page_title: Dacia
section_title: Provincial history
hierarchical_section_title: Dacia / Roman conquest / Provincial history
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Die unteren Donauländer zur Römerzeit. Alte historische Karte aus Droysens Historischem Handatlas, 1886 English: The Roman provinces of the Lower Danube. Old historical map from Droysens Historical Atlas, 1886 Français&#160;: Provinces romaines d'Illyrie, de Macédoine, de Dacie, de Mésie, de Pannonie et de Thrace. Carte issue de l'Allgemeiner Historischer Handatlas de Gustav Droysen dirigé par Richard Andree, 1886.
context_page_description: Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians. The Greeks referred to them as the Getae and the Romans called them Daci.
  Dacia was bounded in the south approximately by the Danubius river, in Greek sources the Istros, or at its greatest extent, by the Haemus Mons. Moesia, a region south-east of the Danube, was a core area where the Getae lived and interacted with the Ancient Greeks. In the east it was bounded by the Pontus Euxinus and the river Danastris, in Greek sources the Tyras. But several Dacian settlements are recorded between the rivers Dniester and Hypanis, and the Tisia to the west.
  At times Dacia included areas between the Tisa and the Middle Danube. The Carpathian Mountains are located in the middle of Dacia. It thus corresponds to the present-day countries of Romania and Moldova, as well as smaller parts of Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine.
  A Dacian Kingdom of variable size existed between 82 BC until the Roman conquest in AD 106. The capital of Dacia, Sarmizegetusa, located in modern Romania, was destroyed by the Romans, but its name was added to that of the new city built by the latter to serve as the capital of the Roman province of Dacia.
context_section_description: Although the Romans conquered and destroyed the ancient Kingdom of Dacia, a large remainder of the land remained outside of Roman Imperial authority. Additionally, the conquest changed the balance of power in the region and was the catalyst for a renewed alliance of Germanic and Celtic tribes and kingdoms against the Roman Empire. However, the material advantages of the Roman Imperial system was attractive to the surviving aristocracy. Afterwards, many of the Dacians became Romanised (see also Origin of Romanians). In AD 183, war broke out in Dacia: few details are available, but it appears two future contenders for the throne of emperor Commodus, Clodius Albinus and Pescennius Niger, both distinguished themselves in the campaign.
  According to Lactantius, the Roman emperor Decius (AD 249–251) had to restore Roman Dacia from the Carpo-Dacians of Zosimus "having undertaken an expedition against the Carpi, who had then possessed themselves of Dacia and Moesia".
  Even so, the Germanic and Celtic kingdoms, particularly the Gothic tribes, slowly moved toward the Dacian borders, and within a generation were making assaults on the province. Ultimately, the Goths succeeded in dislodging the Romans and restoring the "independence" of Dacia following Emperor Aurelian's withdrawal, in 275.
  In AD 268–269, at Naissus, Claudius II (Gothicus Maximus) obtained a decisive victory over the Goths. Since at that time Romans were still occupying Roman Dacia it is assumed that the Goths didn't cross the Danube from the Roman province. The Goths who survived their defeat didn't even attempt to escape through Dacia, but through Thrace. At the boundaries of Roman Dacia, Carpi (Free Dacians) were still strong enough to sustain five battles in eight years against the Romans from AD 301–308. Roman Dacia was left in AD 275 by the Romans, to the Carpi again, and not to the Goths. There were still Dacians in AD 336, against whom Constantine the Great fought.
  The province was abandoned by Roman troops, and, according to the Breviarium historiae Romanae by Eutropius, Roman citizens "from the towns and lands of Dacia" were resettled to the interior of Moesia. Under Diocletian, c. AD 296, in order to defend the Roman border, fortifications were erected by the Romans on both banks of the Danube.
caption: Dacia and environs
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