PREHISTORIC
PART
4 –
Ch.XX
Prehistoric
monuments of metallurgic art in Dacia
The
origins of metallurgy
Two main traditions
existed in Greek antiquity about the beginning of mining, and both these traditions
located the origin of metallurgy in the countries north of the
According to the
Pelasgian tradition, which was the oldest, divine Prometheus had been the first to know the value of metals, of gold,
silver, copper and iron and was the first to invent the art of putting these
elements in the service of mankind.
“Who could say that
has found before me the copper, iron, silver and gold, these useful things
hidden in the earth? I know well that nobody could maintain this, but only for
wanting to boast in a foolish way” (Eschyl,
Prometheus vinctus, v. 500-504). This is how Prometheus expresses himself in
the traditions gathered by the ancient tragic poet Eschyl. And this Prometheus
is the representative of the first European civilization, and according to all
the southern legends his country appears to be at north of the
We find a second
tradition with Hesiodus. As this
author tells us in his Theogony, the first workers of mines and metals had been
the Cyclops, the sons of Uranos and
Gaea.
In the beginning
Hesiodus’ Cyclops dwelt underground. In the war with the Titans they
manufactured Jove’s lightning and gave him the thunderbolt (v. 141. 504). They
had therefore some advanced knowledge of pyrotechnic chemistry, knowledge which
was lost later on. The Cyclops of Hesiodus were masters in various crafts
(Ibid, v. 146). The cities echoed far with the sound of his hammers (Valerius Flaccus, Argon. IV. 286 seqq).
The country of
these Cyclops, or second grade titans, was at north of the Greek horizon, this
side of the great and famous river called Oceanos potamos (Istru), the land of
origin of all the gods.
Later though, the
Cyclops of Hesiodus, these miners and metal workers about whom the legends also
told that they had a round eye on the forehead (Damastis Sigensis, fragm 1 in Fragm. Hist. graec. II. 65), were
mistaken for the Arimaspians
(Arimascii), a historic people which formed a branch of the great nation of the
Hyperboreans. (Some authors believe that by this mythological eye must have
been the lamp tied up on the
forehead by those who worked in the dark underground tunnels: Diodorus Siculus, lib. III. 12).
The Arimaspians
dwelt near Rhipaei mountains, near
Istru, which formed in later times the western boundary of
[1. According to the geographer Mela, lib. II. c. 1, Rhipaei mountains
belonged to
According to Apollonius Rhodius (Argon. IV. 287), the babbling sources of Istru (the cataracts) were in Rhipaei mountains].
The epic poet Aristeas, who had lived, as some
authors tell us, before Homer, characterizes like this in his poem Arimaspea, the legendary and brave
people of the Arimaspians: “countless sturdy warlike man, rich in horses, sheep
and cattle, with thick locks, the strongest of all people, each having one eye
only in the forehead” (Tomaschek,
Sitzungsberichte d. kais. Acad. d. Wiss. CXVI Bd. p. 758).
The country in
which the Arimaspians dwelt had had in prehistoric antiquity an extraordinary
celebrity because of its immense gold riches. Here, as Greek legends told, the
gold was extracted from mines by the
griffons (grypes), and the Arimaspians were in a continuous state of war
with these mythological birds, from which they knew how to steal the gold (Pliny, H. N. VII. 2. 1) [2].
[2. The griffons were a species of fabulous birds of antiquity. They had a
real history though, because for the workers of the gold mines their existence
had been a lasting belief.
According to what the naturalist Aelianus had heard (Hist. anim. IV.
27), the griffons had a lion’s body, strong talons, black feathers on their
backs, red on the chest and white wings. According to Ctesias, they had violet feathers on their backs, a vulture’s head
and eyes like lightning. They made their nests on mountains, where it was
impossible to reach them. They guarded the gold, dug it out themselves, and
made their nests of it. (Seeburg,
Die Sage von den Greifen bei den Alten, p. 20).
According to Isidorus of Sevilla (Orig. XII. 2. 17), the griffons were born in
the mountains of the Hyperboreans
(meaning Rhipaei, Carpathians).
In today’s traditions of the
Romanian people, the ancient griffon appears under the name of gaina (TN – hen). “Vidrenii” from the western mountains of
Another tradition from
Some historical
memories about the lands where the metal industry had first originated had been
still preserved during Greek antiquity.
So, according to
the oldest tradition, gold (aurul, aurum, chrysos) had been first
discovered by Sol (Sore), the son of
the Ocean, or of Istru (Pliny, lib.
VII. 57. 6).
And the art of
smelting copper (arama, aes, aeramen, chalchos)
had been invented, according to another tradition gathered by Aristotle, by Lydus (Lud) from Scythia (Pliny, lib. VII. 57. 6), that is from
the mountainous and blessed region of European Scythia, or from the
Carpathians, because, as Herodotus
writes (lib. IV. c. 71), the Scythians from north of the black Sea did not use
copper.
The working of
copper mines in the countries of
Copper was one of
the metals of
On another hand, iron (ferul, ferrum, sideros) is one of the metals to
which Greek antiquity had attributed a Scythian
origin.
The first known
workers of iron had been, according to Greek traditions, Chalybii (Ammianus, 1.
XXII. 8). One of their most significant centers of production was, as Eschyl tells us (Prom. vinct. v.
714-715), between Pharanx (Parang)
mountain at north of Istru and the “violent and difficult to cross river”, Oltul of Romanian folk traditions [3].
[3. We have shown earlier that the
name Chalybi (Chalybes), which the
Greeks gave to the workers of iron in the parts of Scythia, derives from the
old Pelasgian word “coliba”
(cabane), meaning also shared by the German metallurgic word “Hutte” (Anlage zur Erzeugung oder
Verarbeitung eines Metalls).
We reproduce here the following
words of Moltke (Campagnes des
Russes, I, 1854, p. 34) referring to the meaning which the word “coliba” had in the Romanian country,
even around the middle of the past century: “Today these villages (from the
Romanian country) still have no gardens, no trees … the dwellings called kolibis being in their largest part dug
into the soil and covered only with branches” (TN – my translation from
French)].
These Chalybi,
renowned masters of the fabrication of iron, were considered in the southern
parts, in
[4. Eschyl (Septem c. Thebas, v. 816-817) mentions the Scythian iron beaten with the pestle.
Other traditions attribute the
discovery and working of iron and all other metals, to some ancient
semi-religious colleges called Dactyles,
Curetes, Corybantes and Cabeiri.
The origin of all these societies was in the parts north of the
According to the scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius, the Dactyles were of barbarian or Scythian origin. One of the Dactyles has even the name
of Scythes (Pauly, R. E. Idaei Dactyli, p. 55).
The Telchines were also mentioned as master metal workers. According to
some, their name signified “smelters”,
while other authors derive it from chalchos (Schrader, Sprachvergleichung, 236).
We find an echo of the name Telchini in Telki-banya in the village Aba-uj, and in the locality called Telci nor far from Rodna-vechia in
Another locality in Zarand, where
traces of ancient mine works still exist, has even today the name Cureti, a word incontestably of the
same origin as the old name Kouretes].
The first
beginnings of the history of silver
(argint, argentums, argiros)
were also in the metal rich lands of
According to the
traditions gathered by Hyginus, the
first who had found the importance of silver as a metal had been
Other traditions
attributed the discovery of this precious metal to an extraordinary fire which
happened in the classical mountains of Rhipaei
(the Greek grammarian Athenaeus –
lib. VI – Fragm. Hist. Graec. Ed. Didot, III. 273). Here, in the huge and
ancient forests, the fire spread to vast areas, and the silver from the upper
strata of the earth melting, came out to the surface and started to flow like
real rivers.
This tradition is
also reproduced by the didactic poet Lucretius,
who attributes the beginning of knowledge of all metals to “the great Mountains” (Montes magni, Ourea machra with Hesiodus),
a name under which in ante-Herodotic times were understood especially Rhipaei
or the Carpathians.
“Summing up”, says Lucretius (De rer. Nat. V. v. 1240
seqq), “ the copper, gold, iron, silver masses and heavy lead had been
discovered in the great Mountains,
where the flames of the fire had destroyed the immense forests, either because
they had been lighted by the lightning of the sky, or because the people,
warring through the forests with one another, had put fire in order to inspire
terror into the enemy, or because they, attracted by the richness of the soil,
had wanted to open new clearing for cultivation and to transform the grazing
places into tilled fields.
But whatever the
cause, the flames of the fire had consumed with frightening cracks the high
woods, down to their roots, and the fire had baked the soil in depth, and its
veins melting, had started to flow on the surface in rivers of silver, gold,
lead and copper, which, gathering in the cavities of the earth, had congealed.
And later, the people, seeing these cooled masses glistening on the surface of
the earth, attracted by their fine color and seeing that these metals had taken
the same shape as the cavities in which they had gathered, had the idea to melt
these metals in fire and shape of them anything they wanted”.
These are the main
traditions of the Greek world about the regions where the economic value of
metals had been first known.
In prehistoric
times, the great centers for the
fabrication of metals, like Alybe,
Temesa, Tartessos and
The poet Homer mentions in the Iliad (II. v.
857) the renowned but remote mines from Alybe,
in the region of the Halizoni,
where, according to him, silver was born.
Homer’s Halizoni,
Pelasgian people, allies of Priam, called by Herodotus (lib. IV. 17. 52) Alazoni,
dwelt on both banks of the river Hypanis (Bug, in today
The word Alybe is not Greek, it belongs to the
Pelasgian idiom spoken on the northern parts of Istru. Anyway, the original
form of this name has been Albile or
Albiile (TN – the White ones).
During Middle Age
the most productive silver mines in the region of the Carpathians were at Rodna-Veche (TN – Old Rodna), on the
north-eastern parts of
Still in this
region of the eastern Carpathians, the folk traditions of the 18th
century mentioned an entire mountain of
silver, from where could be gathered huge quantities of the richest gold
and silver, these traditions being reminiscences of a remote epoch.
This miraculous mountain of silver of the Carpathians
was, according to the historian Sulzer,
on the western part of Neamt district, at the frontier between
In close vicinity
with this ridge there is on the
Finally, towards
west and north of this extensive group formed by the mountains Albiele,
Piciorul Argintariei, Petra Argintariei and Paraiele Argintariei, are the
heights called Arsita (two), Delul Arsurilor, “Petra arsa” in Transylvania, and Arsita Siragului in Moldova, names which indicate that once some
vast and strong fires had consumed the ancient woods which covered these
mountains (TN – ars(a) = burnt).
To this important
mountain of ancient
This famous silver
region, unique in folk traditions, composed by the mountains Albiele, Piciorul
Argintariei, Petra Argintariei and Paraiele Argintariei, is incontestably
identical with the famous mines from Alybe,
where, as Homer tells us, silver had
been born, or in other words, where the silver had come out to the surface,
from the depth of the earth. Regarding Alybe,
we also add here another geographical circumstance. On the southern part of
this vast massif rich in silver flows the river called Bistriciora, which flows into Bistrita
of
The countries of
Dacia are characterized until the Roman epoch by a great abundance of silver, and on another hand the Scythians from north
of the Black Sea, as Herodotus tells us, did not use silver, a normal thing, as
the plains of European Sarmatia had always lacked mines [5].
[5. Bolliac, the founder of Romanian prehistoric archaeology, is
surprised by the large quantities of
silver which the Dacians
possessed. “From where”, says he, “had the Dacians extracted so much silver, for so much coinage,
and how come that their coinage was neither gold, nor copper … How come that
the most ancient coins of Dacia are of billon
(?), silver, copper and a little gold, and many times even of lead? The more
recent the finds, the more predominant
is the silver in the great number of Dacian coins found, drachmae,
didrachmae and tetradrachme, especially imitations,
but local” (Tromp. Carp. Nr. 846). See Cogalniceanu,
Album istoric, p. 54, for the silver and gold mines of the town of Baia in
Moldova].
A second important
center for its metallic riches had been in ante-Hellenic times Temesa.
In Homer’s Odyssey (I. 187), the goddess
Minerva says the following to Telemachos, the son of Ulysses: “I went by ship
over the Black sea, to Temesa, for
copper, but I bring shining iron” (meaning steel).
We have here a precious
geographical indication. The road for the Greek traders who sailed to Temesa to
buy copper and iron, was across the Black Sea or the Euxine Pontos.
We find a second
important note about the situation of Temesa with the poet Ovid. According to him (Met. XV. 520), the itinerary of those who
navigated to Temesa passed through the steep and difficult to navigate strait
once called Ceraunia (the mountain
of Cerna), and by a barbarian city, unknown today, called Romechium. We have here two topographical names which the poet Ovid
had extracted from the old geographical descriptions, without realizing at his
time the true situation of Homeric Temesa. This famous metals market of
prehistoric times, from where the southern lands bought the copper needed for edifices
and objects destined to their divine cult, had been without doubt in the region
abundant in metals from north of the Lower Istru, where had been concentrated
the main and the most productive mines of the ancient world [6].
[6. Some have believed that Temesa (Temesa) of Homer might
have been identical with the city from Lower Italy called during the Roman
epoch Tempsa and Temsa (Pliny, lib. XIV. 8, III. 10. 2; Livy, lib. XXXIV. 44). But neither the name, nor the geographical
position correspond to the Homeric traditions, and never has been found, to
this day, on the territory of this city from Brutium, any trace of some archaic
mining works].
Various localities
at the foot of the Carpathians (in Hungary and Transylvania) had, some in past
times, others even today, the name of Timis
(Temes). Of these we shall
mention here only two: Timisoara,
ancient and famous citadel, the most important and commercial city of Banat,
situated south of the river Timis,
which in older documents of Hungary figures under the name of castrum Temes, and a Romanian village
in the district of Mihadia, today disappeared, which around 1408 was called Temes (Fejer, Codl. Dipl. III.1. 124. 1212; Pesty, Varispansagok, p. 500-502’; II. 543).
A third market city
of prehistoric times, renowned for its mineral riches, had been at Tartessos (Certes), near the Columns of Hercules, close to Cerna, the vast
source of commercial prosperity of the Tyriens (see Ch. XVI.11).
And finally, Stephanos Byzanthinos also mentions a
locality in the regions of Scythia, with the name of Chalcis (Chalchis), meaning Baia-de-arama (TN
– The Copper Mine).
In ancient times
various localities had the name Chalcis. But this name had been particularly
attributed to an important city, where according to some traditions copper had
been first produced. This famous city, called Chalcis in Greek form, where the
industry of copper mines had been first initiated, had existed in all
probability in the region abundant in metals of Scythia, because according to
ancient traditions Lydus (Lud, Pelasgian name) of Scythia had first discovered
the art of melting and pouring copper (see above).
The origin of
copper was Scythian in any case, as can be stated by the so-called copper epoch
which characterizes the Carpathians of Dacia [7].
[7. Some authors, Pliny (IV. 21. 3) and Stephanos Byzanthinos among them, had
the view that the ancient city Chalcis,
where copper had been first discovered, might have been the so-called Chalcis
from the island Eubea in the Aegean Sea. Not only we do not have any positive
information about the working of copper in Eubea, but according to some, this
island has no metal bearing strata (Schrader,
Sprachvergleichung u. Urgeschichte, p. 284)].
The city Chalcis from Scythia mentioned by Stephanos Byzanthinos, can not by other
than the so-called Baia-de-Arama
from the western parts of Romania, where the Austrian administration had stated
even around 1719 that these mines, worked from remote times, had almost dried
up (Wenzel, Magyarorsz,
Banyaszatanak kritikai tortenete, p. 243); where on all the surrounding hills
and valleys can be recognized even today countless traces of mines or
excavations in the archaic system; where we ourselves have seen in 1892, 1899
and 1900 the vestiges of some ancient aqueducts dug in rocks and vast deposits
of molten slag, covered in some places with an alluvial stratum of soil more
than one meter thick [8].
[8. The archdeacon Paul of Aleppus, who had traveled
through Moldova and the Romanian country between 1650-1660, writes about these
mines the following: “in the Romanian
country a fine copper mine exists,
where the metal is extracted from very deep wells in the form of a black rock,
which is then manufactured with much art”
(Hasdeu, Arch. ist. Tom, I. P.2. p.
105).
And I. Ionescu (Agricultura jud. Mehedinti, p. 49) writes: “Many minerals have been extracted from
these holes (cunicule), judging by the amount of slag, by the ventilation holes
and by the earth displacement which can be seen here … The slag and water conduits (dug in stone), the mines and the roads, are positive signs
that here copper has been extracted and has been melted in many mines. But the mines are ancient”, etc. On the territories of
the districts Mehedinti and Gorj a considerable number of various
objects and tools of copper is found, which proves that in prehistoric times a
centre existed in this region where this metal was extracted and fabricated].
It is a positive
fact that the mine industry, this creation of Pelasgian genius and culture, had
had an immense development in the countries of Dacia during ante-Hellenic
times. This is the only region on the continent of Europe where, according to
all the geographical and archaeological data, to all the geological conditions,
a strong metallurgic civilization had existed, which, with its metal production
had dominated during the sacred Pelasgian times, not only the southern
countries, but also the western, northern and part of the eastern ones [9].
[9. In 1580 a certain Basilius Transalpensis described the metal riches of Transylvania in a
petition addressed to the sultan (Hurmuzaki,
Documente III. p. 57-58).
Three important rivers which have
their sources in the western Carpathians of Transylvania are named Cris (chryseios), another is
called Aries, corresponding to Latin
Aureus, while Oltul (Alutus), which descends from the eastern Carpathians, is by
its name also a gold river.
The name of the river Aries was still translated around 1075
with the Latin Aureus (Fejer, Cod. Dipl. I. 437). The omission
of u after A is not an isolated phenomenon. In vulgar Latin language it was
said Arelius instead of Aurelius and agustus instead of augustus,
and in Romanian Agustin instead of Augustin. In Albanian language the word
aur (gold) had become ar.
The river Aries seems to be the same river which figures with Herodotus (IV. 49) under the name of Auras. The word Alutum as metallurgical term meant in ancient times washed gold, from alluo. According to Pliny
(XXXIV. 47) the gold mines of Lusitania and Gallaecia were called alutia, vulg. aluta; and the gold found in the upper stratum of the earth was alutatium (Ibid. XXXIII. 21)].
Here we find
everywhere countless traces of archaic mine works: washing of gold, deserted mines,
metal smelters, fields of slag, copper tablets, misshapen pieces of melted lead
and gold and various tools necessary for the metallurgic industry [10].
[10. Romanian traditional songs
still mention the epoch when, apart from sheep flocks and cattle herds, wealthy
people also possessed mills of gold
and mills of silver:
And had Tudor had, nine mills in the river, which grind gold,
Nine mills
underground, which grind silver …
(Sezatoarea, Falticeni, An. III, p. 212)
Because father gives me
(as dowry), a thousand good things,
Nine mills in the wind, nine underground, which grind silver …
(Negoescu,
Balade, p. 195)].
In Homeric times
the territory of Hellada was totally
devoid of mines. Ancient Greeks did not extract metals from the earth. We have
only examples that they procured them through exchange (E. Saglio, Dict. des antiquitees gr. et rom. v. Caelatura p. 784,
note 51).
In European Sarmatia neither copper or
silver mines, nor gold or iron mines have ever existed.
The same happened
in Germany. “If the good gods”
writes Tacitus, “or the unfavorable
gods have denied the Germans the gold and the silver I cannot tell, but neither
can I affirm that there might not exist in Germany some vein of gold or silver,
because who has explored this land? They also don’t have much iron, as can be
judged by their weapons” (Germania, c. 5).
In Gaul the metal objects had been
generally imported through commerce, not the maritime commerce but via the
great continental road of prehistoric ethnic migrations (Bertrand, La Gaule avant les Gaulois, p. 6, 195-196. And according
to Diodorus Siculus – V. 27. 1 – in
Gaul had not existed silver mines).
And the Britons, as Julius Cesar tells us, used only imported copper (B.G.V.12).
The distinguished
Swedish archaeologist Montelius also
states that the prehistoric objects of pure
copper found on the territory of Scandinavia had been imported there from
the region of Austro-Hungaria – Cf. Pulszky, Magyarorszag Archaeologiaja,
I, p. 137).
About Africa, the archaeologist Morgan says: “not in Africa must be
searched for the origin of iron” (Congr. Int. ant. Et arch. preh. Paris, 1889,
p. 286).
And about India Pliny writes: “India has neither gold, nor lead” (H. N. XXXIV. 48.
3).
On the contrary,
the Pelasgian tribes from the Carpathians had been famous from the most remote
times of European civilization not only for their riches in flocks, herds and
studs, not only for their prodigiously productive plains, but also for their
wealth in metals.
Here were the
legendary Arimaspians, on whose locks ornaments of gold and precious stones
shone (Lucanis, Phars. III. 278-279).
From here traveled the
god Apollo towards the southern lands, astride a griffon, symbol of gold riches
(see Ch.V.2).
Here lived the
opulent Agathyrses, with their costumes laden with gold (Herodotus, lib. IV. c. 104) [11].
[11. The Romanian boyars were like real chrysophori
up to the end of the 16th century. Verantius, ex-royal lieutenant of Hungary (+1573) writes the
following about Moldova: “The boyars
… adorn themselves with many rings,
with golden silk robes … then with chains strung around the neck and other
similar ornaments, all of which drop from the left shoulder, across the chest
under the right arm and down to the thighs (De situ Transsylv. Mold. Transalp.
at Ilarian, Tesaur, III. p. 181)].
Even in the times
of Domitian and Trajan, the metal riches of Dacia had achieved an extraordinary
fame.
King Decebalus, as Dio Cassius tells us, had hidden his
famous treasures of gold, silver and various precious objects, under the bed of
the river Sargetia, which flew along his capital. But Trajan, helped by Bicile,
one of the intimate friends of Decebalus, discovered the secret and seized
these immense riches (Hist. rom., Ed. Gros et Boissee, lib. LXVIII. c. 14).
The Column of
Trajan also presents several characteristic scenes, showing how after the
defeat of Dacia, the Roman soldiers bring before Trajan some robust mountain
horses laden with precious vases of gold and silver.
We find an
important historical note about the huge booty of gold and silver seized from
Dacia by the emperor Trajan, with the 6th century historian Ion Laurentius Lydus (De Magistr. II.
c. 8).
The emperor
Justinian, this author tells us, in haste to do something useful for the state,
decided to institute the function of prefect of Scythia; that is because, being a wise man and studying what had
been written, he had discovered that the region of Scythia had been blessed not
only for its riches, but also for its brave men, and not only in the old times,
but still at his present time. This region had been first defeated by Trajan,
when Decebalus had been king of the Getae, from whom he took as war booty
5,000,000 gold pounds / librae (5,071,400,000 fr) and 10,000,000 silver pounds
(897,354,684 fr. Calculation done by considering the weight of Roman libra of
327.1873g and the ratio between silver and gold at the time of Domitian of
11,303 : 1).
This was apart from
priceless cups and vases, flocks, weapons and more than 500,000 people, the
most warlike men together with their weapons, as had been stated by Crito, who
had witnessed this war.
So Justinian, not
wanting to be less than Trajan in any matter, decided to keep under his power
also the northern lands, which had once freed themselves from the Roman yoke.
The emperor Trajan
had seized therefore from Dacia, apart from the enormous sums in coinage and various
masses of gold and silver, a prodigious number of precious vases. Their value,
says Crito, was incalculable. And without doubt these objects made of gold,
silver and precious stones, worked in the style of the Hyperboreans or the
Arimaspians, had in that epoch of opulence and luxurious lifestyle of the
Romans, an unheard of price [12].
[12. Homer (Iliad. XXIV, 234) mentions a magnificent gold cup of Priam,
which he had received as a gift from the Thracians,
when they had come in a mission to him. The ancients understood under the name
of Thracians the entire people of
the Getae, from south and north of
the Lower Danube, together with the Scythians
(Stephanos Byzanthinos; Herodotus, IV. 93; VII. 20)].
Finally if, apart
from the booty seized for the treasury of the state, we also took into account
the vast plunder committed by the tribunes, the centurions and the soldiers,
who all became rich men as a result of this war, and if we considered that the
entire Dacian nation had been despoiled of its wealth, then we could say that
the war booty seized from Dacia in precious metals had reached at least 10
billion (milliard) francs.
We can have an idea
of the value which these sums represented in Trajan’s time from what Pliny
tells us (H. N. lib. XXXIII. c. 17), that until his time the public treasury of
the Roman state, which was deposited in the temple of Saturn, had never been
more than 1,620,829 gold librae, or in other words, the metal treasure of the
Roman empire, after so many successful wars and so many taxes imposed on the
subjected countries, did not reach even a third of the value of the gold and
silver booty taken from the Dacians.
Trajan’s spoils
from Dacia exceeded in wealth and magnificence everything that the Roman people
had seen until that time. It was the greatest triumph of Rome, not only over
the strength and bravery of a feared nation (Lucanis, Phars. II. 54; VIII. 423), but over the riches of gold and
silver of a “blessed” country, riches accumulated in the course of centuries
and millennia.
With these
prodigious spoils the emperor Trajan built his vast Forum, decorated with various statues and figures of Dacians, forum
in which he erected his Triumphal Arch, on which were represented various
scenes from the Dacian war, Basilica Ulpia, the Column of Trajan, the two Ulpia
Libraries and a temple of the emperor, a building which Ammianis Marcellinus names unique in the universe and deserving
even the admiration of the gods, as it surpassed any description, and which no
mortal could ever replicate (lib. XVI. c. 10). And Gellius writes (Noct. Attic. XIII. 24) that around the periphery of
the forum were also placed various military gilded simulacra and ensigns, having the inscription: Ex manubiis, meaning from the sums
obtained by the selling of the spoils.
But what presents a
particular characteristic of the wealth of this country in precious objects of
art is that, notwithstanding the despoliation by the Romans and the barbarians,
the soil of Dacia is even today a bountiful source of prehistoric gold and
silver treasures, so that the treasures of Priam, of the dynasties of Mycenae
and of Orchomenos appear in truth as precious family treasures, but modest
anyway compared to the immense treasures which have been discovered so far on
the territory of Transylvania, Hungary and the Romanian countries, of which not
even the tenth part has been carefully collected and conserved.
The metallurgic
civilization, which opens a new era of prosperity in the history of mankind,
begins, as we see, at north of the
Here existed in
prehistoric times the great centers of production of metals. Here appears the
first phase of the fabrication of metal objects, of weapons, tools and
ornaments, an industry which makes more and more progresses (Pulszky, Magyarorszag Archaeologiaja,
I. p. 141).
From here these
products, especially those of copper, bronze and iron take a prodigious
expansion. Transported by prehistoric migrations and spread out by commerce to
every part of