Deultum

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Coin of Emperor Severus Alexander , minted in the Roman settlement Colonia Flavia Deultensium

Deultum ( Bulgarian Деултум , Greek  Δεβελτός , Develtos or Debeltos , Bulgarian Дебелт / Debelt ) was an ancient settlement in Thrace on the southwestern Black Sea coast . The place was initially a Thracian settlement on the western bank of the Mandra Lake at the mouth of the Sredezka River. A veteran colony was founded near them by Emperor Vespasian under the name Colonia Flavia Pacis Deultensium in 70 AD . It is located about 10 km west of today's Bulgarian port city of Burgas near the village of Debelt .

Surname

The Thracian name of the settlement was probably Debelton (German area of ​​the two swamps ). Pliny mentions the place under the name Deultum , Claudius Ptolemäus as Δεουελτόυς, the Suda as Δηβελτός (Διβελτός), the Itinerarium Antonini as Debelco , the geographer of Ravenna as Debellion , Ammianus Marcellinus as Dibaltum .

history

Excavations in Deultum (2013)

In the area of ​​the later Roman colony Deultum, traces of settlement have been found since the Late Bronze Age , then a Hallstatt Thracian settlement. In ancient times, Deultum was connected to the sea via the Mandra Lake , which then stretched further south . Attic pottery from the 1st half of the 4th century BC BC, Hellenistic ceramics, coins and amphora stamps from Herakleia Pontike , Thasos and Chios speak for the connections of this settlement. There is no known pre-Roman written evidence of this settlement, but its mention by Pliny suggests an older Greek settlement in its place.

A colony for veterans of Legio VIII Augusta in the province of Thracia was founded here by Emperor Vespasian under the name Colonia Flavia Pacis Deultensium in 70 AD .

In Roman times, Deultum became the second most important city in the province of Thracia and the center of the lands between today's Gulf of Burgas and the Strandschagebirge. There a south-west-north-east junction of the Roman military road Via Militaris, beginning at Andianopolis , met the Via Pontica , which connected the coastal cities along the Black Sea. Another road connection led from Herakleia on the Marmara Sea , Bizye , today's Malko Tarnowo via Deultum to Russokastro , Aetos and Marcianopolis in the north. In a westerly direction, roads began in Deultum that led via Kabile , Dianopolis or Marcellae to Augusta Traiana .

Over the next three centuries, the urban area expanded. The city was built according to the Hippodamian system . In the time of Antoninus Pius (138–161) the governor Gaius Iulius Commodus Orfitianus had so-called burgi and praesidia built on the border of the colony and to protect the province . Under Emperor Mark Aurel (161-180 AD), the colony was surrounded with fortress walls. During archaeological excavations, large-scale and preserved thermal baths with floor heating were uncovered. They were built at the end of the 1st century and rebuilt several times over the next few centuries until the end of the 3rd century. The Temple of Aphrodite in Deultum was on a bronze coin at the time of Gordian III. pictured.

Temple of Aphrodite from Deultum on bronze coin of the city z. Currently Gordians III.

The rise of Constantinople to the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire , connected with the division of the empire in 395 , led to the expansion of Deultum. The colony was expanded into a fortress in the middle of the 4th century. The rectangular fortifications covered an area of ​​5,000 m² . The city became a bishopric, to which today's titular bishopric Deultum goes back.

In the early Middle Ages, the city developed into an important border post between Bulgaria and Byzantium. The fortress was moved further south-west into the mountainous landscape of the Strandschas . In 812 the Bulgarian ruler Krum Develt and resettled the local population north of the Danube ; Bulgarians came in their place. Krum had the Bulgarian-Byzantine border wall, known today as Erkesija , built over Develt .

According to tradition, the Bulgarian Khan Boris I should be in or near Develtum in the presence of the Byzantine emperor Michael III in 863 . have been baptized. As a tribute to the Eastern Roman ruler, he took the baptismal name Michael and then dedicated his reign to the goal of Christianizing his empire. Under Tsar Simeon I , Develt became the place where the Byzantine tribute was handed over.

Since the middle of the 13th century, the rise in the water level in the Black Sea caused the Mandra Lake and the fairway to become swamped . The port shifted to the east, first to Skafida and later to today's city of Burgas. Life in Develtum could have come to a standstill due to the Ottoman conquest of the region. After the 14th century, the city is no longer mentioned in historical sources.

literature

  • Wilhelm Tomaschek : The ancient Thracians. An ethnological study. Vienna 1894, p. 131 (first identification of the location).
  • Eugen Oberhummer : Develtos . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume V, 1, Stuttgart 1903, Col. 260.
  • Manfred Oppermann : Thracians, Greeks and Romans on the west coast of the Black Sea . Zabern's illustrated books on archeology . Zabern, Mainz 2007, ISBN 978-3-8053-3739-7 .
  • Peter Soustal: Thrace (Thrace, Rhodope and Haimimontos) (= Tabula Imperii Byzantini . Volume 6). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-7001-1898-8 , pp. 234–235, 509.
  • Ch. Dimitrov: The early medieval city ∆εβελτος between Byzantium and Bulgaria in the 8th to the 10th century. In: The Black Sea Coast in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Verlag der Akademie der Österreichischen Wissenschaften, Vienna 1997, pp. 35–45.
  • Iris von Bredow : Deultum. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 3, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01473-8 , column 490.
  • Jan de Boer: Apollonia Pontica and its Emporia, Ports of Trade ?. In: Murielle Faudot, Arlette Fraysse, Évelyne Geny (eds.): Pont-Euxin et commerce. La genèse de la "route de la soie". Actes du IXe Symposium de Vani (Colchide), 1999. Presses Universitaires Franc-Comptoises, Besançon 2002, ISBN 2-84627-079-1 , pp. 131-132.
  • Petar Balabanow: Dovelt, Deultum, Develt. In: Rimski i rannovizantijski gradove v Bălgarija / Roman and early Byzantine cities in Bulgaria. Studies in memory of Prof. Teofil Ivanov. Ivray, Sofia 2002, ISBN 954-91210-2-X , pp. 237-250.
  • Ivan Karajotow , Stojan Rajtschewski, Mitko Ivanov: История на Бургас. От древността до средата на ХХ век. (German history of the city of Burgas. From antiquity to the middle of the 20th century. ) Tafprint OOD publishing house, Plovdiv 2011, ISBN 978-954-92689-1-1 .
Coinage
  • Jordanka Jurukova: Greek Mint . The coinage of Deultum. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1973.
  • Dimitur Draganow: The coinage of Deultum. Bobokov Bros. Foundation, Sofia 2007. ISBN 978-954-9460-03-2 .
    • Review: Kevin Butcher, in Schweizer Münzblätter 240 (2010) pp. 126–128 ( PDF ).

Web links

Commons : Deultum  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Todor Todorow: On the etymology of Deultum. In: Thracia 5 (1980), pp. 199-204 with all known forms of name.
  2. ↑ Pliny, nat. 4, 45.
  3. ^ Claudius Ptolemy, Geographike 3, 11, 7.
  4. ^ Ammianus Marcellinus 31, 8, 9, 12, 15.
  5. ↑ Pliny, nat. 4, 45 "Develcon cum stagno quod nunc Deultum vocatur veteranorum".
  6. ↑ The oldest inscription, an honor of the Colonia found in Rome for the legate Titus Avidius Quietus from the year 82 AD, CIL 6, 3828 = CIL 6, 31692 = AE 1950, 4 : colonia Flavia Pacis Deultensium and colonia Deultum .
  7. ↑ AE 1927, 49 : Imp (erator) Caes (ar) T (itus) Aelius Hadrian [u] s / Antoninus Aug (ustus) Pius p (ater) p (atriae) tri [b (unicia)] / pot (estate ) XVIII co (n) s (ul) IIII burgos et / praesidia ob tutelam provin (ciae) / Thraciae fecit curante C (aio) Iu / lio Commodo Orfitiano leg (ato) / Aug (usti) pr (o) pr (aetore ) per fin (es) col (oniae) Fl (aviae) Deult (ensium) burgos / e [t] praesidium "Emperor Antoninus Pius, 18 times holder of the tribunician authority (December 10, 154 - December 9, 155 AD ), consul four times, had burgi and praesidia built to protect the province of Thrace by the governor C. Iulius Commodus Orfitianus; on the borders of the colonia Flavia Deultensium burgi and a praesidium ”. See Soustal, p. 234; Karajotow / Rajtschewski / Iwanow, p. 7.
  8. ↑ Soustal, p. 89.

Coordinates: 42 ° 23 '  N , 27 ° 17'  E