Burnum or Burnum Municipium, an archaeological site, was a Roman

Roman army

The Roman army is the generic term for the terrestrial armed forces deployed by the kingdom of Rome , the Roman Republic , the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine empire...

 Legion camp and town. It is located 2.5 km north of Kistanje

Kistanje

Kistanje is a village and municipality in Šibenik-Knin County, Croatia. According to the 2001 census, Kistanje municipality has 3,038 inhabitants of which 57.14% are Serbs and 41.31% are Croats.-History:...

, in inland Dalmatia

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

, Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

. The remains include a praetorium

Praetorium

- Etemology :The praetorium, also spelled prœtorium or pretorium, was originally used to identify the general’s tent within a Roman Castra, Castellum, or encampment. The word originates from the name of the chief Roman magistrate, known as Praetor...

, the foundations of several rooms, the amphitheatre and the aqueduct.

Burnum is also popularly called Hollow Church (Šuplja Crkva) and is one many ruins in the Balkans identified in folklore as Traianus' Town (Trojanov Grad). Only two of the original five arches have been preserved (at the end of the 18th c. Alberto Fortis

Alberto Fortis

Abbe Alberto Fortis , was a Venetian writer, naturalist and cartographer.Alberto Fortis was born in Padua on either 9 or 11 of November 1741. He journeyed extensively in Dalmatia...

 mentioned three of them).

History

The Roman writer Plinius

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

 wrote about Burnum, as "fortress distinguished in wars." - "In hoc tractu sunt Burnum, Andetrium, Tribulium nobilitata proeliis castella." The Pagana chart from the 16th century presented marked traits of Burnum as the ancient locality, but it did not reach archeological interest until the 19th century, when it occupied the attention of renowned Croatian archaeologists, father Lujo Marun and father Frane Bulić

Frane Bulic

Frane Bulić was a Croatian priest, archeologist, and historian.Bulić was born in Vranjic near Split and studied theology in Zadar and then classical philology and archeology in Vienna...

. The first excavations were conducted by Austrian archeologists.

It is assumed that Burnum originates from the year 33 BC, but it is more likely that it was established a few decades later. Several Roman legions were located there in succession, and the first one was legio XX Valeria Victrix

Legio XX Valeria Victrix

Legio vigesima Valeria Victrix was a Roman legion, probably raised by Augustus some time after 31 BC. It served in Hispania, Illyricum, and Germania before participating in the invasion of Britannia in 43 AD, where it remained and was active until at least the beginning of the 4th century...

, placed already there in the beginning of the Pannonian uprising (Bellum Batonianum) AD 6-9. The reason for its location was the need for the control of traffic around the Krka River

Krka (Croatia)

Krka is a river in Croatia's Dalmatia region, famous for its numerous waterfalls. It is long and its basin covers an area of .Possibly the river called Catarbates by the ancient Greeks, it was known to the ancient Romans as Titius, Corcoras, or Korkoras.The river has its source near the border...

. Building was initiated by the Roman governor for Dalmatia Publius Cornelius Dolabella

Publius Cornelius Dolabella

Publius Cornelius Dolabella was a Roman general, by far the most important of the Dolabellae. He arranged for himself to be adopted by a plebeian so that he could become a Tribune.. He married Cicero's daughter Tullia Ciceronis...

 and continued by the Roman Emperor Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus.

The camp gained its final shape during the reign of Claudius around 50 AD Legio XI Claudia

Legio XI Claudia

Legio undecima Claudia was a Roman legion. XI Claudia dates back to the two legions recruited by Julius Caesar to invade Gallia in 58 BC, and it existed at least until early 5th century, guarding lower Danube in Durostorum...

 Pia Fidelis left the camp some times between AD 42 and 67, probably AD 56-57 and was succeeded by Legio IIII Flavia Felix.

According to some sources, a rebellion of Lucius Arruntius Camillus Scribonianus

Lucius Arruntius Camillus Scribonianus

Lucius Arruntius Camillus Scribonianus was a Roman usurper who attempted to overthrow the newly installed Emperor Claudius in 41 CE.- Career :...

 against the emperor Claudius AD 42 was started at this camp as well. After the last Roman legions had left the camp, it developed into a settlement of urban type.

The camp was completely destroyed when the emperor Justinian attempted to take it back from the Ostrogoths in the 6th century.

Aqueduct

The Burnum aqueduct is entirely underground, so that water stayed cool in the summer and could not freeze in the winter. It is about 32.6 kilometers long. 170m height-difference are between the source and the town. It flowed 86 liters per second.

The location is only partially archaeologically investigated. A pre-Roman Liburnian

Liburnians

The Liburnians were an ancient Illyrian tribe inhabiting the district called Liburnia, a coastal region of the northeastern Adriatic between the rivers Arsia and Titius in what is now Croatia....

 builder can not be excluded at the moment in accordance with previous studies.

Legends

There are two old legends about the construction of this aqueduct. The first story is:

Two men courted a woman. One man should build a town, the other man should build an aqueduct to this town. And who would be first, he would receive her as his wife. Both done simultaneously, but that one, who had built the town, judged, that his town was not finished yet, and so the other one should marry her. With the earth, which was dugged out at the building of the aqueduct, was built a hill and on the hill a village. The name of that one, who built the aqueduct, was Rade and so is the village also called Radučka glavica.

Another old legend about this aqueduct is:

Selemnus, a beautiful young shepherd in those parts, was beloved by Argyra, the Nymph, from whom the town and fountain of that name were called; but the flower of his age being over, the Nymph deserted him, upon which he pined away, and was transformed into a river by Venus; after this he still retained his former passion, and for some time conveyed his waters, through a subterraneous passage, to Argyra's fountain. And because they both had separated, but those story was never forgotten, the names remained in memory in Argyra

Argyra, Greece

-Nearest places:*Drepano, northwest*Sella, east*Ano Kastritsi, southwest*Platani, west-Population:-Location:Argyra is located 15 km east from Patras, 7 km from the GR-8/E65 , and the GR-5 with the GR-48 interchange, 9 km from the centre of Rio, and about 30 km west of...

 and Selemnos near Korinth and in Argyruntum and Zrmanja

Zrmanja

Zrmanja is a river in southern Lika and northern Dalmatia, Croatia. It is long and its basin covers an area of .It was known to the ancient Romans as Tedanius. The spring of Zrmanja is located in southern part of Lika under Postak - the southern peak of Pljesevica mountain, and close to south end...

. So the aqueduct stayed in memory. The major harbour of Liburnian navy since 5th century BC was Corynthia at eastern cape of Krk

Krk

Krk is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar county....

island.