Ancient history of Transylvania

Ancient history of Transylvania

The Romans exploited the gold mines in the province extensively, building access roads and forts to protect them, like Abrud. The region developed a strong infrastructure and economy, based on agriculture, cattle farming and mining. Colonists from Thracia, Moesia, Macedonia, Gaul, Syria, and other Roman provinces were brought in to settle the land, developing cities like Apulum (now Alba Iulia) and Napoca (now Cluj Napoca) into municipiums and colonias.

The Dacians rebelled frequently, with the biggest rebellion occurring at the death of Trajan. Sarmatians and Burs were allowed to settle inside Dacia Trajana after repeated clashes with the Roman administration. During the 3rd century increasing pressure from the free Dacians (Carpians) and Visigoths forced the Romans to abandon exposed Dacia Trajana.

In 271, the Roman emperor Aurelian abandoned Dacia Trajana and reorganised a new Dacia Aureliana inside former Moesia Superior. The abandonment of Dacia Trajana by the Romans is mentioned by Eutropius in his BREVIARIVM LIBER NONVS.

The province of Dacia, which Trajan had formed beyond the Danube, he gave up, despairing, after all Illyricum and Moesia had been depopulated, of being able to retain it. The Roman citizens, removed from the town and lands of Dacia, he settled in the interior of Moesia, calling that Dacia which now divides the two Moesiae, and which is on the right hand of the Danube as it runs to the sea, whereas Dacia was previously on the left.

The first wave of the Great Migrations, (300 to 500 AD) brought the influence of migratory tribes, especially the Germanic tribes. The Visigoths established a kingdom north of Danube and Transyilvania between 270-380. The region was known by Romans as Guthiuda and includes the region between Alutus (Olt) and Ister (Danube) too. It is unclear whether they used the term Kaukaland (land of the mountains) for Transylvania proper or the whole Carpathians. The (Vizi)Goths were unable to preserve the region's Roman era infrastructures. The goldmines of Transylvania were ruined and unused during the Early Middle Age.
Ulfilas had carried (around 340) Homoean Arianism to the Goths living in Guthiuda with such success that the Visigoths and other Germanic tribes became staunch Arians. When the Goths entered the Roman Empire (around 380) and founded successor-kingdoms, most had been Arian Christians.

In 380 a new power reached Transylvania, the Huns. They drow back every Germanic people from the Carpathian Basin except the Gepids. The Alans, Vandals, Quads left the region toward the Roman Empire. The Huns extended their rule over Transylvania after 420AD. After the disintegration of Attila's empire, Transylvania was inhabited by the remnants of various Hunnic, and a Germanic tribe, the Gepids. The Transyilvanain Gepids had a semiindependent status inside the Kingdom of Gepids, but this relative autonomy came to an end in the late 6th century.

The rule of Gepids was crushed by a Langobards and Eurasian Avars attack in year 567 AD. In fact the Gepids were exterminated from the region. We know only about slight Gepid remnants (cemeteries) in the Banat region after 600. In Transyilvania we have no traces which indicate a Gepids continuity after 567.By 568, the Avars under the capable leadership of their Kagan, Bayan, established in the Carpathian Basin an empire that lasted for 250 years. During this 250 years the Slavs were allowed to settle inside Transylvania and they started to clear the Carpathian's virgin forests. The Avars meet their demise with the rise of Charlemagne's Frankish empire. After a fierce seven year war and civil war between the Kagan and Yugurrus which lasted from 796-803 A.D., the Avars were defeated.The Transylvanian Avars were, subjugated by the Bulgars under Khan Krum at the beginning of the 9th century and Transylvania, along with eastern Pannonia, was incorporated into the First Bulgarian Empire.


thumb|left|Magyars in Transylvania (10-11th century) In 862, Moravian Prince Ratislav rebelled against his lord, hired Magyar troops to help him, and with their aid he won his independence. This is the first time when Magyar expedition troops entered the Carpathians Basin. After a devastating Bulgar and Pecheneg attack the Magyar tribes crossed the Carpathians and occupied the entire basin without significant resistance. According to the prime Gesta Ungarorum from the 11th century they entered Transylvania first, where Prince Almos was killed: "Almus in patria Erdelw occisus est, non enim potuit in Pannoniam introire". According to some archeological findigs near Turda (Golds of Prince Berthold of Bavaria) Transylvanian Magyars also participated in several raids against the West, Italy, or the Balkans. Although the defeat in the Battle of Lech in 955 stopped the Magyar raids against western Europe, the raids on the Balkan Peninsula continued for one more decade.

The history of Transylvania during the early Middle Ages is difficult to ascertain due to the scarcity of reliable written or archeological evidence. There are two major conflicting theories concerning whether or not the Romanized Dacian population (one of the ancestors of the Romanians) continued to live in Transylvania after the withdrawal of the Romans, and therefore whether or not the Romanians were present in Transylvania at the time of the
Great Migrations, particularly at the time of the Magyar migration; see: Origin of Romanians. These conflicting hypotheses are often used to back competing nationalistic claims by Hungarian and Romanian chauvinists. ["The importance of historical myths for the ethnic consciousness of Romanians and ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania" by Greet Van de Vyver "Dialectical Anthropology" Volume 21, Numbers 3-4 / September, 1996 [http://www.springerlink.com/content/h1230737027586k2/ abstract] ]

References

Further reading

*"History of Transylvania" by Béla Köpeczi Boulder, Colo. : Social Science Monographs ; New York : Distributed by Columbia University Press, 2001- 2002 ISBN 0880334797


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • History of Transylvania — Transylvania is a region of present day Romania. The region now known as Transylvania was once part of Dacia, and became part of the Roman Empire. Transylvania (Erdély in Hungarian Language) was part of the Hungarian Kingdom from approximately… …   Wikipedia

  • History of Cluj-Napoca — The history of Cluj Napoca covers the time from the Roman conquest of Dacia, when it was known as Napoca, through its flourishing as the main cultural and religious center in the historic province of Transylvania, until its modern existence as a… …   Wikipedia

  • Transylvania — ( ro. Ardeal or ro. Transilvania ; hu. Erdély; Audio de|Siebenbürgen|De Siebenbürgen.ogg, see also other denominations) is a Central European region located in the eastern half of the Carpathian Basin, in present day central Romania. Bounded on… …   Wikipedia

  • History of Slovakia — This article discusses the history of the territory of Slovakia. Prehistory Palaeolithic Radiocarbon dating puts the oldest surviving archaeological artifacts from Slovakia found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom at 270,000 BCE, in the Early Paleolithic… …   Wikipedia

  • History of the Székely people — OriginsMythsAt the end of the 13th century, in a chronicle called Gesta Hungarorum, the notary of Hungarian King Béla explained his beliefs about the conquest of Hungary about 280 years earlier. According to this chronicle, the Hungarians and… …   Wikipedia

  • History of Ottoman-era Tunisia — Eyalet i Tunus Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire …   Wikipedia

  • History of Transnistria — This is the history of Transnistria.See also the history of Europe and the history of present day nations and states. Ancient history In ancient times, the area was inhabited by Thracian and Scythian tribes. Pliny the Elder names the Tyragetae, a …   Wikipedia

  • History of the Romanians in Ukraine — This article is about the history of Romanians in what is now southwestern Ukraine, roughly between the Dniester River and the Bug River, who traditionally have not belonged to any Romanian statal entity (nor to Transnistria), but have been an… …   Wikipedia

  • History of Hungary — This article is part of a series Prehistory …   Wikipedia

  • History of the Jews in Hungary — concerns the Jews of Hungary and of Hungarian origins. Jews have been a present community in Hungary since at least the 11th Century (with earlier references to Jews in Hungary existing), struggling against discrimination throughout the Middle… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”