Transylvania

From the Latin, "beyond the forest," Transylvania is located in present-day Romania. Although known primarily to English-speakers as the home of Dracula and vampires?, Transylvania, particularly the area known to German-speakers as Siebenbürgen, has a rich and varied history.

Archaeological evidence points to constant settlement in Transylvania from at least the Stone Age. There is evidence of several influxes of peoples from different areas between then and the Bronze Age. Several of these peoples were probably related to, or at least influenced by, the Thracians. It is possible that the inhabitants of Transylvania in the 6th century BC were the Agathyrsae, referred to by Herodotus in his accounts of the Scythian Wars of King Darius.

During the Roman Empire, Transylvania was part of the province of Dacia?. By that time, the inhabitants were probably a combination of Getae? and other Thracian peoples. Although it had often provided a base for fairly successful campaigns against invading Germanic peoples, it was abandoned in 271, when the Emperor Aurelian? withdrew his troops to the better-defensible Danube limes.

Rome had left Transylvania under the nominal control of the Ostrogoths, who were able to drive back encroaching Vandals, Gepids?, and Sarmatians?. The onslaught of the Huns under Attila? loosened te Ostrogothic hold on the area. Between the 5th and the 9th centuries, Transylvania fell in turn to the Huns, the Gepids and, finally, the Avars.