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 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