Territorium Ciuitatis Ausdecensium: an Open Issue of Ancient Topo-Demography

Abstract

This paper aims at re-examining the available data regarding the location of ciuitas Ausdecensium in Moesia Inferior, starting from the uncertainty as to the place where was discovered the inscription CIL III 144372 – the famous boundary stone which records the resolution of a land dispute between this ciuitas and a neighbouring population of Dacians. The analysis is focused on some key-elements which could elucidate the relation between ciuitas Ausdecensium and the Thracian strategy Οὐσδικησική recorded by Ptolemy: the fact that we deal with a boundary stone which, therefore, was initially placed at an extremity of the territory belonging to this ciuitas, the fact that this territory extended in the opposite direction, most probably to the south, from the place where the boundary stone was installed, as well as the fact that the interprovincial border between Moesia Inferior and Thracia is considered to have passed north of the Balkans’ range, not very far from Danube’s line, although the exact border route is still debated. All these circumstances lead to the plausible consequence of territorium ciuitatis Ausdecensium reaching the interprovincial borderline. At its turn, this consequence, corroborated with the location in northern Thracia of the strategy Οὐσδικησική, according to Ptolemy’s account, supports the possible contiguity between territorium ciuitatis Ausdecensium and the territory of the strategy Οὐσδικησική. If this hypothesis is accurate, it may shed light on the processes that led to the creation of this ciuitas and, at the same time, could generate the need to be reassessed the opinion that considers this population of southern Thracian origin as having been relocated to Dobruja.