After the conquest of Dacia in Trajan's Dacian Wars, he transferred the Legio V Macedonica from Oescus to Troesmis.[6] Two settlements grew up near the legionary fortress, the canabae and the civil settlement called Troesmis. The legio V Macedonica left Troesmis in the 160s to take part in the Parthian war of Lucius Verus. In about 175 under Marcus Aurelius Troesmis became a municipium.[7]
In the second half of the 3rd century the town was destroyed during the Gothic invasions. The city and fort were rebuilt and under Diocletian (r.284-305) was the legionary fortress of Legio II Herculia and from 337 was also garrisoned by the milites Secundi Constantini.[8] It was also later rebuilt by Justinian I (r.527-565).[9]
The site was concessioned to Desire More by the Ottoman Empire for farming activities. In 1882 Desire More started excavations, and the stones from the ancient site were sold as construction materials in Galați and Brăila. Suspected by the local Muslim villagers that the scope of the excavation is a treasure hunt, a local revolt started. With the help of Engelhardt, the French representative in Danube Commission, armed intervention stopped the revolt. 24 epigraphic inscriptions were sent to France.[12] Four of the inscriptions were published by Theodore Mommsen in 1864.[13]
The site
Excavations have found two walled cities, the eastern of 120 x 145 m with three basilicas from the time of Justinian and defended by exterior towers and by a vallum and a ditch. The western city, only 500 m from the other, is trapezoidal in plan.
The later so-called Eastern (4th century) and the Western (Byzantine) walled cities are today the most prominent monuments at the site. The stone robbing resulted in only the core of the walls remaining and the terrain still shows traces of the extensive stone quarries. The earlier legionary fortress covered most of the plateau which faces the Danube between the two later fortresses[14] in which the later city was built from around 175, and including a municipal infrastructure with a forum, curia, basilica and other secular and sacred buildings.
An aqueduct supplying water to the area has been identified.
Research
From 1861 to 1867, the French government sent a team of archeologists led by Boissiere and Ernest Desjardins to Troesmis. The French team discovered 55 Latin inscriptions referring to the history of Troesmis, Legio V Macedonica and Legio I Italica.[15]
The research was continued by Gr. G Tocilescu, who destroyed ancient site walls in order to find and save the inscriptions.[12]
^Werner Eck, Die Lex municipalis Troesmensium: Ihr rechtlicher und politisch-sozialer Kontext in: C.-G. Alexandrescu (Hrsg.), Troesmis - a changing landscape. Romans and the Others in the Lower Danube Region in the First Century BC – Third Century AD. Proceedings of an International Colloquium Tulcea, 7th-10th of October 2015 (Cluj-Napoca 2016) 9–22.
^Laura-Diana Cizer, Toponimia județului Tulcea: considerații sincronice și diacronice, 303 pag., Editura Lumen, 2012
^ abVasile Barbu, Cristian Schuster Grigore G. Tocilescu si "Cestiunea Adamclisi" Pagini din Istoria Arheologiei Romanesti ISBN7-379-25580-0
^Bulletin de l'Institut de Corespondance Archeologicque de Rome, December 1864
^Alexandrescu, Cristina & Gugl, Christian. (2016). The Troesmis-Project 2011-2015 – Research Questions and Methodology, in: C.-G. Alexandrescu (Hrsg.), Troesmis - a changing landscape. Romans and the Others in the Lower Danube Region in the First Century BC – Third Century AD. Proceedings of an International Colloquium Tulcea, 7th-10th of October 2015 (Cluj-Napoca 2016) p 11
^Gr. G Tocilescu Adresa catre "Domnule Ministru alu Resbelului", MNA Archive, D7, File 1888, folio 64
^Alexandrescu, Cristina & Gugl, Christian. (2016). The Troesmis-Project 2011-2015 – Research Questions and Methodology, in: C.-G. Alexandrescu (Hrsg.), Troesmis - a changing landscape. Romans and the Others in the Lower Danube Region in the First Century BC – Third Century AD. Proceedings of an International Colloquium Tulcea, 7th-10th of October 2015 (Cluj-Napoca 2016) 9–22