It was built in the Tiberian-Claudian age as part of the Roman Moesian Limes frontier system of linked forts along the Danube.

[3] The canal was more than 3 km long and 40 m wide, an achievement celebrated on the Imperial Tablet found near the fort.

Modifications were made at the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 4th century when additional towers were added towards the river for extra defence towards the Danube shores.

The Imperial Tablet, an inscribed marble slab (97 X 209 X 20 cm) was found in 1969 150 m south-east of the Diana fort near the eastern edge of the Roman cemetery.

[4] It commemorated Trajan’s canal at the Iron Gate, dug in AD 101: The Emperor Caesar Trajan Augustus, son of the deified Nerva, victor over the Germans, chief priest, holder of the tribunician power five times, father of his country, consul for the fourth time, had the navigation along the Danube, dangerous because of the rapids, made safe by having dug a new channel.Besides the military buildings, a sacrificial necropolis and civilian settlement is located within the walls.