TheMoesian Limes (Latin:Limes Moesicus) is the modern term given to a linked series ofRomanforts on the northern frontier of the Roman province ofMoesia along the Danube between theBlack Sea shore andPannonia (present-day Hungary) and dating from the 1st century AD. It was the eastern section of the so-calledDanubian Limes[1] and protected the Roman provinces of Upper and LowerMoesia south of the river. The eastern section (today in Romania) is often called thelimes Scythiae minoris[2] as it was located in the late Roman province ofScythia Minor.
The Moesian Limes[3] includes essentially the linked forts and stations along the Danube fromSingidunum (Belgrade) to the mouth of the Danube on the Black Sea.[4] It was not fortified with palisades or a boundary wall but the forts were linked by a road and included eight legionary fortresses, many forts for auxiliary troops and watch/signal towers.[5] Forts along the Danube are 10 to 30 km apart and inter-visibility does not often exist.
The legionary fortresses included:
Other forts on the Danubelimes included:[6]
The frontier was divided into two major sections by the river Iskar atOescus which also marked the border between the provinces of Moesia Superior and Inferior.[citation needed]
The gorge of the river atDjerdap formed a barrier between north-west and north-east Moesia that was difficult to overcome, initially making communication between the Pannonian and the Moesian armies difficult. This problem was solved only by the construction of a 3m-wide road underTrajan, who had theLegio VII Claudia chisel into the rock walls replacing a wooden towpath construction that was susceptible to damage by drift ice. Other improvements for shipping included the construction of a canal nearNovi Sip to avoid the dangerous rapids and shoals there. The two ends of the canal were secured with forts. The best-known building on the Moesian Limes was Trajan's Bridge atDrobeta/ Turnu Severin from the early 2nd century AD, the first permanent bridge connection across the lower Danube which was also guarded on both banks by forts.[citation needed]
Augustus was the first to advance the empire's south-eastern European border from Macedonia to the line of the Danube to increase strategic depth between the border and Italy and also to provide a major river supply route between the Roman armies in the region.[7] The lower Danube was given priority andMarcus Licinius Crassus, proconsul of Macedonia from 29 BC,[8] drove the Bastarnae back toward the Danube.Legion IV Scythica was initially stationed in Moesia (probably atViminacium) to counter threats from neighbouring Thrace and aggressive peoples north of the Danube. But as a result of the Dacians constant looting that occurred whenever the Danube froze, Augustus decided to send against them some of his proven generals such asSextus Aelius Catus andGnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Augur (sometime between 1-11 AD[9]). Lentulus pushed them back across the Danube and placed numerous garrisons on the right bank of the river to defend against possible and future incursions.[10] These became the Moesian Limes. At this stage forts on the frontier consisted of earth walls with wooden palisades.
Moesia became a separate province in 6 AD. Roman military excursions across the Danube continued over 100 km to the north of the Danube delta.[11]
TheDacians raided south of the Danube in 68/69[12] and at the end of 85 or the beginning of 86 AD theDacian kingDuras attacked Moesia and caught the Romans by surprise since the governor,Oppius Sabinus, and his forces were annihilated.[13] Just beforeDomitian's Dacian War that followed, Domitian replaced the wood and earth walls of Danubian forts by stone walls in 87 AD (e.g. atTaliata)[citation needed]. Accompanied byCornelius Fuscus, Prefect of thePraetorian Guard, he personally arrived in Moesia with legionsLegio IV Flavia Felix from Dalmatia,Legio I Adiutrix andLegio II Adiutrix and eventually cleared the invaders from the province.
In the winter of 98/99 AD Trajan arrived on the Danube, quartered at theDiana Fort nearKladovo,[citation needed] and started Dacian war preparations on theIron Gates gorges. He extended the road in the gorge for 30 miles, as he stated on the well-known inscription of 100 AD. In 101 he also cut a canal nearby, as he also recorded on a marble plaque nearDiana Fort which reads:
“because of the dangerous cataracts he diverted the river and made the whole Danube navigable”: (ob periculum cataractarum, derivato flumine, tutam Danuvii navigationem facit).
Trajan restored stone defences in the area and rebuilt all earthworks in stone. Just below thePontes fort a large port and massivehorrea were built.[citation needed]
Between the first and second Dacian wars, from 103 to 105, the imperial architectApollodorus of Damascus constructedTrajan's Bridge, one of the greatest achievements in Roman architecture.
Full military occupation of the plain between the Carpathian foothills and the Danube may already have occurredby the end ofTrajan’sFirst Dacian War (101/102). The majority of forts here, however, were established after the final conquest of the Dacian kingdom in 106 AD. However, the Romans did remove the garrisons of the Danube Limes because of the need to preserve the control of transport and trade on the danube[14] and because troops there were a kind of strategic reserve for other fronts if needed.
The abandonment ofMoldova and the creation of theLimes Transalutanus can both be tentatively dated to the reign ofHadrian.
After a long period of peaceSeptimius Severus reconstructed the Moesia Superior defences and underCaracalla more reconstruction was done as can be seen at Pontes where, as with many other Iron Gates forts, the original layout was supplemented with the gates and towers. A new fort was built on an island at the Porečka river.
The Roman abandonment of Dacia probably occurred during the reign ofGallienus (260-68), before the traditional date of around 275 whenAurelian established the new province of Dacia south of the Danube.[15]
In the Late Roman period, the extent of control and military occupation over territory north of the Danube remains controversial. One Roman fort (Pietroasa de Jos), well beyond the Danubian Limes and nearMoldavia, seems to have been occupied in the 4th century AD, as were bridge-head forts (Sucidava,[16]Barboşi, and the unlocated Constantiniana Daphne) along the left bank of the river.[17]
The "Brazda lui Novac de Nord" (or "Constantine Wall") has been shown by recent excavations to date from emperorConstantine around 330 AD,[18] at the same time as the "Devil's Dykes" (or "Limes Sarmatiae"), a series of defensive earthen ramparts-and-ditches built by the Romans between Romania and thePannonian plains.[19]
Similarly, although considered 1st century and believed to predate the Limes Transalutanus, the function andorigins of a shorter section of bank and ditch known as the "Brazda lui Novac de Sud" remain uncertain. The absence of any evidence for LateRoman forts or settlements along its course and south of it rather suggests a later, probably medieval, date.[citation needed]
