Roman Republican era (to 30 BC) Allies of Philip of Macedon (179–8 BC) of Philip V of Macedon The Bastarnae first appear in the historical record in 179 BC, when they crossed the Danube in a massive force. They did so at the invitation of their long-time ally, King
Philip V of Macedon, a direct descendant of
Antigonus, one of the
Diadochi, the generals of
Alexander the Great who had shared his empire after his death in 323 BC. The Macedonian king had suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of the Romans in the
Second Macedonian War (200–197 BC), which had reduced him from a powerful
Hellenistic monarch to the status of a petty client-king with a much-reduced territory and a tiny army. After nearly 20 years of slavish adherence to the Roman Senate's dictats, Philip had been goaded by the incessant and devastating raiding of the
Dardani, a warlike Illyrian tribe on his northern border, which his treaty-limited army was too small to counter effectively. Counting on the Bastarnae, with whom he had forged friendly relations, he plotted a strategy to deal with the Dardani and then to regain his lost territories in Greece and his political independence. First, he would
unleash the Bastarnae against the Dardani. After the latter had been crushed, Philip planned to settle Bastarnae families in Dardania (southern
Kosovo/
Skopje region) to ensure that the region was permanently subdued. In a second phase, Philip aimed to launch the Bastarnae on an invasion of Italy via the Adriatic coast. Although he was aware that the Bastarnae were likely to be defeated, Philip hoped that the Romans would be distracted long enough to allow him to reoccupy his former possessions in Greece. Despite the failure of Philip's Bastarnae strategy, the suspicion aroused by these events in the Roman Senate, which had been warned by the Dardani of the Bastarnae invasion, ensured the demise of Macedonia as an independent state. Rome declared war on Perseus in 171 BC and after the Macedonian army was crushed at the
Battle of Pydna (168 BC), Macedonia was split up into four Roman puppet-cantons (167 BC). Twenty-one years later, these were in turn abolished and annexed to the
Roman Republic as the
province of Macedonia (146 BC).
Allies of Getan high king Burebista (62 BC) (Dobruja), showing the Greek coastal cities of Histria, Tomis, Callatis and Dionysopolis (Istria, Constanța, Mangalia and Balchik) (Sinoe) The Bastarnae first came into direct conflict with Rome as a result of expansion into the lower Danube region by the
proconsuls (governors) of Macedonia in 75–72 BC.
Gaius Scribonius Curio (proconsul 75–73 BC) campaigned successfully against the Dardani and the
Moesi, becoming the first Roman general to reach the Danube with his army. His successor,
Marcus Licinius Lucullus (brother of the famous
Lucius Lucullus), campaigned against the Thracian
Bessi tribe and the Moesi, ravaging the whole of
Moesia, the region between the Haemus (
Balkan) mountain range and the Danube. In 72 BC, his troops occupied the Greek coastal cities of
Scythia Minor (modern
Dobruja region, Romania/Bulgaria), which had sided with Rome's
Hellenistic arch-enemy, King
Mithridates VI of
Pontus, in the
Third Mithridatic War (73–63 BC). The presence of Roman forces in the Danube Delta was seen as a major threat by all the neighbouring transdanubian peoples: the Peucini Bastarnae, the Sarmatians and, most importantly, by
Burebista (ruled 82–44 BC), king of the
Getae. The Getae occupied the region today called
Wallachia as well as Scythia Minor and were either a
Dacian- or
Thracian- speaking people. Burebista had unified the Getae tribes into a single kingdom, for which the Greek cities were vital trade outlets. In addition, he had established his hegemony over neighbouring Sarmatian and Bastarnae tribes. At its peak, the Getae kingdom reportedly was able to muster 200,000 warriors. Burebista led his transdanubian coalition in a struggle against Roman encroachment, conducting many raids against Roman allies in
Moesia and Thrace, penetrating as far as Macedonia and
Illyria. The coalition's main chance came in 62 BC, when the Greek cities rebelled against Roman rule. In 61 BC, the notoriously oppressive and militarily incompetent proconsul of Macedonia,
Gaius Antonius, nicknamed
Hybrida ("The Monster"), an uncle of the famous
Mark Antony, led an army against the Greek cities. As his army approached
Histria, Antonius detached his entire mounted force from the marching column and led it away on a lengthy excursion, leaving his infantry without cavalry cover, a tactic he had already used with disastrous results against the Dardani. Dio implies that he did so out of cowardice, in order to avoid the imminent clash with the opposition, but it is more likely that he was pursuing a large enemy cavalry force, probably
Sarmatians. A Bastarnae host, which had crossed the Danube to assist the Histrians, promptly attacked, surrounded and massacred the Roman infantry, capturing several of their
vexilla (military standards). This battle resulted in the collapse of the Roman position on the lower Danube. Burebista apparently annexed the Greek cities (55–48 BC). At the same time, the subjugated "allied" tribes of Moesia and Thrace evidently repudiated their treaties with Rome, as they had to be reconquered by
Augustus in 29–8 BC (see below). In 44 BC, Roman
dictator-for-life Julius Caesar planned to lead a major campaign to crush Burebista and his allies once and for all, but he was assassinated before it could start. However, the campaign was made redundant by Burebista's overthrow and death in the same year, after which his Getae empire fragmented into four, later five, independent petty kingdoms. These were militarily far weaker, as Strabo assessed their combined military potential at just 40,000 armed men, and were often involved in internecine warfare. The
Geto-Dacians did not again become a threat to Roman hegemony in the lower Danube until the rise of
Decebal 130 years later (86 AD).
Roman Principate (30 BC – 284 AD) Augustan era (30 BC – 14 AD) in the garb of Roman
imperator (military supreme commander). By the end of his sole rule (14 AD), Augustus had expanded the empire to the
Danube, which was to remain its central/eastern European border for its entire history (except for the occupation of
Dacia 105–275). Once he had established himself as sole ruler of the Roman state in 30 BC, Caesar's grand-nephew and adopted son
Augustus inaugurated a strategy of advancing the empire's south-eastern European border to the line of the Danube from the
Alps, the
Dinaric Alps and Macedonia. The primary objective was to increase strategic depth between the border and Italy and also to provide a major fluvial supply route between the Roman armies in the region. On the lower Danube, which was given priority over the upper Danube, this required the annexation of Moesia. The Romans' target was thus the tribes which inhabited Moesia, namely (from west to east) the
Triballi, Moesi and those Getae who dwelt south of the Danube. The Bastarnae were also a target because they had recently subjugated the Triballi, whose territory lay on the southern bank of the Danube between the tributary rivers
Utus (Vit) and
Ciabrus (Tsibritsa), with their chief town at
Oescus (Gigen, Bulgaria). In addition, Augustus wanted to avenge the defeat of
Gaius Antonius at Histria 32 years before and to recover the lost military standards. These were held in a powerful fortress called
Genucla (Isaccea, near modern Tulcea, Romania, in the Danube Delta region), controlled by
Zyraxes, the local Getan king. The man selected for the task was
Marcus Licinius Crassus, grandson of
Crassus the
triumvir and an experienced general at 33 years of age, who was appointed proconsul of Macedonia in 29 BC. The Bastarnae provided the
casus belli by crossing the Haemus and attacking the
Dentheletae, a Thracian tribe who were Roman allies. Crassus marched to the Dentheletae's assistance, but the Bastarnae host hastily withdrew over the Haemus at his approach. Crassus followed them closely into Moesia but they would not be drawn into battle, withdrawing beyond the Tsibritsa. Crassus now turned his attention to the Moesi, his prime target. After a successful campaign which resulted in the submission of a substantial section of the Moesi, Crassus again sought out the Bastarnae. Discovering their location from some peace envoys they had sent to him, he lured them into battle near the Tsibritsa by a stratagem. Hiding his main body of troops in a wood, he stationed as bait a smaller vanguard in open ground before the wood. As expected, the Bastarnae attacked the vanguard in force, only to find themselves entangled in the full-scale pitched battle with the Romans that they had tried to avoid. The Bastarnae tried to retreat into the forest but were hampered by the wagon train carrying their women and children, as these could not move through the trees. Trapped into fighting to save their families, the Bastarnae were routed. Crassus personally killed their king,
Deldo, in combat, a feat which qualified him for Rome's highest military honour,
spolia opima, but Augustus refused to award it on a technicality. Thousands of fleeing Bastarnae perished, many asphyxiated in nearby woods by encircling fires set by the Romans, others drowned trying to swim across the Danube. Nevertheless, a substantial force dug themselves into a powerful hillfort. Crassus laid siege to fort, but had to enlist the assistance of
Rholes, a Getan petty king, to dislodge them, for which service Rholes was granted the title of
socius et amicus populi Romani ("ally and friend of the Roman people"). The following year (28 BC), Crassus marched on Genucla. Zyraxes escaped with his treasure and fled over the Danube into Scythia to seek aid from the Bastarnae. Before he was able to bring reinforcements, Genucla fell to a combined land and fluvial assault by the Romans. It appears that a treaty was concluded and apparently proved remarkably effective, as no hostilities with the Bastarnae are recorded in surviving ancient sources until c. 175, some 160 years after Augustus' inscription was carved. But surviving evidence for the history of this period is so thin that it cannot be excluded that the Bastarnae clashed with Rome during it. The Bastarnae participated in the
Dacian Wars of
Domitian (86–88) and
Trajan (101–102 and 105–106), fighting on both wars on the Dacian side In the late second century, the
Historia Augusta mentions that in the rule of
Marcus Aurelius (161–180), an alliance of lower Danube tribes including the Bastarnae, the Sarmatian Roxolani and the
Costoboci took advantage of the emperor's difficulties on the upper Danube (the
Marcomannic Wars) to invade Roman territory.
Third century During the late second century, the main ethnic change in the northern Black Sea region was the immigration, from the Vistula valley in the North, of the
Goths and accompanying Germanic tribes such as the
Taifali and the
Hasdingi, a branch of the
Vandal people. This migration was part of a series of major population movements in the European
barbaricum (the Roman term for regions outside their empire). The Goths appear to have established a loose political hegemony over the existing tribes in the region. Under the leadership of the Goths, a series of major invasions of the Roman empire were launched by a grand coalition of lower Danubian tribes from c. 238 onwards. The participation of the Bastarnae in these is likely but largely unspecified, due to Zosimus' and other chroniclers' tendency to lump all these tribes under the general term "Scythians" – meaning all the inhabitants of Scythia, rather than the specific
Iranic-speaking people called the
Scythians. Thus, in 250–251, the Bastarnae were probably involved in the Gothic and Sarmatian invasions which culminated in the Roman defeat at the
Battle of Abrittus and the slaying of Emperor
Decius (251). This disaster was the start of the
Third Century Crisis of the Roman Empire, a period of military and economic chaos. At this critical moment, the Roman army was crippled by the outbreak of a second
smallpox pandemic, the
plague of Cyprian (251–70). The effects are described by Zosimus as even worse than the earlier
Antonine plague (166–180), which probably killed 15–30% of the empire's inhabitants. Taking advantage of Roman military disarray, a vast number of barbarian peoples overran much of the empire. The Sarmato-Gothic alliance of the lower Danube carried out major invasions of the Balkans region in 252, and in the periods 253–258 and 260–268. The Peucini Bastarnae are specifically mentioned in the 267/268 invasion, when the coalition built a fleet in the estuary of the river
Tyras (
Dniester). The Peucini Bastarnae would have been critical to this venture since, as coastal and delta dwellers, they would have had seafaring experience that the nomadic Sarmatians and Goths lacked. The barbarians sailed along the Black Sea coast to Tomis in Moesia Inferior, which they tried to take by assault without success. They then attacked the provincial capital
Marcianopolis (Devnya, Bulgaria), also in vain. Sailing on through the
Bosporus, the expedition laid siege to
Thessalonica in Macedonia. Driven off by Roman forces, the coalition host moved overland into Thracia, where finally it was crushed by Emperor
Claudius II (r. 268–270) at
Naissus (269). Claudius II was the first of a sequence of military emperors (the so-called "
Illyrian emperors" from their main ethnic origin) who restored order in the empire in the late third century. These emperors followed a policy of large-scale resettlement within the empire of defeated barbarian tribes, granting them land in return for an obligation of military service much heavier than the usual conscription quota. The policy had the triple benefit, from the Roman point of view, of weakening the hostile tribe, repopulating the plague-ravaged frontier provinces (bringing their abandoned fields back into cultivation) and providing a pool of first-rate recruits for the army. It could also be popular with the barbarian prisoners, who were often delighted by the prospect of a land grant within the empire. In the fourth century, such communities were known as
laeti. The emperor
Probus (r. 276–282) is recorded as resettling 100,000 Bastarnae in Moesia, in addition to other peoples, including Goths, Gepids and Vandals. The Bastarnae are reported to have honoured their oath of allegiance to the emperor, while the other resettled peoples mutinied while Probus was distracted by usurpation attempts and ravaged the Danubian provinces far and wide. A further massive transfer of Bastarnae was carried out by Emperor
Diocletian (ruled 284–305) after he and his colleague
Galerius defeated a coalition of Bastarnae and
Carpi in 299.
Later Roman empire (305 onwards) The remaining transdanubian Bastarnae disappear into historical obscurity in the late empire. Neither of the main ancient sources for this period,
Ammianus Marcellinus and
Zosimus, mention the Bastarnae in their accounts of the fourth century, possibly implying the loss of their separate identity, presumably assimilated by the regional hegemons, the Goths. Such assimilation would have been facilitated if, as is possible, the Bastarnae spoke an
East Germanic language closely related to
Gothic. If the Bastarnae remained an identifiable group, it is highly likely that they participated in the vast Gothic-led migration, driven by
Hunnic pressure, that was admitted into Moesia by Emperor
Valens in 376 and eventually defeated and killed Valens at
Adrianople in 378. Although Ammianus refers to the migrants collectively as "Goths", he states that, in addition, "Taifali and other tribes" were involved. However, after a gap of 150 years, there is a final mention of Bastarnae in the mid-5th century. In 451, the Hunnic leader
Attila invaded Gaul with a large army which was ultimately routed at the
Battle of Châlons by a Roman-led coalition under the general
Aetius. Attila's host, according to
Jordanes, included contingents from the "innumerable tribes that had been brought under his sway". This included the Bastarnae, according to the Gallic nobleman
Sidonius Apollinaris. However, E.A. Thompson argues that Sidonius' mention of Bastarnae at Chalons is probably false: his purpose was to write a
panegyric and not a history, and Sidonius added some spurious names to the list of real participants (e.g.
Burgundians,
Sciri and
Franks) for dramatic effect. == See also ==