Free Dacians
Encyclopedia
The "Free Dacians". Furthermore, some areas were occupied after 106 by nomadic Sarmatian tribesmen, most likely a minority ruling over the sedentary Geto-Dacian majority e.g. Muntenia
(E. Wallachia), which was ruled by the Roxolani Sarmatians and possibly also northern Moldavia, which was under the Costoboci
, identified as a Sarmatian tribe by the Roman scientist Pliny the Elder
. But there are no reports of Sarmatians controlling the remaining unoccupied region of Decebal's kingdom, that between the Transylvanian border of the Roman province and the Siret, i.e. the eastern Carpathians, and it is therefore in these mountain valleys and foothills that the truly "Free" Dacians (in the sense of politically independent) were most likely concentrated, and presumably where most of the refugees from the Roman conquest escaped to.Free Dacians are reported to have invaded and ravaged the province in 214 and 218. Several emperors after Trajan, to as late as AD 336, assumed the victory title of Dacicus Maximus ("Totally Victorious over the Dacians"): Antoninus Pius
(157), Maximinus I (238), Decius
(250) Gallienus
(257), Aurelian
(272) and Constantine I the Great (336). Since such victory-titles always indicated peoples defeated, not geographical regions, the repeated use of Dacicus Maximus implies the existence of ethnic-Dacians outside the Roman province in sufficient numbers to warrant major military operations into the early 4th century. A grave threat to Roman Dacia throughout its history (106-275) is also implied by the permanent deployment of a massive Roman military garrison, of (normally) 2 legions
and over 40 auxiliary
regiments (totaling ca. 35,000 troops, or ca. 10% of the imperial army
's total regular effectives). There is substantial archaeological evidence of major and devastating incursions into Roman Dacia: clusters of coin-hoards and evidence of destruction and abandonment of Roman forts. Since these episodes coincide with occasions when emperors assumed the title Dacicus Maximus, it is reasonable to suppose that the Free Dacians were primarily responsible for these raids.
In 180, the emperor Commodus
(r. 180-92) is recorded as having admitted for settlement in the Roman province 12,000 "neighbouring Daci" who had been driven out of their own territory by hostile tribes.
Some scholars believe that the presence of the free Dacians is attested by the Puchov Culture
in Slovakia
and of the Lipiţa culture
to the northeast of the Carpathians. However, the identification of these cultures with ethnic Dacians is controversial, as mainstream scholarship considers Puchov as a Celtic culture; and other scholars have identified Lipiţa as Celtic, Germanic or Slavic. In any case, according to modern archaeological theory, material cultures cannot reliably prove ethnicity.
Thus, the traditional paradigm's claim of the existence of a substantial Free Dacian population during the Roman era is supported by substantial evidence.
However, the identification of the Costoboci and Carpi as ethnic-Dacian is far from secure. Unlike the Dacians proper, neither group is attested in Moldavia before Ptolemy (i.e. before ca. 140). The Costoboci are classified as a Sarmatian tribe by Pliny the Elder
, who locates them as residing around the river Tanais
(southern river Don) in ca. AD 60, in the Sarmatian heartland of the southern Russia region, far to the East of Moldavia. The ethno-linguistic affiliation of the Carpi is uncertain. In addition to Dacian, it has been variously suggested that they were a Sarmatian, Germanic
or even Proto-Slavic group. The contemporaneous existence, alongside Dacicus Maximus, of the victory-title Carpicus Maximus - claimed by the emperors Philip the Arab
(247), Aurelian (273), Diocletian
(297) and Constantine I (317/8) - suggests that the Carpi may have been considered ethnically distinct from the Free Dacians by the Romans.
The traditional paradigm is also open to challenge in other respects. There is no evidence that the peoples outside the province were "Romanised" to any greater extent than their non-Dacian neighbours, since the archaeological remains of their putative zone of occupation show no greater Roman influence than do other Chernyakhov culture sites elsewhere in the northern Pontic region; nor that the Free Dacians gave up their native tongue and became Latin-speakers. In AD 271-5, when the Roman emperor Aurelian
decided to evacuate the province of Dacia, its Roman residents, both urban and rural, are reported by ancient sources to have been deported en masse to Roman territory South of the Danube (i.e. to the province of Moesia Inferior). These reports have been challenged by some modern scholars who, based primarily on archeological finds, argue that many of rural inhabitants of the Roman province, and even some urban population, with few links to the Roman administration or army, remained behind. However, leaving behind the Romano-Dacian peasantry would have defeated the central purpose of the evacuation, which was to repopulate the Roman provinces South of the Danube, whose inhabitants had been decimated by plague and barbarians invasions, and to bring back into cultivation the enormous amount of abandoned land (terrae desertae) in those provinces. These were also presumably the aims of Aurelian's contemporaneous resettlement in Roman Pannonia
of a substantial section of the Carpi people that he defeated in 273.
, records an invasion over the Danube by a barbarian coalition of Huns
, Scirii
and what he terms Karpodakai ("Carpo-Dacians"). There is much controversy about the meaning of this term and whether it refers to the Carpi. However, it certainly refers to the Dacians and, most likely, means the "Dacians of the Carpathians". But it is doubtful whether this term constitutes reliable evidence that the Dacians were still a significant force at this time. Zosimus is widely regarded as a highly untrustworthy chronicler and has been criticised by one scholar as having "an unsurpassable claim to be regarded as the worst of all the extant Greek historians of the Roman Empire...it would be tedious to catalogue all the instances where this historian has falsely transcribed names, not to mention his confusion of events...". Even if it is accepted that the Zosimus quote proves the continued existence in 381 of "the Dacians" as a distinct ethnic group, it is the last such mention in the ancient sources.
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...
(E. Wallachia), which was ruled by the Roxolani Sarmatians and possibly also northern Moldavia, which was under the Costoboci
Costoboci
The Costoboci were an ancient people located, during the Roman imperial era, between the Carpathian Mountains and the river Dniester.The Costoboci invaded the Roman empire in AD 170 or 171, pillaging its Balkan provinces as far as central Greece, until they were driven out by Romans...
, identified as a Sarmatian tribe by the Roman scientist Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
. But there are no reports of Sarmatians controlling the remaining unoccupied region of Decebal's kingdom, that between the Transylvanian border of the Roman province and the Siret, i.e. the eastern Carpathians, and it is therefore in these mountain valleys and foothills that the truly "Free" Dacians (in the sense of politically independent) were most likely concentrated, and presumably where most of the refugees from the Roman conquest escaped to.
Antoninus Pius
Antoninus Pius , also known as Antoninus, was Roman Emperor from 138 to 161. He was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty and the Aurelii. He did not possess the sobriquet "Pius" until after his accession to the throne...
(157), Maximinus I (238), Decius
Decius
Trajan Decius , was Roman Emperor from 249 to 251. In the last year of his reign, he co-ruled with his son Herennius Etruscus until they were both killed in the Battle of Abrittus.-Early life and rise to power:...
(250) Gallienus
Gallienus
Gallienus was Roman Emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and alone from 260 to 268. He took control of the Empire at a time when it was undergoing great crisis...
(257), Aurelian
Aurelian
Aurelian , was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following...
(272) and Constantine I the Great (336). Since such victory-titles always indicated peoples defeated, not geographical regions, the repeated use of Dacicus Maximus implies the existence of ethnic-Dacians outside the Roman province in sufficient numbers to warrant major military operations into the early 4th century. A grave threat to Roman Dacia throughout its history (106-275) is also implied by the permanent deployment of a massive Roman military garrison, of (normally) 2 legions
Roman legion
A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...
and over 40 auxiliary
Auxiliaries (Roman military)
Auxiliaries formed the standing non-citizen corps of the Roman army of the Principate , alongside the citizen legions...
regiments (totaling ca. 35,000 troops, or ca. 10% of the imperial army
Imperial Roman army
The Imperial Roman army refers to the armed forces deployed by the Roman Empire during the Principate era .Under the founder–emperor Augustus , the legions, which were formations numbering about 5,000 heavy infantry recruited from Roman citizens only, were transformed from a mixed conscript and...
's total regular effectives). There is substantial archaeological evidence of major and devastating incursions into Roman Dacia: clusters of coin-hoards and evidence of destruction and abandonment of Roman forts. Since these episodes coincide with occasions when emperors assumed the title Dacicus Maximus, it is reasonable to suppose that the Free Dacians were primarily responsible for these raids.
Commodus
Commodus , was Roman Emperor from 180 to 192. He also ruled as co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his father's death in 180. His name changed throughout his reign; see changes of name for earlier and later forms. His accession as emperor was the first time a son had succeeded...
(r. 180-92) is recorded as having admitted for settlement in the Roman province 12,000 "neighbouring Daci" who had been driven out of their own territory by hostile tribes.
Púchov culture
The Púchov culture was an archaeological culture named after site of Púchov-Skalka in Slovakia. Its probable bearer was the Celt Cotini tribe. It existed in northern and central Slovakia between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE...
in Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
and of the Lipiţa culture
Lipiţa culture
Lipiţa culture is the archaeological material culture representative of a Dacian tribe. It took its name from the Ukrainian village of Verkhnya Lypytsya Lipiţa culture (Romanian Lipiţa, Polish Lipica other spellings: Lipitsa, Lipitza) is the archaeological material culture representative of a...
to the northeast of the Carpathians. However, the identification of these cultures with ethnic Dacians is controversial, as mainstream scholarship considers Puchov as a Celtic culture; and other scholars have identified Lipiţa as Celtic, Germanic or Slavic. In any case, according to modern archaeological theory, material cultures cannot reliably prove ethnicity.
Thus, the traditional paradigm's claim of the existence of a substantial Free Dacian population during the Roman era is supported by substantial evidence.
However, the identification of the Costoboci and Carpi as ethnic-Dacian is far from secure. Unlike the Dacians proper, neither group is attested in Moldavia before Ptolemy (i.e. before ca. 140). The Costoboci are classified as a Sarmatian tribe by Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
, who locates them as residing around the river Tanais
Tanais
Tanais is the ancient name for the River Don in Russia. Strabo regarded it as the boundary between Europe and Asia.In antiquity, Tanais was also the name of a city in the Don river delta that reaches into the northeasternmost part of the Sea of Azov, which the Greeks called Lake Maeotis...
(southern river Don) in ca. AD 60, in the Sarmatian heartland of the southern Russia region, far to the East of Moldavia. The ethno-linguistic affiliation of the Carpi is uncertain. In addition to Dacian, it has been variously suggested that they were a Sarmatian, Germanic
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
or even Proto-Slavic group. The contemporaneous existence, alongside Dacicus Maximus, of the victory-title Carpicus Maximus - claimed by the emperors Philip the Arab
Philip the Arab
Philip the Arab , also known as Philip or Philippus Arabs, was Roman Emperor from 244 to 249. He came from Syria, and rose to become a major figure in the Roman Empire. He achieved power after the death of Gordian III, quickly negotiating peace with the Sassanid Empire...
(247), Aurelian (273), Diocletian
Diocletian
Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244 – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....
(297) and Constantine I (317/8) - suggests that the Carpi may have been considered ethnically distinct from the Free Dacians by the Romans.
The traditional paradigm is also open to challenge in other respects. There is no evidence that the peoples outside the province were "Romanised" to any greater extent than their non-Dacian neighbours, since the archaeological remains of their putative zone of occupation show no greater Roman influence than do other Chernyakhov culture sites elsewhere in the northern Pontic region; nor that the Free Dacians gave up their native tongue and became Latin-speakers. In AD 271-5, when the Roman emperor Aurelian
Aurelian
Aurelian , was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following...
decided to evacuate the province of Dacia, its Roman residents, both urban and rural, are reported by ancient sources to have been deported en masse to Roman territory South of the Danube (i.e. to the province of Moesia Inferior). These reports have been challenged by some modern scholars who, based primarily on archeological finds, argue that many of rural inhabitants of the Roman province, and even some urban population, with few links to the Roman administration or army, remained behind. However, leaving behind the Romano-Dacian peasantry would have defeated the central purpose of the evacuation, which was to repopulate the Roman provinces South of the Danube, whose inhabitants had been decimated by plague and barbarians invasions, and to bring back into cultivation the enormous amount of abandoned land (terrae desertae) in those provinces. These were also presumably the aims of Aurelian's contemporaneous resettlement in Roman Pannonia
Pannonia
Pannonia was 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....
of a substantial section of the Carpi people that he defeated in 273.
Ultimate fate
The latest secure mention of the Free Dacians in the ancient sources is Constantine I's acclamation as Dacicus Maximus in 336. For the year 381, the Byzantine chronicler ZosimusZosimus
Zosimus was a Byzantine historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photius, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury.- Historia Nova :...
, records an invasion over the Danube by a barbarian coalition of Huns
Huns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
, Scirii
Scirii
The Scirii were an East Germanic tribe of Eastern Europe, attested in historical works between the 2nd century BC and 5th century AD.The etymology of their name is unclear...
and what he terms Karpodakai ("Carpo-Dacians"). There is much controversy about the meaning of this term and whether it refers to the Carpi. However, it certainly refers to the Dacians and, most likely, means the "Dacians of the Carpathians". But it is doubtful whether this term constitutes reliable evidence that the Dacians were still a significant force at this time. Zosimus is widely regarded as a highly untrustworthy chronicler and has been criticised by one scholar as having "an unsurpassable claim to be regarded as the worst of all the extant Greek historians of the Roman Empire...it would be tedious to catalogue all the instances where this historian has falsely transcribed names, not to mention his confusion of events...". Even if it is accepted that the Zosimus quote proves the continued existence in 381 of "the Dacians" as a distinct ethnic group, it is the last such mention in the ancient sources.
See also
- DaciansDaciansThe Dacians were an Indo-European people, very close or part of the Thracians. Dacians were the ancient inhabitants of Dacia...
- Dacia (Roman province)
- CostobociCostobociThe Costoboci were an ancient people located, during the Roman imperial era, between the Carpathian Mountains and the river Dniester.The Costoboci invaded the Roman empire in AD 170 or 171, pillaging its Balkan provinces as far as central Greece, until they were driven out by Romans...
- Carpi (people)Carpi (people)The Carpi or Carpiani were an ancient people that resided, between not later than ca. AD 140 and until at least AD 318, in the former Principality of Moldavia ....
- HutsulsHutsulsHutsuls are an ethno-cultural group of Ukrainian highlanders who for centuries have inhabited the Carpathian mountains, mainly in Ukraine, the northern extremity of Romania .-Etymology:...
- Origin of the Romanians
- Eastern Romance substratumEastern Romance substratumThe Eastern Romance languages developed from the Proto-Romanian language, which in turn developed from the Vulgar Latin spoken in a region of the Balkans which has not yet been exactly determined, but is generally agreed to have been a region north of the Jireček Line.That there was...
Ancient
- Ammianus MarcellinusAmmianus MarcellinusAmmianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...
Res Gestae (ca. 395) - Dio CassiusDio CassiusLucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus , known in English as Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius, or Dio was a Roman consul and a noted historian writing in Greek...
Roman History (ca. AD 230) - Eusebius of CaesareaEusebius of CaesareaEusebius of Caesarea also called Eusebius Pamphili, was a Roman historian, exegete and Christian polemicist. He became the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine about the year 314. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon...
Historia EcclesiaeChurch History (Eusebius)The Church History of Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea was a 4th-century pioneer work giving a chronological account of the development of Early Christianity from the 1st century to the 4th century. It was written in Koine Greek, and survives also in Latin, Syriac and Armenian manuscripts...
(ca. 320) - Eutropius Historiae Romanae Breviarium (ca. 360)
- Anonymous Historia Augusta (ca. 400)
- JordanesJordanesJordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....
Getica (ca. 550) - Pliny the ElderPliny the ElderGaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
Naturalis HistoriaNaturalis HistoriaThe Natural History is an encyclopedia published circa AD 77–79 by Pliny the Elder. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny...
(ca. AD 70) - PtolemyPtolemyClaudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
Geographia (ca. 140) - Sextus Aurelius Victor De Caesaribus (361)
- TacitusTacitusPublius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
GermaniaGermaniaGermania was the Greek and Roman geographical term for the geographical regions inhabited by mainly by peoples considered to be Germani. It was most often used to refer especially to the east of the Rhine and north of the Danube...
(ca. 100) - ZosimusZosimusZosimus was a Byzantine historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photius, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury.- Historia Nova :...
Historia Nova (ca. 500)
Modern
- AE: Année Epigraphique ("Epigraphic Year" - academic journal) Author?
- Barrington (2000): Atlas of the Greek & Roman World
- Batty, Roger (2008): Rome and the Nomads: the Pontic-Danubian region in Antiquity
- Bichir, Gh. (1976): History and Archaeology of the Carpi from the 2nd to the 4th centuries AD
- Cambridge Ancient History 1st Ed. Vol. XII (1939): The Imperial Crisis and Recovery Author?
- Cambridge Ancient History 2nd Ed. Vol. XII (2005): The Crisis of Empire, A.D. 193-337 Author?
- CIL: Corpus Inscriptionum LatinarumCorpus Inscriptionum LatinarumThe Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms an authoritative source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw light on all aspects of Roman life and history...
("Corpus of Latin Inscriptions") - Garašanin, Milutin V., Benac Alojz (1973) “Actes du VIIIe congrès international des sciences préhistoriques” International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences
- Holder (Paul) (2003): Auxiliary Deployment in the Reign of Hadrian
- MacKendrick, Paul Lachlan (1975): The Dacian stones speak ISBN 978-0807849392
- Millar, Fergus (1970): The Roman Empire and its Neighbours
- Millar, Fergus (1981): The Roman Empire and its Neighbours publisher Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd, ISBN 978-0715614525
- Niculescu, G-A. : Nationalism and the Representation of Society in Romanian Archaeology (online paper)
- Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1878)
- Thompson, E.A. (1982): Zosimus 6.10.2 and the Letters of Honorius in Classical Quarterly 33 (ii)