MOESIA (Gr. Muck and Mveia i)

This article appears in Volume V18, Page 644 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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MOESIA (Gr. Muck and Mveia i) iv Eupwap, to distinguish it from Mysia in Asia), in ancient geography, a district inhabited by a Thracian people, bounded on the S. by the mountain ranges of Haemus and Scardus (Scordus, Scodrus), on the W. by the Drinus, on the N. by the Danube and on the E. by the Euxine. It thus corresponded in the main to the modern Servia and Bulgaria. In 75 B.C., C. Scribonius Curio, proconsul of Macedonia, penetrated 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 also proconsul of Macedonia, during the reign of

Augustus

AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)

c. 29 B.C. (see Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman Empire, Eng. trans., i. 12-14). The country, however, was not organized as a province until the last years of the reign; in A.D. 6 mention is made of its

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

, Caecina Severus (Dio

Cassius

lv. 29). The statement of Appian (Illyrica, 30) that it did not become a Roman province until the time of Tiberius, is therefore incorrect. Originally one province, under an imperial consular legate (who probably also had control of Achaea and Macedonia), it was divided by Domitian into Upper (superior) and Lower (inferior, also called Ripa Thracia) Moesia, the western and eastern portions respectively, divided from each other by the river Cebrus (Ciabrus; mod. Cibritza or Zibru). Some, however, place the boundary further west. Each was governed by an imperial consular legate and a procurator. As a frontier province, Moesia was strengthened by stations and fortresses erected along the southern bank of the Danube, and a

wall

WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, Mid. Eng. wal, wane, adapted from Lat. vallum, rampart; the
original
- ORIGINAL
O. Eng. word for a wall was wag or tenth)
WALL, RICHARD (1694-1778)

was built from Axiopolis to Tomi as a protection against Scythian and Sarmatian inroads. After the abandonment of Dacia (q.v.) to the barbarians by Aurelian (27o-275) and the transference of its inhabitants to the south of the Danube, the central portion of Moesia took the name of Dacia Aureliani (again divided into Dacia ripensis and interior). The district called Dardania (in Upper Moesia), inhabited by the Illyrian Dardani, was formed into a

special

SPECIAL

province by Diocletian with

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

Naissus (Nissa or Nish), the birthplace of Constantine the Great. The Goths, who had already invaded Moesia in 250, hard pressed by the Huns, again crossed the Danube during the reign of Valens (376), and with his permission settled in
Moesia. But quarrels soon took place, and the Goths under Fritigern defeated Valens in a great battle near Adrianople (378). These Goths are known as Moeso-Goths, for whom Ulfilas made the Gothic translation of the Bible. In the 7th century Slays and Bulgarians entered the country and founded the modern kingdoms of Servia and Bulgaria. The

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

towns of Upper Moesia were : Singidunum (Belgrade), Viminacium (sometimes called municipium Aelium; Kostolatz), Bononia (Widdin), Ratiaria (Artcher): of Lower Moesia; Oescus (colonia Ulpia, Gigen), Novae (near Sistova, the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

seat of Theodoric), Nicopolis ad Istrum (Nikup), really on the Iatrus or Yantra, Odessus (Varna), Tomi (Kustendje), to which the poet Ovid was banished. The last two were Greek towns, which, with Istros, Mesambria and

Apollonia

APOLLONIA

, formed a pentapolis.
See Orosius v. 23, 20; Livy, Epit. 92, 134, 135; Dio

Cassius

li. 2527; E. R. Roster, Romanische Studien (

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

, 1871); T. Mommsen, Corpus inscriptionum latinarum, iii. 141, 263; J. Marquardt, Romische Staatsverwaltung (1881), i. 301; H. Kiepert, Lehrbuch der alten Geographie (1878), 298, 299; article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1873). (J. H. F.)

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