This timeline isn't as detailed or complete as the medieval timeline. Though outside of the medieval era this timeline provides an important look at the ancient history of the Romanian people. Romanians are very proud of their ancient heritage and their descent from the Romans, to fully understand them you must be understand this part of their history.
 

1st C. A.D. ---  The setting up of the cultural-religious confederation of the Greek cities, from the Left-Pontus (Histria, Tomis, Callatis, Dionysopolis, Odessos) under the name of "Pentapolis" which turns into "Hexapolis" when Mesambria joins too. The seat of the pontarch is settled at Tomis, a fact which marks the prevalence of this city in the Roman epoch. At the end of the second century, after Mesambria's withdrawal, the confederation rsumed its former title, and disappeared then, during the last two decades of the third century.

9-18 --- Relegated to Tomis, at the order of Emperor Augustus (for reasons that have not been fully made clear to this day) the Roman poet P. Ovidius Naso from Sulmona, lives his last years among Greeks and Getae, writing here his Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto.

11/12 --- Sextus Aelius Catus, Roman general, commander of the military district of Moesia, displaced about 50,000 Getae to the right bank of the Danube (Ripa Thraciae). A large number of Geto-Dacian cities from the Wallachian plain: Zimnicea, Piscul Crasanilor, Popesti do not attest any longer to inhabitance after the reign of Augustus.

ca. 15 --- The setting up of the Roman province of Moesia. The Dobruja (Scythia Minor) stays on under the nominal authority of the Odris Thracian rulers, but under the Roman control of the "prefect of the sea-coast."

ca. 20 --- Under the pressure of the Roxolani, and prompted by Rome, the Sarmatian Jazyges from the east of Dacia, settled between the Danube and the Tisa, at the western borders of the territories inhabited by the Dacians.

46 --- The client kingdom of Thrace is turned into a Roman province. The Dobruja is annexed to the province of Moesia, which spreads from the river-mouth of the Sava down to the Danube Delta and the Black Sea, having as a northern boundary the Danube and as a southern boundary the Balkans (The Haemus Mountains). The entire Balkan Peninsula becomes a continuous Roman possession. Subjected to a powerful process of Romanization, the Dobruja will turn into a powerful stronghold of the eastern Roman world.

57-67 --- The rule of Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus in the province of Moesia. After a quick incursion, he displaces about 100,000 trans-Danubian Sarmatians, Bastarnae, Geto-Dacians to the south of the Danube ad praestanda tributa.

68/69 (winter) --- Taking advantage of the civil war unleashed at the death of Emperor Nero, bands of Dacian and Roxolan Sarmatians attack the province of Moesia but are repelled by the governor M. Aponius Saturninus.

70 (winter) --- G. Fonteius Agrippa, the new governor of Moesia, who had repelled a Dacian invasion in December 69, is killed by the Sarmatians who invaded the Dobruja.

85/86 (winter)  ---  Quick invasion of the Dacians, allied with the Roxolani, Bastarnae, Jazyges, in Moesia. C. Oppius Sabinus, governor of the province, is defeated and killed. With great efforts, Cornelius Fuscus, the prefect of the praetorium, and governor Funisulanus Vettonianus succeed in pushing back the assailants across the river.

86 --- Personal intervention of Emperor Domitianus (81-96) on the front of Moesia. On this occasion two provinces, Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior (also including Scythia Minor), were set up through the division of Moesia.

87 (summer)  --- Cornelius Fuscus starts a campaign in order to reach the centre of Dacia, crossing the Danube on a bridge of boats and advancing toward Sarmizegethusa. Drawn into ambush, his army is defeated and he is killed. Under the circumstances, the Dacian king Duras-Diurpaneus yields his throne to Decebalus.

87-106 ---   Decebalus' Reign.    Accelerated process of state centralization, in face of the imminence of the Roman danger. The initiation of a vast program of civil and military constructions in Dacia, particularly in the area of the Orastie Mountains. 150 years after the events, the historian Cassius Dio described Decebalus (Roman History, LXVII, 6, 1) as follows: "he was very experienced in war matters and skilled in deed, knowing how to choose the occasion to attack the enemy and withdraw in time. Clever at laying traps, he was valiant in struggle, knowing how to avail himself, skillfully, of a victory and get off a defeat, on account of which he was a dreaded antagonist to the Romans." For two decades, indeed, the confrontation with the Dacian state was to be the major problem of the Roman foreign policy.

88 --- General Tettius Julianus, the new praefectus praetorio, takes over the command of the Roman forces headed against Decebalus, penetrates Dacia, through the Banat, and scores an important victory at Tapae, the Iron Gate of Transylvania, but does not dare to avail himself of this victory by continuing his advance.

89 --- The outbreak of some battles on the front of Pannonia against the Quadi and the Marcomanni accelerated the conclusion of a peace of compromise between the Dacian state and Rome. Decebalus acknowledges himself as a client king in exchange for some subsidies, but neither returns all the prisoners, nor the captured Roman standards.

96-192 --- During the Antonine dynasty, the Dobruja undergoes a period of prosperity already begun during the Julian-Claudian dynasty. Histria and Callatis resume striking their own coin (bronze). Tomis had been granted this privilege at the time of Emperor Augustus. Around the castra of Capidava and Carsium there developed flourishing towns, while the foundation of Emperor Trajan, Tropaeum Traiani, became an important centre of communications.

98 January 27 --- Upon the death of M. Cocceius Nerva, the throne of the Roman Empire was taken by his adoptive son, M. Ulpius Trajanus.

101 (spring)-102 (autumn) --- The First Dacian War. Though numerous, the basic sources dealing with the decisive confrontation between the Dacians and the Romans were doomed to evil fate; Trajan's commentaries, drawn up after Caesar's model, then Getica, the work of Criton, the emperor's surgeon, as well as the chapters devoted to this event in the writings of Appian, Arrian, Ammianus Marcellinus, got lost. Even the chapters, dealing with this clash, in the Roman history of Dio Cassius, have only been preserved in some Byzantine summaries from the 11th-12th centuries.

101 March 25 --- Trajan leaves Rome heading towards Moesia Superior where the Roman forces (13-14 legions as well as a large number of auxiliary troops comprising about 150,000 soldiers) were concentrated.

101 (spring) --- A body of troop, headed by the emperor, crosses the Danube on a bridge of boats at Lederata, another one at Drobeta, the two columns joining hands at Tibiscum, along the same road covered by Tettius Julianus.

101 (autumn) --- The attempt made by Decebalus to stop the Roman advance at Tapae ends in failure.

101 (winter)-102 (spring) --- Important Dacian forces, in alliance with Roxolan and Bastarnae contingents undertook, through the Dobruja, a ravaging invasion of the Roman provinces south of the Danube. Trajan is forced to move personally, with a section of the troops of Dacia, to the front of Moesia. The decisive battle takes place on the Plateau at Adamclisi and concludes with the victory of the Roman legions. The importance and scope of this clash is emphasized by the erection of an impressive commemorative monument (Tropaeum Traiani) on the battlefield, as well as by the number of Roman soldiers fallen in battle, estimated at 3,800, an extremely high effective for a victorious army.

102 (summer) --- The Roman offensive in Dacia is resumed. Waging hard battles, the legions continue their advance - through the Orastie Mountains - toward Sarmizegethusa. Decebalus is forced to seek peace.

102 (autumn) ---  Conclusion of the peace between Rome and the Dacian state under hard conditions for Decebalus. The stipulations of the treaty of 89 are called off, the Dacian cities are to be dismantled, the Roman deserters, who had sought refuge at the court of the Dacian king, handed over. A Roman garrison, under the command of Gaius Longinus settles in the Hateg Plain.

102 December --- Back in Rome, Trajan assumes the triumphal name Dacicus.

103-105  ---  Architect Apollodorus of Damascus builds a bridge across the Danube between Drobeta and Pontes, having a length of 1,135 m.
    - Feverish attempts made by Decebalus to face another Roman attack. Unfruitful attempts made by the Dacian sovereign to establish relations with the king of the Parthians, Pacorus II, in view of setting up a joint anti-Roman front.

105 (summer) - 106 (summer) --- The second Dacian war.

105 June 4 --- Trajan leaves Rome for the Dacian front. "Trajan crossed the Istros across this bridge (the one built by Apollodorus) and waged his war, rather with consideration than ardour, defeating the Dacians, after long and hard efforts" wrote Dio Cassius (LXVII, 13, 1). Trajan wins the confidence of his legionaries: the story is told that in one battle he tears up his
own cloak to help bandage the wounded. Abandoned by his allies, attacked from several directions, withdrawn in the fortresses in the mountains, Decebalus is compelled to a heroic but futile resistance.

106 (summer) ---  The siege and fall of Sarmizegethusa, which was destroyed to its foundations by the victorious army. Pursued by Roman cavalry, threatened to fall into captivity, Decebalus summons his chiefs to a final feast, after which they all commit suicide. It is Hadrian who discovers the gruesome aftermath of this act. Trajan lingers till the spring of the following year in the conquered territories, in order to organise them thoroughly.

106-271 --- Roman Dacia

106 August 11 ---   A military diploma, discovered at Porolissum (Moigrad, Salaj County) attests to the conclusion of the second Dacian War and the setting up of the imperial province of Dacia, including Transylvania, the Banat, the west of Oltenia. The east of Oltenia, Wallachia and the south of Moldavia are under the authority of the governor of Moesia Inferior.

106-271 --- Roman rule in Dacia. As early as the first years after the conquest, by Trajan's order, there begins the organized and massive colonization of the new province with Roman or Romanized elements brought from all over the Roman world, particularly from the Latin language provinces. Towns, boroughs, castra are being set up, paved roads are being built, the riches of the subsoil (gold, silver, copper, iron, salt) and of the soil were extensively turned to good account. In a small number of provinces of the empire did the newly set up towns or those developed from canabae, pagi and vici, receive the ranks of municipium and colonia so quickly and in such large number; jus italicum is granted in Dacia with unique liberality. The Dacian population, heavilt tried by the two wars, undergoes, from the very beginning, the influence of the superior Roman civilization and gradually adopts the material culture, the language, the customs and creeds of the conqueror. The Romanization, which included both economic and social life as well as the spiritual one was complete. Latin, the only means of mutual understanding of the different ethnical components of the province, asserted itself at all levels. Out of the 3,000 inscriptions of Roman Dacia, that have been preserved, only 37 are in Greek. Out of 2,700 names of persons, mentioned in inscriptions, 75% are Roman, 13% Greek, 4% Thraco-Dacian and 4% Illyrian. Foloowing the fusion of the autochthonous element with the Roman one, the Latin-speaking Daco-Roman population is constituted, being the determining component in the process of the growth of the Romanian people.

107 --- Back in Rome, Trajan celebrated his second Dacian triumph; the performances and games given by the emperor in the Eternal City, in honour of the victory, lasted for 123 days; Dacian prisoners are used as gladiators.

108/10  ---  In the southwest of Dacia, governor Decimus Terentius Scaurianus sets up the capital of the new province, named in honour of the emperor, Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica. In an honorific inscription in homour of Emperor Hadrian (117-118) there also appears, beside the official name of Colonia Ulpia Traiana, the name of Sarmizegetusa, reproducing the one of the old capital of Decebalus in the Orastie Mountains. At its erection, the city got the rank of colonia, becoming the seat of the governor and of the entire administrative, fiscal, and religious body of the province.

109 --- The inauguration, at Adamclisi in Dobruja, of a monumental trophy (about 40 m high), for the glorification of the victory gained here by the Roman legions, during the first Dacian war.

113 May 12 --- In Rome, in the newly-built forum, Trajan's column, attributed to Apollodorus of Damascus, is inaugurated. A masterpiece of the Roman historical basrelief, the 124 scenes, spiralling up on the trunk of the column, constitute, together with the Trophy of Adamclisi, an original birth certificate of the Romanian people. After Trajan's death, the golden urn with the emperor's ashes will be deposited in a room from the socle of the column which thus simultaneously became the tomb of the conqueror of Dacia. The reign of Emperor Trajan marked the summit of the territorial expansion of the Roman Empire.

117-118 --- The attacks of the Sarmatians, Jazyges and Roxolani at the borders of Dacia, blend with the unrest of the recently subjected Dacians. The new emperor Hadrian pays a visit to Dacia and to the Danubian provinces, where he concerns himself with measures for straightening out the situation.

119 --- After the departure of general Q. Marcius Turbo, who was entrusted by Hadrian with straightening out the situation in Dacia and Pannonia Inferior, the inscriptions testify to the first administrative reorganization of Dacia. Transylvania and the Banat are included into the province of Dacia Superior, with the seat at Apulum (where the only legion that has remained in Dacia, Legio XIII Gemina, is stationed), while Oltenia makes up Dacia Inferior, with its seat at Romula. Fortification of the limes Alutanus, whose construction between the Danube (Islaz) and the Southern Carpathians (Boita) along the Olt, had been started as early as Trajan's time. During the second half of the 2nd century it was lined from 20km to 100km eastward by another limes (Limes Transalutanus - between Flaminda on the Danube and Rucar in the Southern Carpathians).

123-124 --- Another visit paid by Emperor Hadrian to the Danubian provinces and to Dacia. The division of Dacia into three provinces: Dacia Superior, Dacia Inferior and Dacia Porolissensis is hypothetically connected to this date. The towns of Drobeta (Drobeta-Turnu Severin of today), Napoca (Cluj of today), Romula (Resca of today, Olt County) were granted the rank of municipium.

123-133 --- The building of the aqueduct of the town of Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa.

143 --- Attack of the free Dacians against Dacia, repelled by the Roman garrisons.

156-157 --- Attack of free Dacians at the west boundaries of Dacia, repelled by the legate of Dacia Superior, M. Statius Priscus. The fortifications of the Dacian limes along the Somes river.

157 --- The reconstruction of the amphitheater at Porolissum, thanks to procurator Tiberius Claudius Quintilianus.

158 --- The thorough repairing of the amphitheater from Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa. The metropolis of Dacia numbered about 15,000-20,000 inhabitants, by the second half of the 2nd century.

166-175 --- The first Marcomannic War. The Germanic tribes of the Quazi and Marcomanni attack the northern boundaries of the empire, the Sarmatian Jazyges attack the provinces from the middle course of the Danube, while the Bastarnae, the coasts of the Pontus Euxinus. On account of its advanced position, north of the Danube, Dacia is deeply affected by these events.

167 --- The attack of the Costobocii (free Dacians from the north and east of Roman Dacia) in Dacia and subsequently in Macedonia and Greece. Their raids south of the Danube are resumed after 2-3 years. Defeated several times, during the subsequent decades, the Costobocii are no longer mentioned by historical sources.

167 -- The Legio V. Macedonica - with its seat at Troesmis, after having participated in the Parthian war (161-166), is transferred to Dacia, settling its garrison at Potaissa (Turda).

168 --- The counteroffensive of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus ends in the rejection of the attacks of the barbarian peoples. Order is re-established in Dacia and on the Lower Danube.

168-169 --- The third and last administrative reorganization of Dacia. The three provinces Dacia Apulensis (former Dacia Superior), Dacia Porolissensis (northern part of Dacia Superior), and Dacia Malvensis (former Dacia Inferior)are subordinated to a supreme governor of consular rank (legatus Augusti pro praetore trium Daciarum). M. Claudius Fronto is appointed first governor of the three united Dacias. After the transfer of Legio V. Macedonica to Potaissa (the third town of Roman Dacia in point of surface and importance), the military effectives increase to about 40,000 soldiers (2 legions, about 20 alae, 50 auxiliary cohorts and 20-25 other special formations).

180-192 --- The reign of Commodus. The towns of Napoca and Apulum are raised to the rank of colonia.

183-184 --- The Roman generals D. Clodius Albinus and C. Pescennius Niger (future emperors) waged victorious battles against the free Dacians from the north of the province.

193-235 --- The epoch of the dynasty of the Severi, characterized by quietness and prosperity, represented the period of utmost economic, urbanistic and cultural flourishing of the towns and boroughs in Roman Dacia and the Dobruja.

193-211   Reign of Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus, the most generous supporter of the towns of Dacia. Dierna, Drobeta, Potaissa obtained the rank of colonia, while Porolissum that of municipium. Thus the number of towns in Dacia rises to 10 (4 colonia and 6 municipia) while in Moesia Inferior to 5 (4 municipia: Durostorum, Tropaeum, Troesmis, Novae and a single colonia: Oescus). The Dacian population undergoes a thorough process of Romanization, actively participates in the economic and military life of the province and of the empire. According to epigraphic testimonies, during the Roman rule, the conquerors enlisted, from among the Dacian population, about 15 auxiliary detachments, alae and cohorts with the garrison in various provinces. Under Trajan there are known Ala I. Ulpia Dacorum (Cappadocia) and Cohors I. Ulpia Dacorum (Syria), under Hadrian, Cohors I. Aelia Dacorum (Britain), under Marcus Aurelius and Caracalla, Cohors II. Aurelia Dacorum (Pannonia Superior), under Gordianus III, Cohors Gemina Dacorum Gordiana milliaria (Moesia Inferior), a.o.

3rd C. (first half) ---  The penetration into southern Moldavia and Wallachia (in the steppe areas) of the nomadic tribes of the Sarmatians (an Iranian population related to the Scythians) which enter upon close relationships with the autochthonous population. The presence of the Sarmatians in these regions is attested to down to the end of the fourth century.

ca. 200 --- The Goths, by the time of the reign of Septimius Severus, have founded an empire on the north shores of the Black Sea and around the Danube Delta.¹

212 --- Consitutio Antoniniani (the Anotninian Constitution) promulgated by Emperor Caracalla (211-217) grants to almost all the free inhabitants of the provinces Roman citizenship. A large number of peregrini from Dacia and Moesia obtain the title of citizens, a fact also reflected in the high frequency of the name of Aurelius in these provinces.

213 --- Before his departure to the Orient, Emperor Caracalla visits Moesia Inferior and Dacia. Restoration of the castra, along the north and west defence line of the province.

222-235 --- During the reign of Emperor Severus Alexander, Dacia enjoys a particular attention; for the first time the provincial assembly of Dacia (Concilium Trium Daciarum), with the seat at Sarmizegethusa (which is granted the honorific title of metropolis) is attested to in a document.

236 --- Emperor Maximin the Thracian (235-238), a native of Moesia Inferior, waged battles against the Sarmatian Jazyges and the free Dacians, assuming the title of Dacicus Maximus and Sarmaticus Maximus.

238 --- In the time of emperors Pupienus and Balbinus, the invasion of the Carpians (free Dacians settled in Moldavia) allied with the Goths from the Lower Danube is repelled by Tullius Menophilus, the new governor of Moesia Inferior.

242 --- A powerful invasion of the Carpians allied with the Goths from Moesia and Thrace.

245-247 --- The most powerful attack of the Carpians against Dacia is repelled by Emperor Philip the Arabian (244-249) who, after this victory, adopts the title of Carpicus Maximus. The abandonment of the limes transalutanus. Roman defence again entrenched itself on the Olt. Callatis and Tomis stop coining money as well as Histria, at the time of Gordianus III.

246 --- Emperor Philip the Arabian grants Dacia the right to strike its own bronze coin. The first coins are issued in the months of July/August 246, the last ones in 256.

249-251 --- Emperor Decius fights in Dacia against the invasions of the free Dacians, assuming the title of Dacicus Maximus and Restitutor Daciarum. On imperial coins there appeared the legend Dacia Felix.

249-250 (winter) ---  A coalition of transDanubian and north Pontic populations led by Kniva the Goth, crosses the Dobruja and Wallachia and invades Moesia Inferior and Thrace. In 251, in the battle of Abrittus (Razgrad of today, Bulgaria) Emperor Decius himself dies: for the first time in Rome's history an emperor meets his death on the battlefield.

253-268 --- The reign of Emperor Gallienus marks the climax of the crisis of the Roman state in the third century. Thanks to some special military efforts, the Roman rule keeps almost unchanged in Dacia: the two legions go on stationing in their old garrison places. But the precarious state of the province, the progressive decay of economic and commercial life cause the onset of an exodus of the well-to-do strata towards the more sheltered areas of the empire.

253 --- A new invasion of the Goths, Carpians and of other tribes, south of the Danube, is defeated by M. Aemilius Aemilianus, the governor of the two Moesii and of Pannonia Inferior.

255-258 --- The last epigraphic document, found at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa. The life of the metropolis was on the wane.

257 --- Following the victories over the free Dacians, Emperor Gallienus adopts the title of Dacicus Maximus.

258-260 --- The rebellion of general Ingenuus, the commander of the troops from Illyricum (including Dacia) proclaimed emperor by the troops from Moesia Superior. Defeated by Gallienus at Mursa, the usurper commits suicide.

260 --- The troops from Moesia Superior proclaimed as emperor general Regalianus, supposed to be of Dacian origin, "from Decebalus' kin" (Historia Augusta). Threatened by Gallienus' reprisals, Regalianus is killed by his own troops.

267 --- The powerful invasion of some north Pontic populations, headed by the Goths and Heruli from the sea. They lay waste the coasts of Dobruja, Asia Minor and Greece.

268 --- The Roman general Aureolus, a native of Dacia, is proclaimed emperor. Though Gallienus, who besieges him at Mediolanum, is murdered, shortly after the acknowledgement of Claudius II the Goth, as an emperor, he is killed too.

269 --- A powerful invasion of the Goths, Gepidae, Heruli, Bastarnae from the sea, in the Balkan provinces of the Roman Empire. The towns of Tomis, Marcianopolis, Cyzicus, Byzantium successfully hold out against the attacks. Near the river of Margus, at Naissus (Nis of today, Yugoslavia) the Roman army headed by Claudius II gains a brilliant victory over the invaders. This is a full scale battle in which 50,000 Goths are reputed to have been slain. The first mention of the Gepidae in the vicinity of the northern borders of Dacia.

270-275 --- The reign of Emperor Aurelianus. On the money coined at the beginning of the reign, the legend of Dacia Felix is still present.

271-10th C. --- The epoch of migrations.

271 --- Under the pressure of the attacks of the migratory peoples, of the free Dacians and with a view to strengthen the Danubian border, Emperor Aurelianus orders the withdrawal of the Roman army and administration from Dacia. The administrative staff, the great land owners, the rich townspeople connected by their social status to the existence of the Roman rule, withdrew south of the Danube, to a province which is given the name of Dacia, subsequently divided into Dacia Ripensis and Dacia Mediterranea. But the majority of the Daco-Roman population, thoroughly and irreversibly Romanized, remains yet. A complete evacuation of the entire population (appreciated at that date, at one million inhabitants) is rejected by historical logic, by experts of ancient Rome and Dacia such as: Th. Mommsen, C. Patsch, V. Pa^rvan, J. Jung, L. Homo, C. Daicoviciu, Fr. Altheim. The local Romanity which had preserved to a large extent its former way of life, mainly peasants and shepherds, becomes the foundation of the ethnical, socio-economic and cultural transformations on the Romanian territory, asserting itself as the decisive element in the process of the formation of the Romanian language and people. On the territory of old Dacia the Roman withdrawal marks the end of the slave-owning relations of production, the subsequent epoch being characterized by the existence of rural communities (the vicinal commune), a form of social-political organization of the autochthonous population, which is again resorted to, in absence of an actual state authority.

271-602 --- In the history of Romania, the end of the Roman domination opens up the final period of the process of the formation of the Romanian people (3rd-10th centuries) and, from the social point of view, the transition to the feudal order. The written information on the north-Danubian realities are extremely poor, the foreign chronicles restricting themselves to the mentioning of the military events and of the hegemonic ethnical element and this only to the extent to which they had a direct connection with the history of the Roman-Byzantine Empire or of the Western states. After Aurelianus' withdrawal from Dacia, the latter remains within the political, economic and cultural sphere of the Roman-Byzantine Empire, which is to preserve several fortified cities on the left bank of the Danube, actual bridgeheads, and will not give up the idea of reconquering the abandoned territories during the subsequent three centuries. The entire character of the attempts of Roman restoration, on the Lower Danube, can be grasped only by taking into consideration the permanence of eastern Romanity in these regions. The preservation of the ethnical being of the Daco-Roman autochthonous population, as a special entity in the midst of a population of varied origins and structures, the preservation of the old provincial traditions, the uninterrupted relations with the Roman Dobruja, with the Roman-Byzantine world, south of the Danube, have enabled the continuation and conclusion of the process of Romanization on the Carpatho-Danubian territories.

271-376 --- After Dacia's exit from the structure of the Roman Empire and therefore from the attention of imperial historiography, the archaelogical data came to the foreground, while following the evolution of the history of the Daco-Roman population, of its uninterrupted continuity on Dacia's territory. The old towns and boroughs of Roman Dacia go on providing, shelter to the Daco-Roman population for two more centuries, to a much lesser degree. A large number of imperial coin treasures from the 1st-3rd centuries A.D., whose treasuring was undertaken during the Roman rule, include bronze specimens from the 4th century. The amphitheater of Sarmizegetusa is turned into a small fortress in the 4th century; in one of its lodges there was discovered a treasure of bronze coins, some of them being from the time of Emperor Valentinian I (364-375). The necropolis of the old urban settlement of Apulum is uninterruptedly used up to the time of Emperor Valentinian II (375-392). The series of Roman coins discovered in the necropolis of Napoca ranges down to Theodosius II (408-450), and at Potaissa down to Arcadius (395-402). A large number of rural settlements testify an uninterrupted inhabiting in the 3rd-4th centuries: Micia (Hunedoara County), Biertan (Sibiu County), Aiud (Alba County), Sebes (Alba County), Zlatna (Alba County), a.o.

321-322 --- Constantine expels the barbarians from Roman Dacia, repairs Trajan's bridge over the Danube, penetrates the old province of Dacia and makes peace.

372 --- The Huns, under Balamir, cross the Volga and attack the Ostrogoths in the Ukraine under their aged king, Ermanaric, who is defeated. Some Ostrogoths join in with the Huns; some penetrate into the land of the Visigoths, north of the Danube.

376-378 --- The Visigoths north of the Danube are in turn defeated by the Huns. The survivors receive permission to cross south into Roman territory.

592-593 --- Byzantine Emperor Maurice is able to turn against the Avars who are spreading over the Balkans under their king Baian. They are driven back across the Danube.

¹ The Goths of the north shore of the Black Sea call themselves the Ostrogoths ("splendid Goth"). The Goths occupying the Danube delta called themselves the Visigoths ("noble Goths").

Back to the Main Page

Back to the Timeline