RUMANIA
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RUMANIA
began the assaults of the Germanic tribes on the
Roman Empire. After several unsuccessful attempts,
the Goths occupied the Dacian province in the third
century, and in 271 Emperor Aurelian formally ceded
the territory to them. In the fourth century the
Goths were followed by the Huns, who in similar
fashion brought the Romans and Goths into subjec-
tion after several campaigns. In the fifth century
came the Gepida;, and in the sixth the Avars, who
occupied Dacia for two centuries. Under the domin-
ion of the Avars the Slavs made their appearance,
settling peacefully among the inhabitants; they have
left many traces of their presence in the names of
places and rivers. Gradually, however, they were
absorbed and Romanized, so that the Latin character
of the language was preserved. The influence of the
Slavs was greater on the right bank of the Danube,
where they overwhelmed the Thraco-Roman popula-
tion by weight of numbers, and denationalized the
Finnic Bulgars who settled in the country in the
seventh century. In this way the Romanic popula-
tion of the Balkan Peninsula was divided by the Slavs
into two sections; the one withdrew northwards to
the Carpathians, where people of kindred race had
settled, w'hile the other moved southwards to the
valleys of the Pindus and the Balkan Mountains,
where their descendants (the modern Aromuni or
Macedo-Vlachs) still maintain themselves. In the
history of the Southern Rumanians the erection of
the Rumano-Bulgar Empire by the brothers, Peter,
Jonita, and Asen at the end of the twelfth century is
especially noteworthy; this empire became disin-
tegrated in the middle of the thirteenth century on
the extinction of the Asen dynasty (see Bulgari.\).
The Bulgar dominion over ancient Dacia exercised a
decisive influence on the ecclesi:istical development of
the country. Christianity had been introduced —
especially into the modern Dobrudja, where there
was a strong garrison — by Roman colonists and
soldiers, the Latin form and liturgy being employed.
In Tomi (now Constanta) existed an episcopal see,
nine occupants of which between the fourth and sixth
centuries are known. During the dominion of the
Bulgars the ancestors of the Rumanians with their
lords came under the jurisdiction of the Greek Patri-
arch of Constantinople, and were thus drawn into
the Greek Schism. Consequently, even to-day the
vast majority of the inhabitants of Rumania belong
to the Orthodox Church (see below). The immigra-
tion of the Bulgars was followed by the campaigns
of the Magyars, who howe\-er made no permanent
settlement in the land, choosing for settlement the
plain between the Danube and the Theiss. At the
beginning of the tenth century the country was sub-
jected to the repeated attacks of the Peshenegs, and
in the middle of the eleventh to those of the Cumans.
During the migrations and invasions of various tribes,
the population of the country was strongly imjjreg-
nated with Slav and other elements, and only in the
wooded hills of Northwestern Moldavia and Tran-
sylvania did the original Daco-Rumanian population
remain pure and unmixed. After peace had been
restored, the people descended from these remote
retreats, and united with the inhabitants of the plains
to form the Rumanian people.
During the tenth and eleventh centuries small prin- cipalities called Banats were formed in the territory of ancient Dacia; those which ex-tended from Trans- sylvania northwards and westwards to the valley of the Theiss came gradually under the sway of the Magyars, while those extending eastwards and south- wards from the Carpathians maintained their inde- pendence. Frorn the latter originated the principali- ties of Wallachia and Moldavia. By uniting the smaller districts on both sides of the River Olt, Voi- vode Bassarab (d. 1340) founded toward the end of the thirteenth century the Grand Banat, Little Wal- XIII.— 15
lachia, and successful wars against Charles I, King of
Hungary, and Robert of Anjou enabled him to pre-
serve his independence and to extend his authority to
the Danube and the Black Sea. A little later (about
the middle of the fourteenth centurjO Bogdan, Voi-
vode of Maramaros in Transylvania, who rebelled
against the suzerainty of Hungary in 1.360, founded
the Principality of Moldavia by overrunning the Car-
pathians and reducing under his sway the hilly coun-
try along the River Moldau. Both these Rumanian
principalities had to contend with great difficulties
from their foundation: on the one hand their inde-
pendence was threatened by the neighbouring king-
doms of Hungary and Poland, while on the other do-
mestic quarrels and a want of unity between the kin-
dred principalities lessened their strength. But their
most dangerous enemy was the Turk, who extended his
conquests into the Balkan Peninsula in the middle of
the fourteenth century. In wars against the Turks
and vain efforts to shake off the Turkish yoke, almost
the whole activity of the two principalities was ex-
hausted for several centuries. By their unflinching
defence of their religion, the ancestors of the present
Rumanians protected the culture and civilization of
the Christian West from the onslaught of Islam, and
thus played a role in universal history. Several of the
princes who reigned during this heroic period of Ru-
manian history are especially conspicuous: Mircea
the Old or the Great (13S6-141S) and Radul the
Great (1496-1508) in Wallachia, and Alexander the
Good (1400-33) and Stephen the Great (1457-1504)
in Moldavia. Mircea organized his dominions and
ex-tended his frontiers to the Black Sea by seizing Do-
bnidja and the town of Pilistria from the Bulgars in
1391. To repel the onsets of the Turks, he formed
with King Sigismund of Hungary (afterward em-
peror) an offensive and defensive alliance, in accord-
ance with which he participated in the ill-fated battle
near Nicopolis in 1396. In 1402 he had to recognize
the suzerainty of Turkey, to vacate the right bank of
the Danube, and to pay a yearly tribute, in return for
which the Porte guaranteed the free election of the
Wallachian princes and the independent internal ad-
ministration of their territory. The immediate fol-
lowers of Mircea were weak princes, and disputes con-
cerning the succession postponed the casting off of the
Turkish yoke. Radul the Great, son and succes.sor of
the ex-monk Vlad I who had been appointed prince by
the Turks (1481), sought by reforms in the adminis-
tration and in ecclestiastical matters to mitigate the
general distress and to secure greater independence
from Turkey.
For Moldavia the long reign of Alexander the Good (1401-32) was a time of prosperity: he or- ganized the finances, the administration, and the army, drew up a code of laws after Byzantine models, and increased the culture of the peopl(> bj- founding schools and monasteries. Alexander had on three oc- casions to take the oath of fealty to the King of Po- land; his sons had likewise to recognize the suzerainty of Poland, and his natural son, Peter (1455-57), had in addition to pay tribute to the Turks. After a period of almost uninterrupted wars for the princely dignity, Stephen the Great (1457-1504), a grandson of Alex- ander, inaugurated a period of peace and splendour for Moldavia. Thanks to his valiant and well-organ- ized army, he succeeded not only in keeping his coun- try independent of the Turks and Poland for nearly half a century, but also increased his territory by sub- duing a portion of Bessarabia, organized the Church, founded a new bishopric, and built several new churches and monasteries. Under him Moldavia reached its greatest power and extent. His son Bog- dan III (1504-17), in view of the superior forces of the Turks, had to engage to pay a yearly tribute, in re- turn for which Moldavia was (like Wallachia) al- lowed the maintenance of the Christian faith, the free
