… So… many-more-than-one Sarmizegetusa in this Romania… of Ours:  Ulpia Traiana – in Hateg County, Regia – in Sureanu Muontains …some “others” in different alleged places all around The Country. And! .. we shouldn’t forget – The Fortress (WITHIN) The Sarmizegetusa Regia.

The Fortress of Sarmizegetusa Regia… is “what” strikes us at first contact with The Place there: The Capital-City of Dacia.

The second contact, is with an explanatory panel – text and the settlement’s map:

Everything is beautiful and simple as in Story for the Idiots …. Why?

Fortress wall is not a “murus dacicus” ! It’s a Wall with two exterior paraments and emplecton inside; without mortar; in which we find squared-stones used from a former “murus dacicus”, pedestal’s bases, stones out of terraces, etc.

Sarmizegetusa Regia – The Capital-City of Dacian Kingdom was a vast metropolis of some square miles; It had to have walls, ramps, terraces, civil districts, sacred areas, workshops. Consequently, the walls of Sarmizegetusa Regia had to be miles long, with bastions, gates and towers. Visually, brought to Pergamos:

In the story of “murus dacicus,” it added the statement: “The Romans rebuilt the Fortress, increasing its surface” … This means, what we see today is a Roman Fort!?! Well… from now on, the story becomes a joke. A bad joke:

“We have” A Roman Fort of 3ha in surface, without gate towers, without defense wall-towers, without a Principia, without a single stone-building intramuros …exept of two possible stone towers – which does not exist in Roman military architecture; with vague traces of wooden barracks- again, a “unique case” in the Roman World for a Cohort Castrum – at least by size (3ha). If we look at the Fortress Plan …we claim to be Roman… we enter “The Land of Jokes”!.. The plan it’s a bit – Irregular… way too irregular!

What we see today at Sarmizegetusa Regia, ” The Citadel”,..It’s not Roman!… nor Dacian!.. It’s some “uninspired” reconstruction of a Fort wich overlaps  the “acropolis” of The Old Sarmizegetusa. This fortification was brutally dismantled until the second rows at an unspecified date … if we are to believe the “officials” … and their reports.

A Roman Military Unit was quartered there for sure – because there are traces of Roman Baths. Where – exactly …it’s a question to answer the future. Because what we see now – It’s not a Roman Fort, rebuilt Citadel, Castrum… or anything of our illustrious historians would suggest.

Fortress of Sarmizegetusa is “barbaric”,.. made of quickly available materials, .. with no claim of elaborate defensive strategy.

Whether… is a Dacian Citadel – made in a last desperate and futile effort between the Two Wars (a “patriotic” version …) …Or, it is a PostRoman Fortress.

The first assumption fails: a 3ha – fortification, positioned in such a way (so clumsy), with such a wall (lousy done), “falls” in a single day when attacked by two Imperial Legions. Or,.. it’s well known from ancient chronicles, the Romans had “serious problems” in the final conquest of the Capital-City of Sarmizegetusa.

The second assumption isn’t supported by the archaeological inventory – discovered and reported … But the question remains as long as there are concerns about “The Red Tor” – Luncani Citadel and “those medievals” who refortified The Dacian Fortress …

Or… as long as someone will not “come out”  with a more… truthful story  – than “The One with The Dacian Fortress Enlarged by the Romans…

Or… who knows: The Roman Castrum with “murus dacicus” type of Wall… Unique in the Whole World – just like Romania!

Sleep Well and have nice Bed-Time Stories!

P.S. … I’m So afraid … it will prove to be  just a “modern  imaginary restoration” made by some Morons.

Vlad Totoianu