KOSTOLAC, SERBIA—Reuters reports that the headquarters of the VII Claudia Legion has been discovered in a farmer’s field in eastern Serbia, near what had been the Roman provincial capital of Viminacium. The Roman legion was active between the second and fifth centuries A.D. Archaeologist Miomir Korać said more than 100 such headquarters are recorded in historical documents, but most of them are now covered by modern cities. This principium had 40 rooms with heated walls, a treasury, a shrine, parade grounds, and a fountain, he added. Some 120 silver coins, thought to have been left behind during an invasion or natural disaster, were uncovered in one of the rooms. “The distribution of coins from a corner to the door…suggests they [the coins] spilled while someone was fleeing,” said archaeologist Nemanja Mrdjic. To read about a ship and dugout longboat discovered in a strip mine near Viminacium, go to “Roman River Cruiser.”
