Capidava
CAPIDA´VA (Καπίδαβα), a town in Moesia, where a garrison of Roman cavalry was stationed. It is perhaps to be identified with the modern Tschernawode. (Itin. Ant. 224; Notit. Imp. 100.28; Geogr. Rav. 4.5; Hierocl. p. 637.)
[L.S]Roman military camp on the lower Danubian limes, between Axiopolis and Troesmis, at a crossroads of commercial and strategic routes and near the point where the road crosses the river into the Valachian plain. The first phase of construction was a rectangular castellum with interior towers, built by Trajan at the beginning of the 2d c. It was defended by a system of ditches and a vallum, which was modified by later reconstruction. After destruction by Goths in the middle of the 3d c., the fortifications were rebuilt. The walls are still visible. The plan was rectangular (105 x 127 m) with exterior towers, rectangular at the gates and circular or polygonal at the corners. There was partial rebuilding in the second half of the 4th c. and at the end of the 5th c. On the site of the old city, destroyed by the Huns, was constructed a fort defended by a narrow rampart. At this fort was garrisoned the cuneus equitum solensium (Not. Dig. or. 39). At that time Capidava was an episcopal center. A basilica with three apses orientated toward the E has been discovered from this period. The civil settlement developed in the interior of the old city surrounding the fort. Capidava survived until after Justinian's reign, when it was destroyed by the Avars and then abandoned. When the Byzantine Empire regained the borders of the lower Danube, the city was refortified. The last levels date from the 10th and 11th c.
BIBLIOGRAPHYTab. Peut. 7.3; It. Ant. 244; Geog. Rav. 779.3.
J. Weiss, Die Dobrudscha im Altertum (1911); V. Pârvan, Descoperiri nouă din Scythia Minor (1913) 467-73; G. Florescu et al., Capidava. Monografie arheologică, I (1958).
E. DORUTIU-BOILA