Roman History

Seminary and Institute students need to be enrolled within the next 2 months, so we are travelling around the country to present the enrollment packets to the Branch Presidents, 19 in all, and we need to do this within three weeks. In the process we have some extra time to visit some sights. In Ruse, on the 'not' blue Danube River we went to this Roman Castle/fortress built in 69 a.d. The information we read is this fortress was the northern most point of the Roman Empire; it was later, and repeatedly destroyed by the Barbarians, and closed down in 600 a.d. It was built to protect the shipping lanes to the Black Sea. It housed some 600 soldiers. Here is a picture of some of the walls of the fortress.
This is a huge cistern from that time period
The Romans had many gods, but their favorites were Hercules and Diana. All these items were found in the ruins.



The local people worshipped their own Thracian gods. Their favorite was the one on horseback with his dog. All the coins in Bulgaria have a Thracian god on horseback with a dog similar to this one.The Romans ate by reclining and this slab of rock (as I call it) is one of those lounging beds. Not too comfortable unless they covered them. The Stella that was next to this did not show any bedding.

At the fortress sight was a German WWII bunker which the caretaker took us through. He was quite colorful in his own right. The Bulgarians were allies with the Nazi's even though they did not allow any of their Jews to be taken to concentration camps.
The Danube is a major waterway for shipping. It looks like it is still polluted. A Romanian industry was sited for causing deformities in babies in Bulgaria and was shut down about 10 years ago.

We were driving home from Pleven on the 15th of March taking a scenic route through a small village named Troyan and came up to this Gypsie cart. A picture is worth a thousand words.

March is the month of the return of the storks. We saw 6 of them just outside of Pleven. This is important because the Bulgarians have a tradition of wearing red and white decorated yarn called Martinitzas from March 1 until the day you see a stork. Then you are supposed to tie the martinitza to a budding fruit tree. The stork is a symbol of prosperity and good fortune. Doing this is to help those who participate in the tradition to have a successful year.

We hope each of you have a prosperous year even if you don't see a stork.