Dacians
Encyclopedia
Indo-European
Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...
people, very close or part of the Thracians
Thracians
The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...
. Dacians were the ancient inhabitants of Dacia
Dacia
In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...
(located in the area in and around the Carpathian Mountains
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...
and east of there to the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
). This area includes the present-day countries of Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
and Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
, as well as parts of Sarmatia
Sarmatia
Sarmatia or Sarmatian can refer to:* the land of Sarmatians, western Scythia as described by many classical authors, such as Herodotus in the 5th century BC* Sarmatian languages, part of Scythian languages...
(mostly in eastern Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
), Moesia
Moesia
Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube River. It included territories of modern-day Southern Serbia , Northern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobrudja, Southern Moldova, and Budjak .-History:In ancient...
(Eastern Serbia, Northern Bulgaria
Northern Bulgaria
Northern Bulgaria is the northern half of the territory of Bulgaria, located to the north of the main ridge of the Balkan Mountains which conventionally separates the country into a northern and a southern part...
), Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. They spoke the Dacian language
Dacian language
The extinct Dacian language may have developed from proto-Indo-European in the Carpathian region around 2,500 BC and probably died out by AD 600. In the 1st century AD, it was the predominant language of the ancient regions of Dacia and Moesia and, possibly, of some surrounding regions.It belonged...
, believed to have been closely related to Thracian
Thracian language
The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times in Southeastern Europe by the Thracians, the northern neighbors of the Ancient Greeks. The Thracian language exhibits satemization: it either belonged to the Satem group of Indo-European languages or it was strongly...
, but were culturally influenced by the neighbouring Scythians and by the Celtic invaders of the 4th century BC.
Name
The Dacians (tribe) were known as Geta (plural Getae) in Ancient GreekAncient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
writings, and as Dacus (plural Daci) and also Getae in Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
documents ; also as Dagae and Gaete—see the late Roman map Tabula Peutingeriana
Tabula Peutingeriana
The Tabula Peutingeriana is an itinerarium showing the cursus publicus, the road network in the Roman Empire. The original map of which this is a unique copy was last revised in the fourth or early fifth century. It covers Europe, parts of Asia and North Africa...
. It was Herodotus who first used the ethnonym Getae; in Greek and Latin, in the writings of Caesar, Strabo and Pliny the Elder, this people becomes ‘the Dacians’. There is no doubt that Getae and Dacians were interchangeable terms or used with some confusion by the Greeks. Latin poets for designating the Daci often used the name Getae.. Virgilius named them four times Getae and one time Daci, Lucian
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.His ethnicity is disputed and is attributed as Assyrian according to Frye and Parpola, and Syrian according to Joseph....
three times Getae and two times Daci, Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
cited two times Getae and five times Daci, Juvenal
Juvenal
The Satires are a collection of satirical poems by the Latin author Juvenal written in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD.Juvenal is credited with sixteen known poems divided among five books; all are in the Roman genre of satire, which, at its most basic in the time of the author, comprised a...
one time Daci and two times Daci etc. In AD 113, Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
used the poetic term Getae for the Dacians.Contemporary historians are more prudent and prefer to use the name Geto-Dacians . Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
, who describes Getae and Dacians as distinct, though cognate tribes, states that they spoke the same language . This distinction refers to the regions they occupied. Strabo and Pliny the Elder state they spoke the same language . Probably the name of Getae, by which they were originally known to the Greeks on the Euxine, was always retained by the latter in common usage: while that of Dacians, whatever be its origin, was that by which the more western tribes, adjoining the Pannonians, first became known to the Romans. According to Strabo's Geographica
Géographica
Géographica is the French-language magazine of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society , published under the Society's French name, the Société géographique royale du Canada . Introduced in 1997, Géographica is not a stand-alone publication, but is published as an irregular supplement to La...
, the original name of the Dacians was "Daoi", . The name Daoi (one of the ancient Geto-Dacian tribes) was certainly adopted by foreign observers to designate all the inhabitants of the as yet unconquered countries north of Danube.
The ethnographic name Daci is found under various forms within ancient sources.
Greeks used the forms Dakoi (Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
, Dio Cassius
Dio Cassius
Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus , known in English as Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius, or Dio was a Roman consul and a noted historian writing in Greek...
and Dioscorides) and "Daoi" (pl. Daoi, sg. Daos). The form "Daoi" was frequently used according to Stephan of Byzantium
Latins used the forms Davus, Dacus and a derived form Dacisci (Vopiscus and inscriptions, ). The same name is often used in the geographical vocabulary of the Ancient Persia .where Pliny
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
names among the people of Sogdians the Dahae
Dahae
The Dahae , or Dahaeans were a confederacy of three Ancient Iranian tribes who lived in the region to the immediate east of the Caspian Sea. They spoke an Eastern Iranian language.-Records:...
(Greek ; Latin Daci).
By the end of the first century AD, all the inhabitants of the lands which now form Romania were known to the Romans as Daci, with the exception of some Celtic and Germanic tribes who infiltrated from the west and of Sarmatian and related people from the east.
Etymology
The name Daci, Daki ‘Dacians’ is a collective ethnonym. Dio Cassius confirmed that they themselves used that name and the Romans so called them, while the Greeks called them Getae.The name Getae probably originates in the Indo-European *guet- ‘to utter, to talk’.
As far as the origins of the name Daci are concerned, opinions are divided. Some scholars consider it to originate in the Indo-European *dha-k-, with the stem *dhe- "to put, to place," others think that the name Daci originates in *daca — "knife, dagger" or in a word similar to daos, meaning "wolf in the related language of the Phrygians.
Other hypothesis was that "Getae" and "Daci" are two Iranian names of two Scythian groups, Iranian- speaking, that had been assimilated into the large Thracian-speaking population of the later known "Dacia".
Early history of etymological approaches
- In the 1st century AD, Strabo suggested that its stem formed a name previously borne by slaves: Greek Daos, Latin Davus (-k- is a known suffix in Indo-European ethnic names).
- In the 18th century, Grimm proposed the GothicGothic languageGothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
dags "day" that would give the meaning of "light, brilliant". Yet, dags belongs to the Sanskrit word-root dah- and a derivation from Dah to "Daci", is difficult to be explained. - In the 19th century, Tomaschek (1883) proposed for the form "Dak" those who understand and can speak, by considering "Dak" as a derivation of the root da("k" being a suffix) cf. SanskritSanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
dasa, Bactrian daonha. Also, Tomaschek (1883) proposed for the name's form "Davus" the meaning of 'members of the clan/countryman' cf. BactrianBactrian languageThe Bactrian language is an extinct Eastern Iranian language which was spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria. Linguistically, it is classified as belonging to the middle period of the East Iranian branch...
daqyu, danhu "canton".
Modern times
- The PIE *dhe-, ‘to set, place’ from where dheua > dava ‘settlement’ and Dhe-k > Daci 'Dacian' is supported by Russu (1967).
- "Daos" 'wolf' was suggested in 1957 by Decev as a possible connection with the PhrygianPhrygian languageThe Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians, spoken in Asia Minor during Classical Antiquity .Phrygian is considered to have been closely related to Greek....
daos, meaning "wolf" . (Phrygian "daos" 'wolf' is attested by HesychiusHesychiusHesychius , may refer to:*Hesychius of Alexandria, lexicographer*St. Hesychius of Cazorla, saint, martyr, and bishop*Hesychius of Jerusalem, presbyter and exegete*Hesychius of Sinai, hieromonk and Byzantine author*Hesychius of Antioch...
's gloss, ). This hypothesis has had a large diffusion due to the late Mircea Eliade. The identification or connection with wolves is not unique to Dacians but also present to other ancient Indo-EuropeanIndo-EuropeanIndo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...
tribes, including Luvians, LyciansLycians-Historical accounts:According to Herodotus, the Lycians originally came from Crete and were the followers of Sarpedon. They were expelled by Minos and ultimately settled in territories belonging to the Solymoi of Milyas in Asia Minor. The Lycians were originally known as Termilae before being...
, Lucanians, Hyrcanians, DahaeDahaeThe Dahae , or Dahaeans were a confederacy of three Ancient Iranian tribes who lived in the region to the immediate east of the Caspian Sea. They spoke an Eastern Iranian language.-Records:...
etc., . The assumption of Daoi (wolf?) may be supported also by the fact that one of the Dacian standards, the Dacian DracoDacian DracoThe Dacian Draco was the standard and ensign of troops of the ancient Eastern European Dacian people, which can be seen in the hands of the soldiers of Decebalus in several scenes depicted on Trajan's Column in Rome, Italy. It has the form of a dragon with open wolf-like jaws containing several...
, had a wolf's head on it. Phrygii was another name used within the region, and in later times, some Roman auxiliaries recruited from the area were referred to as Phrygi.The German linguist Paul KretschmerPaul KretschmerPaul Kretschmer was a German linguist who studied the earliest history and interrelations of the Indo-European languages and showed how they were influenced by non-Indo-European languages, such as Etruscan....
explained “daos” with the root dhau, meaning to press, to gather, to strangle (as the wolves use the neck bite to kill their prey).. According to Romanian historian and archaeologist Alexandru Vulpe, the Dacian etymology explained by daos 'wolf' has little plausibility, as the draco was not unique to Dacians, while the transformation of daos into dakos phonetically improbable. He thus dismisses it as folk etymology. - The form "Daus" or "Davus" could be also compared to a similar ethnikon in Old Persian "Daos" and to a Phrygian deity also called "Daos".
Mythological theories
Romanian historian of religions Mircea EliadeMircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...
attempted, in his book "From Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis , is a divinity of the Getae, mentioned by Herodotus in his Histories IV, 93-96...
to Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
", to give a mythological foundation to an alleged special relation between "Dacians and the wolves":
- Dacians might have called themselves "wolves" or "ones the same with wolves", a fact with religious significance
- Dacians draw their name from a god or a legendary ancestor who came forward as a wolf
- Dacians had taken their name from a group of fugitive immigrants arrived from other regions or from their own Dacian young outlaws, who acted in similar manner as the wolves circling around villages and living from looting. As it was the case in other societies, those young members of the community needed to go through an initiation, maybe up to a year, during which they were required to live as a "wolf". Comparatively, HittiteHittitesThe Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
laws referred to the fugitive outlaws as "wolves". - The existence of a ritual that provides one with the ability to turn into a wolf. Such a transformation may be related either with lycanthropyLycanthropyLycanthropy is the professed ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a werewolf, or to gain wolf-like characteristics. The term comes from Greek Lykànthropos : λύκος, lykos + άνθρωπος, ànthrōpos...
itself, a widespread phenomenon, but attested especially in the BalkansBalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
-CarpathianCarpathianCarpathian may refer to:*Carpathian Mountains of Central and Eastern Europe*Carpathian Convention on sustainable development in that region*Carpathian Shepherd Dog, a Romanian sheep dog*Subcarpathian Voivodeship, an administrative division of Poland...
region, or a ritual imitation of the behavior and appearance of the wolf. Such a ritual was presumably a military initiation, potentially reserved to a secret brotherhood of warriors (or Männerbünde). To become formidable warriors they would magically assimilate the beast behavior of the wolf, by wearing wolf skins during the ritual. Traces related to wolves as a cult or as totems were found in this area since the NeolithicNeolithicThe Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
period as is the case with Vinča cultureVinca cultureThe Vinča culture is a Neolithic archaeological culture in Southeastern Europe, dated to the period 5500–4500 BCE. Named for its type site, Vinča-Belo Brdo, a large tell settlement discovered by Serbian archaeologist Miloje Vasić in 1908, it represents the material remains of a prehistoric society...
artifacts: wolves statues and fairly rudimentary figurines representing dancers with a wolf mask. The items could indicate warrior initiation rites or ceremonies in which young people put their seasonal wolf masks. The element of unity of beliefs about werewolves and lycanthropy consists in the magical-religious experience of mystical solidarity with the wolf by whatever means used to obtain it. But all have one original myth, a primary event.
Origins and ethnogenesis
In absence of written historical records, the origins of the Dacians (and Thracians) remain obscure. Evidence of proto-Thracians or proto-Dacians in the prehistoric period depends on remains of material cultureMaterial culture
In the social sciences, material culture is a term that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations. Studying a culture's relationship to materiality is a lens through which social and cultural attitudes can be discussed...
. It is generally proposed that a proto-Dacian or proto-Thracian people developed from a mixture of indigenous peoples
Neolithic Europe
Neolithic Europe refers to a prehistoric period in which Neolithic technology was present in Europe. This corresponds roughly to a time between 7000 BC and c. 1700 BC...
and Indo-Europeans
Proto-Indo-Europeans
The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language , a reconstructed prehistoric language of Eurasia.Knowledge of them comes chiefly from the linguistic reconstruction, along with material evidence from archaeology and archaeogenetics...
from the time of Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European may refer to:*Proto-Indo-European language, the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages.*Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language....
expansion in the Early Bronze Age(3,300–3,000 BCE) when the latter, around 1500 BC, conquered the indigenous peoples. The indigenous people were the Danubian farmers and the invading people of the BC 3rd millennium were the Kurgan warrior-herders from Ukraine-Russian steppes .
Indo-Europeanization was certainly complete by the beginning of the Bronze Age. It is safer to name the people of that time proto-Thracians, from whom there developed in the Iron Age Danubian-Carpathian Geto-Dacians on the one hand and Thracians of the eastern Balkan Peninsula on the other .
The eastern branch who were settled between the Isker, Yantra and Danube rivers were called the Getae and the western group of the culture became known as the Dacian. They all spoke a Thracian dialect (Indo-European) and were mainly sedentary grain farmers who also worked mines of gold, silver and later iron. The tribes were headed by chieftains with religious responsibilities and practice similar to the Brahmins of India, the magi of the Persians and the druids of Ireland.
Between BC 15th-12th century, the Dacian-Getae culture was influenced by the Bronze Age Tumulus-Urnfield warriors who were on their way through the Balkans to Anatolia.
When the La Tene Celts arrived in BC 4th century, the Dacians were under the influence of the Scythians.
Alexander of Macedonia attacked the Getae in BC 335 on the lower Danube but by BC 300 they had formed a state, founded on a military democracy and began a period of conquest.
More Celts arrived during the BC 3rd century and in BC 1st Century the fearsome Boii made the mistake of trying to take away some of the Dacians’ territory, on east side of the Teiss river. The Dacians drove the Boii south across the Danube and out of their territory at which point the Boii gave up and went away. .
Identity and distribution
In BC 53, Caesar stated that the Dacian territory was on the eastern border of the Hercynian forest
Hercynian Forest
The Hercynian Forest was an ancient and dense forest that stretched eastward from the Rhine River across southern Germany and formed the northern boundary of that part of Europe known to writers of antiquity. The ancient sources are equivocal about how far east it extended...
. According to Strabo's Geografica (written around AD 20), the Getes (Geto-Dacians) bordered with the Suevi, who lived in the Hercynian Forest
Hercynian Forest
The Hercynian Forest was an ancient and dense forest that stretched eastward from the Rhine River across southern Germany and formed the northern boundary of that part of Europe known to writers of antiquity. The ancient sources are equivocal about how far east it extended...
, which some locates somewhere in the vicinity of the river Duria, the present-day Vah (Waag). Dacians lived on both sides of the Danube , . According to Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
when speaking of the Getae, Moesians also “lived on both sides of the Danube .
According to Agrippa, Dacia was limited by the Baltic Ocean in the North and by the Vistula in the West . People’s names and settlements confirms the Dacia’s borders given by Agrippa ,. Dacian people were living also South of Danube.
Linguistic affiliation
The Dacians and Getae were always considered as Thracians by the ancients (Dio Cassius, Trogus Pompeius, Appian, Strabo and Pliny the Elder), and were both said to speak the same Thracian language.The linguistic affiliation of Dacian is uncertain since the ancient Indo-European
Indo-European
Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...
language in question became extinct and left very limited traces (in the form of place-names, plant names and personal names). Thraco-Dacian (or Thracian and Daco-Mysian) seems to belong to the eastern (satem) group of Indo- European languages .There are two contradictory theories:
- Some scholars (such as Tomaschek 1883; Russu 1967; Solta 1980; Crossland 1982; Vraciu 1980) consider Dacian was a Thracian language, or it was a dialect (idiom) of the Thracian language. This view is supported by R.G. SoltaŠoltaŠolta is an island in Croatia. It is situated in the Adriatic Sea in the central Dalmatian archipelago, west of the island of Brač, south of Split and east of the Drvenik islands . Its area is 58.98 km2 and it has a population of 1,675 .The highest peak of Šolta is the summit Vela Straža...
who says that Thracian and Dacian are very closely related languages. - Other scholars (such as Georgiev 1965 Duridanov 1976) consider that Thracian and Dacian are two different and specific Indo- European languages which cannot be reduced to a common language
Linguists such as Polome and Katičić expressed reserves to both theories.
- 1) The Dacians are generally considered to have been Thracian speakers, representing a cultural continuity from earlier Iron Age communities loosely termed Getic. Since on one interpretation, Dacian is a variety of Thracian, for the reasons of convenience, it is adopted the generic term ‘Daco-Thracian” and reserved the term ‘Dacian’ for the language or dialect spoken north of Danube, in present-day Romania and eastern Hungary, and ‘Thracian’ for the variety spoken south of Danube . It is no doubt that Thracian language was related to the Dacian language which was spoken in what is today Romania before that area was occupied by the Romans.. Also, both Thracian and Dacian have one of the main satem characteristic change of Indo-European language *k and *g to *s and *z .
With regard to the term ‘Getic’ (Getae) even though attempts have been made to distinguish between Dacian and Getic, there seems 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 Daci in the west of the area and the Getae further east), were one and the same people and spoke the same language.
Another variety that has sometimes been recognized is that of Moesian (or Mysian) for the language of an intermediate area immediately to the south of Danube in Serbia, Bulgaria and Romanian Dobruja: this and the dialects north of the Danube have been grouped together as Daco-Moesian. The language of the indigenous population has hardly left any trace in the anthroponomy of Moesia, but the toponymy indicates that the Moesii on the south bank of the Danube, north of the Haemus Mountains, and the Triballi on the valley of the Morava, shared a number of characteristic linguistic features with the Dacii south of the Carpathians and the Getae in the Wallachian plain, which sets them apart from the Thracian though their languages are undoubtedly related.
- 2) Vladimir GeorgievVladimir I. GeorgievVladimir Ivanov Georgiev was a prominent Bulgarian linguist, philologist, and educational administrator. He made multiple contributions to the field of Thracology, including a linguistic interpretation of an inscription discovered at the village of Kyolmen in the Shoumen district of northeastern...
disputes that Dacian and Thracian were closely related for various reasons, most notably that Dacian and Moesian town names commonly end with the suffix -DAVADava (Dacian)Dava is a Geto-Dacian name for a city, town or fortress. Generally, the name indicated a tribal center or an important settlement, usually fortified...
, while towns in ThraceThraceThrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
proper (i.e. South of the Balkan mountainsBalkan MountainsThe Balkan mountain range is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Balkan range runs 560 km from the Vrashka Chuka Peak on the border between Bulgaria and eastern Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea...
) generally end in -PARA. (see Dacian languageDacian languageThe extinct Dacian language may have developed from proto-Indo-European in the Carpathian region around 2,500 BC and probably died out by AD 600. In the 1st century AD, it was the predominant language of the ancient regions of Dacia and Moesia and, possibly, of some surrounding regions.It belonged...
)According to Georgiev, the language spoken by the ethnic Dacians should be classified as "Daco-Moesian" and regarded as distinct from Thracian.
Georgiev also claimed that names from approximately Roman Dacia and Moesia show different and generally less extensive changes in Indo-European consonants and vowels than those found in Thrace itself. However, the evidence seems to indicate divergence of a Thraco-Dacian language into northern and southern groups of dialects, not as different as to rank as separate languages.
Polome consider that such lexical differentiation ( -dava vs. para) would, however, be hardly enough evidence to separate Daco-Moesian from Thracian .
Tribes
An extensive reference to the native tribes in Dacia can be found in the ninth tabula of Europe of Ptolemy’s Geography . The Geography was probably written in the period AD 140-150, but the sources were often earlier i.e. Roman Britain is shown before the building of Hadrian’s Wall in the AD 120s . Geography of Ptolemy contains also a physical map probably designed before the Roman conquest, and containing no detailed nomenclature. Some refers to Tabula peutingeriana, yet it is evident at any rate that the Dacian map of the Tabula has been completed after the final triumph of Roman nationality . Ptolemy's list includes no fewer than twelve tribes with Geto-Dacian names
The 15 tribes of Dacia named by Ptolemy, starting from the northernmost ones are the followings : the Anartes, the Teurisci
Teurisci
Teurisci was a Dacian tribe at the time of Ptolemy . They are considered originally Celts, a branch of the Celtic Taurisci , who moved to Upper Tisza...
and the Coertoboci /Costoboci
Costoboci
The Costoboci were an ancient people located, during the Roman imperial era, between the Carpathian Mountains and the river Dniester.The Costoboci invaded the Roman empire in AD 170 or 171, pillaging its Balkan provinces as far as central Greece, until they were driven out by Romans...
. To the south of them the Buredeense (Buri
Burs (Dacia)
The Burs were a Dacian tribe living in Dacia in the 1st and 2nd centuries Common Era, with their capital city at Buridava.- Name :...
/ Burs
BURS
BURS theory tackles the problem of taking a complex expression tree or intermediate language term and finding a good translation to machine code for a particular architecture...
), the Cotense / Cotini
Cotini
Cotini was a Celtic tribe most probably living in today's Slovakia, and in Moravia and southern Poland. They were probably identical or constituted a significant part of the archaeological Púchov culture, with the center in Havránok.The tribe was first time mentioned in 10 BC in the Elogium of...
and in a next row the Albocense
Albocense
Albocense was a Dacian tribe that inhabited the area of Banat with the towns of Kovin , Trans Tierna, Ad Medias II, Kladovo , Apu, Arcidava, Centum Putea, Ram and Praetorium I. They lived between the Timiş River and north of the Saldenses, south of the Biephi...
, the Potulatense
Potulatense
Potulatense was a Dacian tribe....
and the Sense
Sense
Senses are physiological capacities of organisms that provide inputs for perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology , and philosophy of perception...
, while the southernmost were the Saldense
Saldense
Saldense was a Dacian tribe....
, the Ciaginsi
Ciaginsi
Ciaginsi was a Dacian tribe....
and the Piephigi
Piephigi
Piephigi was a Dacian tribe....
. To the south of them were Predasense
Predasense
The Predasense were a Dacian tribe....
/ Predavensi, the Rhadacense
Rhadacense
Rhadacense was a Dacian tribe....
/ Rhatacenses, the Caucoense (Cauci) and Biephi
Biephi
Biephi was a Dacian tribe....
. Twelve out of these fifteen tribes listed by Ptolemy are ethnic-Dacians and three are Celt Anarti, Teurisci, Cotense
There are also previous brief mentions of other Getae or Dacian tribes on the left and right banks of the Danube, or even in Transylvania to be added to the list of Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
. Among these other tribes are Trixae
Trixae
Trixae was a Dacian tribe....
, Crobidae and Appuli.
Some peoples inhabiting the region generally described in Roman times as "Dacia" were not ethnic-Dacians. The true Dacians were a people of Thracian descent. German elements (Daco-Germans ), Celtic elements(Daco-Celtic ) and Iranian elements (Daco-Sarmatian) occupied territories in the north-western and north eastern of Dacia. This region covered roughly the same area as modern Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
plus Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
(Rep. of Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
) and eastern Galicia (SW. Ukraine) (although Ptolemy places Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
and Bessarabia in Sarmatia Europaea, rather than Dacia). After the Dacian Wars (AD 101-6), the Romans occupied only about half the wider Dacian region. The Roman province of Dacia covered just western Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
as far as the Limes Transalutanus
Limes Transalutanus
Limes Transalutanus is a fortified frontier system of the Roman Empire, built on the western edge of Teleorman's forests. The frontier was composed by a road following the border, military stonghold, a three metre vallum 10–12 metres wide, reinforced with wood palisades on stone walls, and also a...
(East of the river Aluta, or Olt
Olt River
The Olt River is a river in Romania. It is the longest river flowing exclusively through Romania. Its source is in the Hăşmaş Mountains of the eastern Carpathian Mountains, near the village Bălan. It flows through the Romanian counties Harghita, Covasna, Braşov, Sibiu, Vâlcea and Olt...
) and Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, as bordered by the Carpathians.
The impact of the Roman conquest on these people is uncertain.
- One hypothesis was that they were effectively eliminated, through war casualties. An important clue to the character of Dacian losses / casualties is offered with the descriptions provided by ancient sources, Eutropius and Crito. Both speak about men when they describe the losses suffered by the Dacians in the wars. This suggests that both refer to losses due to fighting, not due to a process of extermination of the whole population A strong component of the Dacian army, including the Celtic Bastarnae and the Germans, rather than submit to Trajan, had withdrawn. Some scenes on Trajan’s Column represent acts of obedience of the Dacian population and other scenes show the refugee Dacians returning to their own places . Dacians trying to buy amnesty (i.e. one offers to Trajan a tray of three gold ingots) are depicted on the Trajan's ColumnTrajan's ColumnTrajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, which commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near...
.. - Alternatively, a substantial number may have survived in the province, although probably outnumbered by the Romanised immigrants. Cultural life in Dacia became very mixed and decidedly cosmopolitan because of the colonial communities. The Dacians retained their names and their own ways in the midst of the newcomers, and the region continued to exhibit Dacian characteristics. The Dacians who survived the war are attested as revolting against the Roman domination in Dacia at least twice, in the period of time right after Dacian wars, in a more determined manner in 117 AD . In 158 AD, they revolted again and were put down by M. Statius Priscus .
- Some Dacians were apparently expelled from the occupied zone at the end of each of the two Dacian Wars, or emigrated. It is uncertain where these refugees found a home. Some of these people might have mingled with the existing ethnic-Dacian tribes beyond the Carpathians (the Costoboci and Carpi)
Since Traian’s conquest of Dacia there had been recurring trouble involving Dacian groups excluded from the Roman province, as finally defined by Hadrian. By the early third century the “Free Dacians’’ as they were earlier known, were significantly troublesome group, then identified as the Carpi, requiring imperial intervention on more than one occasion . In 214 Caracalla
Caracalla
Caracalla , was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. The eldest son of Septimius Severus, he ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta until he murdered the latter in 211...
dealt with their attacks. Later, Philip had come in person to deal with them, he assumed the triumphal title Carpicus Maximus and inaugurated a new era for the province of Dacia (July 20, 246) Later both Decius and Gallienus assumed the titles Dacicus maximus. In 272, Aurelian assumed the same title as Philip
In about 140 AD, Ptolemy lists the names of several tribes residing on the fringes of the Roman Dacia
Roman Dacia
The Roman province of Dacia on the Balkans included the modern Romanian regions of Transylvania, Banat and Oltenia, and temporarily Muntenia and southern Moldova, but not the nearby regions of Moesia...
(West, East and North of the Carpathian range) and the ethnic picture seems to be a mixed one. North of the Carpathians are recorded the Anarti, Teurisci and Costoboci. The Anarti
Anarti
The Anartes a.k.a. Anarti, Anartii or Anartoi were Celtic tribes, or, in the case of those sub-groups of Anartes which penetrated the ancient region of Dacia , Celts culturally assimilated by the Dacians....
(or Anartes) and the Teurisci were originally probably Celtic peoples or possible mixed Dacian-Celtic . The Anarti
Anarti
The Anartes a.k.a. Anarti, Anartii or Anartoi were Celtic tribes, or, in the case of those sub-groups of Anartes which penetrated the ancient region of Dacia , Celts culturally assimilated by the Dacians....
, together with the Celtic Cotini
Cotini
Cotini was a Celtic tribe most probably living in today's Slovakia, and in Moravia and southern Poland. They were probably identical or constituted a significant part of the archaeological Púchov culture, with the center in Havránok.The tribe was first time mentioned in 10 BC in the Elogium of...
are described by Tacitus
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
as vassals of the powerful Quadi
Quadi
The Quadi were a smaller Germanic tribe, about which little is definitively known. We only know the Germanic tribe the Romans called the 'Quadi' through reports of the Romans themselves...
Germanic people; Teurisci was probably a group of Celtic Taurisci
Taurisci
The Taurisci were a federation of Celtic tribes who dwelt in today's northern Slovenia before the coming of the Romans According to Pliny the Elder, they are the same people known as the Norici...
from the eastern Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
). However, regarding to these groups, the archaeology has revealed that the Celtic tribes had originally spread from west to east as far as Transylvania before being absorbed by the Dacians in the 1st century BC.
Costoboci
The main view is that CostobociCostoboci
The Costoboci were an ancient people located, during the Roman imperial era, between the Carpathian Mountains and the river Dniester.The Costoboci invaded the Roman empire in AD 170 or 171, pillaging its Balkan provinces as far as central Greece, until they were driven out by Romans...
were ethnic-Dacian. Others considered them a Slavic or Sarmatian tribe. There was also a Celtic influence, so that some consider them as a mixed Celtic and Thracian group that appear after Trajan conquest as a Dacian with Celtic superstratum. Costoboci inhabited the southern slopes of the Carpathians. Ptolemy, named the Coestoboci (Costoboci in Roman sources) twice, showing them divided by the Dniester and the Peucinian (Carpathian) Mountains. That would suggest that they lived on both sides of the Carpathians but it is also possible that two accounts about the same people were combined.
There was also a group Transmontani that some modern scholars identified them as Dacian Transmontani Costoboci of the extreme north, . The Transmontani (that is a name from the Latin of the Dacians , literally "people over the mountains"). Mullenhoff identified these with the Transiugitani, other Dacian tribe north of the Carpathian mountains
Based on the account of Dio Cassius
Dio Cassius
Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus , known in English as Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius, or Dio was a Roman consul and a noted historian writing in Greek...
, Heather (2010)considers that Hasding Vandals, around 171 AD, attempted to take control of lands which previously belonged to the free Dacian group called the Costoboci. Hrushevskyi (1997) mentions that, the rather widespread view, held earlier, that these Carpathian tribes were Slavic has no basis. This would be contradicted by the Coestobocan names themselves that we know from the inscriptions, which were written by a Coestobocan and therefore presumably accurately. These names sound quite unlike anything Slavic. Scholars such as Tomaschek (1883), Shutte (1917), Russu (1969) consider these Costobocian names are Thraco-Dacian This inscription also indicate the Dacian background of the wife of the Costobocian king "Ziais Tiati filia Daca". This indication of the socio-familial line of descent seen also in other inscriptions (i.e. Diurpaneus qui Euprepes Sterissae f(ilius) Dacus) is a custom attested since the historical period (beginning with 5th century BC) when Thracians were under the Greek’s influence. It doesn’t necessarily mean it originated from Thracians since it could be just a fashion borrowed from Greeks for specifying the ancestry and for distinguishing homonymous individuals within the tribe Shutte (1917), Parvan and Florescu (1982) pointed also to the Dacian characteristic place-names in '–dava' given by Ptolemy in the Costoboci’s country
Carpi
Carpi was a sizeable Dacian (North Thracian) group of tribes living outside of Roman Dacia . The majority view is that they were a Thracian tribe, a subgroup of the Dacians Some historians classify them as Slavs.According to Heather (2010), Carpi were the Dacians from the eastern foothills of the Carpathian range – modern Moldavia and Wallachia – who had not been brought under direct Roman rule at the time of Trajan conquest of Transylvania Dacia. Since they generated a new degree of political unity among themselves (in the course of third century), these Dacian groups came to be known collectively as the Carpi
The name of the historically well-known Dacian tribe Carpi is homonymous with the Carpathian mountains Carpi and Carpathian are Dacian words derived from root (s)ker- "cut" cf. Albanian Karp "stone" and Sanskrit kar- "cut"
As for the Carpi, a quote from the 6th-century Byzantine chronicler Zosimus
Zosimus
Zosimus was a Byzantine historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photius, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury.- Historia Nova :...
referring to the Καρποδάκαι (Latin: Carpo-Dacae or "Carpo-Dacians"), who attacked the Romans in the late 4th century, is seen as evidence of their Dacian ethnicity. In fact, Carpi /Carpodaces is the term used for Dacians outside Dacia.
However, that the Carpi were Dacians is shown not so much by the form Καρποδάκαι (Latin: Carpo-Dacae) of Zosimus
Zosimus
Zosimus was a Byzantine historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photius, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury.- Historia Nova :...
as by their characteristic place-names in –dava given by Ptolemy in their country. .
The origin and ethnic affiliations of the Carpi have been debated over the years; in our period they are closely associated with the Carpathian Mountains, and a good case has been made for attributing to the Carpi a distinct material culture “a developed form of the Geto-Dacian La Tene culture” often known as the Poienesti culture which is characteristic of this area.
Physical characteristics
Dacians are represented in the statues surmounting the Arch of ConstantineArch of Constantine
The Arch of Constantine is a triumphal arch in Rome, situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill. It was erected to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312...
and Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, which commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near...
. The artist of the Column took some care to depict, in his purview, a variety of Dacian people — from high-ranking men, women, and children to the near-savage. Although the artist looked to models in Hellenistic art for some body types and compositions, he does not represent the Dacians as generic barbarians.
Xenophanes
Xenophanes
of Colophon was a Greek philosopher, theologian, poet, and social and religious critic. Xenophanes life was one of travel, having left Ionia at the age of 25 he continued to travel throughout the Greek world for another 67 years. Some scholars say he lived in exile in Siciliy...
described Thracians as having blue eyes and red hair
Red hair
Red hair occurs on approximately 1–2% of the human population. It occurs more frequently in people of northern or western European ancestry, and less frequently in other populations...
.
Physically, the Dacians and the Getae had similar characteristics to other barbarians around them (Thracians, Celts, Scythians). Unlike the Greeks, Dacians are generally described as taller, their skin whiter and with less hair with straight, light-coloured (red?) hair and blue eyes . On Trajan’s column, Dacian soldiers are shown with relatively short hair (although not as short as the Romans') and trimmed beards .
Painting of the body was customary among the Dacians. It is probable that the tattooing had originally a magical significance . They practiced symbolic-ritual tattooing or body painting for both men and women, with hereditary symbols transmitted up to the fourth generation.
Early history
Since the very first detailed account by Herodotus, Getae / Dacians are acknowledged as belonging to the Thracians. Still, they distinguished from the other Thracians by particularities of religion and customs .
The first written mention of the name Dacians is in Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
sources, but classical authors are unanimous in considering them a branch of the Getae
Getae
The Getae was the name given by the Greeks to several Thracian tribes that occupied the regions south of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria, and north of the Lower Danube, in Romania...
, a Thracian
Thracians
The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...
people known from Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
writings. Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
specified that the Daci are the Getae who lived in the area towards the Pannonian plain (Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
), while the Getae proper gravitated towards the Black Sea coast (Scythia Minor
Scythia Minor
Scythia Minor, "Lesser Scythia" was in ancient times the region surrounded by the Danube at the north and west and the Black Sea at the east, corresponding to today's Dobruja, with a part in Romania and a part in Bulgaria....
).
Relations with Thracians
Since Herodotus writings (5th century BC), Getae / Dacians are acknowledged as belonging to the Thracians, Yet, they distinguished from the other Thracians by particularities of religion and customs .Geto-Dacians and Thracians were kin people but they were not the same. .The differences from the Southern Thracians or from the neighboring Scythians were probably faint, as several ancient authors make confusions of identification with either one or other .
In 19th century, Tomaschek
Tomaschek
* Rudolf Tomaschek , a German experimental physicist* Wilhelm Tomaschek , a Czech-Austrian geographer and orientalist...
considered a close affinity between Besso-Thracians and Getae-Dacians, an original kinship of both people with Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian . They are Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
tribes who, several centuries before Scolotes of the Pont and Sauromatae still located at East, left the Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
homeland and settled in the Carpathian
Carpathian
Carpathian may refer to:*Carpathian Mountains of Central and Eastern Europe*Carpathian Convention on sustainable development in that region*Carpathian Shepherd Dog, a Romanian sheep dog*Subcarpathian Voivodeship, an administrative division of Poland...
chain, Haemus
Haemus
In Greek mythology, King Haemus of Thrace was the son of Boreas. He was vain and haughty and compared himself and his wife, Queen Rhodope, to Zeus and Hera. The gods changed him and his wife into mountains...
(Balkan) and Rhodope
Rhodope Mountains
The Rhodopes are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, with over 83% of its area in southern Bulgaria and the remainder in Greece. Its highest peak, Golyam Perelik , is the seventh highest Bulgarian mountain...
mountains. Besso-Thracians and Getae-Dacians separated very early from Aryans since their language still maintains roots that are missing from Iranian and it shows non-Iranian phonetic characteristics (i.e. replacing the Iranian l'’ with r’') . He considered that Geto-Dacians and Besso-Thracians would represent a new layer of people that extended in the autochthonous fund, probably Illyrian
Illyrians
The Illyrians were a group of tribes who inhabited part of the western Balkans in antiquity and the south-eastern coasts of the Italian peninsula...
or Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
-Phrygian
Phrygian
Phrygian can refer to:*A person from Phrygia*Phrygian cap once characteristic of the region* Phrygian language*Phrygian mode in music* Phrygian Valley, a historic location in northwestern Turkey...
.
Relations with Celts
Boii
The Boii were one of the most prominent ancient Celtic tribes of the later Iron Age, attested at various times in Cisalpine Gaul , Pannonia , in and around Bohemia, and Transalpine Gaul...
and again after the latter were defeated by the Dacians under the king Burebista. During the second half of the 4th century BC, Celtic cultural influence appears in the archaeological records of the middle Danube, Alpine region, and north-western Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, where it figured the Middle La Tène material culture. This material appears in north-western and central Dacia and is reflected especially in burials . The Dacians absorbed the Celtic influence that came down from the northwest in the early third century BC . Archaeological investigation of this period has highlighted several Celtic warrior graves with military equipment. It suggests the forceful penetration of a military Celtic elite within the region of Dacia, now known as Transylvania, bounded on the east by Carpathian range. The archaeological sites of the third and second centuries BC from Transylvania revealed a pattern of co-existence and fusion between the bearers of La Tène culture and indigenous Dacians. These were domestic dwellings with a mixture of Celtic and Dacian pottery and several graves of the Celtic type containing vessels of Dacian type. There are some seventy Celtic sites in Transylvania but in most, if not all of these sites (they are usually cemeteries; there were very few settlements) the finds show that the native population imitated Celtic art forms that took their fancy, but remained obstinately and fundamentally Dacian in their culture .
Around 150 BC, La Tène material disappears from the area. This coincides with the ancient writings which mention the rise of the Dacian authority. It ended the Celtic domination and it is possible Celts were thrust out of Dacia. Alternatively, some scholars have proposed that the Transylvanian Celts
Celts in Transylvania
The Celts of Transylvania were an ancient people of Indo-European origin, first attested to archaeologically in Central Europe between 800–450 BC. By the time of the later La Tène period The Celts of Transylvania were an ancient people of Indo-European origin, first attested to...
remained but merged into the local culture and thus ceased to be distinctive.
Archaeological discoveries in the settlements and the fortifications of the Dacians in the period of their kingdoms (1st century BC and 1st century AD) i.e. some imported Celtic vessels others made by Dacian potters imitating Celtic prototypes show that relations between the Dacians and the Celts from the regions north and west of Dacia continued.
In present-day Slovakia, archaeology revealed evidences for mixed Celtic-Dacian populations on the Nitra
Nitra
Nitra is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra. With a population of about 83,572, it is the fifth largest city in Slovakia. Nitra is also one of the oldest cities in Slovakia and the country's earliest political and cultural center...
and Hron
Hron
Hron is a 298 km long left tributary of the Danube and the second longest river in Slovakia. It flows from its source located in the Low Tatra mountains through central and southern Slovakia, pouring into the Danube near Štúrovo and Esztergom...
river basins.
After Dacians subdued the Celtic tribes, the remaining Cotini
Cotini
Cotini was a Celtic tribe most probably living in today's Slovakia, and in Moravia and southern Poland. They were probably identical or constituted a significant part of the archaeological Púchov culture, with the center in Havránok.The tribe was first time mentioned in 10 BC in the Elogium of...
stayed in the mountains of Central Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
where they took up mining and the working of metals. Together with the original domestic population, they created Puchov culture
Púchov culture
The Púchov culture was an archaeological culture named after site of Púchov-Skalka in Slovakia. Its probable bearer was the Celt Cotini tribe. It existed in northern and central Slovakia between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE...
that spread into central and northern Slovakia, including Spis
Spis
Spis or SPIS may refer to:*Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes, premiere of The Simpsons' twentieth season.*Scottish Police Information Strategy, a former department within the Scottish Police Service, now known as Scottish Police Services Authority – Information Communications Technology.*Spiš, a region...
, and penetrated northeastern Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
and southern Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. Along the Bodorog River in Zemplin
Zemplín
Zemplén is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently situated in eastern Slovakia under the name of Zemplín...
they created Celtic-Dacian settlements which were known for the production of painted ceramics.
Relations with Greeks
Relations with Macedonians
Greek and Roman chroniclers record the defeat and capture of LysimachusLysimachus
Lysimachus was a Macedonian officer and diadochus of Alexander the Great, who became a basileus in 306 BC, ruling Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedon.-Early Life & Career:...
in the 3rd century BC by the Getae (Dacians) ruled by Dromihete
Dromichaetes
Dromichaetes was king of the Getae on both sides of the lower Danube around 300 BC.- Background :The Getae had been federated in the Odrysian kingdom in the 5th century BC. It is not known how the relations between Getae and Odrysians developed...
, their military strategy, and the release of Lysimachus following a debate in the assembly of the Getae.
Relations with Persians
Herodotus says:”before [Darius] reached the Danube, the first people he subdued were the Getae who believed that they never die” However, it is possible that the Persian expedition and the subsequent occupation may have altered the way in which the Getae expressed the immortality belief. The formative influence of thirty years of Achaemenid presence may be detected in the emergence of an explicit iconography of the “Royal Hunt” that influenced Dacian and Thracian metalworkers and of the hawking practiced by their upper-class.Relations with Scythians
Agathyrsi Transylvania
The Scythians arrival in Carpathians is dated 700 BC . The Agathyrsi of Transylvania had been mentioned by Herodotus (fifth century BC ) who regards them as not a Scythian people, but as closely related to the Scythians. In other respects their customs approach nearly to those of the Thracians This is to say that Agathyrsi were completely denationalized at the time of Herodotus, absorbed by the native Thracians , .The opinion that Agathyrsi were almost certainly Thracians, results also from the gloss preserved by Stephen of Byzantium who explains that the Greeks called the Trausi
Trausi
The Trausi or Thrausi were a Thracian tribe who inhabited the southwestern region of the Rhodopes.Herodotus writes of the Trausi:The ethnonym Trausi may derive from Trauos, the name of a river...
the Agathyrsi
Agathyrsi
Agathyrsi were a people of Scythian, Thracian, or mixed Thraco-Scythic origin, who in the time of Herodotus occupied the plain of the Maris , in the mountainous part of ancient Dacia now known as Transylvania, Romania...
and we know that the Trausi
Trausi
The Trausi or Thrausi were a Thracian tribe who inhabited the southwestern region of the Rhodopes.Herodotus writes of the Trausi:The ethnonym Trausi may derive from Trauos, the name of a river...
lived in the Rhodope Mountains
Rhodope Mountains
The Rhodopes are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, with over 83% of its area in southern Bulgaria and the remainder in Greece. Its highest peak, Golyam Perelik , is the seventh highest Bulgarian mountain...
. Certain details from their way of life, such as tattooing, for example also suggest that the Agathyrsi were Thracians. Their place was later taken by the Dacians. That the Dacians were of Thracian stock is not in doubt, and it is quite safe to assume that this new name also encompassed the Agathyrsi, and perhaps other neighboring Thracian people as well, as a result of some political upheaval.
Relations with Sarmatians
Relations with Germanic tribes
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
(confederation of east German people) arrived in the southern Ukraine no later than 230. During the next decade a large section of them moved down the Black Sea coast and occupied much of the territory north of the lower Danube . The Goths' advancement towards North of the Black Sea involved a competing against the indigenous populations of the Dacian-speaking Carpi besides competing against the indigenous Iranian-speaking Sarmatians and against Roman garrison forces . The Carpi, often called “Free Dacians” continued to dominate the anti-Roman coalition consisting of themselves, Taifali, Astringi, Vandals, Peucini and Goths until 248, when the Goths assumed the hegemony of the loose coalition. The first lands taken over by the Thervingi
Thervingi
The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi were a Gothic people of the Danubian plains west of the Dnestr River in the 3rd and 4th Centuries CE. They had close contacts with the Greuthungi, another Gothic people from east of the Dnestr River, as well as the Late Roman Empire...
Goths were in Moldavia, and only during the fourth century did they move in strength down to the Danubian plain. Free Dacians Carpi found themselves squeezed between the advancing Goths and the Roman province of Dacia.
In 275 AD, Aurelian
Aurelian
Aurelian , was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following...
surrendered the Dacian territory to the Carpi and the Goths . Over time, Gothic power in the region grew directly at the Carpi’s expense. The Germanic-speaking Goths replaced native Dacian-speakers as the dominant force around the Carpathian system. . Large numbers of Carpi, but not all of them, were admitted into the Roman empire in the twenty-five years or so after 290 AD . Despite the evacuation of the Carpi around 300 AD, substantial elements of the old indigenous populations (Dacians, Sarmatians and others) remained in place under Gothic domination . The Goths, either the Greuthungi
Greuthungi
The Greuthungs, Greuthungi, or Greutungi were a Gothic people of the Black Sea steppes in the third and fourth centuries. They had close contacts with the Thervingi, another Gothic people from west of the river Dnestr. They may be the same people as the later Ostrogoths.-Etymology:"Greuthungi" may...
or Thervingi
Thervingi
The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi were a Gothic people of the Danubian plains west of the Dnestr River in the 3rd and 4th Centuries CE. They had close contacts with the Greuthungi, another Gothic people from east of the Dnestr River, as well as the Late Roman Empire...
never settled all Dacia .
There is some reason for thinking that Dacians were not reduced to slavery but that the Goths learned to respect the superior civilization of their neighbours and that the native inhabitants and the new settlers gradually became united into one people. If this were so, we can understand how it came to pass that, as we have already seen, the Gothic historian of the sixth century could reckon the heroes and sages of ancient Dacia among the ancestral glories of his own nation. . Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
mingled at some extent with the native inhabitants but they were different peoples .
In the 330 the Gothic Thervingi
Thervingi
The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi were a Gothic people of the Danubian plains west of the Dnestr River in the 3rd and 4th Centuries CE. They had close contacts with the Greuthungi, another Gothic people from east of the Dnestr River, as well as the Late Roman Empire...
contemplated moving to the Middle Danubian region and from 370 relocated with their fellow Gothic Greuthungi to new homes in the Roman Empire . 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, although Roman towns continued on a reduced level, there is no question as to their survival.
In 336 AD, Constantine took the title Dacicus Maximus (“The great victory over Dacians) ; that implies at least partial reconquest of the Trajan Dacia . In an inscription of 337, Constantin was commemorated officially as Germanicus Maximus, Sarmaticus, Gothicus Maximus and Dacicus Maximus meaning he had defeated the Germans, Sarmatians, Goths and Dacians .
One historical source refers to “Carpo-Dacians” north of the Danube after 378, when the Thervingi
Thervingi
The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi were a Gothic people of the Danubian plains west of the Dnestr River in the 3rd and 4th Centuries CE. They had close contacts with the Greuthungi, another Gothic people from east of the Dnestr River, as well as the Late Roman Empire...
who dominated the Carpathian region had already left and there is no sign that all Chernyakhov culture
Chernyakhov culture
The Sântana de Mureș–Chernyakhiv culture is the name given to an archaeological culture which flourished between the 2nd and 5th centuries in a wide area of Eastern Europe, specifically in what today constitutes Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, and parts of Belarus...
settlements and cemeteries came to a grinding halt at that date. Alongside this world of the Goths ‘proper’ as it were, also existed many communities descended from the older indigenous populations of the region. They had certainly been subdued by the Goths and may well have paid various kinds of tributes but were probably largely autonomous .
Dacian kingdoms
Burebista
Burebista was a king of the Getae and Dacians, who unified for the first time their tribes and ruled them between 82 BC and 44 BC. He led plunder and conquest raids across Central and Southeastern Europe, subjugating most of the neighbouring tribes...
and Decebal. This union comprised the military-political and ideological-religious domains. The following are some of the attested Dacian kingdoms:
The kingdom of Cothelas
Cothelas
Cothelas, also known as Gudila, was a Getae king, who ruled an area near the Black Sea, between northern Thrace and the Danube. His polity also included the important port of Odessos. Around 341 BC he concluded a treaty with Macedonian king Philip II, becoming his vassal...
(4th century BC) one of the Getae
Getae
The Getae was the name given by the Greeks to several Thracian tribes that occupied the regions south of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria, and north of the Lower Danube, in Romania...
was an area near the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, between northern Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
and the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
today Bulgaria.
The kingdom of Rubobostes
Rubobostes
Rubobostes was a Dacian king in Transylvania, during the 2nd century BC.He was mentioned in Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus's Prolegomena. Trogus wrote that during his rule, the Dacians' power increased, as they defeated the Celts who previously held the power in the region.Trogus Pompeius and Justin...
(2nd century BC) was a region in Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
.
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Gaius Scribonius Curio was the name of a father and son who lived in the late Roman Republic.-Father:Gaius Scribonius Curio was a Roman statesman and orator. He was nicknamed Burbulieus for the way he moved his body while speaking...
(proconsul 75-3 BC) campaigned successfully against the Dardani and the Moesi
Moesi
The Moesi were a Daco-Thracian tribe who inhabited present day Serbia and Bulgaria, part of the then Roman province of Moesia, which was named after them in 87 AD by the Romans after the Romans under Crassus defeated them in the 29 BC.- History :...
, becoming the first Roman general to reach the river Danube with his army. His successor, Marcus Licinius Lucullus
Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus
Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus , younger brother of the more famous Lucius Licinius Lucullus, was a supporter of Lucius Cornelius Sulla and consul of ancient Rome in 73 BC. As proconsul of Macedonia in 72 BC, he defeated the Bessi in Thrace and advanced to the Danube and the west coast of the...
(brother of the famous Lucius Lucullus
Lucullus
Lucius Licinius Lucullus , was an optimate politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected with Sulla Felix...
), campaigned against the Thracian Bessi
Bessi
The Bessi were an independent Thracian tribe who lived in a territory ranging from Moesia to Mount Rhodope in southern Thrace, but are often mentioned as dwelling about Haemus, the mountain range that separates Moesia from Thrace and from Mount Rhodope to the northern part of Hebrus...
tribe and the Moesi, ravaging the whole of Moesia
Moesia
Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube River. It included territories of modern-day Southern Serbia , Northern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobrudja, Southern Moldova, and Budjak .-History:In ancient...
, the region between the Haemus (Balkan) mountain range and the Danube. In 72 BC, his troops occupied the Greek coastal cities of Scythia Minor
Scythia Minor
Scythia Minor, "Lesser Scythia" was in ancient times the region surrounded by the Danube at the north and west and the Black Sea at the east, corresponding to today's Dobruja, with a part in Romania and a part in Bulgaria....
(modern Dobruja
Dobruja
Dobruja is a historical region shared by Bulgaria and Romania, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta, Romanian coast and the northernmost part of the Bulgarian coast...
region, Romania/Bulgaria), which had sided with Rome's Hellenistic arch-enemy, king Mithridates VI of Pontus
Pontus
Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...
, in the Third Mithridatic War
Third Mithridatic War
The Third Mithridatic War was the last and longest of three Mithridatic Wars fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and his allies and the Roman Republic...
(73-63 BC).
Greek geographer Strabo claimed that the Dacians and Getae once had been able to muster a combined army of 200,000 men during Strabo's era (i.e. the time of Roman emperor Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
, sole rule 30 BC - 14 AD).
The kingdom of Burebista
Burebista
Burebista was a king of the Getae and Dacians, who unified for the first time their tribes and ruled them between 82 BC and 44 BC. He led plunder and conquest raids across Central and Southeastern Europe, subjugating most of the neighbouring tribes...
- The Dacian kingdom reached its maximum extent under king BurebistaBurebistaBurebista was a king of the Getae and Dacians, who unified for the first time their tribes and ruled them between 82 BC and 44 BC. He led plunder and conquest raids across Central and Southeastern Europe, subjugating most of the neighbouring tribes...
(ruled 82 - 44 BC). The capital of the kingdom was possibly the city of ArgedavaArgedavaArgedava was an important Dacian town mentioned in the Decree of Dionysopolis , and potentially located at Popeşti, a district in the town of Mihăileşti, Giurgiu County, Romania.- Decree of Dionysopolis :This decree was written by the citizens of Dionysopolis to Akornion, who traveled far away in a...
(also called Sargedava in some historical writings) situated close to the river DanubeDanubeThe Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
. The kingdom of Burebista extended south of the Danube in what is today Bulgaria that the Greeks believed their king was the greatest of all Thracians. - During his reign, Burebista transferred Geto-Dacians capital from Argedava to Sarmizegetusa ,. For at least one and a half century, Sarmizegethusa was the Dacians' capital and reached its acme under KingKing- Centers of population :* King, Ontario, CanadaIn USA:* King, Indiana* King, North Carolina* King, Lincoln County, Wisconsin* King, Waupaca County, Wisconsin* King County, Washington- Moving-image works :Television:...
DecebalDecebalusDecebalus or "The Brave" was a king of Dacia and is famous for fighting three wars and negotiating two interregnums of peace without being eliminated against the Roman Empire under two emperors...
. - Burebista annexed the Greek cities (55-48 BC).
- Augustus wanted to avenge the defeat of C. AntoniusGaius Antonius HybridaGaius Antonius Hybrida was a politician of the Roman Republic. He was the second son of Marcus Antonius Orator and brother of Marcus Antonius Creticus; his mother is unknown. He was the uncle of the famed triumvir Mark Antony....
at Histria (Sinoe)Histria (Sinoe)Ancient Histria or Istros , was a Greek colony or polis on the Black Sea coast, established by Milesian settlers to trade with the native Getae. It became the first Greek town on the present day Romanian territory. Scymnus of Chios , the Greek geographer and poet, dated it to 630 BC...
32 years before and to recover the lost standards. These were held in a powerful fortress called Genucla (Isaccea, near modern Tulcea, Rom., in the Danube delta region), controlled by ZyraxesZyraxesZyraxes was a Getae king who ruled north Dobruja in the 1st century BC. He was mentioned in relation with the campaigns of Licinius Crassus. His capital, Genucla was besieged by the Romans in 28 BC, but he managed to escape and flee to his Scythian allies....
, the local Getan petty king. The man selected for the task was Marcus Licinius Crassus, grandson of CrassusMarcus Licinius CrassusMarcus Licinius Crassus was a Roman general and politician who commanded the right wing of Sulla's army at the Battle of the Colline Gate, suppressed the slave revolt led by Spartacus, provided political and financial support to Julius Caesar and entered into the political alliance known as the...
the triumvir and an experienced general at 33 years of age, who was appointed proconsul of Macedonia in 29 BC.
The kingdom of Decebalus
Decebalus
Decebalus or "The Brave" was a king of Dacia and is famous for fighting three wars and negotiating two interregnums of peace without being eliminated against the Roman Empire under two emperors...
87 – 106.
By the year A.D. 100, more than 400,000 square kilometers/154,400 square miles were dominated by the Dacians who numbered two million
Decebalus was the last king of the Dacians and despite his fierce resistance against the Romans, faced defeat and committed suicide rather than being marched through Rome as a captured foreign leader.
Conflict with Rome
The Burebista's Dacian state was powerful enough to threaten Rome and CaesarCaesar
-People:* Julius Caesar , Roman general and dictator* Augustus Caesar , adoptive son of the above and first Roman Emperor* Gaius Julius Caesar , father of the dictator...
contemplated war campaigns against Dacians Yet, the Dacian formidable power under Burebista
Burebista
Burebista was a king of the Getae and Dacians, who unified for the first time their tribes and ruled them between 82 BC and 44 BC. He led plunder and conquest raids across Central and Southeastern Europe, subjugating most of the neighbouring tribes...
that gathered no less than 200,000 warriors lasted only until his death, 44 BC. The subsequent division of Dacia continued for about 100 years until the reign of Scorylo / Scorillo, period of only singular attacks on the Roman Empire’s border with some local significance.
The unifying actions of the King Scorylo / Scorillo (27 BC - AD 14) and of the last King Decebalus
Decebalus
Decebalus or "The Brave" was a king of Dacia and is famous for fighting three wars and negotiating two interregnums of peace without being eliminated against the Roman Empire under two emperors...
(ruled 87 AD–106 AD) might have been perceived as dangerous by Rome, despite the fact that now Dacian army could gather only some 40,000 soldiers. In Romans’ eyes, the situation at the border with Dacia became out of control since Emperor Domitian who ruled between 81 to 96 AD tried desperately to deal with the danger through war campaigns. But the outcome of the Roman Empire’s disastrous campaigns into Dacia AD 86 and AD 88 pushed Domitian to settle the situation through diplomacy.
The Roman Emperor Trajan
Trajan
Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
(ruled 97 - 117 AD) opted for a different approach and decided to conquer the Dacian kingdom, partly in order to seize its vast gold mines. But it took him two major wars (the Dacian Wars), one in 101-102 AD and the other one in 105-106 AD.
Only fragmentary details survive of the Dacian war: a single sentence of Trajan’s own Dacica: little more of the Getica written by his doctor, T. Statilius Crito: nothing whatsoever of the poem proposed by Caninius Rufus (if it was ever written), Dio Chrysostom’s Getica or Appian’s Dacica. Nonetheless, a reasonable account can be pieced together.
Second Battle of Tapae
The Battle of Tapae was the decisive battle of the first Dacian War, in which Roman Emperor Trajan defeated the Dacian King Decebalus's army. Other setbacks in the campaign delayed its completion until 102.-Background:...
(101 AD). The Dacian king, Decebalus
Decebalus
Decebalus or "The Brave" was a king of Dacia and is famous for fighting three wars and negotiating two interregnums of peace without being eliminated against the Roman Empire under two emperors...
, was forced to sue for peace. Trajan and Decebalus then concluded a peace which was highly favourable to the Romans. The peace agreement required the Dacians to cede some territory to the Romans and to demolish their fortifications. Decebalus' foreign policy was also restricted, as he was prohibited from entering into alliances with other tribes.
However, both Trajan and Decebalus considered this peace only a temporary truce, and readied themselves for renewed war. Trajan had Greek engineer Apollodorus of Damascus
Apollodorus of Damascus
Apollodorus of Damascus was a Greek engineer, architect, designer and sculptor who flourished during the 2nd century AD, from Damascus, Roman Syria. He was a favourite of Trajan, for whom he constructed Trajan's Bridge over the Danube for the 105-106 campaign in Dacia. He also designed the Forum...
construct a stone bridge over the Danube river, while Decebalus secretly plotted alliances against the Romans. In 105, Trajan crossed the Danube river and besieged Decebalus' capital, Sarmizegetusa, but the siege failed because of Decebalus' allied tribes. However, Trajan was an optimist. He returned with a newly constituted army and took Sarmizegetusa by assault. Decebalus fled into the mountains hoping to assemble a new army, but he was cornered by pursuing Roman cavalry troopers and committed suicide. The Romans took his head and right hand to Trajan, who had them displayed in the Forum at Rome. Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, which commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near...
in Rome was constructed to celebrate the conquest of Dacia.
Ludi
Ludi were public games held for the benefit and entertainment of the Roman people . Ludi were held in conjunction with, or sometimes as the major feature of, Roman religious festivals, and were also presented as part of the cult of state.The earliest ludi were horse races in the circus...
of celebration in which approximately 11,000 animals were slaughtered and 11,000 gladiators fought in combats comparable to Emperor Titus's celebration from AD 70 who gave a 100 day festival involving 3,000 gladiators and 5,000-9,000 wild animals).
Roman rule
A large part of Dacia then became a Roman province with a newly-built capital at Ulpia Traiana SarmizegetusaUlpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa
Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa was the capital and the largest city of Roman Dacia, later named Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa after the former Dacian capital, located some 40 km away. Built on the ground of a camp of the Fifth Macedonian Legion, the city was populated with...
(40 km away from the site of Old Sarmizegetusa, now razed to the ground). The name of Dacians' homeland, Dacia, became the name of a Roman province, and the name Dacians was used to designate peoples of varying ancestry in the region.
Roman Dacia, also Dacia Traiana or Dacia Felix, was a province
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
(106-271/275 AD). Its territory consisted of eastern and southeastern Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, the Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
, and Oltenia
Oltenia
Oltenia is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt river ....
(regions of modern Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
). Dacia was from the very beginning organized as an imperial province
Imperial province
An imperial province was a Roman province where the Emperor had the sole right to appoint the governor . These provinces were often the strategically located border provinces....
and remained so throughout the Roman occupation. It was one of the empire’s Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
provinces; official epigraphs
Epigraphy
Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
attest that the language of administration was Latin. Historians’ estimates of the population of Roman Dacia range from 650,000 to 1,200,000.
Dacians that remained outside the Roman empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
after Dacian wars of AD 101-106 had been named Dakoi prosoroi (Latin meaning Daci limitanei) ‘neighbouring Dacians’. Modern historians use the generic name ‘’Free Dacians “ or Independent Dacians,
The tribes Daci Magni (Great Dacians), Costoboci
Costoboci
The Costoboci were an ancient people located, during the Roman imperial era, between the Carpathian Mountains and the river Dniester.The Costoboci invaded the Roman empire in AD 170 or 171, pillaging its Balkan provinces as far as central Greece, until they were driven out by Romans...
( The Costoboci are generally considered Dacian subtribes) and Carpi
Carpians
The Carpi or Carpiani were an ancient people that resided, between not later than ca. AD 140 and until at least AD 318, in the former Principality of Moldavia ....
remained outside the Roman empire in what the Romans called Dacia Libera (Free Dacia).
By the early third century the ‘Free Dacians’ as they were earlier known, were significantly troublesome group, then identified as the Carpi . After reviewing the available evidence, Bichir argues that the Carpi were the most powerful of the Dacian tribes who had become the principal enemy of the Romans in the region.
In 214 AD, Caracalla campaigns against Free Dacians . Also, in 236 AD there are recorded campaigns against the Dacians .
Roman Dacia was evacuated by the Romans under emperor Aurelian
Aurelian
Aurelian , was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following...
(ruled 271-5 AD). Lucius Domitius Aurelianus (Aurelian) made this decision on account of barbarian pressures on the Empire there (Carpi, Visigoths, Sarmatians, Asding Vandals) - the lines of defense needed to be shortened, and Dacia was deemed not important enough to Rome to remain militarized with the current resources available.
Roman authority of Thracia rested mainly with the legions stationed in Moesia
Moesia
Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube River. It included territories of modern-day Southern Serbia , Northern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobrudja, Southern Moldova, and Budjak .-History:In ancient...
. The rural nature of Thracia's populations, and distance from Roman authority, certainly inspired the presence of local troops to support Moesia's legions. Over the next few centuries, the province was periodically and increasingly attacked by migrating Germanic tribes. The reign of Justinian saw the construction of over 100 legionary
Roman legion
A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...
fortresses to supplement the defense.
Thracians in Moesia
Moesia
Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube River. It included territories of modern-day Southern Serbia , Northern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobrudja, Southern Moldova, and Budjak .-History:In ancient...
and Dacia
Dacia
In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...
were Romanized while those within the Byzantine empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
were their Hellenized descendants that had mingled with the Greeks.
After the Aurelian Retreat
Dacia was never a uniformly Romanized area. Post-Aurelianic Dacia fell into three divisions: the area along the river, usually under some type of Roman administration even if in a highly barbarized form; the zone beyond this area, from which Roman military personnel had withdrawn, leaving a sizable population behind that was heavily Romanized; and finally what is now the northern parts of Moldavia, Crisana, and Maramures. This final area was always peripheral to the Roman province, not militarily occupied but nonetheless controlled by the Rome and part of the Roman economic sphere. Here lived the Carpi, often called “Free Dacians” .Aurelian retreat was a purely military decision to withdraw the Roman troops to defend the Danube. The inhabitants of the old province of Dacia displayed no awareness of impeding disaster. There were no sudden flights and destruction of property. It is not possible to discern how many civilians followed the army out of Dacia; it is clear that there was no mass emigration, since there is evidence of continuity of settlement in Dacian villages and farms; the evacuation may not at first have been intended to be a permanent measure . The Roman left the province, but they didn’t consider they lost it .Aurelian didn’t abandon Dobrogea at all. It continued as part of Roman Empire for over 350 years. .
As recently as AD 300, the tetrarchic emperors had resettled tens of thousands of Dacian Carpi inside the empire, dispersing them in communities the length of the Danube, from Hungary to Black Sea .
Society
Phrygian cap
The Phrygian cap is a soft conical cap with the top pulled forward, associated in antiquity with the inhabitants of Phrygia, a region of central Anatolia. In the western provinces of the Roman Empire it came to signify freedom and the pursuit of liberty, perhaps through a confusion with the pileus,...
. The second class, who comprised the rank and file of the army, the peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
s and artisans, might have been called capillati (in Latin). Their appearance and clothing can be seen on Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, which commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near...
.
Occupations
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, apiculture, viticulture
Viticulture
Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...
, livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
, ceramics
Ceramics (art)
In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art objects, or as...
and metal working. They also worked the gold and silver mines of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
. They carried on a considerable outside trade, as is shown by the number of foreign coins found in the country (see also Decebalus Treasure
Decebalus Treasure
The Decebalus Treasure is a legendary story written by Cassius Dio concerning events said to have happened in the Roman world during the 2nd century AD.-The story:...
).
At Pecica, Arad
Arad, Romania
Arad is the capital city of Arad County, in western Romania, in the Crişana region, on the river Mureş.An important industrial center and transportation hub, Arad is also the seat of a Romanian Orthodox archbishop and features two universities, a Romanian Orthodox theological seminary, a training...
had been found a Dacian atelier with equipment for minting coins along with evidence of bronze-, silver-, and iron working that suggests a broad-spectrum of metal-smithing. Nevertheless evidence for the mass production of iron is found on many Dacian sites, indicating guild-like specialization.
Dacian ceramic manufacturing traditions continue from the pre-Roman to the Roman period, both in provincial and unoccupied Dacia and well into the fourth and even early fifth centuries
On the northernmost frontier of ‘free Dacia’, coin circulation steadily grew in the first and second centuries with a decline in the third and a rise again in the fourth century – the same frequency pattern as observed for the Banat region to the southwest. What is remarkable is the extent and increase in coin circulation even after Roman withdrawal from Dacia and as far north as Transcarpathia .
Currency
The Roman province Dacia is represented on Roman Sestertius
Sestertius
The sestertius, or sesterce, was an ancient Roman coin. During the Roman Republic it was a small, silver coin issued only on rare occasions...
(coin) as a woman seated on a rock, holding aquila, a small child on her knee holding ears of grain, and a small child seated before her holding grapes.
Construction
Dacians had developed the Murus dacicusMurus dacicus
Murus Dacicus is a construction method for defensive walls and fortifications developed in ancient Dacia sometime before the Roman conquest...
(double-skinned ashlar-masonry with rubble fill and tie beams) characteristic to their complexes of fortified cities, like their capital Sarmizegetusa in what is today Hunedoara County
Hunedoara County
Hunedoara is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, with its capital city at Deva.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 485,712 and the population density was 69/km².*Romanians - 92%*Hungarians - 5%*Romas - 2%*Germans under 1%....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. This type of wall has been discovered not only in the Dacian citadel of the Orastie mountains, but also in those at Breaza
Breaza
Breaza is a town in Prahova County, Romania, with a population of 18,863.The town was first documented in an act of 1503, mentioning a certain trader of Breaza called "Neagoe". In 1622 the land of Breaza was divided between four boyars and in 1717, the new ruler of Wallachia, Nicolae Mavrocordat...
near Fagaras
Fagaras
Făgăraș is a city in central Romania, located in Braşov County . Another source of the name is alleged to derive from the Hungarian language word for "partridge" . A more plausible explanation is that the name is given by Fogaras river coming from the Pecheneg "Fagar šu", which means ash water...
, Tilisca
Tilisca
Tilişca is a commune in Sibiu County, Transylvania, Romania, in the Cindrel Mountains, 26 km west of the county capital Sibiu, in the Mărginimea Sibiului ethnographic area. It is composed of two villages, Rod and Tilişca....
near Sibiu
Sibiu
Sibiu is a city in Transylvania, Romania with a population of 154,548. Located some 282 km north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt...
, Capalna
Capâlna
Căpâlna is a commune in Bihor County, northwestern Romania with a population of 1,943 people. It is composed of five villages: Căpâlna, Ginta, Rohani, Săldăbagiu Mic and Suplacu de Tinca.-References:...
in the Sebes
Sebes
Sebeș is a city in Alba County, central Romania, southern Transylvania.-Geography:The city lies on the Mureș River valley and it straddles the Sebeș river...
valley, Banita
Banita
Băniţa is a commune in Hunedoara County, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Băniţa, Crivadia and Merişor....
not far from Petrosani
Petrosani
Petroşani is a city in Hunedoara County, Romania, with a population of 45,447 .-History:The city of Petroşani was founded in the 17th century...
and Piatra Craivii to the north of Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia is a city in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania with a population of 66,747, located on the Mureş River. Since the High Middle Ages, the city has been the seat of Transylvania's Roman Catholic diocese. Between 1541 and 1690 it was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania...
The degree of their urban development can be seen on Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, which commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near...
and in the account of how Sarmizegetusa was defeated by the Romans. The Romans identified and destroyed the water aqueducts or pipelines
Pipeline transport
Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Most commonly, liquids and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes that transport solid capsules using compressed air are also used....
of the Dacian capital, only thus being able to end the long siege of Sarmizegetusa.
Material Culture
According to archaeological findings, the cradle of the Dacian culture is considered to be north of the Danube towards the Carpathian mountains, in the modern-day historical Romanian province of MunteniaMuntenia
Muntenia is a historical province of Romania, usually considered Wallachia-proper . It is situated between the Danube , the Carpathian Mountains and Moldavia , and the Olt River to the west...
. It is identified as an evolution of the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
Basarabi culture
Basarabi culture
The Basarabi culture was an archeological culture in Romania, dated between 8th - 7th centuries BC. It was named after Basarabi, a village in Dolj County, south-western Romania, nowadays an administrative component of the Calafat municipality....
. The earlier Iron Age Basarabi in the northern lower Danube connects to the iron-using Ferigile-Birsesti group. This is an archaeological manifestation of the historical Getae who, along with Agathyrsae are one of a number of tribal formations recorded by Herodotus
Specific Dacian material culture includes: wheel-turned pottery that is generally plain but with distinctive elite wares, massive silver dress fibulae (clasped pin fasteners) precious metal plate, ashlar-masonry, fortifications, upland sanctuaries with horsehoe-shaped precincts, decorated clay heart altars on settlement sites
There are difficulties correlating funerary monuments chronologically with Dacian settlements, a small number of inhumations are known, along with cremation pits and isolated rich burials as at Cugir
From the point of view of archaeology free Dacians are attested by the Puchov culture
Púchov culture
The Púchov culture was an archaeological culture named after site of Púchov-Skalka in Slovakia. Its probable bearer was the Celt Cotini tribe. It existed in northern and central Slovakia between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE...
(in which there are Celtic elements) and Lipiţa culture
Lipiţa culture
Lipiţa culture is the archaeological material culture representative of a Dacian tribe. It took its name from the Ukrainian village of Verkhnya Lypytsya Lipiţa culture (Romanian Lipiţa, Polish Lipica other spellings: Lipitsa, Lipitza) is the archaeological material culture representative of a...
to the east of the Carpathians. Lipiţa culture
Lipiţa culture
Lipiţa culture is the archaeological material culture representative of a Dacian tribe. It took its name from the Ukrainian village of Verkhnya Lypytsya Lipiţa culture (Romanian Lipiţa, Polish Lipica other spellings: Lipitsa, Lipitza) is the archaeological material culture representative of a...
has a Dacian –North Thracian origin . This North Thracian population was dominated by strong Celtic influences or had simply absorbed Celtic ethnic components . Lipiţa culture has been linked to the Dacian tribe of Costoboci
Costoboci
The Costoboci were an ancient people located, during the Roman imperial era, between the Carpathian Mountains and the river Dniester.The Costoboci invaded the Roman empire in AD 170 or 171, pillaging its Balkan provinces as far as central Greece, until they were driven out by Romans...
, .
In Roman Dacia, Dacian burial ritual continued under Roman occupation and into the post-Roman period.
Language
The Dacians are generally considered to have been Thracian speakers, representing a cultural continuity from earlier Iron Age communities.Some historians and linguists consider Dacian language to be a dialect of, or the same language as Thracian
Thracian language
The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times in Southeastern Europe by the Thracians, the northern neighbors of the Ancient Greeks. The Thracian language exhibits satemization: it either belonged to the Satem group of Indo-European languages or it was strongly...
. The vocalism and consonantism differentiate the Dacian and the Thracian languages . Others consider that Dacian and Illyrian form regional varieties (dialects) of a common language. (Note: Thracians inhabited modern southern Bulgaria and northern Greece. Illyrians lived in modern Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia.)
The ancient languages of these people had already gone extinct and their cultural influence was highly reduced due to the repeated barbaric invasions of the Balkans by Celts, Huns
Huns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
, Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
, and Sarmatians
Sarmatians
The Iron Age Sarmatians were an Iranian people in Classical Antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD....
, accompanied by persistent Hellenization
Hellenization
Hellenization is a term used to describe the spread of ancient Greek culture, and, to a lesser extent, language. It is mainly used to describe the spread of Hellenistic civilization during the Hellenistic period following the campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon...
, Romanisation and later Slavicisation
Slavicisation
Slavicisation is a term used to describe a cultural change in which something non-Slavic becomes Slavic. The process can either be voluntary, or applied with varying degrees of force.* Bulgarisation* Croatisation* Czechification* Polonization...
. Therefore, in the study of the toponomy of Dacia one must take account of the fact, that some place-names were taken by the Slavs from still unromanised Dacians.
A number of Dacian words are preserved in ancient sources, amounting to about 1150 anthroponyms and 900 toponyms, and in Discorides some of the rich plant lore of the Dacians is preserved along with the names of 42 medicinal plants.
Religion
According to Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
History (book 4) account of the story of Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis , is a divinity of the Getae, mentioned by Herodotus in his Histories IV, 93-96...
(or Zamolxis), the Getae (speaking the same language as the Dacians, according to Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
) believed in the immortality of the soul, and regarded death as merely a change of country. Their chief priest held a prominent position as the representative of the supreme deity, Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis , is a divinity of the Getae, mentioned by Herodotus in his Histories IV, 93-96...
, who is called also Gebeleizis by some among them
Historian and geographer Strabo about the high priest Decaeneus:
"a man who not only had wandered through Egypt, but also had thoroughly learned certain prognostics through which he would pretend to tell the divine will; and within a short time he was set up as god (as I said when relating the story of Zamolxis)"
The Goth
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
Jordanes
Jordanes
Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....
in his Getica (The origin and deeds of the Goths), gives an account of Dicineus (Deceneus
Deceneus
Deceneus refers in The Origin and Deeds of the Goths by Jordanes to two different men in Dacia:* Deceneus, the predecessor of Zalmoxis in the distant past ....
), the highest priest of King Burebista
Burebista
Burebista was a king of the Getae and Dacians, who unified for the first time their tribes and ruled them between 82 BC and 44 BC. He led plunder and conquest raids across Central and Southeastern Europe, subjugating most of the neighbouring tribes...
, and considered Dacians a nation related to the Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
.
Besides Zalmoxis, the Dacians believed in other deities such as Gebeleizis god of storm and lightning, (maybe related with Thracian god Zibelthiurdos
Zibelthiurdos
Zibelthiurdos was a Thracian god of storm and lightning like Gebeleizis god....
). He was represented as a handsome man, sometimes wearing a beard. The lightning and thunder
Thunder
Thunder is the sound made by lightning. Depending on the nature of the lightning and distance of the listener, thunder can range from a sharp, loud crack to a long, low rumble . The sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning produces rapid expansion of the air surrounding and within...
were his manifestations. Later Gebeleizis was equated with Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis , is a divinity of the Getae, mentioned by Herodotus in his Histories IV, 93-96...
as the same god.
According to Herodotus, fifth century BC, Gebeleizis (*Zebeleizis / Gebeleizis who is only mentioned by Herodotus ) is just another name of Zalmoxis .
Another important deity was Bendis
Bendis
Bendis was a Thracian goddess of the moon and the hunt whom the Greeks identified with Artemis. She was a huntress, like Artemis, but was accompanied by dancing satyrs and maenads on a fifth century red-figure stemless cup ....
, goddess of the moon and the hunt.
By a decree of the oracle of Dodona
Dodona
Dodona in Epirus in northwestern Greece, was an oracle devoted to a Mother Goddess identified at other sites with Rhea or Gaia, but here called Dione, who was joined and partly supplanted in historical times by the Greek god Zeus.The shrine of Dodona was regarded as the oldest Hellenic oracle,...
, which required the Athenians to grant land for a shrine or temple her cult was introduced into Attica by immigrant Thracian residents, and, though Thracian and Athenian processions remained separate, both cult and festival became so popular that in Plato's time (c. 429-13 BCE) its festivities were naturalized as an official ceremonial of the city-state, called the Bendideia.
Known Dacian theonyms include Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis , is a divinity of the Getae, mentioned by Herodotus in his Histories IV, 93-96...
,Gebeleïzis
Gebeleizis
Gebeleizis was a god worshiped by the Getae, probably related to the Thracian god of storm and lightning, Zibelthiurdos. He was represented as a handsome man, sometimes wearing a beard. The lightning and thunder were his manifestations...
and Darzalas
Derzelas
Derzelas was a Dacian or Thracian chthonic god of abundance and the underworld, health and human spirit's vitality, probably related with gods such as Hades, Zalmoxis, Gebeleizis....
. Gebeleizis is probably cognate to the Thracian god Zibelthiurdos (also Zbelsurdos, Zibelthurdos), wielder of lightning and thunderbolts. Derzelas (also Darzalas) was a chthonic god of health and human spirit's vitality.
The pagan religion survived longer than in other parts of the empire; Christianity made little headway in Dacia until the fifth century
Symbols
Permanent contacts with the Graeco-Roman world brought the use of the Greek and later of the Latin alphabetIt is also certainly not the case that writing with Greek and Latin letters and knowledge of Greek and Latin were known in all the settlements scattered throughout Dacia, but there is no doubt about the existence of such knowledge in some circles of Dacian society.
However, the most revealing discoveries concerning the use of the writing by the Dacians occurred in the citadels on the Sebes mountains .
Some groups of letters from the Sarmisegetuza’s blocks might express personal names which can not now be read because the wall is ruined and because it is impossible to restore the original order of the blocks in the wall .
Pottery
Fragments of pottery with different "inscriptions" with Latin and Greek letters incised before and after firing have been discovered also in the settlement at Ocnita – ValceaAn inscription carries the word Basileus (Βασιλεύς in Greek meaning king) and seems to have written before the vessel was hardened by fire.
Other inscriptions contain the name of the king which was completed by experts in the form of Thiemarcus and Latin groups of letters (BVR, REB) The inscription BUR indicates the name of the tribe or union of tribes, the Buridavensi Dacians who lived at Buridava and who were mentioned by Ptolemy in the second century AD under the name of Buridavensioi.
Art
The Dacian gold braceletsDacian bracelets
]The Dacian bracelets are bracelets associated with the ancient peoples known as the Dacians, a particularly individualized branch of the Thracians. These bracelets were used as ornaments, currency, high rank insignia and votive offerings Their ornamentations consist of many elaborate regionally...
depict the cultural and aesthetic sense of the Dacians. They were made from a gold ore mixed with very small quantity of silver using techniques that are considered by archaeologists technologically very advanced for that period of time.
Clothing
The typical Dacian dress of both men and women can be seen on Trajan's column.Science
Dio Chrysostom wrote up the Dacians as natural philosophers. The Dacians knew about writing.Warfare
The history of Dacian warfare spans from ca. 10th century BC up to the 2nd century AD in the region defined by Ancient Greek and Latin historians as DaciaDacia
In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...
. It concerns the armed conflicts of the Dacian tribes and their kingdoms in the Balkans. Apart from conflicts between Dacians and neighboring nations and tribes, numerous wars were recorded among Dacian tribes too.
Weapons
The weapon most associated with the Dacian forces that fought against Trajan’s army during his invasions in Dacia was the falx, a single-edged scythe-like weapon. The falx was able to inflict horrible wounds on opponents, easily disabling or killing even the heavily armored Roman legionaries that they faced during Dacian wars. This weapon, more so than any other single factor, forced the Roman army to adopt previously unused or modified equipment to suit the conditions on the Dacian battlefieldFamous individuals
This is a list of several important Dacian individuals or those of partly Dacian origin.- ZalmoxisZalmoxisZalmoxis , is a divinity of the Getae, mentioned by Herodotus in his Histories IV, 93-96...
, a semi-legendary social and religious reformer, eventually deified by the GetaeGetaeThe Getae was the name given by the Greeks to several Thracian tribes that occupied the regions south of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria, and north of the Lower Danube, in Romania...
and Dacians and regarded as the only true godMonotheismMonotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
. - ZoltesZoltesZoltes was a chief of the southern Thracians, living in the Haemus mountains area. Leading small groups, he often made incursions into the Pontic cities and within their territories. He attacked the city of Histria, calling off the siege only after having received 7500 drachmas and 5 talents Zoltes...
- BurebistaBurebistaBurebista was a king of the Getae and Dacians, who unified for the first time their tribes and ruled them between 82 BC and 44 BC. He led plunder and conquest raids across Central and Southeastern Europe, subjugating most of the neighbouring tribes...
was a king of DaciaDaciaIn ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...
between 70 BC - 44 BC who united under his rule Thracians in a large territory, from today's MoraviaMoraviaMoravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
in the West, to the Southern BugSouthern BugThe Southern Bug, also called Southern Buh), is a river located in Ukraine. The source of the river is in the west of Ukraine, in the Volyn-Podillia Upland, about 145 km from the Polish border, and flows southeasterly into the Bug Estuary through the southern steppes...
river (UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
) in the East, and from Northern CarpathiansCarpathian MountainsThe Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...
to Southern Dionysopolis.The Greeks considered him the first and greatest king of Thrace. - DecebalusDecebalusDecebalus or "The Brave" was a king of Dacia and is famous for fighting three wars and negotiating two interregnums of peace without being eliminated against the Roman Empire under two emperors...
, a king of DaciaDaciaIn ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...
ultimately defeated by the forces of TrajanTrajanTrajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
. - DiegisDiegisDiegis was a Dacian chief, general and brother of Decebalus, and his representative at the peace negotiations held with Domitian .-See also:*Dacians...
, was a Dacian chief, general and brother of Decebalus, and his representative at the peace negotiations held with Domitian (89 C.E.). - GaleriusGaleriusGalerius , was Roman Emperor from 305 to 311. During his reign he campaigned, aided by Diocletian, against the Sassanid Empire, sacking their capital Ctesiphon in 299. He also campaigned across the Danube against the Carpi, defeating them in 297 and 300...
, Roman Emperor who affirmed his Dacian roots to such an extent that "he had avowed himself the enemy of the Roman name; and he proposed that the empire should be called, not the Roman, but the Dacian empire" - Flavius AetiusFlavius AëtiusFlavius Aëtius , dux et patricius, was a Roman general of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was an able military commander and the most influential man in the Western Roman Empire for two decades . He managed policy in regard to the attacks of barbarian peoples pressing on the Empire...
, often called "the last of the RomansLast of the RomansThe description Last of the Romans has historically been given to any man thought to embody the values of Ancient Roman civilization - values which, by implication, became extinct on his death....
", Dacian and Roman origin
Archaeology
Legacy
In 2004, it had been performed a study of mtDNA polymorphism on the skeletal remains of some old Thracian populations from South East of Romania dating from the Bronze AgeBronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
and Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
. MtDNA have been compared with several modern mtDNA sequences from 5 European present-day populations. The results reflect an evident genetic similarity between the old Thracian individuals and the modern populations from SE of Europe .
The Thracian individuals have shown informative point mutations in 7np (nucleotide position) the Romanian, Greek and Albanian individuals in 7np, and the Bulgarian individuals in only 5 np out of 12 most informative nucleotide positions presented in the study. As concerns the frequency of point mutations in the 12 nucleotide positions, the Italian individuals show the highest mutation frequency with 12.5%, followed by the Thracian individuals with 8.3%, the Albanian individuals with 7.5 % the Romanian and Greek individuals with 6.25% and the Bulgarian individuals with only 4.6%.
Computing the frequency of common point mutations of the present-day European population with the Thracian population has resulted that the Italian (7.9%), the Albanian (6.3%) and the Greek (5.8%) have shown a bias of closer genetic kinship with the Thracian individuals than the Romanian and Bulgarian individuals (only 4.2%).
Also, the study concluded that so far it can just supposed that the old Thracian populations would have been able contribute to the foundation of the Romanian modern genetic pool. More mtDNA sequences from Thracian individuals are needed in order to perform a complex objective statistical analysis .
Middle Ages
In art
See also
- MoesiMoesiThe Moesi were a Daco-Thracian tribe who inhabited present day Serbia and Bulgaria, part of the then Roman province of Moesia, which was named after them in 87 AD by the Romans after the Romans under Crassus defeated them in the 29 BC.- History :...
- ThraciansThraciansThe ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...
- IllyriansIllyriansThe Illyrians were a group of tribes who inhabited part of the western Balkans in antiquity and the south-eastern coasts of the Italian peninsula...
- Scythians
- SarmatiansSarmatiansThe Iron Age Sarmatians were an Iranian people in Classical Antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD....
- CimmeriansCimmeriansThe Cimmerians or Kimmerians were ancient equestrian nomads of Indo-European origin.According to the Greek historian Herodotus, of the 5th century BC, the Cimmerians inhabited the region north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea during the 8th and 7th centuries BC, in what is now Ukraine and Russia...
- DaciaDaciaIn ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...
- List of rulers of Thrace and Dacia
- List of cities in Thrace and Dacia
- Dacian languageDacian languageThe extinct Dacian language may have developed from proto-Indo-European in the Carpathian region around 2,500 BC and probably died out by AD 600. In the 1st century AD, it was the predominant language of the ancient regions of Dacia and Moesia and, possibly, of some surrounding regions.It belonged...
- ThraceThraceThrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
- ThracologyThracologyThracology is the scientific study of Ancient Thrace and Thracian antiquities and is a regional and thematic branch of the larger disciplines of ancient history and archaeology. A practitioner of the discipline is a Thracologist...
- Odrysian kingdomOdrysian kingdomThe Odrysian kingdom was a union of Thracian tribes that endured between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC. It consisted largely of present-day Bulgaria, spreading to parts of Northern Dobruja, parts of Northern Greece and modern-day European Turkey...
- Thracian languageThracian languageThe Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times in Southeastern Europe by the Thracians, the northern neighbors of the Ancient Greeks. The Thracian language exhibits satemization: it either belonged to the Satem group of Indo-European languages or it was strongly...
- Thracian mythology
- Thraco-Dacian
- Thraco-CimmerianThraco-CimmerianThraco-Cimmerian is a historiographical and archaeological term, composed of the names of the Thracians and the Cimmerians. It refers to 8th to 7th century BC cultures that are linked in Eastern Central Europe and in the area north of the Black Sea....
- Thraco-IllyrianThraco-IllyrianThraco-Illyrian refers to a hypothesis that the Thraco-Dacian and Illyrian languages comprise a distinct branch of Indo-European. Thraco-Illyrian is also used as a term merely implying a Thracian-Illyrian interference, mixture or sprachbund, or as a shorthand way of saying that it is not...
- ThraexThraexThe Thraex , or Thracian, was a type of Roman gladiator, armed in the Thracian style with small rectangular shield called a parmula and a very short sword with a slightly curved blade called a sica , intended to maim an opponent's unarmoured back...
- Thracology
Ancient
|last = Strabo|authorlink = Strabo
|title = Geographica
|url = http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/home.html
|year = ca. 20 AD
|language = Ancient Greek
}}
Modern
}}- Husovská Ludmilá (1998) “Slovakia: walking through centuries of cities and towns”, Priroda
- Wilcox, Peter and Embleton, Gerry (1982) Rome's Enemies: Germanics and Dacians (Men at Arms Series, 129)
- Chronicle of the Roman Emperors by Chris Scarre, 1995
- The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire by Edward N. Luttwak, 1976
- A History of Rome to A.D. 565 by Boak & Sinnigen, 1965