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veterans or civilians. After 106, a large part of the soldiers released were endowed
with land across Dacia, or in the south western part of it. For now, from an
archaeological point of view, such agricultural farms (
villae rusticae
)
have been
unveilled near important army settlements and on urban grounds of later Ulpia
Trajana Sarmizegetusa, Drobeta, Tibiscum and Dierna. These were simple structures,
representing the houses, buildings with 3 or 5 rooms. The most significant of the
villae rusticae
were discovered near Tibiscum at Iaz (1), Caransebeş (2); railroad Triaj
Caransebeş (1) etc. Criciova (1); Brebu (1), maybe one at Dalboşeţ and Lăpuşnicel.
Another area dominated by rural farms was established around the fort of
Praetorium.
They are not archaeologically
confirmed, but a few funerary inscriptions
mention magisters and individuals that held important functions in the first decades
of the 2
nd
century inside
Colonia Dacica
, a real sign of the fact that the veterans
and civillians settling here were endowed with land on their arrival. On isolated
grounds, in the Almăj valley, a few agrarian settlements were discovered at
Lăpuşnicel
,
Cărbunari
perhaps Petnic (“
Selişte
”) and Prigor (“
la Odăi
”). Archaeo-
logically documented number of rural settlements is reduced.
Urban centres of south west Dacia
. The economic development of the province
found north of the Danube alongside the aspects concerning the social status of its
population, the cultural life as it was, influenced the endowment of some settlements to
the rank of
municipia
by emperor Septimius Severus. In south west Dacia, two
towns existed
Tibiscum
and
Dierna
each bearing its own destiny. The first one
based its development on the army whose needs ensurred the economic prosperity
needed for positive evolution. The second, Dierna, judging by discoveries done so
far was a first class trading point of Dacia an knew only civil evolution.
Tibiscum
. The placement of ancient
Tibiscum is still in debate among
specialists. One generalized opinion would reffer to the fact that the military
vicus
or in any case the settlement that shaped itself on the left Timiş river bank, in the
site, called “Peste ziduri”, would have been the ancient city. The second opinion,
expressed long time ago, initiated by Ortvay Tivadar sustained that the civil
settlement was formed at the imperial crossroadss. We subscribe to this second
opinion having documentary sources and considerations to sustain it.
The civil urban settlement formed along the Dierna–Tibiscum imperial road.
It was a place where a civil community was established in time. Epigrafical and
archeological sources lack for now. At the beginning, the settlement developed on
the right side of the antic road, where habitated marks are often revealed. We have
no clues on the existence of an autochtonous settlement on the spot, but Dacian
elements are documented bu archaeological researches carried on the entire territory
of ancient
Tibiscum
(II, III forts and inside the great fort) alongside houses and
workshops, fact evidentiated by the large ammount of handicrafted ceramics,
having Dacian origins found.
Dierna
. The ancient civilian settlement formed along the Danube, in the
narrow space found between the river and the hilly area nearby. Reconstructing the
area of development for ancient Dierna was realised after the location of random
archaeological discoveries found in time and kept in the deposits of the local