Milestone; place of discovery: Mera (Cluj County); 164-166 AD.
Cylindrical shaped milestone with a square base. The upper part of the inscription is executed in a delimited field, the surface of the stone having been smoothed for this purpose. Three other lines (l. 8-10) are below this surface and are written only on the ‘center’ face of the column.
Since the Napoca – Porolissum road was part of the main road artery that crossed the province of Dacia from the Danube to the north, this miliarium attests to the constant concern of the Roman emperors for the development and maintenance of the road network in this province. The date of the piece corresponds to the period of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, namely 165. The last lines of the inscription, written later, refer to a reconstruction during the reign of Emperor Caracalla. The rebuilding of the road in Caracalla’s time, indicated by the dative formula of the emperor’s name, was done by the cities of Napoca and Porolissum. According to C. Daicoviciu, l. 7 mentions the distance from Napoca to Mera. Thus, the figure X (or XI) milia passuum, would correspond to the distance from Napoca to this point.
Inscription: Imp(erator) Caes(ar) [M(arcus) Aurelius] / Antoni[nus Aug(ustus) Arm(eniacus)] / p(ontifex) m(aximus) tr(ibunicia) p[ot(estate) XX imp(erator) IV co(n)sul III et] / Imp(erator) Caes[(ar) L(ucius) Aurelius] / Verus Au[g(ustus) Arm(eniacus) tr(ibunicia) pot(estate) VI imp(erator) IV] / co(n)s(ul) II fece[runt a Napoca] / m(ilia) p(assuum) V[IIII]? / Imp[(eratore) Cae[s(are) M(arco)] / Aur(elio) An[to]/nino [Aug(usto)].