Origin of the Romanians

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Main article: Romanians

The origin of the Romanians has been for centuries subject to scholarly debate, often driven by political bias. Two basic theories can be differentiated; one theory posits Daco-Romanian continuity and the other is an immigrationist theory, but interim views also exist. Scholars of the first school argue that the Romanians are mainly descended from the Daco-Romans, a people emerging through the cohabitation of the native Dacians and the Latin-speaking Roman colonists in the Roman province of Dacia north of the river Danube. Accordingly, they suggest that a significant part of the territory of modern Romania has continuously been inhabited by the Romanians' ancestors. Followers of the opposite view argue that the Romanians' ethnogenesis commenced in Moesia and other provinces south of the Danube. Consequently, they propose a northward migration of the Romanians across the river which began in the 1100s at the earliest.

Theories on the Romanians' ethnogenesis

Romanians, also known as "Vlachs" in the Middle Ages, speak a language descended from the Latin which was once spoken in south-eastern Europe. Eastern Romance has four variants, which are former dialects of a Proto-Romanian language. "Daco-Romanian," the official language of Romania, is the most widespread of these dialects. Speakers of the Aromanian language live in scattered communities in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Macedonia. Another two, by now nearly extinct variants, Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian, are spoken in some villages in Macedonia and Greece, and in Croatia, respectively.

Inscriptions from the Roman period prove that a line, known as the "Jireček Line", can be drawn through the Balkan Peninsula, which once separated the Latin-speaking northern provinces, including Dacia, Moesia and Pannonia from the southern regions where Greek remained the predominant language. The exact place where the Eastern Romanian languages developed has for centuries been debated by scholars because according to Lucian Boia, there is "a certain disaccord between the effective process of Roman expansion and Romanization and the present ethnic configuration of Southeastern Europe". Political and ideological considerations, including the dispute between Hungary and Romania over Transylvania, have also colored these scholarly discussions. Accordingly, theories on the Romanian Urheimat ("homeland") can be divided into two or more groups.

[Centuries] after the fall of the Balkan provinces, a pastoral Latin-Roman tradition served as the point of departure for a Valachian-Roman ethnogenesis. This kind of virtuality – ethnicity as hidden potential that comes to the fore under certain historical circumstances – is indicative of our new understanding of ethnic processes. In this light, the passionate discussion for or against Roman-Romanian continuity has been misled by a conception of ethnicity that is far too inflexible

—Pohl, Walter (1998)

Theory of Daco-Romanian continuity

Latin inscription in Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, Romania

Followers of the continuity theory argue that the Romanians descended from the inhabitants of "Dacia Traiana", the one-time province encompassing many regions of present-day Romania for around 165 years. In these scholars' view, the close contacts between the autochthonous Dacians and the Roman colonists led to the formation of the Romanian people because many Daco-Romans stayed behind after the Roman Empire abandoned its territories north of the Danube. Thereafter the process of Romanization expanded to Maramureş, Moldavia and other neighboring regions due to the free movement of people across the former imperial borders.

In the same period, the spread of Christianity also contributed to the process, since Latin was the language of liturgy among the Daco-Romans. Although for a millennium migratory peoples invaded the lands now forming Romania, a sedentary Romance-speaking population, engaged primarily in agriculture, survived. These lands remained the main "center of Romanization" (Ioan-Aurel Pop) after the Slavs began to assimilate the Latin-speaking population of the Balkans in the 6th century. The Slavs had a major impact, still attested by loanwords, on the Romanians' ancestors. The latter adopted Old Church Slavonic as their liturgical language.

Archaeology probably remains the best source of information about the ethnic constitution of the largest population in southeast Europe. The Romanization of Dacia and the birth of a Daco-Roman people can ... be considered the first stage in the long process of the formation of the Romanian people, but this stage did not end in 275. It continued until the early sixth century, as long as the empire, still in power along the Danube and in Dobrudja, continued to influence the territory north of the river. The continual circulation of people and goods across the river and back certainly facilitated this.

—Georgescu, Vlad (1991)

Immigrationist theory

Latin inscription in Remesiana, Serbia

Scholars who support the immigrationist theory propose that the Romanians descended from the Romanized inhabitants of the provinces to the south of the Danube, which were under Roman rule for more than 500 years. Following the collapse of the empire's frontiers around 620, some of this population moved south to regions where Latin had not been widely spoken. Many of them took refuge in the Balkan Mountains where they adopted nomadic pastoralism – an itinerant form of sheep- and goat-breeding. Their mobile lifestyle contributed to their spread in the mountainous zones.

The Romanians' ancestors came into close contact with sedentary Slavic-speaking communities in the 10th century at the latest. They adopted Old Church Slavonic liturgy in the First Bulgarian Empire, and preserved it along with their Orthodox Christian faith even after their northward migration across the Danube began. They were first employed as border guards along the southeastern frontiers of the Kingdom of Hungary and later settled in the sparsely inhabited regions of the kingdom. Although sheep-breeding remained their principal economic activity for centuries, their permanent settlements are also documented from the 1330s.

[There] is not a single name of a river, a mountain, or a place in Romania which could prove the plausibility of the survival of a language island, even solely in a smaller territory, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Whereas whole Romania is entwined with conclusive geographical names which excludes any form of continuity there.

—Schramm, Gottfried (1997)

Further theories

Ruins of Trajan's Bridge at Drobeta, Romania

The followers of the "admigration theory" argue that the formation of the Romanian people occurred in the former "Dacia Traiana" province, and in the central regions of the Balkan Peninsula. However, the Balkan Vlachs' northward migration ensured that these centers remained in close contact for centuries. A fourth theory argues that the Romanian homeland cannot exactly be determined. Followers of this theory argue that the mass of the Romanized population survived to the north of the Danube, but many smaller "language islands" existed in other territories, including the northern parts of modern Greece.

Historic background

Main articles: History of the Balkans and History of Romania

Further information: Romania in the Early Middle Ages

Ethnic groups in Southeastern Europe, 4th century BC

Roman provinces in Southeastern Europe, c. 200 AD

Polities in Southeastern Europe, c. 400 AD

Polities in Southeastern Europe, c. 880 AD

Three major ethnic groups – the Dacians, Illyrians and Thracians – inhabited the northern regions of south-eastern Europe in Antiquity. The Illyrians were the first to be conquered by the Ancient Romans, who organized their territory into the province of Illyricum around 60 BC. In the territories inhabited by Thracian tribes, the Romans set up the province of Moesia in 15 AD, and Thracia in 46 AD. Present-day Dobruja was also attached to Moesia in 46 AD.

The Romans annihilated the Dacian kingdom to the north of the Lower Danube under Emperor Trajan in 106. Its western territories were organized into the province of Dacia, but Maramureș, Moldavia and further regions inhabited by the Costoboci, Bastarnae and other tribes remained free of Roman rule. The Romans officially abandoned Dacia under Emperor Aurelian (270–275), who organized a new province bearing the same name ("Dacia Aureliana") south of the Lower Danube. Thereafter, pressure from the Goths forced significant groups of Bastarnae and Carpians to seek asylum in the Roman Empire. Although Roman forts were erected north of the Danube in the 320s, the river became the boundary between the empire and the Goths in the 360s. The Roman state was divided into two parts in 395, which led to the appearance of an Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire.

Meanwhile, from 313 under the Edict of Milan, the Roman Empire began to transform itself into a Christian state. Roman emperors supported Christian missionaries. For instance, Ulfilas was consecrated bishop in the 340s and was given a jurisdiction in the lands dominated by the Goths. The Huns destroyed all these polities between 376 and 406, but their empire also collapsed after the Battle of Nedao, a rebellion of the subject peoples in 453. Thereafter the Gepids dominated Banat, Crișana, and Transylvania. The Ostrogothic Kingdom annexed Dalmatia in 493, while the Kutrigurs, Antes, Sclavenes and other tribes made frequent raids against the Balkans. The Eastern Roman Empire revived under Emperor Justinian I (527–565), but the Avars, who had subjugated the Gepids and other tribes, invaded the Balkans from the 580s. In thirty years all Roman troops were withdrawn from the peninsula, where only Thessaloniki and a few other towns remained under Roman rule.

The next arrivals, the Bulgars, established their own state on the Lower Danube in 681. Their territorial expansion accelerated after the collapse of the Avar Khaganate in the 790s. The ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire, Boris I (852–889) converted to Christianity in 864. A synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church promoted a liturgy in Old Church Slavonic in 893.

Bulgaria was invaded by the Hungarians in 894, but a joint counter-attack by the Bulgars and the Pechenegs – a nomadic Turkic people – forced the Hungarians to leave their dwelling places and to cross the Carpathians. Historians still debate whether they encountered a Romanian population in the territory. One of the key points of the debate is the reliability of the narration of the Gesta Hungarorum on the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin which contains references to Vlachs inhabiting Transylvania.

The Byzantines occupied the greater part of the First Bulgarian Empire under Emperor John I Tzimiskes (969–976). The Bulgars regained their independence during the reign of Samuel (997–1014). However, Emperor Basil II of Byzantium conquered Bulgaria around 1018. The first bishop consecrated for the Hungarians was a Greek sent around 952 from Constantinople to the territories ruled by the gyula, one of their leaders. Stephen, the head of the Hungarian tribal federation, was baptized according to the Western rite. Crowned the first king of Hungary in 1000 or 1001, he expanded his rule over new territories, including Banat – which was until that point ruled by Ahtum, a chieftain who had received baptism from Greek priests.

Pecheneg groups, pushed by the Ouzes – a coalition of Turkic nomads – sought asylum in the Byzantine Empire in the 1040s. After the Ouzes there followed the Cumans – also a Turkic confederation – who took control of the Pontic steppes in the 1070s and plundered the eastern territories of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 1090s. Thereafter, specific groups, including the Hungarian-speaking Székelys and the Pechenegs, defended the kingdom's frontiers. The arrival of mostly German-speaking colonists in Transylvania in the 1150s also reinforced the Hungarian monarch's rule in the region.

The Byzantine authorities introduced new taxes, provoking an uprising in the Balkan Mountains in 1185. The local Bulgarians and Vlachs achieved their independence and established the Second Bulgarian Empire in coalition with the Cumans. A chieftain of the western Cuman tribes accepted Hungarian supremacy in 1227. The Hungarian expansion across the Carpathians (Florin Curta) was halted by the large Mongol campaign against Eastern and Central Europe in 1241. Although the Mongols withdrew in a year, their invasion caused destruction throughout the region.

The unification of small polities ruled by local Romanian leaders in Oltenia and Muntenia led to the establishment of a new principality, Wallachia. It achieved independence under Basarab the Founder, who defeated a Hungarian army in the battle of Posada in 1330. A second principality, Moldavia, became independent under Bogdan I (c. 1363–c. 1367), a Romanian nobleman from Maramureș.

Historiography: origin of the theories

Laurentian Codex of the Russian Primary Chronicle

Grigore Ureche's Chronicle of Moldavia

Byzantine authors were the first to write of the Romanians who made records of the Vlachs of the Balkans. The Romani (Ρωάνοι) ethnonym was first mentioned by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (r. 912 – 959), who wrote of a population bearing this name "whom the emperor Diocletian" brought "from Rome and settled" in Dalmatia. The 11th-century scholar Kekaumenos wrote of a Vlach homeland situated "near the Danube and [...] the Sava, where the Serbians lived more recently", He also associates the Vlachs with the Dacians and the Bessi and with the Dacian king Decebal. Accordingly, historians have located this homeland in several places, including Lower Pannonia (Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu) and "Dacia Aureliana" (Gottfried Schramm). The 12th-century scholar John Kinnamos wrote that the Vlachs "are said to be formerly colonists from the people of Italy".

The Russian Primary Chronicle from 1113 contains possible references to the Vlachs. It relates how the Volokhi seized "the territory of the Slavs" and were later expelled by the Hungarians. Madgearu and many other historians argue that the Volokhi are Vlachs. However, they have also been identified with Romans occupying Transdanubia and with Franks annexing the same territory (for instance, by Lubor Niederle and by Gyula Kristó respectively), since the presence of the Slavs clearly antedates the arrival of the Volokhi in the chronicle's narration.

William of Rubruck wrote that the Vlachs of the Second Bulgarian Empire descended from the Ulac people, who lived beyond Bashkiria. The late 13th-century Hungarian chronicler Simon of Kéza states that the Vlachs used to be the Romans' "shepherds and husbandmen" who "elected to remain behind in Pannonia" when their masters left the province at the arrival of the Huns. An unknown author's Description of Eastern Europe from 1308 likewise states that the Balkan Vlachs "were once the shepherds of the Romans" who "had over them ten powerful kings in the entire Messia and Pannonia".

Poggio Bracciolini, an Italian scholar wrote around 1450 that the Romanians' ancestors had been Roman colonists settled by Emperor Trajan. This view was repeated by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, who added that the Vlachs were named after one Pomponius Flaccus, a commander sent against the Dacians. In contrast with these views, the 17th-century Johannes Lucius expressed his concerns about the survival of Romans in a territory exposed to invasions for a millennium.

A Romanian legend on their origin was preserved in the Moldo-Russian Chronicle written around 1505. It narrates that "King Vladislav of Hungary" invited the Romanians' ancestors to his kingdom to fight against the Mongols and settled them "in Maramureş between the Moreş [river] and Tisa at a place called Crij". Grigore Ureche's Chronicle of Moldavia of 1647 is the first Romanian historical work stating that the Romanians "all come from Rîm" (Rome). Miron Costin explicitly connects the Romanians' ethnogenesis to the conquest of "Dacia Trajana" in his three chronicles published between 1675 and 1684. Constantin Cantacuzino stated in 1716 that the native Dacians also had a role in the formation of the Romanian people. However, Petru Maior and other historians of the "Transylvanian School" flatly denied any interbreeding between the natives and the conquerors. The Romanians' Daco-Romanian origin only became widely accepted after the publication of Dionisie Fotino's History of Dacia in 1818. In contrast, by the 1780s the Austrian Franz Joseph Sulzer had already rejected any form of continuity north of the Danube, and instead proposed a 13th-century migration from the Balkans.

Written sources

Romania in Antiquity and in the Early Middle Ages

Trajan's Column in Rome

In the 400s BC, Herodotus was the first author to write a detailed account of the natives of south-eastern Europe. In connection with a Persian campaign against the Scythians in 514 BC, he mentions the Getae, which he called "the most courageous and upright Thracian tribe". Strabo wrote that the language of the Dacians was "the same as that of the Getae".

Roman literary tradition on the conquest of Dacia was preserved by Cassius Dio, Lucian of Samosata, Eutropius, and Emperor Julian the Apostate. Cassius Dio wrote that "numerous Dacians kept transferring their allegiance" to Emperor Trajan before he commenced his war leading to the conquest of Dacia. Lucian of Samosata, Eutropius, and Julian the Apostate unanimously attest the memory of a "deliberate ethnic cleansing" that followed the fall of the Dacian state. For instance, Lucian of Samosata who cites Emperor Trajan's physician Criton of Heraclea states that the entire Dacian "people was reduced to forty men". In fact, Thracian or possibly Dacian names represent about 2% of the approximately 3,000 proper names known from Roman Dacia. Bitus, Dezibalos and other characteristic Dacian names were recorded in Egypt, Italy and the empire's other territories.

Historians have debated the validity of the tradition of the Dacians' extermination by stating that it only refers to the men's fate or that it comes from Eutropius's writings to provide an acceptable explanation for the massive colonisation that followed the conquest. Indeed, Eutropius also reported that Emperor Trajan transferred to the new province "vast numbers of people from all over the Roman world". Onosmatic evidence substantiates his words: about 2,000 Latin, 420 Koine Greek, 120 Illyrian, and 70 Celtic names are known from the Roman period. Barbarian attacks against Roman Dacia were also recorded. For instance, "an inroad of the Carpi" forced Emperor Galerius's mother to flee across the Danube in the 240s. Aurelius Victor, Eutropius and Festus stated that Dacia "was lost" under Emperor Gallienus (253–268). The Augustan History and Jordanes refer to the Roman withdrawal from the province in the early 270s. The Augustan History says that Emperor Aurelian "abandoned [...] Dacia [...] and led away both soldiers and provincials" in order to repopulate Illyricum and Moesia.

In less than a century, the one-time province was named "Gothia", by authors including the 4th-century Orosius. The existence of local Christian communities is attested by the Passion of Sabbas, "a Goth by race" and by the martyrologies of Wereka and Batwin, and other Gothic Christians. Large number of Goths, Taifali, and according to Zosimus "other tribes that formerly dwelt among them" were admitted into the Eastern Roman Empire following the invasion of the Huns in 376. In contrast with these peoples, the Carpo-Dacians "were mixed with the Huns". Priscus of Panium, who visited the Hunnic Empire in 448, wrote that the empire's inhabitants spoke either Hunnic or Gothic, and that those who had "commercial dealings with the western Romans" also spoke Latin. He also mentions the local name of two drinks, "medos" and "kam". Emperor Diocletian's Edict on Prices states that the Pannonians had a drink named "kamos". "Medos" may have also been an Illyrian term, but a Germanic explanation cannot be excluded. The 6th-century author Jordanes called Dacia "Gepidia", and was the first to write of the Antes and Slavenes. He wrote that the Slavenes occupied the region "from the city of Noviodunum and the lake called Mursianus" to the river Dniester, and that the Antes dwelled "in the curve of the sea of Pontus". Procopius wrote that the Antes and the Slaveni spoke "the same language, an utterly barbarous tongue". He also writes of an Antian who "spoke in the Latin tongue". In 2001, Florin Curta wrote, "[the] very nature of a Sclavene ethnicity needs serious reconsideration. Procopius and later authors may have used this ethnic name as an umbrella-term for various groups living north of the Danube frontier, which were neither 'Antes', nor 'Huns' or 'Avars' " (2001) The late 7th-century author Ananias of Shirak wrote in an Armenian geographical work that the Slavs inhabited the "large country of Dacia" and formed 25 tribes.

The Ravenna Geographer wrote about a Dacia "populated by the [...] Avars", but written sources from the 9th and 10th centuries are scarce. The Royal Frankish Annals refers to the Abodrites living "in Dacia on the Danube as neighbors of the Bulgars" around 824. The Bavarian Geographer locates the Merehanii next to the Bulgars. In contrast with them, Alfred the Great wrote of "Dacians, who were formerly Goths", living to the south-east of the "Vistula country", itself situated "east of Moravia" in his geography written around 890 based on Orosius' much earlier work.

First page of the Gesta Hungarorum

Emperor Constantine VII's De Administrando Imperio ("On the Government of the Empire") contains the most detailed information on the history of the region in the first decades of the 10th century. It reveals that Patzinakia ("the land of the Pechenegs") was bordered by Bulgaria on the Lower Danube around 950, and the Hungarians lived on the rivers Criş, Mureş, Timiş, Tisa and Toutis at the same time. That the "Pechenegs's land" was located next to Bulgaria is confirmed by the contemporary Abraham ben Jacob. The 10th-century Muslim scholars, Mutahhar al-Maqdisi and Ibn al-Nadim mentioned the Waladj and the Blaghā, respectively in their lists of peoples. The list also refer to the Khazars, Alans, and Greeks, and it is possible that the two ethnonyms refer to Vlachs dwelling somewhere in south-eastern Europe.

The Gesta Hungarorum from around 1150 or 1200 is the first chronicle to write of Vlachs in the intra-Carpathian regions. Its anonymous author stated that the Hungarians encountered "Slavs, Bulgarians, Vlachs, and the shepherds of the Romans" when invading the Carpathian Basin around 895. He also wrote of Gelou, "a certain Vlach" ruling Translyvania, a land inhabited by "Vlachs and Slavs". In his study on medieval Hungarian chronicles, Carlile Aylmer Macartney concluded that the Gesta Hungarorum did not prove the presence of Romanians in the Carpathian Basin around 895, since its author's "manner is much rather that of a romantic novelist than a historian". In contrast, Alexandru Madgearu, in his monography dedicated to the Gesta, stated that this chronicle "is generally credible", since its narration can be "confirmed by the archaeological evidence or by comparison with other written sources" in many cases.

The late 12th-century chronicle of Niketas Choniates contains another early reference to Vlachs living north of the Danube. He wrote that they seized the future Byzantine emperor, Andronikos Komnenos when "he reached the borders of Halych" in 1164. Thereafter, information on Vlachs from the territory of present-day Romania abounds. For instance, Pope Gregory IX wrote about "a certain people in the Cumanian bishopric called Walati" who had their own bishops around 1234; and Jansen Enikel's 13th-century rhymed chronicle anachronistically refers to Vlachs and Hungarians in connection with the late 8th-century conquest of Pannonia by Charlemagne.

A royal charter of 1223 confirming a former grant of land is the earliest official document of Romanians in Transylvania. It refers to the transfer of land previously held by the Romanians to the monastery of Cârţa, which proves that this territory had been inhabited by Vlachs before the monastery was founded. According to the next document, the Teutonic Knights received the right to pass through the lands possessed by the Székelys and the Vlachs in 1223. Next the Transylvanian Saxons were entitled to use certain forests together with the Vlachs and Pechenegs in 1224. References to Vlachs living in the lands of secular lords and prelates in the Kingdom of Hungary appeared in the 1270s. First the canons of the cathedral chapter in Alba Iulia received a royal authorization to settle Romanians to their domains in 1276. Thereafter, royal charters attest the presence of Romanians in more counties, for instance in Zărand from 1318, in Bihor and in Maramureș from 1326, and in Turda from 1342.

Balkan Vlachs

Basil II is crowned co-emperor (Madrid Skylitzes)

John Skylitzes's chronicle contains one of the earliest records on the Balkan Vlachs. He mentions that "some vagabond Vlachs" killed David, one of the four Cometopuli brothers between Kastoria and Prespa, now in Macedonia, in 976. After the Byzantine occupation of Bulgaria in 1018, Emperor Basil II set up an autocephalous archbishopric in Ohrid with the right from 1020 to collect income "from the Vlachs in the whole of theme of Bulgaria".

The late 11th-century Kekaumenos relates that the Vlachs of the region of Larissa (now in Greece) had "the custom of having their herds and families stay in high mountains and other really cold places from the month of April to the month of September". A passing remark by Anna Comnena reveals that the Balkan nomads were "commonly called Vlachs" around 1100. Occasionally, the Vlachs even cooperated with the Cumans against the Byzantine Empire, for instance by showing them "the way through the passes" of the Stara Planina in the 1090s. Benjamin of Tudela describes the Vlachs of Boeotia in present-day Greece sweeping down "from the mountains to despoil and ravage the land of Greece".

Most information on the 1185 uprising of the Bulgars and Vlachs and the subsequent establishment of the Second Bulgarian Empire is based on Niketas Choniates's chronicle. He states that it was "the rustling of their cattle" which provoked the Vlachs to rebel against the imperial government. Besides him, Ansbert, and a number of other contemporary sources refer to the Vlach origin of the Asen brothers who initiated the revolt. Ansbert wrote of "Kalopetrus Flachus".

Medieval Vlach lands

The Vlachs' pre-eminent role in the Second Bulgarian Empire is demonstrated by Blacia, and other similar denominations under which the new state was mentioned in contemporary sources. The Annales Florolivienses, the first such source, mentions the route of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa "through Hungary, Russia, Cumania, Vlakhia, Durazzo, Byzantium and Turkey" during his crusade of 1189. The poem Nibelungenlied from the early 1200s mentions one "duke Ramunc of Wallachia" in the retinue of Attila the Hun. The poem mentions the Vlachs along with the Russians, Greeks, Poles and Pechenegs, and may refer to a "Wallachia" east of the Carpathians. The Icelandic author Snorri Sturluson wrote of a Blokumannaland ("land of the Vlachs") in the Balkans in his early 13th-century text Heimskringla.

Letter of Kaloyan, "tsar of Bulgaria and Vlachia" to Pope Innocent III

Pope Innocent III used the terms "Vlachia and Bulgaria" jointly when referring to the whole territory of the Second Bulgarian Empire in his correspondence with its ruler, Kaloyan. Similarly, the chronicler Geoffrey of Villehardouin refers to this ruler as "Johanitsa, the king of Vlachia and Bulgaria". William of Rubruck distinguished Bulgaria from Blakia. He states that "Bulgaria, Blakia and Slavonia were provinces of the Greeks", implying that his Blakia was also located south of the Danube. Likewise, the "Vlach lands" mentioned in the works of Abulfeda, Ibn Khaldun and other medieval Muslim authors are identical with Bulgaria.

A charter of 1247 of King Béla IV of Hungary lists small Romanian polities existing in Muntenia and Oltenia.< Thomas Tuscus mentioned Vlachs fighting against the Ruthenes in 1276 or 1277. The first independent Romanian state, the Principality of Wallachia, was known as Oungrovlachia in Byzantine sources, while Moldavia received the Greek denominations Maurovlachia or Russovlachia.

Archaeological evidence from Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

Territories to the north of the Lower Danube

Ruins of a Dacian sanctuary at Sarmizegetusa Regia

Tumuli erected for a cremation rite appeared in Oltenia and in Transylvania around 100 BC, thus preceding the emergence of the Dacian kingdom. Their rich inventory of weapons and horse harnesses represents a style known from archaeological sites in the territories south of the Danube. Although only around 300 graves from the next three centuries have been unearthed in Romania, they represent multiple burial rites, including ustrinum cremation and inhumation. The spread of a network of villages in the Mureș valley proves a demographic growth in the 1st century BC. Fortified settlements were erected on hilltops, mainly in the Orăştie Mountains, but open villages remained the most common type of settlement. In contrast with the finds of 25,000 Roman denarii and their local copies, imported products are virtually missing from Dacian sites.

According to Oltean, with the Roman occupation of 106 AD, "Dacia faced the disappearance of the Orăştie Mountains civilization". The Romans destroyed all fortresses and the main Dacian sanctuaries. All settlements disappeared because of the Roman demolition. Roman settlements built on the location of former Dacian ones have not been identified yet. However, the rural communities at Boarta, Cernat, Slimnic, and other settlements used "both traditional and Roman items", even thereafter. Objects representing local traditions have been unearthed at Roman villas in Aiudul de Sus, Deva and other places. A feature of the few types of native pottery wich continued to be produced in Roman times is the "Dacian cup", a mostly hand-made, simple mug with a wide rim, which was used even in military centers. The use of a type of tall cooking pot indicates the survival of traditional culinary practices as well. Cemeteries characterized by burial rites with analogies in sites east of the Carpathians attest to the presence of immigrant "barbarian" communities in the province, for instance, at Obreja, Soporu de Câmpie, and other settlements. Along the northwestern frontiers of Roman Dacia, "Przeworsk" settlements were unearthed at Boineşti, Cehăluţ, and other places.

Ruins of the Roman amphitheatre at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa

.

Colonization and the presence of military units gave rise to the emergence of most towns in Roman Dacia: for instance, Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa was founded for veterans, Apulum and Potaissa started to develop as canabae. Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa is also one of the few settlements where archaeological research has not yielded any convincing evidence of the presence of natives. Towns were the only places where the presence of Christians can be assumed based on objects bearing Christian symbolism, including a lamp and a cup decorated with crosses, which have been dated to the Roman period. Archaeological finds suggest that attacks against Roman Dacia by neighboring tribes became more intensive from the middle of the 3rd century: an inscription from Apulum hails Emperor Decius as the "restorer of Dacia"; and coin hoards ending with pieces minted in this period have been found. Circulation of money was sharply decreasing from 253. Inscriptions from the 260s attest that the two Roman legions of Dacia were transferred to Upper Pannonia and Italy. Coins bearing the inscription "DACIA FELIX" minted in 271 may reflect that Trajan's Dacia still existed in that year, but they may as well refer to the establishment of the new province of "Dacia Aureliana".

Table: Number of settlements with archaeological finds in three Transylvanian counties

Period	Cluj (1992)	Alba (1995)	Mureş (1995)
Pre-Roman (5th century BC–1st century AD)	59 (20%)	111 (33%)	252 (28%)
Roman (106–270s)	144 (50%)	155 (47%)	332 (37%)
270s–390s	40 (14%)	67 (20%)	79 (9%)
400s			49 (6%)
500s			48 (6%)
600s			40 (5%)
700s			39 (5%)
800s			19 (2%)
900s			16 (2%)
1000s–1300s	47 (16%)
Total number	290	333	874

The differentiation of archaeological finds from the periods before and after the Roman withdrawal is not simple, but Archiud, Obreja, and other villages produced finds from both periods. Towns have also yielded evidence on locals staying behind. For instance, in Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegatusa, at least one building was inhabited even in the 300s, and a local factory continued to produce pottery, although "in a more restricted range". Roman coins from the 3rd and 4th centuries, mainly minted in bronze, were found in Banat, along the new borders of the Roman Empire, where new forts were erected in the 290s. Coins minted under Emperor Valentinian I (364–375) were also found in Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, where the gate of the amphitheater was walled at an uncertain date. A votive plate found near a spring at Biertan is among the objects possibly referring to local Christian communities. It bears a Latin inscription dated to the 300s, and has analogies in contemporary objects made in the Roman Empire. Whether this donarium belonged to a missionary, to a local cleric or layman or to a pagan Goth making an offering at the spring is still debated by archaeologists.

The 4th-century Biertan Donarium with the Latin writing "EGO ZENOVIUS VOTUM POSVI" (=I, Zenovius, brought this offering)

A new cultural synthesis, the "Sântana de Mureş-Chernyakhov culture", spread through the plains of Moldavia and Wallachia in the first half of the 4th century. It incorporated elements of the "Wielbark culture" of present-day Poland and of local tradition. More than 150 "Sântana de Mureş-Chernyakhov" settlements suggest that the territory experienced a demographic growth in the following period. Three sites in the Eastern Carpathians already inhabited in the previous period; prove the natives' survival as well. Growing popularity of inhumation burials with a north–south orientation also characterizes the period. "Sântana de Mureş-Chernyakhov" cemeteries from the 300s were also unearthed in Transylvania, where graves with east–west orientation were found at Cluj, Mediaș and other settlements.

Coin hoards ending with pieces from the period between 375 and 395 unearthed at Bistreţ, Gherla, and other settlements point to a period of uncertainty. Featuring elements of the "Przeworsk" and "Sântana de Mureş-Chernyakhov" cultures also disappeared around 400, thus archaeological sites from the next centuries have yielded finds indicating the existence of scattered communities bearing different traditions. Again, cremation became the most widespread burial rite east of the Carpathians, where a new type of building – sunken huts with an oven in the corner – also appeared. The heterogeneous vessel styles were replaced by the more uniform "Suceava-Şipot" archaeological horizon of hand made pottery from the 550s.

In contrast with the regions east of the Carpathians, Transylvania experienced the spread of the "row grave" horizon of inhumation necropolises in the 5th century, also known from the same period in Austria, Bohemia, Transdanubia and Thuringia. At the same time, large villages appeared in Crișana and Transylvania, in most cases in places where no earlier habitation has yet been proven. Moreover, imported objects from the 5th and early 6th centuries with Christian symbols, including a fish-shaped lamp from Lipova, and a "Saint Menas flask" from Moigrad, were unearthed. However, only about 15% of the 30 known "row grave" cemeteries survived until the late 600s. They together form the distinct "Band-Noşlac" group of graveyards which also produced weapons and other objects of Western or Byzantine provenance. The earliest examples of inhumation graves with a corpse buried, in accordance with nomadic tradition, with remains of a horse were also found at Band. The "Gâmbaş group" of cemeteries emerged in the same period, producing weapons similar to those found in the Pontic steppes.

Sunken huts appeared in the easternmost zones of Transylvania around 600s. Soon the new horizon of "Mediaș" cemeteries, containing primarily cremation graves, spread along the Mureș and other rivers in the region. The "Nușfalău-Someşeni" cemeteries likewise follow the cremation rite, but they produced large tumuli with analogies in the territories east of the Carpathians. In the meantime, the "Suceava-Şipot horizon" disappeared in Moldavia and Wallachia, and the new "Dridu culture" emerged on both sides of the Lower Danube around 700. Thereafter the region again experienced demographic growth. For instance, the number of settlements unearthed in Moldavia grew from about 120 to about 250 from the 800s to the 1000s.

Few graveyards yielding artifacts similar to "Dridu cemeteries" were also founded around Alba Iulia in Transylvania. The nearby "Ciumbrud group" of necropolises of inhumation graves point at the presence of warriors. However, no fortresses unearthed in Transylvania, including Cluj-Mănăştur, Dăbâca, and Şirioara, can be definitivelty dated earlier than the 900s. Small inhumation cemeteries of the "Cluj group", characterized by "partial symbolic horse burials", appeared at several places in Banat, Crişana, and Transylvania including at Biharia, Cluj and Timişoara around 900. Cauldrons and further featuring items of the "Saltovo-Mayaki culture" of the Pontic steppes were also unearthed in Alba Iulia, Cenad, Dăbâca, and other settlements of the region. A new custom of placing coins on the eyes of the dead was also introduced in the region around 1000. "Bijelo Brdo" cemeteries, a group of large graveyards with close analogies in the whole Carpathian Basin, were unearthed at Deva, Hunedoara and other places. The east–west orientation of their graves may reflect Christian influence, but the following "Citfalău group" of huge cemeteries that appeared in royal fortresses around 1100 clearly belong to a Christian population.

The presence of Romanians in Transylvania is attested by the "Ciugud culture", which was fairly densely-spread in the 11th–13th centuries in southern Transylvania, and also by the 12th century numismatic and silver hoards of Cârțișoara and Făgăraş.

The northern regions of the Balkan Peninsula

Fortified settlements built on hill-tops characterized the landscape in Illyricum before the Roman conquest. In addition, huts built on piles formed villages along the rivers Sava and its tributaries. Roman coins unearthed in the nortwestern regions may indicate that trading contacts between the Roman Empire and Illyricum began in the 2nd century BC, but piracy which was widespread in the same period could also contribute to their cumulation. The first Roman road in the Balkans, the Via Egnatia which linked Thessaloniki with Dyrrhachium was built in 140 BC. The earliest Roman colonies in Illyricum (Byllis and Dyrrhachium) were founded in the 1st century BC. In the following four centuries a number of new towns were established by the Romans. For instance, Roman veterans were settled in Emona, Siscia and Sirmium in the 1st century AD, while Iovia Botivo was only established two centuries later.

Ruins of the imperial palace in Sirmium

Scythes and other tools made of iron had already appeared among the natives, but the use of iron only became widespread following the Roman conquest. Potter's wheel was also introduced by the Romans, but traditional hand-made pottery remained popular even thereafter. Latin inscriptions on stone monuments prove the survival of the native aristocracy in Illyricum. Likewise, native cults survived the conquest, as it is demonstrated by altars dedicated to Illyrian deities at Bihać and Topusko. Native settlements flourished in the mining districts in Upper Moesia up until the 4th century. In contrast with these territory, the strategically important frontier region along the Lower Danube in Moesia was transformed into "a secure Roman-only zone" (Brad Bartel) in the 1st century AD. The Moesi and other native tribes were apparently moved from there. For instance, their settlements at Boljetin and Belgrade had been destroyed before the Romans erected forts on the same sites.

The disappearance of native names and of local burial rites demonstrate that local culture underwent significant changes in the 3rd century. This is also the period when the Roman Empire was often ruled by emperors born in Illyricum, which resulted in the erection of a number of imperial residences at their birthplaces. For instance, a palace was built for Maximianus Herculius near Sirmium, and another for Constantine the Great in Mediana. New buildings, rich burials and late Roman inscriptions show that Siscia, Viminacium, and other centers of administration flourished in the same period. For instance, Ulpianum, Horreum Margi and Remesiana were fortified by walls under Diocletian, while a hippodrome was built in Sirmium under Licinius.

Archaeological research shows that Christian communities flourished in Pannonia and Moesia from the 4th century. For instance, large cemeteries were unearthed at Ulpianum and Naissus. Christian inscriptions from the 5th century at Viminacium, Naissus and other towns of Upper Moesia prove that Christian communities in this region even survived the destruction brought by the Huns. In contrast, villae rusticae which had been centers of agriculture from the 1st century disappeared around 450. Likewise forums, well planned streets and other traditional elements of urban architecture ceased to exist. For instance, Sirmium "disintegrated into small hamlets emerging in urban areas that had not been in use until then" following the walls surrounding it were destroyed after 450.

Under Justinian hundreds of small forts were erected along the Lower Danube, at mountain passes across the Balkan Mountains and around Constantinople. Inside these forts small churches and houses were built. Pollen analysis suggest that their inhabitants cultivated legumes within the walls, but no other trace of agriculture have been identified.

The Hun attack caused power vacuum in the Balkan peninsula thus the Gepids were able to conquer Pannonia Secunda in 471, however an Ostrogothic troop squeezed them out in 504. The Gepids could not regain the control over the territory until the beginning of the Gothic War, however, they were defeated in 547 by an allied Lombard-Byzantine-Herul army, and again in 551 and 552, by a Langobard troop. In the 480s, the Gepid king Thrapstila put his seat to Sirmium and the subsequent Gepid rulers as Thrasaric or Cunimund also regarded the town as capital.

Gepidia, after the conquest of Sirmium, played an important role in connection with a commercial network between Italy and Scandinavia. Amber beads, originated from the shores of Baltic Sea, were founded in high number in the Kingdom of Gepids and it may be used as markers of group identity.

Kurth Horedt named the " Gepid culture" as the easternmost Reihengraber group, however current studies show a much more complex picture, they draw existing ties between North and South of Middle Danube. Stamped potteries were unearthed in Italy regarded them as "imports" pottery from the Kingdom of Gepids. In contrast to Langobard burial rites, Gepid women and children were laid to rest with double-layered combs without straps with fastened jewels. Gurzuf type brooches were very popular in Gepidia. These brooches were identical with Crimean and Mazurian types. Artifical cranial deformation was still practiced by Gepids until the end of the sixth century.

Linguistic approach

Romanian language

Main article: History of the Romanian language

Further information: Balkan sprachbund, Eastern Romance substratum, Jireček Line, and Paleo-Balkan languages

Albanians as descendants of migrating Carpians (a theory proposed in 1905 by Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu)

The "Jireček Line" which separated the Latin- and Greek-speaking provinces of the Roman Empire

The grouping of Dacian, Illyrian and Thracian languages into a Thraco-Illyrian branch of the Indo-European language family, a widespread idea in the first half of the 20th century, has lost popularity because of the lack of convincing evidence. Similarly, the supposed close relationship between Dacian and Thracian - two poorly attested languages - remains unproven. There are around 100 Romanian words with a possible substratum origin, but the language from which they were transferred cannot be determined with certainty. Around one third of these words represent the specific vocabulary of sheep- and goat-breeding. Moreover, about 70 possible substrate words, have Albanian cognates.

Albanian, Romanian and other languages sharing some common morphological and syntactic characteristics form together a supposed "Balkan linguistic union". These common features include the postposed definite articles and the merger of the dative case and possessive case. Whether they represent a common substrate language, or convergent development is still a matter of debate among linguists. István Schütz argues that the fact that "the same Albanian phone is represented by multiple phones in Romanian, and the same Romanian phone may derive from different Albanian phones in these words" suggests an "Albanian–Romanian symbiosis" lasting more than one centuries. In contrast, Alexandru Madgearu and other scholars refuse this idea, stating that "the common elements are less significant than the differences between" the two languages.

Around one-fifth of the entries of the 1958 edition of the Dictionary of the Modern Romanian have directly been inherited from Latin. For instance, the basic lexicons of religion and of agriculture have been preserved, although a number of loanwords, mainly Slavic, are also used in both territories. Some variants of the Eastern Romance languages retained more elements of their Latin heritage than others. For instance, both the Maramureș subdialect of Romanian and Arumanian have preserved the Latin word for sand (arină) instead of standard nisip, a Slavic loanword.

In addition to words of Latin or of possible substratum origin, a great number of loanwords can be detected. Initially, Slavic languages had a major influence on Romanian, but a significant number of words were later borrowed from Turkic, Hungarian, Greek or German languages. However, no loanwords of East Germaninc (Gothic or Gepid) origin have so far been proven. The number of borrowings exceeds that of the inherited terms in several semantic fields, including that of the natural environment For instance, the names for species of fish of the Danube and of a number of other animals living in Romania are of Slavic origin. On the other hand, all neighboring peoples adopted a number of Romanian words connected to goat- and sheep-breeding.

The Romanians' ancestors borrowed Slavic words in three phases. First around 80 words were adopted in the Common Slavic period before the 900s by the common ancestor of all Eastern Romance languages. Next, a significant early South Slavic or Old Church Slavonic influence can be detected in all Eastern Romance variants. Even Greek and Latin words arrived in Romanian through South Slavic mediation. The third phase began after the disintegration of Common Romanian into dialects in the 10th century at the earliest. Thereafter, each Eastern Romance variant came individually into contact with Slavic languages.

Romanian place names

The Olt River at Turnu Roșu, Romania

The Vlasina River at Vlasotince, Serbia

Place names provide a significant proportion of modern knowledge of the extinct languages of South-eastern Europe. For instance, Drobeta, Napoca, Porolissum, Sarmizegetusa and other settlements in "Dacia Trajana" bore names of local origin. The Romans likewise adopted the native names of the main rivers, including Crisia for the Criş, Maris(os) or Marissos for the Mureș, and Tibiskos for the Timiș.

Although some towns preserved their ancient names in South-eastern Europe up until now, the names of all Roman settlements attested in Roman Dacia in Antiquity disappeared. The names of some rivers survived the Roman withdrawal, but their modern forms suggest a Slavic mediation instead of a direct transmission from a native language or Latin to languages now spoken in the territory. For instance, the vowel shift from [a] to [u] or [o] experienced in the case of the rivers Mureş [< Maris], Olt [< Aluta], and Someş [< Samu(m)] is attested in the development of the Slavic languages, but is alien to Romanian and other tongues spoken in their regions. Grigore Nandris states that alone among the rivers in Dacia, the development of the name of the Criş from ancient Crisius would be in line with the phonetical evolution of Romanian, but Gottfried Schramm wrote that its [ʃ] ending could have hardly been inherited from Latin. Based on the Repedea name for the upper course of the Bistrița, Nandris also writes that translation from Romanian into Slavic could also create Romanian hydronyms. Obviously, however, the translation of the river's name could equally have occurred in the opposite direction, from Slavic into Romanian.^{[citation needed]} Dunărea, the Romanian name of the Danube may have developed from a supposed Geto-Dacian *Donaris form. However, this form is not attested in written sources. Therefore, it is possible that the Romanians' ancestors in this case also adopted a Slavic name.

The longer tributaries of the large rivers in Banat, Crişana and Transylvania had modern names of German, Hungarian, Slavic or Turkic origin, which were also adopted by the Romanians. For instance, the tributaries of the Someșul Mic River bear Hungarian or Slavic names. River names of Slavic origin can also be found in the regions east and south of the Carpathians, where Turkic river names also abound. On the other hand, the name of the Vlaşca region in Wallachia refers to a Romance-speaking community in Slavic environment.

Place names of Slavic or Hungarian origin can be found in great number in medieval royal charters pertaining to Banat, Crișana, Maramureș, and Transylvania. The earliest toponyms of certain Romanian origin, including Nucşoara (1359), and Cuciulata (1372), were recorded in the second half of the 14th century. Romanian place names can still be detected in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia. For example, such names are concentrated in the wider region of the river Vlasina both in Bulgaria and Serbia, and in Montenegro and the nearby territories.

See also

• Ethnogenesis
• Etymology of Romania
• Protochronism

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• (German) Schramm, Gottfried (1997). Ein Damm bricht. Die römische Donaugrenze und die Invasionen des 5-7. Jahrhunderts in Lichte der Namen und Wörter [=A Dam Breaks: The Roman Danube frontier and the Invasions of the 5th-7th Centuries in the Light of Names and Words]. R. Oldenbourg Verlag. ISBN 3-486-56262-2. 
• Schulte, Kim (2009). "Loanwords in Romanian". In Haspelmath, Martin; Tadmor, Uri. Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 230–259. ISBN 978-3-11-021843-5. 
• Spinei, Victor (1986). Moldavia in the 11th–14th Centuries. Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste Româna. 
• Spinei, Victor (2009). The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth century. Koninklijke Brill NV. ISBN 978-90-04-17536-5. 
• (Hungarian) Schütz, István (2002). Fehér foltok a Balkánon: Bevezetés az albanológiába és a balkanisztikába [=Blank Spots in the Balkans: Introduction to Albanology and Balkanistics]. Balassi Kiadó. ISBN 963-506-472-1. 
• Stephenson, Paul (2000). Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Norhtern Balkans, 900–1204. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-02756-4. 
• Taylor, Timothy (2001). "Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians". In Cunliffe, Barry. The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe. Oxford University Press. pp. 373–410. ISBN 978-0-19-285441-4. 
• Todd, Malcolm (2003). The Early Germans. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-631-16397-2. 
• Tóth, Endre (1994). "The Roman Province of Dacia". In Köpeczi, Béla; Barta, Gábor; Bóna, István; Makkai, László; Szász, Zoltán; Borus, Judit. History of Transylvania. Akadémiai Kiadó. pp. 28–61. ISBN 963-05-6703-2. 
• Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2. 
• Treptow, Kurt W.; Popa, Marcel (1996). Historical Dictionary of Romania. Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8108-3179-1. 
• Trimble, Jennifer (2011). Women and Visual Replication in Roman Imperial Art and Culture. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-82515-3. 
• Vásáry, István (2005). Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185-1365. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83756-1. 
• Vékony, Gábor (2000). Dacians, Romans, Romanians. Matthias Corvinus Publishing. ISBN 1-882785-13-4. 
• Wilkes, John (1992). The Illyrians. ISBN 0-631-19807-5. 
• Wolfram, Herwig (1997). The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples. ISBN 0-520-08511-6. 

Further reading

• Fine, John V. A (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08260-4. 
• (Romanian) Fratila, Vasile (2002). Studii de toponimie și dialectologie [=Studies on Toponymy and Dialectology]. Excelsior Art. ISBN 9735920603. 
• Posner, Rebecca (1996). The Romance Languages. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28139-3. 

External links

• Friesian.com: The Vlach Connection
• Historical myths in Communist Romania (also part 2)