Bucharest > Bucuresti Bucuresti Romania

The Getae, together with kindred tribes living in the Carpathian Mountains north of the Danubian Plain and in the Transylvanian Basin, have developed a distinct society and culture by the second half of the fourth century BCE.

Closely related to the Getae are the Dacians, who live south of the lower Danube (some historians even suggest that these are names applied to a single people by different observers or at different times).

Their combined culture is sometimes called Geto-Dacian.

An agricultural people, they work their rich mines of silver, iron, and gold.

They speak a Thracian dialect but are influenced culturally by the neighboring Scythians and by the Celtic invaders of the fourth century BCE.

They first appear in the Athenian slave market at this time.

Priscus, commander-in-chief in Thrace, defeats the Slavic tribes and Gepids on imperial territory south of the Danube.

He crosses the river to fight in the uncharted swamps and forests of modern-day Wallachia.

Maurice orders the general to spend the winter with his troops on the northern Danube bank, but …

The Slavs in the vicinity of Thessalonica rebel against the Empire in 837, soon after Presian's accession.

Emperor Theophilos seeks Bulgarian support in putting down the rebellion, but simultaneously arranges for his fleet to sail through the Danube delta and undertake a clandestine evacuation of some of the Greek captives settled in trans-Danubian Bulgaria by Krum and Omurtag.

The ethnogenesis of the Romanian people is probably complete by the beginning of the tenth century.

The first stage—the Romanization of the Geto-Dacians—has now been followed by the second—the assimilation of the Slavs by the Daco-Romans.

…Wallachia (situated east of the Carpathians).

…Rahova, ravaging areas they should be liberating.

The first written appearance of the name Bucuresti dates from 1459, when it is recorded in a document of Vlad III Tepes, the ruler of Wallachia.

Vlad has built the fortress of Bucharest—the first of many fortifications—with the aim of holding back the Turks who are threatening the existence of the Wallachian state.

The Ottoman army manages to advance as Ţepeş institutes a policy of scorched earth, poisons the waters, and also creates marshes by diverting the waters of small rivers.

Traps are created by the digging of pits, and then covered with timber and leaves.

The population and animals are evacuated to the mountains and as Mehmed advances for seven days, his army suffers from fatigue.

Ţepeş adopts guerrilla tactics as his cavalry make several hit-and-run attacks.

He also sends ill people suffering from lethal diseases, such as leprosy, tuberculosis, syphilis —and in more significant numbers—those who suffer from the bubonic plague, to intermix with the Turks and infect them.

The bubonic plague manages to spread in the Ottoman army.

The Ottoman fleet launches a few minor attacks on Brăila and Chilia, but without being able to do much damage, as Ţepeş has destroyed most of the ports in Bulgaria.

Chalkokondyles writes that the Sultan managed to capture a Wallachian soldier and at first tried to bribe him for information; when that didn't work, he threatened him with torture, to no avail.

Mehmed was said to have commended the soldier by saying, "if your master had many soldiers like yourself, in a short time he could conquer the world!"

After failing to capture the fortress of Bucharest and...

Stephen puts Laiotă on the throne after capturing the castle of Bucharest, but a new Ottoman army of seventeen thousand sets camp around the river Bârlad on December 31, laying waste to the countryside, and intimidating the new prince into abandoning his Wallachian throne and fleeing to Moldavia.

…Suleiman marches towards Moldavia by crossing the frozen Danube on foot.

His first stop is Wallachia, which he enters via Vidin and Nicopolis.

His army rests in Wallachia for two weeks, and is later met by a Wallachian contingent of seventeen thousand under Basarab Laiotă, who has changed sides to join the Ottomans.