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The Moesian Limes () is the modern term given to a linked series of Ancient Rome castra on the northern frontier of the Roman province of Moesia along the Danube between the Black Sea shore and Pannonia (present-day Hungary) and dating from the 1st century AD. It was the eastern section of the so-called
/ref> and protected the Roman provinces of Upper and Lower Moesia south of the river. The eastern section (today in Romania) is often called the limes Scythiae minoris
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/ref> includes essentially the linked forts and stations along the Danube from Singidunum (Belgrade) to the mouth of the Danube on the Black Sea.R. Ployer, M. Polak, R. Schmidt, The Frontiers of the Roman Empire. A Thematic Study and proposed World Heritage Nomination Strategy, Vienna/Nijmegen/Munich, 2017, p. 41, 75-6 It was not fortified with palisades or a boundary wall but the forts were linked by a road and included eight legionary fortresses, many forts for auxiliary troops and watch/signal towers.Emil Jęczmienowski, The Fortifications of the Upper Moesian Limes. Topography, Forms, Garrison Sizes, Światowit:
annual oF the institute oF archaeology of the university of warsaw, Vol. X (li) (2012) Forts along the Danube are 10 to 30 km apart and inter-visibility does not often exist.
The legionary fortresses included:
Other forts on the Danube limes included:Jęczmienowski, Emil. “The Fortifications of the Upper Moesian Limes on the Eve of Trajan’s Dacian Wars.” Ad Fines Imperii Romani. Studia Thaddaeo Sarnowski Ab Amicis, Collegis Discipulisque Dedicata, 2015.
The frontier was divided into two major sections by the river Iskar at Oescus which also marked the border between the provinces of Moesia Superior and Inferior.
The gorge of the river at Djerdap formed a barrier between north-west and north-east Moesia that was difficult to overcome, initially making communication between the Pannonian and the Moesian armies difficult. This problem was solved only by the construction of a 3m-wide road under Trajan, who had the Legio VII Claudia chisel into the rock walls replacing a wooden towpath construction that was susceptible to damage by drift ice. Other improvements for shipping included the construction of a canal near Novi Sip to avoid the dangerous rapids and shoals there. The two ends of the canal were secured with forts. The best-known building on the Moesian Limes was Trajan's Bridge at Drobeta/ Turnu Severin from the early 2nd century AD, the first permanent bridge connection across the lower Danube which was also guarded on both banks by forts.
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The Dacians raided south of the Danube in 68/69Tacitus, Historiae, III, 46. and at the end of 85 or the beginning of 86 AD the Dacian king Duras attacked Moesia and caught the Romans by surprise since the governor, Oppius Sabinus, and his forces were annihilated.Mócsy (1974), p82. Just before Domitian's Dacian War that followed, Domitian replaced the wood and earth walls of Danubian forts by stone walls in 87 AD (e.g. at Taliata). Accompanied by Cornelius Fuscus, Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, he personally arrived in Moesia with legions Legio IV Flavia Felix from Dalmatia, Legio I Adiutrix and Legio II Adiutrix and eventually cleared the invaders from the province.
“because of the dangerous cataracts he diverted the river and made the whole Danube navigable”: (ob periculum cataractarum, derivato flumine, tutam Danuvii navigationem facit).
Trajan restored stone defences in the area and rebuilt all earthworks in stone. Just below the Pontes fort a large port and massive horrea were built.
Between the first and second Dacian wars, from 103 to 105, the imperial architect Apollodorus of Damascus constructed Trajan's Bridge, one of the greatest achievements in Roman architecture.
Full military occupation of the plain between the Carpathian foothills and the Danube may already have occurred by the end of Trajan’s First Dacian War (101/102). The majority of forts here, however, were established after the final conquest of the Dacian kingdom in 106 AD. However, the Romans did remove the garrisons of the Danube Limes because of the need to preserve the control of transport and trade on the danube (Gudea N., Die nordgrenze der römischen provinz obermoesien. Materialien zu ihrer Geschichte (86–275 n. Chr.), “Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen zentralmuseums Mainz” 48, 1–118. and because troops there were a kind of strategic reserve for other fronts if needed.
The abandonment of Moldova and the creation of the Limes Transalutanus can both be tentatively dated to the reign of Hadrian.
After a long period of peace Septimius Severus reconstructed the Moesia Superior defences and under Caracalla more reconstruction was done as can be seen at Pontes where, as with many other Iron Gates forts, the original layout was supplemented with the gates and towers. A new fort was built on an island at the Porečka river.
In the Late Roman period, the extent of control and military occupation over territory north of the Danube remains controversial. One Roman fort ( Pietroasele), well beyond the Danubian Limes and near Moldavia, seems to have been occupied in the 4th century AD, as were bridge-head forts (Sucidava, Sucidava photos Barboşi, and the unlocated Constantiniana Daphne) along the left bank of the river. Archeological research about Romans in Romania during the 3rd and 4th centuries (in Romanian)
The "Brazda lui Novac de Nord" (or "Constantine Wall") has been shown by recent excavations to date from emperor Constantine I around 330 AD,Wacher. The Roman world p.189 at the same time as the "Devil's Dykes" (or "Limes Sarmatiae"), a series of defensive earthen ramparts-and-ditches built by the Romans between Romania and the Pannonian Basin plains. Map showing the Roman fortifications in the 4th century
Similarly, although considered 1st century and believed to predate the Limes Transalutanus, the function and origins of a shorter section of bank and ditch known as the "Brazda lui Novac de Sud" remain uncertain. The absence of any evidence for Late Roman forts or settlements along its course and south of it rather suggests a later, probably medieval, date.
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