Moesia

Moesia (; Latin: Moesia; Greek: Μοισία, romanized: Moisía) was a Roman province situated in the Haemus Peninsula, south of the Danube River. Created after the Danubian-Hæmus conquest during the reign of Augustus, Moesia included most of the territory of modern eastern Serbia, Kosovo, north-eastern Albania, northern parts of North Macedonia (Moesia Superior), Northern Bulgaria, Northern Dobruja and small parts of Southern Ukraine (Moesia Inferior).

Extension

The Roman province of Moesia (both Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior) 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).

Name

A Paleo-Balkan tribe known as the "Moesi" never actually existed in the Danube area, it was a Roman invention of the Augustan era. The Moesi do not appear in ancient sources before Augustus's death in 14 CE and are mentioned only by three authors dealing with the Roman warfare in the region and the ethnonymic situation between mid-1st century BC and mid-1st century CE: Ovid, Strabo and Livy. The ethnonym was transplanted from Asia Minor Mysians to the Balkans by the Romans as a replacement of the name of the Dardani who lived in the territory that later became the province of Moesia Superior. This decision in Roman literature is linked to the appropriation of the name Dardani in official Roman ideological discourse as Trojan ancestors of the Romans and the creation of a fictive name for the actual Dardani who were seen as barbarians and antagonists of Rome in antiquity. This new fictive Augustan terminology was illogically and controversially argumented by Strabo as the result of Aelius Catus's displacement of 50,000 Getae from the north to the south of the Danube, who settled areas in the north-eastern parts of the later province of Moesia Superior, thereafter being called "Moesi".

The Latin name Moesia was given first to the province of Moesia Superior and expanded into Moesia Inferior along the Danube. After the recreation of Dardania, Moesia referred to Moesia Prima, the northern part of Moesia Superior. A civitas of the Moesi which was reorganized as a Roman colony was located around Ratiaria in the first century AD.

History

Roman conquest

The territory that under Roman rule became known as the province of Moesia was inhabited chiefly by Thracian, Illyrian, and Thraco-Illyrian peoples.

Before Roman rule, the territory that later became the province of Moesia Superior was dominated by the Dardani, who had constituted their own kingdom. The Dardani had resumed their enmity against Macedon since at least 230 BC. In the Roman-Macedonian the Dardani sided with Rome and were among the biggest threats to Macedon. After the defeat of Macedon in the Third Macedonian War, the fragile Dardanian-Roman alliance weakened, in particular after the Senate's decision not to return to the Dardanian kingdom the territory that had been previously conquered by the Macedonians, notably Paeonia, which the Dardani claimed as their own territory. The Senate only recognized the Dardani the right to trade salt. Thereafter, from sworn enemies of Macedonia, the Dardani became enemies of Rome. Rome started its dominion over the Balkans establishing the protectorates of Illyricum and Macedonia after the Roman-Illyrian wars and Roman-Macedonian Wars. Roman offensives against the Dardani in the years 97 BC, 85 BC, and 77/6 BC were repelled. But in 75–73 BC the Dardani had to face terrible conflicts against Rome, known as Bellum Dardanicum. During the Mithridatic Wars (88–63 BC) between the Roman Republic and Mithridates VI of Pontus, the Dardani, Eneti, and Sintians were raiding Roman Macedonia; afer his arrival, the consul Sulla attacked them, reportedly devastating their territory. The Dardani continued to fight against Rome and its proconsuls, and were finally defeated probably by Marcus Antonius in 39 BC or by Marcus Licinius Crassus in 29/8 BC. The Romans created the province of Moesia also including the territory of Dardania. After the Roman emperor Domitian divided the province of Moesia into Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior in 86 AD, the Dardani were located in southern Moesia Superior. Emperor Diocletian later (284) made Dardania into a separate province with its capital at Naissus (Niš). The Romans found an formed in Dardania, based on agriculture and animal husbandry, mining and metallurgy, in different handicrafts and in trade. The Romans focused especially in exploitation of mines, same as in other provinces, and in road construction.