Dacia Felix

[Kosmo]

106 AD, roman conquest of Dacia

107-108, war with iazigi, sarmatians from the Tisa region, W of Dacia

117, after Trajan's death war with iazigi in the West and the roxolan sarmatians that lived East of Dacia. Hadrian abandones South Moldova, Muntenia est of Olt river and western Banat. Some points of control are kept , but largely the roman border is restored on the Danube and Dacia is connected with the rest of the empire thru a much norrower corridor. Estimated lenght of the new borders of Daica -1.000 roman miles (1.479 km) after Eutropius. On Olt river the limes alutanus was built with a lenght of 260 km and 15 chesters. East of Olt was limes transalutanus, 235 km long and with 14 fortifications from Carphatian mountains to the Danube. Other limes was in Banat area.

142-143 - war with sarmatians

157-158 - war with free dacians

166-after 180 - the marcoman wars. In 167 large areas of Dacia are destroyed including the gold mining areas and temples outside the walls of Sarmisegetuza Traiana. The governor of Dacia's and Moesia Superior it's killed in combat in 169. Costobocian dacians strike south of Danube in 170 from N. Moldova. 179 iazigi get trading rights on a road thru Dacia to the roxolan sarmatians in the East. After 180 war continues with german burs north of Dacia.

183-184 - war with free dacians north of Dacia

236-238 - Maximinus fights sarmatians and dacians

238 - goths and carps attack south of Danube in Moesia Inferior

242 - carps attack Moesia and Thracia. South and East Dacia are seriously affected between 238-242.

244-247 - the great carp attack. Large destructions in Dacia. Limes transalutanus abandoned. Captives freed by romans and many treasures burried. At the great chaster at Potaissa a gate was blocked for some time. Dobrogea it's destroyed by goths and the war there continues.

251 - emperor Decius it's killed by the goths led by Kniva somewhere in S. Dobrogea

before 257 - Gallienus fights free dacians

After 260 - situation unclear in Dacia, units from Dacia fight in civil wars in the empire, no inscritions can be dated to this time, little or no money finds. Most literary sources mention a first abandonment of Dacia. This withdrowal under Gallienus was regarded as total (for the entire Dacia and the province was recovered and abandoned again by Aurelian) or partial (some areas left by Gallenius, the rest by Aurelian)

269 - the great victory of Claudius at Nis, in Serbia, over the goths

270-271 or 274-275 - Aurelian withdrows from Dacia. It is unclear if he had control of the province or it was already lost.

[Andrew Dalby]

238 - goths and carps attack south of Danube in Moesia Inferior

242 - carps attack Moesia and Thracia. South and East Dacia are seriously affected between 238-242.

244-247 - the great carp attack. Large destructions in Dacia. Limes transalutanus abandoned. Captives freed by romans and many treasures burried. At the great chaster at Potaissa a gate was blocked for some time. Dobrogea it's destroyed by goths and the war there continues.

 

Hold on, who are these carps? In English, that's the name of a fish. There were a lot of them in the Danube, admittedly, but I never heard of them attacking Dacia ...

 

Oh, OK, I've found these fellows now. You had better call them Carpi in English.

[Kosmo]

Strange enough in romanian they are called also carpi, only my poor knowledge of historical terms in english made me change it. And carps are vicious creatures that attack fishermans ego as I discovered last summer when I went fishing in Danube Delta and they were jumping out of the water to mock me as I caught none of them.

 

Thru this cronology I'm trying to show that romans never had an easy time in Dacia. Traian's decison to conquer Dacia and to extend on the left bank was subminated by Hadrian decision to reduce the areas under control. This left roman Dacia with a narrow frontier on Danube with the empire and long borders with hostile populations. For the defence of the Danube frontier posesion of Dacia brought little benefit as barbarians often attacked Pannonia and Moesia Inferior as goths, iazigi and carpi did.

For the defence of Dacia romans used Legio XIII Gemina at Apulum, Legio IV Flavia Felix at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa and later at Berzobis and Legio V Macedonica at Potaissa. Also auxiliary forces of 16 alae, 50 cohorts, 15 numeri and some singulares were used making a total force of 50-55.000 soldiers. Auxilary units forts are almost 100 in Dacia.

It will be interesting to know if the gold mines and the other sources of revenue were able to cover for the price of defence.

I see the roman actions in Dacia as caught in the middle, the worse position between the movement of the frontier far north of Danube, maybe pushing to the Carpathians in Central Europe and keeping the Danube frontier of Augustus.

If the kingdom of Dacia was a danger it was also a buffer that was destroyed. After Aurelian's withdrowal the defence of Danube was in a far worse position than in the times of Domitian.