Ratiaria

Ratiaria[2] (or: Ratsaria, Raetiaria, Retiaria, Reciaria, Razaria; Bulgarian: Рациария; Greek: Ραζαρία μητρόπολις;) was a city founded by the Moesians, a Daco-Thracian tribe, in the 4th century BC,[citation needed] along the river Danube.

[4] The earliest involvement of the Romans occurred in 75 BC when Gaius Scribonius Curio, prefect of Macedonia, entered this territory to ward off the Scordisci, the Dardani and the Dacians.

In 33/34 AD Tiberius built the road linking the Danube forts including Viminacium and Ratiaria.

The city was less important than the nearby Sirmium, Viminacium and Naissus, but its legionary fortress for Legio IV Flavia Felix on the Danubian Limes together with the fleet of the Classis Moesica under Vespasian made it a key station.

A number of Roman patricians (aristocrats) lived in Ratiaria, while the nearby Bononia (today's Vidin) was home to a small military unit.

Investigative journalist Ivan Dikov states that only a small part of the site, which was excavated in the 1980s by a Bulgarian-Italian mission, is left unexplored and unattended.

In 304 or 305, during the Great Persecution three Christian men named Jan, Aggaeus, and Gaius were executed in the city.