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Tisza and Mureş during antiquity. Partially preserved, the inscription presents a
knight career inhabitant of Ulpia Trajana named
M.
Papirius…
who after
prima
militia
having the quality of
praefectus cohortis
I
Pannoniorum
of Dacia, held a
second one as
praefectus ripae Danuvii Tibissi
and than the third or even at the
same time that of
curator pontis Augusti in Moesia
, only to retire after in the capital
city of Dacia where he was
II vir
and
patronus
of Colonia (Benea 2015, p. 93–104).
The inscription text prooves the existence of Roman controll spread over to the
Tisza bank. Asserting that during Trajan, the entire south west territory of Dacia up
to Tisza was under Roman rule, not very clear under which form. Nor how farther
North along Tisza it went, we cannot state, as we mentioned above. Judging by
archaeological and numismatic clues found in Crişana, the area can be linked with
Trajans period. The marshland in front of Tisza made the area impenetrable, being
a natural barieer against any barbarian attacks that tried to penetrate Tisza and
advance East towards the province, even though Roman units were established on
the western communication line of
Lederata–Tibiscum
and there was one supposed
fort placed in front of this defensive line, the one from Vârşeţ.
During the first years after the Roman conquest we do not encounter major
political and military events in this sector, besides the construction of the main
Roman earth fortifications. Roads were also built along south bank of Danube
River, the imperial roads with military character from
Dierna–Tibiscum
and
Lederata–Tibiscum
associated with secondary connection roads.
During Hadrian (117–138) one can observe that west of the allignement of
fortifications found at Lederata–Tibiscum, a nearby construction was realised, an
element of fortification made of a ditch and rampant probably meant to be a
dividing line between the occupied Roman territory and the the plains that
stretched to Tisza. The orientation of this structure was from South to North. It
started from the Danube, East of Banatska Palanka (Serbia), went towards North,
in parallel with the fort line
Lederata–Berzobis
(through nowadays Jamul Mic,
Jamul Mare, Butin, Berecuţa, Birda, Stamora Română, Sacoşul Turcesc, Ianova,
Bencecu de Sus, Remetea Mică, Neudorf) and continued up to Mureş. It didnt
crossed over the Mureş line, delimitating the ancient controlled space.
On Romanian and Serbian territory, along this ditch and rampant structure no
archaeological researches were carried out whatsoever. By default, we do not have
any precise chronological data. It appears closest to the line of Lederata–Tibiscum
fortifications. Weave flattening and lack of field research on its trail leads us to
believe that it could represent
a first line of defense to protect the fortifications
mentioned, which may be from Hadrian’s era
. In this case, the Roman withdrawal
in front of the floodable plane was earlier and, in military terms, it was correctly
engineered thus, clearly outlining two areas: the hilly mountain – found under Roman
occupation and a second one – of plain, westwards, as a buffer to Tisza, where no
rural settlements were doccumented at the time, judging by the archaeological
findings and field researches made so far. It shows that in the first half of the
2
nd
century, the territory of the Banat plain up to Tisza River, a
terra deserta
was
maintained by the Romans and watched closely by troops of Lederata–Tibiscum