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Cioroiu Nou Artefacts
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Cioroiu Nou is a small village near a town from the southern part of the Oltenia County, called Bailesti, between Craiova and Calafat, on the left bank of the Danube.
Dr Dorel Bondoc from the Oltenia Museum says that the site was discovered in 1930. It is placed at the eastern exit from Cioroiu Nou village, on the right side of the main road, beween the eastern part of the village and the cemetery.
The very important site has been declared a Historical Monument of Romania, and there will be many projects to study it, from now on.
Here there was a clay fortress, built after the 2nd Century AD, and the Porta Praetoria and towers are not yet discovered, so it is not yet described as a castrum. It is even bigger than the Malva castrum, being 150 m x 100 m in area. The fortress is placed with its eastern wall at the western border of the present cemetery, the western wall near the eastern edge of Cioroiu Nou, its northern wall along the main road, starting from the exit to the village to the east, and the southern wall is located somewhere in the middle of an agricultural field.
Photo: Google Earth
This is a fragment from a little statuary monument with inscription, dedicated to Hercules. It was made of marble and it was discovered by chance in 1964.
In the upper part there have been preserved some sculptural vestiges. That is, half of the god’s left leg, near which there are visible the posterior limbs and the tail of the lion from Nemeea. Near the right foot, to the left of the piece there was carved a head of a bull. Most probably it is the bull from Crete, defeated by Hercules during one of his labours. The base of the monument has inscriptions on three lines; the height of the letters is 0.01-0.02m.
Sizes: 0.30 x 0.11 x 0.08m. The beginning of the 2nd century (acc. C. Daicoviciu, see the bibliography) or the 3rd century (acc. Tudor 1978, p. 212).
M. OPELLIVS MAXIMVS M. Opellius Maximus,
NTANENSIVM HERCVLI [dec(urio) Mo]ntanensium, Herculi,
ENSIVM EX VOTO POSVIT [pro sal(ute) Aqu ?]ensium, ex voto posuit
The dedication surely contains on the last line, the ancient name of the Roman settlement of Cioroiul Nou. Unfortunately, the inscription is broken in this place. Possible complete inscriptions are 1.[pro sal. Mal]uensium, acc. C.S. Nicolaescu-Plopßor;
2.[pro sal. Aeq]uensium, acc. C. Daicoviciu;
3.[pro sal. Aq]uensium, acc. D. Tudor.
In my opinion, the last hypothesis must be excluded because Aquae means Hot Water. But at Cioroiu Nou, there are no thermal springs.
The other two (no. 1-2) are possible.
To support his completion of the inscription, C. Daicoviciu invoked that another Opelli attested in Dacia Superior, came from the colony Aequum (today Citluk, in Serbia).
On the other hand, the enigmatical Malva has not been found anywhere, so it is possible that this is the name of the site.
The beneficiary of the inscription must have been an important character, because of the cognomen, Maximus, he bore. Montana ( as above, [dec(urio) Mo]ntanensium, Herculi) was a locality in Moesia Inferior (today Mihailopol-Kutlovita, in Bulgaria).
Text and photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
Photo: Courtesy Dr Dorel Bondoc
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Alexis Project Filiasi/Romania
RC J/263/230/2007 CIF 21464151
Email: [email protected]