Editing Bastarnae (section)

==== Augustan era (30 BC – 14 AD) ====
[[File:Statue-Augustus.jpg|thumb|right|Statue of [[Augustus]] in the garb of Roman ''[[imperator]]'' (military supreme commander). By the end of his sole rule (14 AD), Augustus had expanded the empire to the [[Danube]], which was to remain its central/eastern European border for its entire history (except for the occupation of [[Dacia]] 105–275).]]

Once he had established himself as sole ruler of the Roman state in 30 BC, Caesar's grand-nephew and adopted son [[Augustus]] inaugurated a strategy of advancing the empire's south-eastern European border to the line of the Danube from the [[Alps]], the [[Dinaric Alps]] and Macedonia. The primary objective was to increase strategic depth between the border and Italy and also to provide a major fluvial supply route between the Roman armies in the region.<ref>''Res Gestae'' 30</ref>

On the lower Danube, which was given priority over the upper Danube, this required the annexation of Moesia. The Romans' target was thus the tribes which inhabited Moesia, namely (from west to east) the [[Triballi]], Moesi and those Getae who dwelt south of the Danube. The Bastarnae were also a target because they had recently subjugated the Triballi, whose territory lay on the southern bank of the Danube between the tributary rivers ''[[Utus]]'' (Vit) and ''[[Ciabrus]]'' (Tsibritsa), with their chief town at [[Oescus]] (Gigen, Bulgaria).<ref>Ptolemy</ref> In addition, Augustus wanted to avenge the defeat of [[Gaius Antonius Hybrida|Gaius Antonius]] at Histria 32 years before and to recover the lost military standards. These were held in a powerful fortress called [[Genucla]] (Isaccea, near modern Tulcea, Romania, in the Danube Delta region), controlled by [[Zyraxes]], the local Getan king.<ref name="Dio LI.26.5">Dio LI.26.5</ref> The man selected for the task was [[Marcus Licinius Crassus (consul 30 BC)|Marcus Licinius Crassus]], grandson of [[Marcus Licinius Crassus|Crassus]] the [[triumvir]] and an experienced general at 33 years of age, who was appointed proconsul of Macedonia in 29 BC.<ref>Dio LI.23.2</ref>

The Bastarnae provided the ''casus belli'' by crossing the Haemus and attacking the [[Dentheletae]], a Thracian tribe who were Roman allies. Crassus marched to the Dentheletae's assistance, but the Bastarnae host hastily withdrew over the Haemus at his approach. Crassus followed them closely into Moesia but they would not be drawn into battle, withdrawing beyond the Tsibritsa.<ref>Dio LI.23.5</ref> Crassus now turned his attention to the Moesi, his prime target. After a successful campaign which resulted in the submission of a substantial section of the Moesi, Crassus again sought out the Bastarnae. Discovering their location from some peace envoys they had sent to him, he lured them into battle near the Tsibritsa by a stratagem. Hiding his main body of troops in a wood, he stationed as bait a smaller vanguard in open ground before the wood. As expected, the Bastarnae attacked the vanguard in force, only to find themselves entangled in the full-scale pitched battle with the Romans that they had tried to avoid. The Bastarnae tried to retreat into the forest but were hampered by the wagon train carrying their women and children, as these could not move through the trees. Trapped into fighting to save their families, the Bastarnae were routed. Crassus personally killed their king, Deldo, in combat, a feat which qualified him for Rome's highest military honour, ''[[spolia opima]]'', but Augustus refused to award it on a technicality.{{refn|group=Note|name=cnotef|Crassus' feat, as Roman commander, of killing the enemy leader in combat arguably entitled him to the highest honour a Roman soldier could gain: the ''[[spolia opima]]'' (literally: "bountiful spoils", but this term may be a corruption of ''spolia optima'', "supreme spoils"), the right to hang the armour stripped from the enemy leader in the temple of [[Feretrius|Jupiter Feretrius]] in Rome, in emulation of the Founder of Rome [[Romulus]], a privilege granted only twice previously. But Crassus was denied the honour by Augustus on the technicality that he was not commander-in-chief of Roman forces at the time, a position claimed by Augustus himself.<ref name="Dio LI.24.4" /> Augustus also forbade Crassus to accept the honorary title of ''imperator'' ("supreme commander") from his troops, traditional for victorious generals. Instead, Augustus claimed the title for himself (for the seventh time).<ref>Dio LI.25.2</ref><ref>CIL VI.873</ref> Finally, although Dio states that Crassus was voted a [[Roman triumph|Triumph]] in Rome by the Senate, there is no evidence in inscriptions of that year (27 BC) that it was actually celebrated. After his return to Rome, Crassus disappears from the record altogether, both epigraphic and literary. This is highly unusual in a relatively well-documented period for a person of such distinction who was still only about 33 years old.{{original research inline|date=October 2011}} His tomb has not been found in the excavated Crassus family mausoleum in Rome. This official "air-brushing from history" may imply punitive [[Exile|internal exile]] to a remote location, similar to that inflicted on the contemporary poet, [[Ovid]], who in AD 8, for an unknown offence, was ordered by Augustus to spend the rest of his life in Tomis (Constanţa) on the Black Sea. [[Ronald Syme]] points out the similarity of Crassus' removal from the official record with that of [[Cornelius Gallus]], the contemporary disgraced governor of Egypt, who was recalled by Augustus for assuming inappropriate honours.<ref>Syme (1986) 271-2</ref>}} Thousands of fleeing Bastarnae perished, many asphyxiated in nearby woods by encircling fires set by the Romans, others drowned trying to swim across the Danube. Nevertheless, a substantial force dug themselves into a powerful hillfort. Crassus laid siege to fort, but had to enlist the assistance of [[Rholes]], a Getan petty king, to dislodge them, for which service Rholes was granted the title of ''socius et amicus populi Romani'' ("ally and friend of the Roman people").<ref>Dio LI.24</ref>

The following year (28 BC), Crassus marched on Genucla. Zyraxes escaped with his treasure and fled over the Danube into Scythia to seek aid from the Bastarnae.<ref>Dio LI.26.6</ref> Before he was able to bring reinforcements, Genucla fell to a combined land and fluvial assault by the Romans.<ref name="Dio LI.26.5"/> The strategic result of Crassus' campaigns was the permanent annexation of Moesia by Rome.

About a decade later, in 10 BC,{{sfn|Almassy|2006|p=253}} the Bastarnae again clashed with Rome during Augustus' conquest of [[Pannonia]] (the ''bellum Pannonicum'' 14–9 BC). Inscription AE (1905) 14 records a campaign on the [[Hungarian Plain]] by the Augustan-era general [[Marcus Vinicius (consul 19 BC)|Marcus Vinucius]]: <blockquote>Marcus Vinucius...[patronymic], Consul [in 19 BC]...[various official titles], governor of Illyricum, the first [Roman general] to advance across the river Danube, defeated in battle and routed an army of Dacians and Basternae, and subjugated the [[Cotini]], Osi,...[missing tribal name] and [[Anartes|Anartii]] to the power of the emperor Augustus and of the people of Rome.</blockquote> Most likely, the Bastarnae, in alliance with Dacians, were attempting to assist the hard-pressed Illyrian/Celtic tribes of Pannonia in their resistance to Rome.