[1][2][3] Other scholars have linked the Carpi to a variety of ethnic groups, including Sarmatians, Thracians, Slavs, Germanic peoples, Balts and Celts.

In the period AD 250–270, the Carpi were an important component of a loose coalition of transdanubian barbarian tribes that also included Germanic and Sarmatian elements.

Lithuanian karpyti "mountain peaks looking like a saw", Albanian karpë "rock", Romanian (ş)carpă "precipice", Sanskrit kar "cut", and Latin scarpa, cfr.

[12] Romanian scholar Vasile Pârvan considered that the following peoples recorded in ancient sources correspond to Ptolemy's Karpiani: If so, their locations could imply that the Carpi had very gradually migrated westwards in the period 400 BC - AD 140, a view championed by Kahrstedt.

There is no dispute among scholars that some Decebalic-era Dacian settlements in Moldavia (mostly west of the Siret, with a few on the east bank (including Piroboridava, identified with Poiana-Tecuci), were abandoned by 106, most likely, according to Bichir, as a result of the Roman conquest of Dacia.

[26] These are predominantly found on the plains, rarely on the Carpathian foothills (i.e. East of the Siret), either singly or in small groups of 2-13 graves, including men, women and children.

[36] This is because the region between the rivers Siret and Dniester was of great ethnic diversity during the Roman imperial era, the Barrington Atlas listing Agathyrsi, Bastarnae, Britolagai, Costoboci, Roxolani, Thrakes, and Tyragetae.

For example, in Rome's vast and protracted conflict with the trans-danubian tribes, known as the Marcomannic Wars (166-80), during which Dacia province suffered at least two major invasions (167, 170), only their neighbours the Costoboci are mentioned specifically.

The cause of this dislocation is unknown, but an important factor may have been the Antonine Plague (165-180), a devastating smallpox pandemic, which may have killed 15-30% of the Roman empire's inhabitants.

These were probably recorded by the Roman historian Tacitus, under the name Gotones, as inhabiting the area East of the Vistula river in central Poland in AD 100.

[77] A series of major Carpi incursions into the empire are recorded, either alone or in alliance with their neighbouring Sarmatian or Germanic tribes (including Roxolani, Bastarnae, Goths).

[79] This was apparently provoked by the refusal of the governor of Moesia Inferior, Tullius Menophilus, to grant the Carpi's demand for an annual subsidy to keep the peace, as was already paid to the Goths and other tribes on the lower Danube.

Pursued by the Romans into their homeland, the main body of Carpi took refuge in a major stronghold (presumably a hillfort), where they were surrounded and besieged by Philip's forces.

This was granted to them on apparently lenient terms by Philip, who was eager to conclude the campaign in time for the forthcoming celebrations of the 1,000th anniversary of the City of Rome's foundation (April 248).

[85] Judging by their actions, the invaders' war aims were limited to pillage: the capture of as many slaves, horses, treasure and other goods as possible to take back to their homelands across the Danube.

After losing two encounters with the Romans in Moesia Inferior, Kniva surprised the emperor by unobservedly crossing the Haemus (Balkan) mountains into Thracia, which was largely undefended.

At Beroe (Stara Zagora, Bulgaria), Kniva launched a surprise attack on the emperor's exhausted army, inflicting a major defeat.

In 251, as the barbarian army headed home towards the Danube, laden with a vast quantity of plunder, they were intercepted by the emperor at Abrittus in Moesia Inferior.

Hard on the heels of military catastrophe, the Roman army was crippled by the outbreak of a devastating smallpox pandemic, the so-called Plague of Cyprian (251 - c. 270).

[88][89] The Roman army would have suffered heavy casualties as a result of its close concentration of personnel and frequent movements between provinces, thus probably losing about a third of its strength.

From Zosimus, the following major events may be discerned:[90] 252-253: The Carpi joined Goths and two Sarmatian tribes (the Urugundi and the Borani) in an invasion of Roman territory, ravaging Moesia and Thrace.

They chased the barbarians over the river and deep into their homelands, recovering vast quantities of plunder and liberating thousands of Roman civilians who had been abducted.

However, only three months later, Aemilianus was in turn assassinated by the same troops, who defected to Valerian (reigned 253–260), the commander of forces on the Rhine, who had marched into Italy to rescue Gallus.

Valerian and Gallienus were obliged to leave the Balkan theatre to subordinates with inadequate forces, as they were fully occupied, the former in the East fighting the Persians, the latter on the Rhine trying to stem a massive Germanic incursion.

The whole of Greece was placed on invasion alert: the Athenians rebuilt their city walls for the first time since they were demolished by the republican general Sulla in 87 BC and the Peloponnesians re-fortified the Isthmus of Corinth.

The other group crossed Illyricum into Italy, and appeared before the walls of Rome, forcing the Roman Senate to arm the civilian population to man the ramparts, as Gallienus was fully occupied on the Rhine fighting a coup d'état by one of his generals (Postumus).

[97] The late third century saw the military recovery of the empire under the iron rule of the so-called "Illyrian emperors", a tightly knit group of career soldiers with shared origins in the Danubian provinces and regiments.

According to Ammianus, Diocletian's regime continued to settle Carpi in Pannonia, and, apparently, in Scythia Minor (i.e. the coastal region of modern Romania).

[117] These Germanic kingdoms were after 350 overwhelmed by the Huns, resulting in the great Gothic-led migration of Transdanubians across the Danube that culminated in the Roman disaster at the Battle of Adrianople in 378.

The Carpi are nowhere mentioned in Ammianus' detailed account of these epic events, suggesting that any who remained north of the Danube had probably lost their distinct identity.