avars and then abandoned. When the
Byzantine Empire regained the borders of the lower
Danube, the city was refortified. The last levels date
from the 10th and 11th c.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Tab. Peut. 7.3;
It. Ant. 244;
Geog.
Rav. 779.3.
J. Weiss,
Die Dobrudscha im Altertum (1911); V.
Pârvan,
Descoperiri nouă din Scythia Minor (1913) 467-73; G. Florescu et al.,
Capidava. Monografie arheologică, I (1958).
E. DORUTIU-BOILA
