PREHISTORIC
PART 3 – Ch.XIX
Pelasgian constructions in Dacia
The
origins of Cyclopean architecture
Another type of
prehistoric monuments is the gigantic
constructions, used to encircle the ancient acropolises and cities, which
the Greek authors call Cyclopean or Pelasgian.
The oldest
constructions in this genre are formed of polygonal rock boulders, more or less
in a rough state, placed on top of each other without cement, without an
apparent order and connection. Other such constructions appear in a more
regular shape. Although the walls are formed of colossal boulders, these stones
present some traces of human shaping. But these monuments belong to a later
epoch.
Remains of these
particular constructions, which have resisted to this day to the action of time
and men, can still be found on the territory of Hellada
at Mycenae (Euripides, Iphig. in Aul. v. 265), Tyrinth (Pausanias, lib. II. 25; Schliemann,
Tirynthe, Paris 1885; Perrot et Chipiez, Grece primitive, p. 258; Duruy, Hist.
d. Grecs. Nouv. Ed. Tome I. 1887, p. 66), Orchomenos (Perrot et Chipiez, Grece primitive, p.
434), at the acropolis of
They look the same
in
Therefore they
belong without doubt to the civilization of this people.
Pelasgians appear everywhere,
at
[1. A part of the Pelasgian walls of the island Samothrace (Samos Thraichia at Homer,
Threicia Samus at Virgil) can be seen at Conze, Reise auf den Inseln des Thrakischen Meeres. Taf.
XIV].
But in the ancient
Greek literature the origin of these gigantic constructions was attributed to a
class of humans called Cyclops.
During the primitive times of Hellada, under the name
Cyclops was understood a certain
historic people, with particular, barbarian customs.
We find the oldest
notes regarding the country and ethnic character of the Cyclops with Homer.
According to the
Ionian poet, the Cyclops had been a pastoral
people par excellence. They dwelt on
the high mountains at north of
To clarify this we
shall extract here the following from Homer’s description of the country and
the way of life of the Cyclopes (Odyss. IX. v. 39 seqq).
After Troy, the
powerful city of the Pelasgians from the shores of
Asia Minor, had been conquered, looted and destroyed by the Achaeans, Ulysses and his friends departed with
12 ships loaded with an enormous booty, towards home, towards the islands
Ithaca, Cephallenia, Zacynt,
etc. But the winds threw them on the southern shores of
The heroes attacked
the capital of the Cicones, called Ismaros, ransacked it, kidnapped several women and finally,
after loosing a number of men in this fight with the Cicones,
went on their way. But then the north wind Boreas
took them and threw them in the sea, which Homer always called pontos. After wandering for a number of days, they
arrived “near the country of the superb
Cyclopes”, who, Ulysses says, “trusting the benevolence of the immortal
gods, live without any worry, because they neither sow any plant with their
hands, nor plough, instead here the
earth produces everything on her own, without seed and furrow, wheat, barley
and vines loaded with large grapes, and only the rain of the sky makes them
grow. They have no laws, nor popular assemblies, but dwell in huts, scattered on the peaks of the high
mountains.
Facing the harbor
through which the country of the Cyclopes can be accessed, there is a small and forested island, which is not
close, nor far, and in this island there are a great number of wild goats, which
are not troubled by anything, neither by men, nor by the hunters who roam the
perilous woods and the high peaks of the mountains. There is nobody here to
look after them. Nobody ploughs in this island, but it stays untilled forever
and deserted by people, only the goats graze and bleat here. In fact this
island”, Ulysses continues, “is not exactly
unproductive. Along the shores of the white sea spread humid and soft meadows and grape vines
grow, which never die. This island also has a natural harbor very favorable, in
which somebody can take shelter without need to cast anchor, or to tie the
ships with ropes to the shores. The sailors stay here as long as they like and
until the favorable winds for navigation blow again.
At this island we
arrived with our ships and it is true that some god led us here during a dark
night, when we were surrounded by a thick fog and could see nothing in front of
us. The next day we emerged from our ships early in the morning and walked
through the island, admiring it, then, separating in three groups we hunted
several wild goats….
We were here facing the country of the Cyclops, who
were close, so that we saw the smoke rising, we heard their shouting, the
bleating of the sheep and the goats. Then the next day, as soon as morning
came, I called all my friends to council, and told them that a part of them
should stay put, while I with my ship and my men shall go and see what sort of
people dwell in that country, if they are violent and wild, or if they love
foreigners and fear the gods.
Saying this, we got
into the ship, my men untied the ropes, and we departed by rowing through the white sea.
But when we arrived at that land, which was close, we noticed not far from the
shore of the sea a high hut, covered with laurel branches. In this place great
flocks of sheep and goats rested, and all around a high enclosure was built
from long blocks of stone stuck into the ground, from fir and oak trees. Here
dwelt the giant who was the strongest of all the
Cyclops, like a god (Odyss. I. 70).
He grazed his flocks alone, far from the others. He was a frightening monster,
and did not look like the people who eat bread. He looked like a high mountain
peak with the top covered with forests”.
Ulysses and his men
entered the sheepfold of the Cyclop while this one
was gone to pasture with his flocks, and marveled at the excellent pastoral
economy of this Cyclop. Here everything was in the
best of order, all around were baskets with sheep cheese, pens full of lambs
and kids, but placed apart, the larger, the middle sized and those born more
recently. All the pots were full with whey; the buckets and pails, made of
wood, were ready for the milk. Although uninvited, the heroes decided to eat
their lunch in the house of the Cyclop. They lighted
the fire, sacrificed to the gods the fattest lambs, of course, of the Cyclop, after which they started to eat the cheese which
they had so much admired.
“In the evening the
Cyclop returned with his flocks from the pasture,
bringing on his back a great bunch of dried wood, to prepare his dinner.
Reaching the front of his hut, he threw the wood to the ground with a loud
noise. He then drove all the fat sheep and goats in the sheepfold, to milk
them, leaving out only the rams and Billy-goats; closed the entry with a huge
boulder, very high, which could not have been moved by 22 four-wheeled wagons
[2]; then he sat down and started to milk the ewes and goats, according to
custom, putting to each its lamb or kid to suckle. Finishing the milking, the Cyclop put the milk to curdle and after the curd congealed,
took it out of the pots and put it in woven strainers. Finally, after doing all
of these, the Cyclop lighted the fire and seeing the
foreigners crowded at the far end of the hut, asked them if they were merchants, or if they wandered here and there on the sea,
like some criminal bandits, who do evil things to people of other nations”.
Upon hearing the
heavy voice of the Cyclop, the heroes started
shaking. But Ulysses, taking heart, told the Cyclop
that “they were Achaeans from Troy, who had lost their way; that they traveled
towards home, but that the wind had thrown them towards other lands, that they
were men from the famous army of Agamemnon, the most glorious man on earth, who
had destroyed such a big city and so many peoples; that they had come to him to
receive gifts from him, as it is the custom when foreigners come to somebody”;
and finally Ulysses threatened the Cyclop “with the
anger and punishment of the gods” if he dared refuse to make them gifts.
Hearing this, the
situation became clear for the Cyclop, who knew only
two classes of people, merchants and criminal bandits, who wander the seas and
do evil things to the peoples of other nations; so he treated these pretentious
guests as pirates, not as lost heroes. We know the fabulous scenes which took
place at the sheepfold of the Cyclop. Ulysses and
some of his men could escape from the enclosure surrounded by the high boulders
of the Cyclop only by hiding under the wool of the
large rams.
[2. When speaking about the sheepfold, pens or
hut of the Cyclop, Homer uses the words aula,
speos and antron,
without a clear distinction. It results though from the description given (Odyss. IX. v. 237 seqq), that the
large speos in which the Cyclop milked his sheep in the evening without other light
than that of the sky, was not a cave.
The sheepfold of the Cyclop at the mouths of the
I saw myself a really Cyclopean sheepfold on the east hillock
which dominates the
It has almost the shape of a
parallelogram. It is 18.10m long and 12.10m wide. Its walls are quite high,
vertical and fractured. The locals call it “the sheepfold of the Jidovi”, meaning of the giants. The entry, which served at
the same time as exit, being quite wide, was divided in two parts with a huge
boulder, so that the Cyclopean stable from Polovragi
was used at the same time as a turnstile for the sheep].
This is the
description found in Homer’s Odyssey about “the superb and lawless people” of
the Cyclops, and about their blessed country which produced fruit without
people tilling the earth [3].
[3. We find another tradition about Cyclops with Hesiod (Theog. 139 seqq).
With him the Cyclops are titans, the
sons of Uranus and Gaea (this latter name being only a geographical
personification about which we shall speak later). Hesiod
calls the Cyclops “with a superb heart”,
exactly as Homer does, and adds that they gave Jove the thunder and
manufactured the lightning. Later authors developed this tradition of Hesiod and made the Cyclops the workers of Vulcan, who made weapons for gods and for heroes.
With this meaning, the Cyclops of Hesiod were identified with Chalybii.
This confusion between the first
metal workers and the shepherd Cyclops can be explained by the fact that both
groups were from the same region, from the country called Kychlopon gaia, that the dwellings of both were in the
mountains and finally that in ancient times the metal workers were more
dependent on the Pelasgian pastoral tribes, very rich
and warlike.
The etymology of the word Cyclops is not known to this day.
According to Hesiod
(Theog. v. 144), the Cyclops were called as such
because they had a round eye in the forehead (chyclos
and ops).
This is a simple mythological interpretation.
The origin of this word must have
been completely different. It seems that the Greek name Cyclops can be reduced
to the barbarian (Pelasgian) word cucullus, caciula in Romanian (TN – cap),
article which characterizes especially the shepherds from the Carpathians and
the
In rustic Latin language there was
an old word with a somewhat analogous form, cocles, which we find in the
verses of Ennius
(239-169bc), where he mentions the “ten Coclites, who dug in the highest Rhipaei
mountains” (Varro,
L. L. VII. 71. Cf. Isidorus Hisp. Orig. lib. X. 163).
But these later authors, represented by Varro, who
had very poor knowledge of the rustic Latin language, had assimilated this word
with the Greek Cyclops. In order to
effect this transition, the master etymologist Varro
first identifies cocles
with ocles
(Rom. oches), after which in another step he arrived
to the giants with one eye. But in the time of Pliny the elder (H. N. XI. 55.3) cocles did not have the meaning
attributed by Varro, and it is certain that it never
had.
The positive fact is that with Ennius the word Coclites has the meaning of people (or mythological
personifications) “who dug”, so the
old Latin cocles
corresponds to today’s Romanian cioclu (fossor) (TN – man who digs
graves)].
From a geographical
point of view, Ulysses, blown by the north wind Boreas,
wanders the waters of the
The island of the wild
goats where the tempest threw Ulysses and his friends on a foggy night, and
which was on the parts of Pontos called the White Sea [4], is the island which
later appears under the name of Leuce, or the island
of Achilles, which Arrianus of Nicomedia
depicts (Periplus Ponti euxini, c. 21. 2) in the same way, as an island deserted by
people and inhabited only by wild goats.
[4. The north-west corner of the
Facing this island
was, from the Odyssey description, the
country of the shepherd Cyclops.
This is the
classical region of the ancient Pelasgian times, from
the Carpathians and the
Homer’s Cyclops,
people of a vigorous constitution, whose dwellings were on tops of “the high
mountains”, are the pastoral tribes from the majestic Carpathians, who up to
our days still have retained in large part their primitive Pelasgian
character. They spend half a year with their countless flocks on the mountains
of
The Danube Delta
has been until our times a region preferred and inhabited only by the shepherds
from Ardel (
Apollonius Rhodius in his Argonautics (IV. 317) also mentions the wild shepherds from near the mouths of Istru, these being identical therefore with the Cyclopes
from the
The country of the
Cyclopes had, according to Homer, an exceptional fertility.
Here the soil
produced by itself, without waiting for the work of men, wheat, barley and
vines laden with grapes, fecundated only by the rains of the sky. It is the
same region which had also become legendary during classical antiquity for its
extraordinary fertility; it is the blessed land of the Hyperboreans
from north of Istru, which Hecateus Abderitas describes like this: “The soil of this country is very good, and
fertile in everything, while the climate has an excellent temperature, as a
result of which the fruits are produced
here twice a year” (De Hyperboreis, fragm. 2 – ex. Diodorus Siciulus, lib. II. c. 47).
And the geographer Mela tells us
(De situ Orbis, lib. III. c. 5) about the region of
the Hyperboreans, like Homer does about the country
of the Cyclops. He calls it a “land
which produces the crops by itself”, without the need to be ploughed or
sown.
The soil of the
Romanian country and
In 1599 Michael the
Brave, the great Domn of the Romanian country, being
on the plain of Selimbrar, declares to the apostolic
nuncio Malaspina, “that he did not enter Transylvania
for want of reigning, or spilling the blood of the Christians, because he could
live happily and in total safety in his land, in the Romanian country (Valahia), where if someone ploughed only once and
scattered the seed, the wheat grows” (Hurmuzaki, Documente,
III. p. 511).
And fifty years
later (1648), the monk Marcus Bandinus, the archbishop of Marcianopolis,
under the administration of which were also the catholic churches of Moldova, describes
as follows the excellent qualities of this country: ”No one could easily
believe how great is the soil of Moldova,
until one could see it. Here the soil is
ploughed only once, even if it had not ever been cultivated before, and
even if it was full with brambles. As soon as the farmer has broken with his
plough the face of the earth and has sown wheat, or other seeds, he happily
reaps a rich crop. And it even happens sometimes that a soil ploughed only once is sown twice and produces abundant crops…Even
the vineyards, if one dug them only once in a whole year and tied the vines
laden with grapes, it would be a quite enough work…The flocks of sheep are so many, that one boyar alone has about 24,000
sheep of his own, and the sheep are
so big, that the foreigners, looking
at them from a distance, believe that they are oxen or cows; only the tail of a
Moldovan sheep is as heavy as half of a German sheep” (Visitatio
generalis, Ed. Acad. Rom, Bucuresti
1895, p.135).
As we see, the
famous country of the Cyclops, where only the sky alone made the seed to
germinate and the crops to grow, appears to be the same region as the fertile
region of the Romanian country and Moldova.
We have another
important ante-historical document about the geographical position of the
country of the Cyclops.
As Homer tells us
in another place in his Odyssey (VI. v. 4), adjoining the land of the Cyclops
was the country called Hyperea
(‘Ypereia), from yper
and aia, meaning “The country from beyond”, an ancient
geographical expression which we still find used even today by the folk of the
Romanian country and Moldova, when speaking about Ardel or Transylvania.
It results
therefore from what we exposed so far, that the constructions which the Greek authors
call cyclopean, belong, in regard to the origin of this system of
fortification, to the pastoral populations from north of the Lower Istru.
In truth, we find
at the pastoral tribes of the Carpathians, the most archaic type of cyclopean
constructions, from both technical and strategic points.
Close to Sarmizegetusa, the capital of the Dacians,
the Column of Trajan shows, on a high and steep
ridge, a cyclopean construction of
enormous size (Froehner,
La Colonne Trajane, Pl. 146-149). The walls of this fortress present three
systems of construction, each system from a different epoch.
Fragment of the primitive walls of
the acropolis of Bali-dag in Troada,
presumed by some to have been Priam’s Pergamon.
(After Schliemann, Ilios, p. 239 – Perrot et Chipiez, La Grece primitive,
p. 236)
Part of the walls of the acropolis of
and adjusted with particular
craftsmanship, otherwise a simple imitation of the primitive style.
(After Schliemann, Mycenes, fig. 18)
Part of the walls so-called cyclopean of the citadel of Tyrinth in
(After Schliemann, Tirynthe, fig. 135)
Part of the polygonal, cyclopean walls of a vast Dacian acropolis, built on a high and steep rocky
ridge.
The figure of the emperor Trajan, surrounded by his officers is shown lower, on a
smaller hill.
It is the supreme moment of the battle. The
emperor is very worried, as he directs the operations of assault.
Facing him, a younger prince
(Hadrian) seems to encourage him.
(After Froehner,
La Colonne Trajane, pl. 147).
The principal part
of this walled enclosure is built of polygonal
stones, more or less rough and adjoining each other without any apparent
horizontal line. These are the primitive
walls of this great acropolis, definitely anterior to the cyclopean walls
of
[5. As we see from the specimen we
publish here, the walls of the ancient Dacian
acropolis were formed of two or three layers of irregular stones and one layer of
thick tree trunks placed in a crosswise direction. This combination of
stones and timber in Pelasgian or cyclopean
constructions was a very ancient technical procedure.
Regarding this, Perrot and Chipiez (Grece
primitive, p. 479) write the following: “Finally, and this is one of the
original characteristics of Mycenaean construction, the timber was not simply placed near or on top of the wall…it
penetrated it intimately. At Troy and
at Tirynth,
when examining what is left of the wall…holes were remarked, which today are
filled with ashes and charred debris; it was acknowledged that these holes
represented horizontal beams” (TN –
translated from French).
But the primitive walls of Mycenae, exactly as those of the Dacian acropolis, were formed of stone and transversal trunks, not horizontal, as can
be ascertained from the monumental stone slab from the gate of Mycenae, which
presents a specimen of the ancient walls of this citadel, supported in symbolic
fashion by the Sky Column.
Finally, we also see near the walls
of the Dacian acropolis a timber covered gallery, the like of which also
existed at Tyrinth and
A second part of
the walls of the Dacian acropolis is built of stones
cut in cubic shape and placed in
regular lines. These stones, considering their size in relation to the height
of the main Gate, appear of a similar size with the cubic stones from the walls
of
The layout of this
prehistoric citadel whose walls present three epochs of architectural style,
occupies half of the spiral of the Column. The intention of the artist Apollodorus of Damascus had been without doubt to show to
the Roman world an image of this strong cyclopean fortification as faithfully
as possible.
Unfortunately the
Commentaries of Trajan about the enormous
difficulties of the war with the Dacians have been
lost, but we find a very important note about this formidable fortress of
[6. Cornelius Fuscus, prefect of the
praetorian cohorts, had been appointed by the emperor Domitian to the general command of the troupes in his second war with the Dacians (Suetonius, T. Fl. Domitianus, c.
6; Jornandis,
De Getarum origine, c. 13; Eutropius, lib. VII. 23)].
An extensive group
of particular fortifications had therefore existed in
With its extremely
difficult position, with its extraordinary size, as well as with its
architectural style, this was a true construction of “Gigantes”, as Martial calls the Dacians,
when speaking about the war of Domitian (Epigr. VIII. 50).
The ruins of this
superb prehistoric fortress still partly exist and they form one of the most
intriguing ancient archaeological remains in
In the southern
part of this country, on the high and vast massif of the Carpathians, which
stretches between Turnul-Rosu, Sibiu,
Miercurea, Sebes, Orestie, Hateg and Vulcan, where
on the geographical maps we see only impassable forests and mountains, trodden
even today only by the Romanian shepherds, there is found the most important
ruins of a citadel in Transylvania.
It is a vast
acropolis in the middle of a huge
The shape of this
fortress, which the Romanian people call “Gradiscea de la Muncel” is circular and has a circumference of 1,200 steps (1,062.031m), or
according to other data, 1280-1290 steps (1,141.68m).
As we see, the area
of the acropolis from Muncel is much greater than
that of the acropolises of
The masses of the
walls of this fortress form today only huge mounds of ruins. These walls, as
the archaeologists Ackner and Neigebaur
tell us, were built of stones nicely cut in a cubic or parallelepiped shape,
and placed one on top of the other without
any cement [7].
[7. As we see, the two archaeologists of
Around 1838 these walls
still subsisted in some places, in their ancient position and construction, one
fathom or more high (1.80m). We have to state here though that this
fortification was not made entirely of cut stone. Part of the walls of this
acropolis had been constructed of rough
rock boulders, as can be ascertained from the ruins found inside and
outside of this fortress (Archiv. d. Vereines fur siebenburgische Landeskunde,
1844, I. 2. p. 19).
So, three types of
construction existed at the citadel of Gradisce, exactly
as they did at the walls of the Dacian acropolis. The
fortresses were therefore identical, not only by their geographical position,
by their strategic strength, but also by their type of construction (Froehner, La Colonne Trajane, p. 21, nr. 90)
[8].
[8. Froehner confuses Gradiscea de la Muncel
with Gradiscea de la Hateg
(Varhely), and this is why he believes that the
ancient fortress from the Column of Trajan might have
been Sarmizegetusa
itself, the capital of the Dacians. But Roman Sarmizegetusa was built on the plain and there is no height
around the village called today Gradisce (between Hateg and the
Iron Gates of Ardel) with Dacian
or Roman ruins on it. The acropolis from the Column of Trajan
is a fortified mountain].
The main gate of the
acropolis of Gradisce was situated on its southern
part. Here could still be seen around 1838 an opening into the wall, which the
Romanian folk called “At the Gate”,
and close to this entry were two fallen cylindrical columns, made of syennitic porphyry. They were 1.264m long and had a
diameter of o.79m. Other two gates seem to have been located on the east and
west sides. Outside the periphery of the citadel, but close to the walls, the
remains of an antique temple of a round shape, with a diameter of 28.447m could
still be seen on the southern side. The porphyry bases of the columns of the
temple still subsisted here, but the columns had disappeared by 1838, or were
maybe had been covered by ruins. And at a distance of 100 steps from the ruins
of the temple could still be seen two altars of white marble.
Also, there could
still be discerned the remains of an ancient aqueduct, formed of pipes of burnt
clay, enclosed on the outside with cut and hollowed out stones; also the
remains of an arena (agora?) outside the walls, which was surrounded by a 0.79m
thick wall, formed of cut stones, having a periphery of 101.777m and a width of
28.447m. Finally, here have also been found traces of a spa establishment,
which had once been paved with mosaic; as well as the basin of an artificial
lake, near whose edges could be seen scattered large cut stones.
As objects of art, have been discovered in
the ruins of this acropolis: a relief representing a bearded head covered with
a helmet, having above it a rose, a Dacian sword, a
bow and arrows; a second relief showing a man holding in his left hand a lance
and stepping on a smaller man, both these figures naked; and an oval porphyry
basin very finely worked, 0.948m wide and 1.422m long.
But systematic digs
have not been done here and we are therefore far from knowing the entire
sculptural material of this civilization.
These mountains
also had seen a Neolithic epoch. Two hatchets of serpentine and a hammer of amphibol have been found at Gradiscea
de la Muncel. Also an ante-Roman metallurgical
industry had existed in this region.
Near the hill
called Sub-Cununi have been discovered the remains of
an iron foundry and in the ruins of the fortress of Muncel
has been found an iron anvil of a cubic shape, weighing 49.28kg, with its four
lower corners lengthened in order to support it. This anvil presented therefore
the same style as the anvil of Vulcan, figured on antique sculptural monuments.
Also a hill in the
vicinity of “Gradisce” bears even today the name of “Ruda”, a word
which in the old folk language of
At Gradiscea de la Muncel have also
been discovered around 1800-1806 about 1000 gold coins with the inscription KOSON,
and close by, near the ridge of Anies, another important
number of gold coins were found, with the inscription of king Lisymachos of Macedonia.
This vanished city
had had therefore a prosperous life for a long series of centuries, and
probably this ancient and strong fortress had been the mother citadel of
several pastoral Pelasgian fortresses of the southern
lands.
The life of the
acropolis of Gradisce ceased at the time of the
conquest of
The Column in the Trajan’s forum presents the sad image of the Roman
soldiers, who, following their desperate assault, had started to demolish, by
order and under the eyes of the emperor, the walls of this superb and glorious
citadel, which had been the most powerful defense of
The proof that it
had not been rebuilt lies in the fact that in its ruins has not been discovered
any object of Roman art. The Roman coins found here were not later than the
time of Trajan, and did not bear the adjective of Dacicus (Gooss, Chronik, p. 40).
The acropolis from Muncel was not the only fortified mountain though, in this
vast massif of the Carpathians.
North of this
majestic acropolis are seen even today the ruins of another antique citadel,
called Fetele-albe,
separated from the former by only a deep ravine. A third fortification formed
of rough stone boulders (Bruchsteine) had existed, as
the archaeologists Ackner and Neigebaur
tell us, not far from Petra-rosia, where have also been discovered the remains of
an antique aqueduct and scattered cut stones. Finally, the ruins of other
fortresses in the same region, built on the same strategic principles, can
still be seen on the heights of Ciata, Luncani, Ocolisul-mic,
all of them bearing the name of Gradisce.
The age of the
acropolis of Muncel and of the surrounding
fortifications has always inspired a real respect to the archaeologists from
beyond the Carpathians.
So Ackner writes
about this (Die romischen Alterthumer….in
Siebenburgen, Wien, 1857,
p. 12): “I have visited this region repeatedly, especially the massif of the
Carpathians between the Jiu valley, Mures valley,
These are the
famous “fortified mountains” or “girdled by walls” of the Dacians, whose exceedingly difficult conquest had brought
an immense glory to Trajan’s expedition.
In this vast
complex of mountainous fortifications, the most important strategic position
was hold by Gradiscea from Muncel.
In order to be able to take with assault this principal defensive centre, the
enemy had first to fight other series of fortified heights, and had been met
with as many dangers in having to cross countless narrow and blocked valleys.
The same defensive
system was also used by the pastoral tribes of
In the year 26ad,
“under the consulship of Lentus Getulicus
and Calvisus”, writes Tacit (Annal. lib. IV. c. 46-50),
“triumphal ornaments were presented to Poppaeus, who
had subjected the tribes which inhabited the
high mountains of Thrace…..The rumor had been spread among these people
that the Romans wanted to scatter them to remote countries and to mix them with
other nationalities…. But they declared that if the Romans wished to impose on
them the yoke of slavery, as if they had been defeated, then they had enough iron and youths, with ready hearts, either for freedom or for death. At the
same time, they showed us their fortresses
built on rocky heights, where their parents and families had retreated, and
they threatened us with a mountain war, terrible and bloody”. The leaders of
these mountain Thracians were called, according to Tacit, Dinis, Turenis and Tarsa, all Pelasgian
names.
As we see, the
character of the fortified mountains of
They appear as the
fortifications of a sedentary group of shepherds, sheltered behind
[9. Not only the strong massif of Parang, but the entire line of the Carpathians is full
of fortifications erected on peaks (later repaired and used during various
epochs), which the Romanian people call citadels of the giants.
According to local traditions an
ancient fortification near the village called Talmaciu in
The fortress so-called Zidina Dachilor,
built on top of a high peak (Gradet) in Mehedinti district, seems to also have a cyclopean character. Bolliac writes
about it: “With great difficulty we managed to climb, and so far we’ve
encountered no other Dacian fortress so vast and strong, situated on such a height…
Here the stone is broken from the
neighboring mountains and thrown on this peak with the force of titans, then
heaped up and joined with a cement as strong as rock (Esc. arch. din 1869,
p. 60-61). Here at Zidina Dachilor
we find also the Neolithic epoch represented. In the vicinity of this fortress
were found a serpentine axe and a very elegant pierced hammer].
The walled
precincts of Tirynth,
[10. Perrot et Chipiez, La Grece primitive, p. 660. Only the acropolis of
The studies made of the walls of
We resume: The
origin of the defensive constructions, which the Greek authors call cyclopean, those walled fortifications
which crowned the rocky ridges of hills and mountains, is reduced, by their
name, by their defensive principles, as well as by their system of
construction, to gaia Kychlopon,
or the region north of the Lower Istru, inhabited by
the Pelasgian shepherds.
(According to Aristotle, the Cyclops, meaning the violent Homeric shepherds, were
the first who had built towers, or
defensive fortifications, on heights – Pliny, H. N. VII. 57).
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END OF PART 3 –
(to follow up go PART 3 – CONTENTS – PART 4) |