Romania in the Early Middle Ages

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The Early Middle Ages in Romania could be said to span the period from the withdrawal of the Roman administration from the province of Dacia in the 271-275 AD, thenceforward the modern Romania’s territories were to be crisscrossed by migrating populations for almost 1,000 years, until the Tatar invasion in 1241-1242.^[1]

When the Roman legions left Dacia province, the Goths occupied several parts of the territory of what is today Romania.^[2] Later, the territory became part of Attila's Empire.^[2] After the disintegration of the Hunnic Empire, parts of modern Romania were under successive control of the Gepids, Avars, Bulgars, Magyars, Pechenegs, and Cumans.^[1]

During this period, the Vlachs (early Romanians) did not develop a polity to be reckoned with. The first references to incipient states of the Romanians (9th-10th centuries) on the territory of present-day Romania were recorded in sources written in the 12th-13th centuries. On the other hand, even the presence of a Romance-speaking population (that is, the ancestors of the Romanians) on the territory before the 11th-12th centuries is debated.^[3]

Contents 1 Background: Dacia Traiana 2 Late Antiquity 2.1 Roman withdrawal 2.2 Guthiuda (c. 271 - after 376/before 420) 2.3 The Hun Empire (c. 376/420 - 469) 2.4 Gepidia (454 - 567) 3 The Dark Ages 3.1 The early Slavs (5th-7th centuries) 3.2 The Avar Khaganate (567-797/803) 3.3 Bulgars before Baptism (632-864) 3.4 The first political structures on Romania’s territory (8th-9th centuries) 3.5 The Magyars (c. 839 - c. 1028) 3.6 First Bulgarian Empire after Baptism (864-1018) 3.7 Patzinakia (c. 895 - 1121) 4 State Formation and the Last Waves of the Migrations 4.1 The Banat, Crişana, Maramureş, and Transylvania in the Kingdom of Hungary (c. 1000-1241) 4.2 Cumania (1065 - 1241) 4.3 Second Bulgarian Empire 4.4 The Mongol invasion (1241-1242) 5 After the Migrations 6 Footnotes 7 See also 8 External links 9 Sources 10 Further reading

[edit] Background: Dacia Traiana

Dacia was a Roman province for 165 years.^[3] Emperor Trajan made a concerted effort to recruit settlers for Roman Dacia, although in case of other provinces the government had done very little to encourage civilians moving into newly conquered areas.^[4] The colonizing population was clearly heterogeneous, but they represented imperial culture and civilization and brought with them the Latin language.^[2]

While Dacia was still a Roman province, it faced attacks and incursions by Free Dacians, Sarmatians, Dacian-speaking^[5] Carpians, and as early as 211, the first of the Gothic invasions.^[1] There were also Costoboci, Iranian^[6] Rhoxolani, and Germanic^[6] Bastarnae, elements that had been part of the ethnic mosaic of that area.^[7]

Eastward of the Roman province, north of the Black Sea, the migrating groups were competing each other, against indigenous populations, and against Roman garrison forces.^[5] The result was the strengthening of a series of largely Gothic dominated political units.^[5]

Following the partial withdrawal of Roman forces from the province under Emperor Gallienus (260-268), the situation in Dacia was tenuous.^[8] Emperor Aurelian (270-275) could not spare the men and materiel that would be required to restore the Dacian limes.^[8] The constant pressure of migratory peoples on the long, exposed boundaries of Dacia, and led the emperor Aurelian to order the withdrawal of all the Roman legionary forces stationed in Dacia.^[8] The withdrawal under Aurelian in 271 was largely of administrators and landed proprietors: the poorer Dacians stayed on.^[9] and the emperor Without the benefit of Roman investment in infrastructure and the presence of the military payroll, the former Dacian province rather quickly reverted to its pre-Roman ways.^[4]

[edit] Late Antiquity

[edit] Roman withdrawal

On one hand, archaeological and historical researches suggest that Roman life continued in Dacia after the 270s, and the masses of the Romanized population (the “Daco-Romans”) continued to lead a peaceful life.^[10] Moreover, several Free Dacians settled down in the former province, and many latinophones crossed their territories and settled amongst them, and therefore Romanization continued and was further spread, even to the areas which had not been directly conquered by the Romans.^[10] There was no obstacle in the way of the affirmation of Christianity, and as the Christianization of the “Daco-Romans” was done in Latin, by the spreading of the Christian faith, Romanity was actually strengthened.^[10] Christian artifacts found in many ancient Roman centers suggest that Dacia was largely Christianized after 313 (the year in which Christianity was officially adopted throughout the empire), but not by official act, missionary pressure, or mass baptism.^[2]

On the other hand, early literary sources imply that the masses of the Romanized population had left the province of Dacia by the time the legions were withdrawn.^[3] Toponyms and linguistic researches also suggest that the vernacular spoken by the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of the former province was not the Latin language when the East Germanic tribes invaded Dacia.^[3]

Emperor Aurelian did not abandon territories south of the Danube: modern Dobrogea continued to be part of the Roman Empire for another 350 years.^[9] But it had suffered terribly, and the withdrawal of troops from Dacia left the territory between the Danube and the Black Sea dangerously open to attack.^[9] Especially outside the walled towns, the population were the victims of epidemic, economic stagnation, rapacious troops, and greedy tax-gatherers.^[9]

Emperor Diocletian (284-305) fortified the entire length of the Danube that had been opposite the former province of Dacia, often with fortresses on both sides of the river.^[4] Small forts on the northern bank served as fortified landing points, bridge guards, and observation and customs posts as elsewhere along the frontiers.^[4]

[edit] Guthiuda (c. 271 - after 376/before 420)

Following the Roman withdrawal, the Goths were fully occupied taking possession of the northern Danubian region on both sides of the Carpathian Mountains, dividing it with the Taifali, and keeping control of it.^[7] In the process their former allies, the Carpians, the Bastarnæ, and the Vandals, became their rivals.^[7] The latter had to give way: probably the greater part of the Bastarnæ settled in Thrace in 280, and in 295 the rest followed;^[7] around 300, large numbers of Carpians were resettled on Roman soil.^[5]

By the middle of the 4th century, the former province became the “land of the Goths” (Guthiuda).^[7] But even during this period, we have to count on the existence of non-Gothic peoples in the Guthiuda.^[7] The populations of their territories were certainly mixed, with large numbers of Dacians and Sarmatians, not to mention Roman prisoners, but the dominance of the Germanic immigrants is clear.^[5]

One of the Gothic groups, the Thervingi (“forest people”) established themselves west of the river Dniester.^[11] The Thervingi had no monarchic kingship, but an oligarchic council could reactive a kind of monarchy by electing a “judge” (Latin: iudex).^[7][11]

The Goths' own material culture was almost certainly that named by modern archaeologists after two of its most significant sites: Cherniakhiv (in Ukraine) and Sântana de Mureş (in Romania),^[12] but a simple one-to-one equitation is demonstrably mistaken.^[11] The overwhelming majority of Chernyakhov settlements are open and unfortified, and they are of varying size.^[11] The populations of these villages derived their subsistence from mixed farming, with a high priority being given to the production of cereals, and at the same time, considerable effort was put into animal husbandry.^[7]

In the summer of 328, Emperor Constantine the Great (306-337) opened the stone bridge across the Danube between Œscus (in present-day Bulgaria) and Sucidava (now in Romania) linking the empire with Oltenia which was intended as a buffer zone.^[7] At the same time, the fortress of Daphne (in present-day Romania) was erected and linked by means of a large ferry with Transmarisca (now in Bulgaria).^[7] Driven away from the Danube, the Goths changed their direction of advance, and around 330 began the increasing infiltration of Transylvania.^[7]

After 332, a succession of religious missions had come to the Gutthiuda; and the Arian mission, which proselytized in Gothic, exerted the greatest influence.^[11] Wulfila was ordained bishop to those who were already Christian in Gothic territories (many of these were descended from Christian Roman prisoners).^[11] He was expelled with many other Christians after having engaged in missionary work, but Christians still lived north of the Danube and maintained close contacts with those who lived south of the river.^[11]

Between 340 and 360 barbarians were transferred en masse into Dobrogea.^[9] Among them the Sarmatians who served in the Roman army contributed to the barbarizing of the province.^[9] They continued to keep their cultural habits intact until the 7th century.^[9]

Around 375, the Huns attacked the Greuthungi (the Goths living on the territories east of the river Dniester).^[11] Shortly afterwards, the Huns crossed the river,^[11] and in the autumn of 376 groups of the Goths, said by contemporaries to number 200,000, were permitted to cross the Danube.^[13] The Gothic force was not just an army, but an entire population group: men, women and children, dragging themselves and their possessions around in a huge wagon train.^[5]

In the chaos caused by the invasion of the Huns, there began a war of all against all which revealed the weaker position of the non-Tervingians.^[7] The expulsion of the Sarmatians of the Caucaland (which was probably located in the Carpathian Mountains along the Olt river) by the Goths clearly reveals this process of disintegration.^[7] In the next 30 years, numerous Gothic groups met varying fates: some delayed conquest, or perhaps avoided it altogether, by establishing themselves in geographically protected niches in Transylvania, but, however, long it took, most (if not all) of the Goths who remained north of the Danube ended up under Hunnic control.^[11] For example, in the 440s the Gothic group dominated by the Amal family and their rivals could muster 10,000 fighting men, and hence had maybe a total population of 50,000; this group would later become the central to the creation of the Ostrogoths.^[5]

Archaeological researches suggest that the “Daco-Romans” abandoned all their ancient cities, and they also imply that the “Daco-Romans” established new settlements situated in sheltered, hidden places when the nomads’ predatory expeditions became increasingly destructive.^[10] Such hidden places were not only in mountainous and hilly areas, where too large a population could not be accommodated, but also in forests (over 70% of Romania’s territory was covered by forests during that time).^[10] Thus the circumstances created by the continuous invasions, caused an “ebb and tide” movement phenomenon of the natives;^[14] although this course was difficult, it had thus provided the opportunity to preserve the unity of the Romanian language, the Romanian identity, religion, and habits.^[10]

On the other hand, place-names imply that neither the mountainous and hilly areas, nor the lowlands of present-day Romania were inhabited by a Latin-speaking population at that time.^[3]

[edit] The Hun Empire (c. 376/420 - 469)

We hear little of the Huns in the years which immediately followed their victory over the Goths.^[13] It seems reasonable to suppose that after 379 the eastern regions of Pannonia fall under their sway.^[13] However, it was not until 395 that the Huns launched their first great invasion against the Roman Empire by crossing the frozen Danube.^[13] It is certain that by 420, and quite probably by 410, the Huns had moved from the Caucasus Mountains, where they were in about 395, to the Great Hungarian Plain.

In material civilization, the Huns belonged to the lower stage of pastoralism.^[13] The basic unit of Hun society was formed by the five or six persons of one family who lived in one tent.^[13] There is no reason to believe that the Huns were very numerous, hence some of the subject peoples continued to be ruled directly by their own native kings or chiefs.^[13] Under the Huns, companies of the Scirii and Carpodacians were serving in a subordinate position, like the Alans;^[13] and the Huns exploited the agricultural surpluses of their Gothic and other subjects.^[11]

The subjection of a variety of peoples, and the eventual restoration of stability in the north Danubian regions, seem to have given rise to the emergence of a unitary ruling dynasty amongst the Huns.^[12] From 441 to 453, the history of Europe was dominated by military campaigns on an unprecedented scale - the work of Attila.^[5] In 448, Attila demanded that a wide belt of country south of the river Danube should be completely evacuated by the Romans.^[13] This strip of land was to stretch from Singidunum (today Belgrade in Serbia) to Novæ (now Svishtov in Bulgaria), a distance of some 300 miles (about 480 kilometers), and was to be five days’ journey in depth, that is about 100 or 120 miles (about 160 or 190 kilometers).^[13] Consequently, the Danube, with all its fortifications and great frontier cities, was no longer to be the boundary of the Eastern Roman Empire.^[13]

Attila died in 453, and his empire collapsed under the competing claims of his sons and the revolt of most of the subject peoples.^[12] A confederacy of the latter defeated the Hun army in the Battle of Nedao in 454, and in the aftermath the Hun dominion disintegrated even more rapidly than it had first been formed.^[12] But the Huns did not disappeared suddenly from the Carpathian region: in the late 460s Attila's sons were still able to launch attacks into the Roman Empire, and there were still substantial numbers of Goths in their following.^[5] Attila's last surviving son, Hernac found asylum in east Roman territory in northern Dobrudja in 469.^[5]

[edit] Gepidia (454 - 567)

The Gepids first appeared in the Carpathian region in the aftermath of the 3rd century convulsions.^[11] In 291, they tried in vain to chase out the Goths from the former province Dacia; afterwards, they settled in the area bordered by the rivers Tisa, Someş and Crasna.^[6] Settlement sites suggest that the single farmstead or hamlet was widespread; in the Transylvanian hills, earlier hilltop fortifications were occasionally reoccupied by Gepid groups.^[15]

Early in the 5th century, the Gepids were subjugated by the Ostrogoths, and in the following decades their warriors were increasingly drawn into service with the Huns.^[15] After Attila’s death the great rebellion of the Germanic peoples was led and inspired by the Gepid king Ardaric.^[13] After their victory, the Gepids took over part of the former Dacia province^[15] where they controlled the salt mine district.^[16]

To secure the Danube frontier in the western Balkans, Emperor Justinian I (527-565) relied on three rival groups (Gepids, Lombards, and Heruls), and imperial political influence was maintained by preventing any one confederacy from establishing a clear domination.^[12] Justinian I also built or renewed more than 600 forts in the Balkans.^[17]

In 567, the Avars and Lombards combined to destroy the Gepid kingdom that by now, had been centered on Sirmium (today in Serbia), and the lands occupied by the Gepids passed under Avar control.^[12] However, at least, some splinters of the Gepid people survived this shock^[15], and they also seem to remain in possession of the salt mines in Transylvania until around 630.^[16]

[edit] The Dark Ages

[edit] The early Slavs (5th-7th centuries)

It is likely that westward expansion of the Huns was accompanied by arrival of the first Slav-speaking settlers in the Danube region.^[18] The first stage of the process of the extension of Slav culture, along the east flank of the Carpathian Mountains towards the Danube plain, may be considered as shown by the extent of the earliest Korchak-type pottery and small square sunken floored buildings.^[18] The first written evidence of the appearance of the Slavs refers to raids around 518.^[18]

The written sources suggest that relative stability and peace lasted within the Slav territories through several decades of the 6th century.^[18] The material culture indicates a mixture of different elements: local archaeologists have identified elements which they associate with Slavs, Romanized indigenous populations, and the Greeks of the Eastern Roman Empire.^[18] Settlement sites excavated so far in Romania seem to indicate that most, if not all, sites had been occupied only for brief periods, than abandoned and new settlements established nearby.^[17] What caused this shifting of hamlets must have been the itinerant form of agriculture practiced by their inhabitants and requiring that lands under cultivation be left fallow after a number of years of cultivation without manuring.^[17]

The Slav raids intensified in frequency and scale from the 530s: hardly a year went by in this period without a major raids of the Slavs sometimes together with other peoples (such as Huns, and Kutrigurs).^[18] For the 6th-century authors, who wrote about the Slavic peoples, the Slavic “homeland” was north of the Lower Danube.^[17] On the other hand, the Sclavenes appear in 6th-century sources as an umbrella term for a multitude of groups living north of the Danube, which could not be classified as either “Huns” or “Gepids”.^[17]

The arrival of the Avar nomads in the Lower Danubian area in the 560s further disrupted the situation.^[18] The Slavic raids of the late 6th century were often associated with Avar raids and attacks against the key points of the system of defense.^[17] The Balkans was freely overrun by Slavs after 615 who settled in even larger numbers than previously.^[19]

The Slavs are the third element (besides the Dacians^[10] or other tribes^[3] and the Romans) that played a certain part in the configuration of the Romanians’ personality: in their relationship with Romanians, the Slavs played the same role as the one played by the Germanic elements in the case of other Romanic peoples.^[10] Linguistic studies and double (possibly translated) hydronyms^[16] suggest that the center of Danubian Romanity was concentrated in the former “Dacia Trajana” province and the neighboring areas after the onrush of the Slavs.^[10] By that time, the proto-Romanians had adjusted the old Roman institutions to fit life in rural communities, or villages (in Romanian sate from Latin fossatum) which were led by a village headsman, the chosen “judge” (later called knez under Slavic influence).^[10]

On the other hand, place-names and linguistic researches imply that the ancestors of the Romanians (the Romanized population of the provinces of the Roman Empire south of the Danube) moved to the mountainous regions of the Balkan Peninsula around 600 when the Slavs commenced their invasions against the territories of the East Roman Empire.^[3]

[edit] The Avar Khaganate (567-797/803)

The Avars were excellent soldiers and horsemen and were tightly organized with their ruler, called a khagan.^[19] After 568, the Avar Khaganate quickly subjugated almost all communities in East Europe;^[20] a vast array of subject peoples (various Slavic and Bulgar tribes, and the remnants of the Huns) was below the Avars.^[19]

Early Avar society was based on procuring prestige goods from the Byzantine Empire and food supplies from small economic units, in the form of either direct production from family lands or tribute from subjugated population groups.^[17] More often than not, the Avars chose to move the entire population of a conquered city or territory in the middle of the Khaganate.^[17]

The Slavs appear as important partners of the Avars: the ecological niche of the steppelike Great Hungarian Plain was controlled by the nomads, and it was surrounded by a zone of Slavic settlements.^[20] The Avar Khaganate was an Avaro-Slavic commonwealth politically dominated by the nomads, but economically reliant on the subjugated agriculturists.^[20] The empire also underwent gradual Slavicization in the course of the 6th-8th centuries.^[20] It seems very likely that the Slav language was one of the main languages spoken as a lingua franca in at least part of the communication community that was the Avar Khaganate.^[18]

The Slavs’ assimilation to the Proto-Romanians may have already started by the 8th century on the territories of modern Romania.^[10] On the other hand, linguistic studies imply that the Proto-Romanians were not in close contact with Slavic-speaking populations before the 10th century.^[3]

In Transylvania, the Avar cemeteries cluster around the salt mines which suggest that the Avars controlled the salt mine district.^[16] The salt production implies the existence of a subject sedentary population, most probably Slavs and Romanians.^[16] The involvement of the Slavs in salt extraction and trade is documented by several Romanian words and place-names of Slav origin, such as ocnă (salt mine) and Slănic.^[16] The chronology of spurs excavated in Transylvania suggests the existence of cavalry troops of Slavs, and perhaps Romanians in Avar service^[16] (the internally hooked spurs were found in western Slavdom in a broad zone from the river Elbe to the Bug and as far as the Danube).^[18]

Assemblages of the Late Avar period (c. 700 - c. 800) are clearly distinguished from those of earlier periods; there are very few signs of nomadic life in the 8th century material culture of the Avar Khaganate and the sites suggest an advanced degree of sedentization.^[17]

The Avar confederacy disintegrated rapidly as a result of internal conflicts and its defeats at the hand of Charlemagne’s commanders in the 790s.^[12] Having lost their western territories to the Franks, the Avars became at war with Krum, the ruler of Bulgaria, who defeated them.^[19]

[edit] Bulgars before Baptism (632-864)

From the late 5th century, the Bulgars (a nomadic Turkic-speaking people) had been living in scattered tribes north of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov and along the Lower Don.^[19] The group of the Bulgars that was lead by Asparukh moved into what is now Bessarabia, and then in the 670s crossed the Danube.^[19] Asparukh conquered the Slavic tribes there and eventually established a Bulgarian state which was centered in the northeast of present-day Bulgaria and stretched along both sides of the Lower Danube.^[19]

The sequential establishment of the powerful Bulgarian Empire created the historical circumstances which caused the detachment of parts of the Vlach population, from the main body of the Danubian Latinity, which once formed a continuum, consensually set north of the Jireček Line.^[10] On the other hand, linguistic researches and early written sources imply that the Romance-speaking population of the former Balkan provinces of the Roman Empire had already left the territories north of the Jireček Line sometimes between 600 and 620 when the Slavs invaded the Byzantine Empire.^[3]

The Bulgars themselves do not seem to have been particularly numerous.^[19] They had a mixed pastoral and agricultural economy, but trade was also important for them.^[19] Archaeology shows that for a while many Bulgars kept their settlements distinct from those of the Slavs, but in time (and it seems in some cases quite early) mixed settlements of Slavs and Bulgars appeared in some places.^[19] Bulgar cemeteries north of the Danube have not been found farther than 12 miles from the river, and none of them can be dated earlier than the second half of the 8th century.^[21] This suggest that the Bulgar occupation of the Walachian Plain took place only a century after the Bulgar settlement of northeastern Bulgaria.^[21]

After the invasion of Asparukh's Bulgaria on the left of the Danube, no important invasions were recorded for almost two centuries.^[22] During the period of the evolution of the Dridu culture (8th to 11th centuries) the Lower Danube Plain area experienced a steady demographic growth, which distinguishes this period from both previous and subsequent centuries.^[22]

In 805, Krum, the Bulgarian ruler, defeated the Avars and created a powerful state which may have extended to the river Tisa.^[19] On the other hand, all the information that we have about Avar-Bulgar relations in the aftermath of the collapse of the Avar Khaganate refers to Avars joining the Bulgars, not to Bulgars conquering Avar territories.^[17] A Greek inscription on a stone column erected by khan Omurtag of Bulgaria mentions the organizing of an expedition which reached the Dnieper River.^[22] Another column bears an inscription mentioning an expedition on the river Tisa.^[22]

Contemporary sources suggest a Bulgar control of the salt-mine district of Transylvania.^[17] On the other hand, in order to hinder the selling of the salt, the Bulgarians would not hav had to watch the salt mines in Transylvania, but only the commercial routes across the Tisa valley.^[22] Presumably Bulgar burial assemblages have also been found in southern Transylvania; the earliest of them have been dated to the 9th and early 10th century.^[21] The Bulgarian control never expanded into northwestern Transylvania.^[16]

[edit] The first political structures on Romania’s territory (8th-9th centuries)

As early as the 8th-9th centuries, some of the Romanian knezes had already become village owners and had people working for them, and some even managed to possess all the villages (15-20) on the valley of a river or in a depression.^[10] These landholders were considered “nobles” (in Romanian boieri, adopted from Slav).^[1] For defensive needs, several knezdoms would gather together under the rule of a more powerful knez with military skills, also called duke (in Romanian voivode or vodă, also adopted from Slav^[23]).^[10] Therefore, during this stage we can speak of incipient states on Romania’s territory, organized by Romanians or by the populations with whom they lived.^[10] On the other hand, both place-names and linguistic researches suggest that at the time when the incipient states of the Romanians are assumed to exist, the ancestors of the Romanians lived south of the river Danube;^[3] the territory of present-day Romania was inhabited by peoples whose vernacular was a Slavic (and possibly a Turkic) language.^[23]

The first written mentions about the Romanians north of the Danube were recorded in two different sources, for which the possibility of interference was impossible: The Russian Primary Chronicle, elaborated in the 1110s, and Gesta Ungarorum (“The Deeds of the Hungarians”) written around the year 1200.^[22]

The Primary Chronicle mentions that the Slavs had been the first inhabitants of the Carpathian Basin before the Volochs conquered it; afterwards the Volochs were driven out by the Magyars who settled among the Slavs whom they subjugated.^[23] One view is that the Volochs are identical to the Romanians (Vlachs);^[22] on the other hand, based on the narration they can rather be identified as Franks who had occupied the western parts of the territory and the Magyar Conquest put an end to their rule.^[23]

The Gesta Hungarorum is the earliest surviving chronicle of Hungary.^[17] Although the version given by the unknown author of this chronicle is in sharp contrast with that of Simon of Kéza and other chronicles, but it would be a mistake to treat the Gesta as a forgery, for nothing indicates that its author had any reason to forge anything.^[16] On the other hand, nothing proves that its author had factual knowledge of the real conditions of the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries; thus he defined the ethnic bond of the leaders hostile to Magyars on the basis of the ethno-political circumstances surrounding Hungary around 1200.^[23] In contrast with the Gesta, both early written sources and archaeological researches suggest that the territory of present-day Romania was inhabited by Slavic tribes and possibly by Turkic peoples when the Magyars invaded the Carpathian Basin.^[23]

According to the Gesta, at the end of the 9th century, the Magyars when invaded the Carpathian Basin came across three knezdoms^[1] or voivodeships.^[10]

• Thus, there was the voivodeship of Menumorut in Crişana, inhabited by various “nations” (actually, only “the peoples that are called Cozar”^[24] are mentioned in the Gesta),^[23] with its center at the Bihor fortress.^[10] The author of the Gesta mentions that he was the vassal of the emperor of Byzantium.^[10]
• The second incipient state was in the Banat; it was ruled by voivode Glad whose army comprised Romanians, Petchenegs and Bulgarians.^[10] Actually the author of the Gesta mentions that his great army was supported by Cumans, Bulgarians and Romanians^[23]; but the Cumani may be a name used in lieu of Pechenegs by the chronicler which suggest that Glad asked the Pechenegs for help, in order to face the Magyar attacks.^[22] Glad is described to own strong fortresses in Orşova (today in Romania), and in Kovin and Horom (today in Serbia).^[10]
• The third voivodeship was situated in the east of Crişana in Transylvania.^[10] This state was inhabited by Romanians and Slavs; Gelou, described as being “a certain Romanian”,^[1] had the supreme authority over them.^[10] It is quite possible that the Romanian-Slavic duchy emerged in connection with the salt production and trade, since the northern salt route crossed this region.^[16] The inhabitants of Gelou's voivodeship are described to be poor, suffering greatly because of the Petchenegs’ attacks from the east^[10] (actually, the author of the Gesta mentions the attacks of the Cumans and the Petchenegs)^[23].

[edit] The Magyars (c. 839 - c. 1028)

The first written record specifically and without doubt referring to the Magyars is a Byzantine account from 839.^[25] They quickly established a firm control over the entire steppe corridor between the river Don and the Lower Danube.^[17] As described in late 9th century Moslem sources, for the winter they withdrew to dwellings in river valleys, especially at river mouths: these were the sites of permanent settlements or villages.^[25]

Having been defeated by the Pechenegs and the Bulgarians around 895, the Magyars moved into the Middle Danube region via the mountain passes of the eastern Beskids.^[17] No evidence exists of Magyars crossing the eastern Carpathian Mountains into Transylvania, or even moving from the Middle Danube region into Transylvania before the middle of the 10th century.^[17]

Until the mid-900s, the Magyars were under constant threat of Pecheneg attack; therefore, they built a double defensive line on both the western and eastern side of the Apuseni Mountains and the Banat Mountains.^[23] Anything east of the double defensive line as far as the dwelling area of the Pechenegs was considered a marcher region.^[23] Marcher regions extended to some tens or even hundreds of kilometers between nomadic peoples; in Transylvania, it was inhabited: people (mostly of Slavic tongue) had settled here earlier.^[23]

Around 950, one of the Magyar tribal leaders (the gyula) visited Constantinople and was baptized.^[17] He was also given a bishop named Hierotheos who accompanied him back to “Tourkia” (that is, to Hungary).^[17] The dwelling area of the gyula is to be sought around the region bordered by the rivers Timiş, Mureş, Criş and Tisa.^[23]

The disastrous defeat of the Magyar forces in the Battle of Lechfeld in 955 put an end to the raids in the West; their campaigns to the south came to an end in 970, when the Magyar forces were defeated in the Battle of Arcadiopolis.^[25] After 970, the free nomads were locked into the tight “prison” of the Carpathian Basin; therefore, some of them migrated away and thus they expanded the boundaries of the Magyar dwelling area and reached regions in which they could not continue living as nomads.^[23] We do not have any information about how this happened, in which direction it took place, but the earliest layer of Hungarian place-names suggest that as part of the settling process Transylvania also received a new Hungarian population.^[23] In the 980s-990s, the gyula and his family also transferred their seat to Transylvania.^[23]

After 1002, a chieftain named Ahtum (in Hungarian Ajtony), who had been ruling over the Banat, was baptized in the Orthodox faith in Vidin (today in Bulgaria).^[17] His base of power was in Morisena (today Cenad in Romania) where he established a monastery which he populated with Greek monks.^[17] His power was based on considerable resources, mainly cattle and horses, but he also controlled traffic along the river Mureş and taxed transports of salt from Transylvania.^[17]

[edit] First Bulgarian Empire after Baptism (864-1018)

In 864, the ruler of Bulgaria, Boris I (852-889) was baptized and he also allowed the Byzantine clergy to enter Bulgaria and begin their missionary work.^[17] In 893 a council declared Christianity a state religion and turned Old Church Slavonic into the official language of Church and State.^[17] The ancestors of the Romanians also followed the Old Slavonic rite.^[26]

In 971, the Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimiskes (969-976) marched against the Russians who had seized the Bulgarian capital of Preslav and defeated them.^[27] The emperor forced the Tzar Boris II of Bulgaria (969-971) to abdicate and annexed most of Bulgaria outright advancing the frontier to the Lower Danube for the first time since the early 7th century.^[27] Although, Tzar Samuel of Bulgaria (997-1014) could restore the Bulgarian Empire for a while, but by 1018 the whole territory of Bulgaria had been occupied by the Byzantines.^[27]

From 1020, the jurisdiction of the archbishopric of Ohrid expanded over the Romanians within the Byzantine Empire.^[3]

[edit] Patzinakia (c. 895 - 1121)

The Pechenegs were a Turkic tribe.^[28] In 894/895, they crossed the river Don and concluded an alliance with Tzar Simeon I of Bulgaria against the Magyars.^[25] The Pechenegs fell upon the latter who, wedged between two hostile forces, immediately looked for a new home further west.^[25]

The land of the Pechenegs (Patzinakia) was divided into eight “provinces” (most likely the territories of the leading clans), and the entire steppe corridor between the Danube and the Dnieper rivers was under their control.^[17]

The Pecheneg economy was predominantly pastoral.^[17] In permanent need of agricultural produce, the Pechenegs had no reason to destroy the local network of rural settlements that had flourished in the 800s under the protection of the First Bulgarian Empire.^[17] Most settlements in the region between the rivers Danube and Dniester continued to be occupied after 900 and no significant changes in material culture have been noted that could be attributed to the defeat of the Magyars and the subsequent Pecheneg migration.^[17] The Primary Chronicle points out that the Ulichians and the Tivertsians settled on the Dniester Riever, spreading up to the Danube.^[22]

In 1018, the Pechenegs were allies of Grand Prince Sviatopolk I of Kiev (1015-1019) against his brother, Grand Prince Yaroslav I the Wise (1019-1054)).^[17] The unknown author of an early 13th-century biography of St. Olaf of Norway also mentions Blókumenn among Sviatopolk’s allies.^[17] Similarly, the inscription of an 11th-century runestone commemorates a merchant who was traveling to Constantinople and was killed by Blakumen.^[17] The traditional interpretation of the ethnonym Blokumenn is Vlach (that is Romanian).^[29] In this case, the Vlachs were clearly north, not south of the river Danube at that time, although the exact region cannot be established with any precision.^[17] On the other hand, the ethnonym is also interpreted as "black men"^[29] which may stand for the mixed tribes that are called “Black Hats” in the Russian sources.^[30]

It is perhaps during this period of time that most, albeit not all, sites south and east of the Carpathian Mountains were deserted.^[17]

In 1087, the Pechenegs invaded Thrace where at last they were put to flight, but Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118) made the mistake of pursuing them, and was beaten at Silistra.^[28] The empire was saved by the arrival of another Turkic horde, the Kipchaks (the Cumans) who emerged from the Russian steppe behind the Pechenegs and defeated them on the Danube.^[28]

On April 29, 1091, the combined Byzantine and Cuman forces crushed the Pecheneg army at Mount Levunion; it was the decimation of a whole people.^[28] The remnants of the Pechenegs made a fresh attempt in the succeeding generation in 1121 - an attempt which was confined to Bulgaria, but they were surprised and massacred by Emperor John II Komnenos.^[28]

[edit] State Formation and the Last Waves of the Migrations

[edit] The Banat, Crişana, Maramureş, and Transylvania in the Kingdom of Hungary (c. 1000-1241)

In 997, the new Grand Prince of the Magyars, Stephen defeated the army of his kinsman, Koppány who had revolted against him.^[25] Koppány died in the battle; his corps was quartered and its parts were pinned to the gates of four castles, among them to the gates of Bǎlgrad which was the seat of Stephen’s maternal uncle, Gyula.^[25] At Christmas of the year 1000 (or on New Year’s Day in 1001), Stephen was crowned; and thus he became the first king of Hungary.^[25]

Stephen, in order to become king of entire Hungary, had to defeat the chiefs of the tribal states one after another.^[23] He started it with his greatest rival, his uncle, Prokuj and occupied his territory in 1003.^[23] The 14th-century Hungarian chronicles suggest that after 1003, he occupied the parts of the Transylvanian territories administered by the Bulgar governors.^[23] Ahtum, who had been ruling over the Banat, and also found himself in conflict with King Stephen I when he taxed transports of salt from Transylvania to the heartland of Pannonia.^[17] One of his retainers named Csanád fled to the Hungarian king, only to return at the head of a large army, with which he eventually defeated and killed Ahtum in Stephen’s name.^[17]

King Stephen is reported to have founded ten Roman Catholic dioceses with two archbishops at their head in the entire Kingdom of Hungary.^[26] On the territory of present-day Romania, the bishops of Bihor, Cenad and Transylvania were the suffragans of the archbishop of Kalocsa.^[26] Although no data of medieval charters alludes to the establishment of the Bishopric of Transylvania, it must have happened shortly after 1003 (its first bishop is included among the prelates in a charter of 1075).^[23] The diocese was dedicated to Saint Michael whose cult was especially strong in the territory of the Byzantine church which suggests that a bishopric of Latin rite succeeded the missionary bishopric of Byzantine rite that had been set up when the Gyula was baptized in Constantinople around 950.^[23] In Ahtum's former "kingdom" a Venetian monk named Gerald began a mission of Chrisitianization of the entire region.^[17] He became Bishop of Cenad in 1030.^[17] From about 1100, the diocese of Bihor was named after its new seat, Oradea.^[26]

Where King Stephen I enjoyed an effective authority, counties and castle districts appeared together with bishoprics; the county was an independent administrative institution based entirely on territory - as opposed to this, the castle districts included only the king’s properties.^[23] In Transylvania, already five (maybe six) castle districts or counties had been established before the mid-11th century: Dăbâca, Cluj, Turda, Hunedoara, Bǎlgrad, and perhaps Cetatea de Baltă.^[23] To denote the head of the royal governor of a county, the word ispán (equivalent of the southern Slav župan) was used.^[26]

The Kingdom of Hungary had to defend itself against foreign incursions: in 1068 and 1085, the Pechenegs and the Oghuz invaded the country, and in 1091, its eastern part faced a Cuman attack.^[23] The Kingdom of Hungary had established its frontiers firmly on the Carpathian Mountains by 1200.^[17]

The settlement process of Transylvania proceeded in the 11th-12th centuries.^[23] The archaeological evidence supports the idea of a settlement area expanding from the northwest and west to south and east, respectively, during the 12th century.^[17]

• Toponyms suggest that Hungarian settlement was directed primarily toward Northern Transylvania throughout the 11th century, and the regions along and south of the river Mureş also acquired considerable Hungarian population after the early 12th century.^[23]

• Written sources, dating from before the mid-12th century, announce that “guest” settlers from Western Europe also moved into Transylvania.^[23] The earliest settlers may have been Flemings or Walloons.^[17] During the reign of King Géza II, groups of settlers, larger than the ones before, arrived in Transylvania: the legate of the Holy See mentioned between 1191 and 1196 that King Géza II had granted desolate lands to the Flemish arrivals.^[23] “Saxons” as a generic name for the “guests” was not established before 1206.^[17] Transylvanian “Saxons” played an important role in the life of Hungary: according to the income register of King Béla III from around 1195, the taxes of the Transylvanian royal “guests” made up 9% of royal revenues.^[23] In 1224, King Andrew II spelled out the privileges of the German “guests” in a charter later referred to as the Andreanum; thus all of the “Saxons” were placed under a single authority, that of the count of Sibiu (in German, Hermannstadt).^[17]

• Early documents suggest that the Székely must have been on frontier defense duty at the western and eastern borders of the Hungarian dwelling area.^[23] The first Székely groups left for the east by the early 12th century.^[23] The name of the seven original Székely groups and toponyms suggest that they had lived in Bihor and in Southern Transylvania before they settled in the Székely Land (in Hungarian, Székelyföld) in Eastern Transylvania.^[23] By 1228, the title of Count of the Székely had been in use which indicates that King Andrew II appointed an official to lead them.^[23] The Székely were a well organized community of warriors living off cattle breeding; they served as light horsemen in the royal army and throughout the centuries preserved elements of nomadic warfare.^[26]

Romanians suddenly occur in the sources in the Kingdom of Hungary in the years after 1210.^[23] When the Cistercian abbey at Cârţa was established around 1207, the monastic estates were carved out of the “land of the Vlachs”.^[17] This land, later called Făgăraş, was to remain until the end of the Middle Ages a separate Romanian district, not melting into the Saxon lands nor becoming a county of Transylvania.^[26] Around 1210, Romanians also fought in Bulgaria in the army of the Count of Sibiu together with Saxons, Székely and Pechenegs.^[23] In 1224, the Andreanum entitled the Transylvanian Saxons to use the forests and waters granted to the Romanians and the Pechenegs.^[23]

The count of Bǎlgrad was considered the principal official in Transylvania; after 1199, he had the title voivode and by that time, he had managed to secure the rule for himself in several Northern Transylvanian counties.^[23] The voivode was the chief officer of the king in Transylvania.^[23] He was appointed by the king who could revoke the appointment and delegate the office to someone else in sign of his favor: during the 89 years between 1199 and 1288, the office of the voivode changed holders 43 times.^[23] That the counts of Bǎlgrad of the 11th and 12th centuries appeared in variety of ways in Latin (tribunus, princeps, comes) might be connected to the fact that the Latin equivalent of the voivode common name was sought after.^[23] The title voivode may suggest that since the days of Duke Gelou, Transylvania, although part of the Kingdom of Hungary, had a different tradition, with predominantly Romanian population^[1]; or the voivode name comes from the Slavs of Southern Transylvania.^[23]

Before the middle of the 13th century, Transylvania was dominated by the king’s men known to contemporary sources as “castle warriors” (in medieval documents, iobagiones castri), a social group associated with the increasing number of royal castles.^[17] However, even the relatively independent “castle warriors” were high-placed subjects within the manorial system.^[25] In contrast with them, the “royal servants” (servientes regni) were independent landholders, small or great, and possessed subjects, few or many.^[25]

In 1233, the Hungarian troops crossed the Danube into Wallachia, where they occupied the Severin region, creating a special banate there.^[31] The banate of Severin, which incorporated the entire of Wallachia up to the river Olt, appears also to have enjoyed some authority over Cumania.^[32] The banate included the territories of several Vlach chieftains (knezes); they and their followers were obliged to provide tribute in kind to support the banate, and also to assist as warriors in the defense of the territory.^[32]

[edit] Cumania (1065 - 1241)

In 1054, the Russian chronicles first note the presence of the Kipchaks (Cumans) in the steppe north of the Black Sea, as well as that of the Oghuz, whom they pushed and drove away.^[28] The Cumans remained sole masters of the Russian steppe when the Oghuz were cut to pieces by Byzantines and Bulgars in the course of ill-fated expeditions into the Balkan Peninsula (1065 and succeeding years).^[28] According to a varriant of the oldest Turkic chronicle, Oghuzname, inserted in the Turkish Genealogy by Abulghazi Bahadur (1603-1663), the Cumans - personified in the eponymous hero Quipchaq - fought against the countries of the Rus', the Romanians (Ulak), the Magyars and the Bashkirs.^[22]

There existed no Cuman empire, but different Cuman groups under independent rulers, who acted on their own initiative, meddling in the political life of the surrounding areas.^[30] Depending on their region and their time, different sources each used their own word to denote different sections of the vast Cumman territory.^[30] Cumania was predominantly the territory of today’s Wallachia and Moldavia when the Cuman missions of the Dominicans began to work their way to the east of the Carpathian Basin.^[30] The Arab geographer al-Idrisi knew that the Dnieper separated the “Black Cumans” from the “White Cumans”.^[17]

In the late 11th century, there was a significant shift in population away from the steppe corridor in the vicinity of the Danube and into the densely forested area of the Central Moldavian Plateau, on both sides of the middle course of the river Prut.^[17] These were villages of agriculturists, not temporary camp sites of nomadic pastoralists.^[17] On the other hand, archaeological evidence suggests that in the 1100s many settlements in what is now southern and eastern Romania, as well as Moldova, diminished in size or altogether disappeared.^[17]

In the 1100s, the influence of the Principality of Galicia may have extended as far as southern Moldavia, but the 1100s witnessed a sudden increase in the number of strongholds in Bukovina, which suggest that the military frontier of Galicia was on the upper courses of the rivers Dniester and Prut.^[17]

In 1164, Andronicus was intercepted by Vlachs when he was on his way to the court of Prince Yaroslav Osmomysl of Galicia.^[17] As Andronicus is specifically said to have reached the borders of Galicia, the Vlachs in question may have been located somewhere in present-day Moldavia.^[17] In 1166, Emperor Manuel launched a combined attack on Hungary, with an expeditionary corps which included a large number of Vlach recruits, most likely from the eastern regions of the Balkan Peninsula.^[17] When the Byzantine troops marched along one of the main rivers in Moldavia (perhaps Siret) before entering Transylvania, they passed through a land entirely bereft of men.^[17]

The assault on the Cumans in the Lower Danube region began with the introduction of the Teutonic Knights in 1211^[17] when King Andrew II of Hungary allowed them to settle in the Ţara Bârsei (in German Burzenland), specifically in those regions “towards the Cumans”.^[33] They were given a large territory within the limits marked by the upper course of the river Olt, the Transylvanian Alps, and the royal castles of Hălmeag and Ungra.^[17] The Knights took the war into enemy territory, thus turning the defense into aggressive offensive.^[33] The ultimate goal of the Knights seems to have been to create a state on the southeastern frontier of Hungary; finally, in 1225, at the head of a large army, King Andrew II attacked the Teutonic Knights and expelled them from Transylvania.^[17]

It was the disastrous defeat of the Cuman and Russian forces at the hand of the Mongols at Kalka in 1223 that changed the power relations in Eastern Europe.^[30] After the battle, the Cuman chiefs could not be sure whether and when a new Mongol attack would appear.^[30]

In 1227, Robert, the archbishop of Esztergom organized a ceremonial meeting with a Cuman chieftain named Boricius, who had expressed the desire to convert together with his family and retinue.^[17] The future Béla IV visited Boricius’ lands across the mountains and in 1228 the superior of the Dominicans in Hungary was appointed Bishop of Cumania with jurisdiction over the entire territory stretching eastwards to the river Siret.^[17] Judging from the existing evidence, the population in the area of the Cuman bishopric seems to have been rather scarce.^[33] According to the charter of 1234 of Pope Gregory IX, Romanians lived in the territory of the Cumanian bishopric who had archbishops of Orthodox rite, and Hungarian, German and other believers moved there from Hungary, mixed with them and adopted their rite.^[23] The fact that Andrew II adopted the title rex Cumaniæ (“king of Cumania”) was sometimes interpreted as an indication that he enlarged the frontiers of his kingdom to the east taking advantage of the creation of the Cuman bishopric.^[33]

The beginning of the great Tatar campaign in Eastern Europe in 1236 radically changed the situation and a large-scale westward migration of the Cumans began.^[30] In the summer of 1237, the first wave of this Cuman exodus appeared in Bulgaria;^[30] in 1239, Köten (one of the Cuman chieftains) demanded the protection of the Hungarian king for his retinue and subjects, but when he was assassinated in 1241 by a lynch mob in Pest, the Cumans left Hungary en masse precisely when King Béla IV was preparing the defense against the impeding Mongol invasion.^[17] The Cuman Bishopric took the brunt of the Mongol invasion in March 1241.^[33] Nevertheless, many of the Cumans remained in the steppes and were absorbed into the Tatar state, strengthening its armies.^[31]

[edit] Second Bulgarian Empire

In 1018, the former Bulgaria became part of the Byzantine Empire and its inhabitants paid tax to New Rome.^[30] In Bulgaria, Macedonia, and northern Thessaly Bulgarians and Vlachs (Romanians) lived together amicably.^[31] The Vlachs also gave assistance to the Cumans, who were Byzantium’s nomadic enemy, in attacking the empire.^[30] Nevertheless, Cumans also came to settle in Bulgaria, some of whom received large pronoias from the Byzantine to defend the Danube frontier or to garrison various interior regions.^[31]

What sparked the revolt of 1185-1186 was a tax that Emperor Isaac II Angelos decided to levy in order to cover the expenses for his wedding.^[17] The other cause of the rebellion was of rather personal character:^[30] two brothers Peter and Asen (who may well have been Vlachs) hoped to obtain a mountain district in the Balkan Mountains as a pronoia for service to the emperor, but the emperor refused.^[31] The two brothers called for a full rebellion and procured some Vlach and Bulgarian^[17] shamans, who at a gathering of many Vlachs and Bulgarians^[17] went into a trance and prophesied the success of the forthcoming rebellion.^[31] The brothers were also able to mobilize many Cumans.^[31]

What followed was a Bulgarian-Vlach-Cuman uprising in 1185 that produced a state in which all three peoples participated.^[31] The state called itself Bulgaria,^[31] but between 1185 and 1250 Western sources called the new state or its northern part simply Vlachia or Wallachia.^[30]

The collapse of the Cumans in 1238-39 considerably weakened Bulgaria militarily.^[31] In 1253, eleven years after the Tatar subjugation of Bulgaria, Rubruc in his travel account, clearly indicates that the Bulgarians paid tribute to the Tatars.^[30]

[edit] The Mongol invasion (1241-1242)

At the end of the 12th century, numerous Turkic, Mongol, and Tungusic tribes roved in the steppes north of the Gobi Desert.^[28] In 1206, Genghis Khan summoned a great assembly, and on this occasion he was proclaimed supreme khan by all the Mongol and Turkic tribes.^[28]

In 1235, a decision to launch a massive campaign in Eastern Europe was taken at the great assembly of the Mongol chieftains.^[17] The supreme command of the expedition was given to Batu (a grandson of Genghis Khan).^[17]

In 1241, a Tatar (Mongol) army lead by Böček crossed the mountains of the Kara Ulagh (“Black Vlachs”); Böček defeated the Vlachs and one of their leader named Mišlav.^[17] Batu’s army entered Hungary across the Northern Carpathians and on April 11, 1241 Batu inflicted a crushing defeat upon King Béla IV’s army in the Battle of Mohi.^[17] The swiftness of the invasion took many by surprise, and forced them to retreat and hide in forests and enclosed valleys of the Carpathians.^[34]

The Mongol campaign was probably only meant to prepare the ground for the future conquest of Hungary, for the hordes left the country after 20 months.^[25] Even so, they caused immense devastation: at least 15-20% of the population fell victim to the Mongol invasion and the famine that followed it.^[25]

[edit] After the Migrations

The Kingdom of Hungary recovered its strength in a surprisingly short time.^[25] The military defeat brought about a radical change in Béla IV’s policy: he completely abandoned the old principle according to which the erection of fortresses was a royal prerogative.^[26] Planned settlement also assumed considerable proportions after the Tatar invasion.^[23] When a second invasion of the Mongols came in 1285, it was easily repelled.^[26]

The territories east and south of the Carpathian Mountains fell under Tatar (Mongol) overlordship.^[30] Toward the middle of the 13th century voivodates dependent on the Kingdom of Hungary began to form on the territory, but evidence shows that they soon sought independence from the Hungarian crown.^[2]

In 1330, King Charles I of Hungary made an expedition against Voivode Basarab I of Wallachia, but the king was eventually forced to withdraw toward Transylvania.^[2] Retreating through the mountains, the Hungarians were ambushed by Basarab’s forces at Posada and soundly defeated.^[2] The Battle of Posada marked the appearance of the first independent Romanian principality.^[2]

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] See also

• Dobruja
• History of Transylvania
• Moldavia
• Wallachia
• Early Middle Ages
• Late Antiquity
• 1st millennium

[edit] External links

• (Romanian)(mostly) Original Text Documents and Monument Information on Romanian Medieval Ages at the Romanian Group for an Alternative History Website.
• (Romanian) Invazia Mongola in Ungaria si in spatiul Romanesc, Revista Romana de Studii Culturale, 1-2 / 2004

[edit] Sources

• Barford, P. M.: The Early Slavs - Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe; Cornell University Press, 2001, Ithaca, NY; ISBN 0-8014-3977-9
• Brezeanu, Stelian: 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, 2001 (English: [2])
• Burns, Thomas S.: Rome and the Barbarians, 100 B.C.-A.D. 400; The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003, Baltimore and London; ISBN 0-8018-7306-1
• Collins, Roger: Early Medieval Europe - 300-1000; St. Martin’s Press, 1991, New York, NY; ISBN 0-312-21886-9
• Costiescu Ghyka, Matila - Renier, Fernand Gabriel - Cliff. Anne: A Documented Chronology of Roumanian History; B. H. Blackwell, 1941
• Curta, Florin: Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages - 500-1250; Cambridge University Press, 2006, Cambridge; ISBN 978-0-521-89452-4
• Durandin, Catherine: Historie des Roumains /The History of the Romanians/; Librairie Artheme Fayard, 1995; ISBN 978-2-213-59425-5
• Engel, Pál: The Realm of St Stephen - A History of Medieval Hungary, 895-1526; I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2001, London; ISBN 1-86064-061-3
• Fiedler, Uwe: Bulgars in the Lower Danube Region - A Survey of the Archaeological Evidence and of the State of Current Research; in: Curta, Florin (Editor): East Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Middle Ages; The University of Michigan Press, 2005; ISBN 978-0-472-11498-6
• Fine, John V. A.: The Early Medieval Balkans - A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century; The University of Michigan Press, 1991, Ann Arbor; ISBN 0-472-08149-7
• Fine, John V. A: The Late Medieval Balkans - A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest; The University of Michigan Press, 1994, Ann Arbor; ISBN 978-0-472-08260-5
• Georgescu, Vlad: The Romanians: A History; Ohio State University Press, 1991, Colombus; ISBN 0-8142-0511-9
• Grousset, René (Author) - Walford, Naomi (Translator): The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia; Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 2002; ISBN 0-8135-0627-1
• Haarman, Harald: Lexikon der untergegangenen Völker - Von Akkader bis Zimbern /The Encyclopedia of Disappeared People - From the Akkadians to the Cimbri/; Verlag C. H. Beck oHG, 2005, München; ISBN 978-3-406-52817-0
• Heather, Peter: The Goths; Blackwell Publishers Inc, 1997, Oxford; ISBN 0-631-16536-3
• Heather, Peter: The Fall of the Roman Empire - A New History of Rome and the Barbarians; Oxford University Press, 2006, Oxford; ISBN 978-0-19-515954-7
• Jesch, Judith: Ships and Men in Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse; Boydell &Brewer, 2001; ISBN 978-0-851-15826-6
• Klepper, Nicolae: Romania: An Illustrated History; Hippocrene Books, Inc, 2005, New York, NY; ISBN 0-7818-0935-5
• Kontler, László: Millenium in Central Europe - A History of Hungary; Atlantisz Publishing House, 1999, Budapest; ISBN 963-9165-37-9
• Kristó, Gyula: Early Transylvania (895-1324); Lucidus Kiadó, 2003, Budapest; ISBN 963-9465-12-7
• MacKendrick, Paul: The Dacian Stones Speak; The University of North Carolina Press, 1975, Chapel Hill; ISBN 0-8078-1226-9
• Madgearu, Alexandru: Salt Trade and Warfare: The Rise of Romanian-Slavic Military Organization in Early Medieval Transylvania; in: Curta, Florin (Editor): East Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Middle Ages; The University of Michigan Press, 2005; ISBN 978-0-472-11498-6
• Pop, Ioan Aurel: Romanians and Romania: A Brief History; Columbia University Press, 1999, New York; ISBN 0-88033-440-1
• Rady, Martyn: Nobility, Land and Service in Medieval Hungary; Palgrave (in association with School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London), 2000; ISBN 0-333-80085-0
• Schramm, Gottfried: Frühe Schiksale der Rumänen. Acht Thesen zur Lokalisierung der lateinischen Kontinuität in Südosteuropa /Early History of the Romanians - Eight Theses for Determining the Place of Continuity of the Latin in South-Eastern Europe/; in: Zeitschrift für Balkanologie (Nr. 21/2, 23/1, 22/1), 1985-1987, Wiesbaden
• Spinei, Victor: The Cuman Bishopric - Genesis and Evolution; in: Curta, Florin (Editor): East Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Middle Ages; The University of Michigan Press, 2005; ISBN 978-0-472-11498-6
• Spinei, Victor: The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth Century; Koninklijke Brill NV, 2009, Leiden and Boston; ISBN 978-90-04-17536-5
• Todd, Malcolm: The Early Germans; Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2003; ISBN 0-631-16397-2
• Treadgold, Warren: A History of the Byzantine State and Society; Stanford University Press, 1997, Standford, California; ISBN 0-8047-2630-2
• Urbańczyk, Przemysław: Early State Formation in East Central Europe; in: Curta, Florin (Editor): East Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Middle Ages; The University of Michigan Press, 2005; ISBN 978-0-472-11498-6
• Vásáry, István: Cumans and Tatars - Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185-1365; Cambridge University Press, 2005, Cambridge; ISBN 0-521-83756-1
• Watson, Alaric: Aurelian and the Third Century; Routledge, 1999, New York, NY; ISBN 0-415-07248-4
• Wolfram, Herwig (Author) - Dunlap, Thomas J. (Translator): History of the Goths; University of California Press, 1988, Berkeley and Los Angeles; ISBN 0-520-06983-8

[edit] Further reading

Online:

• (Romanian) Eugen S. Teodor: “Cronologia atacurilor transdanubiene. Analiza componentelor etnice şi geografice” (The timeline of the raids across Danube; Ethnical and geographical facts)
• (English) A Byzantine campaign in the Balkans (594) - ”The History of Theophylact Simocatta”, translated by Michael Whitby and Mary Whitby, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.
• (English) Stelian Brezeanu: Toponymy and ethnic Realities at the Lower Danube in the 10th Century. “The deserted Cities" in Constantine Porphyrogenitus' De administrando imperio
• (English) Köpeczi, Béla (General Editor) - Makkai, László; Mócsy, András; Szász, Zoltán (Editors) - Barta, Gábor (Assistant Editor): “History of Transylvania”
• (French) Köpeczi, Béla - Barta, Gábor; Bóna, Istán; Makkai, László; Miskolczy, Ambrus; Mócsy, András; Péter, Katalin; Szász, Zoltán; Tóth, Endre; Trócsányi, Zsolt; Várkonyi R., Ágnes; Vékony, Gábor: “Histoire de la Transylvanie”
• (German) Köpeczi, Béla - Barta, Gábor; Bóna, Istán; Makkai, László; Miskolczy, Ambrus; Mócsy, András; Péter, Katalin; Szász, Zoltán; Tóth, Endre; Trócsányi, Zsolt; Várkonyi R., Ágnes; Vékony, Gábor: “Kurze Geschichte Siebenbürgens”

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