n ancient geographical sources, Moesia was bounded to the south by the

Haemus (Balkans) and Scardus (ar) 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).

The region was inhabited chiefly by Thracians, Dacians (Thraco-Dacians), Illyrian

and Thraco-Illyrian peoples. The name of the region comes from Moesi, ThracoDacian peoples who lived there before the Roman conquest.

Parts of Moesia belonged to the polity of Burebista, a Getae king who established
his rule over a large part of the Northern Balkans between 82 BC and 44 BC. He
led plunder and conquest raids across Central and Southeastern Europe,
subjugating most of the neighbouring tribes. After his assassination in an inside
plot, the empire was divided into several smaller states.

In 75 BC, C. Scribonius Curio, proconsul of Macedonia, took an army as far as the

Danube and gained a victory over the inhabitants, who were finally subdued by
M. Licinius Crassus, grandson of the triumvir and later also proconsul of
Macedonia during the reign of Augustus c. 29 BC. The region, however, was not
organized as a province until the last years of Augustus' reign; in 6 AD, mention
is made of its governor, Caecina Severus (Cassius Dio lv. 29). As a province,
Moesia was under an imperial consular legate (who probably also had control of
Achaea and Macedonia).

In 86 AD the Dacian king Duras ordered his troops to attack Roman Moesia. After
this attack, the Roman emperor Domitian personally arrived in Moesia and
reorganized it in 87 AD into two provinces, divided by the river Cebrus (Ciabrus):
to the west Moesia Superior - Upper Moesia, (meaning up river) and to the east
Moesia Inferior - Lower Moesia (also called Ripa Thracia), (from the Danube
river's mouth and then upstream). Each was governed by an imperial consular
legate and a procurator.

From Moesia, Domitian began planning future campaigns into Dacia and by 87 he
started a strong offensive against Dacia, ordering General Cornelius Fuscus to
attack. Therefore, in the summer of 87, Fuscus led five or six legions across the
Danube. The campaign against the Dacians ended without a decisive outcome,
and Decebalus, the Dacian King, had brazenly flouted the terms of the peace (89
AD) which had been agreed on at the war's end.

Emperor Trajan later arrived in Moesia, and he launched his first military
campaign into the Dacian Kingdom[4] c. MarchMay 101, crossing to the
northern bank of the Danube River and defeating the Dacian army near Tapae, a
mountain pass in the Carpathians (see Second Battle of Tapae). Trajan's troops

were mauled in the encounter, however, and he put off further campaigning for
the year to heal troops, reinforce, and regroup.[5] During the following winter,
King Decebalus launched a counter-attack across the Danube further
downstream, but this was repulsed. Trajan's army advanced further into Dacian
territory and forced King Decebalus to submit to him a year later.

Trajan returned to Rome in triumph and was granted the title Dacicus. The
victory was celebrated by the Tropaeum Traiani. However, Decebalus in 105
undertook an invasion against Roman territory by attempting to stir up some of
the tribes north of the river against the empire.[6] Trajan took to the field again
and after building with the design of Apollodorus of Damascus his massive bridge
over the Danube, he conquered part of Dacia in 106 (see also Second Dacian
War).

Sometime around 272, at the Moesian city of Naissus or Nissa (modern Ni in

Serbia), future emperor Constantine I was born.

After the abandonment of Roman Dacia to the Goths by Aurelian (270275) and
the transfer of the Roman citizens from the former province to the south of the
Danube, the central portion of Moesia took the name of Dacia Aureliana (later
divided into Dacia Ripensis and Dacia Mediterranea).

During administrative reforms of Emperor Diocletian (284-305), both of the

Moesian provinces were reorganized. Moesia Superior was divided in two,
northern part forming the province of Moesia Prima including cities Viminatium
and Singidunum, while the southern part was organised as the new province of
Dardania with cities Scupi and Ulpiana. In the same time, Moesia Inferior was
divided into Moesia Secunda and Scythia Minor. Moesia Secunda's main cities
included Marcianopolis (Devnya), Odessus (Varna), Nicopolis (Nikopol), Abrittus
(Razgrad), Durostorum (Silistra), Transmarisca (Tutrakan), Sexaginta Prista (Ruse)
and Novae (Svishtov), all in Bulgaria today.

As a frontier province, Moesia was strengthened by stations and fortresses

erected along the southern bank of the Danube, and a wall was built from
Axiopolis to Tomi as a protection against the Scythians and Sarmatians. The
garrison of Moesia Secunda included Legio I Italica and Legio XI Claudia, as well
as independent infantry units, cavalry units, and river flotillas. The Notitia
Dignitatum lists its units and their bases as of the 390s CE. Units in Scythia Minor
included Legio I Iovia and Legio II Herculia.

After 238 AD, Moesia was frequently invaded or raided by the Dacian Carpi, and
the East Germanic tribe of the Goths, who invaded Moesia in 250. Hard-pressed
by the Huns, the Goths again crossed the Danube during the reign of Valens

(376) and with his permission settled in Moesia. After they settled, quarrels soon
took place, and the Goths under Fritigern defeated Valens in a great battle near
Adrianople. These Goths are known as Moeso-Goths, for whom Ulfilas made the
Gothic translation of the Bible.

The Slavs invaded much of Moesia during 6th century. Upper Moesia was settled
by Slavic Serbs by the beginning of 7th century. Bulgars, arriving from Central
Asia, conquered Lower Moesia by the end of 7th century. The Byzantine Empire
lost much of its former Moesian and Thracian territory to the Bulgars, who
founded the First Bulgarian Empire.

Geography[edit]

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The chief towns of Upper Moesia in the Principate were: Singidunum (Belgrade),
Viminacium (sometimes called municipium Aelium; modern Kostolac), Remesiana
(Bela Palanka), Bononia (Vidin), Ratiaria (Archar) and Skupi (modern Skopje); of
Lower Moesia: Oescus (colonia Ulpia, Gigen), Novae (near Svishtov, the chief
seat of Theodoric the Great), Nicopolis ad Istrum (Nikup; really near the river
Yantra), Marcianopolis (Devnya), Odessus (Varna) and Tomi (Constana; to which
the poet Ovid was banished). The last two were Greek towns which formed a
pentapolis with Istros, Mesembria (Nessebar) and Apollonia (Sozopol).

Episcopal sees[edit]
Ancient episcopal sees of Moesia Inferior listed in the Annuario Pontificio as
titular sees:[7]

Abrittum (Dobrich)
Appiaria (Rjahovo)
Nicolopolis ad Iaterum
Novae
Odessus (Varna)
Transmarisca
Ancient episcopal sees of Moesia Superior listed in the Annuario Pontificio as
titular sees:[7]

Margum
Horreum Margi
Viminacium
See also[edit]
Diocese of Moesia
Dacia Aureliana
Roman governors of Lower Moesia
Inscriptions of Upper Moesia
Moesogoths
List of ancient cities in Thrace and Dacia
Margus (city)
Timacum Maius
References[edit]
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