Dacia Aureliana


Dacia Aureliana was a province in the eastern half of the Roman Empire established by Roman Emperor Aurelian in the territory of former Moesia Superior after his evacuation of Dacia Traiana beyond the Danube in 271. Between 271/275 and 285, it occupied most of what is today northwestern Bulgaria and eastern Serbia. Its capital was in Serdica.
This province was populated with the former inhabitants of Dacia Traiana. It is written in Eutropius' work: Abridgment of Roman History :
"He surrounded the city of Rome with stronger walls. He built a temple to the Sun, in which he put a vast quantity of gold and precious stones. The province of Dacia, which Trajan had formed beyond the Danube, he gave up, despairing, after all Illyricum and Moesia had been depopulated, of being able to retain it. The Roman citizens, removed from the towns and lands of Dacia, he settled in the interior of Moesia, calling that Dacia which now divides the two Moesiae, and which is on the right hand of the Danube as it runs to the sea, whereas Dacia was previously on the left."
The Emperor Diocletian's tetrarchy reorganization of the empire divided Dacia Aureliana in two provinces, both part of the civil diocese of Moesia, under the eastern Caesar, whose 'quarter' became the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum. :
In the fourth century reform, these two “Dacias” along with Dardania, Moesia Prima, and Prevalitana constituted the Civil diocese of Dacia.
in the 6th century, including the Diocese of Dacia and its provinces