Apulon was a Dacian fortress city close to modern Alba-Iulia, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 from where the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 name of Apulum

Apulum

Apulum may refer to:*The Latin name of Alba Iulia.*Apulum , the Roman fort of Alba Iulia.*Apulum , a Romanian porcelain manufacturing company....

 is derived. The exact location is believed by many archaeologists to be the Dacian fortifications on top of Piatra Craivii, 20 km North of Alba-Iulia.

Apulon was an important Dacian political, economic and social center, the capital of the Apuli

Apuli

The Apuli were a Dacian tribe centered at the Dacian town Apulon near what is now Alba Iulia in Transylvania, Romania.Apuli has clear resemblance to Apulia, the ancient southeastern Italy region, which it is believe to have been settled by Illyrian tribes .Linguists use it as an example for the...

 tribe. It was first mentioned by the Ancient Greek

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 geographer Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

 in his Geographia, under the name Apulon. It is also depicted in the Tabula Peutingeriana

Tabula Peutingeriana

The Tabula Peutingeriana is an itinerarium showing the cursus publicus, the road network in the Roman Empire. The original map of which this is a unique copy was last revised in the fourth or early fifth century. It covers Europe, parts of Asia and North Africa...

 as an important city named Apula, at the cross road of two main routes: one coming from Blandiana

Blandiana

Blandiana is a commune located in Alba County, Romania. It has a population of 1,187 and is composed of five villages: Acmariu, Blandiana, Ibru, Poieni and Răcătău.-Attractions:...

, the other from Acidava

Acidava

Acidava was a Dacian and later Roman fortress on the Olt river near the lower Danube. The settlements remains are located in today's Enoşeşti, Olt County, Romania....

. The two roads merge at Apula, with the next stop on the route being Brucla.
After the southern part of Dacia

Dacia

In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...

 became a province of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

, the capital of the Dacia Apulensis district was established here, and the city was known as Apulum. Apulum was one of the largest centers in Roman Dacia

Roman Dacia

The Roman province of Dacia on the Balkans included the modern Romanian regions of Transylvania, Banat and Oltenia, and temporarily Muntenia and southern Moldova, but not the nearby regions of Moesia...

 and the seat of the XIII Gemina

Legio XIII Gemina

Legio tertia decima Gemina was one of the most prominent Roman legions. It was one of Julius Caesar's key units in Gaul and in the civil war, and was the legion with which he famously crossed the Rubicon on January 10, 49 BC. The legion appears to have still been in existence in the fifth century...

 Legion

Roman legion

A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...

. The castrum at Apulum is the largest in Romania, occupying 37,5 ha (750 x 500 m²).