Only a handful of sentences survive from the Emperor Trajan's own account of his wars against the Dacians, and one of them mentions this place. Quoted by a later grammarian, it reads, in Latin, that from there we advanced to Berzobis, then to Aizi. Berzobis is the village now called Berzovia, in the Banat hills of south-western Romania, and the site of the Roman fort here, where the Fourth Legion Flavia Felix was stationed after the conquest, is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing in Romania inscribed in 2024.
The fort was one of the largest in Dacia, built to hold a whole legion at the start of the occupation, on the road that Trajan's armies followed from the Danube northwards into the heart of the Dacian kingdom. Excavations have revealed walls, buildings and finds, though the visible remains are modest. Standing in the fields here, it is easy to imagine columns of soldiers marching past, heading for the mountains around Sarmizegetusa.
The Banat is a region with a very mixed history: Romanians, Serbs, Germans, Hungarians, Czechs and others all lived here, and the traces of that diversity are everywhere, in churches, place names and food. Bocşa, nine kilometres away, and Reşiţa beyond it, are old industrial towns, the latter with one of the oldest ironworks in Romania, dating from the eighteenth century. The surrounding hills offer forests, rivers and quiet roads.
On the bike you get pleasant country roads through rolling hills and valleys, with good asphalt on the main routes and rougher surfaces on the smaller ones. South of Reşiţa, the road towards the Semenic mountains climbs through forests to high meadows, and to the south-west, the roads through the Caraş gorge and down to the Danube offer more dramatic scenery. Traffic is generally light, but watch for trucks near the industrial towns.
Bocşa can sort out fuel and a simple meal, while Reşiţa offers more choice. The local cuisine reflects the mix of cultures: Serbian grilled meats, German pastries and Romanian soups all appear on menus. A plate of mici, grilled minced meat rolls, with mustard and a cold beer is the classic roadside meal.