a mistake to suppose, as some do, that they
went out of existence) prevented any strict line of demarcation. The
nominal boundaries of Roman Dacia were the river Theiss on the west, the
Pruth on the east, 'barbarians' on the north, and the river Danube on
the south. The country actually colonised embraced the Banate of
Temesvar, Transylvania (Siebenbuergen), and Roumania as they exist
to-day. There were several centres of colonisation, of which the chief
was Ulpia Trajana, including the old capital of Decebalus,
Sarmizegethusa (now Varhely), and other important centres were Apulum
and Cerna or Tierna.[97]

Trajan and his successors built fortifications, walls, and towns; and,
attracted partly by the fertility of the plains and partly by the gold
mines of the Carpathians, the Roman colonies soon swelled in numbers
and importance.[98] Different opinions have been expressed concerning
the character of these colonists. One modern writer, Carra, who is
considered an authority in Roumanian history, says that the Romans
regarded Dacia as the French, Cayenne, and sent thither a colony
consisting of the scum of the principal towns of Greece and the Roman
Empire. Their descendants, he adds, who inherited their vices and
cowardice, were turn by turn conquered and enslaved by the Sarmatians,
Huns, and Tartars.[99] This is a statement which rather affects the
feelings of modern Roumanians than the current of historical events, and
it brings us face to face with an enquiry which we shall have to handle
with great circumspection, namely, the descent of the modern Roumanians
from the old Daco-Roman colonists, lest we find ourselves involved in a
controversy that would fill volumes. So far as the records of Roman
history enable us to judge, Carra has done great injustice to the
colonists of Dacia. It is true that the Romans banished some of their
malefactors, and especially political offenders, to their colonies, as
Ovid was expatriated; and that Trajan colonised Dacia from various parts
of the Empire; but the custom of the Roman generals, which Trajan would
doubtless have followed, was to divide the most fertile districts
amongst their veteran soldiers,[100] and therefore, if the charges of
cowardice and debauchery made by Carra were true, they would apply to
the bravest in the legions who had conquered the almost indomitable
Decebalus. But Carra lived and wrote at a time (A.D. 1777) when
cool judgment could hardly be expected in a wri