Mystery of the disappearance of the Dacians. The stone face of the king of decebalus Who is Decebalus

PUNITIVE EXPEDITIONS OF ROME

The military campaign against Dacia, delayed due to the death of Caesar, took place under the emperor Octavian, it was led by the famous Roman commander Crassus. For the Romans, Dacia acquired a special significance due to the gold mines in the mountains of Transylvania. Emperor Augustus decided to finally conquer it. During the war of 11-12, the Dacians were scattered, and their fortifications on the left bank of the Danube were burned.

After the Romans built fortresses on the right bank of the Danube and settled colonists here (the policy of creating a "safe space"), the number of Dacian raids dropped sharply. However, after the death of Emperor Nero, war broke out throughout Italy. The Dacian invasion of the Roman province of Moesia strengthened Rome's decision to deal with Dacia, which seriously threatened the security of the Roman possessions.

Despite the wars, the economic relations of Dacia with Rome were constantly developing, and the country was integrated into the Mediterranean economy. The Dacian kings began to copy Roman denarii, about 30 thousand of these coins were found - much more than in other regions neighboring the Roman Empire. Numerous items of Roman imports were found in the places of Dacian settlements - weapons, military equipment, utensils.

The Dacians lived in settlements of several courtyards, located along the banks of rivers, on hills and mountains and fortified with earthen ramparts and wooden walls. Fortresses were built, the remains of which were found, for example, in Maramures. The most impressive fortifications were found around Sarmezegetusa Regia - the first capital of Dacia and its religious center. It was a completely Mediterranean city at an altitude of a thousand meters above sea level, the approaches to it were blocked by fortresses, there were many workshops of artisans and even there was a water supply.

The "safe space" strategy has not paid off. Under Vespasian, Rome began to change its policy towards Dacia. The imperial army was concentrated on the demarcation line along the Danube. Major events began campaigns against the Dacian kingdom of Decebalus in Transylvania. However, the latter proved to be a talented military leader, and the most rational decision was to turn him into a friendly king, which was done by the agreement between Rome and Dacia of 89.

Why a new conflict nevertheless broke out between Dacia and Rome under Emperor Trajan is not known for certain. In written sources, one can find vague references to the growth of the power of the Dacians, which began to exceed the limits permissible for a dependent country, the threat of creating a powerful coalition of barbarians against Rome, and Trajan's desire to achieve the glory of Alexander the Great.

DECEBALS, ENEMY OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE

There is evidence of two wars between Trajan and the Dacians. These are fragments of Trajan's column in Rome and the writings of Dion Cassius.

Presumably, the first campaign began in the spring of 101 and was marked by the siege of the mountain fortresses of the Dacians by the Romans. The second campaign began after Decebalus left his residence in the mountains and attacked the Romans, crossing the Carpathians and the Danube. Trajan hurried to repel the attack of the Dacians and their allies - the barbarian tribes who were advancing from the territory of modern Moldova. Historians consider the most formidable in the anti-Roman coalition to be the armored horsemen of the Roxolans, a tribe that lived between the Prut and the Dniester. Having suffered heavy losses, Trajan defeated the coalition of barbarians near Nikopol. An altar was erected in memory of the death of three thousand Roman soldiers.

In the spring of 103, the third campaign began. The sister of Decebalus was captured - the wife of the leader of the tribe who lived in the north of Moldova, an important ally of Dacia. The Romans took control of the main routes leading through the mountains from Transylvania to the Danube. Military camps were set up at the sites of important crossings and passes. (Fragments of tiles with stamps of the Roman legions were found in the south of Moldova). Soon, Trajan captured the fortified heights on the outskirts of Sarmizegetuse-regia.

Decebalus lost hope of stopping the advance of the Roman legions and began peace negotiations. In the end, according to Dio Cassius, the Dacian king appeared before Trajan, dropping his weapons, kneeling, and pleaded defeated. Apparently, Trajan did not want the destruction of Dacia, since he did not capture and did not kill Decebalus. Apparently, this was explained by the desire to use the authority of the king against the leaders of the barbarian tribes.

Trajan's Column in Rome

TRAJAN OF DACIA

At the end of the third campaign, Trajan celebrated a triumph in Rome and received the title of Dacian in 102. The altar and sanctuary in honor of the goddess Victoria were erected, as historians suggest, near the town of Tapa, at the mountain pass leading from Banat to Transylvania. However, no traces of settlements of the Roman era have been found at this site. According to another version, the altar should be sought closer to Sarmizegetuse-regia.

As a result, the Romans conquered Banat, the southwest of Transylvania, including the fortified mountainous region in the vicinity of Sarmizegetusa, and the west of Oltenia. The east of Oltenia, Muntenia, the south of Moldova and the extreme southeast of Transylvania, which were not part of Dacia, came under the control of the governor of the Roman province of South Moesia. The territories between the Danube and the middle course of the Mures were also occupied by the Romans.

UNDER THE yoke of the OCCUPANTS

From now on, under the rule of Decebalus was the Dacian kingdom, dependent on Rome, whose territory, significantly reduced, covered Central and Northwestern Transylvania. The military power of Decebalus was severely undermined, and most importantly, he was cut off from his allies, the leaders of the northern Danube barbarian tribes. The threat of a broad anti-Roman front was over. The king of the Dacians surrendered his weapons, siege engines and military masters, tore down the fortresses, left his residence in Sarmizegetus, and abandoned his own foreign policy. It is believed that the reliefs of Trajan's Column represent the last great siege of Sermizegetusa Regia during the second campaign. After that, the capital under the same name was moved to another place. But this is just a hypothesis.

Decebalus could not come to terms with his new status, and the Roman Senate for the second time declared him an enemy of the Roman people. In 105, Trajan launched a new campaign with the aim of capturing the kingdom and capturing the king. However, Decebalus managed to lure Gnaeus Pompey Longinus, the commander of the Roman troops north of the Danube, into a trap and capture him. Having become a bargaining chip in the negotiations, Longin committed suicide.

But in the end, the Romans, apparently, captured the second Sermizegetusa. Decebalus had no choice but to commit suicide. The famous inscription in Philippi (Greece) tells how Tiberius Claudius Maximus, who pursued the Dacian king, brought the head of Decebalus to Trajan.

TRAYANOVA DAKIA

So in 106, the Roman province of Dacia arose. It covered Banat, a significant part of Transylvania and the west of Oltenia. Three legions were stationed here, the first governor was a veteran of the war with the Dacians, Julius Sabin. The position of consul-governor of Dacia in the era of Trajan, as well as the position of governor of Syria and Britain, was considered the crowning career of the Roman consul.

The first test of the new province was in 116-117. When the Roman legions went to war with the Parthians, the barbarian tribes of the Yazigi invaded Dacia and demanded that the western territories of the province be given to them. At that moment, Emperor Trajan died, the throne passed to Hadrian. In 118, Quintus Marcius Turbon, who became the new governor of Dacia, ended the war with the Iazyges. But the Iazyges, apparently, still received part of the Dacian lands.

The war showed that the mission of the buffer zone assigned to Dacia was ineffective. That is why Emperor Hadrian decided to withdraw the legions from the most vulnerable lowland territories - Muntenia and the south of Moldova. The remaining regions of Trajanova Dacia were divided between two provinces. Secondarily, Dacia was redrawn already during the time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

NAME OF THEM - LEGION

Immediately after the capture of Dacia, streams of colonists, immigrants from Italy and Illyria, rushed into it from all over the Roman Empire. Thrace, Germany, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt. Mostly they were legionnaires, veterans of the war with Dacia.

Traces of 104 camps of legions and auxiliary detachments, four thousand inscriptions from the era of Rome, mostly Latin, were found. Proof of the complete Romanization of the province is the fact that the Roman names in the inscriptions make up 76 percent - more than in Rome. The first Roman settlement was named Sarmizegetusa in memory of the capital of the free Dacians.

The largest flow of migration to Dacia falls on the years 117-118. At this time, settlements of newcomers called "peregrines" appeared on the conquered territory. They were mostly Celts who obtained Roman citizenship by marrying citizens. In the future, direct evidence of migration becomes less and less.

THE COUNTRY OF THE DAKAS WENT INTO NON-EXISTENCE AS ATLANTIS

Historians believe that the names of the rivers Muresh, Somesh, Krish, Tisa, Olt were adopted by the Romans from the Dacians. The Romanian words “gard”, “copil”, “brad”, “fasole”, “moş”, “brânză” and others are considered Dacian. But there is practically no information about the fate of this people after the Roman invasion, and this is one of the most mysterious riddles stories. Roman sources do not record the indigenous population of Dacia at all. Archaeologically, no traces of it have been found either. There is a lot of evidence of the indigenous population living in other Roman provinces, we know a lot about the Gauls, Celts, Germans and other tribes - but we know nothing about the Dacians. On the territory of Dacia and in neighboring areas, only mentions of individual people were found, claiming that they were Dacians by birth, but they could simply come from Dacia, without being ethnic Dacians.

Not a single whole Dacian settlement survived before the era of the Roman invasion, they were all destroyed. Not a single case is known when a Roman settlement would be built on the site of a Dacian one, as it was, say, in Gaul. Sarmizegetusa-regia was the only pre-Roman settlement that retained its name, known from written sources, which could be identified during excavations.

The gods of the Dacians did not find a place in the hospitable Roman pantheon, as happened with the gods of other conquered tribes. On the territory of Dacia, during excavations, traces of Celtic, Egyptian, Syrian cults are found, but there are no traces of the religion of the Dacians. And, what is most strange, there are no traces of burials of the indigenous population - neither the pre-Roman era, nor the era of the province!

What is the reason for the strange situation of the complete destruction of local specificity against the background of the obvious sympathy of the Romans for the conquered Dacians (which is clear from the writings of Latin writers)? Why did the population of an entire country disappear without a trace in broad daylight? There is no satisfactory explanation for this. Dacia, together with the Dacians, plunged into oblivion as Atlantis. Will this mystery ever be revealed?

Some historians believe that after the wars with Trajan, the Dacian human resources were depleted, men died in the war or fled, women and children were captured. Others argue that the native population may have been forcibly relocated, but this is unlikely. Other hypotheses also have no documentary basis.

R Umyn scientists point out that by the time of the conquest, unlike other tribes, the Dacians had already passed the stage of the tribal system, they had a state, but there was no aristocracy that had landed property. The land was apparently in the possession of the king, and after the invasion, the Romans easily forced the landless Dacians out of economic life. But why did the indigenous population not join the ethnically diverse urban and rural communities founded by the colonists?

Someone probably collaborated with the occupiers, joined the Roman army and completely lost their identity. Cassius, a contemporary of the events, claimed that many Dacians had gone over to the side of Trajan. Presumably the Dacian was Publius Aelius Dacian, the decurion of Napoca, the first settlement in the province mentioned in documents as a city. There are no traces of indigenous people at this place.

In total, 11 cities of Roman Dacia are known. There is no evidence of whether Romanization in these places was forced or natural, but sources indicate that it was much more widespread and rapid than in other provinces. As a result, Dacia turned out to be the most Romanized, although it was one of the last to become part of Rome. Latin here did not experience serious competition from other languages ​​and soon became native for the vast majority. For comparison: in Britain, the population retained its spiritual values ​​and language during the first two centuries of Roman rule.

HOW THE DACAN HERITAGE WAS DIVISIONED

The political and military crisis of Rome reached its climax in the second half of the third century AD. The provinces were in decline, the financial situation of Dacia was dire, and in an atmosphere of instability panic rumors spread. The Romans officially renounced Dacia under Emperor Aurelian, who in 270-275 left the province to its fate and transferred the Roman colonists across the Danube to the middle parts of the province of Moesia, forming the province of Dacia Aureliana. Emperor Diocletian in 285 formed two new provinces from it: Dacia ripensis ("Coastal Dacia") and Dacia mediterranea ("Dacia Inner").

Almost nothing is known about the life of Dacia after the departure of the Romans, although, for example, in Britain there is a lot of evidence of the period of the fall of the empire and the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons. Before the Middle Ages, there was no mention of this territory and its population in written sources. It can be assumed that society was going through a period of disorganization, cities fell apart, and people lived in isolation in the villages. In the 6th-10th centuries, the Roman-speaking Vlachs were in intensive contact with the migrating Slavic tribes, and after the 12th century, the core of the Roman-speaking Dacia, Transylvania, was conquered by the Hungarians for a long time.

The problem of succession seems insoluble, although historians cannot reconcile with this. In the Middle Ages, the largest part of Roman Dacia (Transylvania and Banat) was part of Hungary. After the disappearance of the kingdom and a short period of autonomy, the Principality of Transylvania became a province of the Habsburg Empire, transformed into XIX century into the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

Romanian historians believe that during all these centuries, the majority of the population of Transylvania were Romanians. The study of the past of Dacia and the awareness of the Latin basis of the Romanian language led to the birth of the intellectual movement of the Transylvanian Romanians, which culminated in the memorandum " Supplex Libellus Valachorum ". The authors demanded that the Romanians be granted political and civil rights, arguing that the ancient population of Transylvania was unfairly deprived of equal rights with those who came to this territory later - the Magyar nobility, Saxons and Székelys.

The controversy about the continuity between the Dacians and the Romanians of Transylvania flared up with raised voices. The formation of the Romanian state took her even further. A struggle began for the unification of Trnasilvania and Banat with Romania. The discussion in Romanian and Hungarian historiography continued throughout the 20th century. Even in communist Hungary, there was a complete rejection of the fact of the reunification of various regions within the borders of the Romanian state. During the reign of Nicolae Ceausescu, disputes took on transcendental forms. The consequences of this are still being felt at the level of everyday consciousness.

The most ancient reliefs depict only one horseman, the later ones depict two horsemen on either side of the goddess, whose main symbolic attribute is a fish. There are other symbols surrounded by riders - the Moon, the Sun, stars, images of animals and birds. According to one version, the Dacian horsemen are descended from the Dioscuri (in Greek mythology, the sons of Zeus, twins), and according to another, from the Kabiri (the ancient Greek gods of fire and light, who delivered from danger). None of the hypotheses is reliable.

The Greek historian Strabo (left) spoke of Decebalus' "anti-alcohol campaign". He called the Dacians Getae. On the right is a Dacian horseman.