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

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296 Slavoljub Gacović
indicates that during the invasion of Germanic and Sarmatian tribes during
the third centuries, the population of provinces of Moesia Prima and Dacia
Nova had already been Romanized. .
Decades-long struggle with the Germanic and other tribes in the third
and the fourth centuries led to the formation of the prefecture of Illyria,
although the formation did not go so easily, because the process of
emergence was taking place from 379 to 395. In the newly formed prefecture
of Illyricum, beside the usual border squads, commanded by dux Moesiae
Prima and dux Daciae Ripensis, due to frequent fights with barbarians, a
separate command was established, headed by a magister militum per
Illyricum with one legio palatine, eight „movable“ legio comitatensis, nine
legio pseudocomitatensis, six squads called Auxilia palatine and two special
Cavalry Squads vexillatio comitatensis, which brought about a remarkably
greater concentration of military forces than in other regions of the Roman
Empire. If we add a number of forts, which were, at that time, probably reerected
on the Danube border, which Justinian restored at the end of the first
half of the sixth century, it seems that the provinces of Moesia Prima and
Dacia Ripensis were densely populated with a settled Roman and native
Romanized population, which was in contact with a population of Gothic
foederati, who were themselves in the process of Romanization in the late
fourth century, gave a special community in which the achievements of
Roman civilization blended with elements of Chemnyakov - Santana de
Mures culture in today's Timok zone.
In addition to the defense of the border from the barbarians, one of the
first tasks of the legions and auxiliary squads in Moesia Superior, and later
in Moesia Prima and Dacia Ripensis, was the construction of highways and
local roads (viae vicinales), military camps and settlements. On major roads
(via militaris, via publica, Agger publicus or strata) a greater number of
intermediate stations and settlements (mensiones, stationes) was created and
developed between major cities and locations that provided timely
acceptance of passengers. The names of these stations in part explain their
purpose, so that mansiones were used for the recreation of passengers,
stationes for acceptance and accommodation, mutatio to replace horse-drawn
carts or cars, for example mutatio ad Sextum, mutatio ad Nonum, mutatio ad
Octavum, mutatio Tricornia, mutatio Vingeio and the like, or castella and
praesidio, for example, Praesidium Pompei and Praesidium Dasmini, with
military territorial crews, kept travcicrs, traders and other people safe from
robbers, and single guarding towers (turres) such as Turres (Turibas) in
today's Pirot, were used for detection of movement of various robbing
gangs. These stations on the roads also suggest various means of
communication of natives with Roman population, which certainly
contributed to an overall Romanization of the province.
Romanizacija i romansko stanovništvo Timočke zone (I-XVI vek) 297
In addition to these intermediate stations, there were other areas that
served passengers, such as barns and warehouses for merchants. In time,
around some of these stations, small villages developed, and sometimes
latifundia, and other objects which served passengers and permanently
settled residents, such as wells (ad putea Bpdoic), as evidenced by mutatio
Urisio near Bergule, public baths (thermae), restaurants (tabernae), resting
places for travelling military and government officials (praeforia) or craft
workshop (fabrica, officina), the aqueducts and buildings with facilities for
accommodation and processing of agricultural products (villa rustica
Jructuaria), as well as luxury housing with floor mosaics and paintings on
the walls and sculptures (villa rustica habitatoria). A particularly significant
progress was noticed in those villages where natural resources were
abundant, so that there were spas (balneum), where there were hot springs,
and mines (Metallum), where mineral resources were exploited. All this
contributed to better economic development on the main routes as well as on
the side. The residents of these settlements were in contact with the native
inhabitants of nearby villages for mutual benefit in exchanging goods and
thus contributed to the general Romanization of the province of Moesia
Superior, i.e. Moesia Prima and Dacia Ripensis during Late Antiquity.
At well-researched ancient archaeological settlements in the Balkan
Peninsula, it was observed that the Roman military camps were usually
brought up in nearby native villages (vicus), and around military camps, i.e.
forts, we have resulting civilian settlements, some of which get status of a
municipality or a colony, which is understandable, bearing in mind that the
supply of camp food, water and other needs was first organized from local
environment. It may be, more or less, said that all cities with native names
(Thracian, Illyrian, Celtic) appeared near to or precisely at places of former
native settlements, which certainly shows once again the overall
Romanization of the native population.
Universal Romanization of the ancient and classical Roman population
took place with the development of economic activities. Upon retirement
from the Army, veteran legions in the second and third century received
substantial amounts of money that were invested in agriculture, to which
they devoted special attention due to agricultural deities in Singidunum,
Raciaria, Tricornium etc., then in trade, in places where they settled, to
which the imperial decrees from the fifth century indirectly indicate, which
knew of their activities undertaken in commercial activities and crafts via the
liberated. That some of the veterans were well off, it can be observed by the
fact that they had slaves, purchased or bred in their own home, and free
people, by investing in the performance of public works, for example in