Moesia

In ancient geographical sources, Moesia was bounded to the south by the Haemus (Balkan Mountains) and Scardus (Šar) mountains, to the west by the Drinus (Drina) river, on the north by the Donaris (Danube) and on the east by the Euxine (Black Sea).

{{See also|Moesian Limes}}

The region of Moesia was inhabited chiefly by Thracian, Illyrian, and Thraco-Illyrian peoples. The name of the region comes from Moesi, the Latin name of a Thracian tribe who lived there before the Roman conquest.

Parts of Moesia belonged to the polity of Burebista, a Getae (Dacian) king who established his rule over a large part of the northern Balkans between 82 BC and 44 BC. He led raids for plunder and conquest across Central and Southeastern Europe, subjugating most of the neighbouring tribes. After his assassination in a palace intrigue, the empire was divided into several smaller states.

In 74 BC, C. Scribonius Curio, proconsul of Macedonia, took an army as far as the Danube and chased the Geto-Dacians to the border of their remote country.Georgescu, Vlad (1991). Călinescu, Matei (ed.). The Romanians: a history. Romanian literature and thought in translation series. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8142-0511-2}} p. 4.

The expansion of the Dacians on the middle and lower reaches of the Danube worried the Romans and destruction of Dacian power became one of Julius Caesar's key political objectives, who made plans to launch an offensive from Macedonia in about 44 BC.

Once Augustus had established himself as sole ruler of the Roman state in 30 BC after the naval Battle of Actium in 31 BC, he took up Caesar's project and aimed to advance the empire's south-eastern European border from Macedonia to the line of the Danube. The main objective was to increase strategic depth between the border and Italy and also to provide a major river supply route between the Roman armies in the region.Res gestae divi Augusti (Monumentum Ancyranum) 30 = Dobó, Inscriptiones... 769 The lower Danube was given priority over the upper Danube and required the annexation of Moesia. It was therefore necessary to conquer the tribes who dwelt south of the Danube namely (from west to east) the Triballi, Moesi, Getae and the Bastarnae who had recently subjugated the Triballi, and with their capital at Oescus.Ptolemy Augustus also wanted to avenge the defeat of Gaius Antonius Hybrida at Histria 32 years before and to recover the lost military standards held in the powerful fortress of Genucla.Dio LI.26.5

Marcus Licinius Crassus, grandson of Crassus the triumvir was appointed for the task.{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Moesia|volume=18|pages=643–644 |first=John Henry |last=Freese}} He was an experienced general at 33 years of age, and proconsul of Macedonia from 29 BC.Dio LI.23.2 After a successful campaign against the Moesi, he drove the Bastarnae back toward the Danube and finally defeated them in pitched battle, killing their King Deldo in single combat.Cassius Dio 51.23.3 ff. [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/51*.html] Augustus formally proclaimed this victory in 27 BC in Rome but blocked Cassius' entitlement to the Spolia opima and use of the term imperator apparently in favour of his own prestige.

Moesia was split off as a separate military command some time before 10 BC.{{cite book |last1=Vanderspoel |first1=John |editor1-last=Roisman |editor1-first=Joseph |editor2-last=Worthington |editor2-first=Ian |title=A companion to ancient Macedonia |date=2010 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |location=Chichester |isbn=978-1-405-17936-2 |chapter=Provincia Macedonia |pages=269–270}}

As a result of the Dacians constant looting that occurred whenever the Danube froze, Augustus decided to send against them some of his proven generals such as Sextus Aelius Catus and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Augur (sometime between 1-11 ADR. Syme, Danubian Papers, London 1971, p. 40 and Addenda p. 69 ff). Lentulus pushed them back across the Danube and placed numerous garrisons on the right bank of the river to defend against possible and future incursions.Florus, Epitome of Roman History, II, 28, 18-19. These became the Moesian Limes frontier defensive system that was developed further later.

The region, however, was not organised as a province until the last years of Augustus' reign; in 6 AD, mention is made of its governor, Caecina Severus.Cassius Dio, lv.29 As a province, Moesia was under an imperial consular legate (who probably also had control of Achaea and Macedonia). In 15 AD complaints about the corruption of the governors of Macedonia and Achaia led Tiberius to put these provinces under the control of the governor of Moesia.Tacitus, Annales 1.76.4

In 86 AD the Dacian king Duras attacked Moesia after which the Roman emperor Domitian personally arrived in Moesia and reorganised it in 87 into two provinces, divided by the river Cebrus (Ciabrus): to the west Moesia Superior (meaning upriver) and to the east Moesia Inferior or Ripa Thracia (from the Danube river's mouth and then upstream). Each was governed by an imperial consular legate and a procurator.

From Moesia Domitian began planning future campaigns into Dacia and Domitian's Dacian War started by ordering General Cornelius Fuscus to attack who, in the summer of 87, led five or six legions across the Danube. The war ended without a decisive outcome and Decebalus, the Dacian King, later brazenly flouted the terms of the peace (89 AD) which had been agreed on.

{{Main|Trajan's Dacian Wars}}Trajan's Dacian Wars (101–102 AD, 105–106 AD) were two military campaigns fought between the Roman Empire and Dacia during Emperor Trajan's rule. The conflicts were triggered by the constant Dacian threat on Moesia and also by the increasing need for resources of the economy of the Empire.

Starting with AD 85, Dacia was unified under King Decebalus. Following an incursion into Moesia, which resulted in the death of its governor, Gaius Oppius Sabinus, a series of conflicts between the Romans and Dacians ensued. Although the Romans gained a major strategic victory at Tapae in AD 88, Emperor Domitian offered the Dacians favourable terms, in exchange for which Roman suzerainty was recognised. However, Emperor Trajan restarted the conflicts in 101-102 and then again in 105–106, which ended with the annexation of most of Dacia and its reorganisation as a Roman Province.{{Cite web |date=2024-10-03 |title=Dacia {{!}} Europe, Map, Culture, & History {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Dacia |access-date=2024-10-13 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}

File:GothicInvasions250-251-en.svg

The first incursion in Moesia that can be attributed to Goths is by the Costoboci in 170 in the Marcomannic Wars when they destroyed Tropaeum Traiani.Kovács, Péter (2009). Marcus Aurelius' rain miracle and the Marcomannic wars. Brill. p 198

In 238 the Carpi sacked Histria and Tropaeum Traiani.Bennett, Matthew (2004). "Goths". In Holmes, Richard; Singleton, Charles; Jones, Spencer (eds.). The Oxford Companion to Military History. Oxford University Press. p. 367. {{ISBN|978-0191727467}} Afterwards Moesia was frequently invaded or raided by the Dacian Carpi, and the East Germanic tribes of the Goths.

In the Gothic War (248–253), the Gothic king Cniva captured the city of Philippopolis and then inflicted a devastating defeat upon the Romans at the Battle of Abrittus, in which the Roman Emperor Decius was killed,Wolfram, Herwig (1990). History of the Goths. Translated by Dunlap, Thomas J. University of California Press. {{ISBN|0520069838}} p=128 one of the most disastrous defeats in the history of the Roman army.Heather, Peter (2010). Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0199892266}} pp=109–20

File:Dioecesis Thraciae 400 AD.png

After the abandonment of Roman Dacia to the Goths by Aurelian (270–275) and the transfer of the Roman citizens from the former province to the south of the Danube, the central portion of Moesia took the name of Dacia Aureliana (later divided into Dacia Ripensis and Dacia Mediterranea).

During administrative reforms of Emperor Diocletian (284–305), both of the Moesian provinces were reorganised. Moesia Superior was divided in two, northern part forming the province of Moesia Prima including cities Viminacium and Singidunum, while the southern part was organised as the new province of Dardania with cities Scupi and Ulpiana. At the same time, Moesia Inferior was divided into Moesia Secunda and Scythia Minor.

File:Balkans 6th century.svg]]

As a frontier province, Moesia was strengthened by stations and forts erected along the southern bank of the Danube, and a wall was built from Axiopolis to Tomis as a protection against the Scythians and Sarmatians. The garrison of Moesia Secunda included Legio I Italica and Legio XI Claudia, as well as auxiliary infantry units, cavalry units, and river flotillas.

Hard-pressed by the Huns, the Goths again crossed the Danube during the reign of Valens (376) and with his permission settled in Moesia. After they settled, quarrels soon took place, and the Goths under Fritigern defeated Valens in a great battle near Adrianople. These Goths are known as Moeso-Goths, for whom Ulfilas made the Gothic translation of the Bible.

The Slavs allied with the Avars invaded and destroyed much of Moesia in 583–587 in the Avar–Byzantine wars. Moesia was settled by Slavs during the 7th century. Bulgars, arriving from Old Great Bulgaria, conquered Lower Moesia by the end of the 7th century. During the 8th century the Byzantine Empire lost also Upper Moesian territory to the First Bulgarian Empire.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}}. The region would return to Byzantine control under Basil II in 1018 and would last until the formation of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1185.

• Diocese of Moesia
• Dacia Aureliana
• List of ancient cities in Thrace and Dacia
• List of Roman governors of Moesia
• List of Roman governors of Lower Moesia
• List of Roman governors of Upper Moesia
• Inscriptions of Upper Moesia
• Moesogoths
• Margus (city)

{{reflist}}

• András Mócsy, Pannonia and Upper Moesia: A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire, Routledge Revivals Series, 2014. {{ISBN|9781317754251}}
• Conor Whately, Exercitus Moesiae: The Roman Army in Moesia from Augustus to Severus Alexander. BAR international series, S2825. Oxford: 2016. {{ISBN|9781407314754}}
• {{Cite book

|title = The Cambridge Ancient History, Том 10

|year = 1996

|isbn = 9780521264303

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JZLW4-wba7UC

|last1 = Bowman

|first1 = Alan K.

|last2 = Champlin

|first2 = Edward

|last3 = Lintott

|first3 = Andrew

|publisher = Cambridge University Press

}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090725092947/http://www.moesia-superior.rs/ Inscriptions of Moesia Superior], University of Belgrade {{in lang|fr}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120619080529/http://www2.rgzm.de/Transformation/Poland/IIEN.htm Cities in the Provinces Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior]
• [https://sites.google.com/site/timacummaiusproject/ Timacum Maius]

{{Roman provinces AD 117}}

{{Late Roman Provinces|state=collapsed}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Ancient history of the Balkans

Category:Provinces of the Roman Empire

Category:Romanization of Southeastern Europe

Category:Historical regions in Bulgaria

Category:Historical regions in Romania

Category:Historical regions in Serbia

Category:Ancient Bulgaria

Category:Ancient history of Romania

Category:Ancient history of Serbia

Category:Ancient history of Ukraine

Category:Roman Balkans

.

.

Category:Šar Mountains

Category:Former countries in the Balkans