Hellenic penetration was marked but never very effective and the Daco-Getic peoples of Rumania were never Hellenized as were the Balkan Thracians. But of the Greek period there are many archaeological evidences. The important Milesian settle ment of Histria near the Danube mouth on a lagoon island facing the modern village of Karanasuf has been well excavated. Over a hundred and fifty inscriptions illustrate the life over many centuries of this remote Hellenic town. The wealth of the in habitants, as is evident from two large and important inscriptions of the Roman period, had at all times come from the fishing in the Delta, over which the Histrians had immemorial rights.
Kallatis, an old Dorian settlement on the site of the modern Mangalia in the Dobruja, has been partly excavated. Inscrip tions there indicate that the population was strongly Dorian and that the city, with others along that coast was largely subject to the Thraco-Scythian kings of the interior. Kallatis was evidently one of the great corn-exporting emporia of the Black sea. Constanta has been identified as the ancient Tomi, the place of exile of Ovid. Remains of the city walls have been discovered across the promontory upon which the residential part of the town is built. A small museum which contained all local antiquities was looted by Bulgarian soldiers during 1917 and the contents dispersed. Greek objects of commerce have been found as far inland as the headwaters of the Pruth and the Argesul. Wine from Thasos and the Aegean was a much valued commodity in these regions.
In Roman remains the country is extremely rich. The great wall of Trajan can be traced without difficulty between Constanta and the Danube near Cernavoda. Extensive remains of Axiopolis at its western end can be seen on the Danube, and excavations have been carried out there. The most impressive of all the
Roman monuments is the Tropaeum Trajani at Adamklissi. It stands in a wild and desolate region in the rolling steppeland between the Danube and Constanta with much of its sculptured decoration still lying round the massive concrete core which sur vives. The Roman town of Ulmetum midway between Harsova on the Danube and the coast has also been explored and excavated. Along the Danube the traces of Trajan's campaigns are numerous. The inscription recording his construction of the road along the south bank near the Iron Gates is still visible in the cliff face near the island of Ada Kalesi. Some of the piles of the bridge he built across the Danube still survive.
In Transylvania inscriptions are found as far north as the Polish border and elements of the various defences and vallums built at different periods can be made out. Near Cluj at the village of Verespatak considerable traces of Roman mining for gold are to be seen and a century ago a series of important in scribed wax tablets was found here, bearing record to the manner and method by which the mines were worked. Of the Dacians who opposed the Romans there is much evidence but the archaeological discoveries are not of the first importance. The site of Sarmi getusa has been identified in the mountains a little south of Deva in Hunedoara. It is a powerfully fortified hill-city and was the metropolis of the Dacians.
Post-Roman remains of the time before the Rumanians came under the influence of Byzantium are rare and little or nothing is known about the country at this time. But the great gold treasure of Petroasa, which was transported to Moscow during the war and has never been returned, is certainly of Hunnish or semi oriental origin. It consists of two superb chalices of pure gold, inset with large garnets and with handles shaped like panthers, a large necklet of the same fabric, several large gold ewers elabor ately chased and some superb torques.
Byzantine remains are not of importance until the fourteenth century when the Byzantine church and monastery of Curtea de Arges was built. The frescoes here rank as the finest and oldest Byzantine works of art in the country.
A special architectural style grew up after this, particularly in Moldavia, based upon the Byzantine, but of a very marked character and of great beauty. It flourished mostly in the sixteenth century and the early 17th. The church of the "Three Saints" at Jassy, founded in 1639 is one of the finest examples. The style of architecture so evolved is purely Rumanian and owes little or nothing to Greek or Slavonic tradition in matters of decoration, though the structure is in essence Byzantine. Byzan tine traditions in painting dominated the artists of the churches and monasteries down to the eighteenth century.