Origin of the Romanians

The Romanian language comes from the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken in the Roman provinces north of the "Jireček Line," an imagined line that separated mostly Latin-speaking areas from Greek-speaking lands in Southeastern Europe during Late Antiquity. Several theories try to explain where the Romanians themselves came from, and most of them cannot all be true at once.

The theory of Daco-Roman continuity holds that the Romanians are mainly descended from the Daco-Romans. This people developed as the native Dacians and Roman colonists lived together in the province of Dacia Traiana, mostly in present-day Romania, north of the river Danube.

The competing immigrationist theory says that the Romanians' formation began south of the river. It points to Romanized local peoples such as the Thraco-Romans and Illyro-Romans, who were known as Vlachs in the Middle Ages. These groups spread through mountain refuges, moving south to Greece and north through the Carpathian Mountains. Other theories suggest that Romanized populations lived on both sides of the Danube, and that the river did not stop people from moving back and forth. The "admigration" theory adds that migrations from the Balkan Peninsula to the lands north of the Danube helped the Romance-speaking population survive there.

Political goals have shaped these theories. These include the efforts of Transylvanian Romanians to win their freedom, the expansion of Austria-Hungary and Romania, and Hungarian claims to lands beyond its borders. Strong feelings about nationality still affect the debate today.

In 2013, the authors of The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages concluded that the "historical, archaeological and linguistic data available do not seem adequate to give a definitive answer." Scholars who wrote for The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages, published in 2016, agreed with this view. They noted that the "location and extent of the territory where 'Daco-Romance' originated" remains uncertain.

Main articles: History of the Balkans, History of Romania, and History of Dacia

In ancient times, three main peoples lived in the north of Southeastern Europe: the Dacians, Illyrians and Thracians. We know little about their languages, mostly from personal names, so scholars can only guess how closely they were related. The Romans conquered the Illyrians first, forming the province of Illyricum around 60 BC. They then set up the province of Moesia in 6 AD in Thracian lands, and Thracia forty years later. In 46, the area between the Lower Danube and the Black Sea, now Dobruja in Romania and Bulgaria, was added to Moesia. In 106, Emperor Trajan defeated the Dacian kingdom north of the Lower Danube, and its western lands became the province of Dacia. Areas such as Maramureș stayed free of Roman rule, where the Costoboci, Bastarnae and other tribes lived. Emperor Aurelian officially left Dacia around 270 to 275 and set up Dacia Aureliana south of the Lower Danube. In the 360s, the river became the border between the empire and the Goths. From 313, under the Edict of Milan, the Roman Empire began to become a Christian state. The Huns destroyed these lands between 376 and 406. After their empire collapsed in 453, the Gepids controlled Banat, Crișana and Transylvania. Other peoples, including the Bulgars, Antes and Sclavenes, raided the Balkans in the 6th century. Emperor Justinian I briefly revived the Roman Empire, but the Avars invaded the Balkans from the 580s, and within 30 years Roman troops had left the peninsula, except in Dyrrhachium, Thessaloniki and a few other towns.

The Bulgars set up their own state on the Lower Danube in 681. Their lands grew after the Avar Khaganate collapsed in the 790s. Their ruler, Boris I, of the First Bulgarian Empire, became a Christian in 864, and a synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church supported a liturgy in Old Church Slavonic in 893. In 894, the Hungarians invaded Bulgaria, but a joint counter-attack by the Bulgars and the Pechenegs forced them to find a new homeland in the Carpathian Basin. Historians still debate whether they met a Romanian population there. The Byzantines took most of Bulgaria under John I Tzimiskes, and the Bulgars regained independence under Samuel, until Basil II conquered their country around 1018. The Hungarian ruler Stephen was baptized in the Western rite and expanded his rule, including over Banat. Later, the Ouzes pushed Pechenegs into the Byzantine Empire in the 1040s, and the Cumans took control of the Pontic steppes in the 1070s. Groups such as the Székelys and Pechenegs defended the frontiers of the Kingdom of Hungary, and German-speaking colonists arrived in the 1150s. In 1185, an uprising in the Balkan Mountains in 1185 against new Byzantine taxes led to the Second Bulgarian Empire, formed with the Cumans. The Hungarian expansion towards the steppes was stopped by the large Mongol campaign against Eastern and Central Europe in 1241, although the Mongols withdrew within a year after causing great destruction.

The small polities ruled by local Romanian leaders in Oltenia and Muntenia united to form the principality of Wallachia. It gained independence under Basarab the Founder, who defeated a Hungarian army in the battle of Posada in 1330. In the 1360s, a second principality, Moldavia, became independent under Bogdan I, a Romanian nobleman from the Voivodeship of Maramureș.

Theories on the Romanians' ethnogenesis

Romanians were known as Vlachs in the Middle Ages. They speak a language that comes from Vulgar Latin, which was once spoken in southeastern Europe. A line called the "Jireček Line" runs through the Balkan Peninsula. It separated the Latin-speaking northern provinces from the southern lands, where Greek was the main language. Eastern Romance has four variants, and Daco-Romanian is the most widespread. It is the official language of Romania. Speakers of Aromanian live in scattered communities in several countries, including North Macedonia.

Scholars disagree about where the Romanian people came from. The theory of Daco-Roman continuity says that Romanians mainly descend from the Daco-Romans. These were people who grew out of the mixing of the native Dacians and Roman colonists in Dacia Traiana, north of the Danube. The opposing immigrationist theory says that Romanians descended from Latin-speaking people south of the Danube, who moved north in later centuries. A third idea, the "admigration" theory proposed by Dimitrie Onciul, mixes parts of both views.

Written sources

Further information: Romania in Antiquity Further information: Romania in the Early Middle Ages Further information: Uprising of Asen and Peter and Vlachs

Early writers from Greece and Rome described the peoples north of the Lower Danube. In the 5th century BC, Herodotus wrote about the Getae, whom he called "the most courageous and upright Thracian tribe" during a Persian campaign in 514 BC. The Getae lived on both sides of the Lower Danube. Later, Strabo wrote that the language of the Dacians was "the same as that of the Getae." Roman writers also recorded the conquest of Dacia. Cassius Dio wrote that "numerous Dacians kept transferring their allegiance" to Emperor Trajan before he began his war against Decebalus. Lucian of Samosata, Eutropius and Julian the Apostate recorded that the Dacian people were deliberately removed after their state fell. Lucian, citing Trajan's physician Criton of Heraclea, said the people "was reduced to forty men." Historians such as Constantin Daicoviciu have questioned this account. Only about 2% of the roughly 3,000 known names from Dacia Traiana are Dacian, and characteristic Dacian names appear mostly in other parts of the empire, including Egypt and Italy. The known names also include Latin, Greek, Illyrian and Celtic names, which suggests that many colonists were brought to the new province. Attacks followed as well. A raid by the Carpi forced the mother of Emperor Galerius to flee the province in the 240s. Aurelius Victor, Eutropius and Festus said Dacia "was lost" under Emperor Gallienus. The Augustan History and Jordanes describe the Roman withdrawal in the early 270s, when Emperor Aurelian moved soldiers and people to Illyricum and Moesia. Within a century, the former province was called "Gothia," and Christian communities there are mentioned in the Passion of Sabbas and in the martyrologies of Wereka and Batwin. After the Huns invaded in 376, many Goths, Taifali and, according to Zosimus, "other tribes" were admitted into the Eastern Roman Empire. The Carpo-Dacians were described as "mixed with the Huns." Priscus of Panium, who visited the Hunnic Empire in 448, wrote that people there spoke Hunnic or Gothic, and Latin among those who traded with western Romans. Diocletian's Edict on Prices mentions a drink named kamos among the Pannonians. Jordanes was the first to write of the Antes and Slavenes, and Procopius said they spoke "an utterly barbarous tongue." Ananias of Shirak wrote that the Slavs formed 25 tribes. Later sources are fewer. The Ravenna Geographer mentions Avars in Dacia, and the Royal Frankish Annals place the Abodrites there. Alfred the Great wrote of "Dacians, who were formerly Goths," in his translation of Paulus Orosius. Constantine VII's De Administrando Imperio describes the region around 950, when the Hungarians lived near the rivers Criș, Mureș and Timiș.

The Gesta Hungarorum, written around 1150 or 1200, is the first chronicle to mention Vlachs in the lands inside the Carpathians. Its author wrote about a ruler named Gelou, "a certain Vlach," who ruled Transylvania. Historians disagree about how reliable it is. Carlile Aylmer Macartney thought its author wrote more like a romantic novelist than a historian, while Alexandru Madgearu considered it generally credible. Several of its rulers, including Gelou, Menumorut, Salan and Glad, are not found in other early sources, and György Györffy thought the author partly built them from place names, such as Gyalu. The chronicle was written about three centuries after the events, so Gyula Kristó and Györffy argued it must be checked against other evidence. The late 12th-century chronicle of Niketas Choniates mentions Vlachs north of the Danube, who seized the future Byzantine emperor Andronikos Komnenos in 1164. Choniates also reported that Cumans crossed the Lower Danube "with a division of Vlachs" to raid Thrace in 1199. Pope Gregory IX wrote about a people in the Cumanian bishopric called Walati around 1234. The earliest official document naming Romanians in Transylvania is a royal charter of 1223, which shows that Vlachs had lived on land later given to the monastery of Cârța. Other documents from this period mention Vlachs alongside Teutonic Knights, Transylvanian Saxons and Pechenegs. A charter from 1250 says Andrew I of Hungary sent Joachim, Count of Hermannstadt, to lead an army with Vlach warriors to support Boril of Bulgaria. In the 1280s, Simon of Kéza wrote in the Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum that the Székelys shared the mountains with the Vlachs, and later the Chronicon Pictum repeated a version of this. A charter of 1247 issued by Béla IV of Hungary lists small Romanian polities north of the Lower Danube. In the 1270s and 1280s, Vlachs appear on lands of nobles and church leaders in the Kingdom of Hungary, and they defended the Carpathian passes during the Second Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1285. Later charters mention Romanians in more counties, including Zaránd, Bihar, Máramaros and Torda. The first independent Romanian state, the Principality of Wallachia, was known as Oungrovlachia in Byzantine sources. Historian Ioan-Aurel Pop argues that 15th-century documents suggest Romanians held lands in Transylvania very early, perhaps linked to the 11th-century Ladislaus I.

The Balkan Vlachs are also described in early sources. The words "torna, torna fratre" recorded by Theophylact Simocatta and Theophanes the Confessor show a Romance language in use in the late 6th century. In the 7th century, the Miracles of St. Demetrius describes Mauros, a supporter of Kuber, who spoke Greek and Latin. John Skylitzes reported that "some vagabond Vlachs" killed David, one of the Cometopuli brothers, in 976. Later, Emperor Basil II gave the Archbishopric of Ohrid income "from the Vlachs in the whole of theme of Bulgaria." Anna Comnena noted that nomads of the Balkans were "commonly called Vlachs" around 1100. Vlachs also took part in the 1185 uprising that led to the Second Bulgarian Empire, which was started by the Asen brothers, who were of Vlach origin according to several sources including Ansbert. The Annales Florolivienses describe the route of Frederick I Barbarossa "through Hungary, Russia, Cumania, Vlakhia, Durazzo, Byzantium and Turkey" during his crusade of 1189. Pope Innocent III and Geoffrey of Villehardouin used Vlach names for the same state, and Snorri Sturluson called it Blokumannaland in his Heimskringla. Some sources are uncertain. Al-Muqaddasi and Ibn al-Nadim list peoples called Waladj and Blaghā, which may mean Vlachs. A runestone from about 1050 mentions Blakumen, and Gardizi describes a Christian people along the Danube. The Russian Primary Chronicle mentions Volokhi, whom many historians link to Vlachs, though others link them to Franks. The poem Nibelungenlied mentions "duke Ramunc of Wallachia" in the service of Attila the Hun, but it is not clear where this Wallachia was.

Archaeological data

Digging up old sites shows how people lived north of the Lower Danube before and after the Romans arrived. Around 100 BC, burial mounds (Tumuli) appeared in Oltenia and Transylvania, before the Dacian kingdom formed. The Romans destroyed the Dacian fortresses and main sanctuaries around 106 AD, but many local habits continued, such as the hand-made "Dacian cup." Most towns in "Dacia Traiana" grew up around soldiers and settlers, such as Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa. Attacks on Roman Dacia became more frequent from the middle of the 3rd century. After the Roman withdrawal, some people stayed behind and some Roman-style pottery survived, although objects became simpler. In the 4th century, a new culture spread through Moldavia and Wallachia. Around 700, the Dridu culture emerged on both sides of the Lower Danube. Archaeologists disagree about what these finds mean for the origin of the Romanians.

In the central and northern Balkans, the Romans built roads and towns, and native customs and cults survived for a time. The Via Egnatia was built in 140 BC. Christian communities grew in the 4th century. Around 450, many villae rusticae (farm estates) and forums disappeared, and new fortified centers grew around churches by about 500. Under Justinian, hundreds of small forts were built, including in the Balkan Mountains area. Most Roman towns and forts in the north were destroyed in the 570s or 580s, and all were abandoned in the early 7th century. The "Komani-Kruja" cemeteries lasted until the early 9th century. John Wilkes sees them as representing a Romanized population, while Florin Curta emphasizes their Avar features.

Linguistic approach

Main article: History of the Romanian language

Further information: Albanian–Romanian linguistic relationship, Balkan sprachbund, Eastern Romance substratum, Jireček Line, and Paleo-Balkan languages

Romanian grew out of the Latin spoken by ordinary people in the Roman provinces. This process began in the 5th to 7th centuries and was completed in the 8th century. Later, the common language split into different forms in the 10th to 12th centuries. The Romanian dialects spoken north of the Danube are remarkably similar. They differ mostly in their words, because their sounds are quite uniform. Linguist Gabriela Pană Dindelegan, who supports the continuity theory, says that the seasonal movements of shepherds and trade across the mountains kept the language united. Paul Wexler offers another idea: that the Romance-speaking settlement was relatively recent, and that migrations often have a levelling effect, as seen in eastern Germany. Some dialects kept more old Latin features than others. The Maramureș subdialect of Romanian, for example, still uses an ancient verb ending and the Latin word for sand.

Place names also give clues, but scholars disagree about what they show. Nandriș says that the study of place names does not solve the question of where early Romanian developed. Schramm, however, argues that place names rule out any continuity in Romania. Many of the longest rivers in Romania have names thought to be of Dacian origin, which the Romans adopted after they conquered Dacia. Supporters of the continuity theory see these river names as strong evidence that they were passed down from the Dacians to the Romans and then to the Daco-Romans. Scholars who reject this theory point out that the Romanian name of the Danube suggests the ancestors lived far from the river, since they would otherwise have kept its Latin name, Danuvius.

DNA / Paleogenetics

Main article: Romanians § Genetics

Scientists now use genetic information alongside older methods to learn about the past. Ancient DNA from old human remains has given more direct clues. One study of Romanian Neolithic samples suggests that the arrival of farmers may have happened in at least two "waves." Those Neolithic samples are very close to modern Romanians, while samples from the Late Bronze Age are farther away. Ancient remains from Costișa show family links along the maternal line with other people from the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some of the same genetic changes are found in modern Romanians, which suggests that ancient people who lived in Romania may have contributed to the Romanian gene pool. However, there are still few ancient samples from southeastern Europe, and more research is needed.

Studies of living people show that most European genetic diversity forms a continuum, with some exceptions such as Finns, Sami, Basques and Sardinians. Romanians fit among their Balkan and East European neighbours. They are generally lie significantly closer to Balkan groups, such as Bulgarians and Macedonians, than to central and eastern Europeans, such as Hungarians, Czechs, Poles and Ukrainians. Some Romanian samples are more genetically distant from some Tuscans than from neighbouring Balkan peoples.