Grave markers of Roman soldiers reused in later tombs have been discovered near Svestov in northern Bulgaria. They were discovered by accident when a tree was uprooted on private property, revealing ancient graves. Later salvage excavations revealed two cist graves made of limestone slabs, a brick and stone chamber grave and a pit grave, all bodies, and a burial.
The site proved to be the western tomb of the Roman military camp of Nova. Located on the right bank of the Danube, Nova was one of the key fortresses that defended the Moesian Limes (the northern border of the province of Moesia). It was built around AD 45 and housed the Legio VIII Augusta until Vespasian replaced them with the Legio I Italica in AD 70. Legio I Italica besieged Novae for at least the next 350 years.
In both cist tombs, funerary markers have been reused as building materials. One of these contains the partially preserved tomb of Gaius Valerius Verecundus, centurion of Legio I Italica, with only vestiges remaining and an inscription describing him as “much pressed by fortune”. It was placed on its side behind the rectangle. Another tomb in the cist was that of the veteran Marcus Marius Patroclus of Legio I Italica from Iconium in Asia Minor, today the city of Konya in Turkey. His funerary monument depicts insignia, or military standards. One of the slabs used to build the ceiling is the tomb of Aelius Basilea, which was built by his brother Publius Aelius Bassus, also a Legio I veteran. The epitaph describes her as a “most virtuous sister” (soror pantessma).
The second cyst is probably the best preserved of the reused funerary markers in the grave. Its eastern wall contains the tomb of Gaius Alpinius II, son of Gaius, belonging to the Colonia Claudia ara Agrippinensism (present-day Cologne, Germany). He was a soldier in the Legio XI Claudia. The west roof slab is fragmented, but what remains of the epitaph commemorates a veteran who served in the Legion for 25 years and died at the age of 60.
All the graves date to the 2nd/3rd century and were looted in antiquity, leaving behind only artifacts, including a bone needle, two bronze fibulae, and a fragment of a spindle. The skeletal remains were disturbed by grave intrusion, but will be examined by an anthropologist. The inscriptions are still being studied so that they can be fully recorded, translated and analyzed.
