|
Romania Roman Dacia
From the newly conquered land, Trajan organized the
Roman
province of Dacia, whose capital, Ulpia Trajana, stood on
the site
of Sarmizegetusa. Many Getae resisted Roman authority and
some fled
northward, away from the centers of Roman rule. Trajan
countered
local insurrection and foreign threat by stationing two
legions and
a number of auxiliary troops in Dacia and by colonizing
the
province with legionnaires, peasants, merchants, artisans,
and
officials from lands as far off as Gaul, Spain, and Syria.
Agriculture and commerce flourished, and the Romans built
cities,
fortresses, and roads that stretched eastward into
Scythia.
In the next 200 years, a Dacian ethnic group arose as
Roman
colonists commingled with the Getae and the coastal
Greeks.
Literacy spread, and Getae who enlisted in the Roman army
learned
Latin. Gradually a Vulgar Latin tongue superseded the
Thracian
language in commerce and administration and became the
foundation
of modern Romanian. A religious fusion also occurred. Even
before
the Roman invasion, some Getae worshiped Mithras, the
ancient
Persian god of light popular in the Roman legions. As
Roman
colonization progressed, worshipers faithful to Jupiter,
Diana,
Venus, and other gods and goddesses of the Roman pantheon
multiplied. The Dacians, however, retained the Getian
custom of
cremation, though now, amid the ashes they sometimes left
a coin
for Charon, the mythological ferryman of the dead.
Data as of July 1989
|
