Europe 336: Constantine’s Dacia

Political map of Europe & the Mediterranean on 28 Jul 336 (Constantinian Dynasty: Constantine’s Dacia), showing the following events: Calocaerus; Constantine’s Limigantes War; Geberic vs Visimar; Dalmatius; Constantine Dacicus.

With the support of his new Gothic subjects, Constantine extended Roman power into northern Dacia and suppressed the Sarmatians and Taifals. This gave him a claim to have restored Trajan’s Dacia, although actual Roman authority throughout most of the region was at best indirect.

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Main Events

333?–334? Calocaerus

In 333 or 334 Calocaerus, the Magister pecoris camelorum (“Master of the Flock and Camels”) in Cyprus, revolted and proclaimed himself emperor. News of the rebellion was barely out when it was suppressed by Flavius Dalmatius, Constantine’s half-brother and Censor in the East. Dalmatius took Calocaerus and his co-conspirators to Tarsus in Cilicia, where they were tried and executed.in wikipedia

334 Constantine’s Limigantes War

By the time of the 332 Gothic invasion, the Sarmatians had divided into two main classes: the “free” Agaragantes and the “slave” Limigantes. To help repel the Goths, the Agaragantes had armed the Limigantes, but after the war the latter rebelled and expelled the former, who fled to the Victohali and to the Roman Empire. In response, Constantine resettled an alleged 300,000 Sarmatian refugees in Italy and the Balkans, then invaded Sarmatia and forced the Limigantes to accept Roman authority. in wikipedia

335? Geberic vs Visimar

According to the Gothic tradition of Jordanes, at some point late in Constantine’s reign Geberic, the leader of Roman-dominated Gothia, invaded northern Dacia, which was then under the rule of King Visimar of the Hasdingi Vandals. Geberic defeated Visimar in a great battle on the Marisia river (the Mureș in Romania) and drove the Hasdingi from their lands. Uprooted in this manner, the Hasdingi were destroyed as a force for about sixty years. in wikipedia

18 Sep 335 Dalmatius

In September 336 Constantine made Dalmatius, the young son of his half-brother Flavius Dalmatius, into a Caesar and on the same day married his daughter Constantina to Dalmatius’ brother Hannibalianus. Dalmatius was given command over the ripa Gothica, which consisted of the dioceses of Moesiae—divided at about this time into the new dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia—and Thraciae. in wikipedia

336 Constantine Dacicus

In 336 Constantine was involved in a final campaign across the Danube, possibly achieving a hard-fought victory over the Taifals. As a result, in what appears to have been a claim to have restored Roman authority in Trajan’s Dacia, he was given the title Dacicus Maximus. However, although Roman trade throughout Dacia was indeed restored by Constantine’s conquests, Roman rule in the region seems to have been largely indirect and dependent on autonomous subject tribes such as the Goths.in wikipedia