Tibiscum was a Roman town at the meeting point of two rivers in the Banat, in the west of today's Romania, and the Iaz Dâmb is one of its pieces: a low rise where archaeologists have traced buildings, defences and the signs of a busy settlement. The Romans founded a fort here after the conquest of Dacia in the early second century, and a civilian town grew around it, with workshops, houses, a bath and a temple. It stood on the route that linked the Danube with the heart of the new province, and it was important enough to be given the rank of a municipium.
Caransebeș, only a few kilometres away, is the modern successor, a market town of about twenty-seven thousand people below the southern mountains. It has its own place in the stories of the region. According to a famous tale of 1788, an Austrian army camped near here was thrown into chaos at night when soldiers began shouting and shooting at one another in panic, and it is often cited as one of the most embarrassing battles in military history, though historians argue about how much of it is true. The legend has certainly stuck to the town.
The landscape around is soft and green, with hills lying to the north and the great wall of the Țarcu and Retezat mountains rising to the south and east. The Timiș and Bistra rivers join here, and the meadows by the water flood in spring. The roads are good and the traffic moderate, with the European route through the valley carrying the heaviest flow. For a quieter day, choose the side roads toward Păltiniș and Obreja, where villages sit among orchards.
Fuel is easiest in Caransebeș, and there are simple restaurants serving grilled meat, polenta and the sour soup called ciorbă. The ride continues south-west to Drobeta-Turnu Severin and the Danube at the Iron Gates, where Trajan's engineer Apollodorus of Damascus built a famous bridge over the river, a good reminder of why the Romans valued these roads. Early autumn is a pleasant time, with warm days, cool evenings and apples in the orchards.