Location Romania | Cultures Biephi | |
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Zurobara (Ancient Greek: Ζουρόβαρα) was a Dacian town located in today's Banat region in Romania. It is positioned by the Tibiscus river (Timiș River), north of Zarmizegethusa Regia and south of Ziridava. It was near the Tisza river, in the area of the Dacian tribe of Biephi.
This town was attested by Ptolemy in his Geographia (III; 8; 4), yet its exact location remains unknown. Zurobara is amongst the places, which are not to be found on the great Roman roads between the Tysis and the Aluta,
Etymology
Zurobara name (that could have been a spelling variant for Zuropara) was interpreted initially as "strong city" where: the ending term of name "bara" / "vara" means ‘city’ (the same as Thracian "para") and the first term of the name "Zuro" means ‘strong’ . Zuro ‘strong’ is also found in the name of Zyraxes, a Dacian king,.
Because of Proto-Indo-European "e" > Dacian "a" (cf. PIE *dhewa > Dacian dava, PIE *ser > Dacian sara), bara is rather derived from root *bher ‘rich, abundance’ and zura from root *ser, *sara ‘waters, river'. In this case, Zurobara meant ‘a waters abundance city’.