The Carpi or Carpiani are an ancient people that reside, between not later than ca.

AD 140 and until at least AD 318, in the former Principality of Moldavia (modern eastern Romania).

The archaeology of Moldavia in the period 106-318 shows the coexistence of two distinct material cultures, one sedentary, the other exhibiting the features of a nomadic steppe culture.

The sedentary culture was on a material level not significantly higher than other barbarian regions on the fringes of the Roman empire.The ethnic affiliation of the Carpi remains disputed, as there is no direct evidence in the surviving ancient literary sources.

A strong body of modern scholarly opinion considers that the Carpi were a tribe of the Dacian nation.

Other scholars have linked the Carpi to a variety of ethnic groups, including Sarmatians, Thracians, Germans, and Celts.About a century after their earliest mention by Ptolemy, the Carpi emerged in ca.

240 as among Rome's most dangerous enemies.

In the period 240-270 AD, the Carpi were an important component of a loose coalition of transdanubian barbarian tribes that included also Germanic and Sarmatian elements.

These were responsible for a series of large and devastating invasions of the Balkan regions of the empire which nearly caused its disintegration.In the period 270-318, the Roman "military emperors" acted to remove the Carpi threat to the empire's borders.

Crushing multiple defeats were inflicted on the Carpi in 273, 297, 298-308 and in 317.

After each, massive numbers of Carpi were forcibly transferred by the Roman military to the Roman province of Pannonia (modern western Hungary), as part of the emperors' policy of repopulating the devastated Danubian provinces with surrendered barbarian tribes.

It is possible that the Carpi were largely removed from the Carpathian region by ca.

318.

If any Carpi remained, they may have occupied, together with "free" Dacian elements, parts of the Roman province of Dacia, following its evacuation by the Romans in 272-5.