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Vicus Nov(Iodunum) and Vicus Classicorum: on the Origins of the Municipium Noviodunum *

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Vicus Nov(Iodunum) and Vicus Classicorum: on the Origins of the Municipium Noviodunum * doi: 10.2143/AWE.15.0.3167473 AWE 15 (2016) 213-222 VICUS NOv(IODUnUM) aND VICUS CLASSICORUM: ON THe ORIGINS oF THe MUnICIPIUM NOvIODUnUM * FLORIAN MATEI-POpESCU Abstract This paper aims to tackle the origins of the municipium Noviodunum, epigraphically attested during the Severan period. To meet this goal some inscriptions are reinterpreted and con- nected with Noviodunum. Two different civilian settlements seem to have developed near the main naval base of the classis Flavia Moesica: one is a vicus Nov(iodunum), a civilian settlement, and the other is the vicus classicorum, the military vicus, attested by several votive altars uncovered at Halmyris. They were, it is assumed, transported from Noviodunum during the Tetrarchic period when the late Roman fort of Halmyris was constructed. It is concluded that, as in the case of the legionary fortresses, two different civilian communities developed in Noviodunum area, a military vicus and a civilian settlement. The latter was the one to receive the municipal grant during the joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and Com- modus, or during Commodus’ reign. The municipium Noviodunum (Isaccea, Tulcea county, Romania) is recorded by a single inscription, reused in the late Roman fort from Dinogetia:1 [- - -] / [- - -]AV. / [quae]stori / municip(ii) Nov[i]/od(uni). The inscription dates most likely by early 3rd century, during the Severan period. Thus, the first editor assumed that Noviodunum became a municipium under ­Septimius Severus or Caracalla, based on the analogies with the municipia of ­Troesmis and Durostorum.2 This assumption should now be amended, since the newly discovered fragments of the lex municipii Troesmensis show that the civil ­settlement from Troesmis received the municipal grant during the joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus.3 It is therefore likely that the civil settlement * This paper was written in the framework of the Project PN-II-ID-PCE-2012-4-0490: ‘“The Other” in Action. The Barbarisation of Rome and the Romanisation of the World’, financed by the Romanian National Research Council (CNCS-UEFISCDI). I thank Constatin C. Petolescu and Dan Dana for their critical reading of the manuscript and for their corrections and suggestions. 1 Barnea 1988; L’Année épigraphique 1990, 867. See also Suceveanu and Barnea 1993, 167. 2 Barnea 1988, 59. 3 Eck 2013; 2014a–b. 214 F. MaTeI-PopeScu from Durostorum became a municipium at the same time and not during that of Caracalla.4 The exact date is still a matter of controversy, since an altar raised for the good health of the Imperator Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus and of the municipium Aurelium Durostorum was discovered.5 The absence of the epithets Pius and Felix may indicate that the emperor was Marcus Aurelius and not Caracalla, hence the altar should be dated before AD 177. If so, it is also possible that Troesmis received its municipal grant well before the joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus.6 During their joint reign it was the only law to be sent to the municipium. In the difficult conditions of the Marcomannic Wars,7 when there was not enough bronze for the military diplomas (they are not attested between AD 168 and 177),8 this is something that could be understood. Nevertheless, until further discoveries are made, we should still take into consideration that the altar from Durostorum was dedicated to Caracalla (the absence of the epithets is not something out of the ordinary), both municipia being founded during the joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, as the lex municipii Troesmensium seems to prove. These details are not so important for the discussion here. It is nevertheless important to stress that Durostorum and Troesmis became municipia at some time between AD 169 and 180. In my opinion, Noviodunum should be added to the list. This observation raises the question of my paper: which settlement from Novio- dunum, since there seems to have been two, received the municipal grant? 9 Vicus Nov(iodunum) By the end of the 19th century, a votive altar was discovered in the neighbourhood of Babadag. The stone is kept now by the Vasile Pârvan Institute of Archaeology 4 Doruțiu-Boilă 1978 assumed that municipium Aurelium Durostorum received the municipal grant under Caracalla. However it is more likely that Durostorum became municipium at the same time as Troesmis. The core of the municipium should have been the civil settlement (probably the one encountered archaeologically at Ostrov, Călărași county) and not the canabae legionis­ – see contra Boyanov 2010. The canabae seem to be attested by an inscription from AD 209 (ISM IV 110; see also ISM IV 101, which could date from the same year, a dedication for the good health of Septimius Severus and Caracalla, attesting the veterani consistentes huius loci), when the municipium was already founded. On the history and archaeology of early Roman Durostorum, see most recently Ivanov 2012 and Piso 2014 (both with bibliography). 5 ISM IV 94, with comments at Piso 2014, 492. 6 See already Eck 2013, 201, n. 7; Piso 2014, 492, n. 28. 7 Lower Moesia suffered during the crisis, being ravaged by the Costoboci (see Gerov 1980, 259–72). 8 Eck 2012, 46–49. 9 See also Suceveanu and Barnea 1993, 165. VICUS NOv(IODUnUM) aND VICUS CLASSICORUM 215 Fig. 1: MNA L 353. The votive altar set by the cives Romani and veterani of the vicus Nov(iodunum). (MNA L 353).10 The text is unfortunately very badly damaged, especially in the central part of the inscription. Some part of the text can be read on the stone; for the missing part we have to credit G. Tocilescu, the first editor of the inscription. I give here the text as it is possible to read it today (Fig. 1): I(ovi) O(ptimo) M(aximo) / [s]acrum pro / [sal(ute) I]mp(eratoris) C[aes(aris) / Peli (sic!) c(ives) R(omani) v/et(erani)] vico Nov(ioduno?) / su[b cu]r[a]m (sic!) / [S]il(vio) C[a]s(s)io et P[.]/[.]OCV.VNI[.] / [e]t qu(a)es(tore) Caio A[l]/exandri id[i/b]us Iunis Or[f/a]to et Rufo / co(n)s(ulibus). The absence of the consistentes formula is curious.11 I prefer here to read straight- forwardly c(ives) R(omani) vet(erani) vico Nov(ioduno), with consistentes implied or simply neglected by mistake. What is however even more curious is that in every 10 Tocilescu 1900, 203, no. 27; CIL III 14448; ISM V 233. 11 T. Mommsen proposed in CIL III 14448 c(ives) R(omani) vet(erani) vico Nov(ioduni consis- tentes), similar to CIL III 6167 = ISM V 157 c(ives) R(omani) Tr[oesmi consist(entes)]. 216 F. MaTeI-PopeScu inscription from the area attesting the veterani and the cives Romani consistentes, the veterans were placed without exception before the cives Romani: veterani et cives Romani consistentes vico.12 I have no explanation for that, since that line of the inscription is completely erased now and the reading cannot be check. The last editor of the inscription, Emilia Doruțiu-Boilă, argued convincingly that the inscription was probably found at Noviodunum, attesting therefore a vicus Nov(iodunum), the civil settlement from Noviodunum.13 In favour of this identifi- cation speaks also its complex organisation, with two magistri and one quaestor, atypical for a vici from the central part of the Dobrudja, like Ulmetum for exam- ple.14 The inscription dates from AD 178 (the consuls Sex. Cornelius Scipio Orfitus and D. Velius Rufus).15 The municipium should have been founded therefore after that date. Another votive altar, unfortunately not precisely dated, attests a quinquennalis and two magistri:16 [. .]D cu/ra(m) agent(ibus) / Ti. Cl(audio) Valent(e) / q(uin)q(uennale) et Celsio / Celerian(o) et Cl(audio) / [M . mag(istris)]. It seems that it has to be related to the vicus Noviodunum,17 which had, like the civil settlement from Troesmis,18 a quasi-urban organisation. However, since the altar was reused in the late Roman fortification from Noviodunum, one should also take into consideration another origin, perhaps even Troesmis. In AD 176, a sailor, C. Iulius Valentis f. Iulianus, was recruited from Novio- dunum (Novi(o)d(uno) ex Moesia) into the fleet at Ravenna and discharged in 202.19 It is highly possible that he was also recruited from the civil settlement, the vicus Noviodunum, but the military vicus should not be totally ruled out of the discussion. Speaking of the military vicus, I must stress out that no inscription relating to a possible military vicus of the fort of the Noviodunum, the base of the classis Flavia 12 Avram 2007, 104–09, nos. 1–34, the epigraphic supplement. 13 See however contra Bărbulescu 2001, 93–94 and 179. 14 ISM V 62–64; Bărbulescu 2001, 108–09 and 186–87, part of the territorium Capidavense. 15 Degrassi 1952, 49. 16 ISM V 268. 17 Vulpe (1953, 575–76) rightly assumes that, just like in the case of Troesmis, this quinquennalis was in fact the censor of the community, being elected every five years apart from the magistri. 18 For the two civil settlements around the legionary fortress of Troesmis, see Vulpe 1953; Doruțiu-Boilă 1972; Vulpe 1976, 290–92; Avram 2007, 93–96. The canabae legionis V Macedonicae and the vicus or civitas Troesmensium (former centre of a Thracian strategy, see Ovid Ex Pont. 4. 9. 79–80) are together attested in AD 159/160: [q(uin)q(uennalis) c]anab(ensium) et dec(urio) Troesm(ensium) (Vulpe 1953, 562–68, no. 2 = L’Année épigraphique 1960, 337 = ISM V 158; see Vulpe’s comments at Vulpe 1953, 568–79).
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