Arrubium
- a town on the Danubius in Scythia Minor, Tab. Peut. Itin.
The origin of this center seems to go back to the 3d c. B.C. when the Celtic kingdom of Tylis had to reinforce its S confines with several strongholds. The name is certainly Celtic. Arrubium, as much as Noviodunum, dominated the S arc of the Danube before it flowed into the Black Sea. At the time the Romans organized the limes (Danubianus), building the fortifications for their legions, their alae, and their vexillationes on the right bank of the river, Arrubium must have already existed. It was linked with the other centers on the right side of the Danube, Troesmis and Noviodunum, by the great road from Transmarisca that followed the course of the river. Between the 2d and the 4th c. it became the seat of the ala I Vespasiana Dardanorum (CIL 3,7512), and at the end of the 3d c. under Diocletian the great Roman road that passed through Arrubium was rebuilt (CIL 3,7610). Another piece of information (Not. Dig. 39, ed. Seeck) mentions the presence of a cuneus equitum catafractariorum, and thus in the 4th c. the settlement at Arrubium still existed. The last to mention this center is the Geographer of Ravenna.
BIBLIOGRAPHYR. Vulpe, Histoire Ancienne de la Dobroudja (1938) passim; id. & I. Barnea, Din istoria Dobrogei (1968) passim.
D. ADAMESTEANU