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There's some misconception that exists regarding the origin of Romanians and where/when they got their Romance language. There are some claims that Romanians got their language from migrants from the Balkans (south of the Danube) and that is where the origins of Romanians lie. However, there's no proof of any mass migration occurring from the Balkans to Romania so I'll use this thread to post proof of Roman settlement in Romania from the Romans (of Italy/Rome) occurring by mentioning the existence of a few ancient Roman artifacts and other archaeological evidence in Romania (dating to the early Roman colonization of Romania) as well as some historical background first to go along with it.
When the Romans conquered "Dacia", they only conquered King Decebal's kingdom. Outside of his kingdom still lived Dacians such as the Costobocs in northern Transylvania or the Tyragetae in Bessarabia. The Roman province of Dacia in 106 AD was just comprised of eastern & southeastern Transylvania, Banat, and Oltenia. Most Dacians did live in the Roman province of Dacia though. The Dacians who lived in lands outside this administered province were known as "Free Dacians". Their lands took about 130 years to incorporate into Roman Dacia. So peripheral Dacian lands took 130 years to conquer. Other parts of modern day Romania were inhabited by Sarmatians btw. In total, the conquest took 160+ years.
After Dacia was conquered, it was named Dacia Felix, meaning "Dacia the Blessed". Romans from other parts of the empire were told that Dacia Felix was a rich and beautiful land with a lot of opportunities so began coming there en masse. From there on, a lot of Romans began migrating to Dacia to help develop the place into a proper Roman city. These were largely civil servants, engineers, doctors, and other specialists. But also normal citizens as well. There were also a large number of military men imported there to help defend it against the Free Dacians and other invading "barbarians". About 100 fortifications were set up. The Romans that settled in Dacia in the early second century ended up living there and starting a family. They mixed with Dacians and created a hybrid Daco-Roman people (although the Roman genetic contribution may have been minimal, their cultural contribution was immense).
Towards the mid-late third century when the Roman Empire was in trouble, Emperor Aurelian took out a lot of Romans from Dacia, but at this point, Dacia had already been Romanized to a large extent. Dacians were an illiterate people with the only references to their language being Greek sources talking about them. The Romance-speaking people mostly lived in towns whereas the villagers were mostly Dacian-speaking. Over time, the Geto-Dacians adopted the Latin language since the people speaking it were upperclassmen without any need to learn Dacian. Its like how Vlachs in Serbia learn Serbian but Serbs don't learn Aromanian. For the peasant/low class Dacians to communicate with the upper class, they had to learn Latin. I don't think that 100% of Romania's population became Latin-speaking by the time Aurelian pulled out, but the ruling aristocrats were Latin-speaking Romans and they would have finished the job after Dacia was separated from the Roman Empire. I also heard that Roman missionaries went to Dacia after the split.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Densu%C8%99_ChurchIt was built in the 7th century with additions made in the 13th century on the site of a 2nd-century Roman temple, with some materials from the Dacian Sarmizegetusa fortress. It has a stone tower above the naos. Inside the church there are 15th century mural paintings that show Jesus wearing Romanian traditional clothes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milliarium_of_AitonMilliarium of Aiton is an ancient Roman milestone (milliarium) discovered in the 1758 in Aiton commune, near Cluj-Napoca, Romania.[1] Dating from 108 AD, shortly after the Roman conquest of Dacia, the milestone shows the construction of the road from Potaissa to Napoca, by demand of the Emperor Trajan. It indicates the distance of ten thousand feet (P.M.X.) to Potaissa. This is the first epigraphical attestation of the settlements of Potaissa and Napoca in Roman Dacia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlyconGlycon (Ancient Greek: Γλύκων Glıkon, gen: Γλύκωνος Glıkonos), also spelled Glykon, was an ancient snake god. Having a large and influential cult within the Roman Empire in the 2nd century
One single marble statue of Glycon snake was found in excavations done under the site of the former Pallas railway station in Constanța, Romania. The statue is 0.66 metres high and the snake dimension is 4.76 metres.[4] The Romanians commemorated this unique sculpture on a postage stamp in 1974, and on a bank note of 10.000 lei in 1994.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_DaciaInscriptions and sculpture in Dacia reveal a wide variety in matters of religion. Deities of the official state religion of Rome appear alongside those originating in Greece, Asia Minor, and Western Europe;[192] of these, 43.5% have Latin names.[1] The major gods of the Roman pantheon are all represented in Dacia:[192] Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Venus, Apollo, Liber, Libera, and others.[193] The Roman god Silvanus was of unusual importance, second only to Jupiter.[194] He was frequently referred to in Dacia with the titles silvester and domesticus, which were also used in Pannonia.[195]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PorolissumPorolissum was an ancient Roman city in Dacia. Established as a military camp in 106 during Trajan's Dacian Wars, the city quickly grew through trade with the native Dacians and became the capital of the province Dacia Porolissensis in 124. The site is one of the largest and best-preserved archaeological sites in modern-day Romania. It is 8 km away from the modern city of Zalău, in Moigrad-Porolissum village, Mirsid Commune, Sălaj County.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoagiuThe first settlements in the area can be found in the time of the Dacians, in the 1st century BC, as shown by archeological discoveries. After the Roman conquest, the Romans built the fort of Germisara in the 2nd century, however, it kept the original Dacian name. Germisara was defended by the Legio XIII Gemina.
Relevant parts are bolded. There is more evidence that I didn't list above, but these should be enough to get my point across. The links above should be enough proof that modern day Romania became Romanized as a result of being incorporated in the Roman Empire rather than because of some unrecorded Vlach migrants from the Balkan Peninsula. They're almost all dated to the 2nd century which is shortly after Trajan conquered Romania from the Geto-Dacians.
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