Roman Dacia

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Roman Dacia

The Roman province
Roman province

In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of the Italia ....
of Dacia on the Balkans

Balkans

The Balkans is the historical name of a geographic subregion of southeastern Europe. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains, which run through the centre of Bulgaria into eastern Serbia....
included the modern Romanian regions of Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountains, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term frequently encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical regions of Crisana, Maramures, and Banat....
, Banat

Banat

The Banat is a geographical and Historical regions of Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in Romania , the western part in Serbia , and a small northern part in Hungary ....
and Oltenia

Oltenia

Oltenia is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt River river ....
, and temporarily Muntenia

Muntenia

Muntenia is a historical province of Romania, usually considered Wallachia-proper . It is situated between the Danube , the Carpathian Mountains and Moldavia , and the Olt River to the west....
and southern Moldova

Moldova

Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south....
, but not the nearby regions of Moesia

Moesia

Moesia was an ancient region and Roman province situated in the areas of modern Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania along the south bank of the Danube River....
. It was added to the Roman empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
in its earliest days under the war

War

...
of conquest

Dacian Wars

The Dacian Wars were two brief wars between the Roman Empire and Dacia during Emperor Trajan's rule. The conflict was a result of raiding across the Danube by Dacians in 86 AD into the south bank Danube Roman Province of Moesia....
by the Emperor Trajan

Trajan

Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus, commonly known as Trajan , was a Roman Emperors who reigned from 98 until his death in 117. Born Marcus Ulpius Traianus into a nonpatrician family in the Hispania Baetica province , Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian, serving as a general in the Roman army along the Limes G...
, and was ironically—considering its wealth— the first of the Roman provinces from which Rome withdrew.

It was administered under a Roman

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
governor of praetorian

Praetorian

Praetorian is an adjective derived from the ancient Roman office of praetor. It may refer to:*the Praetorian Guard, a special force of skilled and celebrated troops serving as the personal guard of Roman Emperors....
rank, and Legio XIII Gemina

Legio XIII Gemina

Legio decima tertia Gemina , is one of the more historically remarkable Roman legions. It was one of Julius Caesar's key units in Gaul, and in the Roman Republican civil wars, and was the legion with which he famously crossing the Rubicon on January 10, 49 BC....
with numerous auxiliaries

Auxiliaries

The term auxiliaries comes from the Latin auxilia .It is generally used to describe people employed in an organisation, often pre-existing as a reserve force, acting in support of a main military force....
had their fixed quarters in the province.

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Encyclopedia

Balkans

Transylvania

Banat

Oltenia

Muntenia

Moldova

Moesia

Moesia was an ancient region and Roman province situated in the areas of modern Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania along the south bank of the Danube River....
. It was added to the Roman empire

Roman Empire

War

...
of conquest

Dacian Wars

Trajan

Roman Republic

Praetorian

Legio XIII Gemina

Auxiliaries

Dacian Wars

Dacians

The Dacians were an Indo-European people, the ancient inhabitants of Dacia , present-day Romania and Moldova, parts of Sarmatia and Scythia Minor in southeastern Europe ....
to regions north of the Carpathians

Carpathian Mountains

The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc of roughly 1,500 km across Central Europe and Eastern Europe, making them the largest mountain range in Europe....
, Roman colonists were brought in to cultivate the land and work the gold mines alongside the Dacian population— this melding of workers can be seen on Trajan's Column

Trajan's Column

Trajan's Column is a monument in Rome raised in honour of the Roman Empire emperor Trajan and constructed by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate....
which was erected to honor the Dacians submitting to Trajan during the recently concluded Dacian Wars

Dacian Wars

Origin of Romanians

The Romanians are a people speaking Romanian language, a Romance languages, and living in Central and Eastern Europe....
.

The colonists, besides the Roman troops, were mainly first- or second-generation Roman colonists from Noricum

Noricum

Noricum, in ancient history geography, was a Celtic kingdom stretching over the area of today's Austria and Slovenia. It became a Roman province of the Roman Empire....
or Pannonia

Pannonia

Pannonia is an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....
, later supplemented with colonists from other provinces: South Thracians

Thracians

The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European peoples who spoke the Thracian language - a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family....
(from the provinces of Moesia

Moesia

Moesia was an ancient region and Roman province situated in the areas of modern Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania along the south bank of the Danube River....
or Thrace

Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. Today the name Thrace designates a region spread over southern Bulgaria , northeastern Greece , and European Turkey ....
) and settlers from the Roman provinces of Asia Minor.

Province organization

For protection against the attacks of the free Dacians, Carpians

Carpians

The Carpi or Carpiani were a Dacian tribe that were located, between not later than ca. 100 and until at least ca. 400 AD, in the central eastern Carpathian Mountains, and in what is today central Moldavia ....
and other neighbouring tribes, the Romans built forts and delimited the Roman held territory with a limes
Limes

A limes was a border defense or delimiting system of Ancient Rome. It marked the Borders of the Roman Empire.The Latin language noun limes had a number of different meanings: a path or balk delimiting Field , a boundary line or marker, any road or path, any channel, such as a stream channel, or any distinction or difference....
. Three great military roads were constructed, that linked the chief towns of the province. A fourth road, named after Trajan

Trajan

Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus, commonly known as Trajan , was a Roman Emperors who reigned from 98 until his death in 117. Born Marcus Ulpius Traianus into a nonpatrician family in the Hispania Baetica province , Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian, serving as a general in the Roman army along the Limes G...
, ran through the Carpathians and entered Transylvania through the Turnu Rosu

Turnu Rosu Pass

Turnu Rosu Pass is a mountain pass in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains, connecting V?lcea County county and Sibiu County county . It is formed by the Olt River river flowing southwards from Transylvania to Wallachia through the Southern Carpathians....
mountain pass. The chief towns of the province were Sarmizegetusa

Sarmizegetusa

Sarmizegetusa was the most important Dacian military, religious and political centre. Erected on top of a crag 1,200 metres high, the fortress was the core of the strategic defensive system in the Orastie Mountains , comprising six citadels....
(Colonia Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa), Apulum, Napoca

Cluj-Napoca

, until 1974 Cluj, is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in north-western Transylvania. Geographically, it is roughly equally distant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade ....
and Potaissa

Turda

Turda is a city and Municipality in Romania in Cluj County, Romania, situated on the Aries River ....
.

In 129, Hadrian

Hadrian

Publius Aelius Hadrianus , as emperor Imperator Caesar Divi Traiani filius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, and Divus Hadrianus after his apotheosis, known as Hadrian in English language, was Roman Emperor of Roman Empire from AD 117 to 138, as well as a Stoicism and Epicureanism philosopher....
divided Dacia into Dacia Superior and Dacia Inferior, the former comprising Transylvania and the latter Oltenia. Later the Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was Roman Emperor from 161 to his death in 180. He was the last of the "Five Good Emperors", and is also considered one of the most important stoicism philosophy....
redivided it into three (tres Daciae): Porolissensis, from the chief town Porolissum

Porolissum

Porolissum was an ancient Roman Empire city in Dacia. Established as a military camp in 106 during Trajan's Dacian Wars, the city quickly grew through trade with the native Dacians and became the capital of the Roman province Dacia Porolissensis in 124....
, 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

Deliberative assembly

A deliberative assembly is an organization comprising members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions....
, which discussed provincial affairs, formulated complaints and adjusted the incidence of taxation. However, in other respects they were practically independent provinces, each administered under an ordinary procurator

Promagistrate

A promagistrate is a person who acts in and with the authority and capacity of a Roman Magistrates, but without holding a magisterial office. A legal innovation of the Roman Republic, the promagistracy was invented in order to provide Rome with governors of overseas territories instead of having to elect more magistrates each year....
, subordinate to a governor of consular

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Roman Empire. The title was also used in other city states, and revived in modern states, notably French Republic before the Napoleon I of Franceic counter-revolution....
rank.

After the Dacian Wars, Dacians were recruited into the Roman Army

Roman army

The Roman Army was employed by the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire, as part of the Roman military. Its most important infantry constituent for much of its history was the Roman legion....
, and were employed in the construction and guarding of Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall is a Rock and Sod fortification built by the Roman Empire across the width of what is now northern England. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the middle of three such fortifications built across Great Britain, the first being from the River Clyde to the River Forth under Agricola and the last the Ant...
in Britannia

Britannia

Britannia was the term originally used by the Roman Empire to refer to the island of Great Britain. The term was later used to describe a Roman province covering much of the island, apart from the area beyond the Antonine Wall belonging to the Picts in the north, which was known as Caledonia....
, or elsewhere in the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

Cohort (military unit)

A cohort is a fairly large military unit, generally consisting of one type of soldier....
of Dacians") and Alae
Ala (Roman military)

Ala , and its derivatives, Alares and Alarii, were used in different or at least modified senses at different periods....
Dacorum fighting in the ranks of the Legion

Roman legion

The Roman Legion is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly , to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire....
were stationed at Deva
Deva Victrix

Deva Victrix, or simply Deva, was a legionary castra and town in the Roman province of Britannia. The settlement evolved into Chester, the county town of Cheshire, England....
(Chester

Chester

Chester is the county town of Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, Wales, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider local government district of the Chester , which had a population of 118,210 according to the United Kingdom Census 2001....
), Vindolanda

Vindolanda

Vindolanda was a Roman Empire auxiliaries fort located at Chesterholm, just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, near the modern border with Scotland; it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne, England to the Solway Firth....
(on the Stanegate

Stanegate

The Stanegate, or "stone road" , was an important Roman road in northern England. It linked two forts that guarded important river crossings; Corstopitum in the east, situated on Dere Street, and Luguvalium in the west....
) and Banna (Birdoswald

Birdoswald

Birdoswald is a former farm in the civil parish of Waterhead in the England county of Cumbria . It stands on the site of the Roman fort of Banna ....
), in Britannia.

The Marcus Aurelius's Column and the Arch of Galerius

Arch and Tomb of Galerius

The Arch of Galerius and the Tomb of Galerius are neighboring monuments in the city of Thessaloniki, in the province of Central Macedonia in northern Greece....
depict Dacian troops with their characteristic phrygian cap

Phrygian cap

The Phrygian cap is a soft, red, conical hat with the top pulled forward, worn in antiquity by the inhabitants of Phrygia, a region of central Anatolia....
and Draco

Dacian Draco

The Dacian Draco was the standard of the ancient Dacian military. It had a wolf head with the mouth open, with a balaur body, made out of bronze and it ended with some linen stripes....
. The English word dagger
Dagger

A dagger is a typically double-edged blade used for stabbing or thrusting. They often fulfill the role of a companion weapon in close combat....
might come from Vulgar Latin

Vulgar Latin

Vulgar Latin is a blanket term covering the popular dialects and sociolects of the Latin which diverged from each other in the early Middle Ages, evolving into the Romance languages by the 9th century....
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

Despite the foregoing, after about two centuries (from 101 AD, first Trajan war, until around 300 AD), 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

256

Events...
, during the reign of Emperor Gallienus

Gallienus

Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus ruled the Roman Empire as co-emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and then as the sole Roman Emperor from 260 to 268....
, Dacian tribes such as the Carpians

Carpians

The Carpi or Carpiani were a Dacian tribe that were located, between not later than ca. 100 and until at least ca. 400 AD, in the central eastern Carpathian Mountains, and in what is today central Moldavia ....
allied with the Goths crossed the Carpathians and drove the Romans from Dacia, with the exception of a few fortified places between the Timis and the Danube

Danube

The Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg River rivers which join at the eponymously named German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance...
. No details of the event are recorded, and the chief argument in support of the statement, found in Avienus

Avienus

Avienus was a Latin writer of the 4th century. His full name Postumius Rufius Festus Avienius is mentioned on an inscription from Bulla Regia, but "Avienus" has become the usual form of reference....
' works, that "under the Emperor Gallienus Dacia was lost" is the sudden cessation of Roman inscriptions and coins

Roman currency

The main Roman currency during most of the Roman Republic and the western half of the Roman Empire consisted of coins including the aureus , the denarius , the sestertius , the dupondius , and the As ....
in the country after that period.

Emperor Aurelian

Aurelian

Lucius Domitius Aurelianus , known in English as Aurelian, Roman Emperor , was the second of several highly successful "soldier-emperors" who helped the Roman Empire regain its power during the latter part of the third century and the beginning of the fourth....
(270

270

Events...
-275

275

Events...
), confronted with the secession of Gallia

Gallia

Gallia is the name of:*Gaul , the region of Western Europe occupied by present-day France, Belgium and other neighbouring countries.*Gallia County, Ohio, a county in southern Ohio in the United States of America....
and Hispania

Hispania

Hispania was the name given by the Ancient Rome to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula . When Rome was a Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into Roman provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior....
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

Moesia

Moesia was an ancient region and Roman province situated in the areas of modern Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania along the south bank of the Danube River....
and Illyria

Illyria

'Illyria' was in Classical antiquity a region in the western part of today's Balkan Peninsula, inhabited by tribes of Illyrians, an ancient people who spoke the Illyrian languages....
, 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

Sofia

Sofia , is the Capital and largest city of the Bulgaria, with 2,5 million people living in the Capital Municipality. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of the mountain massif Vitosha, and is the administrative, cultural, economic, and educational centre of the country....
). Later on, Diocletian

Diocletian

Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from November 20, 284 to May 1, 305....
and Constantine I

Constantine I

Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus , commonly known in English_language as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or Saint Constantine , was Roman Emperor from 306, and the undisputed holder of that office from 324 until his death in 337....
would reorganise the provinces Dacia Mediteranea, Moesia Inferior, Dardania, Prevalitania and Dacia Ripensis into a Diocese of Dacia

Diocese of Dacia

The Diocese of Dacia was a Roman diocese of the later Roman Empire, in the area of modern Serbia and western Bulgaria. It was subordinate to the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum....
, which along with the Diocese of Macedonia

Diocese of Macedonia

The Diocese of Macedonia was a Roman diocese of the later Roman Empire, forming part of the Prefecture of Illyricum. Its capital was Thessalonica....
formed the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum

Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum

The praetorian prefecture of Illyricum was one of four large praetorian prefectures into which the Late Roman Empire was divided. The administrative centre of the prefecture was initially Sirmium, and after 379 Thessalonica....
.

The abandonment of Dacia Trajana by the Romans is mentioned by Eutropius

Eutropius

IntroductionNot much is known about the early life of Eutropius because there are no written texts that document his life. Eutropius should not be confused with Eutropius of Valencia or Saint Eutropius....
in his Breviarium historiae Romanae, book IX :

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.

Roman Dacia

Province organization

Roman withdrawal

See also