Lajos Kazar: Facts against fiction

SWEDEN

Transylvania (Transsylvanien; Rumanian Transilvania or Ardeal; German Siebenbürgen) is a part of Rumania within the Carpathian and Bihar Mountains (see Rumania).

Rumania - Rumanians. The Rumanians are inhabitants of Rumania and comprise a group of the speakers of the Romance languages. Problematical are the origin and continuity of the Rumanians in the area called Rumania, which have been the subjects of lively discussions.

Originally the Rumanians hail from the Roman colonists of Dacia (100 - 200 A.D.) and the Romanized Dacians. What historians have not agreed upon is whether during the time of the barbarian invasions, i.e., between 270, when Dacia was abandoned by the Romans, and the 1100's, or 1200's, a Latin-speaking population survived in the area north of the Danube. A lot of scientists will now answer the question of continuity with ,,yes", basing themselves on linguistic, but also on archaeological evidence. They think that Dacia's Romanization was strong. When the legions under Emperor Aurelian were forced south of the Danube, a small group of Latin-speaking people stayed behind in the north.

They were mostly civilians, working hidden in the mountains and valleys. From generation to generation they were shepherding, without threatening others. That was the way they were able to avoid becoming wiped out by the barbarians. Later the large-scale Slav migrations southward took place and some of the Balkan countries became Slavicized. The northern part of the Balkan Peninsula became linguistically separated from the Latin speakers of Dacia in the east.

N.B. The proof of Daco-Roman continuity depends on whether the graves of the forebears of the Rumanians over a millennium support the claim. So far no such evidence has been presented in an objectively satisfactory way. The Latin-based language of the Rumanians may have been acquired in the southwest of the Balkan Peninsula from where it may have been carried north, together with a mass of Greek and Albanian loanwords. This is all the more likely, since Albanian and Greek were never spoken by populations in or in the vicinity of what is claimed by the Rumanians to have been their heartland, namely the area of later Transylvania. - The writer of the above article was endeavouring to present an objective picture of the problem of the Daco-roman continuity, but became ensnared in Bucharest's propaganda.

Transylvania (Transsylvanien; Rumanian Transilvania or Ardeal; Hungarian Erdély; German Siebenbürgen) is an area in northwestern Rumania. In the antiquity it was a part of the roman province Dacia, and during the period of the great migration of peoples it was the possession of Germanic, Slavic and Mongolian peoples. In the 1100's it became a part of Hungary. In the 1200's and 1300's large numbers of German colonists settled there, followed by Rumanians.

N.B. The area in question became Hungarian possession around 895. German colonists began to arrive there in 1143. Wallachians/Rumanians followed them from the early 13th century onward. Although the above presentation is sketchy and in need of a few improvements, the sequence of the arrival of the various peoples attested to have lived in the area in question is correct.

Rumania - History. The area of present-day Rumania was the Dacian realm which was subjugated by the Romans in 106 and given up in 271. During the period of the great migration of peoples the area was the possession of the Goths, Huns, Avars, Magyars, Slavs and Mongols. The Daco-Roman population sought refuge in the Transylvanian Mountains and only returned to the open land in the 1200's; there, in the eastern region, arose the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.

N.B. The above description of the early history of the land in question is quite superficial and sounds like Bucharest propaganda. Also, the Avars were not immediately followed by the magyars/Hungarians, but by the Bulgars, whose leading class at that time was recognizably Turkic, ruling over Slav masses. The writer of the above article evidently gave credence to the notion of a ,,Daco-roman population" (,,romersk-dakiska befolknin"G).

Once this concept had been accepted, the second stage of Bucharest-propaganda could be easily accommodated: the ,,Daco-roman population" did not leave Dacia, but sought refuge in the Transylvanian Mountains from where, some ten centuries later, it descended onto the flat lands. Thus it escaped the dangerous barbarian invasions which drove away the Romans, defeated the Goths, Huns, Gepids, Avars, Bulgars and to quite an extent, mauled the Hungarians. With such dangers over, the Daco-Romans, no doubt a mighty lot by then, having lost no manpower in battles, quickly set to establishing their own realms (,,rikena"), namely Moldavia and Wallachia. The fatal flaw of this fairy-tale-like history is that it has neither historically, nor archaeologically supported foundation. The self-styled descendants of the so-called Daco-Roman population have claimed many times that their forebears became Christian either while the roman legions were still in Dacia or in the 4th or 5th century at the latest, particularly on the soil of later Transylvania. Common sense tells us that in that case they had to bury their dead according to Christian rites. But then graves of tens of thousand of Daco-Romans can certainly be found, especially because their hiding places must have been quite limited due to their mortal fear of showing themselves to the barbarians. Also, at least some of the graves would be expected to have been marked with gravestones bearing inscriptions with Latin letters in the Latin language.

From the bones and articles buried with the dead archaeologists could fairly easily identify those forebears and their descendants as members of the same people. But such identification has never been presented in an objective way. - The Moldavian and Wallachian voivodeships came into existence in the 14th century in vassalage to the Kingdom of Hungary. It would have been advisable to consult the pertinent 13th and 14th century records of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders relating to the arrival of the Wallachians in the areas of Cumania in vassalage to Hungary since 1227.

Lajos Kazar: Facts against fiction