Roman Dacia

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The Province

The Roman province of Dacia was limited to the modern Romanian regions of Transylvania, the Banat and Oltenia, and temporally, Muntenia and southern Moldova. It was under a governor of praetorian rank, and Legio XIII Gemina with numerous auxiliaries had their fixed quarters in the province. Due to a decrease in population of the conquered territory, caused by the Dacian Wars and consequent flight of many Dacians north of the Carpathians, colonists were brought over to cultivate the land and work the gold mines alongside the Dacian population that can be seen on Trajan's Column submitting to Trajan during the Dacian Wars. The colonists, besides the Roman troops, were mainly first- or second-generation Roman colonists from Noricum or Pannonia, later supplemented with colonists from other provinces: South Thracians (from the provinces of Moesia or Thrace) and settlers from the Roman provinces of Asia Minor.

For protection against the attacks of the Free Dacians, Carpians and other neighbouring tribes, the Romans built forts and delimited the Roman held territory with limes. Three great military roads were constructed, that linked the chief towns of the province. A fourth road, named after Trajan, ran through the Carpathians and entered Transylvania through the Turnu Roşu mountain pass. The chief towns of the province were Sarmizegetusa (Colonia Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa), Apulum, Napoca and Potaissa).

In 129, Hadrian divided Dacia into Dacia Superior and Dacia Inferior, the former comprising Transylvania and the latter Oltenia. Marcus Aurelius redivided it into three (tres Daciae): Porolissensis, from the chief town Porolissum, Apulensis, from Apulum, and Malvensis from Malva (site unknown). The tres Daciae formed a single society insofar as they had a common capital, Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, and a common assembly, which discussed provincial affairs, formulated complaints and adjusted the incidence of taxation. However, in other respects they were practically independent provinces, each under an ordinary procurator, subordinate to a governor of consular rank.

After the Dacian Wars, Dacians were recruited into the Roman Army, and were employed in the construction and guarding of Hadrian's Wall in Britannia, or elsewhere in the Roman Empire. Several Cohors Primae Dacorum ("First cohort of Dacians") and Alae Dacorum fighting in the ranks of the Legion were stationed at Deva (Chester), Vindolanda (on the Stanegate) and Camboglanna (Birdoswald Fort or Castlesteads), in Britannia. The Marcus Aurelius's Column and the Arch of Galerius depict Dacian troops with their characteristic phrygian cap and Draco. The English word dagger might come from Vulgar Latin daca, a Dacian knife, and it also may be related with the medieval Romanian word daga, a kind of knife with three blades, used only for assassination.

Roman withdrawal

The Roman hold on the country was still precarious. Indeed it is said that Hadrian, conscious of the difficulty of retaining it, had contemplated its abandonment and was only deterred by consideration for the safety of the numerous Roman settlers.

In 256, during the reign of Gallienus, Free Dacian tribes such as the Carpians allied with the Goths crossed the Carpathians and drove the Romans from Dacia, with the exception of a few fortified places between the Timiş and the Danube. No details of the event are recorded, and the chief argument in support of the statement, found in Avienus' works, that "under the Emperor Gallienus Dacia was lost" is the sudden cessation of Roman inscriptions and coins in the country after that period.

Aurelian (270-275), confronted with the secession of Gallia and Hispania from the Empire since 260, with the advance of the Sassanids in Asia, and the devastations that the Carpians and the Goths had done into Moesia and Illyria, abandoned the province of Dacia created by Trajan and withdrew the troops altogether, fixing the Roman frontier at the Danube. A new Dacia Aureliana was reorganised south of the Danube, with its capital at Serdica (today's Sofia). Later on, Diocletian and Constantine would reorganise the provinces Dacia Mediteranea, Moesia Inferior, Dardania, Prevalitania and Dacia Ripensis into a Diocese of Dacia, which along with Macedonia formed the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum.

The abandonment of Dacia Trajana by the Romans is mentioned by Eutropius in his Breviarium historiae Romanae, book IX :

Provinciam Daciam, quam Traianus ultra Danubium fecerat, intermisit, vastato omni Illyrico et Moesia, desperans eam posse retinere, abductosque Romanos ex urbibus et agris Daciae in media Moesia collocavit appellavitque eam Daciam, quae nunc duas Moesias dividit et est in dextra Danubio in mare fluenti, cum antea fuerit in laeva.[link]

The province of Dacia, which Trajan had formed beyond the Danube, he gave up, despairing, after all Illyricum and Moesia had been depopulated, of being able to retain it. The Roman citizens, removed from the town and lands of Dacia, he settled in the interior of Moesia, calling that Dacia which now divides the two Moesiae, and which is on the right hand of the Danube as it runs to the sea, whereas Dacia was previously on the left.[link]

Post Roman History

From the military point of view, after the Roman withdrawal, the former Roman province Dacia Traiana became the possession of the Goths, Carpians and other free Dacians, and later of the Huns. Incursions of these tribes into Roman territories continue well until the 5th century. Titles such as Dacicus Maximus or Carpicus Maximus were taken by Roman Emperors such as Constantine I or Diocletian.

To the south, the native population was involved into the political life of the Empire. The tradition of Roman Emperors of Thracian origin dates back as early as the 3rd century. Emperors like Regalianus, Maximinus Thrax, Galerius, Licinius and Constantine I were born in Dacian families subjects of the Romans. Dacians still remained an important part of the East Roman army, and dacians north of the Danube were used as mercenaries, as done by the Dacian born Vitalian (470-520, born in Balchik). In 513, he conducts a rebellion against Emperor Anastasius I occupying Thrace, Scythia and Moesia, and proclaiming himself tyrant (Ioannes Malalas). In 517, facing a byzantine army, Vitalian sends for help to the barbarians north of the Danube: the two Macedonias and Thessaly were devastated by the Getic cavalry that robbed all the way through Thermopylae and Ancient Epirus (Euagrios the Scolastic).

Christianity was supported by native clergy, from which evidentiate personalities like Auxentius Durostorensis, the biographer of Ulfilas, Nicetas of Remesiana (335–414), the author of the "Te Deum", Dionysius Exiguus (c. 470 – c. 544), the inventor of the Anno Domini era and the first known medieval European writer to use the number zero, or Saint Sava the Romanian. This Latin speaking population was the nucleous and continuer of Romanisation and Christianisation of the rest of the Dacian tribes, actions which represent the basis for the appearance of the Romanian people.

See also

• Roman provinces

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