Sofia-Archeological-museum-lapidarium-19

Ratiaria (or: Ratsaria, Raetiaria, Retiaria, Reciaria, Razaria; ; ;) was a city founded by the Moesians, a Daco- Thracian tribe, in the 4th century BC, along the river

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

. In Roman times it was named '' Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria''. It is located 2 km west of the present village of Archar in Vidin Province, northwestern

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

and 3 km east of the present Balta Neagră Natural Reserve in southern

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. The closest modern cities are Vidin (27 km to the north west), Lom (28 km to the east) in Bulgaria and Calafat (41 km to the north) in Romania. An archaeological museum for the site has recently been established in Dimovo.

History

Ratiaria was conquered by the

Dacians The Dacians (; ; ) were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often considered a subgroup of the Thracians. This area include ...

of Burebista and later by the Romans. There was a gold mine in the city, which was exploited by the

Thracians The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared betwee ...

. The city may have owed its success to the goldsmiths. The earliest involvement of the Romans occurred in 75 BC when Gaius Scribonius Curio, prefect of Macedonia, entered this territory to ward off the Scordisci, the Dardani and the

. In 29 BC, Marcus Licinius Crassus, the grandson of the triumvir, fought the Triballi here. Ratiaria was a fortified city by this point. It was not until the

principate The Principate was the form of imperial government of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the Dominate. The principate was ch ...

of Augustus that the Romans conquered the region, which was organised into a province named Moesia. In 33/34 AD Tiberius built the road linking the Danube forts including Viminacium and Ratiaria. The city was less important than the nearby Sirmium, Viminacium and Naissus, but its legionary fortress for Legio IV Flavia Felix on the Danubian Limes together with the fleet of the '' Classis Moesica'' under

Vespasian Vespasian (; ; 17 November AD 9 – 23 June 79) was Roman emperor from 69 to 79. The last emperor to reign in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for 27 years. His fiscal reforms and consolida ...

made it a key station. After the division of Moesia in 86 AD, the city became the capital of Upper Moesia. Legio IV Flavia Felix was based here at least until the conquest of Dacia (101-106 AD) when the '' castrum'' was abandoned and the settlement became a '' colonia'' within Moesia Superior named ''Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria'' (107 AD) after its founder the Emperor

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries Ratiaria became prosperous as a trade centre and customs port. A number of Roman patricians (aristocrats) lived in Ratiaria, while the nearby Bononia (today's Vidin) was home to a small military unit. With the definitive abandonment of Dacia Traiana by Aurelian in 271, the old ''castra'' in the region were reopened. It is unclear whether Aurelian or the Emperor

Diocletian Diocletian ( ; ; ; 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed Jovius, was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Diocles to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia. As with other Illyri ...

replaced Dacia Aureliana with two provinces,Bury, p. 135. "The date must be A.D. 283, and it is obvious that Aurelian set up the boundary stones, one of which Gaianus restored. There were, then, two Dacias when Diocletian came to the throne and, therefore, Mr. Fillow has inferred that we should read in our List: Dacia , that is presumably Dacia Ripensis and Dacia Mediterranea. Aurelian's Dacia mediterranea might have included Dardania, and Dardania, Mr. Fillow thinks, was split off as a distinct province by Diocletian." but by 285, there were two: – Dacia Mediterranea with its capital at '' Serdica'' (

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

) and Dacia Ripensis with its capital at ''Ratiaria''. As the capital of the new province Ratiaria served both as the seat of the military governor (or dux) and as the military base for the

Roman legion The Roman legion (, ) was the largest military List of military legions, unit of the Roman army, composed of Roman citizenship, Roman citizens serving as legionary, legionaries. During the Roman Republic the manipular legion comprised 4,200 i ...

XIII ''Gemina''. Later these two new Dacias along with Dardania, Moesia Inferior and Praevalitana constituted the Diocese of Dacia. An important bishop's cathedra was established in the town in the 4th century AD. The city became an important Christian centre in the 4th century and several bishops are recorded. Palladius of Ratiaria, an Arian Christian theologian, lived here in the late 4th century. In 440 or 441 the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

sacked Ratiaria. Rebuilding works were done under Anastasius I, celebrated in the new town's name, ''Anastasiana Ratiaria''. Priscus calls it a prosperous city in the 5th century. In AD 586 the town was sacked by the Avars. Archaeological excavations of the site began in 1958 and have continued sporadically since then.

Archaeology

Investigative journalist Ivan Dikov states that only a small part of the site, which was excavated in the 1980s by a Bulgarian-Italian mission, is left unexplored and unattended. Dikov continues to say that the remaining 20ha of the site has been illegally dug up by hand and machines and that the site is reduced to hills and craters. According to Dikov, local witnesses saw that at one point in the late 1990s, the site was split between the mayor, the police, local people and high-ranking people from Sofia. In the city, there are ruins of an audience hall with a mosaic of Oprheus, jewelry, and ancient coins. File:Vidin history museum - Ratiaria findings - 01.jpg , File:Vidin history museum - Ratiaria findings - 02.jpg , File:Vidin history museum - Ratiaria findings - 04.jpg , File:Vidin history museum - Ratiaria findings - 05.jpg , File:Vidin history museum - Ratiaria findings - 06.jpg , File:Vidin history museum - Ratiaria findings - 07.jpg , File:Vidin history museum - Ratiaria findings - 08.jpg , File:Vidin history museum - Ratiaria findings - 12.jpg , File:Vidin history museum - Ratiaria findings - 10.jpg , File:Vidin history museum - Ratiaria findings - 13.jpg ,

Ecclesiastical history

As provincial capital of Dacia Ripensis, it also was the Metropolitan archdiocese. In 304 or 305, during the Great Persecution three Christian men named Jan, Aggaeus, and Gaius were executed in the city. Palladius, a bishop of the city, was a strong supporter of

Arianism Arianism (, ) is a Christology, Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is co ...

Titular see

The archdiocese was nominally restored in 1925 as a Latin Catholic titular archbishopric of the highest (Metropolitan) rank. The incumbent is Kurian Mathew Vayalunkal, having the following previous incumbents: * Gustave-Charles-Marie Mutel (민 아우구스티노), Paris Foreign Missions Society (M.E.P.) (11 January 1926 – 22 January 1933) * Andrew Killian (11 July 1933 – 5 November 1934) * Anselm Edward John Kenealy, Capuchin Franciscans (O.F.M. Cap.) (13 January 1936 – 8 December 1943) * Nikolay Avtonomov (6 October 1945 – 13 August 1979) * Marian Oleś (28 November 1987 – 24 May 2005) * Kurian Mathew Vayalunkal (3 May 2016 – present )

Famous locals

* Palladius of Ratiaria, late 4th century Arian Christian theologian

References

Sources and external links

Bulgarian Archaeological Association - Excavations at Ratiaria

Archaeological excavations of Ratiaria by the village of Archar

Sarcophagus Ratiaria (Image)
{{Dacian cities Moesia Moesia Superior Dacia Ripensis Dacian towns Roman towns and cities in Bulgaria Former populated places in Bulgaria Geography of Vidin Province Catholic titular sees in Europe Roman legionary fortresses in Bulgaria