20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Aromanians and their space of significant density 743became fragmented and was driven towards the mountainous areas.Not long after, however, even before the conclusion of the Romanianethnogenetic process (X th century), the Balkan Romanity began initiatingnatural processes (through the superiority of their social and economicalorganization, and therefore not through war) which aimed at recoveringtheir lowlands and reuniting some of the enclaves which had formed afterthe great migrations. These ethnic concentrations were both elementsof Roman civilization, even for the surrounding peoples, as well ascommunities which became the founding pillars for later states, andthis is the reason for which we consider them significant densities. TheByzantine Empire, the Bulgarians, the Serbians, the western Byzantineconquerors and, later on, the Greeks who had begun the national liberationmovement, have permanently attempted to become allied with or come intopossession of these centers of significant densities. Thus, for example, tothe Bulgarians, the Wallachians – as they were called in Byzantine records– have acted as “an agent of (political and military) volition [coagulation]”which contributed to the rise of the second Empire, titled the “Romanian –Bulgarian” or “Wallachian-Bulgarian” Empire (Murnu) during the XII-XIIIcenturies; for the Serbians who were at the peak of their territorial expansionwithin Macedonia and Epirus, Ştefan Duşan takes on the title of “count ofWallachia” (1355); the Latins occupy Greater Wallachia (Thessaly), but theeasternmost region, known as Upper Wallachia, becomes the center of theByzantine movement for the reconquering of Constantinople (after 1204);the Greek emancipation movement of the XVIII-XIX centuries owes a lotof its military and financial energy and support to the Romanians of thePindus mountains and beyond. The fact that Serbians, at the peak of theirexpansion, desire to legitimate themselves through the Wallachian factor oforganization (Romanian-Aromanian) demonstrates the power of attractionthis culture and civilization possessed.The Romanians situated south of the Danube possessed systems withpolitical prestige, which more or less stood the test of time, even beforethe founding of the states of Wallachia and Moldavia north of the Danube.Capidan speaks of the four Wallachias: Greater Wallachia (in Thessaly),Lesser Wallachia (in Aetolia and Acarnaria), Upper Wallachia (in thesouthern and eastern part of Epirus) and White Wallachia (quite probablythe core of the Asăneşti Empire of the XII century). “The existence of thesethree Wallachias is also recorded by the Western chroniclers Geoffroyde Villehardouin, Henri de Valenciennes, Robert de Clary, and all thehistoriographers who have studied the revolutionary movement of the