43°49′01″N22°54′28″E / 43.81694°N 22.90778°E /43.81694; 22.90778
Ratiaria[2] (or:Ratsaria, Raetiaria, Retiaria, Reciaria, Razaria;Bulgarian:Рациария;Greek:Ραζαρία μητρόπολις;) was an ancientRoman city along the riverDanube. A Roman colony was established there, calledColonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria.
It is located 2 km west of the present village ofArchar inVidin Province, northwesternBulgaria and 3 km east of the present Balta Neagră Natural Reserve in southernRomania. The closest modern cities areVidin (27 km to the north west),Lom (28 km to the east) in Bulgaria andCalafat (41 km to the north) in Romania.
An archaeological museum for the site has recently been established inDimovo.[3]
Ratiaria was conquered by theDacians ofBurebista[citation needed] and later by theRomans. There was a gold mine in the city, which was exploited by theThracians. The city may have owed its success to the goldsmiths.[4]
The earliest involvement of the Romans occurred in 75 BC whenGaius Scribonius Curio, prefect ofMacedonia, entered this territory to ward off theScordisci, theDardani and theDacians.
In 29 BC,Marcus Licinius Crassus, the grandson of the triumvir, fought theTriballi here. Ratiaria was a fortified city by this point.[5][6]
It was not until theprincipate ofAugustus that the Romans conquered the region, which was organised into a province namedMoesia. In 33/34 ADTiberius built the road linking the Danube forts includingViminacium and Ratiaria. The city was less important than the nearbySirmium, Viminacium andNaissus, but itslegionary fortress forLegio IV Flavia Felix on theDanubian Limes together with the fleet of theClassis Moesica underVespasian made it a key station. After the division of Moesia in 86 AD, the city became the capital ofUpper Moesia.[4]
Legio IV Flavia Felix was based here at least until theconquest of Dacia (101-106 AD) when thecastrum was abandoned and the settlement became acolonia withinMoesia Superior namedColonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria (107 AD) after its founder the EmperorTrajan. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries Ratiaria became prosperous as a trade centre and customs port.
A number of Romanpatricians (aristocrats) lived in Ratiaria, while the nearbyBononia (today's Vidin) was home to a small military unit.
With the definitive abandonment ofDacia Traiana byAurelian in 271, the oldcastra in the region were reopened.
It is unclear whether Aurelian or the EmperorDiocletian replaced Dacia Aureliana with two provinces,[7] but by 285, there were two: –Dacia Mediterranea with its capital atSerdica (Sofia) andDacia Ripensis with its capital atRatiaria.[8] As the capital of the new province Ratiaria served both as the seat of the military governor (ordux) and as the military base for theRoman legionXIIIGemina.
Later these two new Dacias along withDardania,Moesia Inferior andPraevalitana constituted theDiocese of Dacia. An important bishop's cathedra was established in the town in the 4th century AD.
The city became an important Christian centre in the 4th century and several bishops are recorded.Palladius of Ratiaria, an Arian Christian theologian, lived here in the late 4th century.
In 440 or 441 theHuns sacked Ratiaria. Rebuilding works were done underAnastasius I,[8] celebrated in the new town's name,Anastasiana Ratiaria.Priscus calls it a prosperous city in the 5th century.[9]
In AD 586 the town was sacked by theAvars.
Archaeological excavations of the site began in 1958 and have continued sporadically since then.
Investigative journalist Ivan Dikov states that only a small part of the site, which was excavated in the 1980s by a Bulgarian-Italian mission, is left unexplored and unattended. Dikov continues to say that the remaining 20ha of the site has been illegally dug up by hand and machines and that the site is reduced to hills and craters. According to Dikov, local witnesses saw that at one point in the late 1990s, the site was split between the mayor, the police, local people and high-ranking people from Sofia.[10] In the city, there are ruins of an audience hall with a mosaic ofOprheus, jewelry, and ancient coins.
As provincial capital of Dacia Ripensis, it also was the Metropolitan archdiocese. In 304 or 305, during theGreat Persecution threeChristian men named Jan, Aggaeus, andGaius were executed in the city. Palladius, a bishop of the city, was a strong supporter ofArianism.[11]
The archdiocese was nominally restored in 1925 as a Latin Catholictitular archbishopric of the highest (Metropolitan) rank.
The incumbent is Kurian Mathew Vayalunkal, having the following previous incumbents:
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
