Editing Isaccea (section)

==Name==
Possibly the earliest mentioning is in [[De Administrando Imperio]] (around 950) of [[Constantine Porphyrogenitus]]. It talks about six [[ghost town|deserted cities]] between the [[Dniester]] and [[Bulgaria]], among them being Saka-katai, ''katai'' being most likely a transcription of a [[Pecheneg language|Pecheneg]] word for "city". The name ''Saka'' could in turn be derived from Romanian ''sacă/seacă'', meaning "barren", however both the identification of the city with Isaccea and the etymology are mere speculations.<ref>Stelian Brezeanu ''Toponymy and ethnic Realities at the Lower Danube in the 10th Century'', in "Annuario. Istituto Romeno di Cultura e Ricerca Umanistica, Venezia", 2002, ({{OCLC|85762872}}), p. 41–50</ref>

The first clear reference to this name was in the 11th century, when there was a local ruler from ''Vicina'' named Σακτζας (''Saktzas'', probably ''Saccea / Sakça''), for the first time used by Byzantine [[Anna Comnena]] in her ''[[Alexiad]]''.<ref>''Alexiad'', Book Six</ref> [[Nicolae Iorga]] presumed that the ruler was Romanian,<ref>[[Nicolae Iorga]], ''Les premières cristallisations d'état des Roumains,'' Acadèmie Roumaine, Bulletin de la Section Historique ({{OCLC|73198609}}), V-VIII (1920), p. 33-46</ref> however "-ça" (-cea) could also indicate a Turkic suffix.

The 14th-century Arab geographer [[Abu'l-Fida]] mentions the town under the name "Saecdji", which was a territory of the "Al-Ualak" ([[Wallachia|Wallachs]]).

The initial "i" in the name was added during the Ottoman domination, due to the same feature of the [[Turkish language]] that transformed "Stanbul" to "[[Istanbul]]". Some local legends claim that the town was named after a certain Isac Baba, however the other explanation is more likely to be true, as the name of the town initially lacked the "i".

Other historical names include:
* Noviodunum (Latin); Νοβιόδοῦνος, Noviodounos (Greek) - ancient name of [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] origin, meaning "New Fort" ("[[wikt:Appendix:Proto-Celtic/nowyos|nowyo(s)]]" means "new", while "[[dun (fortification)|dun]]" is Celtic for "hillfort" or "fortified settlement").<ref name="celts"/><ref>Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, ''The Celts: A History'', [[Boydell & Brewer|Boydell Press]], 2002, {{ISBN|0-85115-923-0}}, p. 153</ref>
* Genucla - [[Dacian language|Dacian]] name of a possibly nearby settlement, derived from [[wikt:Appendix:List of Proto-Indo-European nouns#Body parts|Proto-Indo-European *genu]], knee.
* Oblucița (Romanian); Облучица, Obluchitsa (Bulgarian); Obluczyca (Polish) - [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] name derived from the word "oblutak", that means a rock that was shaped by water into a rounder form.
* [[Vicina (town)|Vicina]] - [[Genoese dialect|Genoese]] name of a port built by Genoese traders as an outpost of the Byzantine Empire. Its location is still unknown, but one of the theories is that it was around Isaccea.