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Mioarele , formerly known as Mățău , is a commune in Argeș County , Muntenia , Romania . Located 4 kilometers southeast of Câmpulung , on the way to Târgoviște , it touches both the Argeș River valley and the banks of its Argeșel tributary. It is composed of five villages: Mățău (the commune center), with Chilii and Cocenești, as one cluster; Suslănești, the oldest surviving village, is located farther to the east, alongside Aluniș. The commune, like Câmpulung itself, is located just below the Southern Carpathians , and includes Mățău peak, held as the tallest hill in Romania, as well as sediments with fossilized fish from the Oligocene period. Mățău and especially Suslănești are traditional centers for horticulture , as well as for the related plum-brandy industry.

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151-557: The area engaged in commerce since Antiquity , when it was used as a trading post by the Dacians . Its history remained obscure during the early medieval interlude , and down to the foundation of an early Romanian polity , though archeological finds suggest that the defunct village of Hobaia, located on commune grounds, was inhabited as early as the 10th century AD. Toponymic clues have led historians to suppose that Mioarele's inhabitants included Early Slavs and Cumans , and that some part of

302-508: A free Dacian group mentioned in the 1st and 2nd centuries in Roman sources. Their territory—"the land of the Costoboci", according to Cassius Dio—were located northwest of Dacia province. According to the archaeologist Gheorghe Bichir, the Costoboci were the bearers of the " Lipiţa culture ", but this identification has not been universally accepted by scholars. A Roman inscription recorded

453-597: A Mățău native. During his tenure, he was criticized for not drilling into the hill to provide Câmpulung with a new source of water, since the existing sources were contaminated by lime . In 1930, under decentralizing laws favored by the PNȚ, "Pravăț" was established as a separate commune, with mayors retained for each of the eleven villages absorbed into it. This structure grouped Suslănești, Mățău, Surbănești (formerly part of Mățău), and Valea Mare, as well as villages in present-day Lerești and Stoenești . Under this regime, Mățău built

604-742: A close contact between the German tribesmen and the Romans. A new enemy of the Roman Empire, the Goths emerged in the Pontic steppes in the first half of the 3rd century. According to their own tradition recorded by Jordanes , their migration from present-day Poland to the northern coasts of the Black Sea was a gradual process. Their first raid against the Roman Empire occurred in 238. They laid siege to Histria and forced

755-624: A close relationship with the natives. The latter were first described by Herodotus , who made mention of the Getae of the Lower Danube region, the Agathyrsi of Transylvania and the Sygannae of Crişana . Archaeological research prove that Celts dominated Transylvania between the middle of the 5th century and the end of the 3rd century BC. The Bastarnae —a warlike Germanic tribe—settled in

906-507: A dominant clan, the Jumăreas, emerged at Suslănești during the 17th century. The Jumărea ascendancy coincided with a regional migration, at the end of which Mățău was established as a secondary hamlet. This new settlement thrived while Suslănești went into a relative decline, its land encroached upon by several monastery estates and boyar families—including the Rucăreanus, who had a long feud with

1057-409: A favorable peace treaty with the Roman Empire. It not only acknowledged Decebalus's status as rex amicus or client king , but the Romans also gave "large sums of money" to him "as well as artisans of every trade pertaining to both peace and war", according to Cassius Dio. Taking advantage of his treaty with the Romans, Decebalus improved the defenses of his kingdom. He also expanded his rule over

1208-625: A fief of the Filipescu boyars in the late 17th or early 18th century, granted to them by Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu . Into the 19th century, the land was fragmented further, with plots donated to Șubești Church of Câmpulung, or purchased by the Skete of Mărculești , by Alecu Chilișoiu, and by Logothete Nicolae Rucăreanu. The latter, while feuding with the Jumăreas and exploiting the sharecroppers, obtained recognition as Lunea's heir. Around 1550, Mățău

1359-477: A hub of intensive horticulture. Suslănești was again merged into Mățău commune; its other census-designated places of 1941 were Călulești, Cocenești, and Melcești (the latter name disappeared from public memory in later decades). The final stages of World War II saw the United States Air Force bombing southern Romania ; on May 5–6, 1944, this mission focused on Pitești . In the resulting dogfights with

1510-616: A large body of infantry and cavalry" in 179 BC to support King Philip V of Macedonia in his wars in the Balkan Peninsula. Strabo, Pliny the Elder and Tacitus list them among the Germanic peoples , but the latter also writes that they intermarried with the nomad Sarmatians. Rustoiu identifies the Bastarnae as the bearers of the "Poieneşti–Lukašovka culture" of the regions to the east of

1661-425: A mixed stock, Greek and native, but the natives – still barely civilized – prevail. Great hordes of tribal nomads – Sarmatians, Getae – come riding in and out here, hog the crown of the road, every one of them carrying bow and quiver and poisoned arrows, yellow with viper 's gall: harsh voices, fierce faces, warriors incarnate, hair and beards shaggy, untrimmed, hands not slow to draw – and drive home –

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1812-413: A nearby storage pit. Large "La Tène" cemeteries were unearthed, for instance, at Ciumeşti , Orosfaia , and Pişcolt . Their inhabitants practiced both inhumation and cremation burials, and in the latter case the ashes were placed into a pit or an urn. Their unearthed artifacts, mainly pottery, also point at the cohabitation of groups preserving different traditions in the same settlements. About 10% of

1963-399: A new communal stable, a cattle market, and several gravel roads (one of which led to Jugur ). In January 1933, a bobsleigh competition was held on Mățău Hill, for the "Machelaru Cup". The administrative situation was reversed by later governments: Suslănești was administered as a separate commune, and remained a regional center of the PNȚ. This was reported by Dreptatea newspaper during

2114-617: A pet form of "Matthew". The digs at Hobaia, a village that once existed just east of Suslănești's territory, were also said to have uncovered ruins dating back to the 10th century AD. Local historian Ion Nania argues that, during the Early Middle Ages in Romania , Mățău-Mioarele was an area of Cuman settlement, and as such briefly included in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cumania . He uses as evidence historical sources which discuss

2265-557: A rump " Cumania " as being located east of the Olt River , as well seemingly Cumanic place-names, such as "Marlauz" in Suslănești. Suslănești, which may have been originally known as "Negurești" or "Neguțești", is the only locality in Romania to use this name. Of uncertain origin, it may stem from a Slavic term, соуслъ (rendered in Romanian as suslă )—referring to a byproduct of distillation in

2416-448: A separate village, Aluniș appeared in public records as a Mățău land grant. The Kingdom increased the pace of institutional modernization; in the 1890s, its Education Minister , Spiru Haret , directed Muscel's teaching staff to provide for the peasants' cultivation and social emancipation. As a result, Mățău had a school library (rural Muscel's second-largest in 1902), and from 1901 a students' cafeteria. The local school, whose main teacher

2567-518: A settlement in what was then Muscel County , part of the Romanian polity known as Wallachia . One document, dated 1401 or 1402, mentions Ohaba (literally: "fiscal immunity") on the Argeșel, a name which may have been transformed into Hobaia ("ravine"), and is perhaps the oldest mention of any part of the present-day commune. An indirect report that a village existed in Mățău during the mid-to-late 15th century

2718-487: A small wooden church, built in the early 19th century by Postelnic Simon Jumărescu, was servicing the Orthodox parishioners in Suslănești. In December 1848, a stone building was completed with funds from the new Postelnic , Ioan Simon Jumărescu (Simon's son), his wife Ana Popeasca, and his sister Cocoana Eleana. During the mid-19th century, Mățău was threatened with devastation by a local brigand, Radu Anghel . One local legend

2869-675: A visit to Mioarele area. Mățău was traditionally upheld as the birthplace of comedic writer Tudor Mușatescu (born 1903), but this was dismissed in 2003 by Mușatescu's son; he notes that only some members of the family lived in the village, while Tudor and his parents had settled in Câmpulung. The interwar political scene brought new forces on the political scene, including Mihalache's Muscel-based Peasants' Party . Its core membership included schoolteacher Gheorghe Vișoiu, originally from Mățău, though his political career only peaked after he moved to Olt County . The movement for social and cultural uplift

3020-611: A war monument, done by sculptor Dumitru Mățăoanu, was unveiled in Mățău. The Rucăreanus liquidated their assets in Suslănești during the early 20th century, selling their estate the Prislopeanu family, whose female descendant, married Andreescu, held on to it until 1944; similarly, the Jumărescus sold their land to Ioniță Georgescu—the resulting two estates had 100 hectares between them, while yeomen descendants had fallen into destitution. Meanwhile, Simon of Suslănești had become patriarch of

3171-420: Is noted for its pastures and Prunus domestica orchards, being locally famous for the "white plums of Suslănești" ( prune albe de Suslănești ). As of 2023, its surface area is 33 square kilometers ; it borders Câmpulung to the south and west, Stoenești to the east, Boteni to the south, Poienari to the south and west, Bilcești, a part of Valea Mare-Pravăț , also to the west. In addition to being located on

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3322-553: Is plausible that Histria and Tomis concluded a similar treaty with the Romans around the same time, because the empire needed their ports for naval bases in the Black Sea. The three towns made an anti-Roman alliance with the Bastarnae , the Getae and other "barbarian" tribes in 61 BC. They inflicted a decisive defeat on the Roman armies which were under the command of Gaius Antonius Hybrida , Proconsul of Macedonia. King Burebista of

3473-607: Is provided by the mention of two locals serving as soldiers for Wallachian Prince Vlad the Impaler . Suslănești and the surrounding areas were located on the border with Angevin Hungary , and engaged in trade with its Transylvanian Saxons . In 1503, the commercial register of Corona mentioned the village (called Suslanest or Suschlanest in Saxon dialect ) as one of 28 Wallachian localities it had direct and permanent exchanges with. This marks

3624-562: Is that he was ultimately persuaded into disengaging by a local peasant, Simon of Suslănești; contrarily, a folk song records Anghel's attack on Ioan Simon. The subsequent decades saw Wallachia merged into the United Principalities (from 1859), followed by the consolidated Kingdom of Romania (from 1881). In 1893, Mățău commune had incorporated Suslănești, as well as Chiliile, Cocenești, and Călulești—the latter village has since been fully absorbed into Mățău village; not yet mentioned as

3775-511: Is that it comes from the Early Slavs , and that it originally meant "bear's village" (it may also refer to the locals' physical built, since, as a common noun, it is used to mean "wide-shouldered man"); others see it as originating from a Modern Greek term for "nipple", in reference to the hill's general shape. Historian Ștefan Pascu proposes yet another origin, from the Bulgarian Мацо ( Matso ),

3926-674: Is what is thought to have allowed for upwelling in the Arabian Sea and led to the establishment of the modern South Asian Monsoon . It also caused major modifications to the functioning of the AMOC and ACC . During the Oligocene (33.9 to 23 Mya), large parts of central and eastern Europe were covered by a northern branch of the Tethys Ocean, called the Paratethys . The Paratethys was separated from

4077-522: The Carpathian Mountains . For instance, the natives at Priscu Crăşani used amphorae produced in the Aegean islands of Thasos , Rhodes and Cos . They lived in wattle-and-daub huts. Silver artifacts (including a helmet and a cup) from the princely tomb unearthed at Agighiol , and the gold helmet found at Coțofănești evidence the wealth accumulated by native chieftains through their connections with

4228-856: The Dniester and the Balkan Mountains into a powerful, but ephemeral empire. It disintegrated into at least four parts after his death. Large territories to the north of the Lower Danube—the lands between the Tisa , the Northern Carpathians, the Dniester and the Lower Danube—were again unified for less than two decades by King Decebalus of the Dacians (87–106 AD). Modern Dobruja —the territory between

4379-620: The Getae in connection with King Darius I of Persia 's campaign against the Scythians in about 513 BC . According to Herodotus, the Getae, "the most courageous and upright Thracian tribe, offered stiff resistance", but the Persians defeated and enslaved them. He also described the Getae's belief in the immortality of the soul and their practice of human sacrifices in order to send messages to their principal god, Zalmoxis . The "Ferigile-Bârseşti" group of cremation tumuli appeared in

4530-584: The Lower Danube , suggesting that cultivation of plants began in the lands now forming Romania between around 9500 and 7500 BC. Animal husbandry appeared 1500 or 2000 years later with the arrival of a new population—the bearers of the " Gura Baciului-Cârcea/Precriş culture "—from the southern parts of the Balkan Peninsula . They lived in pit-houses and used chiseled stone tools . They decorated their fine pottery with geographical figures and produced clay figurines . The antrophomorphic figurines of

4681-509: The National Peasants' Party . The decline of the peasant class was curtailed when locals were encouraged to cultivate themselves and advance socially, including by migrating into other areas of the country. Driven by schoolteachers such as Ion Vișoianu and Ion Gh. Nicolaescu-Mățău, this effort made Mățău and Suslănești stand out as the ancestral homeland for a large number of cultural and political notabilities; figures to trace their origin to

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4832-504: The Paratethys when the Alpine front was still 100 km (62 mi) farther south. In 1885, the Austrian palaeontologist Melchior Neumayr deduced the existence of the Tethys Ocean from Mesozoic marine sediments and their distribution, calling his concept Zentrales Mittelmeer ( lit.   ' Central Mediterranean Sea ' ) and described it as a Jurassic seaway, which extended from

4983-590: The Pontus and the east," and the Dacians are "those who incline in the opposite direction towards Germany and the sources of the Ister ". Archaeological finds—cremation graves yielding horse bits, curved daggers or sica , swords and other weapons—evidence the development of a military elite in the territories to the north of the Lower Danube in the 3rd-1st centuries BC. Tumuli with similar grave goods appeared in

5134-733: The Rheic Ocean , which existed to the west of them in the Silurian Period. To the north of the Tethys, the then-land mass is called Angaraland and to the south of it, it is called Gondwanaland . From the Ediacaran (600  Mya ) into the Devonian (360 Mya ), the Proto-Tethys Ocean existed and was situated between Baltica and Laurentia to the north and Gondwana to the south. From

5285-534: The Royal Romanian Air Force , three American bombers were downed over Suslănești, which was at the time still a separate commune. During the communist period , Muscel was merged into the Argeș Region . Mățău and Suslănești were merged by government order in 1956, despite some local opposition. This reticence pushed the authorities to select a new name, "Mioarele" (from mioare , "young sheep", alluding to

5436-527: The Second Dacian War , the Romans annihilated the Dacian kingdom. Its core territories— Banat , Oltenia and Transylvania—were transformed into a new Roman province named Dacia in 106. The Romans also occupied Muntenia and the southern parts of Moldavia , which were annexed to the province of Moesia, but they withdrew from these territories in 119. Under Emperor Trajan a procurator—a former consul—ruled

5587-783: The Silurian (440 Mya ) through the Jurassic periods, the Paleo-Tethys Ocean existed between the Hunic terranes and Gondwana. Over a period of 400 million years, continental terranes intermittently separated from Gondwana in the Southern Hemisphere to migrate northward to form Asia in the Northern Hemisphere. About 250 Mya, during the Triassic , a new ocean began forming in

5738-741: The Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys , was a prehistoric ocean during much of the Mesozoic Era and early-mid Cenozoic Era . It was the predecessor to the modern Indian Ocean , the Mediterranean Sea , and the Eurasian inland marine basins (primarily represented today by the Black Sea and Caspian Sea ). During the early Mesozoic, as Pangaea broke up, the Tethys Ocean was defined as the ocean located between

5889-480: The collectivization of farmlands , with a large-scale cultivation of orchards, and conscripted local youth in projects of road modernization. During its late stages, the regime completed the national road 73 , which goes around Mioarele. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989 , the commune remained underdeveloped due to water deficiencies, though it also completed Argeș's first-ever ski slope, in 2007. Mioarele

6040-429: The sheath knife that each barbarian wears strapped at his side. The earliest records of the Dacians are connected to their conflicts with the Roman Empire in the 2nd century BC. Strabo writes, in his Geographica , that their language "is the same as that of the Getae". He adds that the distinction between the Getae and the Dacians is based on their location: the Getae are "those who incline towards

6191-540: The " Hamangia culture ", which flourished in the region between the Lower Danube and the Black Sea until around 4000 BC, are outstanding representatives of Neolithic art. In addition to figurines, colored pottery featured the " Cucuteni-Trypillian culture " of Muntenia , northeastern Moldavia and southern Transylvania. "Cucuteni-Trypillian" settlements, which often covered an area reaching 6 hectares (15 acres), flourished until around 2000 BC. Production of copper tools and artifacts—pins, hooks, and pendants—and

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6342-548: The " Przeworsk culture " appeared in Apa , Boineşti , Medieșu Aurit and other sites to the northwest of Dacia province in the last decades of the 2nd century. Their spread point at the arrival of the Hasdingi, who settled in these regions after their conquest of "the land of the Costoboci". "Przeworsk" pottery, weapons and other artifacts were also found at Roman forts in Dacia, suggesting

6493-579: The "Agathyrsian territory" appeared in the easternmost regions of the plains along the River Tisa around 500 BC, suggesting that the Agathyrsi expanded their rule over these territories in the subsequent century. Although Aristotle in his Problems still referred to the Agathyrsi, stating that they "sang their laws, so as not to forget them", thereafter no written source makes mention of them. Their cemeteries ceased to be used around 350 BC. Whether

6644-467: The 15th and 16th centuries, and valuable artifacts. These include a ring belonging to Spatharios Cazan, indicative of a much higher boyar ranking and decorated with the double-headed eagle . The church building and surrounding Hobaia were ransacked and burned down at some unknown time in history (possibly by the Ottoman Army ). One reading suggest that they were destroyed in 1595, when Prince Michael

6795-449: The 1650s, mentions Suslănești locals Vladislav, Șerban, Negre and Pârvu. In December 1656, Prince Constantin Șerban granted parts of Suslănești to Ceauș Lunea, who had previously been engaged in a legal battle for its ownership. Court documents make numerous references to an increasingly powerful Muscel family. Known as "Jumărea" or "Jumărescu", its first known member was Voicu Toacă of Suslănești (active before 1644), whose inheritance

6946-484: The 1960s, "fixist" geologists, however, regarded Tethys as a composite trough, which evolved through a series of orogenic cycles. They used the terms 'Paleotethys', 'Mesotethys', and 'Neotethys' for the Caledonian , Variscan , and Alpine orogenies, respectively. In the 1970s and 1980s, these terms and 'Proto-Tethys', were used in different senses by various authors, but the concept of a single ocean wedging into Pangea from

7097-565: The 3rd century BC the Greeks paid tribute to local chieftains, including the Getic Zalmodegicus and Rhemaxos , in exchange for their protection against raids by other neighboring "barbarians". The Syginnae, who had "small, short-faced, long-haired horses", according to Herodotus, were the bearers of the " Szentes-Vekerzug culture ". This archaeological culture, which is featured by bridles and bits made of iron, flourished in

7248-410: The 4th and 2nd centuries BC, the latter in the 4th century BC. King Lysimachus of Thrace forced Histria to accept his suzerainty in the 310s BC, and Celts sacked the town in 279 BC. Histria and Callatis attempted to take the port of Tomis, but they were defeated around 262 BC. The natives of the Lower Danube region came to the attention of classical authors after

7399-403: The 650s and 620s BC. The second colony, Tomis was also founded by settlers from Miletus who arrived in the 7th or 6th century BC. However, the sparseness of archaeological evidence from the first centuries of the history of Tomis implies that it was initially administered from Histria. The third Greek town, Callatis was founded by Dorian colonists from Heraclea Pontica in

7550-403: The Agathyrsi were assimilated by other tribes, or abandoned their lands, cannot be decided. In the period between 450 and 200 BC, the vast territory between the Atlantic Ocean and the Eastern Carpathians experienced the spread of the " La Tène culture ". It is without doubt that this culture emerged in a Celtic-speaking population, but it cannot be decided whether its spread was only

7701-410: The Aralo-Caspian Formation extending from close to the Danube delta across Crimea, up the east side of the Volga river to Samara, then south of the Urals to beyond the Aral Sea. Brackish and upper freshwater components (OSM) of the Miocene are now known to extend through the North Alpine foreland basin and onto the Swabian Jura with thickness of up to 250 m (820 ft); these were deposited in

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7852-412: The Argeș, the commune also straddles the border between the Argeș Hills (called muscele ) and the Southern Carpathians ; these are reported to include oil sands that reflect their geological origin in the Oligocene and Tethys Ocean . With a height of 1,017 meters , Mățău Hill is rated as the tallest hill in all of Romania. The eponymous village, central to Mioarele, sits atop this hill, overlooking

8003-469: The Brave had involved Wallachia in the Long Turkish War . The surrounding areas were inhabited over the following decades: documents from the 1570s and '80s mention several yeomen (Radu, Drăghici, Oprea of Suslănești) acting as witnesses in land disputes and other legal matters; between the 1590s and the 1620s, the village was one of several estates owned by the boyar Staicu, who rose to the rank of Postelnic . A votive cross in Church Slavonic , dating from

8154-474: The Caribbean to the Himalayas. In 1893, the Austrian geologist Eduard Suess proposed the hypothesis that an ancient and extinct inland sea had once existed between Laurasia and the continents which formed Gondwana II. He named it the Tethys Sea after the Greek sea goddess Tethys. He provided evidence for his theory using fossil records from the Alps and Africa. He proposed the concept of Tethys in his four-volume work Das Antlitz der Erde ( The Face of

8305-487: The Carpathian Mountains, but this identification is not universally accepted. For instance, "Poieneşti–Lukašovka" settlements were inhabited by a sedentary population, but the historian Malcolm Todd says that the mobility of the Bastarnic warriors suggests that they were mustered by a nomad or semi-nomad people. Besides ceramics featuring the culture, "Poieneşti–Lukašovka" sites yielded pottery with analogies in Dacian and Celtic sites. Callatis, Histria and Tomis accepted

8456-408: The Costoboci who disappeared from the sources. Gheorghe Bichir writes that many of them settled among the Carpi. The Marcomannic Wars, which lasted from 162 to 180, caused a series of population shifts along the eastern frontiers of the Roman Empire. The Buri were the first Germanic people who invaded Dacia. The governor of Dacia, Sabinianus defeated them in 180. Pottery and weapons featuring

8607-402: The Dacians subjugated the three Greek colonies in about 50 BC. An inscription from the same time refers to the "second founding" of Histria, implying that it had been nearly destroyed during the previous wars. Callatis, Histria and Tomis regained their freedom after the death of Burebista in 44 BC. However, their independence became nominal and they accepted Roman protectorate after

8758-509: The Dacians. Deceneus reformed the cult of Zalmoxis. He persuaded the Dacians "to cut down their vines and to live without wine", according to Strabo. The 6th-century historian, Jordanes , who preserved information originally recorded by Dio Chrysostom , writes that Deceneus "chose from among" the Dacians "those that were at that time of noblest birth and superior wisdom and taught them theology, bidding them worship certain divinities and holy places". These pilleates or tarabostes formed

8909-425: The Earth ). In the following decades during the 20th century, " mobilist " geologists such as Uhlig (1911), Diener (1925), and Daque (1926) regarded Tethys as a large trough between two supercontinents which lasted from the late Palaeozoic until continental fragments derived from Gondwana obliterated it. After World War II , Tethys was described as a triangular ocean with a wide eastern end. From 1920s to

9060-431: The Eurasian plate, which created new borders to the ocean, a land barrier to the flow of currents between the Indian and Mediterranean basins, and the orogenies of the Alpide belt (including the Alps , Himalayas , Zagros , and Caucasus Mountains ). All of these geological events, in addition to a drop in sea level rise from Antarctic glaciation, brought an end to the Tethys as it previously existed, fragmenting it into

9211-399: The Getae, but could not defeat him. The latter even captured Lysimachus and forced him to withdraw his troops from the lands between the Lower Danube and the Haemus in 292 BC. The subsequent history of Dromichaetes and his realm are unknown. According to the historian Vlad Georgescu , Dromichaetes's kingdom disintegrated into smaller polities. Inscriptions from Histria prove that in

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9362-435: The Getae, promised to come and join" Mark Antony "with a great army", according to Plutarch . A new empire dominated by the Dacians emerged in the reign of Decebalus who ruled from 87 AD. In the first year of his reign, he defeated a Roman army sent against Dacia in retaliation of a plundering raid in the Roman province of Moesia . Although the Romans defeated Decebalus in the Battle of Tapae in 88, he concluded

9513-418: The Great launched a one-day raid across the Lower Danube against the Getae who could not prevent him from crossing the river. In connection with the raid, Arrian refers to "a deep cornfield" of the Getae and makes mention of their "poorly fortified" city. After Alexander the Great's death, Lysimachus of Thrace ruled the northern regions of the Balkan Peninsula . He waged wars against King Dromichaetes of

9664-399: The Greek colonies in the 4th century BC. The "Getae beyond Haemus " who "border on the Scythians" paid tribute to the neighboring Odrysian kings in the 5th century BC, according to Thucydides . He adds that the Getae, who were mounted archers, supported King Sitalkes of the Odyssians against Athens in 429 BC. In 335 BC, according to Arrian , Alexander

9815-408: The Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Paratethys . It was preceded by the Paleo-Tethys Ocean , which lasted between the Cambrian and the Early Triassic , while the Neotethys formed during the Late Triassic and lasted in some form up to the Oligocene – Miocene boundary (about 24–21 million years ago) when it completely closed. A portion known as the Paratethys was isolated during

9966-419: The Jumărea domains; it incorporated Negomirești, which disappeared from public record after 1784. Another secondary hamlet, Dănești , was first attested under that name in 1600, but, after become the identifiable home of a large clan, the Coceans, changed its name to "Cocenești". The newer village, Chilii, was mentioned beginning in 1708. One other group of locals moved out of the area and into Câmpulung, adopting

10117-417: The Jumăreas and the other remaining yeomen. Large property was consolidated under the Kingdom of Romania , down to a land reform in 1944 . Present-day Mioarele was noted as a scene of heavy fighting during the Romanian withdrawal in World War I , and was vandalized by the Central Powers during a two-year occupation (1916–1918). It emerged from the war as a hub of agrarian politics and an electoral pool for

10268-426: The Lower Danube and the Black Sea—was the first historical region of Romania to have been incorporated in the Roman Empire. The region was attached to the Roman province of Moesia between 46 and 79 AD. The Romans also occupied Banat , Oltenia and Transylvania after the fall of Decebalus and the disintegration of his kingdom in 106. The three regions together formed the new province of Dacia . The new province

10419-441: The Lower Danube. The sporadic use of iron also began around 1100 BC, but it only became widespread about 350 years later. Ionian colonists from Miletus founded Histria , the first Greek town on the Black Sea coast of present-day Romania. According to Eusebius of Caesarea 's Chronicle , this happened in 657 BC. Archaeological finds—mainly pottery—suggest that the first Greek colonists settled in Histria between

10570-421: The Oligocene (34 million years ago) and lasted up to the Pliocene (about 5 million years ago), when it largely dried out. The modern inland seas of Europe and Western Asia, namely the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, are remnants of the Paratethys Sea. The sea is named after Tethys , who, in ancient Greek mythology, is a water goddess, a sister and consort of Oceanus , mother of the Oceanid sea nymphs and of

10721-427: The Paleo-Tethys formerly rested. During the Jurassic period about 150 Mya, Cimmeria finally collided with Laurasia and stalled, so the ocean floor behind it buckled under , forming the Tethys Trench . Water levels rose, and the western Tethys shallowly covered significant portions of Europe, forming the first Tethys Sea. Around the same time, Laurasia and Gondwana began drifting apart , opening an extension of

10872-544: The Romans to grant them an annual subsidy. Jordanes narrates that "some of the Taifali and Astringi , and also three thousands of the Carpi" joined the Goths during their invasion of Dacia and Moesia in 250, suggesting that the Goths had by that time become the predominant power among the tribes dwelling in the vicinity of the Roman Empire's Lower Danube frontier. The natives dwelling to

11023-630: The Scythians in the Pontic steppes . However, the identification of the Agathyrsi as a Scythian tribe is controversial, because the making of their artifacts, especially their swords, found in Transylvania differs from the technique applied in the Pontic steppes. The Agathyrsi's "way of life" was actually "similar to that of the Thracians", as it was emphasized by Herodotus himself. Quivers decorated with metal crosses, mirrors and other featuring artifacts of

11174-663: The Simon (later Simonescu) clan. His grandsons include Dan Simonescu , a Romanian literary historian and bibliographer, and Colonel Constantin Simonescu, killed in action on the Eastern Front of World War II . The former, born in 1902, recalls spending his childhood "among the peasants of Suslănești", "with a sort of liberty that was rarely impinged upon by pedagogic principles." In the 1920s, he took folklorist Constantin Rădulescu-Codin on

11325-713: The Tethys Sea between them which today is the part of the Atlantic Ocean between the Mediterranean and the Caribbean . As North and South America were still attached to the rest of Laurasia and Gondwana, respectively, the Tethys Ocean in its widest extension was part of a continuous oceanic belt running around the Earth between about latitude 30°N and the Equator . Thus, ocean currents at

11476-581: The Tethys were eventually closed off in what is now the Middle East during the Miocene , as a consequence of the northern migration of Africa/Arabia and global sea levels falling due to the concurrent formation of the Antarctic Ice Sheet . This decoupling occurred in two steps, first around 20 Mya and another around 14 Mya. The complete closure of the Tethys led to a global reorganization of currents, and

11627-564: The Tethys with the Arctic Ocean . As theories have improved, scientists have extended the "Tethys" name to refer to three similar oceans that preceded it, separating the continental terranes: in Asia, the Paleo-Tethys (Devonian–Triassic), Meso-Tethys (late Early Permian –Late Cretaceous), and Ceno-Tethys (Late-Triassic–Cenozoic) are recognized. None of the Tethys oceans should be confused with

11778-565: The Tethys with the formation of the Alps, Carpathians , Dinarides , Taurus , and Elburz mountains during the Alpine orogeny . During the late Miocene , the Paratethys gradually disappeared, and became an isolated inland sea. Separation from the wider Tethys during the early Miocene initially led to a boost in primary productivity for the Paratethys, but this gave way to a total ecosystem collapse during

11929-518: The Three Dacias. Eutropius writes that Emperor Trajan transferred "vast numbers of people from all over the Roman world to inhabit the countryside and the cities", because "Dacia had, in fact, been depopulated" during the Second Dacian War. Indeed, inscriptions prove that the colonists came from many parts of the Roman Empire, but especially from Pannonia and Noricum . Although evidence of

12080-521: The ancient continents of Gondwana and Laurasia . After the opening of the Indian and Atlantic oceans during the Cretaceous Period and the breakup of these continents over the same period, it came to be defined as the ocean bordered by the continents of Africa, Eurasia, India, and Australasia. During the early-mid Cenozoic, the Indian, African, Australian and Arabian plates moved north and collided with

12231-461: The area include Muscel's Prefect Alexandru Mușetescu, literary scholar Dan Simonescu , and writer Tudor Mușatescu . The education-driven institutional modernization was doubled from the 1940s by attempts to introduce intensive horticulture and improve transportation. Such objectives were realized by the communist regime , which incorporated the villages under a single commune in 1956–1967, and made it part of Argeș County in 1968; it also introduced

12382-511: The coast of the Baltic Sea and weapons produced in Mycenaean Greece show the importance of trading with these distant regions of Europe. From around 1100 BC, a homogenization of pottery decorations and the development of new archaeological cultures can be detected. These new cultures spread over large territories; for instance, the " Basarabi culture " flourished in the wider region of

12533-511: The commune in October 1975, and recruited in its ranks "some 25 members [...] aged 15 to 76"; it put out anthologies of its work in 1977 and 1989. The archeological digs, meanwhile, were continued and enhanced by Flaminu Mîrțu, director of the Câmpulung Museum. During early 1987, the national road 73 (DN73) , linking Câmpulung to both Brașov and Râmnicu Vâlcea , was fully modernized. Mioarele

12684-553: The consequence of migrations or acculturation also contributed to it. In Transylvania, the arrival of the Celts is exclusively evidenced by archaeological finds, because no documents refer to this event. Isolated graves yielding "La Tène" metalwork—helmets, weapons and horse harness—prove that the first Celtic groups settled in Crişana and Transylvania after around 335 BC. "La Tène" settlements were consisted of semi-sunken huts, each with

12835-436: The corresponding Câmpulung Depression, and spreads over several kilometers. Another one of the hills is Hobaia (or Marlauz) in Suslănești, which has a large trove of fossilized Oligocene fish, and is maintained as a scientific reserve . The locality is also close to Mateiaș Hill, and has direct views over three Carpathian ranges: Piatra Craiului , Iezer , and Făgăraș . In a 1961 piece, local historian Nicolae Nasta summarized

12986-543: The early 2020s, Gheorghe Șucu went public with complaints that the commune was not realizing its potential in tourism on account of having no running water. As he explained in 2021, wells had been drilled, but no water could be located into the bedrock. Also that year, the ski slope's seasonal opening was postponed after the snow groomer was discovered to be unusuable, allegedly due to theft of its parts. Romania in Antiquity The Antiquity in Romania spans

13137-768: The early Cenozoic, the Tethys Ocean could be divided into three sections: the Mediterranean Tethys (the direct predecessor to the Mediterranean Sea), the Peri-Tethys (a vast inland sea that covered much of eastern Europe and central Asia, and the direct predecessor to the Paratethys Sea), and the Indian Tethys (the direct predecessor to the Indian Ocean). The Turgai Strait extended out of the Peri-Tethys, connecting

13288-597: The east of the Carpathians were collectively known as Carpi from the 3rd century. Written sources, inscriptions and literary works, evidence that the Carpi were a powerful enemy of the Roman Empire up until the 250s. For instance, Petrus Patricius recorded that they stated that they were "stronger than the Goths" when the Romans agreed to pay an annual tribute to the latter. Tethys Ocean The Tethys Ocean ( / ˈ t iː θ ɪ s , ˈ t ɛ -/ TEETH -iss, TETH - ; Greek : Τηθύς Tēthús ), also called

13439-588: The end of war in Eastern Europe , Wallachia was briefly occupied by the Russian Empire , and a Russian official by the name of Tsurikov was tasked with conducting a fiscal census. It records 62 households of scutelnici (who did not owe any tax), and notes that they still owned the village land. These families preserved their status beyond that moment, and until 1835. Tsurikov also records three priests and five deacons living in Mățău's fiscal jurisdiction. Only

13590-477: The entire future commune, roughly divided into five plots. According to sociological research carried out by Ioan Șucu in the 1970s, the yeomen lineages are traceable to medieval times , whereas the serf families are historically invisible to 1746, when Prince Constantine Mavrocordatos abolished serfdom, and lifted them into the class of sharecroppers. Traces of Hobaia were rediscovered by accident in July 1939, along with

13741-501: The establishment of Greek colonies along the Black Sea shore. In the early 5th century BC, Hecataeus of Miletus 's Europe referred to two local tribes, the Crobydae and the Trixae . Sophocles wrote of a local ruler named Charnabon in his Triptolemos . Herodotus was the first writer who thoroughly described the tribes dwelling to the north of the Lower Danube. He wrote of

13892-456: The existence of workshops producing pottery, weapons, glass for the local market. Roads built for military purposes also contributed to the development of long-distance trade. Dacia became subject of frequent plundering raids by the Carpi and other neighboring tribes from the 230s. Literary sources—for instance, Eutropius—even recorded that "Dacia, which had been added beyond the Danube by Trajan,

14043-464: The expedition of 27 BC by Marcus Licinius Crassus in the lands between the Lower Danube and the Black Sea. The Roman poet, Ovid spent his last years in exile in Tomis between 9 and 17 AD. His poems evidence that barbarian attack was a constant menace for the townsfolk in this period. Would you care to learn the nature of the local inhabitants, find out amid what customs I survive? They're

14194-463: The first attestation of the locality; the 1503 record also specifically mentions locals Buda and Tudor bringing wels , beeswax and hides to the markets in Corona. Some time after, in July 1512, a village known as Negomirești, probably baptized after its founder Negomir, was also attested near Mățău Hill. The future commune was originally divided into yeomen ( moșneni ) and serfs ( clăcași )—the former owned

14345-548: The first decades of the next century, the Sarmatians who arrived from the Pontic steppes became the dominant power of the regions up to that time inhabited by the Bastarnae. The year when the lands between the Lower Danube and the Black Sea, including the three Greek colonies of Callatis, Histria and Tomis, were annexed by the Roman Empire is uncertain. According to the historians Kurt W. Treptow and Marcel Popa, this happened in 46 AD. In contrast, Coriolan Horaţiu Opreanu writes that

14496-511: The foothills of the Southern Carpathians in this period. These graves yielded artifacts—pottery, weapons and jewelry—which reveals the influence of Scythian, Illyrian and Thracian art on the locals. Greek amphorae found in the native settlements unearthed at Zimnicea and other places prove that the locals were involved in the trading of wine between the Greek colonies and the regions over

14647-466: The free male citizens of the town. Callatis also became a democracy in the second half of the 5th century BC. According to MacKendrick, the fragment "KA…" in an inscription listing the Greek towns paying tribute to Athens refers to Callatis, proving that the town became a member of the Delian League . For defensive purposes, both Histria and Callatis were surrounded by walls: the former in

14798-517: The goal of building a new bridge on the highway linking Mățău to Boteni . Around the same time, the Romanian Social Service, the regime's organization for charity work, established a "command center" in Mățău, which also had its own village team, under Commandant Cecilia Spirescu. Câmpulung and its immediate surroundings were affected by an earthquake in January 1940. Its causes were unknown at

14949-417: The graves yielded weapons, proving the existence of a class of warriors. For instance, at Ciumeşti a helmet decorated with a raven from the early 3rd century BC was found. "La Tène" cemeteries disappeared from Transylvania around 175 BC. The Bastarnae settled in the region between the rivers Siret and Dniester around 200 BC. According to Livy , their army crossed "the Danube with

15100-411: The historic æra, a vast region of Europe and Asia was covered by a Mediterranean Sea of brackish water, of which the present Caspian is the diminished type. ... To render the distinction between these accumulations and all others clear and unambiguous, we have adopted the term Aralo-Caspian, first applied in a geographical sense, by our great precursor Humboldt, to this region of the globe. ... Judging from

15251-507: The late Miocene as a result of rapid dissolution of carbonate . In Chapter 13 of his 1845 book, Roderick Murchison described a distinctive formation extending from the Black Sea to the Aral Sea in which the creatures differed from those of the purely marine period that preceded them. The Miocene deposits of Crimea and Taman (south of the Sea of Azov ) are identical with formations surrounding

15402-583: The local elections of Muscel in June 1936; the same newspaper also claimed that, in order to win a majority of votes, the National Liberals threatened locals that, should they vote Peasantist, the commune would be disestablished by order of the Prefect. In September of that year, the PNȚ study circle in Câmpulung invited doctrinaire Mihai Ralea to lecture for the peasants of Suslănești and Lerești. From 1939, Romania

15553-545: The local population to accept their rule. Herodotus writes that the Mureș River "rises in Agathyrsian territory", proving that this tribe of warriors dominated large territories in Transylvania in the late 5th century BC. Inhumation graves unearthed at Aiud , Blaj , Ciumbrud , and other sites along the rivers Mureș and Târnava yielded artifacts, both metal work and pottery, with analogies in sites attributed to

15704-453: The masses of water now separated from each other, from the Aral to the Black Sea inclusive, were formerly united in this vast pre-historical Mediterranean ; which (even if we restrict its limits to the boundaries we already know, and do not extend them eastward, amid low regions untrodden by geologists) must have exceeded in size the present Mediterranean! On the accompanying map, Murchison shows

15855-577: The name of a rex Coisstobocensis ("king of the Costoboci") Pieporus, suggesting that he was an ally of the empire. During the Marcomannic War, the Costoboci plundered the Roman provinces in the Eastern Balkans as far as Eleusis in 170. The governor or Dacia, Sextus Cornelius Clemens persuaded the Germanic Hasdingi to invade and occupy their land around 171. This was the last record of

16006-494: The neighboring territories in the next decade. After these conquests, Decebalus's multiethnic empire was bordered by the Tisa, the Northern Carpathians, the Dniester and the Lower Danube, according to Gábor Vékony. Cassius Dio narrates that the Bastarnae "crossed the Ister and subdued the part of Moesia opposite them" in 29 or 28 BC. Marcus Licinius Crassus in short routed them. In

16157-463: The next two years, the occupiers ransacked Suslănești, including by cutting down centennial walnut trees , which had been planted by the Jumăreas. Many natives of the commune continued to fight for Romania after the withdrawal into Western Moldavia (to 1918), and then in the Hungarian–Romanian War (1919). Their sacrifice was commemorated by the authorities of Greater Romania in 1922, when

16308-491: The period between the foundation of Greek colonies in present-day Dobruja and the withdrawal of the Romans from " Dacia Trajana " province . The earliest records of the history of the regions which now form Romania were made after the establishment of three Greek towns—Histria, Tomis , and Callatis —on the Black Sea coast in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. They developed into important centers of commerce and had

16459-527: The plains along the river Tisa from around 600 to the second half of the 4th century BC. The Syginnae's ethnic affiliation remained uncertain, but they were neither Thracians nor Scythians, according to the historian Timothy Taylor. Their territory was surrounded by rural settlements, including the villages of the "Sanislău-Nir culture" in Crişana , which suggests that the Syginnae were immigrants who forced

16610-404: The presence of the natives after the establishment of the province is scarce, archeological sites at Boarta , Cernat , and other places in southern Transylvania prove the survival of rural communities. The exploitation of natural resources—primarily mining of copper, gold, iron, lead, salt, and silver—had a preeminent role in the economy of Dacia province. Archaeological research also revealed

16761-434: The present Caspian Sea , in which the univalves of freshwater origin are associated with forms of Cardiacae and Mytili that are common to partially saline or brackish waters. This distinctive fauna has been found throughout all the enormously developed Tertiary formations of the southern and south-eastern steppes. ... and leads at once to the conviction, that during long periods antecedent, as will be hereafter explained, to

16912-518: The process of making plum brandy ; a competing theory sees it as a contraction of sus la lână ("up there with the wool"), suggesting ancient origins as a sheep-shearing station. Such theories are disputed by some linguists, who note that the suffix -ănești is almost always indicative of a name derived form anthroponymy . They suggest that the place was named for Suslea , from the Slavic name Suslo(v) . Mățău and its environs entered recorded history as

17063-461: The province. The peaceful relationship between the Roman Empire and Decebalus's realm came to an end after Emperor Trajan ascended the throne in 98. He waged two wars against the Dacian king in the first decade of the 2nd century. After Trajan's First Dacian War , which lasted from 101 to 102, Decebalus was forced to approve of the stationement of Roman garrisons in Dacian territory, for instance at Drobeta , Romula and Tibiscum . During

17214-600: The province. He commanded two legions, the Legio XIII Gemina and the Legio IV Flavia Felix . The Roman territories to the north of the Lower Danube were divided into three provinces—Upper Dacia, Lower Dacia, and Dacia Porolissensis—in the reign of Emperor Hadrian . He also withdrew the Legion IV Flavia Felix from the province. Upper Dacia, where the only Roman legion stationed in the next century,

17365-582: The recital of travellers and from specimens of the rock, we have no doubt that it extended to Khivah and the Aral Sea ;; beyond which the low level of the adjacent eastern deserts would lead us to infer, that it spread over wide tracts in Asia now inhabited by the Turkomans and Kirghis , and was bounded only by the mountains of the Hindoo Kusk and Chinese Tartary . ... there can be no sort of doubt, that all

17516-486: The region's background in animal husbandry). Aluniș was attached to the commune only in 1967. From 1968, the Region was divided into smaller counties; Muscel was not reestablished, but fused with Argeș County. As part of this arrangement, the present-day commune was described as centered on Mățău. Aluniș, Chilii, Cocenești and Suslănești were the subordinate villages. In December 1958, the paving of roads linking Mățău and Câmpulung

17667-628: The regions to the east of the Carpathian Mountains around 200 BC. Confrontations between the natives and the Roman Empire began in the late 1st century BC. Among the former, the Dacians —who were closely connected to the Getae—rose to eminence under King Burebista ( c.  80–44 BC). He unified the tribes dwelling between the Middle Danube , the Northern Carpathians ,

17818-551: The results of archeological finds in and around Suslănești, reporting that, during Dacian rule in the 3rd century BC, the area served as a storage spot for wine and oil, imported from the Greek cities on the Black Sea coast. According to a news item of 2022, Mățău Hill was still hosting a yearly ceremony called "Sumedru's Fire", which may be of a pre-Christian origin. The peak's name is the subject of scholarly dispute, with theories indicating very different origins. The favored explanation

17969-548: The roads repaired. On the other hand, an inscription written in Greek from the village of Scraptopara evidences that the locals were complaining of the heavy taxation and the irksome duty of accommodating the Roman soldiers. The walls of Callatis and Tomis were reinforced after the Costoboci had marched through the region in 170. After the end of the Marcomannic War , Emperor Marcus Aurelius had 12,000 free Dacians settled in

18120-402: The ruins of a Wallachian Orthodox church, with four tombs from the mid-16th century. The church was positively dated to the early 16th century, while the bodies buried were tentatively identified as belonging to the lowest caste of the boyar aristocracy , "since nothing is mentioned of their ranks." The spot was re-investigated by archeologists in July 1959. They discovered 19 tombs, dating from

18271-529: The ruling stratum of the Dacian society; the commoners were called capillati or comati . Strabo writes that Burebista "was deposed" during an uprising. The year of Burebista's fall cannot exactly be determined, but most historians write that he was assassinated in 44 BC. Strabo narrates that after Burebista's death his empire fall apart and four (later five) smaller polities developed in its ruins. The names of some of their kings were recorded by Roman writers. For instance, Dicomes , "the king of

18422-711: The same region and expanded towards southwest Transylvania and southern Moldavia from around 100 BC. The military character of the new elite is proven by the frequent raids against the neighboring territories, primarily in Thrace and Macedonia, from the 110s BC, which provoked counter-attacks by the Romans. For instance, Frontinus writes of Marcus Minucius Rufus's victory over "the Scordiscans and Dacians" in 109 BC, and Florus says that Gaius Scribonius Curio , Proconsul of Macedonia "reached Dacia, but shrank from its gloomy forests" in 74 BC. The native tribes of

18573-446: The scholar Paul MacKendrick , Scythians —took and sacked Histria in the late 6th century BC. Initially, the constitution of Histria was an oligarchy , but, as Aristotle recorded, "it ended in the rule of the populace". MacKendrick writes that this change from the rule of aristocratic families to democracy occurred around 450 BC. Thereafter an assembly and council administered Histria; their members were elected by

18724-534: The second half of the 6th century BC. Inscriptions from Histria and Callatis prove that the townsfolk preserved their ancestral traditions for more than half a millennium. They maintained the ancient denominations for their tribes, magistrates, and public bodies, and remained faithful to cults taken from the motherland. The three colonies developed into important centers of trade in olive oil, wine, fine pottery and jewelry. A level of houses and temples destroyed proves that an unidentified enemy—according to

18875-419: The southern end of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean. A rift formed along the northern continental shelf of Southern Pangaea (Gondwana). Over the next 60 million years, that piece of shelf, known as Cimmeria , traveled north, pushing the floor of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean under the eastern end of northern Pangaea (early / proto- Laurasia ). The Neo-Tethys Ocean formed between Cimmeria and Gondwana, directly over where

19026-644: The stability featuring the Stone Age cultures of " Old Europe " came to an end in the same period. Coexistence of a great number of transitory cultures, including the " Coțofeni " and " Glina cultures" characterized the first centuries of the Bronze Age . Metallurgy developed in the following period; deposits containing thousands of bronze tools, weapons and jewels from between around 2000 and 1500 BC were unearthed at many places, including Uioara de Sus and Șpălnaca in Transylvania. Finds of amber delivered from

19177-424: The surname "Suslănescu". Branches of this clan were attested as far east as Ploiești . By the 18th century, all land in present-day Mioarele was included in one of Muscel's standard subdivisions, or plăși (singular: plasă ). This particular one was named after the Argeșel, and had eleven villages in all—also including Cetățeni and Valea Mare-Pravăț . Muscel's social composition was revealed in July 1774: upon

19328-468: The suzerainty of King Mithridates VI of Pontus around 110 BC. His expansionist policy clashed with the interests of the Romans who had by that time started to advance in Southeastern Europe. The governor of the Roman province of Macedonia , Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus forced Callatis to sign a treaty of alliance with the Roman Empire in 72 or 71 BC. According to MacKendrick, it

19479-446: The territory was only integrated in the province of Moesia in the reign of Emperor Vespasianus (69–79). When Moesia was divided into two parts in 86, the territory became part of Lower Moesia . The new province was administered by former consuls who commanded two Roman legions , the Legio V Macedonica and the Legio I Italica . The region flourished under Antoninus Pius who had

19630-794: The time around the Early Cretaceous ran very differently from the way they do today. Between the Jurassic and the Late Cretaceous , which started about 100 Mya, Gondwana began breaking up, pushing Africa and India north across the Tethys and opening up the Indian Ocean. Throughout the Cenozoic (66 million to the dawn of the Neogene, 23 Mya), the connections between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans across

19781-560: The time, but one theory suggested shifts within the Mățău Hill bedrock. Heavy rainfall that July reportedly caused a major landslide in Suslănești, with "enormous panic and frantic flight of the population." Months later, the downfall of the FRN regime and its replacement with Ion Antonescu 's dictatorship also brought a reestablishment of the counties, with military or civilian commissioners as their Prefects. In May 1942, Antonescu's appointment in Muscel, General Teodor Nicolau, announced that he intended to develop Mățău, Suslănești and Boteni into

19932-448: The use of gold can also be demonstrated from the last centuries of the Stone Age. Practically nothing is known of the languages spoken by the locals in this period. Historians—for instance, Vlad Georgescu and Mihai Rotea—say that the spread of Indo-European languages began in the period between 2500 and 2000 BC. Fortified settlements and the great number of weapons—arrowheads, spears and knife blades—unearthed in them show that

20083-422: The village may be known in written records from 1401 or 1402. A component of Muscel County in Wallachia , Suslănești was first mentioned in 1503, due to its participation in trade with the Transylvanian Saxons ; it and Hobaia were inhabited by yeomen—some of whom advanced into Muscel's boyardom , while others became their serfs, and then their sharecroppers. While Hobaia was destroyed in mysterious circumstances,

20234-410: The wider region of the Lower Danube were for the first time united under King Burebista who ruled from around 80 or 70 BC. He defeated the Boii and the Taurisci , who dwelled in the Middle Danube region, around 60 BC, subdued the Scordisci and made plundering raids against Thracia, Illyricum and Macedonia in the subsequent years. In the middle of the 1st century BC, his empire

20385-435: The world's great rivers, lakes and fountains. The eastern part of the Tethys Ocean is sometimes referred to as Eastern Tethys. The western part of the Tethys Ocean is called Tethys Sea, Western Tethys Ocean, or Paratethys or Alpine Tethys Ocean. The Black , Caspian , and Aral seas are thought to be its crustal remains, though the Black Sea may, in fact, be a remnant of the older Paleo-Tethys Ocean . The Western Tethys

20536-429: Was Ion Vișoianu, was successful in promoting social advancement. In a September 1930 article prompted by the alumni reunion, novelist Cezar Petrescu argued that they included "three physicians, six secondary-school professors, four magistrates, seven officers, one veterinarian, three lawyers, eleven priests, thirty-six primary-school teachers, [and] two high-ranking clerks in the ministry of finance ". A similar influence

20687-489: Was a single-party state, ruled upon by King Carol II and his National Renaissance Front (FRN). In the political and administrative reorganization which followed, Mățău and Suslănești were separate communes, both included in a new plasă , named after Radu Negru . In December 1939, their respective FRN secretaries were Gh. I. Vișoianu and Nae D. Vlădău. Muscel had been merged into the larger regional unit, Ținutul Bucegi , whose Royal Resident, Gheorghe Alexianu , set himself

20838-408: Was administered by former praetors ; the two other provinces were ruled by governors from the ordo equester . During the Marcomannic Wars, a new legion—the Legio V Macedonica —was transferred to Dacia. Thereafter the two legions stationed in the three provinces—now named Dacia Apulensis , Dacia Malvensis , and Dacia Porolissensis —were under the command of a former consul, the Propraetor of

20989-435: Was also a destination for the refugee citizens of Câmpulung, and eventually occupied by the Central Powers during the massive defeats of late 1916 . The villages were taken by the Bavarian Army 's 12th Infantry Division , after heavy fighting, on November 30. The Romanian Land Forces ' withdrawal reportedly saw Mihalache, who was serving with the rank of Captain, rescuing a trove of documents and monies out of Suslănești. Over

21140-485: Was assigned to volunteers from the Workers' Youth , including from the village branch. After being the recipients of a land reform in late 1944 , which liquidated the Georgescu and Andreescu estates, the peasants of Mioarele were included in the collectivization of farmlands . By 1972, the state agricultural enterprise of Câmpulung was running two collective farms on commune grounds: one called "Mioarele", which focused on animal husbandry, and one called "Suslănești", which

21291-418: Was bordered by the Middle Danube, the Northern Carpathians , the Black Sea and the Balkan Mountains . Its center was located in the Orăştie Mountains where Burebista had a number of fortifications erected. This forts were built by Greek craftsmen who introduced the use of chiseled stone. Strabo writes that Burebista "had as his coadjutor Deceneus , a wizard", who assisted him to stabilize his rule among

21442-439: Was continued locally by schoolteacher Ion Gh. Nicolaescu (known as Nicolaescu-Mățău), who, together with other village intellectuals, founded the magazine Muscelul Nostru , put out from Câmpulung in 1929–1942. Following general elections in December 1928 , Mihalache's new National Peasants' Party (PNȚ) took power in Romania, including control of the Prefectures . The office of Prefect in Muscel County went to Alexandru Mușetescu,

21593-439: Was exercised by Nicolae Cristescu, a Mățău native who taught at the school in Goleștii Badii, Topoloveni ; his students included Ion Mihalache , the future agrarian politician, and Mihai Antonescu , Deputy Premier during World War II. Muscel became a theater of war shortly after Romania entered World War I , when the country was invaded by the Central Powers . The scene of several aerial dogfights and repeated shelling, Mățău

21744-420: Was later abandoned, and its memory is preserved in local toponymy as Căminuri ("Hearths"). In the 1920s, journalist Gheorghe Lungulescu argued that the settlement had been peopled by soldiers in Michael the Brave's armies, and that some of the surrounding estates went to Michael's generals, the Buzești brothers . Other records suggest that most of Mățău's inhabitants, including the Vișoiu family, had moved out of

21895-403: Was lost" in the reign of Gallienus (260-268). From around 259, no inscriptions prove the presence of the two legions at their headquarters in Apulum and Potaissa . The Romans officially abandoned the province under Emperor Aurelius (270-275) who "led away both soldiers and provincials, giving up hope that it could be retained", according to the Historia Augusta . The Costoboci were

22046-450: Was mentioned in the news after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 —in September 2005, the portion of DN73 linking it to Mioveni was damaged by massive floods . In March of the following year, the road was blocked by picketers from the ARO factory in Câmpulung, who had not received their salaries for months after privatization. In 2007, investors Dorin Mirea and Gabriel Marcu inaugurated the only ski slope of Argeș, located at Mățău-Chilii. In

22197-424: Was not simply a single open ocean. It covered many small plates, Cretaceous island arcs , and microcontinents . Many small oceanic basins ( Valais Ocean , Piemont-Liguria Ocean , Meliata Ocean ) were separated from each other by continental terranes on the Alboran , Iberian , and Apulian plates. The high sea level in the Mesozoic flooded most of these continental domains, forming shallow seas. During

22348-410: Was primarily an orchard. The latter formed part of a state program to encourage the reclamation of unused land for tree cultivation; the "Argeș Tree Reservoir", established in the 1960s, included the commune, alongside areas of Valea Mare, Lerești, and Rucăr . By 1977, Mioarele was also home to a Centrocoop supermarket and consumers' cooperative. A poets' society named after Mușatescu was established in

22499-407: Was slowly being reestablished as a village separate from Suslănești. A princely writ by Mircea Ciobanul , dated 1558 or 1559, mentions a merchant Dumitru of Mățău, who had been wronged by Saxon authorities. The name as used for a locality is again attested in June 1614, as Mățăul de Jos ("Lower Mățău"), with the upper half of the village implied, but only truly mentioned in April 1716. Mățăul de Jos

22650-513: Was split between children Badea, Neaga, Vișa and Neacșa (the former is known to have used a double-headed eagle on his own seal). From 1697, their estates were also encroached upon by Câmpulung Monastery, after the local Hieromonk , Cozma, issued a donation. In April 1707, the seven sons of Stanciu Jumărea claimed ownership of Suslănești in its entirety, and met to delineate its southern borders. Voicu's properties continued to be disputed between their various successors, down to 1824. Suslănești became

22801-402: Was surrounded by " barbarian " tribes, including the Costoboci , the Iazyges and the Roxolani . New Germanic tribes—the Buri and the Vandals —arrived and settled in the vicinity of Dacia province in the course of the Marcomannic Wars in the second half of the 2nd century. Hoes , coulters and other tools made of antler were unearthed at nine " Schela Cladovei " settlements along

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