![RomaniaHistRegions](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/RomaniaHistRegions.jpg)
The Early Middle Ages in Romania started with the withdrawal of the
Roman troops and
administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...
from
Dacia
Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus r ...
province in the 270s. In the next millennium a series of peoples, most of whom only controlled two or three of the
nearly ten historical regions that now form
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
, arrived. During this period, society and culture underwent fundamental changes. Town life came to an end in Dacia with the Roman withdrawal, and in
Scythia Minor
Scythia Minor or Lesser Scythia (Greek: , ) was a Roman province in late antiquity, corresponding to the lands between the Danube and the Black Sea, today's Dobruja divided between Romania and Bulgaria. It was detached from Moesia Inferior by t ...
the other
Roman province
The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...
in the territory of present-day Romania400 years later. Fine vessels made on fast potter's wheels disappeared and hand-made pottery became dominant from the 450s. Burial rites changed more than once from
cremation
Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a Cadaver, dead body through Combustion, burning.
Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India ...
to
inhumation
Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...
and ''vice versa'' until inhumation became dominant by the end of the 10th century.
The
East Germanic
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...
Goths
The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...
and
Gepids
The Gepids, ( la, Gepidae, Gipedae, grc, Γήπαιδες) were an East Germanic tribe who lived in the area of modern Romania, Hungary and Serbia, roughly between the Tisza, Sava and Carpathian Mountains. They were said to share the religion a ...
, who lived in sedentary communities, were the first new arrivals. The Goths dominated
Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...
and
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and so ...
from the 290s, and parts of
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
from the 330s. Their power collapsed under attacks by the nomadic
Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
in 376. The Huns controlled
Eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
and
Central Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...
from around 400, but
their empire disintegrated in 454. Thereafter the regions west of the
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...
Banat
Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...
,
Crişana, and
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
and
Oltenia
Oltenia (, also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions, with the alternative Latin names ''Wallachia Minor'', ''Wallachia Alutana'', ''Wallachia Caesarea'' between 1718 and 1739) is a historical province and geographical region of Romania ...
were dominated by the
Gepids
The Gepids, ( la, Gepidae, Gipedae, grc, Γήπαιδες) were an East Germanic tribe who lived in the area of modern Romania, Hungary and Serbia, roughly between the Tisza, Sava and Carpathian Mountains. They were said to share the religion a ...
. Within a century, the lands east of the mountains became important centers of the
Antes and
Sclavenes
The ' (in Latin) or ' (various forms in Greek, see below) were early Slavic tribes that raided, invaded and settled the Balkans in the Early Middle Ages and eventually became the progenitors of modern South Slavs. They were mentioned by early Byz ...
.
Hydronym
A hydronym (from el, ὕδρω, , "water" and , , "name") is a type of toponym that designates a proper name of a body of water. Hydronyms include the proper names of rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, swamps and marshes, seas and oceans. As a ...
s and
place name
Place may refer to:
Geography
* Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population
** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government
* "Place", a type of street or road name
** Often ...
s of
Slavic origin also prove the one-time presence of
Early Slavs
The early Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central and Eastern Europe and established the foundations for the S ...
in the regions west of the Carpathians.
The nomadic
Avars subjugated the Gepids in 568 and dominated the
Carpathian Basin
The Pannonian Basin, or Carpathian Basin, is a large basin situated in south-east Central Europe. The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewhat different sense, with only th ...
up until around 800. The
Bulgars
The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari, Proto-Bulgarians) were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. They became known as nomad ...
also established
a powerful empire in the 670s which included
Dobruja
Dobruja or Dobrudja (; bg, Добруджа, Dobrudzha or ''Dobrudža''; ro, Dobrogea, or ; tr, Dobruca) is a historical region in the Balkans that has been divided since the 19th century between the territories of Bulgaria and Romania. I ...
and other territories along the
Lower Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
officially adopted the
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...
variant of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
in 864. An armed conflict between Bulgaria and the nomadic
Hungarians
Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...
forced the latter to depart from the
Pontic steppes
Pontic, from the Greek ''pontos'' (, ), or "sea", may refer to:
The Black Sea Places
* The Pontic colonies, on its northern shores
* Pontus (region), a region on its southern shores
* The Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppelands stretching from nor ...
and began the
conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 895. Their invasion gave rise to the earliest reference, recorded some centuries later in the ''
Gesta Hungarorum
''Gesta Hungarorum'', or ''The Deeds of the Hungarians'', is the earliest book about Hungarian history which has survived for posterity. Its genre is not chronicle, but ''gesta'', meaning "deeds" or "acts", which is a medieval entertaining li ...
'', to a polity ruled by a
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
duke named
Gelou
Gelou ( ro, Gelu; hu, Gyalu) was the Vlach ruler of Transylvania at the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 900 AD, according to the ''Gesta Hungarorum''. Although the ''Gesta Hungarorum'', which was written after 115 ...
. The same source also makes mention of the presence of the
Székelys
The Székelys (, Székely runes: 𐳥𐳋𐳓𐳉𐳗), also referred to as Szeklers,; ro, secui; german: Szekler; la, Siculi; sr, Секељи, Sekelji; sk, Sikuli are a Hungarian subgroup living mostly in the Székely Land in Romania. ...
in Crişana around 895. The first contemporaneous references to Romanianswho used to be known as
Vlachs
"Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Easter ...
in the regions now forming Romania were recorded in the 12th and 13th centuries. References to Vlachs inhabiting the lands to the south of the Lower Danube abound in the same period.
Banat, Crişana, and Transylvania were integrated into the
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...
in the 11th century. These regions were subject to plundering raids by the nomadic
Pechenegs
The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks tr, Peçenek(ler), Middle Turkic: , ro, Pecenegi, russian: Печенег(и), uk, Печеніг(и), hu, Besenyő(k), gr, Πατζινάκοι, Πετσενέγοι, Πατζινακίται, ka, პა ...
and
Cumans
The Cumans (or Kumans), also known as Polovtsians or Polovtsy (plural only, from the Russian language, Russian Exonym and endonym, exonym ), were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confede ...
, who dominated the lowlands east of the mountains.
Hungarian monarchs Hungarian may refer to:
* Hungary, a country in Central Europe
* Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946
* Hungarians, ethnic groups in Hungary
* Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the assignme ...
promoted the immigration of
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
an settlers to Transylvania from the 1150s. The settlers' descendants, who were known as
Transylvanian Saxons
The Transylvanian Saxons (german: Siebenbürger Sachsen; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjer Såksen''; ro, Sași ardeleni, sași transilvăneni/transilvani; hu, Erdélyi szászok) are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania ( ...
from the early 13th century, received collective privileges in 1224. Because of the settlement of the Saxons in their former territories, the Székelys were moved to the easternmost zones of the kingdom. The emergence of the
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe, ...
in the
Eurasian Steppes
The Eurasian Steppe, also simply called the Great Steppe or the steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Transnistria ...
in the first decades of the 13th century had lasting effects on the history of the region. The
Mongols
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...
subjugated the Cumans in the 1230s and destroyed many settlements throughout the Kingdom of Hungary in 1241 and 1242, bringing the
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
to an end.
Background
Roman provinces and native tribes
![Roman province of Dacia (106 - 271 AD)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Roman_province_of_Dacia_%28106_-_271_AD%29.svg)
Contacts between the Roman Empirewhich developed into the largest empire in the history of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and the natives of the regions now forming Romania commenced in the 2nd century BC. These regions were inhabited by
Dacians
The Dacians (; la, Daci ; grc-gre, Δάκοι, Δάοι, Δάκαι) were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often consid ...
,
Bastarnae
The Bastarnae (Latin variants: ''Bastarni'', or ''Basternae''; grc, Βαστάρναι or Βαστέρναι) and Peucini ( grc, Πευκῖνοι) were two ancient peoples who between 200 BC and 300 AD inhabited areas north of the Roman fronti ...
and other peoples whose incursions posed a threat to the empire. The Romans initially attempted to secure their frontiers by various means, including the creation of buffer zones. Finally, they decided that the annexation of the lands of these fierce "
barbarian
A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either Civilization, uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by som ...
s" was the best measure. The territory of the
Getae
The Getae ( ) or Gets ( ; grc, Γέται, singular ) were a Thracian-related tribe that once inhabited the regions to either side of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria and southern Romania. Both the singular form ''Get'' an ...
between the river
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
and the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
(modern
Dobruja
Dobruja or Dobrudja (; bg, Добруджа, Dobrudzha or ''Dobrudža''; ro, Dobrogea, or ; tr, Dobruca) is a historical region in the Balkans that has been divided since the 19th century between the territories of Bulgaria and Romania. I ...
) was the first region to be incorporated into the empire. It was attached to the Roman province of
Moesia
Moesia (; Latin: ''Moesia''; el, Μοισία, Moisía) was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River, which included most of the territory of modern eastern Serbia, Kosovo, north-eastern Alban ...
in 46 AD.
The Lower Danube marked the boundary between the empire and "Barbaricum" until Emperor
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...
decided to expand the
frontiers
Frontiers may refer to:
* Frontier, areas near or beyond a boundary
Arts and entertainment Music
* ''Frontiers'' (Journey album), 1983
* ''Frontiers'' (Jermaine Jackson album), 1978
* ''Frontiers'' (Jesse Cook album), 2007
* ''Frontiers'' ( ...
over territories controlled by the
Dacian Kingdom
Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus r ...
. He achieved his goal through
two military campaigns, the second of which ended with the annihilation of the Dacian state and the establishment of the province of Dacia in 106. It included
Oltenia
Oltenia (, also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions, with the alternative Latin names ''Wallachia Minor'', ''Wallachia Alutana'', ''Wallachia Caesarea'' between 1718 and 1739) is a historical province and geographical region of Romania ...
and large portions of
Banat
Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...
,
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
, and
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and so ...
. Many settlers "from all over the Roman world" arrived and settled in the new province in the following decades.
Dacia was situated over the empire's natural borders. Dacia was surrounded by native tribes inhabiting the regions of
Crișana
Crișana ( hu, Körösvidék, german: Kreischgebiet) is a geographical and historical region in north-western Romania, named after the Criș (Körös) River and its three tributaries: the Crișul Alb, Crișul Negru, and Crișul Repede. In Roma ...
,
Maramureș
Maramureș or Marmaroshchyna ( ro, Maramureș ; uk, Мармарощина, Marmaroshchyna; hu, Máramaros) is a geographical, historical and cultural region in northern Romania and western Ukraine. It is situated in the northeastern Carpath ...
, and
Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...
, which are now part of Romania. Dacia province was plundered by neighboring tribes, including the
Carpians
The Carpi or Carpiani were a Dacian tribe that resided in the eastern parts of modern Romania in the historical region of Moldavia from no later than c. AD 140 and until at least AD 318.
The ethnic affiliation of the Carpi remains disputed, as ...
and
Sarmatians
The Sarmatians (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples of classical ant ...
from the 230s, and by the
Goths
The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...
from the 250s. As the frontiers were to be shortened for defensive purposes, the withdrawal of the Roman legions from Dacia began in the 260s. The province officially ceased to exist under Emperor
Aurelian
Aurelian ( la, Lucius Domitius Aurelianus; 9 September 214 October 275) was a Roman emperor, who reigned during the Crisis of the Third Century, from 270 to 275. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited t ...
(270–275) who "withdrew the Romans from the cities and countryside of Dacia". Garrisons stationed in
Drobeta
''Drobeta'' is a genus of moths of the family Noctuidae. The genus was erected by Francis Walker (entomologist), Francis Walker in 1858.
Species
* ''Drobeta albicauda'' (Hampson, 1910)
* ''Drobeta albirufa'' (Druce, 1909)
* ''Drobeta andrevia'' ...
and
Sucidava
Sucidava (Sykibid, Skedevà after Procopius,Olga Karagiorgou Σucidava after Vasile Pârvan, where Σ is pronounced "sh"Pârvan - știri din Dacia Malvensis http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/ParvanArticole/ParvanStiriNouaDinDaciaMalvensis.pdf)) i ...
remained on the northern bank of the river.
Origin of the Romanians
![Language influence border between Latin and Hellenic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Language_influence_border_between_Latin_and_Hellenic.png)
Romanians speak a language originating from the dialects of the Roman provinces north of the "
Jireček Line
The Jireček Line is a conceptual boundary through the ancient Balkans that divides the influence of the Latin (in the north) and Greek (in the south) languages in the Roman Empire from antiquity until the 4th century. The border has been repeate ...
". This line divided, in Roman times, the predominantly Greek-speaking southern provinces from those where Latin was the principal language of communication. The emergence of
Proto-Romanian
Common Romanian ( ro, româna comună), also known as Ancient Romanian (), or Proto-Romanian (), is a comparatively reconstructed Romance language evolved from Vulgar Latin and considered to have been spoken by the ancestors of today's Romania ...
from
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve ...
is first demonstrated by the words ''"torna, torna, frater"'' ("turn around, turn around, brother") recorded in connection with an
Eastern Roman
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
military action in 587 or 588. The soldier shouting them "in his native tongue" spoke an
Eastern Romance dialect of the
Balkan Mountains
The Balkan mountain range (, , known locally also as Stara planina) is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula in Southeastern Europe. The range is conventionally taken to begin at the peak of Vrashka Chuka on the border betw ...
.
Grigore Nandris writes that the
Romanian vocabulary suggests that the Romanians' ancestors were "reduced to a pastoral life in the mountains and to agricultural pursuits in the foothills of their pasture lands" following the collapse of the Roman rule. A great number of Romanian words of uncertain origin are related to animal husbandry: ''baci'' ("chief shepherd"), ''balegă'' ("dung"), and ''
brânză
Bryndza (from Romanian language, Romanian ''brânză'' cheese) is a sheep milk cheese made across much of East-Central Europe, primarily in or around the Carpathian Mountains of Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania and southern Poland. Bryndza cheese is ...
'' ("cheese"), for instance, belong to this group. Many words related to a more settled form of animal husbandry were borrowed from Slavic, including ''coteţ'' ("poultry house"), ''grajd'' ("stable"), and ''stână'' ("fenced pasture").
Romanian has preserved Latin terms for agriculture and the Latin names of certain crops, but a significant part of its agricultural lexis originates from a Slavic-speaking population.
The first group includes ''a ara'' ("to plough"), ''a semăna'' ("to sow"), ''a culege'' ("to harvest"), ''a secera'' ("to reap"), ''grâu'' ("wheat"), ''in'' ("flax"), and ''furcă'' ("pitchfork"), while ''a croi'' ("to cut out"), ''a plivi'' ("to weed"), ''brazdă'' ("furrow"), ''cobilă'' ("plow line"), ''coasă'' ("scythe"), ''lopată'' ("shovel") and many others are Slavic loanwords.
The Romanian religious vocabulary is also divided, with a small number of basic terms preserved from Latin and a significant number of borrowings from
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language.
Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with Standard language, standardizing the lan ...
. Romanian did not preserve Latin words connected to urbanized society.
The Romanians'
ethnogenesis
Ethnogenesis (; ) is "the formation and development of an ethnic group".
This can originate by group self-identification or by outside identification.
The term ''ethnogenesis'' was originally a mid-19th century neologism that was later introdu ...
cannot be understood based exclusively on written sources, because the earliest records on their ancestors were made by 11th-century
Byzantine historians. When referring to the Romance-speaking population of
Southeastern Europe
Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (al ...
, early medieval sources used the
Vlach
"Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Eastern ...
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
or its
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
s, which all derived from the
Common Slavic
Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately from the 2nd millennium B.C. through the 6th ...
term for speakers of the Latin language. The
earliest sources write of the Vlachs of the central territories of the
Balkan Peninsula
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
.
Late Roman Age
Scythia Minor and the ''limes'' on the Lower Danube (''c.'' 270–''c.'' 700)
![Scythia Minor map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Scythia_Minor_map.jpg)
The territory between the Lower Danube and the Black Sea remained a fully integrated part of the Roman Empire, even after the abandonment of Trajan's Dacia. It was transformed into a separate province under the name of
Scythia Minor
Scythia Minor or Lesser Scythia (Greek: , ) was a Roman province in late antiquity, corresponding to the lands between the Danube and the Black Sea, today's Dobruja divided between Romania and Bulgaria. It was detached from Moesia Inferior by t ...
around 293. Before 300, the Romans erected small forts at
Dierna and in other places on the northern bank of the Danube in modern-day Banat. In their wider region, Roman coins from the periodmostly of bronzehave been found.
The existence of Christian communities in Scythia Minor became evident under Emperor
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
(284–305). He and
his co-emperors ordered the persecution of Christians throughout the empire, causing the death of many between 303 and 313. Under Emperor
Constantine the Great
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
(306–337), a
bridge across the Danube was constructed at
Sucidava
Sucidava (Sykibid, Skedevà after Procopius,Olga Karagiorgou Σucidava after Vasile Pârvan, where Σ is pronounced "sh"Pârvan - știri din Dacia Malvensis http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/ParvanArticole/ParvanStiriNouaDinDaciaMalvensis.pdf)) i ...
, a new fort (
Constantiana Daphne
Daphne was a Roman fortification inaugurated, most probably in 327, on the left bank of the Danube, across Transmarisca, in the delta of the Arges river. In 367, emperor Valens crossed the Danube at Daphne using a pontoon bridge. Chronicler Georg ...
) was built, and ancient roads were repaired in Oltenia. The Lower Danube again became the empire's northern boundary in 369 at the latest, when Emperor
Valens
Valens ( grc-gre, Ουάλης, Ouálēs; 328 – 9 August 378) was Roman emperor from 364 to 378. Following a largely unremarkable military career, he was named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who gave him the eastern half of ...
met
Athanaric
Athanaric or Atanaric ( la, Athanaricus; died 381) was king of several branches of the Thervingian Goths () for at least two decades in the 4th century. Throughout his reign, Athanaric was faced with invasions by the Roman Empire, the Huns and a c ...
the head of the Gothsin a boat in the middle of the river because the latter had taken an oath "never to set foot on Roman soil".
The Huns destroyed Drobeta and Sucidava in the 440s, but the forts were restored under Emperor
Justinian I
Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...
(527–565).
Eastern Roman
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
coins from the first half of the 6th century suggest a significant military presence in Olteniaa region also characterized by the predominance of pottery with shapes of Roman tradition. Although
Eastern Roman emperors
This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, to Fall of Constantinople, its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. On ...
made annual payments to the neighboring peoples in an attempt to keep the peace in the Balkans, the Avars regularly invaded Scythia Minor from the 580s. The Romans abandoned Sucidava in 596 or 597, but
Tomis, which was the last town in Scythia Minor to resist the invaders, only fell in 704.
North of the ''limes'' (''c.'' 270–''c.'' 330)
Transylvania and northern Banat, which had belonged to Dacia province, had no direct contact with the Roman Empire from the 270s. There is no evidence that they were invaded in the following decades. Towns, including
Apulum and
Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa
Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa was the capital and the largest city of Roman Dacia, later named ''Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa'' after the former Dacian capital, located some 40 km away. Built on the ground of a camp of t ...
, and the surrounding areas continued to be inhabited but the urban areas diminished. The existence of local Christian communities can be assumed in
Porolissum
Porolissum was an ancient Roman 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 province Dacia Porolissensis in 124. The si ...
,
Potaissa
Turda (; hu, Torda, ; german: link=no, Thorenburg; la, Potaissa) is a city in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is located in the southeastern part of the county, from the county seat, Cluj-Napoca, to which it is connected by the Europ ...
and other settlements. On the other hand, evidencemainly pottery with "
Chi
Chi or CHI may refer to:
Greek
*Chi (letter), the Greek letter (uppercase Χ, lowercase χ);
Chinese
*Chi (length), ''Chi'' (length) (尺), a traditional unit of length, about ⅓ meter
*Chi (mythology) (螭), a dragon
*Chi (surname) (池, pin ...
-
rho
Rho (uppercase Ρ, lowercase ρ or ; el, ρο or el, ρω, label=none) is the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 100. It is derived from Phoenician letter res . Its uppercase form uses the sa ...
" ''(Χ-Ρ)'' signs and other Christian symbolsis "shadowy and poorly understood", according to archaeologists Haynes and Hanson.
Urns found in late 3rd-century cemeteries at
Bezid,
Mediaş, and in other Transylvanian settlements had clear analogies in sites east of the Carpathians, suggesting that the
Carpians
The Carpi or Carpiani were a Dacian tribe that resided in the eastern parts of modern Romania in the historical region of Moldavia from no later than c. AD 140 and until at least AD 318.
The ethnic affiliation of the Carpi remains disputed, as ...
were the first new arrivals in the former province from the neighboring regions. Other Carpian groups, pressured by the Goths, also departed from their homeland and sought refuge in the Roman Empire around 300. Nevertheless, "
Carpo-Dacians
The Carpi or Carpiani were a Dacian tribe that resided in the eastern parts of modern Romania in the historical region of Moldavia from no later than c. AD 140 and until at least AD 318.
The ethnic affiliation of the Carpi remains disputed, as ...
" were listed among the peoples "mixed with the Huns" as late as 379. The
Sarmatians
The Sarmatians (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples of classical ant ...
of the Banat were allies of the empire, demonstrated by a Roman invasion in 332 against the Goths, their enemies. Sarmatians were admitted into the empire in 379, but other Sarmatian groups remained in the Tisa plains up until the 460s.
''Gutthiuda:'' land of the Goths (''c.'' 290–''c.'' 455)
![Gutthiuda](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Gutthiuda.jpg)
The Goths started penetrating into territories west of the river
Dniester
The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and th ...
from the 230s. Two distinct groups separated by the river, the
Thervingi
The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi (sometimes pluralised Tervings or Thervings) were a Goths, Gothic people of the plains north of the Lower Danube and west of the Dniester River in the 3rd and the 4th centuries.
They had close contacts with ...
and the
Greuthungi
The Greuthungi (also spelled Greutungi) were a Gothic people who lived on the Pontic steppe between the Dniester and Don rivers in what is now Ukraine, in the 3rd and the 4th centuries. They had close contacts with the Tervingi, another Gothic pe ...
, quickly emerged among them. The one-time province of Dacia was held by "the
Taifali
The Taifals or Tayfals ( la, Taifali, Taifalae or ''Theifali''; french: Taïfales) were a people group of Germanic or Sarmatian origin, first documented north of the lower Danube in the mid third century AD. They experienced an unsettled and fra ...
,
Victohali The Victohali were a people of Late Antiquity who lived north of the Lower Danube. In Greek their name is ''Biktoa'' or ''Biktoloi''. They were possibly a Germanic people, and it has been suggested that they were one of the tribes of the Vandals.
T ...
, and Thervingi" around 350.
The Goths' success is marked by the expansion of the multiethnic "
Sântana de Mureş-Chernyakhov culture". Settlements of the culture appeared in Moldavia and Wallachia at the end of the 3rd century, and in Transylvania after 330. These lands were inhabited by a sedentary population engaged in farming and cattle-breeding. Pottery, comb-making and other handicrafts flourished in the villages. Wheel-made fine pottery is a typical item of the period; hand-formed cups of the local tradition were also preserved.
Plowshare
In agriculture, a plowshare ( US) or ploughshare ( UK; ) is a component of a plow (or plough). It is the cutting or leading edge of a moldboard which closely follows the coulter (one or more ground-breaking spikes) when plowing.
The plowshar ...
s similar to those made in nearby Roman provinces and Scandinavian-style brooches indicate trade contacts with these regions. "Sântana de Mureş-Chernyakhov" villages, sometimes covering an area exceeding , were not fortified and consisted of two types of houses:
sunken huts with walls made of
wattle and daub
Wattle and daub is a composite building method used for making walls and buildings, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung a ...
and surface buildings with plastered timber walls. Sunken huts had for centuries been typical for settlements east of the Carpathians, but now they appeared in distant zones of the Pontic steppes.
![Tezaur MNIR IMG 7326](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Tezaur_MNIR_IMG_7326.JPG)
The multiethnic ''Gutthiuda'' was divided into smaller political units or ''kuni'', each headed by tribal chiefs or ''reiks''. In case of emergency, the tribal chiefs' council elected a supreme leader who was known as ''iudex regum'' ("judge of kings") by
St Ambrose
Ambrose of Milan ( la, Aurelius Ambrosius; ), venerated as Saint Ambrose, ; lmo, Sant Ambroeus . was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promot ...
. Christian prisoners of war were the first missionaries among the Goths.
Ulfilas
Ulfilas (–383), also spelled Ulphilas and Orphila, all Latinized forms of the unattested Gothic form *𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌰 Wulfila, literally "Little Wolf", was a Goth of Cappadocian Greek descent who served as a bishop and missionary ...
, himself a descendant of a
Cappadocian
Cappadocian Greeks also known as Greek Cappadocians ( el, Έλληνες-Καππαδόκες, Ελληνοκαππαδόκες, Καππαδόκες; tr, Kapadokyalı Rumlar) or simply Cappadocians are an ethnic Greek community native to the ...
captive, was ordained bishop "of the Christians in the land of the Goths" in 341. Expelled from ''Gutthiuda'' during a persecution of Christians, Ulfilas settled in Moesia in 348.
Gothic dominance collapsed when the Huns arrived and attacked the Thervingi in 376. Most of the Thervingi sought asylum in the Roman Empire, and were followed by large groups of Greuthungi and Taifali. All the same, significant groups of Goths stayed in the territories north of the Danube. For instance,
Athanaric
Athanaric or Atanaric ( la, Athanaricus; died 381) was king of several branches of the Thervingian Goths () for at least two decades in the 4th century. Throughout his reign, Athanaric was faced with invasions by the Roman Empire, the Huns and a c ...
"retired with all his men to ''
Caucalanda''"probably to the valley of the river Olt from where they "drove out the Sarmatians".
[''Ammianus Marcellinus: The Later Roman Empire'' (31.4.), p. 418.] A hoard of Roman coins issued under Valentinian I and Valens suggests that the gates of the amphitheatre at Ulpia Traiana were blocked around the same time. The
Pietroasele Treasure which was hidden around 450 also implies the presence of a Gothic tribal or religious leader in the lands between the Carpathians and the Lower Danube. It contains a
torc
A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some had hook and ring closures and a few had ...
bearing the inscription ''GUTANI O WI HAILAG'', which is interpreted by Malcolm Todd as "God who protects the Goths, most holy and inviolate".
''Gepidia:'' land of the Gepids (''c.'' 290–''c.'' 630)
![Gepid kingdom 6th century](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Gepid_kingdom_6th_century.png)
The earliest reference to Gepidsan
East Germanic tribe
The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...
closely related to the Gothsis found in a
formal speech of 291. The anonymous author wrote that the Thervingi joined "battle with the Vandals and Gepids" at that time. The center of an early ''Gepidia'', on the plains northwest of the
Meseş Mountains, appears to have been located around
Şimleu Silvaniei, where early 5th-century precious objects of Roman provenance have been unearthed.
The Huns imposed their authority over the Gepids by the 420s, but the latter remained united under the rule of their king named
Ardaric
Ardaric ( la, Ardaricus; c. 450 AD) was the king of the Gepids, a Germanic tribe closely related to the Goths. He was "famed for his loyalty and wisdom," one of the most trusted adherents of Attila the Hun
Attila (, ; ), frequently calle ...
. Although he was one of the favorites of
Attila, king of the Huns, he initiated an uprising against the Huns when Attila died in 453. The Gepids regained their independence and "ruled as victors over the extent of all Dacia".
![Tesoro di principe gepidico di apahida (1889), anello con 4 croci, 480-500 ca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Tesoro_di_principe_gepidico_di_apahida_%281889%29%2C_anello_con_4_croci%2C_480-500_ca..JPG)
Three
sumptuous tombs found at
Apahida
Apahida ( hu, Apahida; german: Bruckendorf; la, Pons Abbatis) is a commune in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of eight villages: Apahida, Bodrog (''Bodrog''), Câmpenești, Corpadea (''Kolozskorpád''), Dezmir (''Dezmér''), Pat ...
evidence the wealth accumulated by Gepid royals through their connections with the Eastern Roman Empire. A golden ring with crosses found in one of the graves implies its owner's Christian faith.
John of Biclar
John of Biclaro, Biclar, or Biclarum (''c.'' 540 – after 621), also ''Iohannes Biclarensis'', was a Visigoth chronicler. He was born in Lusitania, in the city of ''Scallabis'' (modern Santarém in Portugal). He was also bishop of Girona.
Earl ...
refers to an
Arian
Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God t ...
bishop of the Gepids which suggests that they adopted Christianity through their connection with the Arian Goths.
New settlements appearing along the rivers Mureş,
Someş, and
Târnava
The Târnava (full name in ro, Râul Târnava; hu, Küküllő; german: Kokel; tr, Kokul or Kokulu) is a river in Romania. It is formed by the confluence of the Târnava Mare and Târnava Mică in the town of Blaj. The Târnava flows into the ...
reflects a period of tranquility in ''Gepidia'' until around 568. The common people in
Biharia
Biharia ( hu, Bihar) is a commune in Bihor County, Crișana, Romania. It is composed of two villages, Biharia and Cauaceu (''Hegyközkovácsi''). In 2011 it had 4,205 inhabitants, of whom 85.87% were Hungarians, 12.12% Romanians and 1.73% Roma.
H ...
,
Cenad
Cenad ( hu, Nagycsanád, during the Dark Ages ''Marosvár''; german: Tschanad; sr, Чанад, Čanad; la, Chanadinum) is a commune in Timiș County, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Cenad. The village serves as a customs point on t ...
,
Moreşti, and other villages lived in sunken huts covered with gabled roofs but with no hearths or ovens. They were primarily farmers, but looms, combs, and other products evidence the existence of local workshops. Trading contacts between ''Gepidia'' and faraway regions is evidenced by finds of amber beads and brooches manufactured in the
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
,
Mazovia
Mazovia or Masovia ( pl, Mazowsze) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European Plain, roughly between Łódź and Białystok, with Warsaw being the unofficial capital and largest city. Throughout the centurie ...
or
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
.
The Avar invasion of 568 ended the independent ''Gepidia''. Written sources evidence the survival of Gepid groups within the Avar Empire. For instance, Eastern Roman troops "encountered three Gepid settlements" on the Tisa plains in 599 or 600.
Hunnic Empire (''c.'' 400–''c.'' 460)
![Huns450](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Huns450.png)
The Huns, a people of uncertain origin, were nomadic and wandered "with the wagons" in the 370s. They were eminent mounted archers who imposed their authority over an increasing number of neighboring peoples. Their first ruler whose seat was located in the Lower Danube region was
Uldin
Uldin, also spelled Huldin (died before 412) is the first ruler of the Huns whose historicity is undisputed.
Etymology
The name is recorded as ''Ουλδης'' (Ouldes) by Sozomen, ''Uldin'' by Orosius, and ''Huldin'' by Marcellinus Comes. On the ...
, initially an important ally and later an enemy of the
Eastern Roman Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
between 401 and 408.
The Eastern Roman government paid an annual tribute to the Huns from the 420s. Gold flowing from the empire transformed the Hun society. The introduction of a centralized monarchy is evidenced in a report written by
Priscus of Panium, an Eastern Roman envoy sent to the ruler of the Huns,
Attila
Attila (, ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European traditio ...
, in 448. At that time, Gothic was widely spoken in the royal court since "the subjects of the Huns" spoke "besides their own barbarous tongues, either
Hunnic or Gothic, oras many as have commercial dealings with the
western RomansLatin".
The Huns imposed their authority on a sedentary population. Priscus of Panium refers to a village where he and his retinue were supplied "with millet instead of corn" and "
medos (mead) instead of wine".
Attila's sudden death in 453 caused a civil war among his sons. The subject peoples revolted and emerged the victors at the
Battle of Nedao
The Battle of Nedao was a battle fought in Pannonia in 454 between the Huns and their former Germanic vassals. Nedao is believed to be a tributary of the Sava River.
Battle
After the death of Attila the Hun, allied forces of the subject peoples ...
in 454. The remnants of the Huns withdrew to the Pontic steppes. One of their groups was admitted to settle in Scythia Minor in 460.
After the first migrations
Between Huns and Avars (''c.'' 450–''c.'' 565)
The last "Sântana de Mureş-Chernyakhov" objects once widespread in ''Gutthiuda''such as fine wares and weaponsare dated to the period ending around 430. According to Coriolan H. Opreanu, the same period is characterized by "population shifts" which caused the abandonment of many villages and the appearance of new settlements.
Botoşana,
Dodeşti, and other sites east of the Carpathians demonstrate the simplification of pottery forms and a decline in the use of the fast potter's wheel from the 450s. Around the same time, semi-sunken huts with stone or clay ovens appeared in Moldavia and Wallachia, forming ephemeral settlements with an area smaller than . The locals practiced an "itinerant form of agriculture", instead of manuring the soil. Differences in local pottery indicate the coexistence of communities isolated from each other by marshes, forests or hills. For instance, contemporary
Cândeşti produced a significant quantity of wheel-made pottery,
Târgşor was characterized by crushed-shard tempered vessels, and a sample of the most common "
Kolochin" vessels was found in the Budureasca Valley.
There are few known cemeteries from the second half of the 5th century, pointing to common use of cremation without the use of urns or pits. On the other hand, a huge biritual necropolis at
Sărata-Monteoru produced more than 1,600 cremation burials, either in wheel-made urns or in pits without urns. Small cemeteries with inhumation graves have been found at
Nichiteni and
Secuieni.
Jordanes,
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gener ...
and other 6th-century authors used the terms "
Sclavenes
The ' (in Latin) or ' (various forms in Greek, see below) were early Slavic tribes that raided, invaded and settled the Balkans in the Early Middle Ages and eventually became the progenitors of modern South Slavs. They were mentioned by early Byz ...
" and "
Antes" to refer to the peoples inhabiting the territory north of the Lower Danube. The Antes launched their first campaign over the Lower Danube in 518. After they concluded a treaty with the Eastern Roman Empire in 545, the Sclavenes started to plunder the Balkan provinces. Both ethnic groups seized many prisoners of wars during their raids, but they were ready to integrate them "as free men and friends".
The names of early 6th-century leaders of the Sclavenes or Antes are unknown. This supports ancient authors' claims that both ethnic groups lived "under a democracy". The same conclusion can be drawn from
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gener ...
's report of the "phoney Chilbudius"a young Antian serf who "spoke the Latin tongue"who was dispatched by his fellow tribesmen to negotiate with the Eastern Roman Empire in 545.
The disappearance of bronze and gold coins from sites north of the Lower Danube demonstrates an "economic closure of the frontier" of the Eastern Roman Empire between 545 and 565. The same period is characterized by a tendency towards cultural unification in Moldavia, Oltenia and Wallachia. Handmade pots with very similar incised designs evidence the "existence of a cross-regional set of symbols shared" by either potters or consumers. Pots,
spindle whorl
A spindle whorl is a disc or spherical object fitted onto the spindle to increase and maintain the speed of the spin. Historically, whorls have been made of materials like amber, antler, bone, ceramic, coral, glass, stone, metal (iron, lead, lead ...
s and other objects decorated with crosses or swastikas have been unearthed at Cândeşti,
Lozna, and other sites. The use of handmade clay pans for baking bread was spreading from the regions south and east of the Carpathians towards lands over the Dniester and the Lower Danube.
Avar Empire (''c.'' 565–''c.'' 800)
The
Avars occupied ''Gepidia'' in 567, less than a decade after their arrival in Europe. They were nomadic pastoralists, who settled in the lowlands. Stirrups found at
Sânpetru German are among the earliest finds in Romania attributed to the Avars. They received agricultural products from farming communities settled in their domains and neighboring peoples subjected to their authority. Emperor
Justin II
Justin II ( la, Iustinus; grc-gre, Ἰουστῖνος, Ioustînos; died 5 October 578) or Justin the Younger ( la, Iustinus minor) was Eastern Roman Emperor from 565 until 578. He was the nephew of Justinian I and the husband of Sophia, the ...
hired, in 578, the Avars to attack the Sclavenes who resumed their plundering raids against the empire around that time. The names of some of the Sclavene leaders were first recorded in the following period. One of them,
Musocius
Musokios or MužokPavel Jozef Šafárik, ''Über die Abkunft der Slawen nach Lorenz Surowiecki'' (1828), Budapage 25/ref> was a 6th-century (''Antes people, Antes'') monarch that ruled around 592, during Maurice's Balkan campaigns.
Menander Prote ...
, "was called ''rex'' in the barbarian tongue".
Graves of males interred together with horses found at
Aiud
Aiud (; la, Brucla, hu, Nagyenyed, Hungarian pronunciation: ; german: Straßburg am Mieresch) is a city located in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. The city's population is 22,876. It has the status of municipality and is the 2nd-largest c ...
and
Band
Band or BAND may refer to:
Places
*Bánd, a village in Hungary
*Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
*Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania
* Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...
prove the Avars' settlement in Transylvania in the early 7th century. Their cemeteries are centered around salt mines. Spursnever found in Avar context but widely used in
Western Slav territories were unearthed in
Şura Mică and
Medişoru Mare, suggesting the employment of non-Avar horsemen in the 8th century.
Large "
Late Avar
The Pannonian Avars () were an alliance of several groups of Eurasian nomads of various origins. The peoples were also known as the Obri in chronicles of Rus, the Abaroi or Varchonitai ( el, Βαρχονίτες, Varchonítes), or Pseudo-Avars ...
" cemeteries used by several generations between ''c.'' 700 and ''c.'' 800 imply "an advanced degree of sedentization" of the entire society. The Avar Empire collapsed after the
Franks
The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...
launched
three campaigns against the westernmost Avar territories between 791 and 803. Soon afterwards the
Bulgars
The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari, Proto-Bulgarians) were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. They became known as nomad ...
attacked the Avars from the southeast, and
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
settled Avar groups in
Pannonia
Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now wes ...
.
Emergence of new powers (''c.'' 600–''c.'' 895)
The Lower Danube region experienced a period of stability after the establishment of the Avar Empire. Archaeological sites in Moldavia, Oltenia and Wallachia became characterized by the growing popularity of hand-made vessels with finger impressions and by a decline in detectable cemeteries.
Ananias of Shirak
Anania Shirakatsi ( hy, Անանիա Շիրակացի, ''Anania Širakac’i'', anglicized: Ananias of Shirak) was a 7th-century Armenian polymath and natural philosopher, author of extant works covering mathematics, astronomy, geography, chronol ...
, a 7th-century Armenian geographer described the "large country of Dacia" as inhabited by Slavs who formed "twenty-five tribes".
![20100217005035!A view on 6th to 8th cent](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/20100217005035%21A_view_on_6th_to_8th_cent.jpg)
Villages of sunken huts with stone ovens appeared in Transylvania around 600. Their network was expanding along the rivers Mureş, Olt and Someş. The so-called "Mediaş group" of cremation or mixed cemeteries emerged in this period near salt mines. The Hungarian and the Romanian vocabulary of salt mining was taken from Slavic, suggesting that Slavs were employed in the mines for centuries.
Bistriţa ("swift"),
Crasna ("nice" or "red"),
Sibiu
Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...
("dogwood"), and many other rivers and settlements with names of Slavic origin also evidence the presence of Slavs in Transylvania.
The Turkic-speaking Bulgars arrived in the territories west of the river Dniester around 670. At the
Battle of Ongal
The Battle of Ongal took place in the summer of 680 in the Ongal area, an unspecified location in and around the Danube delta near the Peuce Island, present-day Tulcea County, Romania. It was fought between the Bulgars, who had recently invaded ...
they defeated the
Eastern Roman (or Byzantine) Emperor Constantine IV
Constantine IV ( la, Constantinus; grc-gre, Κωνσταντῖνος, Kōnstantînos; 650–685), called the Younger ( la, iunior; grc-gre, ὁ νέος, ho néos) and sometimes incorrectly the Bearded ( la, Pogonatus; grc-gre, Πωγων ...
in 680 or 681, occupied
Dobruja
Dobruja or Dobrudja (; bg, Добруджа, Dobrudzha or ''Dobrudža''; ro, Dobrogea, or ; tr, Dobruca) is a historical region in the Balkans that has been divided since the 19th century between the territories of Bulgaria and Romania. I ...
and founded the
First Bulgarian Empire
The First Bulgarian Empire ( cu, блъгарьско цѣсарьствиѥ, blagarysko tsesarystviye; bg, Първо българско царство) was a medieval Bulgar- Slavic and later Bulgarian state that existed in Southeastern Europ ...
. They soon imposed their authority over some of the neighboring tribes. The great variety in burial rites evidences the multi-ethnic character of the
Bulgarian Empire
In the medieval history of Europe, Bulgaria's status as the Bulgarian Empire ( bg, Българско царство, ''Balgarsko tsarstvo'' ) occurred in two distinct periods: between the seventh and the eleventh centuries and again between the ...
. Even the Bulgars were divided in this respect; some of them practiced inhumation and others cremation. Initially, a sharp distinction existed between the Bulgars and their subjects, but the
Slavicization
Slavicisation or Slavicization, is the acculturation of something Slavic into a non-Slavic culture, cuisine, region, or nation. To a lesser degree, it also means acculturation or adoption of something non-Slavic into Slavic culture or terms. Th ...
of the Bulgars soon began.
Opreanu writes that the "new cultural synthesis" known as the "
Dridu culture" developed in the Lower Danube region around 680. New settlements and large cemeteries show that the region experienced a steady demographic rise in the 8th century. The large, unfortified "Dridu" settlements were characterized by traditional semi-sunken huts, but a few houses with ground-level floors have also been unearthed in Dodeşti, Spinoasa, and other places.
"Dridu" communities produced and used gray or yellow fine pottery, but hand-made vessels were still predominant. Fine, gray vessels were also unearthed in the 9th-century "Blandiana A" cemeteries in the area of
Alba-Iulia
Alba Iulia (; german: Karlsburg or ''Carlsburg'', formerly ''Weißenburg''; hu, Gyulafehérvár; la, Apulum) is a city that serves as the seat of Alba County in the west-central part of Romania. Located on the Mureș River in the historical ...
, which constitutes a "cultural enclave" in Transylvania. Near these cemeteries, necropolises of graves with west–east orientation form the distinct "Ciumbrud group". Female dress accessories from "Ciumbrud graves" are strikingly similar to those from Christian cemeteries in Bulgaria and
Moravia
Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.
The me ...
. From an earlier date are the cremation cemeteries of the "Nuşfalau-Someşeni group" in northwestern Transylvania, with their 8th- and 9th-century ''
tumuli
A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...
'', similar to the ''
kurgan
A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central Asi ...
s'' of
East Slavic territories.
Contemporaneous authors rarely dwelled on early medieval Southeastern Europe. For instance, the ''
Royal Frankish Annals
The ''Royal Frankish Annals'' (Latin: ''Annales regni Francorum''), also called the ''Annales Laurissenses maiores'' ('Greater Lorsch Annals'), are a series of annals composed in Latin in the Carolingian Francia, recording year-by-year the state ...
'' makes a passing reference to
Abodrites
The Obotrites ( la, Obotriti, Abodritorum, Abodritos…) or Obodrites, also spelled Abodrites (german: Abodriten), were a confederation of medieval West Slavic tribes within the territory of modern Mecklenburg and Holstein in northern Germany ( ...
living "in Dacia adjacent to the Danube near the Bulgarian border" on the occasion of their envoys' arrival in
Aachen
Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...
in 824. Bulgaria's territory increased under
Krum
Krum ( bg, Крум, el, Κροῦμος/Kroumos), often referred to as Krum the Fearsome ( bg, Крум Страшни) was the Khan of Bulgaria from sometime between 796 and 803 until his death in 814. During his reign the Bulgarian territor ...
(''c.'' 803–814), who took
Adrianople
Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...
and forced at least 10,000 of the town's inhabitants to settle north of the Lower Danube in 813. The ambitions of his son
Omurtag
Omurtag (or Omortag) ( bg, Омуртаг; original gr, Μορτάγων and Ομουρτάγ', Inscription No.64. Retrieved 10 April 2012.) was a Great Khan (''Kanasubigi'') of Bulgaria from 814 to 831. He is known as "the Builder".
In the very ...
(814–831) in the regions of the rivers Dnieper and Tisa are attested by two columns erected in the memory of Bulgar military leaders who drowned in these rivers during military campaigns. Emperor
Arnulf
Arnulf is a masculine German given name.
It is composed of the Germanic elements ''arn'' "eagle" and ''ulf'' "wolf".
The ''-ulf, -olf'' suffix was an extremely frequent element in Germanic onomastics and from an early time was perceived as a mere ...
sent envoys, in 894, to the Bulgarians to "ask that they should not sell salt to the Moravians", suggesting a Bulgarian control over either the Transylvanian salt mines or the roads to Moravia.
In the same year, the nomadic Hungarianswho had arrived in the Lower Danube region from the
steppes of Eastern Europe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grasslands, ...
in 837 or 838became involved in a
conflict between Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire on the latter's behalf. The Bulgarians incited another nomadic tribe, the
Pechenegs
The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks tr, Peçenek(ler), Middle Turkic: , ro, Pecenegi, russian: Печенег(и), uk, Печеніг(и), hu, Besenyő(k), gr, Πατζινάκοι, Πετσενέγοι, Πατζινακίται, ka, პა ...
, to invade the Hungarians from the east, while the
Bulgarians also attacked them from the south. The two synchronized attacks forced the Hungarians to cross the Carpathian Mountains in search for a new homeland.
![Gesta hungarorum map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Gesta_hungarorum_map.jpg)
About 300 years later,
Anonymus
Anonymus is the Latin spelling of anonymous, traditionally used by scholars in the humanities for any ancient writer whose name is not known, or to a manuscript of their work. Such writers have left valuable historical or literary records through ...
, the author of ''
Gesta Hungarorum
''Gesta Hungarorum'', or ''The Deeds of the Hungarians'', is the earliest book about Hungarian history which has survived for posterity. Its genre is not chronicle, but ''gesta'', meaning "deeds" or "acts", which is a medieval entertaining li ...
'', wrote a comprehensive list of polities and peoples of the Carpathian Basin at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He wrote about the
Hungarian conquest of the territory but did not mention
Simeon I of Bulgaria
Tsar Simeon (also Symeon) I the Great ( cu, цѣсар҄ь Сѷмеѡ́нъ А҃ Вели́къ, cěsarĭ Sỳmeonŭ prĭvŭ Velikŭ bg, цар Симеон I Велики, Simeon I Veliki el, Συμεών Αʹ ὁ Μέγας, Sumeṓn prôto ...
,
Svatopluk of Moravia and the conquerors' opponents known from contemporary sources. Instead, he wrote of a number of personalities unknown by other chroniclers. In ''Gesta Hungarorum'',
Menumorut
Menumorut or Menumorout (Modern hu, Ménmarót) was the ruler of the lands between the rivers Mureș River, Mureș, Someș River, Someș and Tisza at the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 900, according to the ''Gesta ...
ruled over "the peoples that are called
Kozár"
[''Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians'' (ch. 11.), p. 33.] in Crişana. Anonymus also wrote of the
Székelys
The Székelys (, Székely runes: 𐳥𐳋𐳓𐳉𐳗), also referred to as Szeklers,; ro, secui; german: Szekler; la, Siculi; sr, Секељи, Sekelji; sk, Sikuli are a Hungarian subgroup living mostly in the Székely Land in Romania. ...
("previously the peoples of King Attila") living in the territory for centuries who joined the invading Hungarians. Banat, according to Anonymus, was ruled by
Glad who had come "from the castle of
Vidin
Vidin ( bg, Видин, ; Old Romanian: Diiu) is a port city on the southern bank of the Danube in north-western Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Romania and Serbia, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as o ...
."
Glad is described to employ "Cumans, Bulgarians and Vlachs" in his army. Anonymous also wrote of Gelou, "a certain Vlach"
[''Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians'' (ch. 24.), p. 59.] ruling in Transylvania, a land inhabited by "Vlachs and Slavs". Gelou's subjects are portrayed as having "suffered many injuries from the Cumans and Pechenegs".
Formation of new states and the last waves of migrations
First Bulgarian Empire after conversion (864–1018)
Boris I
Boris I, also known as Boris-Mihail (Michael) and ''Bogoris'' ( cu, Борисъ А҃ / Борисъ-Михаилъ bg, Борис I / Борис-Михаил; died 2 May 907), was the ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire in 852–889. At ...
, the ruler of Bulgaria, converted to Orthodox Christianity in 864. He promoted vernacular worship services, thus
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language.
Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with Standard language, standardizing the lan ...
was declared the language of liturgy in the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church ( bg, Българска православна църква, translit=Balgarska pravoslavna tsarkva), legally the Patriarchate of Bulgaria ( bg, Българска патриаршия, links=no, translit=Balgarsk ...
in 893. One of the earliest examples of
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, ...
an alphabet strongly associated with Slavonic liturgywas found in
Mircea Vodă in Romania. The Cyrillic inscription from 943 refers to a "''
župan
Župan is a noble and administrative title used in several states in Central and Southeastern Europe between the 7th century and the 21st century. It was (and in Croatia still is) the leader of the administrative unit župa (or zhupa, županija). ...
'' Dimitrie".
Byzantine troops occupied large portions of Bulgaria, including modern
Dobruja
Dobruja or Dobrudja (; bg, Добруджа, Dobrudzha or ''Dobrudža''; ro, Dobrogea, or ; tr, Dobruca) is a historical region in the Balkans that has been divided since the 19th century between the territories of Bulgaria and Romania. I ...
, under Emperor
John I Tzimiskes
John I Tzimiskes (; 925 – 10 January 976) was the senior Byzantine emperor from 969 to 976. An intuitive and successful general, he strengthened the Empire and expanded its borders during his short reign.
Background
John I Tzimiskes ...
(969–976). After his death an anti-Byzantine uprising led by
four brothers broke out. One of the brothers,
David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
, was killed by Vlachs in the present-day border region between
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
and
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
. In 1018, the Byzantines conquered the whole territory of the Bulgarian Empire and the
Archbishop of Ohrid The Archbishop of Ohrid is a historic title given to the primate of the Archbishopric of Ohrid. The whole original title of the primate was Archbishop of Justiniana Prima and all Bulgaria ( gr, ἀρχιεπίσκοπὴ τῆς Πρώτης Ἰου ...
acquired ecclesiastic jurisdiction in 1020 over the Vlachs living there.
Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin (''c.'' 895–''c.'' 1000)
![Chronicon Pictum P21](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Chronicon_Pictum_P21.jpg)
The way taken by the Hungarians across the
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...
when they started the
conquest of the Carpathian Basin varies from source to source. According to ''Gesta Hungarorum'', the Hungarians descended through the northern passes to the lowlands, bypassing Transylvania, and only began the invasion of the regions east of the Tisa after the conquest of the western regions. ''Gesta Hungarorum'' says the Vlach
Gelou of Transylvania died fighting the Hungarians, while his subjects chose "for themselves as lord Tétény", one of the Hungarian leaders. Anonymus also wrote of Menumorut's defeat, but said he preserved his rule in Crişana until his death by giving his daughter in marriage to
Zolta, heir to
Árpád
Árpád (; 845 – 907) was the head of the confederation of the Magyar tribes at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He might have been either the sacred ruler or ''kende'' of the Hungarians, or their military leader or '' gy ...
, the head of the Hungarians. In a contrasting account, the ''
Illuminated Chronicle
The ''Chronicon Pictum'' (Latin for "illustrated chronicle", English: ''Illuminated Chronicle'' or ''Vienna Illuminated Chronicle'', hu, Képes Krónika, sk, Obrázková kronika, german: Illustrierte Chronik, also referred to as ''Chronica Hung ...
'' writes of Hungarians fleeing through the eastern passes of the Carpathian Mountains to Transylvania where they "remained quietly" and "rested their herds" for a while before moving further west. The so-called "Cluj group" of small inhumation cemeteriesgraves with west–east orientation, often containing remains of horses appeared on both sides of the
Apuseni Mountains
The Apuseni Mountains ( ro, Munții Apuseni, hu, Erdélyi-középhegység) is a mountain range in Transylvania, Romania, which belongs to the Western Romanian Carpathians, also called ''Occidentali'' in Romanian. Their name translates from Rom ...
around 900. Their military character evidences that the people using them formed a "double defensive line" organized against the Pechenegs. Transylvanian cemeteries of the "Cluj group" cluster around salt mines.
Emperor
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Kar ...
identified "the whole settlement" of Hungary with the lands where the rivers
Criş, Mureş,
Timiş, Tisa and ''Toutis''possibly the
Begaran around 950. The concentration of objects of Byzantine provenance at the confluence of the Mureş and Tisa shows that this territory was a regional center of power. Accordingly, the seat of
Gyula, a Hungarian chieftain baptized in
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
around 952, most probably existed in this region. On the other hand, Hungarian chronicles associate Gyula's family with Transylvania. Place names from the nomadic stratum of Hungarian toponymythose corresponding to proper names or
Hungarian tribal names, including
Decea,
Hotoan, and
Ineu
Ineu (; Hungarian: ''Borosjenő''; Serbian: Јенопоље/''Jenopolje''; Turkish: ''Yanova'') is a town in Arad County, western Transylvania, Romania. It is situated at a distance of from the county capital, Arad, it occupies a surface ...
also evidence that major Hungarian groups settled in Transylvania from the 950s. An early "
Bijelo Brdo" cemetery belonging to a 10th- and 11th-century archaeological culture with finds from all over the Carpathian Basin was found at
Deva
Deva may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Deva'' (1989 film), a 1989 Kannada film
* ''Deva'' (1995 film), a 1995 Tamil film
* ''Deva'' (2002 film), a 2002 Bengali film
* Deva (2007 Telugu film)
* ''Deva'' (2017 film), a 2017 Marathi film
* Deva ...
.
''Patzinakia:'' land of the Pechenegs (''c.'' 895–''c.'' 1120)
![Southeast Europe 1092](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Southeast_Europe_1092.jpg)
The Turkic-speaking Pechenegs took the control of the territories east of the Carpathians from the Hungarians around 895. Emperor Constantine VII wrote that two Pecheneg "provinces" or "clans" ("Kato Gyla" and "Giazichopon") were located in Moldavia and Wallachia around 950. The change of dominion had no major effect on the sedentary "Dridu" villages in the region. The settlements in Moldavia and Wallachia, most of them built on river banks or lake shores, remained unfortified. Sporadic finds of horse brasses and other "nomadic" objects evidence the presence of Pechenegs in "Dridu" communities.
Snaffle bit
A snaffle bit is the most common type of bit used while riding horses. It consists of a bit mouthpiece with a ring on either side and acts with direct pressure. A bridle utilizing only a snaffle bit is often called a "snaffle bridle", particular ...
s with rigid mouthpieces and round stirrupsnovelties of the early 10th centurywere also unearthed in Moldavia and Wallachia. Cemeteries of the locals show that inhumation replaced cremation by the end of the 10th century.
The ''
Eymund's saga'' narrates that Pechenegs ''(Tyrkir)'' with ''
Blökumen'' "and a good many other nasty people" were involved in the
disputes for the throne of
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...
in 1019. An
11th-century runic inscription on a stone from
Gotland
Gotland (, ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a province, county, municipality, and diocese. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the ...
narrates that a
Varangian
The Varangians (; non, Væringjar; gkm, Βάραγγοι, ''Várangoi'';[Varangian]
" Online Etymo ...
man was murdered "on a voyage abroad" by ''
Blakumen
''Blakumen'' or ''Blökumenn'' were a people mentioned in Scandinavian sources dating from the 11th through 13th centuries. The name of their land, ''Blokumannaland'', has also been preserved. Victor Spinei, Florin Curta, Florin Pintescu and othe ...
''. Both ''Blökumen'' and ''Blakumen'' may refer to Vlachs inhabiting the regions east of the Carpathians, although their translation to "black men" cannot be excluded. Graffiti depicting ships and dragons in Scandinavian style were found in the
Basarabi Cave Complex
The Basarabi-Murfatlar Cave Complex is a medieval Christian monastery located near the town of Murfatlar (known as Basarabi between 1924–1965 and 1975–2007), Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, Romania. The complex is a relict from a widesp ...
at
Murfatlar
Murfatlar () is a town in Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, Romania. It officially became a town in 1989, as a result of the Romanian rural systematization program.
Etymology
The name of the town originates from the Turkish word of Arabic o ...
.
Large groups of Pechenegs pressured from the east by the
Ouzes
The Oghuz or Ghuzz Turks ( Middle Turkic: ٱغُز, ''Oγuz'', ota, اوغوز, Oġuz) were a western Turkic people that spoke the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family. In the 8th century, they formed a tribal confederation convent ...
received asylum in the Byzantine Empire in 1046 and 1047. All the same, Pecheneg populations remained in the regions north of the Lower Danube even thereafter. Some of them were admitted into the Kingdom of Hungary in the next decades, where they were settled in southern Transylvania and other regions.
Byzantine revival and the Second Bulgarian Empire (970s–''c.'' 1185)
![PacuiulLuiSoareConstanta](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/PacuiulLuiSoareConstanta.JPG)
Around 971, Emperor
John I Tzimiskes
John I Tzimiskes (; 925 – 10 January 976) was the senior Byzantine emperor from 969 to 976. An intuitive and successful general, he strengthened the Empire and expanded its borders during his short reign.
Background
John I Tzimiskes ...
established the ''
theme
Theme or themes may refer to:
* Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work
* Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos
* Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...
'' or "district" of
Paristrion
Paristrion ( el, Παρίστριον, lit=beside the Ister), or Paradounabon/Paradounabis (), which is preferred in official documents, was a Byzantine province covering the southern bank of the Lower Danube (Moesia Inferior) in the 11th and 12t ...
in the territories occupied between the Balkan Mountains and the Lower Danube. Naval bases were built at Capidava, Noviodunum, and
Păcuiul lui Soare on the river. Bulgarians and Vlachs living in the annexed territories often expressed their hostility towards imperial rule.
Anna Comnena
Anna Komnene ( gr, Ἄννα Κομνηνή, Ánna Komnēnḗ; 1 December 1083 – 1153), commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine princess and author of the ''Alexiad'', an account of the reign of her father, the Byzantine emperor, ...
relates how local Vlachs showed "the way through the passes" of the Balkan Mountains to invading Cumans in 1094. All the same, Vlachs served in the imperial army, for instance during an imperial campaign against the Kingdom of Hungary in 1166. New taxes imposed by imperial authorities caused a
rebellion of Vlachs and Bulgarians in 1185, which led to the establishment of the
Second Bulgarian Empire
The Second Bulgarian Empire (; ) was a medieval Bulgarians, Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1396. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan of Bulgaria, Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II ...
. The Vlachs' eminent status within the new state is evidenced by the writings of
Robert of Clari Robert de Clari (or Cléry, the modern name of the place, on the commune of Pernois) was a knight from Picardy. He participated in the Fourth Crusade with his lord, Count Peter of Amiens, and his brother, Aleaumes de Clari, and left a chronicle ...
and other western authors, who refer either to the new state or to its mountainous regions as "Vlachia" until the 1250s.
Kingdom of Hungary (c. 1000–1241)
Stephen I, the first crowned king of Hungary whose reign began in 1000 or 1001, unified the Carpathian Basin. Around 1003, he launched a campaign against "his maternal uncle, King
Gyula" and occupied Transylvania. Stephen I later turned against
Ahtum
Ajtony, Ahtum or Achtum ( hu, Ajtony, bg, Охтум, ro, Ahtum, sr, Ахтум) was an early-11th-century ruler in the territory now known as Banat in present Romania and Serbia. His primary source is the ''Long Life of Saint Gerard'', a 14t ...
, "who had been baptised in the Orthodox faith in Vidin", and conquered Banat.
Hartvik
Hartvik (''Arduin'') was a prelate (most probably the bishop of Győr) in the Kingdom of Hungary under King Coloman the Book-lover. He wrote a new ''Life'' of St Stephen I of Hungary
Stephen I, also known as King Saint Stephen ( hu, Szent Is ...
, Stephen I's hagiographer, wrote that the monarch "divided his territories in ten
bishoprics
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...
". In the territory of modern Romania, three Roman Catholic dioceses were established with their seats in
Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia (; german: Karlsburg or ''Carlsburg'', formerly ''Weißenburg''; hu, Gyulafehérvár; la, Apulum) is a city that serves as the seat of Alba County in the west-central part of Romania. Located on the Mureș River in the historical ...
,
Biharea (from the last decades of the 11th century in
Oradea
Oradea (, , ; german: Großwardein ; hu, Nagyvárad ) is a city in Romania, located in Crișana, a sub-region of Transylvania. The county seat, seat of Bihor County, Oradea is one of the most important economic, social and cultural centers in the ...
), and
Cenad
Cenad ( hu, Nagycsanád, during the Dark Ages ''Marosvár''; german: Tschanad; sr, Чанад, Čanad; la, Chanadinum) is a commune in Timiș County, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Cenad. The village serves as a customs point on t ...
.
Royal administration in the entire kingdom was based on
counties
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
organized around royal fortresses. In modern Romania's territory, references to an ''
ispán
The ispánRady 2000, p. 19.''Stephen Werbőczy: The Customary Law of the Renowned Kingdom of Hungary in Three Parts (1517)'', p. 450. or countEngel 2001, p. 40.Curta 2006, p. 355. ( hu, ispán, la, comes or comes parochialis, and sk, župan)Kirs ...
'' or count of
Alba
''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scottish people, Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed i ...
in 1097, and to a
count of Bihor in 1111 evidence the appearance of the county system. The counties in Banat and Crişana remained under direct royal authority, but a great officer of the realm, the ''
voivode
Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the me ...
'', supervised the ''ispáns'' of the Transylvanian counties from the end of the 12th century.
Eastward expansion of "Bijelo Brdo" villages along the Mureş continued in the 11th century. Cauldrons and huts with hearths carved into the soil were the characterizing items of the period. Nevertheless, semi-sunken huts with stone ovens from
Sfântu Gheorghe
Sfântu Gheorghe (; hu, Sepsiszentgyörgy or ''Szentgyörgy'' ; yi, סנט דזשארדזש; English lit.: ''Saint George'') is the capital city of Covasna County, Romania. Located in the central part of the country and in the historical regio ...
,
Şimoneşti and other villages evidence the survival of the local population. The lands between the Carpathians and the Tisa were plundered by Pechenegs in the 1010s and in 1068, by Ouzes in 1085, and by Cumans in 1091. Cluj,
Dăbâca
Dăbâca ( hu, Doboka; german: Dobeschdorf) is a commune in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Dăbâca, Luna de Jos (''Kendilóna''), and Pâglișa (''Poklostelke'').
Geography
The commune lies on the banks of ...
and other royal forts built of earth and timber were strengthened after the 1068 attack. In these forts appeared the so-called "Citfalău cemeteries", dependent upon late 11th-century royal legislation forcing commoners to set up their graveyards around churches.
The early presence of Székelys at
Tileagd
Tileagd ( hu, Mezőtelegd) is a commune located in Bihor County, Crișana, Romania. It is composed of six villages: Bălaia (''Kabaláspatak''), Călătani (''Kalotaitanya''), Poșoloaca (''Pósalaka''), Tileagd, Tilecuș (''Telkesd'') and Uileacu ...
in Crişana, and at
Gârbova,
Saschiz
Saschiz (german: Keisd or Hünenburg; hu, Szászkézd, Hungarian pronunciation: ; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Keist'') is a commune in Mureș County, Transylvania, central Romania. It has a population of 2,048: 88 percent Romanians, 5 percent Germans ...
, and
Sebeş in Transylvania is attested by royal charters. Székely groups from Gârbova, Saschiz, and Sebeş were moved around 1150 into the easternmost regions of Transylvania, when the monarchs granted these territories to new settlers arriving from Western Europe. The Székelys were organized into "
seats
A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense.
Types of seat
The following are examples of different kinds of seat:
* Armchair, a chair equ ...
" instead of counties, and a royal officer, the "
Count of the Székelys
The Count of the Székelys ( hu, székelyispán, la, comes Sicolorum) was the leader of the Hungarian-speaking Székelys in Transylvania, in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. First mentioned in royal charters of the 13th century, the counts wer ...
" became the head of their community from the 1220s. The Székelys provided military services to the monarchs and remained exempt of royal taxes.
![Carta dec2004 039](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Carta_dec2004_039.jpg)
A great number of
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
, German, and
Walloon "guest settlers" arrived in Transylvania around 1150. Wheel-made fine vessels with analogies in
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
found at
Şelimbăr demonstrate the advanced technology they introduced to their new home. An account of royal revenues from the 1190s shows that almost one-tenth of all royal income derived from taxes they paid. In 1224, King
Andrew II granted collective privileges to those inhabiting the region between
Orăștie
Orăștie (; german: link=no, Broos, hu, Szászváros, la, Saxopolis) is a city in Hunedoara County, south-western Transylvania, central Romania.
History
7th–9th century – On the site of an old swamp was a human settlement, now ...
and
Baraolt
Baraolt (; hu, Barót, ) is a town and administrative district in Covasna County, Romania. It lies in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania. The town was mentioned for the first time as a settlement in 1224. It adm ...
. The ''
Diploma Andreanum
The ''Diploma Andreanum'', or ''Goldener Freibrief der Siebenbürger Sachsen'' (English: ''Golden Charter of the Transylvanian Saxons''), was issued by King Andrew II of Hungary in 1224, granting provisional autonomy to colonial Germans residing i ...
'' confirmed the custom of freely electing their priests and local leaders; only the right to appoint the head of their community, the "
Count of Sibiu", was preserved for the monarchs. The Transylvanian Saxonsas they were collectively mentioned from the early 13th century—also received the right to "use the forests of the Romanians and the Pechenegs" along with these peoples.
The earliest royal charter referring to Romanians in Transylvania is connected to the foundation of the
Cistercian
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...
abbey at Cârța around 1202, which was granted land, up to that time possessed by Romanians. Another royal charter reveals that Romanians fought for Bulgaria along with Saxons, Székelys and Pechenegs under the leadership of the Count of Sibiu in 1210. The Orthodox Romanians remained exempt from the
tithe
A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more r ...
payable by all Catholic peasants to the Church. Furthermore, they only paid a special in kind tax, the "fiftieth" on their herds.
Organized settling continued with the arrival of the
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
in Ţara Bârsei in 1211. They were granted the right to freely pass through "the land of the Székelys and the land of the Vlachs" in 1222. The knights tried to free themselves from the monarch's authority, thus King Andrew II expelled them from the region in 1225. Thereafter, the king appointed his heir,
Béla
Béla may refer to:
* Béla (crater), an elongated lunar crater
* Béla (given name), a common Hungarian male given name
See also
* Bela (disambiguation)
* Belá (disambiguation)
* Bělá (disambiguation) Bělá, derived from ''bílá'' (''whit ...
, with the title of
duke
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...
, to administer Transylvania. Duke Béla occupied Oltenia and set up a new province, the Banate of Severin, in the 1230s.
''Cumania:'' land of the Cumans (''c.'' 1060–1241)
![Baba 0084](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Baba_0084.JPG)
The arrival of the
Cumans
The Cumans (or Kumans), also known as Polovtsians or Polovtsy (plural only, from the Russian language, Russian Exonym and endonym, exonym ), were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confede ...
in the Lower Danube region was first recorded in 1055. A 17th-century version of the Turkic chronicle ''Oghuzname'' relates that Quipchaq, the ancient Cuman hero, fought against the ''Ulak'' (Romanians), along with other nations. Cuman groups assisted the rebelling Bulgarians and Vlachs against the Byzantines between 1186 and 1197.
"Dridu" villages of the lowlands east of the Carpathians were abandoned between 1050 and 1080, around which time new settlements appeared on higher land on both banks of the Prut. A sharp decrease from 300 to 35 in the number of archaeological sitessettlements, cemeteries and coin hordsevidences a population decline which continued well into the 13th century. Byzantine troops marching towards Transylvania through the territory east of the Carpathians encountered "a land entirely bereft of men" in 1166.
A coalition of List of early East Slavic states#Council of Liubech and after (1097-1237), Rus' princes and Cuman tribes suffered a sound defeat by the Mongols in the Battle of the Kalka River in 1223. Shortly thereafter Bortz (chieftain), Boricius, a Cuman chieftain, accepted baptism and the supremacy of the king of Hungary. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Cumania was set up in his territories in 1228. A letter of 1234 written by Pope Gregory IX refers to a "certain people within the Cuman bishopric called ''Walati''" (Vlachs) who even persuaded Catholic Hungarians and Germans to accept the ecclesiastic authority of Orthodox prelates.
Mongol invasion (1241–1242)
![Thuróczy Tatárjárás](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Thur%C3%B3czy_Tat%C3%A1rj%C3%A1r%C3%A1s.JPG)
The
Mongols
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...
, who had decided to invade Europe in 1235, attacked the Cumans in 1238. Masses of Cumans sought refuge in Bulgaria and Hungary. The Mongols crossed the Carpathians in March 1241, and soon afterwards they destroyed "the rich village of the Germans" (Rodna), and took Bistrița, Cluj, and Oradea. Another Mongol army "proceeded by way of the ''Qara-Ulagh''" ("Black Vlachs"),
[''The Successors of Genghis Khan'' (ch. 1.), p. 70.] and defeated their leader named "Bezerenbam and Mişelav, Mishlav".
They also entered Transylvania, sacked Alba Iulia, Sibiu, the abbeys at Cârța and Igriș Abbey, Igriș, and Cenad.
The Mongol invasion lasted for a year, and the Mongols devastated huge swathes of territory of the kingdom before their unexpected withdrawal in 1242. Matthew Paris and other contemporaneous scholars considered the Mongol invasion as a "sign of apocalypse". Whole villages were destroyed, and many were never rebuilt. According to a royal charter of 1246, Alba Iulia, Harina, Gilău, Cluj, Gilău, Mărişelu,
Tășnad and Zalău were almost depopulated. Another charter from 1252 evidences that ''Zec'',
a village on the Olt, was totally deserted.
Aftermath
![Viennese Illuminated Chronicle Posada](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Viennese_Illuminated_Chronicle_Posada.jpg)
A new period of intensive settlements began in Banat, Transylvania and other regions within the Kingdom of Hungary after the withdrawal of the Mongols. King Béla IV was also considering settling the Knights Hospitallers in the lands between the Carpathians and the Lower Danube. His diploma of 1247 for the Knights evidences the existence of four Romanian polities in the region. They were under the rule of ''voivodes'' Litovoi and Seneslau, and of ''knezes'' Farcaş and John (knez), John.
Internal conflicts characterized the last decades of the 13th century in the Kingdom of Hungary. For instance, a feud between King Béla and his son, Stephen V of Hungary, Stephen caused a civil war which lasted from 1261 to 1266. Taking advantage of the emerging anarchy, Voivode Litovoi attempted to get rid of the Hungarian monarchs' suzerainty in the 1270s, but he fell in a battle while fighting against royal troops. One of his successors, Basarab I of Wallachia was the first Romanian monarch whose sovereignty was internationally recognized after his victory over King Charles I of Hungary in the Battle of Posada of 1330.
See also
* Balkan–Danubian culture
* Banat in the Middle Ages
* Bulgarian lands across the Danube
* History of the Székely people
Footnotes
Sources
Primary sources
*''Ammianus Marcellinus: The Later Roman Empire (AD 354–378)'' (Selected and translated by Walter Hamilton, With an Introduction and Notes by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill) (2004). Penguin Books. .
*''Anna Comnena: The Alexiad'' (Translated by E. R. A. Sewter) (1969). Penguin Books. .
*''Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians'' (Edited, Translated and Annotated by Martyn Rady and László Veszprémy) (2010). In: Rady, Martyn; Veszprémy, László; Bak, János M. (2010); ''Anonymus and Master Roger''; CEU Press; .
*''Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio'' (Greek text edited by Gyula Moravcsik, English translation b Romillyi J. H. Jenkins) (1967). Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies. .
*''Deeds of John and Manuel Comnenus by John Kinnamos'' (Translated by Charles M. Brand) (1976). Columbia University Press. .
*''Eymund's Saga'' (1989). In ''Vikings in Russia: Yngvar's Saga and Eymund's Saga'' (Translated and Introduced by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards). Edingburgh University Press. pp. 69–89. .
*''Eutropius: Breviarium'' (Translated with an introduction and commentary by H. W. Bird) (1993). Liverpool University Press. .
*''Genethliacus of Maximian Augustus by an Anonymous Orator (291)'' (Translation and Notes by Rodgers) (1994). In: ''In Praise of Later Roman Emperors: The Panegyrici Latini'' (Introduction, Translation, and Historical Commentary with the Latin Text of R. A. B. Mynors by C. E. V. Nixon and Barbara Saylor Rodgers) (1994); University of California Press; .
*''Hartvic, Life of King Stephen of Hungary'' (Translated by Nora Berend) (2001). In: Head, Thomas (2001); ''Medieval Hagiography: An Anthology''; Routledge; .
*''Master Roger's Epistle to the Sorrowful Lament upon the Destruction of the Kingdom of Hungary by the Tatars'' (Translated and Annotated by János M. Bak and Martyn Rady) (2010). In: Rady, Martyn; Veszprémy, László; Bak, János M. (2010); ''Anonymus and Master Roger''; CEU Press; .
*''Maurice's Strategikon: Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy'' (Translated by George T. Dennis) (1984). University of Pennsylvania Press. .
*''Philostorgius: Church History'' (Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Philip R. Amidon, S. J.) (2007). Society of Biblical Literature. .
*''Procopius: History of the Wars (Books VI.16–VII.35.)'' (With an English Translation by H. B. Dewing) (2006). Harvard University Press. .
*''Royal Frankish Annals'' (1972). In: ''Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories'' (Translated by Bernhard Walter Scholz with Barbara Rogers); The University of Michigan Press; .
*''The Annals of Fulda (Ninth-Century Histories, Volume II)'' (Translated and annotated by Timothy Reuter) (1992). Manchester University Press. .
*''The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History, AD 284–813'' (Translated with Introduction and Commentary by Cyril Mango and Roger Scott with the assistance of Geoffrey Greatrex) (2006). Oxford University Press. .
*''The Geography of Ananias of Širak (AŠXARHAC’OYC’): The Long and the Short Recensions'' (Introduction, Translation and Commentary by Robert H. Hewsen) (1992). Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag. .
*''The Gothic History of Jordanes'' (in English Version with an Introduction and a Commentary by Charles Christopher Mierow, Ph.D., Instructor in Classics in Princeton University) (2006). Evolution Publishing. .
*''The History of Theophylact Simocatta'' (An English Translation with Introduction and Notes: Michael and Mary Whitby) (1986). Clarendon Press. .
*''The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle:'' Chronica de Gestis Hungarorum (Edited by Dezső Dercsényi) (1970). Corvina, Taplinger Publishing. .
*''The Successors of Genghis Khan'' (Translated from the Persian of Rashīd Al-Dīn by John Andrew Boyle) (1971). Columbia University Press. .
Secondary sources
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Further reading
*Brezeanu, Stelian (2001). ''History and Imperial Propaganda in Rome during the 4th Century a. Chr, A Case Study: the Abandonment of Dacia''. ''In:'' Annuario 3; Istituto Romano di cultura e ricerca umanistica.
*Pop, Ioan Aurel (1999). ''Romanians and Romania: A Brief History''. Columbia University Press. .
* Durandin, Catherine (1995). ''Historie des Roumains'' [=History of the Romanians]. Librairie Artheme Fayard. .
* Madgearu, Alexandru (2008). ''Istoria Militară a Daciei Post Romane, 275–376'' [=Military History of Post-Roman Dacia, 275–376]. Editura Cetatea de Scaun. .
External links
"FROM DACIA TO ERDŐELVE: TRANSYLVANIA IN THE PERIOD OF THE GREAT MIGRATIONS (271-896) (István Bóna)"*[http://www.rotravel.com/History/Romanian-Principalities/ Romanian history: Romanian Principalities]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Romania In The Early Middle Ages
Romania in the Early Middle Ages,