[gothic-l] Goths in Romania

[Bertil Häggman]

Francisc,

Thank you for reposting your very interesting
contribution from 1999. Will study it and maybe
return to discuss the details.

Gothically

Bertil

I sent already to this list some information on the presence of Goths 
in Dacia (today's Romania), very long time ago (messages no. 1216 and 
1223 of November 1999). I repost it, maybe it will be useful:

Goths and Gepids in Dacia

It was because of the attacks of the Goths that the Roman Empire left 
in 271 AD its province Dacia. After the retreat of the Romans, Dacia 
was occupied by the Goths (mainly Visigoths), and was since then known 
also with the name "Gut-thiuda" (in Gothic) or "Gothia" (in Latin) 
(Orosius wrote in the 4th century: "Dacia, where now is Gothia" - 
"Dacia ubi est Gothia"), and the left bank of the Danube was named 
"ripa gothica" (the Gothic bank). It is Dacia where Wulfila was born 
(about 311 AD) and here began he to preach the Christian faith among 
the Goths and Daco-Romans (the ancestors of the Romanians), until 348 
AD, when he was forced to move with his Christian Goths south of 
Danube, because of the persecutions they suffered through Athanaric, 
the king of the Visigoths. When the Huns invaded Eastern Europe and 
destroyed the Gothic Empire of Ermanaric, Athanaric and his Visigoths 
attempted (in 376 AD) a last resistance in the Carpathian Mountains in 
a place named, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, Caucaland (= 
Hauhaland, that is "Highland" in Gothic). Near this place, in a 
village named Pietroasa (in Romania) was found in the 19th century the 
famous Visigothic gold treasure, with one of the very few 
Gothic inscriptions with runic script. This treasure is attributed to 
Athanaric.
Between 376 and 454 AD, Dacia was ruled by the Huns, together with 
their East-Germanic allies (Ostrogoths, Gepids, Heruls, Scirians, 
etc.). Indeed, in the time of the Hunic domination it seems that it 
was precisely the Ostrogoths who were settled by the Huns in Dacia in 
order to replace the fled Visigoths (according to Herwig Wolfram - 
"Die Germanen", Verlag C.H. Beck, München, 1997). After the victory of 
these above mentioned East-Germanic tribes under the leadership of the 
Gepid king Ardaric over the Huns (in 454 AD), Dacia (mainly its 
territory north and west of the Carpathians, known later 
as Transylvania) came under the rule of the Gepids. These were 
considered by the Goths (Jordanes) as a branch of their own nations 
and (according to Procopius) spoke the same language.  Jordanes wrote 
that the country called by the ancient Dacia, then Gothia, in his time 
(in the middle of the 6th century) is called Gepidia and the Danube is 
its southern border (this means that Gepidia covered the whole Dacia, 
and not only Transylvania). The presence of the Gepids in Dacia lasted 
until their defeat by the Avars and Longobards in 567 AD, and left 
many traces in Transylvania, including the gold treasure found at 
Szilágysomlyó (Simleul Silvaniei) and attributed to the Gepid king 
Ardaric. This treasure is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in 
Vienna, Austria.
Thus, the presence of the Gothic peoples (including Gepids) in what is 
now Romania is extending on three centuries (271-567 AD)* and left 
behind, beside a rich archaeological material (including the two gold 
treasures mentioned above), also a few words in the Romanian language. 
This long interaction explains also, beside the phonetic resemblance, 
the confusion between the names of the Goths and of the Getae (another 
name for Dacians) made by Jordanes, who considered the Dacians (= 
Getae) as the ancestors of the Goths and entitled his Gothic history 
"Getica".

* Note: Some Gothic-Gepidic remnants can be found on the territory of 
today's Romania even later, until the 9th century. So, for instance, 
according to Walahfrid Strabo, Gothic was still used in his time (the 
9th century) in some churches in the region of the lower Danube, in 
the neighborhood of Tomi (now Constanta, Romania). On the other hand, 
the information for the Gothic alphabet in a manuscript from Salzburg 
(Austria) of the 10th century was possibly derived from southern 
Hungary or Transylvania, where remains of the Gepids were to be found 
shortly before the Magyars (Hungarians) settled in these regions (889 
AD). (Virgil Stefanescu - "Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of 
the Germanic Languages", University of Bucharest, 1971).




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