Procopius’ pontes: One or two Trajan’s bridges?

Abstract

Fortification protecting the Trajan’s bridge on the Danube near modern village of Kostol was registered as Pontes by the Byzantine historian Procopius in the 6th century. The first investigators of this site M. Garasanin and M. Vasic explained its name as plural - Bridges, considering that plural form of the fortification name is a result of the existence of another smaller bridge over the Danube branch, used to divert the river course. In addition, there are also the hypotheses that original name of the site was Inter Pontes or Ad Pontem. According to our opinion, Pontes is a late, dialectal form of the original name Pons-Bridge, so it should not be understood as a proof of the existence of another, smaller Trajan’s bridge. There are many registered analogies for similar changes of monosyllabic nouns of III declension in the Late Antique Latin in the Balkans. The other possibility is that this toponym was from the very beginning Pontes, as it sometimes in the classical Latin means bridge with many arches. In any case there was only one bridge.