Callatis

Mangalia (Greek: Callatis, Panglicara, other historical names: Pangalia, Tomisovara) is a city and a port on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea in the south-east of Constanţa County.


A Greek colony named Callatis (Kallatis) was founded in 6th century BCE by the city of Heraclea Pontica (in Greek Callatis means the (most) beautiful). Its first silver coinage was minted approximately 350 BCE.


In 72 BCE, Callatis was conquered by the Roman general Lucullus and was assigned to the Roman province of Moesia Inferior. From this period dates the "tomb with papirus". Throughout the 2nd century CE, the city built defensive fortifications and the minting of coinage under the Roman emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla continued. Callatis suffered multiple invasions in the third century CE but recovered in the 4th century CE to retain its status as an important trade hub and port city.


Since the 9th century it was known by the Turks as Pangalia, by the Romanians as Tomisovara and by the Greeks as Panglicara and it was one of the most important ports on the west coast of the Black Sea. As in the case of other Greek-roman settlements from the Black Sea shore, the migratory people waves have stopped the development of Callatis. Only in the 12 century, on the place of the ancient flourishing fortress, was mentioned a small villages with a port. The name of Mangalia appears only in documents from the 14th century. Mangalia (former Callatis) is the oldest city, continuously inhabited, on the present territory of Romania.

Tomis, the oldest living city in Romania

Constanţa (historical names: Tomis, Greek: Κωνστάντια or Konstantia, Turkish: Köstence, Bulgarian: Кюстенджа) is the oldest living city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located on the Black Sea coast. A number of inscriptions found in the town and its vicinity show that Constanţa lies where once Tomis stood. Tomis (also called Tomi) was a Greek colony in the province of Scythia Minor on the Black Sea's shore, founded around 600 BC for commercial exchanges with the local Getic populations.


According to one myth dating from Antiquity, found in the Bibliotheca, it was founded by Aeetes: "When Aeetes discovered the daring deeds done by Medea, he started off in pursuit of the ship; but when she saw him near, Medea murdered her brother and cutting him limb from limb threw the pieces into the deep. Gathering the child's limbs, Aeetes fell behind in the pursuit; wherefore he turned back, and, having buried the rescued limbs of his child, he called the place Tomi".

Another legend is recorded by Jordanes (after Cassiodorus), who ascribes the foundation of the city to a Getae queen (The origin and deeds of the Goths): "After achieving this victory (against Cyrus the Great) and winning so much booty from her enemies, Queen Tomyris crossed over into that part of Moesia which is now called Lesser Scythia - a name borrowed from Great Scythia -, and built on the Moesian shore of the Black Sea the city of Tomi, named after herself".

In 29 BC the Romans captured the region from the Odryses, and annexed it as far as the Danube, under the name of Limes Scythicus. In AD 8, the Roman poet Ovidius (43 BC-17) was banished here by Augustus and died there eight years later, celebrating the town of Tomis in his poems. A statue of Ovidius stands in the Ovidius Square (Piaţa Ovidiu) of Constanţa, in front of the History Museum (the former City Hall).


The city was afterwards included in the Province of Moesia, and, from the time of Diocletian, in Scythia Minor, of which it was the metropolis. After the split of the Roman Empire, Tomis fell under the rule of Byzantine Empire. During Mauritius's Balkan campaigns, Tomis was besieged by the Avars in the winter of 597/598. Tomis was later renamed to Constantiana in honour of Constantia, the half-sister of Constantine the Great (274-337). The earliest known usage of this name was "Κωνστάντια" ("Constantia") in 950. The city lay at the seaward end of the Great Wall of Trajan, and has evidently been surrounded by fortifications of its own.


Vestiges of the old civilizations is found today almost everywhere in the city. In Constanţa one can see today the ruins of the Roman wall which closed the North-western part of the fortress and the ruins of the gates from West and North, on which was the exit from the fortress. The Roman edifice, the most precious architectural complex discovered, is from 3-4 centuries; the floor of this edifice with thick and high walls is formed by colored mosaic pieces, the drawing representing geometrical and floral figures. Considering the artistical conceptions and its dimensions, the mosaic from Constanta is one of the first of the kind in the world. It seams that the building served for trade, being also a place for delivery and deposit (at the middle and underground levels were storehouses for goods and a little market place). Many vestiges of the Tomis fortress are found in the city museum, among them being some special pieces like: the marble statue of the Godess Fortuna, the city protectress, with Pontos, the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus) God.

Histria

Ancient Histria or Istros (Ιστριη, Thracian river god, Danube), was a Greek colony or polis (πολις, city) on the Black Sea coast, established by Milesian settlers to trade with the native Getae. It became the first Greek town on the present day Romanian territory. Scymnus of Chios (ca 110 BC), the Greek geographer and poet, dated it to 630 BC. Eusebius of Caesarea, some centuries later, dated its founding to 657 – 656 BC, at the time of the 33rd Olympic Games. The earliest documented currency on Romanian territory was an 8-gram silver drachma, issued in Histria in the year 480 BC.


Archaeological evidence seems to confirm that all trade with the interior followed the foundation of Histria. Traders reached the interior via Histria and the Danube valley, demonstrated by finds of Attic black-figure pottery, coins, ornamental objects, an Ionian lebes and many fragments of amphoras. Amphoras have been found in great quantity at Histria, some imported but some local. Local pottery was produced following establishment of the colony and certainly before mid-6th century. During the archaic and classical periods, when Histria flourished, it was situated near fertile arable land. It served as a port of trade soon after its establishment, with fishing and agriculture as additional sources of income. By 100 AD, however, fishing was almost the sole remaining source of Istrian revenue.


Around 30 AD, Histria became a Roman town. During the Roman period from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, temples were built for the Roman gods, besides a public bath and houses for the wealthy. Altogether, it was in continuous existence for some 14 centuries, starting with the Greek period up to the Roman-Byzantine period. The Halmyris bay where was the city founded was closed by sand deposits and access to the Black Sea gradually was cut. Trade continued until the 6th century AD. The invasion of the Avars and the Slavs in the 7th century AD almost entirely destroyed the fortress, and the Istrians dispersed; the name and the city disappeared.


Ancient Histria was situated on a peninsula, about 5 km east of the modern Romanian commune of Istria, on the Dobruja coast. The ancient seashore has since been transformed into the western shore of Sinoe Lake, as the Danube's silt deposits formed a shoal which closed off the ancient coastline. The current Sinoe Lake was at the time the open northern bay, while another bay on the southern shore served as the port. The acropolis with sanctuaries was established on the highest point of the coastal plain. The settlement itself, erected in the 6th century, was 800 m to the west of the acropolis. The settlement had stone paved streets and was protected by strong wall. Water was collected along 20 km long aqueducts. The ruins of the settlement were first identified in 1868 by French archaeologist Ernest Desjardins. Archaeological excavations were started by Vasile Pârvan in 1914, and continued after his death in 1927 by teams of archaeologists led successively by Scarlat and Marcelle Lambrino (1928–1943), Emil Condurachi (1949–1970), Dionisie Pippidi, Petre Alexandrescu and Alexandru Suceveanu. The Histria Museum, founded in 1982, exhibits some of these finds. The excavation project and site also features prominently in the film The Ister.