Constantine’s military operations against the Goths and the Sarmatians in 332 and 334 (original) (raw)

The reconquest of Dacia by Constantine the Great

Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 2023

The article discusses some particulars of Constantine the Great's campaigns waged in the years 329-336 in the Danube area against the Goths and the Sarmatians, with a special focus on the Roman reconquest of Dacia, a former province abandoned during the reign of Aurelian. The corpus of analysed sources encompasses a selection of relevant literary and historical sources, supplemented with archaeological, numismatic and epigraphic sources. One of the aims of this article is to improve our understanding of Constantine's reconquest of Dacia, an event hitherto insufficiently explored by modern historians. In the aftermath of these military operations, the Romans recovered areas of former Dacia Malvensis and Dacia Apulensis, lost half a century earlier; however, most of these ephemeral gains were lost a mere decade (at the very latest) after the death of Constantine the Great.

Constantine, Constans and the Comes Rei Militaris (306-350)

The collapsing of the Tetrarchy system during the wars of 306-313 brought some new issues and changes to the whole Roman Empire, mainly about the new role of Christianity and the different state ideology and politics Constantine I started to follow. But the Roman Army was not unconnected to these changes and new policies connected to organization of troops and frontier lines altered the old Diocletianic models. Constantine I was a great builder of towers, military roads, fortified bridges and forts all along the Rhine limes whom he cared of so much during his reign. But after his death in 337 his younger son Constans I followed her steps in the West with a vigorous series of military campaigns across the frontier, punishing and controlling the barbarians on the other side both in Britain and Gaul. He created a new military rank too, for endorsing his father´s policy and put to safety more efficiently the borders all along his domains in the West: the comes rei militaris

Vitalie Bârcă, Olbia, Tyras, the Roman Empire and the Sarmatians in the Second Half of the 1st – Early 2nd century AD. In C. Croitoru, V. Sîrbu (Eds.), Ancient Linear Fortifications on the Lower Danube, Mega Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca, 2014, p. 167-190.

Ancient Linear Fortifications on the Lower Danube. Proceedings of the National Colloquium ”Ancient Linear Fortifications on the Left Bank of the Lower Danube”, Brăila, 14-16 iunie 2013, 2014

This study, though not exhaustively, aims at restoring the political and military circumstances in the north-west Pontic area in the 1st C CE – start of the 2nd C CE based on literary, epigraphic, numismatic and archaeological sources as well as at analysing aspects related to the relations of the Roman empire and Greek cities north-west the Black Sea with the Sarmatian tribes in the region during above chronological frame