DOI article:
Petac, Emanuel: About the Sarmizegetusa hoard from 1998 and the possible chronology of Burebista's campaign to the Black Sea border
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49247#0027
ABOUT THE SARMIZEGETUSA HOARD...
his soldiers that “all the nations of the East and around the Euxine Sea, both Greek
and Barbarian, stand with us and the kings, who are friends of the Roman people
or of myself, and are supplying us soldiers, arms, provisions and other implements
of war”, meaning that at the end of 49 BC the West Pontic Greek cities had not
yet submitted to Burebista.71 In this context it seems difficult to accept that over
the course of a few months during the year 48 BC (let’s say between spring and
autumn, at the most decisive moment of the struggle between Pompey and Caesar,
between the battles in Dyrrhachium and Pharsalos), Burebista’s Getae defeated the
strongest Roman army in northern Greece and conquered the entire western shore of
the Pontus Euxinus. There is no reason to believe that Olbia fell a short time before
Phamaces’ revolt against Rome.72 In fact, it is more likely that this happened after
Pharnaces’ revolt, especially as there would not have been any significant Roman
armies in the Balkan Peninsula at this point in time.73
It seems now that Appian’s anecdote provides us with a new hypothesis, one
that places the famous expedition at the end of the Dacian king’s reign, probably in
46 BC (a few years before his assassination, which took place in around 44 BC), and
perhaps within the context of Julius Caesar’s displacement far away to the East because
of the war with Pharnaces II. Accepting that Asander struck his first-year stater as
archon after the battle of Zela (in August of 47 BC), i.e. after the death of Pharnaces II
(at the end of August of 47 BC) and probably from October of 47 BC (according to
the calendar of the Bosporan era), it looks as if Burebista’s Pontic campaign from
Olbia to Apollonia could have taken place between the spring and autumn of 46 BC.
After Burebista’s death in 44 BC, no other context can explain the arrival of such
huge quantities of West Pontic gold coins to Sarmizegetusa Regia.
A second discussion concerns the moment at which the hoard was buried. Did
it happen shortly after the last coin was struck - so probably during the civil war
that followed the assassination of the Dacian king in 44 BC - or did it happen much
later, in AD 106, when the Romans conquered Sarmizegetusa and Dacia?74 What
seems certain is that no hoard has been found that mixes pre-Roman gold artifacts
(Lysimachus-type staters from the West Pontic Greek cities, Koson-type staters, and
Dacian bracelets) with Roman gold or silver coins. We do not have a single Roman
aureus in pre-Roman Dacian contexts; they are rare even in Roman Dacia and it
seems that they only came after the Roman conquest.75 So, their absence from the
famous Dacian gold hoards is less surprising. Even more suggestive is the absence
71 Appianus, BC, II, 51; PETRE 1971: 102; OJA 2011: 162.
72 PETRE 1971: 102.
73 See also: SUCEVEANU 2009: 47-48.
74 VILCU 2010: 207.
75ARDEVAN 1993: 25; PETAC 2006: 136.
23
his soldiers that “all the nations of the East and around the Euxine Sea, both Greek
and Barbarian, stand with us and the kings, who are friends of the Roman people
or of myself, and are supplying us soldiers, arms, provisions and other implements
of war”, meaning that at the end of 49 BC the West Pontic Greek cities had not
yet submitted to Burebista.71 In this context it seems difficult to accept that over
the course of a few months during the year 48 BC (let’s say between spring and
autumn, at the most decisive moment of the struggle between Pompey and Caesar,
between the battles in Dyrrhachium and Pharsalos), Burebista’s Getae defeated the
strongest Roman army in northern Greece and conquered the entire western shore of
the Pontus Euxinus. There is no reason to believe that Olbia fell a short time before
Phamaces’ revolt against Rome.72 In fact, it is more likely that this happened after
Pharnaces’ revolt, especially as there would not have been any significant Roman
armies in the Balkan Peninsula at this point in time.73
It seems now that Appian’s anecdote provides us with a new hypothesis, one
that places the famous expedition at the end of the Dacian king’s reign, probably in
46 BC (a few years before his assassination, which took place in around 44 BC), and
perhaps within the context of Julius Caesar’s displacement far away to the East because
of the war with Pharnaces II. Accepting that Asander struck his first-year stater as
archon after the battle of Zela (in August of 47 BC), i.e. after the death of Pharnaces II
(at the end of August of 47 BC) and probably from October of 47 BC (according to
the calendar of the Bosporan era), it looks as if Burebista’s Pontic campaign from
Olbia to Apollonia could have taken place between the spring and autumn of 46 BC.
After Burebista’s death in 44 BC, no other context can explain the arrival of such
huge quantities of West Pontic gold coins to Sarmizegetusa Regia.
A second discussion concerns the moment at which the hoard was buried. Did
it happen shortly after the last coin was struck - so probably during the civil war
that followed the assassination of the Dacian king in 44 BC - or did it happen much
later, in AD 106, when the Romans conquered Sarmizegetusa and Dacia?74 What
seems certain is that no hoard has been found that mixes pre-Roman gold artifacts
(Lysimachus-type staters from the West Pontic Greek cities, Koson-type staters, and
Dacian bracelets) with Roman gold or silver coins. We do not have a single Roman
aureus in pre-Roman Dacian contexts; they are rare even in Roman Dacia and it
seems that they only came after the Roman conquest.75 So, their absence from the
famous Dacian gold hoards is less surprising. Even more suggestive is the absence
71 Appianus, BC, II, 51; PETRE 1971: 102; OJA 2011: 162.
72 PETRE 1971: 102.
73 See also: SUCEVEANU 2009: 47-48.
74 VILCU 2010: 207.
75ARDEVAN 1993: 25; PETAC 2006: 136.
23