AN ANONYMOUS STATIO OF CLASSIS FLAVIA MOESICA AND LATER FLAVIANA. ALL WE KNOW FOR NOW ABOUT ROMAN RASOVA (CONSTANȚA COUNTY, ROMANIA)

Abstract

Few things have been written on Roman Rasova, although the subject proves to be a generous one and invites to further archaeological investigations. A fragmentary tile bearing a CLASF[M] inscription that I recently found at the top of the so-called ”Fortress Hill” made me tackle again the issue of the construction material with stamps of Classis Flavia Moesica on the Lower Danube. It was the perfect argument for inferring an early Trajanic fleet installation southwest of the modern village of Rasova, on the right bank of Baciu Lake. The statio was located next to a horreum and an undetermined monumental context with a building inscription (Bauinschrift dated 106 AD) and moreover along to what must have been the limes road. That was most likely the same place where later on Flaviana was rebuilt by Constantine the Great and the milites nauclarii must have been garrisoned, according to Notitia Dignitatum (Or., XXXIX, 20). For such purpose, the right bank of Baciu Lake was offering much more appropriate conditions than the next Caramancea and Cochirleni Lake valleys. The mapping of all three – statio, horreum and via militaris – was just the starting point of a thorough and critical discussion on the archaeological sites, inscriptions, coins, ancient roads and landscape of the area, based upon existing pieces of information and map analysis. It became conspicuous that the statio in Rasova with its storage facilities was as early as Trajan's time vital for supplying the new inland imperial foundation in Tropaeum Traiani. The logical conclusion is as follows: the anonymous statio from Rasova was the supplying port of the new interior city. The latter stood within a day's reach (fourteen miles) from the Danube and a road was built via Hațeg, in order to sustain both military and civil fast-expanding consumption index.