Death at Halmyris

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The fabled Danube, Europe’s second longest river, has its source in Germany’s Black Forest and winds eastward 1,800 miles to Romania, where it empties into the Black Sea. Just south of where the Danube flows into the sea is a rocky strip of land that has been inhabited for more than four millennia, from the Bronze Age until present times. From the Greek period to the Byzantine period, this was the seat of ancient Halmyris, one of the most strategic outposts of the Roman Empire.

In 2001 our team, which had been excavating Halmyris for 20 years,^a made an extraordinary discovery: a fourth-century C.E. basilica containing the bones of two Christian martyrs previously known only from literary sources. If Halmyris had long been recognized for its role in Roman military history, now it had instant appeal to students of Christianity as well.

The archaeological evidence indicates that a stronghold existed at the site by the sixth century B.C.E., well before the arrival of the Romans. These settlers, a Thracian tribe known as the Getae, left behind pottery and arrowheads. Hellenistic pottery and coins have also been found at the site, suggesting that Halmyris was a Greek settlement from the fourth to the second century B.C.E. From Halmyris, traders could easily travel up the Danube River and around the Black Sea, making this spot an extremely attractive commercial center.

The name “Halmyris” is a Greek variant of the Latin place-name Salmorus. Both the Latin and Greek names derive from words for salt (Latin sal, and Greek hals), suggesting that salt-mining took place in the area. In Roman times Halmyris was part of the province of Histria, and the earliest reference to Halmyris was made by Laberius Maximus, who was governor of Histria around 100 C.E.

Roman settlers and traders ventured into the region around Halmyris, called Scythia Minor, in the first century B.C.E. In our excavations we have found numerous silver coins dating between 100 and 44 B.C.E. The Romans integrated the entire 032region into the empire, probably converting Halmyris into a military facility during the reign of the emperor Vespasian (69–79 C.E.). The site then became a naval base for the Classis Flavia Moesica, the Roman war fleet that patrolled the Danube and Black Sea.

Emperor Vespasian ordered the construction of a turf-and-timber fort at Halmyris, presumably built on top of a previous settlement. Between 101 and 106 C.E., the emperor Trajan waged war against the inhabitants of Dacia, a region to the west of Scythia Minor that included the Transylvanian Alps. Trajan was victorious, and Rome added Dacia to its growing empire. As Roman territories expanded, the empire needed to reinforce its infrastructure along the Danube and Black Sea. Consequently, around 110 C.E. a stone fort replaced the earlier turf-and-timber fort at Halmyris; this fort, we know, was built by men from the First Italian and Eleventh Claudian legions, who also erected an altar dedicated to Hercules, which is now on display at the Museum of Military History in Bucharest.

During the second century C.E., according to inscriptions found at the site, Halmyris was a village of military people that lay in the vicinity of the fort. In this village, presumably, discharged Roman mariners settled with their families. Between 136 and 200 C.E., village officials set up eight altars.

This region of the lower Danube was invaded by Goths and Carps in the mid-third century C.E. (The Goths were a Germanic people who had migrated into the Black Sea region between the first and third centuries C.E., and the Carps were a tribe of Dacian origin.) The Roman emperor Decius (249–251 C.E.) fought bloody campaigns against the invading hordes throughout the Roman Balkan provinces, but the Romans lost and Decius was killed in combat at Abrittus, in northeastern Bulgaria. The victorious Goths and Carps then traveled up the Danube, destroying towns and forts belonging to the Romans. According 033to the Historia Augusta,^b “They brought much havoc to the Roman lands” (Multa gravia in solo Romano fecereunt).

Excavations at Halmyris have revealed a thick layer of burned material, evidence of the tumultuous events of the third century C.E. The fort was later rebuilt, and coins from the reigns of the emperors Claudius II (268–270), Aurelian (270–275) and Probus (276–282) have been found.

The fort was completely rebuilt once again around 400 C.E. It now became much more massive, 590 feet by 450 feet, with a 10.5-foot-wide defensive wall and 14 towers and bastions set at approximately equal intervals. The northern and western gates were completely rebuilt with huge limestone blocks, and three successive earthen walls were added. Around this new fort the Romans dug three ditches, in which they placed sharp stakes and thorn hedges to thwart an enemy attack.

This brings us back to the fourth century C.E., and to the first Christian emperor, Constantine (307–337). It was during the reign of Constantine that the monumental Christian basilica we discovered in 2001 was constructed at Halmyris.^c This basilica, 115 feet long and 56 feet wide, was built in the middle of the massive fort, and it was dedicated to the Christian martyrs Epictetus and Astion, who were executed on July 8, 290, during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian. They had originally been buried at an unknown location; their remains were later brought to Halmyris and placed in a crypt, where the martyrs could be worshiped.

The story of Epictetus and Astion is recorded in the Passio Epicteti et Astionis, which is part of a collection of writings called the Acta Sanctorum (Acts of the Saints)—describing the lives of Christian martyrs—that was first published in 1643. Many of the structures we have excavated at Halmyris are referred to in this text, including civilian houses, the public square, a harbor and the praetorium—the house of the commander of the local garrison.

According to the text, Epictetus and Astion came from the region of Bythinia, on the southwest coast of the Black Sea. 034Epictetus was a well-respected priest, and Astion, also a devout Christian, came from a rich and influential family who claimed a third-century Roman senator among their ancestors. The two men were persecuted for their religious beliefs, and so they decided to leave Bythinia, settling in Halmyris.

When they arrived in Halmyris in 273 C.E., Epictetus was 47 years old, while Astion was a lad of 18. At first they lived in a boarding house; then they found a little house of their own. Both men performed miracles during their 17-year stay in Halmyris. Astion cured a man whose hips and toes were crushed when he fell off a building. Epictetus cured a 15-year-old deaf and mute boy by reciting a prayer and blowing three times on the boy’s face. The Passio Epicteti et Astionis relates that more than a thousand people converted to Christianity after Epictetus performed this miracle.

In 290, the Roman military commander of the province, Latronianus, journeyed to Halmyris on an official visit to inspect public works. Local people told him about the two Christians who had come from afar and were discouraging sacrifices to the gods and leading people away from traditional Roman religious practices. Latronianus then interrogated Epictetus and Astion, hoping to discover their names and origins; but they answered only, “We are Christians.” Latronianus declared the two men traitors to the Roman state and ordered that they be tortured and decapitated.

According to the Passio Epicteti et Astionis, Astion’s parents, Marcellina and Alexander, traveled to Halmyris in search of their son. At the port of Halmyris, they met a Roman judge named Vigilantius, who gave them the sobering news of their son’s death. They then converted to Christianity and departed with heavy hearts.

Inside the basilica at Halmyris was a crypt that consisted of two rectangular chambers made of large slabs of stone. Eight stone steps led down to the first chamber, or dromos, which is 7 feet long and 3 feet wide. Inside the dromos were large quantities of plaster, indicating that the chamber had been plastered and then painted in antiquity (we found traces of red, green and black paint). The far end of the dromos narrows slightly (perhaps where a door was once located), leading to the second chamber, which was 035paved with brick. This second chamber, 6.5 feet long and 6 feet wide, was the mortuary room, where the remains of Epictetus and Astion were laid to rest.

The eastern wall of this chamber is decorated with a painted fresco that is preserved almost in its entirety, though it has significantly deteriorated. The bottom part of the painting is a simple rectangle outlined by thin black lines; inside this rectangle appear the letters chi-rho, a common Christian symbol (chi and rho are the first two letters in Christos, the Greek word for Christ).

The upper part of the painting shows two candelabra placed on either side of eight concentric circles, which are painted black and yellow. Within the bands formed by the concentric circles is a wreath of flowers. At the center of the design is a Greek inscription, painted in black, which seems to include the verb hybrizo, meaning “to torture” or “to behead.” The word “Astion” is legible in the text as well.

And then there are the bones, which we found in both rooms of the crypt. The 050martyrs’ remains were probably buried in coffins, but because we found bones scattered throughout the crypt, the tomb was most likely vandalized, probably in the sixth century when robbers broke through the roof of the crypt. Anthropological analysis of the bones, carried out by the Romanian anthropologist Nicolae Miritoiu, revealed that they belonged to two people, one between 61 and 67 years old and the other between 35 and 40 years old. According to the Passio Epicteti et Astionis, Epictetus was 64 at the time of his execution, and Astion was 35. Furthermore, some of the bones, including the clavicles and the tibia, showed evidence of violence, with the second vertebra (located just under the skull) of the younger individual clearly having been cut by a sharp and heavy instrument. All of this physical evidence is consistent with the literary account of the martyrdom of Epictetus and Astion.

In the centuries following the executions of Epictetus and Astion, Halmyris saw periods of great prosperity. Under the reign of Justinian I (527–565), ruler of the eastern Roman Empire, Halmyris was one of the 15 most important towns in Scythia—a fact recorded by the Greek historian Procopius in his work On Justinian’s Buildings (c. 554). By this time, Halmyris had become a bishopric, according to the Notitia Episcopatuum, a list of bishoprics compiled in the eighth century on the basis of a sixth-century document. Indeed, the original Constantinian basilica we unearthed in the 2000 excavation season was significantly enlarged during the Justinian period, attesting to Halmyris’s prominence in the sixth century.

But Halmyris continued to be susceptible to invasions by Goths, Huns, Cutrigurs (ancestors of present-day Bulgarians) and Slavs. At the end of the sixth century, the Slavic incursions leveled the town. The region was also hit by violent earthquakes, and the course of the Danube River gradually moved to the north, away from Halmyris. The site became increasingly less attractive, the population dwindled and the buildings were abandoned.

Although we have excavated many structures that attest to the commercial and military importance of the site, our discovery of the remains of Epictetus and Astion, and the basilica that housed them, are what continue to fire the imagination. Those bones, spread about the two chambers of the crypt, serve as a haunting reminder of ancient human life—of idealism and tragedy.

The fabled Danube, Europe’s second longest river, has its source in Germany’s Black Forest and winds eastward 1,800 miles to Romania, where it empties into the Black Sea. Just south of where the Danube flows into the sea is a rocky strip of land that has been inhabited for more than four millennia, from the Bronze Age until present times. From the Greek period to the Byzantine period, this was the seat of ancient Halmyris, one of the most strategic outposts of the Roman Empire. In 2001 our team, which had been excavating Halmyris for 20 years,a made […]