The diverse society of the Dacian provinces flourishes during the reign of Antoninus Pius as colonists from across the empire bring their local beliefs to the region and blend them with Roman ones. Meanwhile, the identity of the Dacians living inside the empire begins to change in relation to their ancestors as well as to their kin beyond the borders.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to A history of Romania.

Season 1, Episode 11: The allure of Rome

Last episode, we began a portrait of the Dacian provinces during the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, between the 120s and 160s CE. We saw how the economy of the region rested on three pillars – agriculture, mining, and crafts – and relied on tens of thousands of enslaved labourers alongside free ones. Today, we’ll finish the portrait by looking at the cultural aspects of this incredibly diverse society.

To fully understand the region, we also have to bring Moesia Inferior into the picture. We last spoke about this province at length in episode eight, so we’re due for a short recap. Moesia Inferior was located between the Danube to the north and the Balkan Mountains to the south, and ran from the Black Sea in the east to just before the Iron Gates in the west. The Romans had arrived in this region in 29 BCE after the collapse of Burebista’s kingdom and found an amalgam of Greek cities on the coast and Getae tribes in the interior. Through battle and negotiation, they integrated these people into the empire and brought the frontier up to the Danube. After Trajan conquered Decebal’s kingdom, Moesia Inferior gained territories north of the river that ran all the way to the Carpathian Mountains. However, Hadrian retreated from these lands after the barbarian attacks at the beginning of his reign in 118 CE. Moesia Inferior then returned to its previous borders and redeployed its forces along the Danube to establish a permanent defensive line.

A key point along this frontier was the castrum of Noviodunum, located where the Danube bends and reaches its final stretch before flowing into the Black Sea. Noviodunum was the headquarters of the Roman Danubian fleet that patrolled the length of the river up to the Iron Gates.

Besides helping the army to supervise the frontier, this fleet transported supplies and soldiers between castra on both sides of the river, and helped build wharfs and bridges as needed. Its ships also operated in the Black Sea. The empire had integrated several Greek cities in Crimea which traded intensely with Moesia Inferior. The navy thus served to protect merchant ships from pirates and connected these cities with the rest of the Roman world.

Most of the fleet’s ships were small galleys with two banks of rowers on each side, and were mainly used for patrolling and scouting. For serious engagements, the fleet used triremes, which had three banks of rowers. In battle, these warships rammed enemy ships to break their hulls, or boarded them with marines.

The officers of the Danubian fleet were Roman citizens, but the sailors were mainly peregrini who came from coastal regions and had experience at sea. Similar to auxiliary troops, they enrolled voluntarily and, after 26 years of service, were granted citizenship.

The Danubian fleet was crucial to the prosperity of the six cities on the coast of Moesia Inferior, namely Istria, Tomis, Callatis, Dionysopolis, Odessos, and Messembria. When they had joined the empire, these cities had signed treaties granting them some autonomy; this meant they didn’t house Roman garrisons, they maintained their traditional institutions, held judicial power over their inhabitants, and owned their own territory. Accordingly, they maintained much of their original culture since their Hellenic population continued to speak Greek and worship the Greek pantheon of Dionysus, Apollo, Aphrodite, and other divinities, just like their ancestors had done for eight hundred years.

Yet these cities didn’t have a homogenous society. Each one was under the supervision of a Roman overseer appointed by the governor of Moesia Inferior, and people from the region flocked to these urban centres, attracted by their status as trade nodes. Roman citizens and peregrini mingled with Greeks, Getae, and their descendants, and brought aqueducts, baths, and other staples of the Roman way of life.

The largest coastal city was Tomis, which housed the headquarters of the governor of Moesia Inferior as well as a mint. By the time of Antoninus Pius in the middle of the 2^nd century, the city had received the title of “metropolis” and counted around 25,000 inhabitants.

The Hellenic culture present in the Greek cities diminished the farther away you got from the coast. Like in the three Dacian provinces, veterans established settlements near castra, and peregrini from across the empire came to rent land. The largest Roman settlement was Troesmis, close to Noviodunum. It housed around 10,000 people, as well as the headquarters of the legion V Macedonica which garrisoned the defenses along the Danube.

As you moved west, Latin influence became dominant as peregrini and veterans entrenched Roman culture and disseminated it among the native Getae population. In fact, at this point in our story in the middle of the 2^nd century, a hundred and fifty years had passed since the region had been integrated into the empire, and the Getae had come to learn Latin and adopt Roman customs and culture.

Outside of the Greek cities on the coast, the culture of Moesia Inferior was similar to that of the Dacian provinces north of the Danube. This was a diverse society as people from across the empire came to settle here and brought their local beliefs with them. A hundred and thirty different divinities were found in the Dacian provinces, and they originated from places as distant as Gaul, Germany, Mauritania, Egypt, Palmyra, Persia, Anatolia, and Thrace.

A fifth of the inscriptions found refer to cults from the eastern part of the empire. These religions guarded divine knowledge that was reserved for initiates who joined the order through secret ceremonies. These faiths struck an emotional chord with many among the population, since they promised protection in life and immortality and happiness after death.

Examples of these cults include that of Cybele, the Phrygian mother goddess, and Atargatis, the Syrian goddess of fertility. But the most popular cult was that of Mithras, which originated in Persia. Mithras was the god of light and justice, and was opposed to darkness and evil. His cult was especially popular among merchants and soldiers, since he was seen as an invincible god that helped the faithful against the dangers of the world and promised them eternal happiness after death.

A sect that was particularly different from the rest followed the teachings of Jesus Christ, a Jewish man who preached in the province of Judea in the early 1^st century. Among many other teachings, Jesus said he was the son of the one true god, and that he had come to die as a sacrifice to save humanity from its sins. After his death, one of his twelve apostles, Andrew, travelled to the province of Thrace to preach; he then continued up the coast into Moesia Inferior and beyond the borders of the empire to follow the course of the Dnieper River.

Andrew’s efforts must’ve converted some people in the region, but we have no physical evidence of Christianity in Moesia Inferior or the Dacian provinces during the 2^nd century. Two reasons may explain this; one, there were simply very few Christians in the region at this time; and two, what Christians there were worshipped in secret since, for a century, their fellow believers had been sporadically persecuted because they refused to worship the Roman pantheon and perform sacrifices.

But most people, regardless of where in the empire they originated, adhered to the state pantheon and even blended their beliefs with Roman ones. In a polytheistic society, gods which came from different cultures but which had similar traits were seen as being the same god, just with a different name. For example, the Syrian goddess of fertility Atargatis was equated with the Roman goddess Venus. Accordingly, a peregrinus born in Syria could continue worshipping Atargatis under the name of Venus right alongside a Roman citizen. This practice of integrating local deities into the Roman religious system was widespread in the population, and we see evidence of this in archeological finds. Though Roman citizens formed a minority of the population in the Dacian provinces, three quarters of the religious dedications we’ve found were made to divinities from the Roman pantheon.

The Dacian provinces had such a vibrant spiritual life in part because all its different ethnic groups could communicate with each other using a common language: Latin. In fact, being able to speak this common language was crucial to engage in public spaces. If you were a peregrinus from Mauritania, for instance, you had to know Latin if you wanted to buy goods at the market, or listen to the town crier announce upcoming festivities, or get along with the man sent by the town council to collect your taxes.

In the military, too, orders were given in Latin, and we have evidence of auxiliary soldiers learning it. Dozens of bricks and tiles have been found with Latin letters, words, or short sentences, which soldiers would write to practice while the clay was still soft. For instance, at the castrum of Porolissum, one soldier inscribed: “occasion nantus scrib,” meaning “I found the occasion to write.”

Peregrini from across the empire were already following Roman laws, and now that they had a common language and an inclusive pantheon, they also began to adopt Roman culture. In their daily lives, they went to public baths, conducted business in the forum, used coins with the emperor’s face on them, attended shows at amphitheatres, saw gladiators fight wild animals, took part in traditional Roman festivities, commissioned mosaics and statues in the Italian style, read Virgil, and some even adopted Latin names. Over the course of decades, the members of the various ethnic groups that had immigrated to the Dacian provinces came to embody more of these behaviours. The differences between them began to diminish, and they became more similar to each other as they increasingly adhered to Roman customs and values, a process which is known as Romanization.

The Dacians living inside the empire were undergoing a change similar to that of the general peregrini population.

In more isolated regions, native Dacians continued to live much as they had done before the conquest: they built houses out of earth and wood, kept provisions in nearby pits, cultivated grains, herded animals, produced pottery, wove clothes, and wrought tools. However, even in these remote communities, we find numerous Roman objects like vases, millstones, ploughs, fibulas, and coins. In fact, by the middle of the 2^nd century, most of the tools in Dacian settlements were made in Roman workshops. The Dacians of course continued to create items for their own daily needs, but Roman objects were generally of higher quality, and so they bought them through their frequent contact with the colonists.

These contacts were even closer in settlements where native Dacians lived alongside immigrant peregrini. As rural estates were established and castra attracted civilian communities, Dacians went to find work as manual labourers or to sell their goods. Dacian ceramics account for a fifth of all the pottery found in the region, and it’s present in villages, rural estates, castra, and cities, suggesting that native Dacians not only traded with the colonists, but also settled in their communities and continued to use some of their traditional wares.

Having daily contact with citizens and colonists forced many Dacians to learn Latin; at first, they spoke just enough to get by, but eventually, they become bilingual.

Like other peregrini, they also began to blend Roman religious beliefs with their own. The Dacians didn’t inter their dead like the Romans; they incinerated them and buried their ashes in pits. However, most of the objects found in these pits were Roman-made, from the urns containing the ashes to the personal objects inside them. Sometimes, we also find a bronze coin atop the remains, which is an adaptation of the Roman practice of placing a coin with the deceased to symbolically pay for their fare across the river Styx in the underworld. These coins are one of the few physical representations of the mingling of religious beliefs since the Dacians didn’t erect statues or inscriptions for their divinities.

However, a lead plaque found in the city of Romula hints at broader religious syncretism. The artwork in question shows a goddess flanked by two horsemen bearing the Dacian draco battle standard. These horsemen represented local mythical heroes, which the Romans had integrated into their pantheon under the name of Heros; as such, the figure of a horseman became a recurrent feature on funeral stones among peregrini. If we base ourselves on evidence from across the empire, this religious melding likely went the other way as well. The Dacians probably came to see the Roman divinities as an interpretation of their native gods and goddesses, allowing them to align the two pantheons and continue worshipping their divinities under different names.

This alignment made the Dacians more likely to take part in Roman festivities. For instance, the festival of Saturnalia was held on December 17, lasted for an entire week, and included banquets, gift-giving, and general merrymaking. Dacians living alongside citizens and colonists could’ve easily participated in such celebrations and slowly come to take part in Roman customs.

Some Dacians made active efforts to integrate Roman society. As we’ve seen, former nobles were left as community leaders and were charged with collecting taxes, keeping the peace, and reporting unrest. Presumably, these leaders had to learn Latin to interact with the authorities, and had to familiarize themselves with the Roman judicial and financial system. Already predisposed to collaborating with the empire, they would likely teach their children Latin, and some also gave their children Latin names to better integrate the new order, such as one Sextus Rufius Decibalus.

As we’ve also seen, some Dacians joined the auxiliary forces and were exposed to Roman ways, learned Latin, and gained citizenship. Under Antoninus Pius, we find coins showing the figure of Dacia with the draco battle standard. This allegorical image suggests that the three provinces were recruiting native men for the auxiliary forces. Though we don’t know how many joined the army and eventually became citizens, inscriptions can give us a qualitative idea.

You see, when a peregrinus was granted citizenship, they added the clan name of the reigning emperor to their own name, and this allows us to count the number of people who became citizens. Over a quarter of all the names found in the Dacian provinces bear the names of emperors, and this proportion is higher than in neighbouring provinces like Pannonia, Moesia, and Dalmatia. We can’t discern the exact origins of these people, but a substantial number must’ve been native Dacians that became citizens under Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and later emperors.

The Romanization of the Dacians was of course not uniform throughout the provinces; it was more impactful in cities and more superficial in remote villages. Yet regardless of where they were, one phenomenon that was similar for all Dacians is that their attitude towards the Romans was changing.

By this point in our story at the end of Antoninus Pius’ reign in the 160s CE, sixty years had passed since the conquest. Given the age at which people in the period married and had children, that represents three generations.

Every person’s story is unique, but we can image a fictional Dacian man living at this time whose great-grandparents had fought for Decebal, had experienced the destruction of Trajan’s invasion, and seethed at the imposition of Roman rule over their once-proud kingdom.

This man’s grandparents would’ve grown up in the empire and heard first-hand stories of Roman cruelty; but they would’ve also come of age during the reign of Hadrian, who made conciliatory moves towards the natives: he added Sarmizegetusa to the name of the capital of the province, put traditional Dacian symbols on imperial coins, and encouraged Dacians to join the army.

His parents would’ve been born and lived in a time of peace; though they heard war stories from the old folk, their own reality was one of cohabitation, trade, and exchange with colonists from across the empire; they would’ve learned Latin to be able to interact with them, and would’ve been exposed to Roman customs from an early age.

Finally, this fictional Dacian man would be born in a period of peace and opportunity, and would be on equal footing with the peregrini that had immigrated here. He could look to preserve the traditions of his great-grandparents, isolate himself from the diverse society around him, and live all his life in a secluded village of his own people; or he could do as his parents had done, trade with the peregrini, work alongside them, attend shows, participate in festivals, and share in the prosperity that cascaded from the cities. He could even join the army and work towards citizenship. This Dacian man was not a Roman, but he was Romanizing.

The Dacians who lived outside the empire had a completely different experience. As you’ll recall, the Romans hadn’t annexed the entire Dacian kingdom, so parts of its population were left outside of the provinces. These free Dacians, as modern scholars have called them, had attacked Roman Dacia in concert with the Iazyges and Roxolani at the beginning of Hadrian’s reign; but the empire had defeated them and then made sure to maintain friendly relations, and so fifty years of peace followed during which the free Dacians coexisted with the empire.

Those who had the most contact with the Romans lived on the land abandoned by Moesia Inferior. This territory was bounded by the Carpathian Mountains to the north, the Olt River to the west, and the Danube River to the south – all of which were frontiers controlled by the empire. The Romans had allowed the Roxolani to move into this region, but the nomads didn’t live alongside the free Dacians; they preferred to graze their herds on the plains while the natives had settlements in the hillier areas that led into the Carpathians. With such a strong military presence on three sides, the empire could send patrols to make sure the free Dacians didn’t develop fortified settlements or congregate into larger groups.

Their villages looked much the same as they had before the conquest; people lived in earthen homes, farmed grains, raised livestock, and worked on crafts. One difference is that they now also used Roman goods daily since they had regular contact with traders on the borders of the empire.

The other crucial difference was in the cultural life of these communities. Severed from their ancestral religious sites in the heart of the Carpathian Mountains, the spirituality of the free Dacians began to change. For instance, they didn’t build any monumental stone structures like the ones that had been erected in Sarmizegetusa. But more importantly, they also stopped performing human sacrifices. We saw how the clergy of the independent Dacian kingdom practiced ritual human sacrifice – mostly of prisoners of war. That custom had been outlawed by the Romans after the conquest, and we find no trace of it among the Dacians living inside the empire. What’s interesting is that this change also occurred among the Dacians living outside of it. We can’t say exactly why they stopped performing human sacrifices, since they didn’t write things down and we can’t figure out motivations from archeological evidence. But what’s clear is that, a few generations after the conquest, the free Dacians were developing an identity distinct from their ancestors who had lived in Decebal’s independent kingdom.

As we follow the curve of the Carpathians, we come to the free Dacians that lived beyond the mountains to the east of the Dacian provinces. Their way of life was similar to that of their kin on the lands formerly ruled by Moesia Inferior; they coexisted with the Roxolani and traded with them, but their two societies – one settled and one nomadic – didn’t mingle. With the mountains separating them from the Romans, these free Dacians had fewer trade links with the empire, but they were still in contact: Roman vases used to transport wine and oil have been found in various settlements in the region.

If we look to the north and northwest of the three Dacian provinces, we find a territory characterized by plains and gentle hills. The free Dacians living in these areas maintained strong trade relations with the Romans by way of the castrum at Porolissum. The empire intended this fortress to be its point of contact with the barbarians north of the Danube, and the way to keep informed about their movements and intentions was to trade with them. For instance, the Romans bought horses from the Iazyges, as they were highly sought after for cavalry detachments. When dealing with the free Dacians, they bought grains, vegetables, meats, fur, wood, and other agricultural products from them, and in turn sold them vases, clothes, glass beads, rings, pendants, and earrings.

The trade between them grew in volume to such an extent that, by the middle of the 2^nd century, the free Dacians north and northwest of these provinces began to use Roman coins in addition to barter. This common currency facilitated contacts between free Dacian nobles and Roman merchants and frontier commanders. In fact, under Antoninus Pius, the empire began to give regular stipends to local leaders near the frontier to gain their cooperation and keep the peace. For their part, free Dacians elites gained prestige by displaying Roman luxury goods and by being able to negotiate with Roman commanders on behalf of their communities.

Over the course of decades, the most powerful leaders among them were able to convince or coerce smaller communities to submit to them. By the 160s CE, the free Dacians north of the Dacian provinces had coalesced into a large tribe called the Costoboci. They were ruled by a single man – a king – who could command increasingly large numbers of warriors to defend his people from both Roman pressure and the raids of neighbouring peoples.

Yet the Costoboci didn’t have a kingdom like that of Decebal. They had no davae with fortifications and large concentrations of people, and so couldn’t muster the same amount of resources nor produce goods with the same sophistication. Instead, they lived in a constellation of villages, and the vague borders of their territory were being constantly negotiated by the movement and incursions of nearby tribes. Yet they were still a significant player on their frontier, and the Romans made a point to maintain good relations with them to perpetuate their prosperous peace.

In the next episode, however, a people from the far north will put pressure on the Costoboci and their neighbours, who will all seek refuge inside the empire. As the successors of Antoninus Pius take the reins of power, fifty years of peace will come to an end and war will grip the empire’s frontiers from the Black Sea to the Rhine River.