THE WARRIOR ON THE HILL – An Extraordinary Burial from the Tribanjska Draga canyon in western Croatia

UD: Feb. 2019

 

 

 

From the hills east of the Tribanjska Draga canyon in western Croatia, not far from the Adriatic coast, comes one of the most enigmatic ancient burials from Eastern Europe.

 

Discovered by local shepherds in 2006, the cremation burial in the Sveta Trojica area yielded a Roman sword (Gladius of the ‘Mainz’ type), a spearhead, shield boss and nails, as well as a ceramic urn and ‘chalice’ – the nature of the weapons and Roman caligae type nails indicating that the burial was that of a Roman soldier, and dated to the early 1st c. AD. However, it also became clear from the geographical context and the burial ritual that this was no ordinary ‘Roman’ burial.

 

Weapons from the Warrior Burial at Sveta Trojica
(after Tonc et al 2010: Tonc A., Radman-Livaja I., Dizdar M. The Warrior Grave from Sveta Trojica near Starigrad Paklenica. In: Proceedings of the International conference Weapons and Military Equipment in a Funerary Context. Zagreb 2010. pp. 245 – 258)

 

Location of the Site

 

 

In the late Iron Age this area was inhabited by an Illyrian Liburnian population, the burial rite practiced by whom was inhumation, thus ruling out the possibility that this was a local individual who had served in the Roman army. Furthermore, in the area where the burial was discovered no evidence has been found of a garrison or other Roman military presence which would explain the burial of a Roman soldier at this location. A further surprising twist is that the sword from the burial shows clear evidence of having been ritually ‘killed’, indicating that the deceased was actually of Celtic origin (loc cit).

The Funerary Urn from the Burial at Sveta Trojica
(after Tonc et al 2010)

 
So how does one explain the burial of a Celtic warrior with Roman weapons in an area inhabited by Illyrians?

It is a well documented fact that a large proportion of Roman forces on the Balkans, and other parts of the empire, consisted of soldiers of Celtic origin. For example, recent research from Romania shows that circa 25% of the Roman peregrine population in Dacia were Celts:

 

Ethnic origin of Roman auxiliary troops in Dacia

https://balkancelts.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/hounds-of-the-empire-celtic-roman-legions-on-the-balkans/

 

In the western Balkans, a number of other cases have been registered of Roman soldiers buried according to Celtic ritual. Such is the case, for example, with ‘Roman’ burials at sites such as Novo Mesto – Beletov Vrt and Verdun pri Stopičah in Slovenia, where the weapons were also deformed in the distinctive Celtic fashion (Tonc et al 2010).

 

Thus, in light of the available archaeological evidence it appears that the warrior from Sveta Trojica was part of a Roman military unit which passed through this region of Croatia at the beginning of the 1st century. The fact that he was buried according to Celtic ritual further indicates that this Roman force also contained other individuals from this ethnic group and represents further evidence that, although formally ‘Romans’, these warriors retained their own religious traditions and sense of ethnic identity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

̾
̾
̾
̾
̾

̾
̾
̾
̾
̾

̾
̾
̾
̾
̾

̾

̾
̾
̾
̾
̾Mac Congail

HOUNDS OF THE EMPIRE – Celtic Roman Legions on the Balkans

(UD: November 2018)

 

The Roman conquest of southeastern Europe logically led to the influx of substantial numbers of Roman military units into the region to consolidate the empires control. The presence of Celtic military units in the Roman army on the Balkans are well recorded. For example, in the Roman province of Moesia Superior the Celtic cohors I Lusitanorum (Celtiberian), III Gallorum, IV Gallorum, V Gallorum, VII Gallorum and VIII Gallorum  are mentioned in a diploma from 28 April 75 (RMD I 2); II Gallorum Macedonica, V Gallorum, I Flavia Hispanorum milliaria and V Hispanorum from 16 September 94 (CIL XVI 3, RMD V 335); I Lusitanorum, II Hispanorum, II Brittonum (milliaria) and III Brittonum  from 8 May 100 (CIL XVI 46; see Matei-Popescu 2006-2007). 

 Of particular interest is an observable pattern of dispatching Celtic military units to areas in which a significant Celtic presence is recorded in the pre-Roman period. Examples of such are the cohors IV Gallorum equitata stationed at Oescus (near modern Gigen, Pleven region) between AD 62 and AD 71 (Boyanov I. 2008), which later formed the garrison at Salsovia on the southern bank of the St Gheorghe arm of the Danube in Tulcea County, Romania (see Haynes et al. 2007), or the ala Gallica I stationed at Ratiaria (near modern Archar, Vidin region) in the 1^st c. AD (Gerov 1980:164), ala I Gallorum  et Bosporanorum (based in Securisca, pres. Cherkovitsa – Nikopol district, Pleven region), ala I Claudia Gallorum Capitoniana (based in Augustae, pres. Harlets, Vratza region; see S. Maschov 1994), all in former Scordisci territory in northern Bulgaria. Another example is that of the cohors quarta Gallorum which was stationed at Ulicitra (location unknown; Not. Dign., or. XL 46-49) in the province of Rhodopa, were Rome had experienced intense resistance from the Celtic tribes in the 2^nd / 1^st c. BC. 

In northeastern Bulgaria the cohors II Lucensium was stationed at the former Celtic settlement of Abritu (Abritus, near Razgrad). The cohors was named after the Lucenses, a Celtic tribe in Spain from which many of the recruits for the cohort came. This is confirmed in a military diploma from Moesia, dated 78 AD (CIL, XVI, 22). An inscription from the 2^nd c. from Abritus provides evidence of the presence of the Celtiberian cohors II Lucensium as well: the tomb-stone of Gaius Iulius Maximus – an equestrian attached to this cohors – G(aius) I(ulius) Maximu/s/, eq(ues) coh(ortis) ІІ Luc(ensium), singul(aris), vixit, a(nnis). The cohors were probably stationed here up to CE 136 and took part in the Dacian wars of Emperor Trajan. After 136 AD it was garrisoned at Cabyle (near modern Jambol; see Ivanov R. Roman Cities in Bulgaria (in print).

 (After Martini, Paunov 2001)

ROMANS ?

 Until now the overall proportion of the Roman forces in southeastern Europe which consisted of Celts has remained unclear. However, recent research into the subject has provided surprising results and given us a valuable insight into a wider question – who exactly were the ‘Romans’?

Peregrinus was the term used during the early Roman empire, from 30 BC to 212 AD, to denote a free provincial subject of the Empire who was not a Roman citizen. Peregrini constituted the vast majority of the Empire’s inhabitants in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. In frontier provinces, the proportion of actual Roman citizens was extremely small. For example, one estimate puts Roman citizens in Britain ca. 100 AD at about 50,000, less than 3% of the total provincial population of ca. 1.7 million.

  In the empire as a whole, we know there were just over 6 million Roman citizens in 47 AD, the last quinquennial Roman census return extant. This was just 9% of a total imperial population generally estimated at ca. 70 million at that time. Thus, between 30 BC and 212 AD the Peregrini made up the vast majority of the population of the empire. In 212 AD, all free inhabitants of the Empire were granted citizenship by the Constitutio Antoniniana, abolishing the status of peregrinus (Scheidel W. 2006:9).

Military equipment from the burial of a Celtic warrior serving in the Roman army, discovered in the Tribanjska Draga canyon in western Croatia (1st c. AD)

https://balkancelts.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/the-warrior-on-the-hill/

DACIA – A Case Study

 The ethnic origin of ‘Romans’ is a complex issue. For example, a statistical analysis of the ‘Roman’ names in the peregrini in Dacia indicates that only 29 % actually had Italic names, while almost as many (25 %) carried Celtic names (Graph 1). Remarkable is the disproportion existing between the names of the soldiers and the names of other characters from the military environment. More precisely, the majority of Celtic names come from the category of soldiers’ children (Varga 2010), indicating that many Celts took Roman names for official purposes, presumably to enhance their chances of advancement within the imperial military structure. However, this Romanization was obviously superficial, as indicated by the fact that they continued to give their children traditional Celtic names.

Graph 1 –

The ratio of peregrines’ names in the Roman auxiliary troops of Dacia

(After Varga 2010)

Table 1 –

Ethnic Structure of the peregrine names from the military environment

(After Varga 2010)

Graph 2 –

Ratios of soldiers names and the general peregrine population (other characters) .

(After Varga 2010)

A stark discrepancy is to be noted in the survey between the statistics given for soldiers names and those of the general peregrine population (Table 1/ Graph 2). While ‘Thracian’ names are carried by 26 % of the soldiers, Thracians represent only 10 % of the general peregrine population. Conversely, according to the study, only 19 % of Roman soldiers had Celtic names, although Celts made up 33 % of the general peregrine population in Roman Dacia.

While the Celtic names in the study are clear, the statistic for ‘Thracian’ names is more problematic. For example, the name Bitus Sola is identified by the author as Thracian, although both Bitus* and Sola are well recorded Celtic name elements (On Sola/Solia see Holder AC 2 1602, 1607). This again draws attention to the phenomenon of Celtic personal names in Thrace (and Dacia) being categorized as ‘Thracian’. A fundamental reappraisal of the data is necessary in order to clarify what percentage of these names are actually Thracian (/Dacian) and how many are in fact those of Thracian Celts.

https://www.academia.edu/3292310/The_Thracian_Myth_-_Celtic_Personal_Names_in_Thrace

The Men With No Names…

One should also note the conspicuous absence of one particular ethnic group in this equation – the so-called Dacians. While all the other major ethnic groups on the Balkans are represented to varying degrees in the general peregrine population of Roman Dacia – Thracian (10 %), Greek (12 %), Celtic (33 %) (Graph 2), there is no evidence for a separate ‘Dacian’ ethnic group. Conversely, the particularly high proportion of the general Roman peregrine population (33% according to the study) which consisted of ethnic Celts also partly explains the high frequency of Celtic personal names recorded in Thrace and Dacia during the Roman period.

Thus, the Celtic ethnic presence in southeastern Europe, already firmly established during the migrations of the 4^th / 3^rd c. BC, was strengthened by the additional influx of large numbers of Celts serving in the Roman legions from the 1^st c. BC onwards, as well as the forced relocation of hundreds of thousands of Celto-Scythians by the emperors Probus (276-82; Historia Augusta Probus 18) and Diocletian (284-305; Eutropius IX.25) into the territory of today’s Romania and Bulgaria.

 

 

 

 

On Celtic personal names in Thrace see also:  

https://www.academia.edu/3292310/The_Thracian_Myth_-_Celtic_Personal_Names_in_Thrace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Modern) SOURCES CITED

 

Boyanov I. (2008) Oescus – from Castra to Colonia Archaeologia Bulgarica XII 2008, 369-76. Sofia.

Gerov B., Beiträge zur Geschichte der römischen Provinzen Moesien und Thrakien. Gesammelte Aufsätze I  (Amsterdam 1980)

Haynes I, Bogdan D, Topoleanu F. 2007) Salsovia: A Roman Fort and Town on the Lower Danube. The Lower Danube in Antiquity (VC C BC-VI C AD) 2007)

Holder A. (1896-1907). Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz, Bd. I-III – Nachdruck Graz 1961-1962

Ivanov R. (2012) Roman Cities in Bulgaria. (in print)

Марков Н. (2005) По Следите на Античната Магия. София.

Maschov S. (1994) Die Spätantike Befestigung und Früh-Byzantinisch Stadt von Augusta bei dorf Hurletz, Vratza bezirk. – In: G. S. Susini (ed.), Limes, Studi di Storia, vol. 5. Bologna 1994, S. 21–36

Rodolfo Martini R., Evgeni Paunov E. (2001) Early Roman Imperial Countermarked Coins from Moesia: First Critical Observations. Acta Musei Varnaensis II. Numismatic and Sphragistic Contributions to History of the Western Black Sea Coast. International Conference. Varna, 12 – 15 September 2001. P. 159-174.

Matei-Popescu  F. (2006-2007) The Auxiliary Units From Moesia Superior in Domitian’s Time and the Problem of CIL XVI 41. EPHEMERIS NAPOCENSIS, XVI–XVII. p. 31–48

Scheidel W. (2006) Population & Demography (Princeton-Stanford Working Papers in Classics)

Strobel K.  Die  Legio  V  Alaudae  in  Moesien.  Eine  Phantomtruppe  der  römischen Militärgeschichte. Historia 37, 1988, 504–508

Varga R. (2010) The Military Peregrini of Dacia: Onomastical and Statistical Considerations. Analele Universităţii Creştine „Dimitrie Cantemir”, Bucureşti, Seria Istorie – Serie nouă, Anul 1, Nr. 4, 2010, p. 108-116

Mac Congail

.