Napoca
NAPOCA[DACIAVol. 1. 744b.]
or Napūca. Now Clausenberg; a Roman colony in Dacia (C. I. L. iii. 860, 865).
An important Roman town on the Someş river. The mediaeval and modern towns built over the ancient ruins have almost entirely destroyed them.
The name, mentioned in ancient sources (Ptol. 3.8.9; Tab.Peut.; Rav.Cosm. 4.7), indicates that Roman Napoca developed on the site of a Dacian settlement.
The Roman settlement has been epigraphically attested since the time of Trajan (CIL III, 1627). Situated in the middle of a fertile agricultural area and on the main commercial and strategic road which crossed Dacia from S to N, Napoca developed as a commercial and handicrafts center. Hadrian, on the occasion of his visit to Dacia, made it a municipium (CIL III, 1454), and Marcus Aurelius, or Commodus made it a colonia (CIL III, 963). After the administrative reform of Hadrian in 124, Napoca became the capital of Dacia Porolissensis. The inhabitants were given the ius Italicum.
In the course of modern construction, the topography of the ancient town was clarified. Part of the town inside wall (2.20 m thick) was discovered to the S. The town covered an area of 32 ha and the forum coincides with the present center of the town.
Archaeological, epigraphic, and numismatic material discovered over the centuries may be seen at the History Museum of Transylvania in Cluj.
BIBLIOGRAPHYI. Mitrofan, “Contributii la cunoaşterea oraşului Napoca,” Acta Musei Napocensis 1 (1964) 197-214; D. Tudor, Oraşe, tîrguri şi sate în Dacia romană (1968) 222-42; M. Macrea, Viaţa romană in Dacia (1969) 123-25.
L. MARINESCU