82/70 - 44 BC

Banat’s region is belonging to the Burebista’s Geto-Dacian kingdom.

[Burabeista, Burebistex, Burbistax, Boirebistex, Beirebiastas, Buruisa, Bu-ere-bu-ist-as; phonetically: Byrebistas]

44 - 22 BC

Banat is belonging to the Geto-Dacian king Cotiso  [at Suetonius: Cotisoni -sometimes Cosoni- Getarum regi].

86/87 AD

the roman praetorian prefect Cornelius Fuscus is defeated by the Dacian king Decebalus.

88/89

Tettius Iulianus, consul suffectus in 83 and then governor of Moesia province, defeats the Dacians at Tapae in Banat. The Dacian king Decebalus became “client of the Roman Empire”.

89

peace between the Romans and the Dacians.

101

Banat is conquered by the Romans under Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus / Trajan [*18.09.53, roman emperor 98-117, +9.08.117].

106 - 118/119

Banat is part of the roman province of Dacia.

117/119 - 167

Banat belongs to the roman province of Dacia Superior.

168/169 - 271/275

Banat belongs to the roman province of Dacia Apulensis.

[the West part of Banat was belonging to Dacia Malvensis?].

248 - 332 

the little germanic warrior tribe of Taifalii is certified in Banat and Oltenia. Not explicit where they came from. Belonged to the ostrogoths but lived near the visigoths. They are obscure, noted as having "foul" habits, and usually acted in concert or under other groups. Ammianus Marcelinus wrote (Rerum gestarum, 31.9.5): "I have learned that this tribe of the Taifali is so immersed in the shameful acts of an obscene life that among them young men in the age of puberty copulate in a nefarious bond with men, consuming them in their polluted practices". He added that once the youth had killed a wild boar or a bear, he had passed his initiation, apparently then becoming an adult male and able to repeat the cycle. In 377 the Taifalii are found in NE Italy: Mutina / Modena, Regium / Reggio, Parma.

271/275

The roman / aurelian withdrawal -army and administration- from Dacia under Lucius Domitius Aurelianus [*9.09.214, emperor 270-‘75, +Autumn275]. The upper classes and probably many urban dwellers followed, but the majority of the population, who lived in the countryside and were engaged in agriculture, stayed behind.

Emperor Aurelianus create a new province on the right bank of Danube river, Dacia Aureliani, in the old Moesia province. Dacia Aureliani was divided by Valerius Diocletianus [*245; emperor 284-305; +313, Salona] or Constantine I [emperor 306-337] in Dacia Ripensis, with the capital at Ratiaria [today, Arçar in Bulgaria] and Dacia Mediterranea, with the capital at Sardica [today Sofia]. The two provinces survived up to 535 when emperor Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus aka Justinian I [*~483; emperor 1.08.527-565; +November, 565] set up the new province of Iustiniana Prima.

MAPS

324/332 - 362

Banat [only the South part ?] is re-conquered by the roman emperor Constantine I [Flavius Valerius Constantinus, known also as Constantine the Great; *27.02.271/272/273[?], Naissus, Moesia Superior, modern Niš, Serbia; emperor 25.07.306-337; +22.05.337, Nicomedia].

332

Sarmatae Arcaragantes are forced to arm their slaves -known in 358 as Limigantes?- in the war against the gothic Tervingi allied with the Taifalii. The Sarmatae are helped by the roman army lead by Flavius Claudius Constantinus [*316, Arles; +340, Aquileia], the son of emperor Constantine I and future emperor Constantine II [337-340]. After the victory against the goths, the Sarmatae Arcaragantes’s slaves will rebel against their masters and will drive them away from their former territory.

358

Limigantes, servi Sarmatarum live in a region split in two by Tisa river / Tisza / Theiss / Theiß [ex Parthiscus, Pathissus, Tisas, Tisias], in the Banat’s plain [i.e. the Western part of the historical Banat]. They are defeated by the roman army lead by emperor Constantius II [i.e. Flavius Julius Constantius, *7.08.317, Illyricum; emperor 337-361; +3.11.361, Mopsucrenae, Cilicia] and forced to accept a harsh pace treaty.

359

New war between the limigantes and the roman army at Acimincum / Slankamen, at the confluence between Tisa and Danube rivers. The limigantes are defeated by the roman army lead by emperor Constantius II.

>376

The huns take possession of Oltenia and Muntenia, at East of Banat. The region becomes the central seat of hun power.

432 - 434

Pannonia, the region West and NW from Banat, fell to the huns. The huns moved their central seat power to the pannonian plain.

448

Banat is for sure under the hun’s rule. The byzantine sophist and historian Priscus of Panium/Thrace [i.e. Priscus Panites or Priskos Rhetor] is passing trough Banat in his way to Attila’s court. He accompanied Maximianus / Maximin, the ambassador of Theodosius the Younger [i.e. Theodosius II, emperor 408-450] to the court of the hun’s. In Banat, Priscus will find a barbarian population speaking romana rustica living in villages and he will drink a local beverage named medos [coming from the Latin medus / i.e. mead].

453 - 454

Attila died. At the battle of Nedao River in Pannonia from 454, the allied forces of the germanic gepids and ostrogoths defeated the hunnic forces of the sons of Attila. Hunnic dominance in Central and Eastern Europe was broken as a result.

Shortly after the Battle of Nedao, Banat [for sure the North part /i.e. the Mures valley] came under the gepid / gepidae [only nominal?] rule [up to 567].

471

Sarmatae are mentioned for the last time. The ostrogot king Theodorich defeated the Sarmatae 
leader Babai and took from it Singidunum / i.e. Belgrade.

14.04.535-602

the South Banat is under the jurisdiction of byzantine Prima Justiniana Bishopric.

april 567

the avar-longobard alliance defeats the gepidae kingdom with his center at Sirmium /i.e. Sremska Mitrovica. The gepidae became subjects of the avars which received "all the land of Gepidae" [i.e. Gepidia].

568/570 - 796

the Banat [only the plain?] became part of Avaria [i.e. Land of the avars; avar Khaganate]

593

the first certification of the slavs in Banat [Theophylaktos Simokattes, Historiae, VI, 3-4].

593 - 598

the crumble of the byzantine Danube’s limes in the Banat region.

summer 599

[600 or 601]

war between the Byzantine and the Avar armies in Banat. Avars are defeated in 3 separate battles [held in the Alibunar-Moraviţa Valley zone] by the Byzantine army lead by Priscus.

According to an historical source [Theophanes Homologetes / i.e. the Confessor (we do not know the sources of info for this late chronicler)], the byzantines took 9000 prisoners after a battle: 3000 avars, 3200 gepidae, 800 sclavini / slavs and 2000 "other barbarians" [probably gepidae, kutrigur, etc.].

Another source [contemporary Theophylaktos Simokattes] mention 17200 prisoners: 3000 avars, 8000 sclavini, and 6200 "other barbarians" [probably gepidae, kutrigur, etc.].

Because we do not know anything about the ethnicity of these "other barbarians", suppositions like "Latin presence in the Banat is almost inexistent" are just wild assumptions without any historical background.

The Avar Empire was populated with individuals having a very diverse genetic background. It's seams that the mongoloid and euro-mongoloid elements [like Avars, etc.] were not more then 16%. The majority were the high european race [the slavs, 27%], the nordic european race [gepidae, 21%], 18% representing the roman inheritance [gracil cromagnoid european race], also trace of Armenians [one of the basic element of the Byzantine army] were found along with west-mediterranean elements [also representing the older roman colonization]. See LIPTÁK Pál's "Avars and Ancient Hungarians", Budapest, 1983, p. 48-95.

~679

Banat is named Datia … secunda /i.e. Dacia Secunda in Ravennatis Anonimi’s Cosmographia.

791 - 796

the avar Khaganate disappears after the frankish victories.

In 796 some of the avars took refuge from the franks at East from Tisa river [in Banat?] and frankish army followed them here.

Einhard mentioned that Charlemagne conquered "both Pannonias, Dacia beyond the Danube". 

803 - 805

Krum [Kagan / Khan of kutriguri bulgarians] occupies Eastern Avaria [including Banat?].

822

The Praedenecenti, who lived "in Dacia near the Danube, neighbors with the bulgarians" [also in the West plain of the Banat?] send their representatives at the general assembly of the empire at Frankfurt.

824

The Praedenecenti’s messengers came to Louis I “the Pious” [aka the Fair, the Debonaire; German: Ludwig der Fromme; French: Louis le Pieux or le Débonnaire; *16.04.778; frankish emperor 814-840; +20.06.840] seeking for help because the bulgarians were attacking them.

~824

Banat came under the First Bulgarian Empire’s rule.

~900 - 930

[?] western Banat and / or the NW corner of the Banat is already conquered by the hungarians.

~927

ducem / dux Glad, probably former bulgarian vassal, became own ruler of central and Eastern and/or the NE & SE corner of Banat.

spring 934

dux Glad, even if is helped by the "Cumanorum et Bulgarorum atque Blacorum" /i.e. cumans, bulgarians and romanians, is defeated by the hungarians.

~950

The hungarian’s [nominal?] rule over Banat up to Porţile de Fier / Iron Gates on the Danube river [see Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio].

953

Gylas, a hungarian ruler, is baptized at Constantinople and became patrician of the Byzantine Empire. He will return home accompanied by a monk named Hierotheos which was appointed by the byzantines bishop of a region named Tourkias. The NW-N corner of Banat is included in this Tourkias.

>976 - 1004

Banat is again under First Bulgarian Empire’s indirect rule.