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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2015
Ancient Halmyris lies in the NW corner of the Dobrudja region in SE Romania. It lies c.2.5 km east of the village of Murighiol on a rocky promontory which is slightly higher than the surrounding marshes. This is at the E end of the Dunavat peninsula (known in antiquity as Extrema Scythiae Minoris: Jord., Get. 266) and it is bordered by the Danube delta on the north and east, Razelm lake on the south, and the Tulcea hills on the west (fig. 1). The site was occupied continuously from at least the mid-first millennium B.C. up to the 7th c. A.D. The local environment, flora and fauna were favourable to settlement until as a result of natural causes the Danube became almost inaccessible; from that point on, the settlement became vulnerable to human and other natural events and eventually it became deserted.
The site is known today as Bataraia or Cetatea. In the early 20th c. the locals still called it the Genoese stronghold (Geneviz-Kaleh). In antiquity it lay on the bank of the southern arm of the Danube called Peuce (now known as Sfantu Gheorghe). Today the southern arm of the Danube runs 2 km north of the site and it is connected to Lake Murighiol by the Periboina canal. Until 1983 there were two lakes, c.100 and c.200 m from the site, modern relics of the ancient course of the river. To the east lie the Dunavat hills and to the south is Dealul Cetatea (“fort hill”) (fig. 2).
1 On the natural conditions of this remote peninsula see Ionescu, M. D., Dobrogea în preajma veacului al XX-lea (Bucharest 1904) 26–27 Google Scholar; Bratescu, G. in Dobrogea. Cincizeci de ani de vieata romaneasen (Bucharest 1928) 3–106 Google Scholar. See also Zahariade, M., Suceveanu, A., Opait, A., Opait, C. and Topoleanu, F., “Early and Late Roman fortification at Independenta, Tulcea county,” Dacia 31 (1987) 97–106 Google Scholar, and Zahariade, M., “An early and late Roman fort on the Danube,” Roman frontier studies 1989 (Proc. XV int. Congress) (Exeter 1991) 311–17Google Scholar.
2 Strabo 7.3.15; Plin., NH 4.12.79; see also Bratescu, C. in Analele Dobrogei 2 (1921) 227–41Google Scholar; id. in Buletinul Societăţii Regale de Geografie 54 (1935) 32–37; Vulpe, R., Dobrogea (Bucharest 1940) 63 and 80 Google Scholar.
3 Acta Sanctorum, Mensis Iulis f.539, 4. Bollandus quotes Rosweydus's opinion as follows: ex his collegitur Almiridensium civitatem in Scythiam esse …forte Salmonidis Antonini.
4 His notes in abbreviated form were not published until 1935. His manuscript was included in Tocilescu mss. 5132, f. 95 today in the Romanian Academy.
5 Moisil, C., Buletinul Comisiunii Monumentelor Istorice 2 (1909) 85–92 Google Scholar; ibid. 3 (1910) 93-94.
6 Weiss, J., Die Dobrudscha im Altertum (Sarajevo 1911) 55–56 Google Scholar.
7 Pârvan, V., RFil 2 (1924) 335 Google Scholar; RendPontAcc 2 (1924) 130 Google Scholar.
8 Brătianu, G., Recherches sur Vicina et Cetatea Alba (Bucharest 1935) 91 Google Scholar.
9 Aricescu, A., Armata in Dobrogea romanä (Bucharest 1977) 118–19, 170–78Google Scholar.
10 Bujor, E., Studii si Cercetări e Istorie Vecche 5 (1954) 590–601 Google Scholar and 6 (1955) 572; Materiale şi Cercetäri Arheologice 3 (1957) 247–53Google Scholar; ibid. 5 (1959) 377; ibid. 6 (1959) 328-29; ibid. 7 (1961) 299.
11 Ştefan, A. S., “Cetatea romană târzie de la Murighiol. Studiu aerofotografic,” Peuce 9 (1984) 297–310, 663–70Google Scholar. His interpretation has not been entirely confirmed by subsequent excavations but his plotting of the enclosure walls and towers and of the exterior defences have been of unquestionable help.
12 Published in 1986 were Suceveanu, A. and Zahariade, M., “Un nouveau vicus sur le territoire de la Dob-roudja romaine,” Dacia 30, 109–20Google Scholar and M. Zahariade, “Vexillation in northern Dobroudja,” ibid. 173- 76.
13 Inscriptiones Scythiae Minoris I, 67-68, with extended commentaries. This official document with accompanying letters in Greek and Latin settled the boundary of the territory of Histria.
14 Plin., NH 4.12.79: primum ostium Pences …; ex eodem alveo et super Histropolim lacus gignitur LXIII p. ambitu, Halmyrim vocant.
15 Scutum Durae Europi 14.
16 Itin. Ant. 226.4.
17 Suceveanu, A. and Zahariade, M., “Du nom antique de la cité romaine tardive d'Independenta (dep. Tulcea), Dacia 31 (1987) 91 Google Scholar.
18 Acta Sanctorum 543, 15 and 547, 33: Una igitur e diebus, dum ad hauriendam aquam pergeret ad Danubium. … Et statim cum festinatione ad fluvium descendit. Et ecce, circa horam tertiam, cernit naviculam parvam subito aplicuisse ad portum. See Netzhammer, R., “Epiktet und Astion. Diokletianische Märtyrer am Donaudelta,” Zug 1937, 8 Google Scholar; Delehaye, H., “Les martyrs Epictète et Astion,” Bull. Section historique, Académie Roumaine 14 (1928) 1–5 Google Scholar; Popescu, E., “Saints Epictète et Astion, martyrs à Halmyris,” Christianitas Daco Romana (Bucharest 1994) 92–100 Google Scholar.
19 See n.33 below.
20 Procop., Aed. 4.7.20.
21 Hierocl., Synecd. 637.14.
22 Darrouzès, J., Notitiae episcopatuum ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae. Texte critique, introduction et notes (Paris 1981) 40, 650 Google Scholar; cf. de Boor, C., Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 12 (1891) 531, 32Google Scholar.
23 Const. Porphy., De Them. [47] 1.58-60; Niceph. Call. Xanth., Hist. Eccl. 12.29.
24 Zahariade (supra n.12) 173-76.
25 Suceveanu and Zahariade (supra n.12) 109-20.
26 Cf. Johnson, S., The Roman forts of the Saxon Shore (London 1976) 34–62 Google Scholar.
27 Aricescu (supra n. 9) 32-37; Zahariade, M., The fortifications of Lower Moesia (A.D. 86-275) (Amsterdam 1997) 30, 44 Google Scholar.
28 Zahariade, M., “New epigraphical finds in the Roman fort of Independenta, Tulcea county,” Dacia 34 (1990) 262–63Google Scholar, no. 5.
29 Ibid. 261-62.
30 Aricescu (supra n.9) 41-44; Zahariade ibid.
31 Zahariade et al. (supra n.l) 102-3.
32 Zahariade, M., “The Halmyris Tetrarchic inscription” ZPE 119 (1997) 283 Google Scholar.
33 HE 10.6: Ἀλλ´ ἡ μὲν Ἀλμυρις κρισταλλωνθέντος τοῦ Ἴστρου ὑπὸ τῶν διαβάντων αὐτὸν βαρβάρων ἀλίσκεται […
34 Only a small part of the skull and a few fragments of ribs, the pelvis, and parts of the femur were preserved.
