The Romans in Dacia

The 165 years-long history of the Province of Dacia, the last important conquest of the Roman Empire, had been restless.

113 - 166

Towards the end of Trajan’s reign (between 113-117 AD), during the war with the parts that implied more Roman military forces, the legions IV Flavia Felix and I Adjutrix left the province, as many auxiliary troops did. The Sarmathic tribes considered Dacia - in that moment defended only by Legio XIII Gemina - vulnerable and attacked it, while the Romans had major difficulties while warring against the Parts.

When Hadrian became emperor, in 117, the military situation was difficult. That is why he decided to abandon Trajan’s conquests in Asia. Instead, he maintained Dacia, according to ancient sources, because there lived so many Roman citizens that the emperor could not desert. The new emperor reorganized the territories from the Lower Danube area. He retired his troops from the territories that he held to the east of the Carpathian Mountains and Olt. This river became the new border line. The territories lying to the north of the Danube - formerly in Moesia Inferior - were included in a new province, Dacia Inferior. The former Dacia became Dacia Superior. In its extremity, to the north of the Mures and Aries rivers, another province was established: Dacia Porolissensis - which took its name from Porolissum, its most important military base.

The Romans had to face a new situation. They had to find new ways of political and military control over the area close by the Danube. Their solution was to create on the northern shore of the river - at least in two points - military bridge heads in presentday Southern Moldavia: at Barbosi (Galati) and at Aliobrix (Cartal - Orlovka). Aliobrix was a castrum where an auxiliary unit of the Moesia Inferior’s army founded its civil settlement. Till 166-167 Dacia strongly developed its urban structures, but also its economical and cultural life.

During the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161) the Romans moved the border of Dacia Inferior 40 Km to the East of the Olt river. There they built a new defensive line, this time an artificial one, usually named the Transalutan Limes, or Valul. The decision was caused mainly by strategic reasons: his will was to protect the Olt defensive line, confronted with the barbarians’ attacks. In that place Hadrian had built an important strategic road, running across the mountains to Transylvania. That was the second communication axis between Dacia and the Empire.

167 -180

For the Roman Empire the age of peace and prosperity ceased with several serious military conflicts that affected the Danube border area, between 167-180. They are known by the historiography as the "Marcomanic wars".

Dacia was fully involved in these wars. One of its governors, Cornelius Fronto, was killed in combat, while the Germanic and Sarmatians barbarians were devastating the province close by the walls of the capital, Ulpia Trajana. A major part of the Dacian population, mainly rural, had withdrawn in safer areas, some of them in the desert galleries of the gold mines in western Carpathian mountains. There, there were found - during the XVIII century - lamps, small objects and most of all wax tablets, certifying to miscellaneous contacts. Thanks to the effective efforts they made, the Romans under the command of the emperor Marcus Aurelius succeded in rejecting the barbarians. In Dacia new troops arrived, such as the legion V Macedonica.

The three provinces have been ruled only by one governor, who was supposed to be an ancient consul, therefore named "consular" of the three Dacia. Both decisions strongly implied the strenghtening of the defensive capacity of the foremost point of the Roman Empire.

193 - 235

Afterwards, during the Severs’s dynasty (193-235), the border areas and the whole Dacia enjoyed a prosperous time. During that age there were produced many of most valuables Roman archaeological vestiges that are to be found in the Romanian museums. Most of the Roman archaeological sites reflect that age. A real Dacian renewal was acomplished during that time. The Romans didn’t see the local population as a real danger and allowed to manifest itself.

Thus, the well-known Dacian settlements of Soporul, Obreja (Transylvania), Locusteni (Oltenia) raised during the Severs dynasty. It was the time when Decebalus offered a golden plaque to the medical deities from Germisara (Geoagiu).

Then, in 212, the Emperor Caracalla issued his famous decree granting Roman citizenship to all the free people of the Empire. The decree was excluding only an unimportant social section. This was the end of social and political assimilation of the peoples conquered by the Romans.

This process had started during the Republic by according citizenship to the individuals or to the communities as a reward for those who rended services to the state. It made possible the miracle of transforming a city, Rome, into the widest Empire of the Antiquity.

235 - 270

The last stage of the Roman presence in Dacia, 235-270, is well-known as the "3rd century crises" that affected the whole Empire. It was a crisis determined not only by the internal anarchy, but by stronger barbarian attacks as well. Organized in important coalitions, the barbarians took the Roman state on the brink of a disaster.

The main exposure of Dacia was to the East: the strong tribal union of the Carps - living on the territory of Moldavia - could have been the first objective, followed by the German Goths. With an effective effort and thanks to the presence of the Emperor Phillip the Arabian, the Romans rejected the strong attack of the Carps in 245-247. In the following years (250) Dacia had to face a more difficult situation.

Reflecting the effectiveness of the incessant barbarian attacks, the inscriptions were scarcer, in fact they disappeared after 260. During these decades the monetary circulation was practically paralysed, as it is demonstrated by the lack of the penetration of the new coins from the Center of the Empire.

After 260, the Emperor Gallienus transferred most of the Dacian legions to Poetovio, in Pannonia. He used them as upper echelon troops in his exercise army. In fact, Dacia had been abandoned by an emperor who was striving hard to save at least the center of his Empire.

270 - 275

The restoration of the Empire, by reconquesting the so called Empire of the Gauls and the Zenobia’s state, with the capital at Palmyra, was the work of Aurelian (270-275), an eminent general. He realised that, as he wanted to unify the Roman state, he had to use all the forces he could have. For that reason, he had to abandon Dacia - placed on the northern shore of the Danube, with a dangerous strategic position and demanding important garrisons.

Probably around 271 Aurelian gathered the troops he had in Dacia. The troops were used to strenghten the Danube defensive line. Then, trying to hide the painful loss of the Trajan’s conquest, he established on the southern shore of the river - on the territory occupied today by Serbia - a new province with the same name: Dacia.

The abandon of the Province of Dacia didn’t mean a cut of the relationships of the Romans with the teritories from the northern shore of the Lower Danube. In the former province a native Daco-Roman population remained, still active in the former towns, till the Hunic invasion, acording to the archaeological discoveries from Apulum. For all that, the Daco-Roman population had a precarious material living. They were importing indispensable Roman products, such as the small bronze coinage or the paleo-christian objects, used in the religious ritual. For example, the donarium discovered in Biertan. The Romans maintained a military presence on the Northern shore of the river, to Dierna, Drobeta, Sucidava (Celei) or Barbosi.

During the reign of Constantin the Great (306-337) there was an attempt to reconquer Dacia, but we have no informations about its strength, not about the way it was intended to be accomplished. However, as a testimony of this large scale political and military operation was the new bridge, built by Constantine across the Danube au Sucidava, close by the Olt draught. This was, beyond any doubt, a natural way of getting inside Dacia. However, the important road built along the Olt river by Hadrial, was still operational at that time.

During the following period, the Roman influence over Dacia was variable, depending on the general situation of the Eastern Roman Empire and on its regional policy. However, there was a continuous presence - one way or another - of the Roman politics and civilization, as long as the Empire continued to maintain its border on the Danube line, until the time of the Emperor Focas (602-610). At that time, the Avaric and Slacvic invasion destroyed the Roman-Byzantine possession over the North of the Balkan Peninsula. Then, the Roman influences in Dacia stopped. This brought to an end a whole historical age.