page_title: Romania
section_title: Antiquity
hierarchical_section_title: Romania / History / Antiquity
caption_attribution_description: Български: Светилища. Светилища в Сармизеджетуса. Čeština: Pozůstatky svatyň v Sarmizegetuse. Deutsch: Sarmizegetusa Regia. English: The sanctuaries at Sarmizegetusa Regia, the capital of ancient Dacia (modern Romania) Français&#160;: Sarmizegetusa Regia. Magyar: Szentélyek Sarmizegetusa Regia-nál. Szentélyek. Italiano: Sarmizegetusa Regia. 日本語: ダキア人の聖所. ქართული: სარმიზეგეტუზა. Nederlands: Dacisch fort van Sarmizegetusa. Română: Sarmizegetusa Regia. Sarmizegetusa, capitala Daciei. Русский: Вид на реконструкцию храмов. Святилище Сармизегетуза. Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски: Svetišta u Sarmizegetusi. Svenska: Helgedomar vid Sarmizegetusa Regia. This is a photo of a historic monument in județul Hunedoara, classified with number HD-I-s-A-03190
context_page_description: Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It shares land borders with Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, and Moldova to the east and has its opening to the Black Sea. It has a predominantly temperate-continental climate. With a total area of 238,397 square kilometres, Romania is the twelfth-largest country in Europe and the seventh-most populous member state of the European Union, having approximately 20 million inhabitants. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest. Other major urban areas include: Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Iași, Constanța, Craiova, Brașov, and Galați.
  The River Danube, Europe's second-longest river, rises in Germany's Black Forest and flows in a generally southeasterly direction for 2,857 km, coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romania's Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest, include Moldoveanu Peak, at an altitude of 2,544 m.
  Modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.
context_section_description: Greek colonies established on the Black Sea coast in the 7th century BC became important centres of commerce with the local tribes. Among the native peoples, Herodotus listed the Getae of the Lower Danube region, the Agathyrsi of Transylvania and the Syginnae of the plains along the river Tisza at the beginning of the 5th century BC. Centuries later, Strabo associated the Getae with the Dacians who dominated the lands along the southern Carpathian Mountains in the 1st century BC. Burebista was the first Dacian ruler to unite the local tribes. He also conquered the Greek colonies in Dobruja and the neighbouring peoples as far as the Middle Danube and the Balkan Mountains between around 55 and 44 BC. After Burebista was murdered in 44 BC, his empire collapsed.
  The Romans reached Dacia during Burebista's reign and conquered Dobruja in 46 AD. Dacia was again united under Decebalus around 85 AD. He resisted the Romans for decades, but the Roman army defeated his troops in 106 AD. Emperor Trajan transformed Banat, Oltenia and the greater part of Transylvania into the new Roman province of Dacia, but Dacian, Germanic and Sarmatian tribes continued to dominate the lands along the Roman frontiers. The Romans pursued an organised colonisation policy, and the provincials enjoyed a long period of peace and prosperity in the 2nd century. Scholars accepting the Daco-Roman continuity theory—one of the main theories about the origin of the Romanians—say that the cohabitation of the native Dacians and the Roman colonists in Roman Dacia was the first phase of the Romanians' ethnogenesis.
  The Carpians, Goths and other neighbouring tribes made regular raids against Dacia from the 210s. The Romans could not resist, and Emperor Aurelian ordered the evacuation of the province Dacia Trajana in 271. Scholars supporting the continuity theory are convinced that most Latin-speaking commoners stayed behind when the army and civil administration was withdrawn. The Romans did not abandon their fortresses along the northern banks of the Lower Danube for decades, and Dobruja (known as Scythia Minor) remained an integral part of the Roman Empire until the early 7th century.
caption: Ruins of sanctuaries at Sarmizegetusa Regia (Dacia's capital during the reigns of Burebista and Decebalus).
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2014:01:01 13:50:27", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "190", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3362", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10360", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/640", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:08:09 16:12:28", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:08:09 16:12:28", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "149/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "31/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1944", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2592", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1944", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3214", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "11520", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1944000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}