The peoples beyond the frontier threaten to overrun the provinces of Dacia and Moesia Inferior, and the new Roman emperor must race to the Danube to secure the region.

This is what Roman domains looked liked north of the Danube in 124 CE after the reorganization of the region. The empire relinquished the territory it had added to Moesia Inferior, and the Sarmatian Roxolani moved to the plains east of the Olt; there they found Dacians that had lived in the area for hundreds of years, and the two peoples coexisted peacefully. Meanwhile, Trajan’s province of Dacia was divided into three to make the region easier to administer and defend.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to A history of Romania.

Season 1, Episode 9: Eagle and falx

Last episode, we saw how Trajan organized the lands he had conquered north of the Danube and attracted thousands of colonists to Dacia.

In 106 CE, the emperor had turned the heartland of the former Dacian kingdom into a province, and drew its borders along naturally defensible lines. His frontiers left a considerable number of Dacians outside of the empire, especially on the plains to the northwest and northeast of the Carpathians.

Modern scholars have termed the Dacians who lived outside of the empire as “free Dacians.” These people had seen their towns burned to the ground, their sanctuaries destroyed, and their king driven to suicide. In the absence of central leadership, local nobles became the heads of their communities. With many of their warriors dead, they couldn’t continue the fight against the Romans, so they instead decided to focus on sowing their fields, grazing their herds, and rebuilding the ties between their villages.

In contrast, the Sarmatians had not lost their fighting ability. These people have played an important role in our story, and they deserve a fuller introduction. The Sarmatians were nomadic horse-riders related to the Scythians that originated in Central Asia. Around the 3^rd century BCE, they began migrating westwards, and two centuries later, they reached the Carpathians. The mountains were an immense obstacle for these people of the plains; some Sarmatians stopped their migration there and settled on the plains east of them, while others took the long northern route that bypassed the mountains and reached the plains west of them between the Tisza and Danube rivers.

Thus, by the 1^st century BCE, the Sarmatians were divided into two groups; those who lived east of the Carpathians were called the Roxolani, while those who lived west of them were the Iazyges. These two groups had fought alongside Decebal, and though they had been on the losing side, their homelands had not been devastated by the war since the Romans had concentrated on the Dacians. Now that the empire had destroyed Decebal’s kingdom, the Iazyges and Roxolani were the most formidable military threats north of the Danube, and the Romans paid them subsidies to keep them from attacking.

In August of 117 CE, messengers arrived from the Orient bearing the news that Trajan had died of an illness while on campaign, and that he hadn’t designated an heir. Word spread from the governor’s staff to Roman soldiers on the frontier to Dacian farmers beyond the borders to Sarmatian herders on the plains. Soon, the leaders of the Iazyges and Roxolani decided to use this moment of uncertainty to attack the empire and gain more territory and riches for their people. The free Dacians saw this as a golden opportunity; alone, they lacked the warriors needed to attack, but with their former allies once again by their side, they hoped to dislodge the Romans and free their brethren from occupation.

Within weeks, Sarmatian horsemen converged on Dacia and Moesia Inferior from both west and east. Roman garrisons were taken by surprise as the Iazyges and Roxolani smashed their defenses, and Dacian warriors infiltrated through the openings. The governor of Dacia went to stop the invaders, but the fighting was so intense that he was killed in battle.

Our sources don’t mention the reaction of the Dacian population that lived under Roman rule. Faced with such disorder, some of them may have joined their brethren from beyond the borders and attacked the Roman authorities. However, as we’ll see later on in this episode, the empire took steps to maintain their loyalty, so I think it more likely that most of them didn’t revolt. The leaders of their communities were collaborators of the Romans and would’ve had the incentive to prevent their people from rising up so as to keep their own authority and prove they could be trusted.

Either way, Dacia was in crisis, and as barbarians raided the countryside, the colonists and loyalists rallied to the Roman garrisons to protect them.

Meanwhile, in the Orient, one of Trajan’s subordinates had secured the throne for himself, and the Romans hailed a new emperor: Hadrian.

Hadrian was entangled in revolts and couldn’t come to Dacia straightaway, but he still responded to the crisis. He appointed a new governor, sent some of his forces to reinforce the province, and ordered the wooden arches of Apollodorus’ bridge to be burned. This last command speaks to the severity of the attacks; the barbarians had killed the governor and penetrated the defenses of the province, and Hadrian was afraid they would use the bridge to cross deeper into the empire. Thankfully for the Romans, they never made it south of the Danube. The legions were able to hold the Iazyges, Roxolani, and free Dacians from overrunning the province, and Hadrian arrived in person before the end of the year with even more troops.

Over the winter of 117-118 CE, the emperor reinforced the province’s defenses and sent messengers to the attackers to see if the conflict could be resolved peacefully; the free Dacians had no central leaders with whom he could negotiate, and, in any case, they were a much smaller threat than the Sarmatians, so the emperor focused on the nomads. The Iazyges dismissed his overtures and continued the raids, but the Roxolani were open to dialogue.

Negotiations lasted through the winter, and by the beginning of 118 CE, a deal was reached. The empire would abandon the land taken by Moesia Inferior north of the Danube, would allow the Roxolani to migrate on it, and would increase their subsidies. In exchange, the Roxolani would keep the peace and prevent any other peoples from reaching the borders of the empire. This may seem like a disadvantageous deal for the Romans, but it was perfectly in line with Hadrian’s vision of his reign.

You see, Hadrian wasn’t an expansionist like Trajan. In fact, he believed the empire was dangerously close to overextension, and he had already abandoned the provinces of Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Armenia that Trajan had created from his Parthian conquests. Hadrian sought to protect what he already had and to focus on developing the existing provinces, which is where the true strength of the empire lay. As such, he wanted to promote their growth, put their defense in the hands of local troops, and negotiate peaceful relations with the peoples on their borders.

As to the lands Hadrian would be giving to the Roxolani, he didn’t see a great loss from abandoning the territory held by Moesia Inferior north of the Danube. Castra had been built to secure the routes in the region, but relatively few colonists had settled on the plains, which had few natural resources and so didn’t attract many settlers. So, the castra and their attached civilian settlements were torched and abandoned, and the army was redeployed along the Danube. To ensure they still could respond to threats, the Romans continued to hold bridgeheads on the north side of the river to supervise the region.

The traditional view is that Hadrian wanted to abandon all the land which Trajan had conquered north of the Danube, including Dacia, but that he was convinced not to do so by those close to him; the story goes that his advisors told him that too many Roman citizens had settled in Dacia, and that if he were to pull back the legions, they would be left at the mercy of the barbarians. However, more recent scholarship makes a convincing case that Hadrian never wanted to withdraw from Dacia, only from the territories of Moesia Inferior which hadn’t been as heavily colonized. In any case, the Romans remained in Dacia and the war for its defense continued.

With the Roxolani out of the war at the beginning of 118 CE, Hadrian turned his full attention to the Iazyges in the west. For the next few months, his legions went on the offensive and pushed them back across the Tisza River. By the spring, Dacia was no longer in crisis, and Hadrian could plan his return to the city of Rome, which he hadn’t yet entered as emperor.

Before he left, he elevated three settlements to the status of municipium, which made them official cities with their own territory, laws, and responsibilities. The first such settlement was Drobeta, which had developed besides the military camp protecting Apollodorus’ bridge. The second was Romula on the plains between the Danube and Carpathians. And the third, Napoca, was in the northern reaches of Dacia in the valleys between the Carpathian Mountains. Over the past twelve years, these three settlements had developed organically and grown so much that Hadrian needed to ensure they could organize themselves with the appropriate laws and magistrates, which is why he turned them into official cities.

Afterwards, in the spring of 118 CE, the emperor departed for Rome and left his trusted general Quintus Marcius Turbo to finish the war with the Iazyges. Within a few months, the nomads sued for peace, and the free Dacians put down their weapons as well.

With the war over, Turbo – a fantastic name by the way – was instructed by Hadrian to reorganize the province, whose defenses had proven inadequate. Thus, Dacia was divided into three smaller provinces, each with its own governor, procurator, and military units, with the goal of making the civilian administration more efficient and its armed forces more responsive.

You can see a map of the reorganization on the website. I realise last episode’s map was a bit confusing, so I redrew it, and I made sure to make this week’s map clearer.

So, let’s get to the three new provinces.

To the north, the province of Dacia Porolissensis was established as a defensive stronghold. It contained the city of Napoca, but was named after Porolissum, a large, stone military camp on the border. This fortress allowed the Romans to block the movement of barbarians into the empire while also acting as an official point of trade with them; such economic ties were crucial to supervise the movements of peoples beyond the frontier as well as to keep dialogue open with their leaders, who could be given gifts to avoid conflict. Hadrian removed legionary troops from Dacia Porolissensis and left auxiliary units in charge of it, which reflects his long-term thinking: he didn’t plan to attack the peoples beyond the frontiers, only to hold the current positions. Compared to legionaries, auxiliary troops were less capable of offensive operations, but were perfectly suited to defense; plus, they were paid up to four times less, which put less strain on the province’s treasury.

Next, Dacia Superior was formed out of the centre of the former united province of Dacia. This was the biggest of the three and included the prosperous gold mines as well as the important iron and salt deposits of the region. Dacia Superior contained the first Roman city north of the Danube, Ulpia Traiana, but its governor resided at Apulum, the military camp where the legion XIII Gemina was headquartered. This was the only legion Hadrian left north of the Danube, with its placement meant to defend the regions’ most important economic interests and allow it to respond to threats in all directions.

Finally, to the south, Hadrian established the province of Dacia Inferior, so named because of its position along the course of the Danube. Its territory included the lands between the Carpathians, the Danube, and the Olt, and contained the cities of Drobeta and Romula. The province was defended by auxiliaries, and since it was surrounded on three sides by Moesia Superior and Dacia Superior, its troops only had to defend the eastern frontier facing the Roxolani.

As for Apollodorus’ bridge, Hadrian decided not to rebuild it, for unknown reasons. Senator and historian Cassius Dio says that Hadrian hated Apollodorus and killed the architect, so it would make sense that he didn’t want to rebuild his creation. But this account is disputed, and other reasons for not repairing the bridge might include its high maintenance cost or that its traffic could be serviced by boats. Either way, later emperors would not allocate resources to restore Apollodorus’ bridge, and some of its scorched pillars would remain in the river up to the present day.

After reorganizing the region, general Turbo left the three Dacias to their governors. With peace restored, colonists began immigrating anew, and with four cities in the region – Napoca, Ulpia Traiana, Romula, and Drobeta – the opportunities for enrichment were even greater.

The majority of the people who immigrated were not citizens, but peregrini. This was a legal distinction which had consequences for your rights. A Roman citizen didn’t have to pay the head tax or land tax, was tried according to Roman law which afforded him certain protections, had the right to own and inherit property, and the right to vote and hold public office. A peregrinus, meaning “one from abroad,” was a free person living in the empire, but one who did not have the rights of a citizen. This meant they paid additional taxes, they couldn’t marry a Roman citizen, couldn’t inherit property or designate heirs, couldn’t appeal criminal sentences, and could be executed by the governor.

Roman citizens composed the elite of the three Dacian provinces and lived in cities. The first citizens that settled in the region were legionary veterans who had been given land as a reward for their service; now retired, many ran for public office and held influential positions in their communities. The ranks of these citizens were augmented by inhabitants from the Italian peninsula who came to fulfill important positions in the administration, such as governors, legionary and auxiliary commanders, and procurators. These officeholders stayed in the region until their terms ended, and then most returned to Italy. A few remained in the three Dacian provinces and used their wealth to buy large tracts of land and used their influence to hold powerful magistracies in the cities. The children of the Italians who remained and of the veterans who had settled here married and formed an unofficial aristocracy.

As you can imagine, many of the peregrini who immigrated to the region sought to become citizens to gain financial, legal, and social advantages. The surest way to do so was to join the auxiliary forces. After serving for 25 years, an auxiliary soldier was discharged with a diploma granting him as well as his wife and children Roman citizenship. Many peregrini pursued this path, which was also encouraged by Hadrian, who sought to recruit more soldiers from the provinces while also paying less for their upkeep.

This service in the auxiliary forces proved a powerful Romanizing force. Whether a native of Britannia, Mauritania, Egypt, or Pannonia, these peregrini came to adopt Roman ways as a byproduct of their time in the army. Over the course of decades, they learned to speak Latin, interacted with imperial agents on a regular basis, familiarized themselves with Roman customs and laws, developed a spirit of camaraderie with their unit, and worked to actively uphold the established imperial order. After their service, they became citizens who were legally equal to those from the oldest Italian families, and they could now accumulate wealth to slowly integrate the unofficial aristocracy of the cities.

Hadrian also made sure to integrate the Dacians into his vision of the provinces. While defending Dacia during the difficult winter of 117-118 CE, he sought to maintain their loyalty, and so made a gesture of goodwill by changing the name of the first Roman city established in Dacia. Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica became Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa.

You heard that right: Sarmizegetusa, the name of Decebal’s capital that had been destroyed twelve years earlier. By attaching the name of the royal Dacian city to that of the provincial Roman capital, Hadrian signalled that the Dacians and Romans were now on the same side, and that they had to defend the province and build its future together.

After the crisis at the beginning of his reign, Hadrian continued to show the Dacians residing in the empire that they were not his enemies and that they too had a place in the public arena. Later on in his reign, the emperor struck a series of coins emphasising the fusion between the Dacians and the Romans.

To understand the significance of their imagery, we must first look at what came before. Trajan struck coins focusing on the subjugation of the Dacian kingdom. For instance, one of his coins showed a Dacian warrior with his hands bound behind his back and his weapons on the ground. In contrast, Hadrian minted coins emphasizing the integration of the Dacians into the empire. An example is that of a woman, representing Dacia, sitting on a rock with a legionary eagle in her left hand and a curved sword, the traditional Dacian falx, in her right. For the first time since the conquest, the falx doesn’t appear as a trophy taken from a defeated enemy, but as a weapon wielded by Roman Dacia herself on equal footing with the legionary standard. This was a clear message that circulated throughout the population. You can imagine a Dacian artisan selling his pottery to a colonist near a castra, with the coins passing between them communicating the message that the emperor viewed them as equals.

The imagery of the legionary standard alongside the Dacian falx also suggests that there were Dacians who enrolled in the army to defend the empire, and indeed, Hadrian encouraged the Dacians to join the auxiliary forces like other peregrini.

Two Dacian auxiliary units had already been formed by Trajan, who had taken them on his Parthian campaign. Starting with Hadrian’s reign, the empire drew even more recruits from its Dacian population, and the total number eventually reached twelve auxiliary units. Only the province of Syria provided more auxiliary recruits than Dacia; the large number of units recruited from the Dacian population shows that they constituted a substantial part of society, and that they actively integrated the structures of the empire to adapt to the new order. Some were sent to faraway corners of the empire such as Britannia; however, several were stationed along the Danube in the provinces that bordered their homeland, such as Pannonia Superior, Pannonia Inferior, and Moesia Inferior.

Hadrian allowed auxiliary units to bear their traditional weapons and battle standards, and to use their people’s battle cry. In the case of the Dacians, this meant that they could fly the draco standard and use the falx sword. After their term of service, most of them stayed in the province which they had defended for the past 25 years and in which they had built their lives. A minority returned to their homeland, and came back as Dacians who were now also Roman citizens.

As such, about thirty years after the conquest, the empire no longer feared the resurgence of the Dacians as an independent power, and its attitude towards them was in fact conciliatory. The free Dacians had been beaten back at the beginning of Hadrian’s reign, and the Dacian communities inside the empire had proven their loyalty and begun to participate in the life of the province. In line with Hadrian’s focus on the provincials, the Dacians were now seen as an integral part of the Roman order.

After the crisis of 117 CE, the frontiers north of the Danube remained peaceful for the rest of Hadrian’s reign. The continued influx of colonists, the emperor’s inclusive attitude towards the Dacians, and his support for the peregrini spurred the growth of villages, towns, and cities, and helped their inhabitants prosper.

After ruling for two decades, Hadrian died in 138 CE. Unlike Trajan, he had appointed a clear successor, and his death didn’t bring about instability; the new emperor, Antoninus Pius, came to the throne and things continued on as before.

Though many colonists enjoyed opportunities and prosperity during this period, that affluence was built on the work of tens of thousands of enslaved labourers who were exploited and saw none of the benefits. In two weeks, we’ll look at what life was like for the vast majority of people living in the three Dacias – those working on the farms, in the mines, and in the workshops – with a special focus on the class of enslaved people which lay at the foundation of Roman society. We’ll see how they were traded and exploited, how they navigated the system and how, sometimes, they became free.