Carpians

The Carpi or Carpians were a Dacian tribe that were originally located on the Eastern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, in what is now Bacău County, Romania.

Origins

The name (Carpi) seems to be connected to the place where they lived, meaning "rock" or "mountain" (cf. Albanian "karpë"='rock', from PIE *ker/sker). The name of the Carpathian mountains is thus probably either derived from their name, or their name is derived from the name of the mountains. Ptolemy first mentions the Carpates ("Karpates") mountain range corresponding to the Western Carpathian mountain range.

The Carpians are thought to be Dacians, despite the fact that the ancient sources do not indicate this clearly. Zosimos did use the name "καρποδάκαι", "Carpo-Dacians" and some historians interpret this as "Carpians of Dacian origin", but this most likely meant "Carpians of Dacia", having a geographical rather than ethno-linguistical meaning.

However, the archaeological remains of the Carpian settlements show that their culture was derived from the Dacian La Tène, with Roman and Scythian influences.

History

While most Dacian tribes (such as the Costoboci) were either defeated by the Roman Empire or overrun by Germanic tribes such as the Vandals, the Carpians (probably a federation of Free Dacian tribes) increased their power in the 2nd century AD, becoming (until the barbarian invasions) the most important adversaries of the Roman empire in South-Eastern EuropeFact|date=April 2008. The Carpians were without any doubts of Dacian originFact|date=April 2008, but with many Sarmatian and Roman influencesFact|date=April 2008. From the end of the 2nd century AD, the Carpians began to be caught up between the Roman Empire in the south and west, and the growing power of the Goths to the east. However, after a series of wars, the Goths and the Carpians allied themselves against their common enemy, the Roman EmpireFact|date=April 2008.

Between 238 - 273, allied with the Goths, the Carpians raided the Roman province of MoesiaFact|date=April 2008. The Carps are possibly the tribe that attacked Callatis, Dionysopolis, and Marcianopolis in the early 3rd century. Becoming a nuisance for the Roman Empire, Diocletian fought them and took the title of "Carpicus Maximus" for defeating them in 297Fact|date=April 2008. According to Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus [Ammianus Marcellinus: [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ammianus/28.shtml Liber XXVIII 1.5] (Latin)] , they were moved by Diocletian to Pannonia, where they remained in and around an area near the modern town of Pécs, until the Hunnish invasion.

Sextus Aurelius Victor confirms this, but adds that it was the entire Carpian nation that was moved [Sextus Aurelius Victor: [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/victor.caes.html De Caesaribus, 39:43] (Latin)] , although this appears to be contradicted by later attacks of the Byzantine Empire from outside the empire. Byzantine historian Zosimus mentioned them in the 5th century, using the name of Carpo-Dacians (possibly to distinguish them from the Carpians living in the Roman territory), as being defeated at the Danube by Byzantine Theodosius I in late 4th century [Zosimus: [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/zosimus04_book4.htm#p114 Book IV page 114] ] . This was the last chronicle in which the Carpians appear.

Their fate (as the fate of all the free Dacians in general) is still a matter of debate to historians. Probably some of these free Dacians retreated into the heavily forested areas of the Carpathians, and together with the Daco-Romanians later formed the Romanian people; some may have been either slavicized (it has been suggested several times that the Hutsuls of southern Ukraine and Bukovina may have been, in part, Slavicized free Dacians), assimilated by some migrating people (like the Goths), or that they eventually migrated southward and that they could be the ancestors of Albanians.

ee also

* Origin of the Albanians
* Origin of the Romanians
* Dacian
* Thracian
* Illyrian

References and notes

Further reading