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Apulum, some 1,800 years ago

Five words on a Roman roof tile from Apulum

A museum in Alba Iulia keeps a roof tile stamped LEG XIII GEM — the mark of Legio XIII Gemina, stationed here from 106 until Rome's withdrawal from Dacia. I took each word on the stamp, plus the tile and Apulum, and traced what became of it in Romanian: one survived, two came back by another road, one was rebuilt, one vanished outright.

LEG · XIII · GEM
The LEG XIII GEM stamp, short for legio XIII Gemina — “the Thirteenth Twin Legion”. Graphic reconstruction after the cartouche on a tile from Apulum, kept at the National Museum of the Union in Alba Iulia. Pick a word: the colour says what road it took into Romanian.
LEGthe legion
XIIIthe thirteenth
GEMthe twin

A signature pressed into wet clay

The tile now sits in a case at the National Museum of the Union in Alba Iulia, among other bricks and tiles dug out of the soil of Apulum. It is a fragment of fired-clay building ceramic, and its face carries a rectangular cartouche in three groups of letters: LEG XIII GEM.

Legions made their own building material in their own workshops — brickyards in the civilian settlement beside the fort, the canabae — and marked it with the name of the unit, pressed into the wet clay before firing. The Latin inscriptions catalogue lists several LEG XIII GEM stamps found at Apulum and kept at the Alba Iulia museum.

Some tiles also carry wavy lines, drawn with fingers through the wet clay: the trace of the hand that smoothed the slab. The name is unknown; the mark of the legion stands in its place.

Where
National Museum of the Union, Alba Iulia; object found at Apulum
What it says
LEG XIII GEM — legio XIII Gemina, “the Thirteenth Twin Legion”
When
From the Apulum garrison years, between 106 and Rome's withdrawal from Dacia
Made of
Fired clay, building ceramic

Three abbreviations, five words to trace: the three on the stamp, plus the name of the object and the name of the place.

The LEG XIII GEM stamp on the tile fragment from Apulum, seen up close
The LEG XIII GEM cartouche seen up close: the letters have worn down, the rectangular frame still reads clearly.Photo: Codrin.B, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Wavy finger-drawn lines in the clay of a Roman tile from Apulum
Wavy lines drawn with fingers through the wet clay of a tile from Apulum, in the same case.Photo: Codrin.B, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Five words: one survived, two came back, one was rebuilt, one vanished

Pick a word on the stamp. The colour says what road it took into Romanian.

  • survived into Romanian
  • came back by another road
  • rebuilt from Romanian parts
  • vanished

one survived · two came back by another road · one was rebuilt · one vanished

  1. LEGio legiune, “legion”

    came back through French

    Latin legio did not survive directly into Romanian. Today's legiune is a learned borrowing that came through French légion (DEX: “Din fr. légion, lat. legio”). The Latin word died with the world that used it; the modern one is a scholarly re-borrowing that arrived by way of French.

  2. XIII treisprezece, “thirteen”

    rebuilt from Romanian parts

    Latin tredecim never reached Romanian. The number treisprezece is a Romanian-built compound: three plus spre (“toward”) plus ten (DEX). The pattern runs through the whole series: unsprezece, doisprezece, treisprezece — “three toward ten”. Romanian raised its own numerals between ten and twenty out of words it already knew.

  3. GEMina geamăn, “twin”

    survived

    Latin geminus, “twin”, reached Romanian directly: geamăn, with the feminine geamănă and the plural gemeni (DER, DEX). The only one of the five inherited without a break — and the only one alive in Aromanian too, as geamin.

  4. TEGVLA țiglă, “(roof) tile”

    a detour through German and Serbian

    The Latin word for tile, tegula, did not come straight into Romanian. It travelled through German Ziegel and Serbian cigla (DER, DEX; Scriban records the German word's Latin root). Latin took a detour through two foreign languages and came home wearing a disguise.

  5. APVLVM —

    replaced outright

    Nothing of Apulum survives in today's name. The Dacian settlement Apoulon, mentioned by Ptolemy, became Apulum under Rome; the Slavs called it Bălgrad, “the white fortress”, and the white motif produced the later Alba. The Roman name vanished without a trace.

Three abbreviations on a tile, five fates: one unbroken, two detours, one rebuilding, one disappearance. Only one took the straight road.

The legion that crossed the Rubicon and stayed at Apulum

The Thirteenth Legion was recruited by Caesar in 57 BC, in the Gallic war. In January 49, its men stood beside Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon — the legion with which, in Livy's phrase, Caesar set out to conquer the world.

After the civil wars the legion was disbanded and raised again, and after Actium, in 31 BC, it was reinforced with soldiers from disbanded legions. Hence the surname Gemina — “the twin”: a doubled legion, built from men drawn from two sides.

Under Trajan it fought in both Dacian wars, and in 106 it moved to Apulum as a garrison. It remained the most important unit in Dacia until the Roman withdrawal, although its detachments also campaigned in other provinces.

Beside the fort grew the civilian settlement, the canabae, with its workshops — the very brickyards that fired the tile in the case. Some of those who kneaded the clay and pressed the stamp may have descendants in today's city; the city rose over their hearths. None of it is proven — but the tile remains.

  • 57 BCCaesar recruits the Thirteenth Legion in Gaul.
  • January 49 BCThe legion crosses the Rubicon beside Caesar.
  • 31 BCAfter Actium, the legion is reinforced and surnamed Gemina.
  • 101–106Fighting in both Dacian wars.
  • 106The garrison moves to Apulum.
  • the garrison yearsTiles stamped LEG XIII GEM leave the brickyards beside the fort.
  • the Roman withdrawalThe legion leaves Apulum with the evacuation of Dacia.

The city that changed its name three times

Before Rome, this was the Dacian settlement of Apoulon, mentioned by Ptolemy. Conquest renamed it Apulum, and the city grew into the largest urban centre of Roman Dacia and the seat of Legio XIII Gemina.

After the withdrawal, the Roman name fell silent. The Slavs called the place Bălgrad — “the white fortress” — a name it carried from the ninth to the eleventh century. The white motif caught on: it produced the later Alba, which became Alba Iulia.

The excavated gate of the Roman fort at Apulum under protective shelters
The excavated gate of the fort at Apulum under protective shelters, in today's Alba Iulia.Photo: Oguszt, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Sources

Etymologies come from the dexonline dictionaries (DEX, DER, Scriban). Translations from Latin: Marius Comper.