sa fie clar: Român = Romanus
One of the irredentists's favourite theme in arguing against Romanians' continuity is the so-called "silence of the documents", that is they claim that there were no mentions of Romanians and their language before the arrival of Hungarians, which "should" lead to the "conclusion" that the land was deserted and no one lived here. Well, what do you mean by "silence"? What "silence" are they talking about? Besides well-known Hungarian Anonymous's chronicle already dealt with on the main page, read below just a few examples of other chronicles (dated both before the arrival of Hungarians and after) mentioning the existence of Romanians and their language which was derived from Latin:
- The sentence "(re)torna (torna) fratre" - 6th century formula quoted by later Byzantine chronicler Theophanes Confessor in "Chronography" (and by Teophylactos Simokattes as well, one century earlier) - represent the oldest Romanian text ever known; the chronicler mentions the three words as having been spoken during the Byzantine army expedition in 587 AD by a soldier in his native tongue (i.e. early Romanian) with the intention to signal his comrade the drop of his gear, which the other recruits understood as a signal for withdrawal; one can notice the the chronicler's remarkable care for details and for preserving an old historical information: "a certain beast of burden'd load moved, and a master's comrade put it back, while shouting at the same time in his parents' tongue: <> (Contemporary Romanian: "Intoarce-te frate!"/ English: "Come/go back, come back, brother/man!"). And the animal's master did not hear him calling, but the rest of the army did, and thinking that the enemies had come, started to run, shouting as loud as they could: << Torna, torna! >>" / "Come back / withdraw!".
- Maurikios' "Strategykon" and "Acta s. Demetrii" ('The Deeds of St. Demeter') mentions the existence of the Roman element north of Danube at the beginning of the 8th century and their Latin language (see also Linn White jr.'s "Tecnica e societa nel medioevo" / "Technics and Society During Middle Age", Milano, 1967, p. 34, and Alphonse Dain's "Urbicius ou Mauricius" / "Urbicius or Mauricius", in "Revue des etudes byzantines", XXVI, 1968, p. 123 -136; J.P. Migne's "Patrologiae cursus completus. Series graeca", vol. 116, col. 109, 531, 1361; Priscus' "Excerpta", ed. Bonn, p. 190, 206; Theophylactus Somocatta's "Historiae", II, 15, ed. Bonn, p. 99).
- Among the many Islamic documents about the oriental and south-eastern Europe there is this Persian geographer Gardizi's treatise entitled "The Jewel of Histories", written during 1049-1053 (according to A. Decei) or in 1094 (according to V. Minorsky). Gardizi, describing the ethnical and political reality of Eastern Europe, mentions "a nation from the Roman Empire (az Rum); and they are all Christians (...) and they are more in number than the Magyars..." (see V. Minorsky, "Hudud al Alam", London, 1938, Gibb Memorial Series).
- One century after Kekaumenos, another chronicler, Kynnamos, depicts Romanians from the north of Danube taking part, alongside the Imperial commander Leon Vatatzes, in a campaign against the Magyars, in the year of 1167, adding his remark about the Vlachs (Romanians): "it is said they are colonists arrived a long time ago from Italy" (in original: "qui Italorum coloni quondam fuisse perhibentur"). See also Ioannes Cinnamus, "Epitome rerum ab Ioanne et Alexio Comnenis gestarum", VI, ed. Bonn, p. 260.
- In 1186 Romanians and Bulgarians founded the second Romanian-Bulgarian Empire, marked by the rule of Ionita-the-Handsome, or Kaloiannis (1196-1207). The pope Innocentius the 3rd contacts Ionita to bring him closer, both religiously and politically, on the side of Rome, and says in one of his letters: "Nos autem audito, quod de nobili Urbis Romae prosapia progenitores tui originem traxerint , et tu ab eis et sanguinis generositatem contraxeris...". Ionita replies: "Unde multas egimus gratias omnipotenti Deo, qui visitavit nos...et reduxit nos ad memoriam sanguinis et patriae nostrae a qua descendimus". This reply has the date of 27th November 1202. In 1203 the Pope resumes the correspondence with Basil, the metropolitan bishop of Tarnovo: "...Bulgarorum et Blachorum ecclesiam, quae a Romanis etiam secundum carnem et sanguinem descendisse dicitur...ut qui a Romanis traxerunt originem, ecclesiae Romanae instituta sequantur" (see "Acta Innocentii PP III (1198-1216)", E. Registris Vaticanis alliisque eruit, introductione auxit, notisque illustravit P. Teodosius Haluscynskj, Rome, 1944, p. 207 - "Pontificia Commissio ad redigendum codicem iuris canonici orientalis, Fontes", series III, vol. II).
- Maybe one of the most objective proof about Romanians' existence is the famous "Nibelungenlied" / "Song of the Nibelungs", an ample mirror of the medieval German society (a work similar to French "Chanson de Roland" or Spanish "El Cide"), where the Romanians are mentioned as a well-defined nation, as descendants of Romans, whose origin is expressed by the name of their leader, Ramunc, who comes to the court of the Huns with a suite of 700 Romanians: "Der herzoge Ramunc uzer Vlachen lant, / mit siben hundert mannen kom er fur si gerannt" - "Ramunc the duke, ruler over Valachs, came to them at once with his 700 men" (see also "Der Nibelunge not", XII, ed. K. Lachmann, Berlin, 1878, p. 174; Francis P. Magoun jr.'s "Geographical and Ethnic Names in the Nibelungenlied", p. 129-130; Fritz Schuster's "Herzog Ramunc aus dem Walachenland", in "Sudost-Forschungen", XI, 1946-1952, p. 284-290).
- The sentence "(re)torna (torna) fratre" - 6th century formula quoted by later Byzantine chronicler Theophanes Confessor in "Chronography" (and by Teophylactos Simokattes as well, one century earlier) - represent the oldest Romanian text ever known; the chronicler mentions the three words as having been spoken during the Byzantine army expedition in 587 AD by a soldier in his native tongue (i.e. early Romanian) with the intention to signal his comrade the drop of his gear, which the other recruits understood as a signal for withdrawal; one can notice the the chronicler's remarkable care for details and for preserving an old historical information: "a certain beast of burden'd load moved, and a master's comrade put it back, while shouting at the same time in his parents' tongue: <> (Contemporary Romanian: "Intoarce-te frate!"/ English: "Come/go back, come back, brother/man!"). And the animal's master did not hear him calling, but the rest of the army did, and thinking that the enemies had come, started to run, shouting as loud as they could: << Torna, torna! >>" / "Come back / withdraw!".
- Maurikios' "Strategykon" and "Acta s. Demetrii" ('The Deeds of St. Demeter') mentions the existence of the Roman element north of Danube at the beginning of the 8th century and their Latin language (see also Linn White jr.'s "Tecnica e societa nel medioevo" / "Technics and Society During Middle Age", Milano, 1967, p. 34, and Alphonse Dain's "Urbicius ou Mauricius" / "Urbicius or Mauricius", in "Revue des etudes byzantines", XXVI, 1968, p. 123 -136; J.P. Migne's "Patrologiae cursus completus. Series graeca", vol. 116, col. 109, 531, 1361; Priscus' "Excerpta", ed. Bonn, p. 190, 206; Theophylactus Somocatta's "Historiae", II, 15, ed. Bonn, p. 99).
- Among the many Islamic documents about the oriental and south-eastern Europe there is this Persian geographer Gardizi's treatise entitled "The Jewel of Histories", written during 1049-1053 (according to A. Decei) or in 1094 (according to V. Minorsky). Gardizi, describing the ethnical and political reality of Eastern Europe, mentions "a nation from the Roman Empire (az Rum); and they are all Christians (...) and they are more in number than the Magyars..." (see V. Minorsky, "Hudud al Alam", London, 1938, Gibb Memorial Series).
- One century after Kekaumenos, another chronicler, Kynnamos, depicts Romanians from the north of Danube taking part, alongside the Imperial commander Leon Vatatzes, in a campaign against the Magyars, in the year of 1167, adding his remark about the Vlachs (Romanians): "it is said they are colonists arrived a long time ago from Italy" (in original: "qui Italorum coloni quondam fuisse perhibentur"). See also Ioannes Cinnamus, "Epitome rerum ab Ioanne et Alexio Comnenis gestarum", VI, ed. Bonn, p. 260.
- In 1186 Romanians and Bulgarians founded the second Romanian-Bulgarian Empire, marked by the rule of Ionita-the-Handsome, or Kaloiannis (1196-1207). The pope Innocentius the 3rd contacts Ionita to bring him closer, both religiously and politically, on the side of Rome, and says in one of his letters: "Nos autem audito, quod de nobili Urbis Romae prosapia progenitores tui originem traxerint , et tu ab eis et sanguinis generositatem contraxeris...". Ionita replies: "Unde multas egimus gratias omnipotenti Deo, qui visitavit nos...et reduxit nos ad memoriam sanguinis et patriae nostrae a qua descendimus". This reply has the date of 27th November 1202. In 1203 the Pope resumes the correspondence with Basil, the metropolitan bishop of Tarnovo: "...Bulgarorum et Blachorum ecclesiam, quae a Romanis etiam secundum carnem et sanguinem descendisse dicitur...ut qui a Romanis traxerunt originem, ecclesiae Romanae instituta sequantur" (see "Acta Innocentii PP III (1198-1216)", E. Registris Vaticanis alliisque eruit, introductione auxit, notisque illustravit P. Teodosius Haluscynskj, Rome, 1944, p. 207 - "Pontificia Commissio ad redigendum codicem iuris canonici orientalis, Fontes", series III, vol. II).
- Maybe one of the most objective proof about Romanians' existence is the famous "Nibelungenlied" / "Song of the Nibelungs", an ample mirror of the medieval German society (a work similar to French "Chanson de Roland" or Spanish "El Cide"), where the Romanians are mentioned as a well-defined nation, as descendants of Romans, whose origin is expressed by the name of their leader, Ramunc, who comes to the court of the Huns with a suite of 700 Romanians: "Der herzoge Ramunc uzer Vlachen lant, / mit siben hundert mannen kom er fur si gerannt" - "Ramunc the duke, ruler over Valachs, came to them at once with his 700 men" (see also "Der Nibelunge not", XII, ed. K. Lachmann, Berlin, 1878, p. 174; Francis P. Magoun jr.'s "Geographical and Ethnic Names in the Nibelungenlied", p. 129-130; Fritz Schuster's "Herzog Ramunc aus dem Walachenland", in "Sudost-Forschungen", XI, 1946-1952, p. 284-290).