Grave markers from Roman soldiers reused in later tombs have been discovered near Svishtov, northern Bulgaria. They were discovered by accident when a tree was uprooted on private property, revealing ancient graves. The subsequent rescue excavation uncovered two cyst graves made out of limestone slabs, one brick and stone chamber grave and one pit grave, all inhumations, and one cremation burial.The site proved to be the Western necropolis of the Roman military camp of Novae. Located on the right bank of the Danube, Novae was one of the key fortresses defending the Moesian Limes (the northern frontier of the province of Moesia). It was built around 45 A.D. and housed the Legio VIII Augusta until they were replaced by Vespasian with Legio I Italica in 70 A.D. Legio I Italica garrisoned Novae for the next 350 years at least.Both of the cyst graves feature funerary markers reused as building material. One of them contains the partially preserved tombstone of Legio I Italica centurion Gaius Valerius Verecundus was engraved with a wreath of which only traces remain and an inscription that describes him as having been heavily pressed by fate. It was placed at the back of the rectangle on its side. Another tombstone in the cyst belonged to Legio I Italica veteran Marcus Marius Patroclus from Iconium in Asia Minor, today the city of Konya in Turkey. His funerary marker is engraved with depictions of signa, or military standards. One of the slabs used to form a roof is the tombstone of Aelia Basilia erected by her brother Publius Aelius Bassus, also a Legio I veteran. The epitaph describes her as a most virtuous sister (soror pientissima).The second cyst grave has probably the best-preserved of the reused funerary markers. Its eastern wall is composed of the tombstone of Gaius Alpinius Second, son of Gaius, hailing from Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (present-day Cologne, Germany). He was a soldier in the Legio XI Claudia. The western roof slab is fragmentary, but the surviving part of the epitaph commemorates a veteran who served in the legions for 25 years and died at age 60.All of the graves date to the 2nd/3rd century and were looted in antiquity leaving only a smattering of artifacts behind, including a bone needle, two bronze fibulae and a fragment of a spindle whorl. The skeletal remains were jumbled by the interference in the grave, but they will be examined by an anthropologist. The inscriptions are also still being studied so they can be fully recorded, translated and analyzed.