title: Crepitus

text: The term can also be used when describing the sounds produced by lung conditions such as interstitial lung disease; these are also referred to as "rales". Crepitus is often loud enough to be heard by the human ear, although a stethoscope may be needed to detect instances caused by respiratory diseases.


title: Crepitus

text: In times of poor surgical practice, post-surgical complications involved anaerobic infection by "Clostridium perfringens" strains, which can cause gas gangrene in tissues, also giving rise to crepitus.


title: Crepitus

text: Subcutaneous crepitus (or surgical emphysema) is a crackling sound resulting from subcutaneous emphysema, or air trapped in the subcutaneous tissues.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Roman Dacia ( ; also known as Dacia Traiana, ; or Dacia Felix, 'Fertile/Happy Dacia') was a province of the Roman Empire from 106 to 271–275 AD. Its territory consisted of what are now the regions of Oltenia, Transylvania and Banat (today all in Romania, except the last one which is split between Romania, Hungary, and Serbia). During Roman rule, it was organized as an imperial province on the borders of the empire. It is estimated that the population of Roman Dacia ranged from 650,000 to 1,200,000. It was conquered by Trajan (98–117) after two campaigns that devastated the Dacian Kingdom of Decebalus. However, the Romans did not occupy its entirety; Crișana, Maramureș, and most of Moldavia remained under the Free Dacians.


title: Roman Dacia

text: After its integration into the empire, Roman Dacia saw constant administrative division. In 119, it was divided into two departments: Dacia Superior ("Upper Dacia") and Dacia Inferior ("Lower Dacia"; later named Dacia Malvensis). Between 124 and around 158, Dacia Superior was divided into two provinces, Dacia Apulensis and Dacia Porolissensis. The three provinces would later be unified in 166 and be known as "Tres Daciae" ("Three Dacias") due to the ongoing Marcomannic Wars. New mines were opened and ore extraction intensified, while agriculture, stock breeding, and commerce flourished in the province. Roman Dacia was of great importance to the military stationed throughout the Balkans and became an urban province, with about ten cities known and all of them originating from old military camps. Eight of these held the highest rank of "colonia". Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa was the financial, religious, and legislative center and where the imperial "procurator" (finance officer) had his seat, while Apulum was Roman Dacia's military center.


title: Roman Dacia

text: From its creation, Roman Dacia suffered great political and military threats. The Free Dacians, allied with the Sarmatians, made constant raids in the province. These were followed by the Carpi (a Dacian tribe) and the newly arrived Germanic tribes (Goths, Taifali, Heruli, and Bastarnae) allied with them. All this made the province difficult for the Roman emperors to maintain, already being virtually lost during the reign of Gallienus (253–268). Aurelian (270–275) would formally relinquish Roman Dacia in 271 or 275 AD. He evacuated his troops and civilian administration from Dacia, and founded Dacia Aureliana with its capital at Serdica in Lower Moesia. The Romanized population still left was abandoned, and its fate after the Roman withdrawal is controversial. According to one theory, the Latin spoken in Dacia, mostly in modern Romania, became the Romanian language, making the Romanians descendants of the Daco-Romans (the Romanized population of Dacia). The opposing theory states that the origin of the Romanians actually lies on the Balkan Peninsula.


title: Roman Dacia

text: The Dacians and the Getae frequently interacted with the Romans prior to Dacia's incorporation into the Roman Empire. However, Roman attention on the area around the lower Danube was sharpened when Burebista (82–44 BC) unified the native tribes and began an aggressive campaign of expansion. His kingdom extended to Pannonia in the west and reached the Black Sea to the east, while to the south his authority extended into the Balkans.


title: Roman Dacia

text: By 74 BC, the Roman legions under Gaius Scribonius Curio reached the lower Danube and proceeded to come into contact with the Dacians. Roman concern over the rising power and influence of Burebista was amplified when he began to play an active part in Roman politics. His last minute decision just before the Battle of Pharsalus to participate in the Roman Republic's civil war by supporting Pompey meant that once the Pompeians were dealt with, Julius Caesar would turn his eye towards Dacia. As part of Caesar's planned Parthian campaign of 44 BC, he prepared to cross into Dacia and eliminate Burebista, thereby hopefully causing the breakup of his kingdom. Although this expedition into Dacia did not happen due to Caesar's assassination, Burebista failed to bring about any true unification of the tribes he ruled. Following a plot which saw him assassinated, his kingdom fractured into four distinct political entities, later becoming five, each ruled by minor kings.


title: Roman Dacia

text: From the death of Burebista to the rise of Decebalus, Roman forces continued to clash against the Dacians and the Getae. Constant raiding by the tribes into the adjacent provinces of Moesia and Pannonia caused the local governors and the emperors to undertake a number of punitive actions against the Dacians. All of this kept the Roman Empire and the Dacians in constant social, diplomatic, and political interaction during much of the late pre-Roman period. This saw the occasional granting of favoured status to the Dacians in the manner of being identified as "amicii et socii" – "friends and allies" – of Rome, although by the time of Octavianus this was tied up with the personal patronage of important Roman individuals. An example of this was seen in Octavianus' actions during his conflict with Marcus Antonius. Seeking to obtain an ally who could threaten Antonius' European provinces, in 35 BC Octavianus offered an alliance with the Dacians, whereby he would marry the daughter of the Dacian King, Cotiso, and in exchange Cotiso would wed Octavianus' daughter, Julia.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Although it is believed that the custom of providing royal hostages to the Romans may have commenced sometime during the first half of the 1st century BC, it was certainly occurring by Octavianus' reign and it continued to be practised during the late pre-Roman period. On the flip side, ancient sources have attested to the presence of Roman merchants and artisans in Dacia, while the region also served as a haven for runaway Roman slaves. This cultural and mercantile exchange saw the gradual spread of Roman influence throughout the region, most clearly seen in the area around the Orăștie Mountains.


title: Roman Dacia

text: The arrival of the Flavian dynasty, in particular the accession of the emperor Domitian, saw an escalation in the level of conflict along the lower and middle Danube. In approximately 84 or 85 AD the Dacians, led by King Decebalus, crossed the Danube into Moesia, wreaking havoc and killing the Moesian governor Gaius Oppius Sabinus. Domitian responded by reorganising Moesia into Moesia Inferior and Moesia Superior and launching a war against Decebalus. Unable to finish the war due to troubles on the German frontier, Domitian concluded a treaty with the Dacians that was heavily criticized at the time. This would serve as a precedent to the emperor Trajan's wars of conquest in Dacia. Trajan led the Roman legions across the Danube, penetrating Dacia and focusing on the important area around the Orăștie Mountains. In 102, after a series of engagements, negotiations led to a peace settlement where Decebalus agreed to demolish his forts while allowing the presence of a Roman garrison at Sarmizegetusa Regia (Grădiștea Muncelului, Romania) to ensure Dacian compliance with the treaty. Trajan also ordered his engineer, Apollodorus of Damascus, to design and build a bridge across the Danube at Drobeta.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Trajan's second Dacian campaign in 105–106 was very specific in its aim of expansion and conquest. The offensive targeted Sarmizegetusa Regia. The Romans besieged Decebalus' capital, which surrendered and was destroyed. The Dacian king and a handful of his followers withdrew into the mountains, but their resistance was short-lived and Decebalus committed suicide. Other Dacian nobles, however, were either captured or chose to surrender. One of those who surrendered revealed the location of the Dacian royal treasury, which was of enormous value: of gold and of silver.


title: Roman Dacia

text: With the annexation of Decebalus' kingdom, Dacia was turned into Rome's newest province, only the second such acquisition since the death of Augustus nearly a century before. Decebalus' Sarmatian allies to the north were still present in the area, requiring a number of campaigns that did not cease until 107 at the earliest; however, by the end of 106, the legions began erecting new "castra" along the frontiers. Trajan returned to Rome in the middle of June 107.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Roman sources list Dacia as an imperial province on 11 August 106. It was governed by an imperial legate of "consular" standing, supported by two "legati legionis" who were in charge of each of the two legions stationed in Dacia. The "procurator Augusti" was responsible for managing the taxation of the province and expenditure by the military. The territory conquered by Trajan was portioned between the newly formed province and the existing provinces bordering imperial Dacia. Moesia Inferior absorbed what eventually became South Moldavia, Muntenia, eastern Oltenia, and the south-eastern edge of the Carpathian Mountains, while Dacia Traiana was composed of the western portions of Oltenia, Transylvania, and Banat.


title: Roman Dacia

text: To Roman Dacia's east and south was the province of Moesia, which the emperor Domitian had split into two in 86 AD – Moesia Superior, having its capital at Singidunum (modern Belgrade in Serbia), and Moesia Inferior, with Tomis as its capital (modern Constanța, Romania). Along Roman Dacia's exposed western border and stretching towards the vast Pannonian Plain lived the Iazyges, a Sarmatian tribe. Northern Moldavia was the home of the Bastarnae, Roxolani, and Carpi, while the northern section of Transylvania was populated by the remaining non-Romanized Dacians and another Dacian tribe, the Costoboci.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Transforming Dacia into a province was a very resource-intensive process. Traditional Roman methods were employed, including the creation of urban infrastructure such as Roman baths, forums and temples, the establishment of Roman roads, and the creation of colonies composed of retired soldiers. However, excluding Trajan's attempts to encourage colonists to move into the new province, the imperial government did hardly anything to promote resettlement from existing provinces into Dacia.


title: Roman Dacia

text: An immediate effect of the wars leading to the Roman conquest was a decrease in the population in the province. Crito wrote that approximately 500,000 Dacians were enslaved and deported, a portion of which were transported to Rome to participate in the gladiatorial games (or "lusiones") as part of the celebrations to mark the emperor's triumph. To compensate for the depletion of the population, the Romans carried out a program of official colonisation, establishing urban centres made up of both Roman citizens and non-citizens from across the empire. Nevertheless, native Dacians remained at the periphery of the province and in rural settings, while local power elites were encouraged to support the provincial administration, as per traditional Roman colonial practice.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Trajan established the Dacian capital, Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, some west of the ruined Sarmizegetusa Regia. Initially serving as a base for the Legio IV Flavia Felix, it soon was settled by the retired veterans who had served in the Dacian Wars, principally the Fifth ("Macedonia"), Ninth ("Claudia"), and Fourteenth ("Gemina") legions.


title: Roman Dacia

text: It is generally assumed that Trajan's reign saw the creation of the Roman road network within imperial Dacia, with any pre-existing natural communication lines quickly converted into paved Roman roads which were soon extended into a more extensive road network. However, only two roads have been attested to have been created at Trajan's explicit command: one was an arterial road that linked the military camps at Napoca and Potaissa (modern Cluj-Napoca and Turda, Romania). Epigraphic evidence on the milliarium of Aiton indicates that this stretch of road was finished sometime during 109–110 AD. The second road was a major arterial road that passed through Apulum (modern Alba Iulia, Romania), and stretched from the Black Sea in the east all the way to Pannonia Inferior in the west and presumably beyond.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Hadrian was at Antioch in Syria when word came through of the death of Trajan. He could not return to Rome, as he was advised that Quadratus Bassus, ordered by Trajan to protect the new Dacian territories north of the Danube, had died there while on campaign. As a result of taking several legions and numerous auxiliary regiments with him to Parthia, Trajan had left Dacia and the remaining Danubian provinces below strength. The Roxolani allied themselves with the Iazyges to revolt against Rome, as they were angry over a Roman decision to cease payments to which Trajan had agreed. Therefore, Hadrian dispatched the armies from the east ahead of him, and departed Syria as soon as he was able.


title: Roman Dacia

text: By this time, Hadrian had grown so frustrated with the continual problems in the territories north of the Danube that he contemplated withdrawing from Dacia. As an emergency measure, Hadrian dismantled Apollodorus' bridge across the Danube, concerned about the threat posed by barbarian incursions across the Olt River and a southward push between a number of Trajan's "colonia" and the "castrum" at Bersobis.


title: Roman Dacia

text: By 118, Hadrian himself had taken to the field against the Roxolani and the Iazyges, and although he defeated them, he agreed to reinstate the subsidies to the Roxolani. Hadrian then decided to abandon certain portions of Trajan's Dacian conquests. The territories annexed to Moesia Inferior (Southern Moldavia, the south-eastern edge of the Carpathian Mountains and the plains of Muntenia and Oltenia) were returned to the Roxolani. As a result, Moesia Inferior reverted once again to the original boundaries it possessed prior to the acquisition of Dacia. The portions of Moesia Inferior to the north of the Danube were split off and refashioned into a new province called Dacia Inferior. Trajan's original province of Dacia was relabelled Dacia Superior. It was at this time that Hadrian moved the Legio IV Flavia Felix from its base at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa and ordered it stationed in Moesia Superior.


title: Roman Dacia

text: By 124, an additional province called Dacia Porolissensis was created in the northern portion of Dacia Superior, roughly located in north-western Transylvania. Since it had become tradition since the time of Augustus that former consuls could only govern provinces as imperial legates where more than one legion was present, Dacia Superior was administered by a senator of praetorian rank. This meant that the imperial legate of Dacia Superior only had one legion under his command, stationed at Apulum. Dacia Inferior and Dacia Porolissensis were under the command of "praesidial procurators" of ducenary rank.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Hadrian vigorously exploited the opportunities for mining in the new province. The emperors monopolized the revenue generated from mining by leasing the operations of the mines to members of the Equestrian order, who employed a large number of individuals to manage the operations. In 124, the emperor visited Napoca and made the city a "municipium".


title: Roman Dacia

text: The accession of Antoninus Pius saw the arrival of an emperor who took a cautious approach to the defense of the provinces. The large amount of milestones dated to his reign demonstrates that he was particularly concerned with ensuring that the roads were in a constant state of repair. Stamped tiles show that the amphitheater at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, which had been built during the earliest years of the "colonia", was repaired under his rule. In addition, given the exposed position of the larger of the Roman fortifications at Porolissum (near Moigrad, Romania), the camp was reconstructed using stone, and given sturdier walls for defensive purposes.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Following a revolt around 158, Antoninus Pius undertook another reorganization of the Dacian provinces. Dacia Porolissensis (in what is now northern Transylvania), with Porolissum as its capital, remained as it was. Dacia Superior was renamed Dacia Apulensis (in Banat and southern Transylvania), with Apulum as its capital, while Dacia Inferior was transformed into Dacia Malvensis (situated at Oltenia). Romula was its capital (modern Reșca Dobrosloveni, Romania). As per Hadrian's earlier reorganization, each zone was governed by equestrian "procurators", and all were responsible to the senatorial governor in Apulensis.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Soon after the accession of Marcus Aurelius in 161 AD, it was clear that trouble was brewing along Rome's northern frontiers, as local tribes began to be pressured by migrating tribes to their north. By 166 AD, Marcus had reorganized Dacia once again, merging the three Dacian provinces into one called "Tres Daciae" ("Three Dacias"), a move that was geared to consolidate an exposed province inhabited by numerous tribes in the face of increasing threats along the Danubian frontier. As the province now contained two legions (Legio XIII Gemina at Apulum was joined by Legio V Macedonica, stationed at Potaissa), the imperial legate had to be of consular rank, with Marcus apparently assigning Sextus Calpurnius Agricola. The reorganization saw the existing "praesidial procurators" of Dacia Porolissensis and Dacia Malvensis continue in office, and added to their ranks was a third "procurator" for Dacia Apulensis, all operating under the direct supervision of the consular legate, who was stationed at the new provincial capital at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Dacia, with its northern, eastern, and western frontiers exposed to attacks, could not easily be defended. When barbarian incursions resumed during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the defences in Dacia were hard pressed to halt all of the raids, leaving exposed the provinces of Upper and Lower Moesia. Throughout 166 and 167 AD, barbarian tribes (the Quadi and Marcomanni) began to pour across the Danube into Pannonia, Noricum, Raetia, and drove through Dacia before bursting into Moesia. A conflict would spark in northern Dacia after 167 when the Iazyges, having been thrust out of Pannonia, focused their energies on Dacia and took the gold mines at Alburnus Maior (modern Roșia Montană, Romania). The last date found on the wax tablets discovered in the mineshafts there (which had been hidden when an enemy attack seemed imminent) is 29 May 167. The suburban villas at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa were burned, and the camp at Slăveni was destroyed by the Marcomanni. By the time Marcus Aurelius reached Aquileia in 168 AD, the Iazyges had taken over 100,000 Roman captives and destroyed several Roman "castra", including the fort at Tibiscum (modern Jupa in Romania).


title: Roman Dacia

text: Fighting continued in Dacia over the next two years, and by 169, the governor of the province Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, was forced to give up his command – it is suspected that he either contracted the plague or died in battle. The emperor decided to temporarily split the province once again between the three sub-provinces, with the imperial legate of Moesia Superior, Marcus Claudius Fronto, taking on the governorship of the central sub-province of Dacia Apulensis. Dacia Malvensis was possibly assigned to its "procurator", Macrinius Avitus, who defeated the Langobardi and Obii. The future emperor Pertinax was also a "procurator" in Dacia during this time, although his exact role is not known. Very unpopular in Dacia, Pertinax was eventually dismissed. By 170, Marcus Aurelius appointed Marcus Claudius Fronto as the governor of the entire Dacian province. Later that year, Fronto's command was extended to include the governorship of Moesia Superior once again. He did not keep it for long; by the end of 170, Fronto was defeated and killed in battle against the Iazyges. His replacement as governor of Dacia was Sextus Cornelius Clemens.


title: Roman Dacia

text: That same year (170) the Costoboci (whose lands were to the north or northeast of Dacia) swept through Dacia on their way south. The now weakened empire could not prevent the movement of tribespeople into an exposed Dacia during 171, and Marcus Aurelius was forced to enter into diplomatic negotiations in an attempt to break up some of the barbarian alliances. In 171, the Astingi invaded Dacia; after initially defeating the Costoboci, they continued their attacks on the province. The Romans negotiated a settlement with the Astingi, whereby they agreed to leave Dacia and settle in the lands of the Costoboci. In the meantime, plots of land were distributed to some 12,000 dispossessed and wandering tribespeople, in an attempt to prevent them from becoming a threat to the province if they continued to roam at the edges of Dacia.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Throughout this period, the tribes bordering Dacia to the east, such as the Roxolani, did not participate in the mass invasions of the empire. Traditionally seen as a vindication of Trajan's decision to create the province of Dacia as a wedge between the western and eastern Danubian tribes, Dacia's exposed position meant that the Romans had a greater reliance on the use of "client-states" to ensure its protection from invasion. While this worked in the case of the Roxolani, the use of the Roman-client relationships that allowed the Romans to pit one supported tribe against another facilitated the conditions that created the larger tribal federations that emerged with the Quadi and the Marcomanni.


title: Roman Dacia

text: By 173 AD, the Marcomanni had been defeated; however, the war with the Iazyges and Quadi continued, as Roman strongholds along the Tisza and Danube rivers were attacked by the Iazyges, followed by a battle in Pannonia in which the Iazyges were defeated. Consequently, Marcus Aurelius turned his full attention against the Iazyges and Quadi. He crushed the Quadi in 174 AD, defeating them in battle on the frozen Danube river, after which they sued for peace. The emperor then turned his attention to the Iazyges; after defeating them and throwing them out of Dacia, the Senate awarded him the title of "Samarticus Maximus" in 175 AD. Conscious of the need to create a permanent solution to the problems on the empire's northern frontiers, Marcus Aurelius relaxed some of his restrictions on the Marcomanni and the Iazyges. In particular, he allowed the Iazyges to travel through imperial Dacia to trade with the Roxolani, so long as they had the governor's approval. At the same time he was determined to implement a plan to annex the territories of the Marcomanni and the Iazyges as new provinces, only to be derailed by the revolt of Avidius Cassius.


title: Roman Dacia

text: With the emperor urgently needed elsewhere, Rome once again re-established its system of alliances with the bordering tribes along the empire's northern frontier. However, pressure was soon exerted again with the advent of Germanic peoples who started to settle on Dacia's northern borders, leading to the resumption of the northern war. In 178, Marcus Aurelius probably appointed Pertinax as governor of Dacia, and by 179 AD, the emperor was once again north of the Danube, campaigning against the Quadi and the Buri. Victorious, the emperor was on the verge of converting a large territory to the north-west of Dacia into Roman provinces when he died in 180. Marcus was succeeded by his son, Commodus, who had accompanied him. The young man quickly concluded a peace with the warring tribes before returning to Rome.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Conflict continued in Dacia during the reign of Commodus. The notoriously unreliable "Historia Augusta" mentions a limited insurrection that erupted in Dacia approximately 185 AD. The same source also wrote of a defeat of the Dacian tribes who lived outside the province. Commodus' legates devastated a territory some deep along the north of the "castrum" at modern day Gilău to establish a buffer in the hope of preventing further barbarian incursions.


title: Roman Dacia

text: The reign of Septimius Severus saw a measure of peace descend upon the province, with no foreign attacks recorded. Damage inflicted on the military camps during the extensive period of warfare of the preceding reigns was repaired. Severus extended the province's eastern frontier some east of the Olt River, and completed the Limes Transalutanus. The work included the construction of 14 fortified camps spread over a distance of approximately , stretching from the "castra" of Poiana (situated near the Danube River, in modern Flămânda, Romania) in the south to Cumidava (modern day Brețcu in Romania). His reign saw an increase in the number of Roman "municipia" across the province, while Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa and Apulum acquired the "ius Italicum".


title: Roman Dacia

text: As part of his military reforms, Severus allowed Roman soldiers to live away from the fortified camps, within the accompanying "canabae", where they were allowed to tend nearby plots of land. He also permitted the soldiers to marry local women; consequently, if the soldier was a Roman citizen, his children inherited his citizenship. For those soldiers who were not Roman citizens, both he and his children were granted citizenship upon his discharge from the army.


title: Roman Dacia

text: The next emperor, Caracalla, in order to increase tax revenue and boost his popularity (at least according to the historian Cassius Dio), extended the citizenship to all males throughout the empire, with the exception of slaves. In 213, on his way to the east to begin his Parthian campaign, Caracalla passed through Dacia. While there, he undertook diplomatic maneuvers to disturb the alliances between a number of tribes, in particular the Marcomanni and the Quadi. At Porolissum he had Gaiobomarus, the king of the Quadi, killed under the pretext of conducting peace negotiations. There may have been military conflict with one or more of the Danubian tribes. Although there are inscriptions that indicate that during Caracalla's visit there was some repair or reconstruction work undertaken at Porolissum and that the military unit stationed there, Cohors V Lingonum, erected an equestrian statue of the emperor, certain modern authors, such as Philip Parker and Ion Grumeza, claim that Caracalla continued to extend the Limes Transalutanus as well as add further territory to Dacia by pushing the border around east of the Olt River, though it is unclear what evidence they are using to support these statements, and the timeframes associated with Caracalla's movements do not support any extensive reorganization in the province. In 218, Caracalla's successor, Macrinus, returned a number of non-Romanized Dacian hostages whom Caracalla had taken, possibly as a result of some unrest caused by the tribes after Caracalla's assassination.


title: Roman Dacia

text: There are few epigraphs extant in Dacia dating from the reign of Alexander Severus, the final Severan emperor. Under his reign, the Council of Three Dacias met at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, and the gates, towers, and "praetorium" of Ad Mediam (Mehadia, Romania) camp were restored.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Evidence concerning the continued existence of a native Dacian population within Roman Dacia is not as apparent as that of Germans, Celts, Thracians, or Illyrians in other provinces. There is relatively poor documentation surrounding the existence of native or indigenous Dacians in the Roman towns that were established after Dacia's incorporation into the empire.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Although Eutropius, supported by minor references in the works of Cassius Dio and Julian the Apostate, describes the widespread depopulation of the province after the siege of Sarmizegetusa Regia and the suicide of king Decebalus, there are issues with this interpretation. The remaining manuscripts of Eutropius' "Breviarium ab urbe condita", which is the principal source for the depopulation of Roman Dacia after the conquest, are not consistent. Some versions describe the depletion of men after the war; other variants describe the depletion of things, or possibly resources, after Trajan's conquest.


title: Roman Dacia

text: There are such interpretations of archaeological evidence which shows the continuation of traditional Dacian burial practices; ceramic manufacturing continued throughout the Roman period, in both the province as well as the periphery where Roman control was non-existent. Differing interpretations can be made from the final scene on Trajan's Column, which either depicts a Dacian emigration, accelerating the depopulation of Dacia, or Dacians going back to their settlements after yielding to Roman authority.


title: Roman Dacia

text: While it is certain that colonists in large numbers were imported from all over the empire to settle in Roman Dacia, this appears to be true for the newly created Roman towns only. The lack of epigraphic evidence for native Dacian names in the towns suggests an urban–rural split between Roman multi-ethnic urban centres and the native Dacian rural population.


title: Roman Dacia

text: On at least two occasions the Dacians rebelled against Roman authority: first in 117 AD, which caused the return of Trajan from the east, and in 158 AD when they were put down by Marcus Statius Priscus.


title: Roman Dacia

text: The archaeological evidence from various types of settlements, especially in the Oraștie Mountains, demonstrates the deliberate destruction of hill forts during the annexation of Dacia, but this does not rule out a continuity of occupation once the traumas of the initial conquest had passed. Hamlets containing traditional Dacian architecture, such as Obreja and Noșlac, have been dated to the 2nd century AD, implying that they arose at the same time as the Roman urban centres.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Some settlements do show a clear continuity of occupation from pre-Roman times into the provincial period, such as Cetea and Cicău. Archaeological evidence taken from pottery show a continued occupation of native Dacians in these and other areas. Architectural forms native to pre-Roman Dacia, such as the traditional sunken houses and storage pits, remained during Roman times. Such housing continued to be erected well into the Roman period, even in settlements which clearly show an establishment after the Roman annexation, such as Obreja. Altogether, approximately 46 sites have been noted as existing on a spot in both the La Tène and Roman periods.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Where archaeology attests to a continuing Dacian presence, it also shows a simultaneous process of Romanization. Traditional Dacian pottery has been uncovered in Dacian settlements, together with Roman-manufactured pottery incorporating local designs. The increasing Romanization of Dacia meant that only a small number of earlier Dacian pottery styles were retained unchanged, such as pots and the low thick-walled drinking mug that has been termed the "Dacian cup". These artifacts were usually handmade; the use of the pottery wheel was rare. In the case of homes, the use of old Dacian techniques persisted, as did the sorts of ornaments and tools used prior to the establishment of Roman Dacia. Archaeological evidence from burial sites has demonstrated that the native population of Dacia was far too large to have been driven away or wiped out in any meaningful sense. It was beyond the resources of the Romans to have eliminated the great majority of the rural population in an area measuring some . Silver jewellery uncovered in graves show that some of the burial sites are not necessarily native Dacian in origin, but are equally likely to have belonged to the Carpi or Free Dacians who are thought to have moved into Dacia sometime before 200 AD.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Some scholars have used the lack of "civitates peregrinae" in Roman Dacia, where indigenous peoples were organised into native townships, as evidence for the Roman depopulation of Dacia. Prior to its incorporation into the empire, Dacia was a kingdom ruled by one king, and did not possess a regional tribal structure that could easily be turned into the Roman "civitas" system as used successfully in other provinces of the empire. Dacian tribes mentioned in Ptolemy's Geography may represent indigenous administrative structures, similar to those from Moesia, Pannonia, Dalmatia, or Noricum.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Few local Dacians were interested in the use of epigraphs, which were a central part of Roman cultural expression. In Dacia this causes a problem because the survival of epigraphs into modern times is one of the ways scholars develop an understanding of the cultural and social situation within a Roman province. Apart from members of the Dacian elite and those who wished to attain improved social and economic positions, who largely adopted Roman names and manners, the majority of native Dacians retained their names and their cultural distinctiveness even with the increasing embrace of Roman cultural norms which followed their incorporation into the Roman Empire.


title: Roman Dacia

text: As per usual Roman practice, Dacian males were recruited into auxiliary units and dispatched across the empire, from the eastern provinces to Britannia. The "Vexillation Dacorum Parthica" accompanied the emperor Septimius Severus during his Parthian expedition, while the "cohort I Ulpia Dacorum" was posted to Cappadocia. Others included the "II Aurelia Dacorum" in Pannonia Superior, the "cohort I Aelia Dacorum" in Roman Britain, and the "II Augusta Dacorum milliaria" in Moesia Inferior. There are a number of preserved relics originating from "cohort I Aelia Dacorum", with one inscription describing the "sica", a distinctive Dacian weapon. In inscriptions the Dacian soldiers are described as "natione Dacus". These could refer to individuals who were native Dacians, Romanized Dacians, colonists who had moved to Dacia, or their descendants. Numerous Roman military diplomas issued for Dacian soldiers discovered after 1990 indicate that veterans preferred to return to their place of origin; per usual Roman practice, these veterans were given Roman citizenship upon their discharge.


title: Roman Dacia

text: There were varying degrees of Romanization throughout Roman Dacia. The most Romanized segment was the region along the Danube, which was predominately under imperial administration, albeit in a form that was partially barbarized. The population beyond this zone, having lived with the Roman legions before their withdrawal, was substantially Romanized. The final zone, consisting of the northern portions of Maramureș, Crișana, and Moldavia, stood at the edges of Roman Dacia. Although its people did not have Roman legions stationed among them, they were still nominally under the control of Rome, politically, socially, and economically. These were the areas in which resided the Carpi, often referred to as "Free Dacians".


title: Roman Dacia

text: In an attempt to fill the cities, cultivate the fields, and mine the ore, a large-scale attempt at colonization took place with colonists coming in "from all over the Roman world". The colonists were a heterogeneous mix: of the some 3,000 names preserved in inscriptions found by the 1990s, 74% (c. 2,200) were Latin, 14% (c. 420) were Greek, 4% (c. 120) were Illyrian, 2.3% (c. 70) were Celtic, 2% (c. 60) were Thraco-Dacian, and another 2% (c. 60) were Semites from Syria. Regardless of their place of origin, the settlers and colonists were a physical manifestation of Roman civilisation and imperial culture, bringing with them the most effective Romanizing mechanism: the use of Latin as the new "lingua franca".


title: Roman Dacia

text: The first settlement at Sarmizegetusa was made up of Roman citizens who had retired from their legions. Based upon the location of names scattered throughout the province, it has been argued that, although places of origin are hardly ever noted in epigraphs, a large percentage of colonists originated from Noricum and western Pannonia.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Specialist miners (the Pirusti tribesmen) were brought in from Dalmatia. These Dalmatian miners were kept in sheltered communities "(Vicus Pirustarum)" and were under the jurisdiction of their own tribal leadership (with individual leaders referred to as "princeps)".


title: Roman Dacia

text: An estimated number of 50,000 troops were stationed in Dacia at its height. At the close of Trajan's first campaign in Dacia in 102, he stationed one legion at Sarmizegetusa Regia. With the conclusion of Trajan's conquest of Dacia, he stationed at least two legions in the new province – the Legio IV Flavia Felix positioned at Berzobis (modern Berzovia, Romania), and the Legio XIII Gemina stationed at Apulum. It has been conjectured that there was a third legion stationed in Dacia at the same time, the Legio I Adiutrix. However, there is no evidence to indicate when or where it was stationed, and it is unclear whether the legion was fully present, or whether it was only the "vexillationes" who were stationed in the province.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Hadrian, the subsequent emperor, shifted the fourth legion (Legio IV Flavia Felix) from Berzobis to Singidunum in Moesia Superior, suggesting that Hadrian believed the presence of one legion in Dacia would be sufficient to ensure the security of the province. The Marcomannic Wars that erupted north of the Danube forced Marcus Aurelius to reverse this policy, permanently transferring the Legio V Macedonica from Troesmis (modern Turcoaia in Romania) in Moesia Inferior to Potaissa in Dacia.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Epigraphic evidence attests to large numbers of auxiliary units stationed throughout the Dacian provinces during the Roman period; this has given the impression that Roman Dacia was a strongly militarized province. Yet, it seems to have been no more highly militarized than any of the other frontier provinces, like the Moesias, the Pannonias, and Syria, and the number of legions stationed in Moesia and Pannonia were not diminished after the creation of Dacia. However, once Dacia was incorporated into the empire and the frontier was extended northward, the central portion of the Danube frontier between Novae (near modern Svishtov, Bulgaria) and Durostorum (modern Silistra, Bulgaria) was able to release much-needed troops to bolster Dacia's defences. Military documents report at least 58 auxiliary units, most transferred into Dacia from the flanking Moesian and Pannonian provinces, with a wide variety of forms and functions, including "numeri", "cohortes milliariae", "quingenariae", and "alae". This does not imply that all were positioned in Dacia at the same time, nor that they were in place throughout the existence of Roman Dacia.


title: Roman Dacia

text: When considering provincial settlement patterns, the Romanized parts of Dacia were composed of "urban satus" settlements, made up of "coloniae", "municipia", and rural settlements, principally villas with their associated "latifundia" and villages ("vici"). The two principal towns of Roman Dacia, Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa and Apulum, are on par with similar towns across the Western Roman Empire in terms of socio-economic and architectural maturity.


title: Roman Dacia

text: The province had about 10 Roman towns, all originating from the military camps that Trajan constructed during his campaigns. There were two sorts of urban settlements. Of principal importance were the "coloniae", whose free-born inhabitants were almost exclusively Roman citizens. Of secondary importance were the "municipia", which were allowed a measure of judicial and administrative independence.


title: Roman Dacia

text: It is often problematic to identify the dividing line between "Romanized" villages and those sites that can be defined as "small towns". Therefore, categorizing sites as small towns has largely focused on identifying sites that had some evidence of industry and trade, and not simply a basic agricultural economic unit that would almost exclusively produce goods for its own existence. Additional settlements along the principal route within Roman Dacia are mentioned in the "Tabula Peutingeriana". These include Brucla, Blandiana, Germisara, Petris, and Aquae. Both Germisara and Aquae were sites where natural thermal springs were accessible, and each are still functioning today. The locations of Brucla, Blandiana, and Petris are not known for certain. In the case of Petris however, there is good reason to suppose it was located at Uroi in Romania. If this were the case, it would have been a crucial site for trade, as well as being a vital component in facilitating communication from one part of the province to another.


title: Roman Dacia

text: It is assumed that Roman Dacia possessed a large number of military "vici", settlements with connections to the entrenched military camps. This hypothesis has not been tested, as few such sites have been surveyed in any detail. However, in the mid-Mureș valley, associated civilian communities have been uncovered next to the auxiliary camps at Orăștioara de Sus, Cigmău, Salinae (modern Ocna Mureș), and Micia, with a small amphitheatre being discovered at the latter one.


title: Roman Dacia

text: During the period of Roman occupation, the pattern of settlement in the Mureș valley demonstrates a continual shift towards nucleated settlements when compared to the pre-Roman Iron Age settlement pattern. In central Dacia, somewhere between 10 and 28 villages have been identified as aggregated settlements whose primary function was agricultural. The settlement layouts broadly fall between two principal types. The first are those constructed in a traditional fashion, such as Rădești, Vințu de Jos, and Obreja. These show generally sunken houses in the Dacian manner, with some dwellings having evolved to becoming surface timber buildings. The second settlement layout followed Roman settlement patterns.


title: Roman Dacia

text: The identification of "villa" sites within central Dacia is incomplete, as it is for the majority of the province. There are about 30 sites identified throughout the province which appear on published heritage lists, but this is felt to be a gross underestimation.


title: Roman Dacia

text: With the Roman army ensuring the maintenance of the Pax Romana, Roman Dacia prospered until the Crisis of the Third Century. Dacia evolved from a simple rural society and economy to one of material advancement comparable to other Roman provinces. There were more coins in circulation in Roman Dacia than in the adjacent provinces.


title: Roman Dacia

text: The region's natural resources generated considerable wealth for the empire, becoming one of the major producers of grain, particularly wheat. Linking into Rome's monetary economy, bronze Roman coinage was eventually produced in Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa by about 250 AD (previously Dacia seems to have been supplied with coins from central mints). The establishment of Roman roads throughout the province facilitated economic growth.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Local gold mines provided another incentive for Dacia's incorporation into the empire. Dalmatian miners were brought in to operate the gold mines in the Bihor Mountains, adding to the imperial coffers. At Alburnus Maior, the gold mines flourished between 131 and 167 AD, but over time they began to see diminishing returns as the local gold reserves were exploited. Evidence points to the closure of the gold mines around the year 215 AD.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Dacia also possessed salt, iron, silver, and copper mines dating back to the period of the Dacian kings. The region also held large quantities of building-stone materials, including schist, sandstone, andesite, limestone, and marble.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Towns became key centres of manufacturing. Bronze casting foundries existed at Porolissum, Romula, and Dierna; there was a brooch workshop located in Napoca, while weapon smithies have been identified in Apulum. Glass manufacturing factories have been uncovered in Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa and Tibiscum. Villages and rural settlements continued to specialise in craftwork, including pottery, and sites such as Micăsasa could possess 26 kilns and hundreds of moulds for the manufacture of local "terra sigillata".


title: Roman Dacia

text: Inscriptions 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; of these, 43.5% have Latin names. The major gods of the Roman pantheon are all represented in Dacia: Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Venus, Apollo, Liber, Libera, and others. The Roman god Silvanus was of unusual importance, second only to Jupiter. He was frequently referred to in Dacia with the titles "silvester" and "domesticus", which were also used in Pannonia.


title: Roman Dacia

text: About 20% of Dacian inscriptions refer to Eastern cults such as that of Cybele and Attis, along with more than 274 dedications to Mithras, who was the most popular among soldiers. The cult of the Thracian Rider was imported from Thrace and Moesia. The Gallic horse goddess Epona is attested in Dacia, as are the Matronae.


title: Roman Dacia

text: While the Dacians worshiped local divinities, there is no evidence of any Dacian deity entering the Roman pantheon of gods, and there is no evidence of any Dacian deity worshiped under a Roman name. It is conjectured that the Dacians lacked an anthropomorphic conception of deity, and that the Thraco-Dacian religion and their art was characterized by aniconism. Dacian citadels dated to the reigns of Burebista and Decebalus have yielded no statues in their sanctuaries. With the destruction of the main Dacian sacred site during Trajan's wars of conquest, no other site took its place. However, there were other cult sites of local spiritual significance, such as Germisara, which continued to be used during the Roman period, although religious practices at these sites were somewhat altered by Romanization, including the application of Roman names to the local spirits.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Highly Romanized urban centres brought with them Roman funerary practices, which differed significantly from those pre-dating the Roman conquest. Archaeological excavations have uncovered funerary art principally attached to the urban centres. Such excavations have shown that "stelae" were the favoured style of funerary memorial. However, other more sophisticated memorials have also been uncovered, including "aediculae", "tumuli", and mausoleums. The majority were highly decorated, with sculptured lions, medallions, and columns adorning the structures.


title: Roman Dacia

text: This appears to be an urban feature only – the minority of cemeteries excavated in rural areas display burial sites that have been identified as Dacian, and some have been conjectured to be attached to "villa" settlements, such as Deva, Sălașu de Sus, and Cincis.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Traditional Dacian funerary rites survived the Roman period and continued into the post-Roman era, during which time the first evidence of Christianity begins to appear.


title: Roman Dacia

text: The 230s marked the end of the final peaceful period experienced in Roman Dacia. The discovery of a large stockpile of Roman coins (around 8,000) at Romula, issued during the reigns of Commodus and Elagabalus, who was killed in 222 AD, has been taken as evidence that the province was experiencing problems before the mid-3rd century. Traditionally, the accession of Maximinus Thrax (235–238) marks the start of a 50-year period of disorder in the Roman Empire, during which the militarization of the government inaugurated by Septimius Severus continued apace and the debasement of the currency brought the empire to bankruptcy. As the 3rd century progressed, it saw the continued migration of the Goths, whose movements had already been a cause of the Marcomannic Wars, and whose travels south towards the Danubian frontier continued to put pressure on the tribes who were already occupying this territory. Between 236 and 238, Maximinus Thrax campaigned in Dacia against the Carpi, only to rush back to Italy to deal with a civil war. While Gordian III eventually emerged as Roman Emperor, the confusion in the heart of the empire allowed the Goths, in alliance with the Carpi, to take Histria in 238 AD before sacking the economically important commercial centres along the Danube Delta.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Unable to deal militarily with this incursion, the empire was forced to buy peace in Moesia, paying an annual tribute to the Goths; this infuriated the Carpi who also demanded a payment subsidy. Emperor Philip the Arab (244–249) ceased payment in 245 AD and the Carpi invaded Dacia the following year, attacking the town of Romula in the process. The Carpi probably burned the "castra" of Răcari between 243 and 247. Evidence suggests the defensive line of the Limes Transalutanus was probably abandoned during Philip the Arab's reign, as a result of the incursion of the Carpi into Dacia. Ongoing raids forced the emperor to leave Rome and take charge of the situation. The mother of the future emperor Galerius fled Dacia Malvensis at around this time before settling in Moesia Inferior.


title: Roman Dacia

text: At the end of 247 the Carpi were decisively beaten in open battle and sued for peace; Philip the Arab took the title of "Carpicus Maximus". Regardless of these victories, Dacian towns began to take defensive measures. In Sucidava, the townspeople hurriedly erected a trapezoidal stone wall and defensive ditch, most likely the result of a raid by the barbarian tribes around 246 or 247 AD. In 248 AD, Romula enhanced the wall surrounding the settlement, again most likely as an additional defensive barrier against the Carpi. An epigraph uncovered in Apulum salutes the emperor Decius (reigned 249–251 AD) as "restitutor Daciarum", the "restorer of Dacia". On 1 July 251, Decius and his army were killed by the Goths during their defeat in the Battle of Abrittus (modern Razgard, Bulgaria). Firmly entrenched in the territories along the lower Danube and the Black Sea's western shore, their presence affected both the non-Romanized Dacians (who fell into the Goth's sphere of influence) and Imperial Dacia, as the client system that surrounded the province and supported its existence began to break apart.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Continuing pressures during the reign of the emperor Gallienus (253–268 AD) and the fracturing of the western half of the empire between himself and Postumus in Gaul after 260 meant that Gallienus' attention was principally focused on the Danubian frontier. Repeated victories over the Carpi and associated Dacian tribes enabled him to claim the title "Dacicus Maximus". However, literary sources from antiquity (Eutropius, Aurelius Victor, and Festus) write that Dacia was lost under his reign. He transferred from Dacia to Pannonia a large percentage of the "cohorts" from the fifth Macedonica and thirteenth Gemina legions. The latest coins at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa and Porolissum bear his effigy, and the raising of inscribed monuments in the province virtually ceased in 260 AD, the year that marked the temporary breakup of the empire.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Coins were minted during the restoration of the empire (c. 270) under Aurelian which bear the inscription "DACIA FELIX" ("Fertile/Happy Dacia"). The pressing need to deal with the Palmyrene Empire meant Aurelian needed to settle the situation along the Danube frontier. Reluctantly, and possibly only as a temporary measure, he decided to abandon the province. The traditional date for Dacia's official abandonment is 271; another view is that Aurelian evacuated his troops and civilian administration during 272–273, possibly as late as 275.


title: Roman Dacia

text: The end result was that Aurelian established a new province of Dacia called Dacia Aureliana with its capital at Serdica, previously belonging to Lower Moesia. A portion of the Romanized population settled in the new province south of the Danube.


title: Roman Dacia

text: The emperor Galerius once declared a complaint which the Romans were aware of: the Danube was the most challenging of all the empire's frontiers. Aside from its enormous length, great portions of it did not suit the style of fighting which the Roman legions preferred. To protect the provinces south of the Danube, the Romans retained military forts on the northern bank of the Danube long after the withdrawal from Dacia Traiana. Aurelian kept a foothold at Drobeta, while a segment of the Thirteenth Legion (Legio XIII Gemina) was posted in Desa until at least 305 AD. Coins bearing the image of emperor Gratian (reign 375–383 AD) have been uncovered at Dierna, possibly indicating that the town continued to function after the Roman withdrawal.


title: Roman Dacia

text: In the years immediately after the withdrawal, Roman towns survived, albeit on a reduced level. The previous tribes which had settled north of the Danube, such as the Sarmatians, Bastarnae, Carpi, and Quadi were increasingly pressured by the arrival of the Vandals in the north, while the Gepids and the Goths pressured them from the east and the northeast. This forced the older tribes to push into Roman territory, weakening the empire's already stretched defences further. To gain entry into the empire, the tribes alternated between beseeching the Roman authorities to allow them in, and intimidating them with the threat of invasion if their requests were denied. Ultimately, the Bastarnae were permitted to settle in Thrace, while the Carpi which survived were permitted to settle in the new province of Pannonia Valeria west of their homeland. However, the Carpi were neither destroyed by other barbarian tribes, nor fully integrated into the Roman Empire. Those who survived on the borders of the empire were apparently called "Carpodacae" ("Carps from Dacia").


title: Roman Dacia

text: By 291 AD, the Goths had recovered from their defeat at the hands of Aurelian, and began to move into what had been Roman Dacia. When the ancestors of the Tervingi migrated into north-eastern Dacia, they were opposed by the Carpi and the non-Romanized Dacians. Defeating these tribes, they came into conflict with the Romans, who still attempted to maintain control along the Danube. Some of the semi-Romanized population remained and managed to co-exist with the Goths. By 295 AD, the Goths had managed to defeat the Carpi and establish themselves in Dacia, now called Gothia; the Romans recognised the Tervingi as a "foederatus". They occupied what was the eastern portion of the old province and beyond, from Bessarabia on the Dniester in the east to Oltenia in the west. Until the 320s, the Goths kept the terms of the treaty and proceeded to settle down in the former province of Dacia, and the Danube had a measure of peace for nearly a generation.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Around 295 AD, the emperor Diocletian reorganized the defences along the Danube, and established fortified camps on the far side of the river, from Sirmium (modern Serbia) to Ratiaria (near modern Archar, Bulgaria) and Durostorum. These camps were meant to provide protection of the principal crossing points across the river, to permit the movement of troops across the river, and to function as observation points and bases for waterborne patrols.


title: Roman Dacia

text: During the reign of Constantine I, the Tervingi took advantage of the civil war between him and Licinius to attack the empire in 323 AD from their settlements in Dacia. They supported Licinius until his defeat in 324; he was fleeing to their lands in Dacia when he was apprehended. As a result, Constantine focused on aggressively pre-empting any barbarian activity on the frontier north of the Danube. By 328 AD, he had constructed at Sucidava a new bridge across the Danube, and repaired the road from Sucidava to Romula. He also erected a military fort at Daphne (modern Spanțov, Romania).


title: Roman Dacia

text: In early 336, Constantine personally led his armies across the Danube and crushed the Gothic tribes which had settled there, in the process recreating a Roman province north of the Danube. In honor of this achievement, the Senate granted him the title of "Dacicus Maximus", and celebrated it along with the 30th anniversary of his accession as Roman Emperor in mid 336. The granting of this title has been seen by scholars such as Timothy Barnes as implying some level of reconquest of Roman Dacia. However, the bridge at Sucidava lasted less than 40 years, as the emperor Valens discovered when he attempted to use it to cross the Danube during his campaign against the Goths in 367 AD. Nevertheless, the "castra" at Sucidava remained in use until its destruction at the hands of Attila the Hun in 447 AD.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Driven off their lands in Oltenia, the Tervingi moved towards Transylvania and came into conflict with the Sarmatians. In 334, the Sarmatians asked Constantine for military help, after which he allowed the majority of them to settle peacefully south of the Danube. The Roman armies inflicted a crushing defeat on the Tervingi. The Tervingi signed a treaty with the Romans, giving a measure of peace until 367.


title: Roman Dacia

text: The last major Roman incursion into the former province of Dacia occurred in 367 AD, when the emperor Valens used a diplomatic incident to launch a major campaign against the Goths. Hoping to regain the trans-Danubian beachhead which Constantine had successfully established at Sucidava, Valens launched a raid into Gothic territory after crossing the Danube near Daphne around 30 May; they continued until September without any serious engagements. He tried again in 368 AD, setting up his base camp at Carsium, but was hampered by a flood on the Danube. He therefore spent his time rebuilding Roman forts along the Danube. In 369, Valens crossed the river into Gothia, and this time managed to engage the Tervingi, defeating them, and granting them peace on Roman terms.


title: Roman Dacia

text: This was the final attempt by the Romans to maintain a presence in the former province. Soon after, the westward push by the Huns put increased pressure on the Tervingi, who were forced to abandon the old Dacian province and seek refuge within the Roman Empire. Mismanagement of this request resulted in the death of Valens and the bulk of the eastern Roman army at the Battle of Adrianople in 378 AD.


title: Roman Dacia

text: Based on the written accounts of ancient authors such as Eutropius, it had been assumed by Enlightenment historians such as Edward Gibbon that the population of Dacia Traiana was moved south when Aurelian abandoned the province. However, the fate of the Romanized Dacians, and the subsequent origin of the Romanians, became mired in controversy, stemming from political considerations originating during the 18th and 19th centuries between Romanian nationalists and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.


title: Roman Dacia

text: One theory states that the process which formed the Romanian people began with the Romanization of Dacia and the existence of a Daco-Roman populace which did not completely abandon the province after the Roman withdrawal in 275 AD. Archaeological evidence obtained from burial sites and settlements supports the contention that a portion of the native population continued to inhabit what was Roman Dacia. Pottery remains dated to the years after 271 AD in Potaissa, and Roman coinage of Marcus Claudius Tacitus and Crispus (son of Constantine I) uncovered in Napoca demonstrate the continued survival of these towns. In Porolissum, Roman coinage began to circulate again under Valentinian I (364–375); meanwhile, local Daco-Romans continued to inhabit Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, fortifying the amphitheatre against barbarian raids. According to this theory, the Romanian people continued to develop under the influence of the Roman Empire until the beginning of the 6th century, and as long as the empire held territory on the southern bank of the Danube and in Dobruja, it influenced the region to the river's north. This process was facilitated by the trading of goods and the movement of peoples across the river. Roman towns endured in Dacia's middle and southern regions, albeit reduced in size and wealth.


title: Roman Dacia

text: The competing theory states that the transfer of Dacia's diminished population overlapped with the requirement to repopulate the depleted Balkans. Although it is possible that some Daco-Romans remained behind, these were few in number. Toponymic changes tend to support a complete withdrawal from Roman Dacia, as the names for Roman towns, forts, and settlements fell completely out of use. Repeated archaeological investigations from the 19th century onwards have failed to uncover definitive proof that a large proportion of the Daco-Romans remained in Dacia after the evacuation; for example, traffic in Roman coins in the former province after 271 show similarities to modern Slovakia and the steppe in what is today Ukraine. On the other hand, linguistic data and place names attest to the beginnings of the Romanian language in Lower Moesia, or other provinces south of the Danube of the Roman Empire. Toponymic analysis of place names in the former Roman Dacia north of the Danube suggests that, on top of names which have a Thracian, Scytho-Iranian, Celtic, Roman and Slavonic origin, there are some un-Romanized Dacian place names which were adopted by the Slavs (possibly via the Hungarians) and transmitted to the Romanians, in the same way that some Latin place names were transmitted to the Romanians via the Slavs (such as "Olt").


title: Roman Dacia

text: According to those who posit the continued existence of a Romanized Dacian population after the Roman withdrawal, Aurelian's decision to abandon the province was solely a military decision with respect to moving the legions and auxiliary units to protect the Danubian frontier. The civilian population of Roman Dacia did not treat this as a prelude to a coming disaster; there was no mass emigration from the province, no evidence of a sudden withdrawal of the civilian population, and no widespread damage to property in the aftermath of the military withdrawal.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: French Equatorial Africa (), or the AEF, was the federation of French colonial possessions in Equatorial Africa, extending northwards from the Congo River into the Sahel, and comprising what are today the countries of Chad, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: Established in 1910, the Federation contained four (later five) colonial possessions: French Gabon, French Congo, Ubangi-Shari and French Chad. The Governor-General was based in Brazzaville with deputies in each territory.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: In 1911, France ceded parts of the territory to German Kamerun as a result of the Agadir Crisis. The territory was returned after Germany's defeat in World War I, while most of Cameroon proper became a French League of Nations mandate not integrated into the AEF.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: French Equatorial Africa, especially the region of Ubangi-Shari had a similar concession system as the Congo Free State and similar atrocities were also committed there. Writer André Gide traveled to Ubangi-Shari and was told by inhabitants about atrocities including mutilations, dismemberments, executions, the burning of children, and villagers being forcefully bound to large beams and made to walk until dropping from exhaustion and thirst. The book "Travels to Congo" by Gide, published in 1927 describes the horrors of the concession companies in French Equatorial Africa. The book had an important impact on the anti-colonialist movement in France. The number of victims under the French concession system in Ubangi-Shari and other parts of French Equatorial Africa remains unknown. Adam Hochschild estimates a population decrease of half in the French Congo and Gabon, similar to his estimate of the population decline in the Congo Free State.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: During the late 1920s and early 1930s an anti-colonial movement "Société Amicale des Originaires de l'A.E.F." was established by André Matsoua, seeking French citizenship for the territory's inhabitants.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: During World War II, the federation rallied to the Free French Forces under Félix Éboué in August 1940, except for Gabon which was Vichy French until 12 November 1940, when the Vichy administration surrendered to invading Free French; the federation became the strategic centre of Free French activities in Africa.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: Under the Fourth Republic (1946–58), the federation was represented in the French parliament. When the territories voted in the September 1958 referendum to become autonomous within the French Community, the federation was dissolved. In 1959 the new republics formed an interim association called the Union of Central African Republics, before becoming fully independent in August 1960.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: French Equatorial Africa began with the concept of association, which was implemented through treaties promising French protection by the Italian-French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza during the mid-1800s, who convinced indigenous communities to cooperate with the French in exchange for greater trade opportunities. This association eventually led to French indirect rule in the region. However, France's attempts at indirect rule faced consistent resistance from local leaders.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: The AEF was perceived by France as an unstable colony. Therefore, France granted private companies contracts for the exploitation of natural resources like ivory and rubber, rather than sustainable investment. Private companies implemented heavy taxation with little to no pay and cruel treatment towards workers and the local communities.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: In 1908 French Equatorial Africa was divided into four colonies in hopes of strengthening French authority within the region. Until 1934, French Equatorial Africa was a federation of French colonies like French West Africa. That year, however, the AEF became a unitary entity, its constituent colonies becoming known as regions, and later became known as territories in 1937. There was a single budget for the unified colony; prior to unification, each member had had its own finances.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: As of 1942, the AEF was administered by a governor-general, who had "the supreme direction of all services, both civil and military." However, the difference in numbers between administrators and the local populace made it difficult for the French to exercise power outside of their headquarters without voluntary or involuntary indigenous cooperation. Additionally, the governor-general's power was limited in practice by France's centralizing colonial policy. "Most important legislation is enacted in Paris," wrote the authors of the 1942 British naval intelligence handbook for the colony, "whilst the governor-general fills in minor details and penalties." The governor-general was assisted by a consultative council of administration ("Conseil d'Administration") composed of important local officials and some members, both African and European, elected indirectly. All major administration positions were appointed by French government and were not accountable to officials elected by the African people. Additionally, France held complete control over diplomacy, defense, and politics.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: Under the unified colony, three of the constituent territories, Chad, Gabon, and Ubangi-Shari, were administered by a governor, while Moyen-Congo was under the purview of the governor-general. Each had a council of local interests ("Conseil des Interêts Locaux") similar to the council of administration. Locally, the territories were subdivided into "départments" and subdivisions overseen by appointed officials. The only municipalities were the capitals of the territories, which were classified as "communes mixtes" as opposed to Senegal's "communes de plein exercise," which had democratically elected councils. Although these municipalities possessed certain powers of local self-government, their mayors and councils---which included African representatives---were appointed.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: Accounting for a little less than an eighth of Africa, across modern day Central African Republic, Republic of Chad, Republic of the Congo, Republic of Gabon, and most of Cameroon, the greater part of French Equatorial Africa extended over a granite plateau, framed by the Tibesti, Ouadaï, and Fertit massifs to the northeast, Darfur to the east and the Crystal mountains and Mayombe in the southwest. Two basins occupied the central and southern parts of the territory: the basin of Chad, a former inland sea of which Lake Chad is a remnant, and the basin of Congo, traversed by the river of the same name and its main tributaries (Oubangui River, Sangha River, and Alima River). A coastal plain stretched from mainland Spanish Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea) to the Congo River. The highest point in French Equatorial Africa was Mount Emi Koussi (3,415 meters) in Tibesti.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: Due to the very size of the territory, the climate varied extremely from one point to another, going from a particularly arid Saharan climate in the north to a humid tropical climate in the southern part. The vegetation was affected by these differences: in the north, the virtual absence of rain made it nearly impossible for vegetation to develop, apart from a few thorny shrubs; in the center lay the domain of the savannahs, where millet, peanuts and cassava were grown; finally to the south were the humid tropical forests, from which various species such as ebony and okoumé were taken. In the coastal regions, vanilla, cocoa and coffee trees were grown.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: French Equatorial Africa was bounded by British Nigeria, French West Africa, Italian Libya, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and the Belgian Congo. To the west, it bordered the Atlantic Ocean.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: The postal administrations of the four territories were separate until 1936, each issuing its own stamps. In that year, stamps of Gabon and Middle Congo were overprinted . A definitive series for the colony followed in 1937, featuring local scenes and key French figures in the formation of the colony, with various color and value changes each year through 1940.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: The 1937 series was overprinted or just in 1940 by the Free French, and in 1941 they issued a series depicting a phoenix rising from the flames.


title: French Equatorial Africa

text: A new definitive series, featuring local scenery and people, was issued in 1946, and another twenty-odd stamps came out during the 1950s, with the last being the omnibus Human Rights issue on 10 December 1958.


title: Disappearance of Brandon Lawson

text: Brandon Mason Lawson was an American man who lived in San Angelo, Texas, who disappeared from Highway 277 in Bronte on August 9, 2013.


title: Disappearance of Brandon Lawson

text: On August 8, 2013, Brandon Lawson arrived at his home in San Angelo, Texas, where he lived with his girlfriend of ten years, Ladessa Lofton. Between approximately 10:45 and 11:00 p.m., Lawson and Lofton argued. Lawson had not returned home the night before, and Lofton believed that Lawson was on drugs at that time. At the time, Lawson had had ongoing issues with substance abuse, but had been clean for about 6 months. Lawson's brother Kyle Lawson later claimed that Brandon had taken methamphetamines shortly before his disappearance. Around 11:30 p.m., Brandon Lawson called his father in Crowley, Texas, about a three-hour drive from San Angelo, and told him he was coming to his house. At 11:54 p.m., Lawson left his house to go to his father's house, driving his Silver Ford F-150.


title: Disappearance of Brandon Lawson

text: At about 12:30 a.m. on August 9, Lawson called Kyle and told him he had run out of gas and was pulled over on U.S. Route 277 between San Angelo and Bronte, Texas. Kyle claimed that during the call, Lawson told him that "Three (expletives) are chasing me out of town," and later clarified it was “the Mexicans in the neighborhood." Kyle asked if he was hallucinating, which Lawson denied. Kyle, along with his wife and 4-year-old child, drove to Lofton's house and retrieved a fuel container. Kyle said they continued to make calls to each other, but Lawson wouldn't hold a conversation with him, usually ending the call after a few sentences. At 12:50 a.m., Lawson called 9-1-1, which rang at a local nursing home in Robert Lee, Texas, and he told the responder that he had run out of gas and that he needed the police. During the call, Lawson made several confused or incoherent statements, including, "Yes, I'm in the middle of a field (inaudible) pulled some guys over, right here going toward Abilene, on both sides," and "My truck ran out of gas. There's one car here. The guy's chasing (inaudible) to the woods. Please hurry!" Several minutes later, at 12:56 a.m., a trucker called 9-1-1 to report Lawson's truck, which was parked in a hazardous manner on the road.


title: Disappearance of Brandon Lawson

text: Between 12:50 a.m. and 1:15 a.m., Lawson received and made several calls with his brother, his girlfriend, his neighbor, and the 9-1-1 dispatcher, though his poor cell phone reception caused several of these calls to go straight to voicemail, and after 1:19 a.m., all calls to his phone went straight to voicemail. At around 1:18 a.m., Kyle called Lawson, who sounded out of breath and claimed he was bleeding. Shortly after 1 a.m., a sheriff's deputy arrived at Lawson's truck, though Lawson was not there. Kyle arrived at the truck around 1:10 a.m. At the time, he was on the phone with Lawson, who told him "I can see you; I'm right here," but neither the deputy nor Kyle could see him. At the time of the disappearance, Lawson had an active arrest warrant on him, and Kyle thought that he may have been hiding from the deputy. After talking to the officer, Kyle drove a short distance up the road and parked the car to wait for Lawson to appear, though after about 30 to 45 minutes, he left. Kyle left the gas can in the back of Lawson's truck and later returned to the truck around 5 a.m., where he was surprised that Lawson had not returned. Around 8 a.m., the truck was towed.


title: Disappearance of Brandon Lawson

text: In the aftermath of his disappearance, a local deputy organized a search party and spent several hours investigating the area near Lawson's truck, but found no signs of Lawson. Friends and family of Lawson set up a Facebook page called "Help Find Brandon Lawson", which, as of 2022, had over 26,000 likes.


title: Disappearance of Brandon Lawson

text: On February 4, 2022, Lawson's family reported on the "Help Find Brandon Lawson" Facebook page that a search party had located clothing identified as Lawson's near his last known location and that the Texas Rangers had subsequently conducted a search of the area and found human remains. DNA results are not complete as of November 2022, but the remains are expected to belong to Lawson.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: The characterization of the universe as finely tuned suggests that the occurrence of life in the universe is very sensitive to the values of certain fundamental physical constants and that the observed values are, for some reason, improbable. If the values of any of certain free parameters in contemporary physical theories had differed only slightly from those observed, the evolution of the universe would have proceeded very differently and life as it is understood may not have been possible.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: In 1913, the chemist Lawrence Joseph Henderson wrote "The Fitness of the Environment," one of the first books to explore fine tuning in the universe. Henderson discusses the importance of water and the environment to living things, pointing out that life depends entirely on earth's very specific environmental conditions, especially the prevalence and properties of water.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: In 1961, physicist Robert H. Dicke claimed that certain forces in physics, such as gravity and electromagnetism, must be perfectly fine-tuned for life to exist in the universe. Fred Hoyle also argued for a fine-tuned universe in his 1984 book "The Intelligent Universe". "The list of anthropic properties, apparent accidents of a non-biological nature without which carbon-based and hence human life could not exist, is large and impressive", Hoyle wrote.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Belief in the fine-tuned universe led to the expectation that the Large Hadron Collider would produce evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry, but by 2012 it had not produced evidence for supersymmetry at the energy scales it was able to probe.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Physicist Paul Davies has said, "There is now broad agreement among physicists and cosmologists that the Universe is in several respects ‘fine-tuned' for life". However, he continued, "the conclusion is not so much that the Universe is fine-tuned for life; rather it is fine-tuned for the building blocks and environments that life requires." He has also said that anthropic' reasoning fails to distinguish between minimally biophilic universes, in which life is permitted, but only marginally possible, and optimally biophilic universes, in which life flourishes because biogenesis occurs frequently". Among scientists who find the evidence persuasive, a variety of natural explanations have been proposed, such as the existence of multiple universes introducing a survivorship bias under the anthropic principle.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: The premise of the fine-tuned universe assertion is that a small change in several of the physical constants would make the universe radically different. As Stephen Hawking has noted, "The laws of science, as we know them at present, contain many fundamental numbers, like the size of the electric charge of the electron and the ratio of the masses of the proton and the electron. ... The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life."


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: If, for example, the strong nuclear force were 2% stronger than it is (i.e. if the coupling constant representing its strength were 2% larger) while the other constants were left unchanged, diprotons would be stable; according to Davies, hydrogen would fuse into them instead of deuterium and helium. This would drastically alter the physics of stars, and presumably preclude the existence of life similar to what we observe on Earth. The diproton's existence would short-circuit the slow fusion of hydrogen into deuterium. Hydrogen would fuse so easily that it is likely that all the universe's hydrogen would be consumed in the first few minutes after the Big Bang. This "diproton argument" is disputed by other physicists, who calculate that as long as the increase in strength is less than 50%, stellar fusion could occur despite the existence of stable diprotons.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: The precise formulation of the idea is made difficult by the fact that we do not yet know how many independent physical constants there are. The standard model of particle physics has 25 freely adjustable parameters and general relativity has one more, the cosmological constant, which is known to be nonzero but profoundly small in value. But because physicists have not developed an empirically successful theory of quantum gravity, there is no known way to combine quantum mechanics, on which the standard model depends, and general relativity. Without knowledge of this more complete theory suspected to underlie the standard model, it is impossible to definitively count the number of truly independent physical constants. In some candidate theories, the number of independent physical constants may be as small as one. For example, the cosmological constant may be a fundamental constant, but attempts have also been made to calculate it from other constants, and according to the author of one such calculation, "the small value of the cosmological constant is telling us that a remarkably precise and totally unexpected relation exists among all the parameters of the Standard Model of particle physics, the bare cosmological constant and unknown physics."


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Martin Rees formulates the fine-tuning of the universe in terms of the following six dimensionless physical constants.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Max Tegmark has argued that if there is more than one time dimension, then physical systems' behavior could not be predicted reliably from knowledge of the relevant partial differential equations. In such a universe, intelligent life capable of manipulating technology could not emerge. Moreover protons and electrons would be unstable and could decay into particles having greater mass than themselves. (This is not a problem if the particles have a sufficiently low temperature.)


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: An older example is the Hoyle state, the third-lowest energy state of the carbon-12 nucleus, with an energy of 7.656 MeV above the ground level. According to one calculation, if the state's energy level were lower than 7.3 or greater than 7.9 MeV, insufficient carbon would exist to support life. Furthermore, to explain the universe's abundance of carbon, the Hoyle state must be further tuned to a value between 7.596 and 7.716 MeV. A similar calculation, focusing on the underlying fundamental constants that give rise to various energy levels, concludes that the strong force must be tuned to a precision of at least 0.5%, and the electromagnetic force to a precision of at least 4%, to prevent either carbon production or oxygen production from dropping significantly.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Some explanations of fine-tuning are naturalistic. First, the fine-tuning might be an illusion: more fundamental physics may explain the apparent fine-tuning in physical parameters in our current understanding by constraining the values those parameters are likely to take. As Lawrence Krauss puts it, "certain quantities have seemed inexplicable and fine-tuned, and once we understand them, they don’t seem to be so fine-tuned. We have to have some historical perspective." Some argue it is possible that a final fundamental theory of everything will explain the underlying causes of the apparent fine-tuning in every parameter.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Still, as modern cosmology developed, various hypotheses not presuming hidden order have been proposed. One is a multiverse, where fundamental physical constants are postulated to have different values outside of our own universe. On this hypothesis, separate parts of reality would have wildly different characteristics. In such scenarios, the appearance of fine-tuning is explained as a consequence of the weak anthropic principle and selection bias (specifically survivorship bias); only those universes with fundamental constants hospitable to life (such as ours) could contain life forms capable of observing the universe and contemplating the question of fine-tuning in the first place.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: If the universe is just one of many, and possibly infinite universes, each with different physical phenomena and constants, it would be unsurprising that we find ourselves in a universe hospitable to intelligent life (see multiverse: anthropic principle). Some versions of the multiverse hypothesis therefore provide a simple explanation for any fine-tuning.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: The multiverse idea has led to considerable research into the anthropic principle and has been of particular interest to particle physicists, because theories of everything do apparently generate large numbers of universes in which the physical constants vary widely. As yet, there is no evidence for the existence of a multiverse, but some versions of the theory make predictions of which some researchers studying M-theory and gravity leaks hope to see some evidence soon. Laura Mersini-Houghton claimed that the WMAP cold spot could provide testable empirical evidence for a parallel universe. Variants of this approach include Lee Smolin's notion of cosmological natural selection, the Ekpyrotic universe, and the bubble universe theory.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Stephen Hawking and Thomas Hertog proposed that the universe's initial conditions consisted of a superposition of many possible initial conditions, only a small fraction of which contributed to the conditions we see today. On their theory, it is inevitable that we find our universe's "fine-tuned" physical constants, as the current universe "selects" only those past histories that led to the present conditions. In this way, top-down cosmology provides an anthropic explanation for why we find ourselves in a universe that allows matter and life, without invoking the ontic existence of the Multiverse.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Some forms of fine-tuning arguments about the formation of life assume that only carbon-based life forms are possible, an assumption sometimes called carbon chauvinism. Conceptually, alternative biochemistry or other forms of life are possible.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: One hypothesis is that extra-universal aliens designed the universe. Some believe this would solve the problem of how a designer or design team capable of fine-tuning the universe could come to exist. Cosmologist Alan Guth believes humans will in time be able to generate new universes. By implication, previous intelligent entities may have generated our universe. This idea leads to the possibility that the extra-universal designer/designers are themselves the product of an evolutionary process in their own universe, which must therefore itself be able to sustain life. It also raises the question of where that universe came from, leading to an infinite regress.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: John Gribbin's Designer Universe theory suggests that an advanced civilization could have deliberately made the universe in another part of the Multiverse, and that this civilization may have caused the Big Bang.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: The simulation hypothesis holds that the universe is fine-tuned simply because it is programmed that way by people similar to us but more technologically advanced.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Some scientists, theologians, and philosophers, as well as certain religious groups, argue that providence or creation are responsible for fine-tuning.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga argues that random chance, applied to a single and sole universe, only raises the question as to why this universe could be so "lucky" as to have precise conditions that support life at least at some place (the Earth) and time (within millions of years of the present).


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Philosopher and Christian apologist William Lane Craig cites this fine-tuning of the universe as evidence for the existence of God or some form of intelligence capable of manipulating (or designing) the basic physics that governs the universe.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Philosopher and theologian Richard Swinburne reaches the design conclusion using Bayesian probability.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Scientist and theologian Alister McGrath has pointed out that the fine-tuning of carbon is even responsible for nature's ability to tune itself to any degree.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: The entire biological evolutionary process depends upon the unusual chemistry of carbon, which allows it to bond to itself, as well as other elements, creating highly complex molecules that are stable over prevailing terrestrial temperatures, and are capable of conveying genetic information (especially DNA). […] Whereas it might be argued that nature creates its own fine-tuning, this can only be done if the primordial constituents of the universe are such that an evolutionary process can be initiated. The unique chemistry of carbon is the ultimate foundation of the capacity of nature to tune itself.


title: Fine-tuned universe

text: Theoretical physicist and Anglican priest John Polkinghorne has stated: "Anthropic fine tuning is too remarkable to be dismissed as just a happy accident."


title: Convoy (song)

text: "Convoy" is a 1975 novelty song performed by C. W. McCall (a character co-created and voiced by Bill Fries, along with Chip Davis) that became a number-one song on both the country and pop charts in the US and is listed 98th among "Rolling Stone" magazine's 100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time. Written by McCall and Chip Davis, the song spent six weeks at number one on the country charts and one week at number one on the pop charts. The song went to number one in Canada as well, hitting the top of the "RPM" Top Singles Chart on January 24, 1976. "Convoy" also peaked at number two in the UK. The song capitalized on the fad for citizens band (CB) radio. The song was the inspiration for the 1978 Sam Peckinpah film "Convoy", for which McCall rerecorded the song to fit the film's storyline.


title: Convoy (song)

text: The song received newfound popularity with its use during the 2022 Freedom Convoy, to which Fries gave his approval shortly before he died.


title: Convoy (song)

text: The song consists of three types of interspersed dialogue: a simulated CB conversation with CB slang, the narration of the story, and the chorus. It is about a fictional trucker rebellion that drives from the West Coast to the East Coast of the United States without stopping. What they are protesting (other than the 55 mph speed limit, then recently introduced in response to the 1973 oil crisis) is shown by lines such as "we tore up all of our swindle sheets" (CB slang for log sheets used to record driving hours; the term referred to the practice of falsifying entries to show that drivers were getting proper sleep when, in reality, the drivers were driving more than the prescribed number of hours before mandatory rest) and "left 'em sittin' on the scales" (CB slang for US Department of Transportation weigh stations on Interstates and highways to verify the weight of the truck and the drivers' hours of working through log books). The song also refers to toll roads: "We just ain't a-gonna pay no toll."


title: Convoy (song)

text: The conversation is between "Rubber Duck", "Pig Pen", and "Sodbuster", primarily through Rubber Duck's side of the conversation. The narration and CB chatter are by McCall.


title: Convoy (song)

text: At the beginning of the song, Rubber Duck, is the "front door" (the leader) of three semi-trailer trucks (tractor and semi-trailer) when he realizes they have a convoy. Following the Rubber Duck, Pig Pen brings up the rear (the "back door") in a "'Jimmy' haulin' hogs" (a truck powered by a two-stroke Detroit Diesel engine--A.K.A. Screamin' Jimmy--with a livestock semi-trailer loaded with live pigs). The two other trucks are a Kenworth pulling logs, and a cab-over Peterbilt with a "reefer" (refrigerated trailer) attached; the lyrics are unclear which one of the two the Rubber Duck was driving (though in previous songs, McCall had been established as a bread truck driver, making the Peterbilt more likely).


title: Convoy (song)

text: The convoy begins at night on June 6 on "I-one-oh" (I-10) just outside "Shakeytown" (Los Angeles, California), as the Rubber Duck informs the two trucks that "it's clean clear to Flagtown" (Flagstaff, Arizona) and that he is going to "put the hammer down" ("hammer" being the accelerator pedal) as the convoy plans to "cross the USA." By the time they get to "Tulsatown" (Tulsa, Oklahoma), there are 85 trucks and the "bears / Smokeys" (state police, specifically the highway patrol, who commonly wear the same campaign hats as the United States Forest Service mascot Smokey Bear) have set up a road block on the cloverleaf interchange and have a "bear in the air" (police helicopter). The convoy moves onto Interstate 44, and by the time they reach "Chi-town" (Chicago, Illinois), the convoy—now 1,001 vehicles strong—includes a driver with the handle "Sodbuster", a "suicide jockey" (truck hauling explosives, specifically stated to be dynamite), and "11 long-haired friends of Jesus" (a reference to the then-current Jesus movement subset of Christianity) in a "chartreuse microbus" (VW Type 2). Rubber Duck has "Sodbuster" put the microbus behind the suicide jockey. Meanwhile, the police have called out "reinforcements from the 'Illi-noise' (Illinois) National Guard" and have filled the "chicken coops" (weigh stations) in an effort to stall and/or break up the convoy. Rubber Duck tells the convoy to disregard the toll as they head for the state border and continue east toward the New Jersey shore, crashing through the toll gate at , well above the national 55 mph limit in place at the time, in the process.


title: Convoy (song)

text: The song's running gag has Rubber Duck complaining about the smell of the hogs that Pig Pen is hauling. He repeatedly asks the offending driver to "back off" (slow down). By the end, Pig Pen has fallen so far back, when Rubber Duck is in New Jersey, Pig Pen got detached from the convoy between Tulsa and Chicago and ended up in Omaha, Nebraska (a reference to the headquarters of American Gramaphone, which released the song, as well as Bozell & Jacobs, who created the C. W. McCall character; Omaha is also famous for its slaughterhouses, which a truck with cargo like the hogs hauled by Pig Pen would likely head to).


title: Convoy (song)

text: McCall's "'Round the World with the Rubber Duck" is the sequel to "Convoy". In this continuation, the convoy leaves the U.S. and travels around the world, through Britain, France, West and East Germany, the USSR, Japan, and Australia.


title: Convoy (song)

text: The song was covered in 2004 by Paul Brandt. The video features Brandt and fellow country singers Jason McCoy and Aaron Lines as well as then Calgary Flames defencemen Mike Commodore and Rhett Warrener as truckers and George Canyon, of "Nashville Star" fame, as the highway patrol officer. The video was seen on CMT in both Canada and the United States. It was filmed at CFB/ASU Wainwright on Airfield 21. The song appears on the 2004 album "This Time Around".


title: Convoy (song)

text: Brandt also recorded a Christmas version called "Christmas Convoy", which appears on the 2006 holiday album "A Gift". In this version, the convoy helps Santa deliver his toys after a bad storm.


title: Statutory law

text: Statutory law or statute law is written law passed by a body of legislature. This is opposed to oral or customary law; or regulatory law promulgated by the executive or common law of the judiciary. Statutes may originate with national, state legislatures or local municipalities.


title: Statutory law

text: The term codified law refers to statutes that have been organized ("codified") by subject matter; in this narrower sense, some but not all statutes are considered "codified." The entire body of codified statute is referred to as a "code," such as the United States Code, the Ohio Revised Code or the Code of Canon Law. The substantive provisions of the Act could be codified (arranged by subject matter) in one or more titles of the United States Code while the provisions of the law that have not reached their "effective date" (remaining uncodified) would be available by reference to the United States Statutes at Large. Another meaning of "codified law" is a statute that takes the common law in a certain area of the law and puts it in statute or code form.


title: Statutory law

text: Another example of statutes that are not typically codified is a "private law" that may originate as a private bill, a law affecting only one person or a small group of persons. An example was divorce in Canada prior to the passage of the Divorce Act of 1968. If unavailable by administrative or judicial means, it was possible to obtain a legislative divorce by application to the Senate of Canada, which reviewed and investigated petitions for divorce, which would then be voted upon by the Senate and subsequently made into law.


title: Statutory law

text: In the United Kingdom Parliament, private bills were used in the nineteenth century to create corporations, grant monopolies and give individuals attention to be more fully considered by the parliament. They are still used in relation to large infrastructure projects, such as HS2, where law is being created primarily to give effect to rights and powers being exercised by a private (even if largely state owned) entity.


title: Statutory law

text: In practice modern private bills are mixed and have both private and public aspects. In such cases the proposed legislation is called a hybrid bill.


title: Statutory law

text: In the UK, and other jurisdictions that derive their parliamentary systems from the UK model, individual backbencher members of parliament may introduce a bill themselves through a range of mechanisms. These are not official government bills and are called private member's bills. Such bills may also be introduced by the loyal opposition — members of the opposition party or parties. A private member's bill is not a private bill and the two should not be confused. A private member's bill is usually a public bill in that it is intended to have general effect. However, very few such bills go on to become law.