Gacovic Od romanskog stanovnistva do Rumuna Timocana (VII-XVI vek) knjiga III (1)

294 Slavoljub Gacović
in the nearby small forts along the frontier, such as Taliata, Transdierna,
Pontes, Egetae, Novae, Smornae (Zmirnae), Ad Scrofulas and many others.
Thus, many legionnaires originating from the Romanized western
provinces contributed to the overall Romanization of the natives of Moesiae
Superior, which would come into contact with the natives during the time of
the service, which lasted up to twenty years and, and the mentioned extra
units more contributed to the process of Romanization, most of whom were
recruited in the nearby settlements. Many camps for stationed legions and
numerous auxiliary squads, alas and cohorts in the province of Moesia
Superior, were built precisely by the soldiers themselves, which we conclude
on the basis of their names on the epitaphs. The settlement of legion veterans
and other retired soldiers was done individually and without the intervention
of emperors until the early second century. We know from very reliable
lapidary signs that a deduction of veterans come from the Legions IV Flavia
and VII Claudia, which are no older than the end of the first and the
beginning of the second century, and we can find them up to the third ·
century, and several inscriptions of the Legion XIII Gemina moved in 270
AD. on the territory of Moesia Superior after the withdrawal of
administration, army and most of the Romanized population of Dacia
Traiana.
The origin of veteran settlements in the province of Moesia Superior
in the first century is from the Western Romanized areas of the Empire.
These are, first of all, veterans who originate from Italy, Gallia Narbonensis,
Hispania Taraconensis from the area Liburnia in Dalmatia, etc., and in the
second century the recruiting of veterans was extended to Africa and Asia
Minor, and the descendants of the first Roman settlers from the area Ratiaria,
Viminacium, Remesiana from among the population of Moesiae Superior.
The origin of Legionnaires of the Legion VI Claudia recruited in 169 A.D.
and discharged in 195 A.D. was changed by 100 legionnaires from a total of
139 names who come from the towns of Upper Moesia, 8 out of Lower
Pannonia, 6 from Dacia, two from Lower Moesia, 12 from Thrace, 3 from
Macedonia, 1 from Bithynia and Pontus, and one of Asia Mnor. This data
tells us that a lot of legionnaires of upper Moesia legions in the second half
of the second century were recruited among the Romanized natives in upper
Moesian settlements, vici and canabae. We get the confirmation of this by
the names of their relatives, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers coming
from lapidary inscriptions, whicii ae of native origin, Thracian, Illyrian,
Celtic, and others. The names of retired legions from the second century
inscriptions indicate that they were residents of Moesia Superior towns, and
during the Severs Dynasty (193-235) they were, with their families, settled
in canabae by the military camps, which led to the blurring of distinction
between civilian and military population on the outskirts in the first half of
Romanizacija i romansko stanovništvo Timočke zone (I-XVI vek) 295
the third century, i.e. the population was completely Romanized, and used
the Latin language.
In economic terms, this led to major changes, because the active
soldiers received land, livestock and slaves from the state in border areas.
When we add the famous edict of Emperor Caracalla Constitutio
Antoniniana from 212, we can only imagine the changes which occurred in
the town and Romanized population in the Balkan provinces.
According to the lapidary inscriptions dated to the second and third
centuries, one may dgtermine the origin of the members of legions, alas and
cohorts stationed on the border and in the interior of Moesia Superior and
conclude that the majority of them came from a wider and further area of
upper Moesian camps' and some from other Balkan provinces, i.e., that
„much of the population of towns and other settlements on the border in the
second and the third centuries, was originally from the Danube countries,
often coming from Romanized natives“. However, native names rarely
occur, although those recruited in the area of military camps can be claimed
to be of Thracian or Illyrian origin. These natives, members of auxiliary
detachment, settling in the vicinity of military camps increased the
„Romanized layer in the province* and „at the end of the second and early
third century there were the sons of cohort veterans who served in the
legions. On the basis of military diplomas, which bestowed Roman
citizenship to the veteran megnbers of the auxiliary units and their family
members, coming from the native population, it seems that the contacts of
this kind started relatively early.
According to Eutropius, „the province of Dacia, which Trajan on the
other side of the Danube had made, [Aurelian] abandoned, not hoping to
preserve it ... and evacuated the Romans from the towns and fields of Dacia,
settling them in the midst of Moesia, on the right side of the Danube ...“, so
we can speak of the Roman population that was once brought to Dacia, and
about Romanized Dacians, who boosted the process of Romanization in the
newly formed provinces of Moesia Prima and Dacia Nova.
Onomastics of women from the period after Alexander Severus’s
reforms in the third century says that the relationships of soldiers with the
civil settlement were limited to the Romanized layer, i.e., their women had
Greek and Latin names or the names of the Kings from the first and the
second centuries and originate probably from the layer of early immigrated
Roman inhabitants of the Danube area. Some women had gentile names,
such as Aelia and Aurelia, which is testified by the inscriptions of soldiers,
who themselves had the gentile name Aurelius and they surely come from
the ranks of Roman citizens, who have acquired Roman civil rights at the
time of the second and the third century Emperors, and veterans’ wives with
Latin and Greek names also came from the Romanized population. All this