On the Military and Economical Connections between Northern Italy and the Moesian Lands (According to a Late Antique Inscription from Aquileia)

The inscriptions from the regio or territorium Montanensium are of great importance for understanding the role of the Roman army in the protection of the economically important areas of the province of Moesia and for the military-administrative history of our lands during the Roman era. The area had economic and military-logistical importance, which is why Roman troops with security functions were garrisoned there: initially a cohort, and then a legionary vexillatio (detachment). The report is devoted to a published, but not sufficiently known, late antique inscription from the Italic Colony of Aquileia (Venetia region), which mentions a commander of a military unit Moesiaci from the regio Montanensium. An analysis of the inscription’s evidence is offered in view of the context suggested by other testimonies for the existence of close economic and military-organizational ties between this Italiñ city and the territory of the ancient Ratiaria and Montana. It is concluded that the inscription is evidence of the continuing military supervision over the economically important region of Montana, which arose in view of the internal and foreign political problems in the Moesian lands of the 2nd – 3rd centuries AD.