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Dacians

For uses of Dacian, see Dacian.See also: Dacia, Getae and ThraciansThe  Dacians  (/ˈdeɪʃənz/;  Latin:   Daci ,  Ancient Greek:

Marble statue of a Dacian warrior surmounting the Arch ofCon-stantine in Rome.

Δάκοι,[1] Δάοι,[1] Δάκαι[2]) were an  Indo-European

people, part of or related to the   Thracians. Dacianswere the ancient inhabitants of   Dacia, located in thearea in and around the Carpathian Mountains and westof the   Black Sea. This area includes the present-day countries of   Romania   and   Moldova, as well asparts of Ukraine,[3] Eastern Serbia,  Northern Bulgaria,Slovakia,[4] Hungary  and Southern  Poland.[3] The Da-cians spoke the Dacian language, believed to have beenclosely related to  Thracian, but were somewhat cultur-ally influenced by the neighbouring Scythians and by theCeltic invaders of the 4th century BC.[5]

1 Name and etymology

1.1 Name

Main article: Getae § Getae and Dacians

The Dacians were known as   Geta   (plural   Getae) inAncient Greek writings, and as   Dacus  (plural   Daci ) orGetae   in  Roman  documents,[6] but also as   Dagae   andGaete as depicted on the late Roman map  Tabula Peutin- geriana. It was Herodotus who first used the ethnonymGetae in his Histories .[8] In Greek and Latin, in the writ-ings of Julius Caesar,   Strabo, and Pliny the Elder, thepeople became known as ‘the Dacians’.[9] Getae and Da-cians were interchangeable terms, or used with someconfusion by the Greeks.[10][11] Latin poets often usedthe name   Getae.[12] Virgilius   called them   Getae   fourtimes, and   Daci   once,   Lucian   Getae   three times andDaci   twice,  Horace named them  Getae  twice and  Daci five times, while Juvenal one time Getae and two timesDaci .[13][14][12] In AD 113, Hadrian used the poetic termGetae for the Dacians.[15] Modern historians prefer to usethe name Geto-Dacians .[9] Strabo describes the Getae andDacians as distinct but cognate tribes, but also states that

they spoke the same language.[16] This distinction refersto the regions they occupied.[16] Strabo and Pliny the El-der also state that Getae and Dacians spoke the samelanguage.[17]

By contrast, the name of Dacians , whatever the origin ofthe name, was used by the more western tribes who ad-joined the Pannonians and therefore first became knownto the Romans.[18] According to Strabo’s   Geographica,the original name of the Dacians was Δάοι "Daoi ".[1][19]

The name Daoi (one of the ancient Geto-Dacian tribes)was certainly adopted by foreign observers to designateall the inhabitants of the countries north of Danube that

had not yet been conquered by Greece or Rome.[9][9]

The ethnographic name   Daci   is found under variousforms within ancient sources. Greeks used the formsΔάκοι "Dakoi " (Strabo, Dio Cassius, and Dioscorides)and Δάοι “Daoi” (singular Daos).[20][1][21][22][23][19] Theform   Δάοι   “Daoi” was frequently used according toStephan of Byzantium.[14] Latins used the forms Davus ,Dacus , and a derived form   Dacisci   (Vopiscus andinscriptions).[24][25][26][27][14] The same name is oftenused in the geographical vocabulary of   Ancient Per-sia,[28] where Pliny names among the people of Sogdiansthe Dahae  (Greek Δάσαι, Δάαι; Latin  Daci ).[29][30][14]

By the end of the first century AD, all the inhabitantsof the lands which now form Romania were known tothe Romans as Daci, with the exception of some  Celtic

1

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2   1 NAME AND ETYMOLOGY 

and Germanic tribes who infiltrated from the west, andSarmatian and related people from the east.[11]

1.2 Etymology

The name Daci , or “Dacians” is a collective ethnonym.[31]Dio Cassius reported that the Dacians themselves usedthat name, and the Romans so called them, while theGreeks called them Getae.[32][33][34] Opinions on the ori-gins of the name Daci  are divided. Some scholars con-sider it to originate in the Indo-European *dha-k -, withthe stem *dhe- “to put, to place”, while others think thatthe name Daci  originates in *daca — “knife, dagger” orin a word similar to daos, meaning “wolf” in the relatedlanguage of the Phrygians.[35]

One hypothesis is that the name  Getae originates in theIndo-European *guet- 'to utter, to talk'.[36][35] Another

hypothesis is that “Getae” and “Daci” are Iranian namesof two Iranian-speaking Scythian groups that had beenassimilated into the larger Thracian-speaking populationof the later “Dacia”.[37][38]

1.2.1 Early history of etymological approaches

In the 1st century AD, Strabo suggested that its stemformed a name previously borne by slaves: Greek Daos,Latin Davus (-k- is a known suffix in Indo-European eth-nic names).[39] In the 18th century, Grimm proposed theGothic   dags  or “day” that would give the meaning of

“light, brilliant”. Yet dags  belongs to the Sanskrit word-root dah-, and a derivation from Dah to Δάσαι “Daci” isdifficult.[14] In the 19th century, Tomaschek (1883) pro-posed the form “Dak”, meaning   those who understand and canspeak , byconsidering “Dak” as a derivation of theroot da(“k” being a suffix); cf.   Sanskrit  dasa, Bactriandaonha.[40] Tomaschek also proposed the form “Davus”,meaning “members of the clan/countryman” cf. Bactriandaqyu, danhu “canton”.[40]

1.2.2 Modern times

In the Proto-Indo-European language, where *dhe-, 'toset, place' from where dheua > dava 'settlement' andDhe-k > Daci 'Dacian' is supported by Russu (1967).[41]

“Daos” was suggested in 1957 by Decev as a possibleconnection with the Phrygian daos , meaning “wolf”.[42]

The Phrygian meaning is supported by   Hesychius'snotes.[43][44] This hypothesis has had a large diffusiondue to historian Mircea Eliade.[42] The identification orconnection with wolves is not unique to Dacians butalso present for other ancient Indo-European tribes, in-cluding the   Luvians,   Lycians,   Lucanians,   Hyrcanians,and Dahae.[45][46] The assumption of Daoi (wolf) may

also be supported by one of the Dacian standards, theDacian Draco, prominently featuring a wolf head.  Phry- gii  was another name used within the region, and in later

times, some Roman auxiliaries recruited from the areawere referred to as  Phrygi. The German linguist  PaulKretschmer explained “daos” with the root dhau, mean-ing to press, to gather, or to strangle (as wolves often usea neck bite to kill their prey).[47] According to Romanianhistorian and archaeologist Alexandru Vulpe, the Dacian

etymology explained by daos  (wolf) has little plausibility,as thedracowas notunique to Dacians, while the transfor-mation of daos  into dakos  is phonetically improbable. Hethus dismisses it as folk etymology.[48] The form “Daus”or “Davus” could be also compared to a similar ethnonymin Old Persian “Daos” and to a Phrygian deity also called“Daos”.[42]

1.3 Mythological theories

Dacian Draco as from Trajan’s Column

Mircea Eliade attempted, in his book  From Zalmoxis  toGenghis Khan, to give a mythological foundation to an al-

leged special relation between Dacians and the wolves:[49]

•  Dacians might have called themselves “wolves” or“ones the same with wolves”,[50][49] suggesting reli-gious significance.[51]

•   Dacians draw their name from a god or a legendaryancestor who appeared as a wolf.[51]

•  Dacians had taken their name from a group of fugi-tive immigrants arrived from other regions or fromtheir own young outlaws, who acted similarly to thewolves circling villages and living from looting. As

was the case in other societies, those young mem-bers of the community went through an initiation,perhaps up to a year, during which they lived as a

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3

“wolf”.[52][51] Comparatively,  Hittite  laws referredto fugitive outlaws as “wolves”.[53]

•  The existence of a ritual that provides one with theability to turn into a wolf.[54] Such a transforma-tion may be related either to  lycanthropy  itself, a

widespread phenomenon, but attested especially inthe Balkans-Carpathian region,[53] or a ritual imita-tion of the behavior and appearance of the wolf.[54]

Such a ritual was presumably a military initiation,potentially reserved to a secret brotherhood of war-riors (or Männerbünde).[54] To become formidablewarriors they would assimilate behavior of the wolf,wearing wolf skins during the ritual.[51] Traces re-lated to wolves as a cult or as totems were found inthis area since the  Neolithic period, including theVinča culture artifacts: wolf statues and fairly rudi-mentary figurines representing dancers with a wolf

mask.[55][56]

The items could indicate warrior ini-tiation rites, or ceremonies in which young peopleput on their seasonal wolf masks.[56] The element ofunity of beliefs about werewolves and lycanthropyexists in the magical-religious experience of mysti-cal solidarity with the wolf by whatever means usedto obtain it. But all have one original myth, a pri-mary event.[57][58]

2 Origins and ethnogenesis

See also: Prehistoric Balkans § Iron Age

Evidence of proto-Thracians or proto-Dacians in theprehistoric period depends on the remains of   materialculture. It is generally proposed that a proto-Dacianor proto-Thracian people developed from a mixture ofindigenous peoples  and  Indo-Europeans from the timeof Proto-Indo-European expansion in the Early BronzeAge (3,300–3,000 BC)[59] when the latter, around 1500BC, conquered the indigenous peoples.[60] The indige-nous people were Danubian farmers, and the invadingpeople of the BC 3rd millennium were Kurgan warrior-

herders from the Ukrainian and Russian steppes.[61]

Indo-Europeanization was complete by the beginning ofthe Bronze Age. The people of that time are best de-scribed as proto-Thracians, which later developed in theIron Age into Danubian-Carpathian Geto-Dacians as wellas Thracians of the eastern Balkan Peninsula.[62]

Between BC 15th–12th century, the Dacian-Getae cul-ture was influenced by the Bronze Age Tumulus-Urnfieldwarriors who were on their way through the Balkans toAnatolia.[63] When the La Tène Celts arrived in BC 4thcentury, the Dacians were under the influence of the

Scythians.

[63]

Alexander the Great attacked the Getae in BC 335 on thelower Danube, but by BC 300 they had formed a state

founded on a military democracy, and began a period ofconquest.[63] More Celts arrived during the BC 3rd cen-tury, and in BC 1st century the peopleof Boiitried to con-quer some of the Dacian territory on the eastern side ofthe Teiss river. The Dacians drove the Boii south acrossthe Danube and out of their territory, at which point the

Boii abandoned any further plans for invasion.[63]

3 Identity and distribution

North of the Danube, Dacians occupied a larger terri-tory than Ptolemaic Dacia, stretching between Bohemiain the west and the Dnieper cataracts in the east, and upto the Pripyat, Vistula, and Oder rivers in the north andnorthwest.[64] In BC 53, Julius Caesar stated that the Da-cian territory was on the eastern border of the Hercynian

forest.[63]

According to Strabo’s   Geographica, writtenaround AD 20,[65] the Getes (Geto-Dacians) borderedthe Suevi who lived in the Hercynian Forest, which issomewhere in the vicinity of the river Duria, the present-day Vah (Waag).[66] Dacians lived on both sides of theDanube.[67] [68] According to Strabo, Moesians also livedon both sides of the Danube.[34] According to Agrippa,[69]

Dacia was limited by the Baltic Ocean in the North andby the Vistula in the West.[70] The names of the peo-ple and settlements confirm Dacia’s borders as describedby Agrippa.[69][71] Dacian people also lived south of theDanube.[69]

3.1 Linguistic affiliation

Main article: Dacian languageSee also: Davae and List of Dacian towns

The Dacians and Getae were always considered as Thra-cians by the ancients (Dio Cassius, Trogus Pompeius,Appian, Strabo and Pliny the Elder), and were both saidto speak the same Thracian language.[72][73] The linguis-tic affiliation of Dacian is uncertain, since the ancientIndo-European language in question became extinct andleft very limited traces, usually in the form of placenames, plant names and personal names. Thraco-Dacian(or Thracian and Daco-Mysian) seems to belong to theeastern (satem) group of Indo-European languages.[74]

There are two contradictory theories: some scholars(such as Tomaschek 1883; Russu 1967; Solta 1980;Crossland 1982; Vraciu 1980) consider Dacian to be aThracian language or a dialect thereof. This view is sup-ported by R. G. Solta, who says that Thracian and Dacianare very closely related languages.[75][76] Other scholars(such as Georgiev 1965, Duridanov 1976) consider thatThracian and Dacian are two different and specific Indo-

European languages which cannot be reduced to a com-mon language.[77] Linguists such as Polomé and Katičićexpressed reservations about both theories.[78]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radoslav_Kati%C4%8Di%C4%87https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Charles_Polom%C3%A9https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Europeanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appianhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dacian_townshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davaehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacian_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Vipsanius_Agrippahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strabohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercynian_Foresthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suevihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographicahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercynian_foresthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercynian_foresthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesarhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oderhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vistulahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pripyat_Riverhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfallhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnieperhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Greathttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Bronze_Agehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Bronze_Agehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-Europeanshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-Europeanshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Europehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_culturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_culturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_Balkans#Iron_Agehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolveshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin%C4%8Da_culturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A4nnerb%C3%BCndehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpathianhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycanthropyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittites

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The Dacians are generally considered to have been Thra-cian speakers, representing a cultural continuity from ear-lier Iron Age communities loosely termed Getic.[79] Sincein one interpretation, Dacian is a variety of Thracian,for the reasons of convenience, the generic term ‘Daco-Thracian” is used, with “Dacian” reserved for the lan-

guage or dialect that was spoken north of Danube, inpresent-day Romania and eastern Hungary, and “Thra-cian” for the variety spoken south of the Danube.   [80]

There is no doubt that the Thracian language was re-lated to the Dacian language which was spoken in whatis today Romania, before that area was occupied by theRomans.[81] Also, both Thracian and Dacian have one ofthe main satem characteristic changes of Indo-Europeanlanguage, *k and *g to *s and *z.[82] With regard to theterm “Getic” (Getae), even though attempts have beenmade to distinguish between Dacian and Getic, thereseems no compelling reason to disregard the view of the

Greek geographer Strabo that the Daci and the Getae,Thracian tribes dwelling north of the Danube (the Daciin the west of the area and the Getae further east), wereone and the same people and spoke the same language.[80]

Another variety that has sometimes been recognized isthat of Moesian (or Mysian) for the language of an in-termediate area immediately to the south of Danube inSerbia, Bulgaria and Romanian Dobruja: this and the di-alects north of the Danube have been grouped together asDaco-Moesian.[80] The language of the indigenous pop-ulation has left hardly any trace in the anthroponymy ofMoesia, but the toponymy indicates that the Moesii on the

south bank of the Danube, north of the Haemus Moun-tains, andthe Triballi in the valley of theMorava, shared anumber of characteristic linguistic features with the Daciisouth of the Carpathians and the Getae in the Wallachianplain, which sets them apart from the Thracians thoughtheir languages are undoubtedly related.[83]

Vladimir Georgiev  disputes that Dacian and Thracianwere closely related for various reasons, most notablythat Dacian and Moesian town names commonly endwith the suffix   -DAVA, while towns in   Thrace   proper(i.e. South of the Balkan mountains) generally end in -PARA (see Dacian language). According to Georgiev, the

language spoken by the ethnic Dacians should be clas-sified as “Daco-Moesian” and regarded as distinct fromThracian.[84] Georgiev also claimed that names from ap-proximately Roman Dacia and Moesia show differentand generally less extensive changes in Indo-Europeanconsonants and vowels than those found in Thrace it-self. However, the evidence seems to indicate divergenceof a Thraco-Dacian language into northern and south-ern groups of dialects, not so different as to qualify asseparate languages.[85] Polomé considers that such lexi-cal differentiation ( -dava vs.   para) would, however, behardly enough evidence to separate Daco-Moesian fromThracian.[78]

3.2 Tribes

Main article: List of Dacian tribesAn extensive account of the native tribes in Dacia can

Roman era Balkans 

be found in the ninth tabula of Europe of Ptolemy’sGeography.[86] The Geography was probably written inthe period AD 140–150, but the sources were often ear-lier; for example, Roman Britain is shown before thebuilding of Hadrian’s Wall in the AD 120s.[87] Ptolemy’sGeography also contains a physical map probably de-signed before the Roman conquest, and containing nodetailed nomenclature.[88] There are references to the

Tabula Peutingeriana, but it appears that the Dacian mapof the Tabula was completed after the final triumph ofRoman nationality.[89] Ptolemy’s list includes no fewerthan twelve tribes with Geto-Dacian names.[90][91]

The fifteen tribes of Dacia as named by Ptolemy, startingfrom the northernmost ones, are as follows. First, theAnartes, the Teurisci and the Coertoboci/Costoboci. Tothe south of them are the Buredeense (Buri/Burs), theCotense/Cotini and then the Albocense, the Potulatenseand the Sense, while the southernmost were the Saldense,the Ciaginsi and the Piephigi. To the south of them werePredasense/Predavensi, the   Rhadacense/Rhatacenses,

the   Caucoense   (Cauci) and   Biephi.[86] Twelve outof these fifteen tribes listed by Ptolemy are ethnicDacians,[91] and three are Celt Anarti, Teurisci, andCotense.[91] There are also previous brief mentions ofother Getae or Dacian tribes on the left and right banksof the Danube, or even in Transylvania, to be added tothe list of Ptolemy. Among these other tribes are theTrixae, Crobidae and Appuli.[86]

Some peoples inhabiting the region generally described inRoman times as “Dacia” were not ethnic Dacians.[92] Thetrue Dacians were a people of Thracian descent. Ger-man elements (Daco-Germans), Celtic elements (Daco-

Celtic) and Iranian elements (Daco-Sarmatian) occu-pied territories in the north-west and north-east ofDacia.[93][93][94][92] This region covered roughly the same

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3.2 Tribes    5

area as modern Romania plus  Bessarabia (Republic ofMoldova) and eastern Galicia (south-west Ukraine), al-though Ptolemy places Moldavia and Bessarabia in  Sar-matia Europaea, rather than Dacia.[95] After the DacianWars   (AD 101-6), the Romans occupied only abouthalf of the wider Dacian region. The Roman province

of Dacia covered just western  Wallachia as far as theLimes Transalutanus  (East of the river Aluta, or Olt) andTransylvania, as bordered by the Carpathians.[96]

The impact of the Roman conquest on these people isuncertain. One hypothesis was that they were effectivelyeliminated. An important clue to the character of Da-cian casualties is offered by the ancient sources Eutropiusand Crito. Both speak about men when they describethe losses suffered by the Dacians in the wars. This sug-gests that both refer to losses due to fighting, not due toa process of extermination of the whole population.[97]

A strong component of the Dacian army, including the

Celtic Bastarnae and the Germans, had withdrawn ratherthan submit to Trajan.[98] Some scenes on Trajan’s Col-umn represent acts of obedience of the Dacian popu-lation, and others show the refugee Dacians returningto their own places.[99] Dacians trying to buy amnestyare depicted on Trajan’s Column (one offers to Trajana tray of three gold ingots).[100] Alternatively, a sub-stantial number may have survived in the province, al-though were probably outnumbered by the Romanisedimmigrants.[101] Cultural life in Dacia becameverymixedand decidedly cosmopolitan because of the colonial com-munities. The Daciansretained their names and their own

ways in the midst of the newcomers, and the region con-tinued to exhibit Dacian characteristics.[102] The Dacianswho survived the war are attested as revolting against theRoman domination in Dacia at least twice, in the periodof time right after the Dacian Wars, and in a more deter-mined manner in 117 AD.[103] In 158 AD, they revoltedagain, andwere put down by M. Statius Priscus.[104] SomeDacians were apparently expelled from the occupied zoneat the end of each of the two Dacian Wars, or otherwiseemigrated. It is uncertain where these refugees settled.Some of these people might have mingled with the ex-isting ethnic Dacian tribes beyond the Carpathians (theCostoboci and Carpi).

After Trajan’s conquest of Dacia there was recurringtrouble involving Dacian groups excluded from the Ro-man province, as finally defined by Hadrian. By theearly third century the “Free Dacians”, as they were ear-lier known, were a significantly troublesome group, thenidentified as the Carpi, requiring imperial intervention onmore than one occasion.[105] In 214 Caracalla dealt withtheir attacks. Later, Philip the Arab came in person todeal with them; he assumed the triumphal title CarpicusMaximus and inaugurated a new era for the province ofDacia (July 20, 246). Later both Decius and Gallienusassumed the titles Dacicus Maximus. In 272, Aurelianassumed the same title as Philip.[105]

In about 140 AD, Ptolemy lists the names of several tribes

residing on the fringes of the Roman Dacia (west, eastand north of the Carpathian range), and the ethnic pic-ture seems to be a mixed one. North of the Carpathi-ans are recorded the Anarti, Teurisci and Costoboci.[106]

The Anarti (or Anartes) and the Teurisci were originallyprobably Celtic peoples or mixed Dacian-Celtic.[94] The

Anarti, together with the Celtic  Cotini, are describedby Tacitus as vassals of the powerful  Quadi  Germanicpeople.[107] The Teurisci were probably a group of CelticTaurisci  from the eastern Alps. However, archaeologyhas revealed that the Celtic tribes had originally spreadfrom west to east as far as Transylvania, before being ab-sorbed by the Dacians in the 1st century BC.[108][109]

3.2.1 Costoboci

Main article: Costoboci

The main view is that the   Costoboci   were ethnicallyDacian.[110] Others considered them a Slavic or Sarma-tian tribe.[111][112] There was also a Celtic influence, sothat some consider them a mixed Celtic and Thraciangroup that appear, after Trajan’s conquest, as a Daciangroup within the Celtic superstratum.[113] The Costo-boci inhabited the southern slopes of the Carpathians.[114]

Ptolemy named the Coestoboci (Costoboci in Romansources) twice, showing them divided by the Dniester andthe Peucinian (Carpathian) Mountains. This suggests thatthey lived on both sides of the Carpathians, but it is alsopossible that two accounts about the same people werecombined.[114] There was also a group, the Transmontani,that some modern scholars identify as Dacian Transmon-tani Costoboci of the extreme north.[115][116] The nameTransmontani was from the Dacians’ Latin,[117] literally“people over the mountains”. Mullenhoff identified thesewith the Transiugitani, another Dacian tribe north of theCarpathian mountains.[118]

Based on the account of  Dio Cassius, Heather (2010)considers that Hasding Vandals, around 171 AD, at-tempted to take control of lands which previously be-longed to the free Dacian group called the Costoboci.[119]

Hrushevskyi (1997) mentions that the earlier widespreadview that these Carpathian tribes were Slavic has nobasis. This would be contradicted by the Coestobo-can names themselves that are known from the inscrip-tions, written by a Coestobocan and therefore presum-ably accurately. These names soundquite unlike anythingSlavic.[111] Scholars such as Tomaschek (1883), Shutte(1917) and Russu (1969) consider these Costobociannames to be Thraco-Dacian.[120][121][122] This inscriptionalso indicates the Dacian background of the wife of theCostobocian king “Ziais Tiati filia Daca”.[123] This indi-cation of the socio-familial line of descent seen also inother inscriptions (i.e. Diurpaneus qui Euprepes Steris-

sae f(ilius) Dacus) is a custom attested since the historicalperiod (beginning in the 5th century BC) when Thracianswere under Greek influence.[124] It may not have origi-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dio_Cassiushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costobocihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costobocihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tauriscihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotinihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anartihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Daciahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_the_Arabhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracallahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trajan%2527s_Columnhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transylvaniahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olt_Riverhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limes_Transalutanushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallachiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia_(Roman_province)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia_(Roman_province)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trajan%2527s_Dacian_Warshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trajan%2527s_Dacian_Warshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia_(Eastern_Europe)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldovahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessarabiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania

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6   3 IDENTITY AND DISTRIBUTION 

nated with the Thracians, as it could be just a fashion bor-rowed from Greeks for specifying ancestry and for dis-tinguishing homonymous individuals within the tribe.[125]

Shutte (1917), Parvan, and Florescu (1982) pointed alsoto the Dacian characteristic place names ending in '–dava'given by Ptolemy in the Costoboci’s country.[126][127]

3.2.2 Carpi

Main article: Carpi (people)

The Carpi were a sizeable Dacian (North Thracian) groupof tribes living outside the boundaries of Roman Da-cia. The majority view is that they were a Thraciantribe, a subgroup of the Dacians.[128] Some historiansclassify them as Slavs.[129] According to Heather (2010),the Carpi were Dacians from the eastern foothills of

the Carpathian range – modern Moldavia and Wallachia– who had not been brought under direct Roman ruleat the time of Trajan’s conquest of Transylvania Da-cia. After they generated a new degree of political unityamong themselves in the course of the third century,these Dacian groups came to be known collectively as theCarpi.[130]

The ancient sources about the Carpi, before 104 AD, lo-cated them on a territory situated between the westernside of Eastern European Galicia and the mouth of theDanube.[131] The name of the tribe is homonymous withthe Carpathian mountains.[115] Carpi and Carpathian are

Dacian words derived from the root (s)ker - “cut” cf. Al-banian Karp “stone” and Sanskrit  kar - “cut”.[132][133] Aquote from the 6th-century Byzantine chronicler Zosimusreferring to the Καρποδάκαι (Latin:   Carpo-Dacae  or“Carpo-Dacians”), who attacked the Romans in the late4th century, is seen as evidence of their Dacian eth-nicity. In fact, Carpi/Carpodaces is the term usedfor Dacians outside of Dacia proper.[134] However, thatthe Carpi were Dacians is shown not so much by theform Καρποδάκαι (Latin:   Carpo-Dacae) of Zosimus asby their characteristic place-names in –dava, given byPtolemy in their country.[135] The origin and ethnic af-filiations of the Carpi have been debated over the years;in modern times they are closely associated with theCarpathian Mountains, and a good case has been madefor attributing to the Carpi a distinct material culture, “adeveloped form of the Geto-Dacian La Tene culture”, of-ten known as the Poienesti culture, which is characteristicof this area.[136]

3.3 Physical characteristics

Dacians are represented in the statues surmounting theArch of Constantine and on  Trajan’s Column.[137] The

artist of the Column took some care to depict, in his opin-ion, a variety of Dacian people—from high-ranking men,women, and children to the near-savage. Although the

Dacian cast in Pushkin Museum , after original in Lateran Mu-seum. Early second century AD.

artist looked to models in Hellenistic art for some bodytypes and compositions, he does not represent the Da-cians as generic barbarians.[138]

Classical authors applied a generalized stereotypewhen describing the “barbarians”—Celts, Scythians,Thracians—inhabiting the regions to the north of theGreek world.[139] In accordance with this stereotype,all these peoples are described, in sharp contrast to the“civilized” Greeks, as being much taller, their skin lighterand with straight light-coloured hair and blue eyes.[139]

For instance,  Aristotle wrote that “the Scythians on theBlack Sea and the Thracians are straight-haired, for both

they themselves and the environing air are moist";[140]according to   Clement of Alexandria,   Xenophanes   de-scribed the Thracians as “ruddy and tawny”.[139][141] On

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophaneshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_of_Alexandriahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotlehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateran_Museumhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateran_Museumhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushkin_Museumhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trajan%2527s_Columnhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_of_Constantinehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zosimushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zosimushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpi_(people)

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4.2 Relations with Thracians    7

The Roman monument commemorating the Battle of Adamclisi clearly shows two giant  Dacian warriors wielding a two-handed 

 falx.

Trajan’s column, Dacian soldiers’ hair is depicted longerthan the hair of Roman soldiers and they had trimmed

beards.[142]

Body-painting was customary among the Dacians. Itis probable that the tattooing originally had a religioussignificance.[143] They practiced symbolic-ritual tattooingor body painting for both men and women, with heredi-tary symbols transmitted up to the fourth generation.[144]

4 History

4.1 Early history

Celts

Memphis

 Tartessus

C ar th ag e C yr en e

Meroe

 Thebes

Syene

Babylon

Susa

Niniveh

 A r a b i a

Persia

Indians

Ethiopians

Caucasus

Hyperboreans

 Arimaspians

Issedones

Sauromates

  S c  y  t  h  i a

 n s

 Androphagi

Thracians

 Atlas

Ecbatana

Medes

Bactra

Sogdians

Massagetes

ERYTHREAN SEA

 ATLANTICSEA

Nile

  I s  t e r

 Ara xes

 A r a x

 e s

I  n  d   u  s  

 Assyria

Iberia

 AUSTRAL SEA

Macrobians

CASPIANSEABLACK SEA

MAEOTIANLAKE

Getae  A   l  p   i  s

 C a r p  i

 s

Tanais

 Agathyrsi     O

    a    r    u    s

    L   y   c   u   s

Tyras

LIBYA

EUROPE

ASIA

Getae on the World Map according to Herodotus 

In the absence of historical records written by the Dacians

(and Thracians) themselves, analysis of their origins de-pends largely on the remains of material culture. On thewhole, the Bronze Age witnessed the evolution of the eth-nic groups which emerged during the Eneolithic period,and eventually the syncretism of both autochthonous andIndo-European elements from the steppes and the Pontic

regions.[145] Various groups of Thracians had not sepa-rated out by 1200 BC,   [145] but there are strong similari-ties between the ceramic types found at Troy and the ce-ramic types from the Carpathian area.[145] About the year1000 BC, the Carpatho-Danubian countries were inhab-ited by a northern branch of the Thracians. [146] At thetime of the arrival of the Scythians (c. 700 BC), theCarpatho-Danubian Thracians were developing rapidlytowards the Iron Age civilization of the West. Moreover,the whole of the fourth period of the Carpathian BronzeAge had already been profoundly influenced by the firstIron Age as it developedin Italyandthe Alpine lands. The

Scythians, arriving with their own type of Iron Age civ-ilization, put a stop to these relations with the West. [147]

From roughly 500 BC (the second Iron Age), the Daciansdeveloped a distinct civilization, which was capable ofsupporting large centralised kingdoms by 1st BC and 1stAD.[148]

Since the very first detailed account by Herodotus, Getaeare acknowledged as belonging to the Thracians.[8] Still,they are distinguished from the other Thracians by par-ticularities of religion and custom.[139] The first writtenmention of the name “Dacians” is in Roman sources,but classical authors are unanimous in considering them

a branch of the Getae, a Thracian people known fromGreek writings.   Strabo specified that the Daci are theGetae who lived in the area towards the Pannonian plain(Transylvania), while the Getae proper gravitated towardsthe Black Sea coast (Scythia Minor).

4.2 Relations with Thracians

See also: Dromichaetes

Since the writings of Herodotus in the 5th century BC,[8]

Getae/Dacians are acknowledged as belonging to theThracian sphere of influence. Despite this, they are dis-tinguished from other Thracians by particularities of re-ligion and custom.[139] Geto-Dacians and Thracians werekin people but they were not the same.[149] The differ-ences from the southern Thracians or from the neigh-boring Scythians were probably faint, as several an-cient authors make confusions of identification with bothgroups.[139]

In the 19th century, Tomaschek considered a close affin-ity between the Besso-Thracians and Getae-Dacians, anoriginal kinship of both people with Iranian peoples.[150]

They are Aryan tribes, several centuries before Scolotesof the Pont and Sauromatae left the Aryan homeland andsettled in the Carpathian chain, in the Haemus (Balkan)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Tomaschekhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pannonian_plainhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haemushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauromataehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoloteshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Tomaschekhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromichaeteshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythia_Minorhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transylvaniahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pannonian_plainhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strabohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eneolithichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantism

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8   4 HISTORY 

and Rhodope  mountains.[150] The Besso-Thracians andGetae-Dacians separated very early from Aryans, sincetheir language still maintains roots that are missing fromIranian and it shows non-Iranian phonetic characteris-tics (i.e. replacing the Iranian “l” with “r”).[150] Heconsidered that the Geto-Dacians and Besso-Thracians

would represent a new layer of people that extended inthe autochthonous fund, probably Illyrian or Armenian-Phrygian.[150]

4.3 Relations with Celts

See also:  Celts in Transylvania,  Gallic invasion of theBalkans,   Boii,   Taurisci,   Scordisci,  Anartes,   Burebista,List of Celtic cities in Thrace and Dacia and Púchov cul-tureGeto-Dacians inhabited both sides of the Tisa River be-

Diachronic distribution of Celtic peoples: core Hallstatt  territory, by the 6th century BC maximal Celtic expansion, by 275 BC 

fore the rise of the Celtic Boii, and again after the latterwere defeated by the Dacians under king Burebista.[151]

During the second half of the 4th century BC, Celticcultural influence appears in the archaeological recordsof the middle Danube, Alpine region, and north-westernBalkans, where it was part of theMiddle La Tène materialculture. This material appears in north-western and cen-tral Dacia, and is reflected especially in burials.[148] TheDacians absorbed the Celtic influence from the northwestin the early third century BC.[152] Archaeological investi-gation of thisperiod has highlighted several Celtic warriorgraves with military equipment. It suggests the forcefulpenetration of a military Celtic elite within the region ofDacia, now known as Transylvania, that is bounded onthe east by the Carpathian range.[148] The archaeologicalsites of the third and second centuries BC in Transylva-nia revealed a pattern of co-existence and fusion betweenthe bearers of La Tène culture and indigenous Dacians.These were domestic dwellings with a mixture of Celtic

and Dacian pottery, and several graves in the Celtic stylecontaining vessels of Dacian type.[148] There are someseventy Celtic sites in Transylvania, mostly cemeteries,

but most if not all of them indicate that the native popu-lation imitated Celtic art forms that took their fancy, butremained obstinately and fundamentally Dacian in theirculture.[152]

The Celtic Helmet from Satu Mare, Romania (northernDacia), an Iron Age raven totem helmet, dated around4th century BC. A similar helmet is depicted on theThraco-Celtic  Gundestrup cauldron, being worn by oneof the mounted warriors (detail tagged here). See also anillustration of Brennos wearing a similar helmet.

Around 150 BC, La Tène material disappears from thearea. This coincides with the ancient writings which men-tion the rise of Dacian authority. It ended the Celtic dom-ination, and it is possible that Celts were driven out of Da-

cia. Alternatively, some scholars have proposed that theTransylvanian Celts remained, but merged into the localculture and thus ceased to be distinctive.[148][152]

Archaeological discoveries in the settlements and forti-fications of the Dacians in the period of their kingdoms(1st century BC and 1st century AD) included importedCeltic vessels, and others made by Dacian potters imitat-ing Celtic prototypes, showing that relations between theDacians and the Celts from the regions north and west ofDacia continued.[153] In present-day Slovakia, archaeol-ogy has revealed evidence for mixed Celtic-Dacian pop-ulations in the Nitra and Hron river basins.[154]

After the Dacians subdued the Celtic tribes, the remain-ing Cotini stayed in the mountains of Central Slovakia,where they took up mining and metalworking. To-gether with the original domestic population, they cre-ated the Puchov culture that spread into central andnorth-ern Slovakia, including Spis, and penetrated northeasternMoravia and southern Poland. Along the Bodorog Riverin Zemplin they created Celtic-Dacian settlements whichwere known for the production of painted ceramics.[154]

4.4 Relations with Greeks

See also: Decree of Dionysopolis, List of Greek cities inThrace and Dacia and Lysimachus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysimachushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_cities_in_Thrace_and_Daciahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_cities_in_Thrace_and_Daciahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decree_of_Dionysopolishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zempl%C3%ADn_(region)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodoroghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraviahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spi%C5%A1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puchov_culturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotinihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hronhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovakiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts_in_Transylvaniahttp://www.flickr.com/photos/celtico/3751742958/http://www.flickr.com/photos/28433765@N07/3219662507/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundestrup_cauldronhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satu_Mare_Countyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_T%C3%A8nehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallstatt_culturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisa_Riverhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%BAchov_culturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%BAchov_culturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Celtic_cities_in_Thrace_and_Daciahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burebistahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarteshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scordiscihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tauriscihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallic_invasion_of_the_Balkanshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallic_invasion_of_the_Balkanshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts_in_Transylvaniahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenianshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illyrianshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodope_Mountains

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4.7 Relations with Germanic tribes    9

Greek and Roman chroniclers record the defeat and cap-ture of the Macedonian general  Lysimachus in the 3rdcentury BC by the Getae (Dacians) ruled by Dromihete,their military strategy, and the release of Lysimachus fol-

lowing a debate in the assembly of the Getae.

4.5 Relations with Persians

Herodotus says: “before Darius reached the Danube, thefirst people he subdued were the Getae, who believed thatthey never die”.[8] It is possible that the Persian expeditionand the subsequent occupation may have altered the wayin which the Getae expressed the immortality belief. Theinfluence of thirty years of Achaemenid presence may bedetected in the emergence of an explicit iconography ofthe “Royal Hunt” that influenced Dacian and Thracian

metalworkers, and of the practice of hawking by their up-per class.[155]

4.6 Relations with Scythians

See also: Agathyrsi, Scythia Minor, Alans, Roxolani andIazyges

4.6.1 Agathyrsi Transylvania

The Scythians’ arrival in the Carpathian mountains isdated to 700 BC.[156] The Agathyrsi of Transylvania hadbeen mentioned by Herodotus (fifth century BC),[157]

who regarded them as not a Scythian people, but closelyrelated to them. In other respects their customs wereclose to those of the Thracians.[158] The Agathyrsi werecompletely denationalized at the time of Herodotus andabsorbed by the native Thracians.[159][160]

The opinion that the Agathyrsi were almost certainlyThracians results also from the writings preserved byStephen of Byzantium, who explains that the Greekscalled the Trausi  the Agathyrsi, and we know that theTrausi lived in the Rhodope Mountains. Certain detailsfrom their way of life, such as tattooing, also suggest thatthe Agathyrsi were Thracians. Their place was later takenby the Dacians.[161] That the Dacians were of Thracianstock is not in doubt, and it is safe to assume that thisnew name also encompassed the Agathyrsi, and perhapsother neighboring Thracian people as well, as a result ofsome political upheaval.[161]

4.7 Relations with Germanic tribes

See also:   Suebi, Bastarnae, Goths, Marcomannic Warsand Chernyakhov cultureThe Goths, a confederation of east German peoples,

 Tyras

(Dniester) r.

Sarmizegetusa

Viminacium

Salona

MarcianopolisIstrus (Danube) r.

Perinthus

Cyzicus

Ephesus

Salonica

AthensCorinth

AEGEAN SEA

BLACK SEA

Nicopolis

GOTHIC INVASIONS OF 250-251 ADRoman territory  provincial capital

attacked siteNovae

Abritus

Beroe

CNIVA

Novae

N copo s

Philippopolis

CARPI

Map showing the Dacian-speaking Carpi place in invading Ro-man Dacia in AD 250-1, under the Gothic leader  Kniva

arrived in the southern Ukraine no later than 230.[162]

During the next decade, a large section of them moveddown the Black Sea coast and occupied much of the ter-ritory north of the lower Danube.[162] The Goths’ ad-vance towards the area north of the Black Sea involvedcompeting with the indigenous population of Dacian-speaking Carpi, as well as indigenous Iranian-speakingSarmatians and Roman garrison forces.[163] The Carpi,often called “Free Dacians”, continued to dominate theanti-Roman coalition made up of themselves, Taifali, As-tringi, Vandals, Peucini, and Goths until 248, when theGoths assumed the hegemony of the loose coalition.[164]

The first lands taken over by the  Thervingi Goths werein Moldavia, and only during the fourth century did theymove in strength down into the Danubian plain.[165] TheCarpi found themselves squeezed between the advancingGoths and the Roman province of Dacia.[162] In 275 AD,Aurelian surrendered the Dacian territory to the Carpiand the Goths.[166] Over time, Gothic power in the regiongrew, at the Carpi’s expense. The Germanic-speaking

Goths replaced native Dacian-speakers as the dominantforce around the Carpathian mountains.[167] Large num-bers of Carpi, but not all of them, were admitted into theRoman empire in the twenty-five years or so after 290AD.[168] Despite this evacuation of the Carpi around 300AD, considerable groups of the natives (non-RomanizedDacians, Sarmatians and others) remained in place underGothic domination.[169]

In 330 the Gothic Thervingi contemplated moving to theMiddle Danube region, and from 370 relocated with theirfellow Gothic Greuthungi to new homes in the RomanEmpire.[168] The Ostrogoths were still more isolated, but

even the Visigoths preferred to live among their own kind.As a result, the Goths settled in pockets. Finally, althoughRoman towns continued on a reduced level, there is no

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernyakhov_culturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visigothshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrogothshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelianhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thervingihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnivahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernyakhov_culturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcomannic_Warshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastarnaehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suebihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodope_Mountainshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trausihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agathyrsihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trausihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_of_Byzantiumhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agathyrsihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iazygeshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxolanihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alanshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythia_Minorhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agathyrsihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falconryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaemenidhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darius_Ihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromichaeteshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysimachus

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10   4 HISTORY 

question as to their survival.[165]

In 336 AD, Constantine took the title Dacicus Maximus(“The great victory over Dacians”), implying at least par-tial reconquest of Trajan Dacia.[170] In an inscription of337, Constantine was commemorated officially as Ger-

manicus Maximus, Sarmaticus, Gothicus Maximus, andDacicus Maximus, meaning he had defeated the Ger-mans, Sarmatians, Goths, and Dacians.[171]

4.8 Dacian kingdoms

Main article: DaciaSee also: Burebista and DecebalusDacian states arose as a tribal confederacy that included

Dacian kingdom during the reign of  Burebista , 82 BC 

the Getae, the Daci, the Buri, and the Carpi (cf. Bichir1976, Shchukin 1989),[151] united only periodically bythe leadership of Dacian kings such as   Burebista   andDecebal. This union was both military-political andideological-religious.[151] The following are some of theattested Dacian kingdoms:

The kingdom of Cothelas, one of the Getae, covered anarea near the Black Sea, between northern Thrace and theDanube, today Bulgaria, in the 4th century BC.[172] Thekingdom of Rubobostes controlled a region in Transyl-vania in the 2nd century BC.[173] Gaius Scribonius Curio(proconsul 75-3 BC) campaigned successfully against theDardani and the Moesi, becoming the first Roman gen-eral to reach the river Danube with his army. [174] His suc-cessor, Marcus Licinius Lucullus, brother of the famousLucius Lucullus, campaigned against the Thracian Bessitribe andthe Moesi, ravaging the whole of Moesia,there-gion between the Haemus (Balkan) mountain range andthe Danube. In 72 BC, his troops occupied the Greekcoastal cities of Scythia Minor (the modern  Dobruja re-gion in Romania and Bulgaria), which had sided with

Rome’s  Hellenistic arch-enemy, king Mithridates VI ofPontus, in the Third Mithridatic War.[175] Greek geogra-pher Strabo claimed that the Dacians and Getae had been

able to muster a combined army of 200,000 men duringStrabo’s era, the time of Roman emperor Augustus.[176]

4.8.1 The kingdom of Burebista

The Dacian kingdom reached its maximum extent un-der king Burebista (ruled 82 - 44 BC). The capital ofthe kingdom was possibly the city of  Argedava, alsocalled Sargedava in some historical writings, situatedclose to the river Danube. The kingdom of Burebistaextended south of the Danube, in what is today Bul-garia, and the Greeks believed their king was the great-est of all Thracians.[177] During his reign, Burebistatransferred the Geto-Dacians’ capital from Argedava toSarmizegetusa.[178][179] For at least one and a half cen-turies, Sarmizegethusa was the Dacian capital, reachingits acme under king Decebalus. Burebista annexed the

Greek cities (55-48 BC).[180]

Augustus wanted to avengethe defeat of   Gaius Antonius Hybrida   at  Histria (Si-noe) 32 years before, and to recover the lost standards.These were held in a powerful fortress called  Genucla(Isaccea, near modern Tulcea, in the Danube delta re-gion of Romania), controlled by Zyraxes, the local Getanpetty king.[181] The man selected for the task was MarcusLicinius Crassus, grandson of Crassus the triumvir, andan experienced general at 33 years of age, who was ap-pointed proconsul of Macedonia in 29 BC.[182]

4.8.2 The kingdom of Decebalus 87 – 106

By the year AD 100, more than 400,000 square kilo-meters were dominated by the Dacians, who numberedtwo million.[183] Decebalus was the last king of the Da-cians, and despite his fierce resistance against the Ro-mans, was defeated and committed suicide rather thanbeing marched through Rome in a triumph as a capturedenemy leader.

4.9 Conflict with Rome

Main articles:   Domitian’s Dacian War   and   Trajan’sDacian Wars

Burebista’s Dacian state was powerful enough to threatenRome, and Caesar contemplated campaigning against theDacians.[184] Despite this, the formidable Dacian powerunder Burebista lasted only until his death in 44 BC. Thesubsequent division of Dacia continued for about a cen-tury until the reign of Scorilo. This was a period of onlyoccasional attacks on the Roman Empire’s border, withsome local significance.[185]

The unifying actions of the last Dacian king Decebalus

(ruled 87–106 AD) might have been perceived as dan-gerous by Rome, despite the fact that the Dacian armycould now gather only some 40,000 soldiers.[185] In the

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorilohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burebistahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesarhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trajan%2527s_Dacian_Warshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trajan%2527s_Dacian_Warshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domitian%2527s_Dacian_Warhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_triumphhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Triumviratehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Licinius_Crassushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Licinius_Crassus_(consul_30_BC)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Licinius_Crassus_(consul_30_BC)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyraxeshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genuclahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histria_(Sinoe)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histria_(Sinoe)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Antonius_Hybridahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarmizegetusa_Regiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argedavahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Mithridatic_Warhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridates_VIhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobrujahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moesiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucullushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Terentius_Varro_Lucullushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moesihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Scribonius_Curiohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubobosteshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cothelashttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decebalhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burebistahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burebistahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daciahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decebalushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burebistahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia

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4.10 Roman rule   11

Romans’ eyes, the situation at the border with Dacia wasout of control, and Emperor  Domitian (ruled 81 to 96AD)tried desperately to deal with thedanger through mil-itary action. But the outcome of Rome’s disastrous cam-paigns into Dacia in AD 86 and AD 88 pushed Domitianto settle the situation through diplomacy.[185] Emperor

Trajan (ruled 97–117 AD) opted for a different approachand decided to conquer the Dacian kingdom, partly inorder to seize its vast  gold mines. The effort requiredtwo major wars (the Dacian Wars), one in 101–102 ADand the other in 105–106 AD. Only fragmentary detailssurvive of the Dacian war: a single sentence of Trajan’sown Dacica; little more of the Getica written by his doc-tor, T. Statilius Crito; nothing whatsoever of the poemproposed by Caninius Rufus (if it was ever written), DioChrysostom’s Getica or Appian’s Dacica. Nonetheless, areasonable account can be pieced together.[186]

The Dacian wars  depicted on Trajan’s column

In the first war, Trajan invaded Dacia by crossing theriver Danube with a boat-bridge and inflicted a crushingdefeat on the Dacians at the Second Battle of Tapae in101 AD. The Dacian king Decebalus was forced to suefor peace. Trajan and Decebalus then concluded a peacetreaty which was highly favourable to the Romans. Thepeace agreement required the Dacians to cede some ter-ritory to the Romans and to demolish their fortifications.Decebalus’ foreign policy was also restricted, as he wasprohibited from entering into alliances with other tribes.

However, both Trajan and Decebalus considered this onlya temporary truce, and readied themselves for renewedwar. Trajan had Greek engineer Apollodorus of Damas-cus construct a stone bridge over the Danube river, whileDecebalus secretly plotted alliances against the Romans.In 105, Trajan crossed the Danube river and besieged De-cebalus’ capital,  Sarmizegetusa, but the siege failed be-cause of Decebalus’ allied tribes. However, Trajan wasan optimist. He returned with a newly constituted armyand took Sarmizegetusa by assault. Decebalus fled intothe mountains hoping to assemble a new army, but wascornered by pursuing Roman cavalry and committed sui-

cide. The Romans took his head and right hand to Trajan,who had them displayed in the Forums. Trajan’s Columnin Rome was constructed to celebrate the conquest of Da-

cia.

The death of Decebalus (Trajan’s Column, Scene CXLV)

The Roman people hailed Trajan’s triumph in Daciawith the longest and most expensive celebration in their

history.[187]

For his triumph, Trajan gave a 123-day festi-val (ludi) of celebration, in which approximately 11,000animals were slaughtered and 11,000 gladiators fought incombats. This surpassed Emperor Titus’s celebration inAD 70, when a 100-day festival included 3,000 gladiatorsand 5,000 to 9,000 wild animals.[188][189]

4.10 Roman rule

Main article: Roman DaciaSee also: Danubian provinces

Only about half part of Dacia then became a Romanprovince,[190] with a newly built capital at   Ulpia Tra-iana Sarmizegetusa, 40 km away from the site of OldSarmizegetusa, which was razed to the ground. The nameof the Dacians’ homeland, Dacia, became the name ofa Roman province, and the name Dacians was used todesignate peoples of varying ancestry in the region.[191]

Roman Dacia, also  Dacia Traiana  or  Dacia Felix , wasa province of the Roman Empire from 106 to 271 or275 AD.[192][193][193][194]Its territory consisted of easternand southeastern Transylvania, and the regions of Banatand Oltenia (located in modern Romania).[192] Dacia was

organised from the beginning as an  imperial province,and remained so throughout the Roman occupation.[195]

It was one of the empire’s   Latin   provinces; officialepigraphs attest that the language of administration wasLatin.[196] Historian estimates of the population of Ro-man Dacia range from 650,000 to 1,200,000.[197]

Dacians that remained outside the Roman Empire af-ter the Dacian wars of AD 101-106 had been namedDakoi prosoroi (Latin   Daci limitanei ), “neighbouringDacians”.[20] Modern historians use the generic name“Free Dacians” or Independent Dacians .[198][199][200] Thetribes Daci Magni (Great Dacians), Costoboci (generally

considered a Dacian subtribe), and Carpi remained out-side the Roman empire, in what the Romans called  DaciaLibera  (Free Dacia).[191] By the early third century the

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12   5 SOCIETY 

Roman Dacia ,   Moesia Inferior  ,   Moesia Superior   and other Roman provinces 

“Free Dacians” were a significantly troublesome group,by now identified as the Carpi.[198] Bichir argues that theCarpi were the most powerful of the Dacian tribes whohad become the principal enemy of the Romans in theregion.[201] In 214 AD, Caracalla campaigned against theFree Dacians.[202] There were also campaigns against theDacians recorded in 236 AD.[203]

Roman Dacia was evacuated by the Romans under em-peror Aurelian (ruled 271-5 AD). Aurelian made this de-cision on account of barbarian pressures on the Empirethere caused by the Carpi, Visigoths, Sarmatians, and As-

ding Vandals; the lines of defence needed to be shortened,and Dacia was deemed not important enough given thedemands on available resources. Roman power in Thra-cia rested mainly with the legions stationed in Moesia.The rural nature of Thracia’s populations, and the dis-tance from Roman authority, encouraged the presence oflocal troops to support Moesia’s legions. Over the nextfew centuries, the province was periodically and increas-ingly attacked by migrating Germanic tribes. The reignof Justinian saw the construction of over 100 legionaryfortresses to supplement the defense. Thracians in Moe-sia and Dacia were Romanized, while those within theByzantine empire were their Hellenized descendants that

had mingled with the Greeks.

4.11 After the Aurelian Retreat

See also:  Free Dacians, Carpi (people), Costoboci andOrigin of the RomaniansDacia was never a uniformly Romanised area. Post-

Aurelianic Dacia fell into three divisions: the area alongthe river, usually under some type of Roman adminis-tration even if in a highly barbarized form; the zone be-yond this area, from which Roman military personnel had

withdrawn, leaving a sizable population behind that washeavily Romanised; and finally what is now the northernparts of Moldavia, Crisana, and Maramures. This final

Dacian on the Constantine Arch

area was always peripheral to the Roman province, notmilitarily occupied but nonetheless controlled by Romeand part of the Roman economic sphere. Here lived theCarpi, often called “Free Dacians”.[165]

The Aurelian retreat was a purely military decision towithdraw the Roman troops to defend the Danube. Theinhabitants of the old province of Dacia displayed noawareness of impeding disaster. There were no suddenflights or destruction of property.[166] It is not possible todiscern how many civilians followed the army out of Da-cia; it is clear that there was no mass emigration, sincethere is evidence of continuity of settlement in Dacianvillages and farms; the evacuation may not at first havebeen intended to be a permanent measure.[166] The Ro-mans left the province, but they didn’t consider that theylost it.[166] Dobrogea was not abandoned at all, but contin-ued as part of the Roman Empire for over 350 years.[204]

As late as AD 300, the tetrarchic emperors had resettled

tens of thousands of Dacian Carpi inside the empire, dis-persing them in communities the length of the Danube,from Hungary to the Black Sea.[205]

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5.1 Occupations    13

Dacian tarabostes (nobleman) - (Hermitage Museum)

5 Society

Dacians were divided into two classes: the aristocracy(tarabostes ) and the common people (comati ). Only thearistocracy had the right to cover their heads, and wore

a felt hat. The common people, who comprised the rankand file of the army, the peasants and artisans, might havebeencalled capillati in Latin. Theirappearance and cloth-ing can be seen on Trajan’s Column.

5.1 Occupations

The chief occupations of the Dacians were agriculture,apiculture,   viticulture,   livestock,   ceramics   andmetalworking. They also worked the gold and silvermines of Transylvania. At Pecica, Arad a Dacian work-shop was discovered, along with equipment for mintingcoins and evidence of bronze, silver, and iron-workingthat suggests a broad spectrum of smithing.[206] Evidencefor the mass production of iron is found on many Daciansites, indicating guild-like specialization.[206] Dacianceramic manufacturing traditions continue from thepre-Roman to the Roman period, both in provincial andunoccupied Dacia, and well into the fourth and even earlyfifth centuries.[207] They engaged in considerable externaltrade, as is shown by the number of foreign coins foundin the country (see also Decebalus Treasure). On thenorthernmost frontier of “free Dacia”, coin circulationsteadily grew in the first and second centuries, with a

decline in the third and a rise again in the fourth century;the same pattern as observed for the Banat region to thesouthwest. What is remarkable is the extent and increase

Comati on Trajan’s Column, Rome

Dacian tools: compasses, chisels, knives, etc.

in coin circulation even after Roman withdrawal fromDacia, and as far north as Transcarpathia.[208]

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14   6 MATERIAL CULTURE 

5.2 Currency

Geto-Dacian Koson. Mid 1st century BC 

The first coins produced by the Geto-Dacians were im-itations of silver coins of the Macedonian kings PhilipII and Alexander III (the Great). Early in the 1st cen-tury BC, the Dacians replaced these with silver denariiof the Roman Republic, both official coins of Rome ex-

ported to Dacia, as well as locally made imitations ofthem. The Roman province Dacia is represented on theRoman sestertius coin as a woman seated on a rock, hold-ing an aquila, a small child on her knee. The aquila holdsears of grain, and another small child is seated before herholding grapes.

5.3 Construction

See also:   Dacian Fortresses of the Orăştie Mountainsand Murus dacicus

Dacians had developed the   murus dacicus   (double-skinned ashlar-masonry with rubble fill and tie beams)characteristic to their complexes of fortified cities, liketheir capital Sarmizegetusa in what is today HunedoaraCounty, Romania.[206] This type of wall has been discov-ered not only in the Dacian citadel of the Orastie moun-tains, but also in those at Covasna, Breaza near Făgăraș,Tilișca near Sibiu, Căpâlna in the Sebeș valley, Bănița notfar from Petroșani, and Piatra Craivii to the north of AlbaIulia.[209] The degree of their urban development was dis-played on  Trajan’s Column and in the account of how

Sarmizegetusa was defeated by the Romans. The Ro-mans identified and destroyed the aqueducts and pipelinesof the Dacian capital, only thus being able to end the longsiege of Sarmizegetusa.

6 Material culture

See also:   Thracology, Dacology and  Romanian archae-ologySee also the categories Dacian archaeology, Museums ofDacia, and Dacian art.

According to archaeological findings, the cradle of theDacian culture is considered to be north of the Danube to-

wards the Carpathian mountains, in the historical Roma-nian province of Muntenia. It is identified as an evolutionof the Iron Age Basarabi culture. The earlier Iron AgeBasarabi evidence in the northernlower Danube area con-nects to the iron-using Ferigile-Birsesti group. This is anarchaeological manifestation of the historical Getae who,

along with the Agathyrsae, are one of a number of tribalformations recorded by Herodotus.[157][210] In archaeol-ogy, “free Dacians” are attested by the Puchov culture (inwhich there are Celtic elements) and Lipiţa culture to theeast of the Carpathians.[211] The Lipiţa culture has a Da-cian/North Thracian origin.[212] [213] This North Thracianpopulation was dominated by strong Celtic influences,or had simply absorbed Celtic ethnic components.[214]

Lipiţa culture has been linked to the Dacian tribe ofCostoboci.[215][216]

Specific Dacian material culture includes: wheel-turnedpottery that is generally plain but with distinctive elite

wares, massive silver dress fibulae, precious metal plate,ashlar masonry, fortifications, upland sanctuaries withhorseshoe-shaped precincts, and decorated clay heart al-tars at settlement sites. Among many discoveredartifacts,the Dacian bracelets  stand out, depicting their culturaland aesthetic sense.[206] There are difficulties correlatingfunerary monuments chronologically with Dacian settle-ments; a small number of burials are known, along withcremation pits, and isolated rich burials as at Cugir.[206]

Dacian burial ritual continued under Roman occupationand into the post-Roman period.[217]

6.1 Language

Main article: Dacian languageSee also:   Davae,  Thracian language and Languages ofthe Roman Empire

The Dacians are generally considered to have been Thra-cian speakers, representing a cultural continuity from ear-lier Iron Age communities.[79] Some historians and lin-guists consider Dacian language to be a dialect of orthe same language as   Thracian.[139][218] The vocalism

and consonantism differentiate the Dacian and Thracianlanguages.[219] Others consider that Dacian and Illyrianform regional varieties (dialects) of a common lan-guage. (Thracians inhabited modern southern Bulgariaand northern Greece. Illyrians lived in modern Serbia,Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia.)

The ancient languages of these people became extinct,and their cultural influence highly reduced, after the re-peated invasions of the Balkans by Celts, Huns, Goths,and Sarmatians, accompanied by persistent hellenization,romanisation and later  slavicisation. Therefore, in thestudy of the toponomy of Dacia, one must take account

of the fact that some place-names were taken by the Slavsfrom as yet unromanised Dacians.[220] A number of Da-cian words are preserved in ancient sources, amounting to

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6.3 Religion   15

about 1150 anthroponyms and 900 toponyms, and in Dis-corides some of the rich plant lore of the Dacians is pre-served along with the names of 42 medicinal plants.[10]

6.2 Symbols

The Dacians knew about writing.[221][222][223] Permanentcontacts with the Graeco-Roman world had brought theuse of the Greek and later the Latin alphabet.[224] It isalso certainly not the case that writing with Greek andLatin letters and knowledge of Greek and Latin wereknown in all the settlements scattered throughout Dacia,but there is no doubt about the existence of such knowl-edge in some circles of Dacian society.[225] However, themost revealing discoveries concerning the use of the writ-ing by the Dacians occurred in the citadels on the Sebesmountains.[224] Some groups of letters from stone blocks

at Sarmisegetuza might express personal names; thesecan not now be read because the wall is ruined, and be-cause it is impossible to restore the original order of theblocks in the wall.[226]

6.3 Religion

Main article: Dacian mythologyDacian religion was considered by the classic sources as

a key source of authority, suggesting to some that Da-cia was a predominantly theocratic state led by priest-kings. However, the layout of the Dacian capital

Sarmizegethusa indicates the possibility of co-rulership,with a separate high king and high priest.[151] Ancientsources recorded the names of several Dacian highpriests (Deceneus, Comosicus and Vezina) and variousorders of priests: “god-worshipers”, “smoke-walkers”and “founders”.[151] Both Hellenistic and Oriental influ-ences are discernible in the religious background, along-side chthonic and solar motifs.[151]

According to Herodotus’ account of thestoryof Zalmoxisor Zamolxis,[8] the Getae (speaking the same language asthe Dacians and the Thracians, according to  Strabo) be-lieved in the immortality of the soul, and regarded death

as merely a change of country. Their chief priest held aprominent position as the representative of the supremedeity, Zalmoxis, who is called also Gebeleizis by someamong them.[8][227] Strabo wrote about the high priest ofKing Burebista Deceneus: “a man who not only had wan-dered throughEgypt, but also had thoroughly learned cer-tain prognostics through which he would pretend to tellthe divine will; and within a short time he was set up asgod (as I said when relating the story of Zamolxis).”[228]

The Goth Jordanes in his Getica (The origin and deeds of the Goths ), also gives an account of Deceneus the high-est priest, and considered Dacians a nation related to the

Goths. Besides Zalmoxis, the Dacians believed in otherdeities, such as Gebeleizis, the god of storm andlightning,possibly related to the Thracian god   Zibelthiurdos.[229]

Detail ofthe main fresco ofthe Aleksandrovo kurgan. The figureis identified with Zalmoxis.

He was represented as a handsome man, sometimes witha beard. Later Gebeleizis was equated with Zalmoxis asthe same god. According to Herodotus, Gebeleizis (*Ze-beleizis/Gebeleizis who is only mentioned by Herodotus)is just another name of Zalmoxis.[230][8][231][232]

Another important deity was  Bendis, goddess of themoon and the hunt.[233] By a decree of the   oracle ofDodona, which required the Athenians to grant land for

a shrine or temple, her cult was introduced into  Atticaby immigrant Thracian residents,[234] and, though Thra-cian and Athenian processions remained separate, both

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attica,_Greecehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodonahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodonahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bendishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandrovo_kurganhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zibelthiurdoshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_origin_and_deeds_of_the_Gothshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_origin_and_deeds_of_the_Gothshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geticahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordaneshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deceneushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strabohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zalmoxishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chthonichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacian_mythology

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Votive stele representing Bendis wearing a Dacian cap (BritishMuseum)

cult and festival became so popular that in Plato’s time(c. 429-13 BC) its festivities were naturalised as an offi-cial ceremony of the Athenian city-state, called the  Ben-

dideia.[235]

Known Dacian theonyms include  Zalmoxis ,   Gebeleïzis and   Darzalas .[236][237] Gebeleizis is probably cognateto the Thracian god Zibelthiurdos (also   Zbelsurdos ,Zibelthurdos ), wielder of lightning and thunderbolts.Derzelas  (also  Darzalas ) was a chthonic god of healthand human vitality. The pagan religion survived longerin Dacia than in other parts of the empire; Christianitymade little headway until the fifth century.[166]

6.4 Pottery

A fragment of a vase collected by Mihail Dimitriu at the site of Poiana, Galaţi  (Piroboridava), Romania illustrating the use of Greek and Latin letters by a Dacian potter (source:  Dacia jour-nal  , 1933)

Fragments of pottery with different “inscriptions” withLatin and Greek letters incised before and after fir-ing have been discovered in the settlement at Ocnita– Valcea.[238] An inscription carries the word Basileus(Βασιλεύς in Greek, meaning “king”) and seems to havebeen written before the vessel was hardened by fire. [239]

Other inscriptions contain the name of the king, believedto be Thiemarcus,[239] and Latin groups of letters (BVR,

REB).[240] BVR indicates the name of the tribe or unionof tribes, the Buridavensi Dacians who lived at Buridavaand who were mentioned by Ptolemy in the second cen-

tury AD under the name of Buridavensioi.[241]

6.5 Clothing and science

The typical dress of Dacians, both men and women, can

be seen on Trajan’s column.[143] Dio Chrysostom de-scribed the Dacians as natural philosophers.[242]

Dacian women

7 Warfare

Main article: Dacian warfare

The history of Dacian warfare spans from c. 10th cen-tury BC up to the 2nd century AD in the region typicallyreferred to by Ancient Greek and Latin historians as Da-cia. It concerns the armed conflicts of the Dacian tribesand their kingdoms in the Balkans. Apart from conflictsbetween Dacians and neighboring nations and tribes, nu-merous wars were recorded among Dacian tribes as well.

7.1 Weapons

See also: Falx and Sica

The weapon most associated with the Dacian forces thatfought against Trajan’s armyduring his invasions of Daciawas the falx, a single-edged scythe-like weapon. The falx

was able to inflict horrible wounds on opponents, easilydisabling or killing the heavily armored Roman legionar-ies that they faced. This weapon, more so than any other

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falxhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falxhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacian_warfarehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia_(journal)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia_(journal)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaniahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piroboridavahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poiana,_Gala%C5%A3ihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihail_Dimitriuhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derzelashttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museumhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum

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single factor, forced the Roman army to adopt previouslyunused or modified equipment to suit the conditions onthe Dacian battlefield.[243]

8 Notable individuals

See also: List of Dacian kings, Burebista and Decebalus

This is a list of several important Dacian individuals orthose of partly Dacian origin.

•   Zalmoxis, a semi-legendary social and religious re-former, eventually deified by the Getae and Daciansand regarded as the only true god.

•   Zoltes

•   Burebista   was a king of Dacia, 70–44 BC, whounited under his rule Thracians in a large terri-tory, from today’s   Moravia   in the West, to theSouthern Bug river (Ukraine) in the East, and fromthe Northern  Carpathian Mountains   to SouthernDionysopolis. The Greeks considered him the firstand greatest king of Thrace.[177]

•   Decebalus, a king of Dacia who was ultimately de-feated by the forces of Trajan.

•   Diegis was a Dacian chief, general and brother ofDecebalus, and his representative at the peace ne-

gotiations held with Domitian (89 CE)

9 See also

•   Moesi

•   Thracians

•   Illyrians

•   Scythians

•

  Sarmatians•   Cimmerians

•   Dacia

•   List of rulers of Thrace and Dacia

•   List of cities in Thrace and Dacia

•   Dacian language

•  List of Dacian names

•   Thrace

•   Thracology

•   Odrysian kingdom

•  Thracian language

•   Thracian mythology

•  Thraco-Dacian

•  Thraco-Cimmerian

•  Thraco-Illyrian

•

  Thraex

10 Notes

[1]  Strabo 20 AD, VII 3,12.

[2]   Dionysius Periegetes,   Graece et Latine, Volume 1, Li-braria Weidannia, 1828, p. 145.

[3]  Nandris 1976, p. 731.

[4]   Husovská 1998, p. 187.

[5]  Encyclopædia Britannica - Dacia.

[6]  Appian 165 AD, Praef. 4/14-15, quoted in [7]

[7]  Millar 2004, p. 189: “the Getae over the Danube, whomthey call Dacians”

[8]  Herodotus 440 BC, 4.93-4.97.

[9]  Fol 1996, p. 223.

[10]   Nandris 1976, p. 730: Strabo and TrogusPompeius “Daciquoque suboles Getarum sunt”

[11]   Crossland & Boardman 1982, p. 837.

[12]  Roesler 1864, p. 89.

[13]  Zumpt & Zumpt 1852, pp. 140 & 175.

[14]   Van Den Gheyn 1886, p. 170.

[15]  Everitt 2010, p. 151.

[16]  Bunbury 1979, p. 150.

[17]  Oltean 2007, p. 44.

[18]  Bunbury 1979, p. 151.

[19]  Riley 2007, p. 107.

[20] Garašanin, Benac (1973) 243

[21]  Parvan, Vulpe & Vulpe 2002, p. 158.

[22] Dioscorides’s book (known in English by its Latin title DeMateria Medica ‘Regarding Medical Materials’) has all