business center. A legion may have been stationed here as early as Augustus (27 BC-14 AD). In 33/34 AD a road was built, linking Viminacium and Ratiaria. Claudius (41-54) garrisoned Viminacium, Oescus and Novae as camps for the Moesian legions. The first legion attested at Viminacium was the VII Claudia that came from Dalmatia in 52 AD. In Viminacium, Roman legion VII Claudia was stationed, and a nearby civilian settlement emerged from the military camp. In 117 during the reign of Hadrian it received city status. In the camp, 6,000 soldiers were stationed, and 30-40,000 people lived nearby. In the first half of the 3rd century, the city was in full development, as evidenced by the fact that at that time it acquired the status of a Roman colony, and the right to coin local money. Here, in 196, Septimius Severus declared his son Caracalla as his successor with the status of "Caesar". Emperor Trajan (98-117) was headquartered here during the Dacian Wars. It became a colonia with minting privilege in 239 AD, during the rule of Gordian III (238-244), and housed the Legion VII and Legion IV. In the mausoleum and the excavated tombs, the Roman emperor Hostilian, who died in 251, was buried. Hostilian was the son of the emperor Decius, who was killed in an ambush near the ancient city of Abrutus located in present-day Bulgaria. According to the old manuscript, emperor Hostilian and his mother came to Viminacium to supervise the organization of defense of northern borders, but both of them died of the plague. Because of the distance and the fear of spreading the plague, he was buried with all honors in Viminacium. Viminacium was the provincial capital of Moesia Superior. In the late spring of 293-294, Diocletian journeyed through his realm, and he re-organized Viminacium as the capital of the new province of Moesia Superior Margensis. He registered that the people wrote in Latin, as opposed to Greek in the southern provinces. Viminacium was the base camp of Legio VII Claudia, and hosted for some time the IIII Flavia Felix. It had a Roman amphitheatre with room for 12,000 people. In 382 the city was the meeting place between Theodosius and Gratian amidst the Gothic Wars. Per Notitia Dignitatum, Viminacium hosted the section of the Roman Danube fleet. Viminacium was destroyed in 441 by Attila the Hun, but rebuilt by Justinian I. During Maurice's