the Black Sea. Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913–959), in his work De
adminstrando imperio, mentions their travels to Constantinople and Ana Comena,
in her work Alexiada, refers to them in the twelveth century.
A new stage in the navigation on the Black Sea is opened by the great Tatar
invasion in 1240–1242, in whose aftermath Constantinople signs “the Mongolian
peace” and is forced to open the Black Sea for international sailing. The Venetians,
Genovese, Pisans and other Italian sailors transformed the Black Sea into the
“turntable” of the European commerce, to use Gheorghe Bra ˘tianu’s phrase. Not
without a reason, it was stated that the revolution in sailing and maritime trading in
the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries make it known and disputed (Iosipescu et al.
2015: 111). “Mare Maiu”, “Mare Maius” or “Mar Maggiore”, terms included in
navigation maps, or “the Big Sea” experienced a spectacular growth of navigation
and port activities. The “Motzo map”, after the name of the researcher Bacchisia
R. Motzo, who published it in 1974 in Caligari, confirms the expansion of the
maritime waterways, the knowledge of the distances between the ports, etc. The
Black Sea was connected to the “Silk Road”, an economic way from China to
Western Europe (Charles King 2015: 100).
34.2 Romanians at the Black Sea (Fourteenth to Eighteenth
Centuries)
It was rightly stated that the maritime trading in mid-fourteenth century was
influenced by the Romanian political assertiveness through the union of the territories from the Carpathians up to the Danube and the Black Sea, the space in which
they had been formed as a people through the Romanization of the Dacians and the
Getae after the conquest of a large part of Dacia by Emperor Trajan (98–117 A.D),
to which proto-Romanians added Slav influences (Giurescu 1973: passim).
The mid-fourteenth century marks the moment when the pre-state elements, the
kniezates and voivodates, are united and extend their territorial control to the limit
of the formation home of the Romanian people, in the south-east to the mouth of the
Danube and the Black Sea. Basarab I, the founder of Wallachia, stretched his
control over the maritime Danube, the southern region between the Prut and the
Nistru, called then Bessarabia (Giurescu and Giurescu 1975: 271–272).
Reaching the Pontic coast finished the historical process of formation of the
Romanian medieval states. The Black Sea represented the end of the way and, at the
same time, the opening necessary for development. The influence of the Black Sea
upon the Romanian rulers at the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of
the fifteenth century was so powerful that they included its control in their titles. We
find this in a document from Roman I (1391–1394), the Moldavian ruler, who called
himself “the only great ruler of the country from the mountains up to the sea shore”
(Toderașcu 1977: 25). As we have mentioned, two famous specialists in the history
of Black Sea in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, Șerban Papacostea and Virgil
586
V. Ciorbea and N. Stanca
adminstrando imperio, mentions their travels to Constantinople and Ana Comena,
in her work Alexiada, refers to them in the twelveth century.
A new stage in the navigation on the Black Sea is opened by the great Tatar
invasion in 1240–1242, in whose aftermath Constantinople signs “the Mongolian
peace” and is forced to open the Black Sea for international sailing. The Venetians,
Genovese, Pisans and other Italian sailors transformed the Black Sea into the
“turntable” of the European commerce, to use Gheorghe Bra ˘tianu’s phrase. Not
without a reason, it was stated that the revolution in sailing and maritime trading in
the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries make it known and disputed (Iosipescu et al.
2015: 111). “Mare Maiu”, “Mare Maius” or “Mar Maggiore”, terms included in
navigation maps, or “the Big Sea” experienced a spectacular growth of navigation
and port activities. The “Motzo map”, after the name of the researcher Bacchisia
R. Motzo, who published it in 1974 in Caligari, confirms the expansion of the
maritime waterways, the knowledge of the distances between the ports, etc. The
Black Sea was connected to the “Silk Road”, an economic way from China to
Western Europe (Charles King 2015: 100).
34.2 Romanians at the Black Sea (Fourteenth to Eighteenth
Centuries)
It was rightly stated that the maritime trading in mid-fourteenth century was
influenced by the Romanian political assertiveness through the union of the territories from the Carpathians up to the Danube and the Black Sea, the space in which
they had been formed as a people through the Romanization of the Dacians and the
Getae after the conquest of a large part of Dacia by Emperor Trajan (98–117 A.D),
to which proto-Romanians added Slav influences (Giurescu 1973: passim).
The mid-fourteenth century marks the moment when the pre-state elements, the
kniezates and voivodates, are united and extend their territorial control to the limit
of the formation home of the Romanian people, in the south-east to the mouth of the
Danube and the Black Sea. Basarab I, the founder of Wallachia, stretched his
control over the maritime Danube, the southern region between the Prut and the
Nistru, called then Bessarabia (Giurescu and Giurescu 1975: 271–272).
Reaching the Pontic coast finished the historical process of formation of the
Romanian medieval states. The Black Sea represented the end of the way and, at the
same time, the opening necessary for development. The influence of the Black Sea
upon the Romanian rulers at the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of
the fifteenth century was so powerful that they included its control in their titles. We
find this in a document from Roman I (1391–1394), the Moldavian ruler, who called
himself “the only great ruler of the country from the mountains up to the sea shore”
(Toderașcu 1977: 25). As we have mentioned, two famous specialists in the history
of Black Sea in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, Șerban Papacostea and Virgil
586
V. Ciorbea and N. Stanca