Moesi
In Roman literature of the early 1st century CE, the Moesi (
The name Moesia was given first to the province of
Name
The ethnic name of the Balkan Μοισοί Moesi, as well as of the Anatolian Μυσοί
Already in the 19th century German linguist
The province of Moesia was named after the Moesi.[6]
Ancient literature
In the late 1st century BCE, in Rome a new ideological discourse was formed. Propagated by poets like Horace and Ovid, it constructed a glorious Trojan past for the Romans, who were claimed to be descendants of Trojan Dardanians. In the years before the Trojan origin story became the official Roman narrative about their origins, the Romans came into conflict in the Balkans with a people who were known as the Dardani.[7] In public discourse this created the problem that the Roman army could be seen as fighting against a people who could be related to the ancestors of the Romans. The image of the historical Dardani in the 1st century BC was that of Illyrian barbarians who raided their Macedonian frontier and had to be dealt with. In this context, the name of a people known as the Moesi appeared in Roman sources. The Moesi are mentioned only in three ancient sources in the period after the death of Emperor Augustus in 14 CE. The name itself was taken from the name of the Mysians in Asia Minor.[8] The choice seems to be related to the fact that the Trojan-era Mysians lived close to the Trojan-era Dardanians. Ovid mentions the Moesi as a people who raided the inner Balkan provinces of Romans. Strabo is the first who linked the Balkan Moesi considering them to be of the same origin as the Homeric Mysi of northwest Anatolia. Strabo constructs a story according to which Moesian presence in the Danubian area dates to the campaigns of Aelius Catus, who moved 50.000 Moesians from coastal Thrace near the Getae around 4 CE. Strabo's argumentation that the Moesi were moved in the region by Aelius Catus has been criticized for its "illogical and controversial arguments". Strabo in Geography mentions no historical events in relation to the Moesi in contrast to the historical details he reports about the Getae and the Triballi who would have been their neighbours. This is seen as more evidence that the Moesi as a people were in fact a recent construct.[9]
As the name of the Dardani in Roman discourse became linked to the ancestors of the Romans, the actual Dardani began to be covered in Roman literature by other names. After the death of Augustus, their name in connection to the Balkans became a political problem. After the death of Augustus, the new emperor was Tiberius, his stepson and the most senior Roman general in the Balkans. As Tiberius had played a key role in the Roman conquest of the Balkans, as emperor he could not be portrayed as the conqueror of Dardanians, whose name had been constructed as the name of the mythical progenitors of the Romans. Thus, the decision to create a new name for Dardania and the Dardani was made. Despite this decision and the administrative use of the names Moesia and Moesi for the Dardani and Dardania, the original use of the name persisted by authors like Appian.[8] The name Dardania was not used for several hundred years after this period in an administrative context. It was only recreated by Emperor Diocletian in the 3rd century CE.[10]
In culture
With the formation of the Bulgarian ethnicity in the mid-10th century,
See also
Notes
- ^ Although Alb. mëz/mâz is usually considered to be inherited from Proto-Albanian *mandja-, related to PAlb. *mänd (cf. Alb. mënd, 'to suckle'), from a Paleo-Balkan perspective it seems more likely to explain the usage of the name *me(n)-za- ('horse') for 'foal' after a later semantic shift 'horse' > 'foal' in Albanian, which was triggered by the loan from Latin caballus into Albanian kalë ('horse').[5]
References
- ^ Wilkes 1996, pp. 579–580.
- ^ Oreshko 2020, p. 116.
- ^ Oreshko 2020, pp. 77, 116.
- ^ Oreshko 2020, p. 117.
- ^ a b Oreshko 2020, p. 118.
- ^ Šašel Kos 2005, p. 488.
- ^ Boteva 2021, p. 410.
- ^ a b Boteva 2021, p. 411
- ^ Boteva 2021, p. 408.
- ^ Rama 2021, p. 114.
- ISBN 978-0-521-61637-9.
- ISBN 978-0472081493.
- ISBN 9004409939.
- JSTOR 25802668.
Bibliography
- Cary, Max; Wilkes, John (2012). "Moesia". In Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (eds.). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. OUP Oxford. p. 966. ISBN 978-0-19-954556-8.
- Gavrilović Vitas, Nadežda (2021). Ex Asia et Syria Oriental Religions in the Roman Central Balkans. Archaeopress Roman Archaeology. Vol. 78. Archaeopress Publishing LTD. ISBN 978-1-78969-914-2.
- Oreshko, Rostislav (2020). "The onager kings of Anatolia: Hartapus, Gordis, Muška and the steppe strand in early Phrygian culture" (PDF). Kadmos. 59 (1/2). De Gruyter: 77–128. S2CID 235451836.
- Šašel Kos, Marjeta (2005). Appian and Illyricum. Narodni muzej Slovenije. ISBN 961616936X.
- Wilkes, J. J. (1996). "The Danubian and Balkan provinces". In Alan K. Bowman; Edward Champlin; Andrew Linto (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History: The Augustan Empire, 43 B.C—A.D. 69. Vol. 10. Cambridge University Press. pp. 545–585. ISBN 0521264308.
- Boteva, Dilyana (2021). Mitthof, Fritz; Cenati, Chiara; Zerbini, Livio (eds.). "Society and Myths: How was the Name of Moesia Invented?". Ad Ripam Fluminis Danuvi: Papers of the 3rd International Conference on the Roman Danubian Provinces, Vienna, 11th–14th November 2015.
- Rama, Zana (2021). "Dardania in late antiquity: An overview of 4th-6th century fortification in the territory of Kosovo". Archaeologia Adriatica. 14. S2CID 244293507.
Further reading
- Petrović, Vladimir P. (2019). Les voies et agglomérations romaines au cœur des Balkans: Le cas de la Serbie. Scripta Antiqua. Ausonius Éditions. ISBN 9782356133243.