XXIX

PREHISTORIC DACIA

PART 4 – Ch.XXIX

Prehistoric monuments of metallurgic art in Dacia

Sidereiai pylai – The Iron Gates

The custom to close the higher mountain passes with iron gates had existed also in prehistoric times. These gates, which were defended at the same time by fortresses situated on tops of the rocks, had the function to block the incursions of the enemy mobs.

Homer mentions the oldest Iron Gate (Iliad, VIII. v. 13). It was located near Oceanos potamos or Istru, at the place where according to Hesiodus the legendary dragon, which had terrified even the gods of Olympos, had been thrown into a deep cave (Theog. v. 746, 790, 811 seqq, 864) [1].

[1. Hesiodus (Theog. v. 811) calls those same monumental gates marmareai pylai. It seems that Hesiodus makes here a geographical confusion with the Iron Gates between Banat and Tera Hategului, which in the language of the Romanian folk from that place are called “La Marmore”].

This iron gate was, as results from Homer and Hesiodus, not only a strong barrier, but at the same time it was a work deserving admiration. It was known to the southern merchants from Hellada and Asia Minor. It had become an important geographical point.

The place where Homer placed the Iron Gates is identical with the famous strait near the cataracts of the Danube, called even today the Iron Gates.

Pindar calls the same Gates Gadeirides pylai (fragm 25 at Strabo, III. 5. 5), today Gherdapuri in the language of the neighboring inhabitants.

In Roman times, these Iron Gates were known as Portae Caucasiae, because the southern Carpathians were called, as we know, Caucasus, not only in the ancient traditions, but also in the military geography of the Romans (Jornandis, De Getar. orig. c. 7; Florus, H. R. lib. III. 5).

Pliny the Old describes the Iron Gates or Caucasic as “a gigantic work of nature. Here the chain of the mountains suddenly was broken. The gates were formed from rafters lined with iron, and under them flew a stream from which exhaled a very heavy smell. On this part (the western), the Gates were defended by a castle situated on top of the rocks, in order to stop the passing of the countless tribes” (lib. VI. 12. 1). The gates were therefore situated on the great road of migration of the barbarian tribes towards the western parts of Europe. From near the Caucasic Gates began the Gordyaei mountains, inhabited by Valli and Suarni, free peoples who worked the gold mines; and from near these tribes to the Euxine Pontos stretched several nations of Heniochi. “This is the physiognomy of this corner of the earth, one of the most famous” says Pliny. (Heniochii, who appear also in the Argonautic legends, are from a geographical and ethnographical point of view, the same people as Arimaspii, those with one eye).

At the same time, Pliny makes the following correction, saying “many were those who called this strait the Caspic Gates (Portae Caspiae), which is a big geographical error.

The Iron Gates from the Istru had in the Roman epoch a double importance. They formed a geographical separation. For the west they were the gates of orient, and for the east they were the gates of the west.

In Roman history the first mention of these Gates is found at the time of Nero.

Nero, as the Roman authors tell us, had decreed an expedition against the Sarmati, or the European Scythians, who had become a permanent calamity for the Roman state even since the time of the republic. For this purpose he gathered a large army, from Britannia, Germany and Illyria, which he sent to the Caucasic straits (Suetonius, Nero Claudius, c. 19; Tacit, Hist. I. 6; Pliny, lib. VI. 15. 6). But Plautius Elianus (57 ad), the pro-praetor legate of Mesia finished quickly this expedition against the Sarmati, before the emperor arrived to the Iron Gates with his legions. The inscription which forms the epitaph of this brave general tells us that he forced some kings, unknown until then, to cross to the other bank of the Danube and to bow to the Roman banners, then he freed the sons of the kings who reigned over the Bastarni and the Roxolani, and the brother of the Dacian king, ensuring and extending in this way the peace and calm of the province (C. I. L. vol. XIV nr. 3608).

The Caspic Gates were near the Istru also according to the poet Papinius Statius (Silv. lib. IV. 4. v. 56 seqq).

These gates, which formed the basis of operation of the western army against the Sarmati, were, as Pliny writes (lib. V. 27. 3), in the massif of the mountain called Ceraunius, or of Cerna.

The second group of mountains, Gordyaei, which, by Pliny’s description, started near the Iron Gates, is identical with the mountains of the district Gorju, on the north-western parts of the Romanian Country [2].

[2. The confusion between the Caspic Gates from Asia and the Caucasic Gates from the Istru had produced another error in the antique geography. The Gordyaei mountains were transported and localized on the southern parts of Armenia, close to the Tigris. An expedition of the Romans against the Sarmati of Europe, with troupes from Britania, Germany and Illyria, through the Asian Caucasus, would have been against the most elementary principles of strategy].

The names of the tribes Valli and Suarni, mentioned by Pliny have been also preserved in the Romanian toponimy The first locality near the Iron Gates has the name of Gura Vaii (TN – Mouth of the Valley), meaning mouth of the great Valii, or “clisura Dunarii”. And the name of Suarni has been preserved to this day in the name of the Romanian villages Sovarna-de-jos and Sovarna-de-sus (TN – lower and upper Sovarna) from the region of Closani, a region where the mines were worked even since ante-Roman times [3].

[3. Near Sovarna-de-jos is the hill called Rudina (from which metals were extracted).

The stream which Pliny calls amnis diri odoris, is today called Slatinic, meaning stream with brackish water, or muddy; it flows into the Danube exactly at the place where in antiquity were the Iron Gates].

The same Iron Gates are also mentioned in the 4^th century ad under the name of Ferratae Portae, and as Claudius tells us (Bell. Get. v. 235 seqq), they served as the basis of operation of the Getae, for their incursions into the western parts of the Roman Empire.

NEXT