BUMBEŞTI
Gorj, Romania.
An important
Roman rural settlement at the S opening of the Carpathian Jiu gorge, where the Drobeta and Răcari roads
joined. The civil settlement developed E of the camp
and has not yet been explored. It was apparently part
of the territory of the town of Drobeta. The earthen
camp at Vîrtop, 1 km from the stone camp of Bumbeşti
is earlier, from the period of Trajan's Dacian Wars. It
covers an area of 115 by 126 m and is believed to have
been built by Cohors IV Cypria (to judge from stamped
bricks). The camp replaced an earthen camp, built in
the 2d c. A.D. by a few detachments of Legio V Macedonica and Cohors IV Cypria. Its deteriorating earthen
vallum, was provided with a stone wall in 201, built
by order of the governor of Dacia, Octavius Iulianus.
This time the work was performed by Cohors I Aurelia
Brittonum milliaria Antoniniana. The waters of the Jiu
have left only one side of the camp, 167 m in length,
two gates, and a part of the praetorium (finished under
Caracalla by order of the governor C. Iul. Sept. Castinus). Excavations have identified a military bath installation 50 m to the S. The archaeological finds include
numerous tools of craftsmen and farmers, fragments of
a bronze imperial statue (Septimius Severus?), and votive
monuments dedicated to Mithra and Venus. The last coin
found in the camp was minted by Philip the Arab (244-249).
The objects discovered are in the Tg. Jiu Museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CIL III 14485 =
ILS, 9179; 14216, 27;
AnÉpigr (1959) 326, 327; D. Tudor, “Castra Daciae
inferioris: Bumbeşti,”
BCMI 33 (1940) 18-33; id.,
Oltenia romană (3d ed., 1968) 270-72, 326; id.,
Oraşe
(1968) 362-63;
TIR, L.34 (1968) 43; G. Florescu et al.,
“Săpăturile arheologice de la Bumbeşti,”
MCA 4 (1957) 103-18.
D. TUDOR
