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Borders of the province and its changes
Natives in the province
The Roman province Moesia was created in AD 12. A short time before that the
north Danubian Plain was under direct control of the
legions V Macedonica, IIII Scythica and their auxiliary troops.
Until AD 6 legio XX lay also some way north of the Balkan mountains. The Moesian
lands had a pre-provincial form of government (praefectura
Moesiae et Treballiae) . The newly created province initially included
parts of modern-day east Serbia and northwest Bulgaria. The northern border
was the Danube. In the east the Romans reached the Utus (modern-day Vit river
in Bulgaria), in the southwest the border ran up north of the northern slopes
of Haemus mons (Stara Planina) – at a distance in depth (north-south)
between 25 - 45 km. In the west it was important to have access to the Morava
(ancient Margus fluvius) valley in modern-day Serbia. During the reign of Tiberius
(14 - 37) and Caligula (37 - 41) the east boundary reached the mouth of Osâm
(Asamus) river and under Claudius (41 - 54) and Nero (54 - 68) - further east
to Iatrus (Yantra river). In the west Moesia had a common border with Pannonia
and included the mouth of the Sava (ancient Savus) and Mlava rivers in Serbia.
In the south-southwest the provincial border reached the southern part of Dardania
with Scupi (modern-day Skopje in Macedonia) which was to become a part of Moesia
Superior. Tomis (modern-day Constanta in Romania) became the main city in Moesia.
Under the Flavians (69 - 96) the Romans controlled the whole of present day
Northeastern
Bulgaria and the Dobrogea region (the northern part of which is now in
Romania and the southern in Bulgaria). Thus in the first years of Domitian’s
reign (81 - 96) Moesia with its c. 1000 km river frontier had the baulk of
the lands between the Sav? river and the Black Sea, which today includes
north Macedonia, Serbia, north Bulgaria and the Romanian part of Dobrogea.
On the eastern flank of the Balkan mountains the border took on a southern
direction and included the countryside of Greek colony ??sembria.
Due to military, strategic and economic reasons, in the autumn 86 the province
was divided into Moesia Inferior and Moesia Superior. Initially the border
between the two Moesian provinces ran up along the small right-bank tributary
of the Danube (the Cibrica river – ancient Ciabrus or Kiabros). After
136 the border was slightly moved upstream, to the west of Lom (ancient Almus)
in northwestern Bulgaria. In the west, Moesia Superior bordered with the province
Pannonia. The capital of Moesia Superior was Viminacium (modern-day Kostolac
in Serbia) and that of Moesia Inferior – the old capital Tomis.
The border between Lower Moesia and the adjacent territories of the province
Thracia underwent many changes. Between the rule of Hadrian (117 - 138) and
Commodus (180 - 192) the following modifications took place. After 134/136 the
territory of Montana (modern-day Montana, former Mihailovgrad), earlier in Thracia,
was incorporated into Moesia Inferior. Further east, the border passed north
of the modern town Mezdra (Vratza district in northwestern Bulgaria) and south
of Vicus Trullensium
(present day village Kunino, Vratza district), by the modern village Bâlgarski
Izvor and south of ancient Sostra (Lovech district).
The towns Nicopolis
ad Istrum (Nikiup, Veliko Târnovo district), founded
between 106 and 109, and Marcianopolis (Devnya, Varna region) belonged to
Thracia although they were situated north of Stara Planina. The border continued
to the villages Butovo (ancient Emporium Piretensium) and Maslarevo (Veliko
Târnovo district), which were part of the territory of Nicopolis. After
that the border ran up south of Abritus (present day Razgrad) and further
east, in the direction of the modern villages Nikolaevka and Novakovo (Varna
district). In 193 the rural territories of Nicopolis ad Istrum and Marcianopolis
were incorporated into the administrative structure of the province of Moesia
Inferior Thus, gradually in the late 2nd – early
3rd century the border between the two provinces was already going along
the ridge of the Balkan mountains
.
- D. Boteva, Lower Moesia and Thrace in the Roman Imperial System (A.D. 193 – 217/218),
Sofia 1995
- D. Boteva, IGBulg. II, 659 i administrativno-teritorialnite promeni v rajona
na Nikopolis ad Istrum pri Septimij Sever, In memoriam prof. dr. G. Mihailov,
Serdicae 1996, 240-248
- D. Boteva, The South Border of Lower Moesia from Hadrian to Septimius Severus,
Roman Limes on the Middle and Lower Danube, Belgrade 1996 (= Cahiers des Portes
de Fer, Monographies 2),173-176
- V. Gerasimova-Tomova, Zur Grenzbestimmung zwischen Mösien und Thrakien
in der Umgebung von Nicopolis ad Istrum in der ersten Hälfte des 2. Jh.
n.Chr., Tyche 2, 1987, 17-21
- B. Gerov, Die Grenzen der römischen Provinz Thracia bis zur Gründund
des Aurelianischen Dakien, Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt
II 7, Berlin – New York 1979, 212-240
- R. Ivanov, Das römische Verteidigungssystem an der unteren Donau zwischen
Dorticum und Durostorum (Bulgarien) von Augustus bis Maurikios, Bericht der
Römisch-Germanischen Kommission 78, 1997, 467-640
- M. Mirkovic, Rimski gradovi na Dunavu u Gornjoj Meziji, Beograd 1968
- A. Mócsy, Gesellschaft und Romanisation in der römischen Provinz
Moesia Superior, Budapest 1970
- A. Mócsy, Pannonia and Upper Moesia, London-Boston 1974
- Tabula Imperii Romani, K-34 (Naissus – Dyrrachion – Scupi – Serdica – Thessalonike,
Ljubljana 1976
- M. Taceva, Severnata granica na provincija Trakija do Severite (1. Ot Almus
do Nikopolis ad Istrum), III Meždunarodne simpozium “Kabile”,
Jambol 1994, 115-124
- M. Tacheva, The Northern Border of the Thracia Province to the Severi (from
Nicopolis ad Istrum to Odessos), Thracia 11, 1995 (= Studia in honorem A. Fol),
427-434
When the lands of the lower Danube region were annexed the Romans found a
rather heterogeneous local population. In the western part of Moesia which
was to become in AD 86 the province of Moesia Superior there is data of Illyrian
ethnic groups as well as of the settlement of the Scordisci, a branch of the
large Celtic community. They appeared in the region in the early 3rd century
BC. Part of them also settled in Pannonia. Strabo calls these tribes “big
Scordisci”. The Scordisci inhabited the valleys between the Danube, Sava
and Morava near Singidunum, Aureus mons, Margum, Viminacium. The “little
Scordisci” lived further east – in the direction of the Morava
river (ancient Margus fluvius).
A large part of the territory of west Moesia represented a border contact zone
between the Celts, Illyrians and Thracians. Ptolemy also writes in the 2nd century
AD about Tricornenses and Picenses , the
Getic tribes inhabiting the region of west Moesia (later Moesia Superior). They
seem to have been resettled to that area from beyond the lower Danube in the
beginning or in the sixties of the 1st century AD by Aelius Catus and Plautius
Silvanus, Roman governors of Macedonia and Moesia respectively.
The present day Bulgarian lands, east of Dorticum, whose name is Celtic, and
the Timok river (ancient Timak?s or Timachus), which are in the easternmost
part of Upper Moesia, were inhabited by the Thracian tribes Triballi and Moesians
about which the ancient authors do not provide clear definitions. The presence
of the Moesians in the east is significant to the extent that it is bound with
the name of the province. It was discussed at length in antiquity when the
ancient authors tried to understand whether the Moesians were not actually
the Getae. Strabo, a Greek geographer, as well as the Romans, until the first
Roman map was made, must have believed Homer who had introduced information
about Moesians in the Balkan lands. With the clarification of the lower Danubian
ethnonyms through the campaigns of Roman generals the old ethnonyms, including
the Getae, known before the toponym Moesia was created for the map of Augustus,
were replaced with new, more precise ones. With the toponym Moesia the ethnonym
Moesi came into use and covered the tribes bearing different names. A number
of names of smaller tribes are known in Moesia, such as Timachi living along
the middle and upper course of the Timok river and Dimenses around ancient
Dimum (modern-day Belene in north Bulgaria), Dardani, Celegeri etc.
The northeastern part of Moesia was inhabited by the numerous Getae,
tribes with the same speach as the Thracians. The proconsul ?. Licinius Crassus
(BC 29 – 27) achieved a victory over “Thracians and Getae”
(ex Thraecia et Geteis) and his campaigns in the lower Danube region
dealt a heavy blow on the pre-Roman, Getic state organization.
On the western Black Sea coast Greek
colonies had been established for a long time before the Romans appeared
in this region. The Western Pontic cities were inhabited mainly by a mixpopulation
of Greek origin from various regions of the Eastern Mediteranean. During the
Late Hellenistic and Early Roman periods the coast was also occupied largely
by hellenized Thracian and in the Dobrogea, Getic communities.
- R.M. Batty, The Peoples of the Lower Danube and Rome (D.Phil. thesis, Oxford
1990)
- R.M. Batty, On Getic and Sarmatian Shores: Ovid’s Account of the Danube
Lands, Historia 43, 1994, 88-111
- Chr.I. Danov, Die Thraker auf dem Ostbalkan von der hellenistischen Zeit
bis zur Gründung Konstantinopels, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen
Welt II 7, 1, Berlin-New York 1979, 89 – 130
- M. Garašanin, Mysier - Nordthraker (Dako - Mysier) – Triballen,
Thracia 12, 1998 (= Studia in honorem Chr. Danov), 37-44
- M. Mirkovic, Rimski gradovi na Dunavu u Gornjoj Meziji, Beograd 1968
- A. Mócsy, Gesellschaft und Romanisation in der römischen Provinz
Moesia Superior, Budapest 1970
- A. Mócsy, Pannonia and Upper Moesia, London-Boston 1974
- F. Papazoglou, The Central Balkan Tribes in Pre-Roman Times (Triballi, Autariatae,
Dardanians, Scordisci and Moesians), Amsterdam 1978
- D.M. Pippidi, I Greci nell basso Danubio dall’età arcaica alla
conquista romana, Milano 1971
- A.V. Podosinov, Ovidij i Pricernomor’e: Opyt istocnikovedceskogo analiza
poeticeskogo teksta, Drevnejšie gosudarstva na territorii SSSR. Moskva
1984, 8-178
- M. Taceva, Istorija na bâlgarskite zemi prez elinisticeskata i rimskata
epocha, Sofia 1997
- R. Vulpe, I. Barnea, Din Istoria Dobrogei, II. Romanii la Dunarea de Jos,
Bucuresti 1968