The Tropaeum
Traiani fortress lies inside the perimeter of Adamclisi
village, at approximately 70 km South-West of Constanta. The
triumphal monument is on the North side of Adamclisi on top
of the Monument Hill, a 161 m high plateau surrounded by
three important components: the altar can be seen now as a
tumulus at a distance of 50 m to the North, the mausoleum at
a distance of 250 m to the East and the Tropaeum Traiani
fortress in the Urluiei Valley at a distance of approx. 1,5
km to the South-East, close to the Bucharest-Constanta
highway. 66 km before entering Adamclisi village the wall of
the ancient site can be seen. These have been restored in
the years 1971–1977.
The monument
has been erected in the years 106-109 and was supposed to
glorify and commemorate the victories over the Dacian and
their allied Sarmatians and Germans during the first Dacian
War. The huge stone socle with a truncated cone roof holding
the trophy’s statue, the stereobate, has been designed in
the architectural style of Apollodorus of Damascus. The
Deleni quarry has been exploited for the construction of the
monument. This quarry lies at a distance of 3.5 km from the
monument. The stone material from this area has been
processed directly at the construction site. The bigger or
smaller blocks - metopes, friezes, columns, parament pieces
– were cut and finished and the small and misshaped
splinters formed an immense, entirely horizontal leveling
ground where the stairs, the parament assizes and the metope
row with columns started. Each such row formed the mold for
pouring mortar stones in successive layers.
The monument
basement (crepidoma) is 2.07 m high. The cylindrical tambour
(stereobate) and its truncated cone roof hold the trophy and
represent the main, impressive part of the monument. The
decorative strip at a medium height of the cylindrical
tambour is share of a narrative-decorative assembly built of
metopes alternating with small columns and framed at the
basis by inferior and superior friezes rows. The roof is
shaped as a truncated cone as a result of an ingenious
architectonic combination of scale shaped stone plates.
Behind the parapet elevation lays the superior promenade
deck. The central tower completely integrated within the
emplacement continues with the superstructure that consists
also of several elements: two hexagonal basements, the
prisoners’ group and the trophy. The trophy represents the
main piece of the entire assembly; it has the form of 11.53
m tree trunk. It had two overlapping stone blocks and
represented a Roman armor of an officer wearing also a Greek
Iorica.
Only few
decorative pieces and inscription fragments with the names
of 3,800 of soldiers have been preserved from the funeral
military altar.
The Tropaeum
Traiani Civitas has been built at the same time with the
monument upon an older Geta-Dacian settlement. Like other
aboriginal settlements it was took over in Roman ruling.
Under the reign of Trajan the city had developed very much
due to its neighboring position to the monument and also to
the entire fortification system on the Danube limes. Very
important for the development of the city had been the
fortress at Durostorum (Silistra), Altinum (Oltina),
Sucidava (Izvoarele), Sacidava (Dunareni), Axiopolis (Cernavoda).
In 170 a.D.
the fortress has been violently destroyed by the Costobici
invasion. Archeological diggings have discovered that
afterwards the fortress has been rebuilt and continued its
development until the 3rd century a.D. Many
public and private edifices have been erected, also streets,
channels, aqueducts. The violent carpo-Goth invasion amidst
the 3rd century a.D. destroyed the fortress
again. The site wall has been reconstructed by Constantine
the Great and Lycinius during the 4th century.
The Roman-Byzantine period has brought to Tropaeum Traiani
an economical growth due to the politics of the emperors
Anastasius and Justinian. This was the time when the
fortress turned into an important civilian center. A real
explosion of architectural works expresses this development
by public edifices both religious and laic. At the beginning
of the 7th century a.D. the invasions of the
Avars, the Slavs and Bulgarians have marked the ending of a
flourishing Roman-Byzantine fortress.
The fortress
site and the edifices that can be visited nowadays date from
the Roman-Byzantine period (4th – 6th
century a.D.). The entrance is through the eastern gate
along via principalis where several public and religious
edifices stand: basilica forensic, basilica cisterna, living
houses, shops, aqueducts, etc. The archeological diggings in
present times focus mainly on the transept basilica and on
the northern gate.
The original pieces of the triumphal monument
and also numerous archeological evidences found inside the
fortress are exhibited in the site’s museum in Adamclisi
village. The triumphal monument was reconstructed in the
years 1972 – 1977.
