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101-611: The Getae first appear in historical records as fierce opponents of the Persian invasion in 513 BC, as described by the early Greek historian Herodotus . They faded out of historical records during the Roman empire , when many appear to have become Romans while others north of the Danube where gradually overwhelmed by other peoples moving from the north and east towards the Roman frontier. The ethnonym Getae

202-590: A bridge of boats . Darius conquered large portions of Eastern Europe , even crossing the Danube to wage war on the Scythians . Darius invaded Scythia with his general Megabazus , where the Scythians evaded Darius's army, using feints and retreating eastwards while laying waste to the countryside, by blocking wells, intercepting convoys, destroying pastures and continuous skirmishes against Darius's army. Seeking to fight with

303-591: A Greek doctor at the Persian court ca. 400 BC, wrote that before the invasion of Darius into the European Scythian lands a satrap of Cappadocia named Ariaramnes had crossed the Black Sea to the north, raiding the European Scythian regions with a fleet of thirty penteconters , returning with Scythian men and women, including the brother of a Scythian king. While some have supposed that the reason for Darius' invasions

404-584: A continuum of dangerous nomadic raiders. Furthermore, control of the Black Sea recognized no international divisions. The Persians and the Greeks (many of whom lived in the Persian Empire, while another number lived in the Greek colonies in what is nowadays southern Ukraine) had a common interest in seeking to control the source of Scythian exports of gold, grain, hides, and furs. As Fol and Hammond further state, Ctesias ,

505-666: A couple of Dacian toponyms in south Poland in the Upper Vistula (Polish: Wisla) river basin: Susudava and Setidava (with a manuscript variant Getidava ). This could have been an "echo" of Burebista's expansion. It seems that this northern expansion of the Dacian language, as far as the Vistula river, lasted until AD 170–180 when the migration of the Vandal Hasdingi pushed out this northern Dacian group. This Dacian group, possibly

606-458: A decisive victory over the Goths. Since at that time Romans were still occupying Roman Dacia it is assumed that the Goths didn't cross the Danube from the Roman province. The Goths who survived their defeat didn't even attempt to escape through Dacia, but through Thrace . At the boundaries of Roman Dacia , Carpi ( Free Dacians ) were still strong enough to sustain five battles in eight years against

707-411: A direct battle, and until he did so he did not have much reason to secure the conquered territories. The initiative still lay with him. As the tactics of evading Darius' army and scorched earth were continued by the Scythians, they had failed however completely, though Darius had failed too as still he wasn't able to bring it to a direct confrontation. He had conquered enough Scythian territory to force

808-531: A fortress at Tirizis (modern Kaliakra ). The Getae flourished especially in the first half of the 3rd century BC. By about 200   BC, the authority of the Getic prince, Zalmodegicus , stretched as far as Histria , as a contemporary inscription shows. Other strong princes included Zoltes and Rhemaxos (about 180   BC). Also, several Getic rulers minted their own coins. The ancient authors Strabo and Cassius Dio say that Getae practiced ruler cult , and this

909-507: A new fort ( Constantiana Daphne ) was built, and ancient roads were repaired in Oltenia . The Lower Danube again became the empire's northern boundary in 369 at the latest, when Emperor Valens met Athanaric —the head of the Goths—in a boat in the middle of the river because the latter had taken an oath "never to set foot on Roman soil". Although Eastern Roman emperors made annual payments to

1010-714: A part of the mountains), afterwards broadens out towards the north as far as the Tyregetae ; but I cannot tell the precise boundaries″ On this basis, Lengyel and Radan (1980), Hoddinott (1981) and Mountain (1998) consider that the Geto-Dacians inhabited both sides of the Tisza river prior to the rise of the Celtic Boii . The hold of the Dacians between the Danube and the Tisza was tenuous. However,

1111-523: A tribal confederacy, which was united only by charismatic leadership in both military-political and ideological-religious domains. At the beginning of the 2nd century BC, under the rule of Rubobostes , a Dacian king in present-day Transylvania , the Dacians' power in the Carpathian basin increased after they defeated the Celts , who previously held power in the region. A kingdom of Dacia also existed as early as

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1212-558: A unity of Getae and Dacians". Lucian Boia took a sceptical position, arguing the ancient writers distinguished among the two people, treating them as two distinct groups of the Thracian ethnos. Boia contended that it would be naive to assume Strabo knew the Thracian dialects so well, alleging that Strabo had "no competence in the field of Thracian dialects". The latter claim is contested, some studies attesting Strabo's reliability and sources. There

1313-607: A village in Thracia , of unknown location. Thermi-daua , a town in Dalmatia . Probably a Grecized form of *Germidava . Pulpu-deva , (Phillipopolis) today Plovdiv in Bulgaria . Geto-Dacians inhabited both sides of the Tisa river prior to the rise of the Celtic Boii and again after the latter were defeated by the Dacians under the king Burebista. It seems likely that the Dacian state arose as

1414-624: Is any god but their own. Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia mentions a tribe called the Tyragetae , apparently a Daco-Thracian tribe who dwelt by the river Tyras (the Dniester ). Their tribal name appears to be a combination of Tyras and Getae ; see also the names Thyssagetae and Massagetae . The Roman poet Ovid , during his long exile in Tomis , is asserted to have written poetry (now lost) in

1515-453: Is confirmed by archaeological remains. In 72–71 BC Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus became the first Roman commander to march against the Getae. This was done to strike at the western Pontic allies of Mithridates VI , but he had limited success. A decade later, a coalition of Scythians , Getae, Bastarnae and Greek colonists defeated C.   Antonius Hybrida at Histria . This victory over

1616-552: Is generally considered that the two groups were related to a certain degree; the exact relation is a matter of controversy. Strabo, as well as other ancient sources, led some modern historians to consider that, if the Thracian ethnic group should be divided, one of this divisions should be the " Daco-Getae ". The linguist Ivan Duridanov also identified a " Dacian linguistic area " in Dacia , Scythia Minor , Lower Moesia , and Upper Moesia . Romanian scholars generally went further with

1717-569: Is no reason to disregard Strabo's belief that the Daci and the Getae spoke the same language. Boia also stressed that some Romanian authors cited Strabo indiscriminately. A similar position was adopted by Romanian historian and archaeologist G. A. Niculescu , who also criticized the Romanian historiography and the archaeological interpretation, particularly on the "Geto-Dacian" culture. In his opinion, Alexandru Vulpe saw ancient people as modern nations, leading

1818-514: Is now the Balkans , Ukraine , and southern Russia . The Scythians managed to avoid a direct confrontation with the Persian army due to their mobile lifestyle and lack of any settlement (except Gelonus ), while the Persians suffered losses due to the Scythians' scorched earth tactic. However, the Persians conquered much of their cultivated lands and damaged their allies, forcing the Scythians to respect

1919-501: The Zaths , may have been the Getae and/or Jats. More recent authors, like Tadeusz Sulimirski , Weer Rajendra Rishi , and Chandra Chakraberty, have also linked the Getae and Jats. Less credible, however, are parallel claims by Alexander Cunningham that the Xanthii (or Zanthi ) and Iatioi  – mentioned by Strabo, Ptolemy and Pliny – may have been synonymous with

2020-748: The Black Sea to the river Tisza . During that period, the Getae and Dacians conquered a wider territory and Dacia extended from the Middle Danube to the Black Sea littoral (between Apollonia and Pontic Olbia ) and from the Northern Carpathians to the Balkan Mountains. After the death of Burebista in 44 BCE, his Kingdom quickly unraveled, but the Dacians remained a significant enough force to frequently make incursions into Roman territory. Strabo, in his Geography written around AD 20, says: ″As for

2121-547: The Celts over the Rhine and the Getae over the Danube , whom they call Dacians". Justin , the 3rd century AD Latin historian, wrote in his Epitome of Pompeius Trogus that Dacians are spoken of as descendants of the Getae: "Daci quoque suboles Getarum sunt" (The Dacians as well are a scion of the Getae). In his Roman History (c.   200   AD), Cassius Dio added: "I call

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2222-508: The Costoboci / Lipița culture , is associated by Gudmund Schütte with towns having the specific Dacian language ending " dava " i.e. Setidava . After the Marcomannic Wars (AD 166–180), Dacian groups from outside Roman Dacia had been set in motion. So too were the 12,000 Dacians "from the neighbourhood of Roman Dacia sent away from their own country". Their native country could have been

2323-557: The Dniester River . Constantine took the title Dacicus maximus in 336. Before 300, the Romans erected small forts at Dierna and in other places on the northern bank of the Danube in modern-day Banat. In their wider region, Roman coins from the period—mostly of bronze—have been found. The Huns destroyed Drobeta and Sucidava in the 440s, but the forts were restored under Emperor Justinian I (527–565). Eastern Roman coins from

2424-571: The Getic language . In his Epistulae ex Ponto , written from the northern coast of the Black Sea, he asserts that two major, distinct languages were spoken by the sundry tribes of Scythia, which he referred to as Getic, and Sarmatian. Jerome (Letter CVII to Laeta. II) described the Getae as red and yellow-haired, though he may be referring to the Goths, with whom the Getae were sometimes confused in Late Antiquity. The Getae are sometimes confused with

2525-653: The Goths in works of early medieval authors. This confusion is notably expanded on in works of Jordanes , himself of Gothic background, who transferred earlier historical narratives about the Getae to the Goths. At the close of the 4th century AD, Claudian , court poet to the emperor Honorius and the patrician Stilicho , uses the ethnonym Getae to refer to the Visigoths . During 5th and 6th centuries, several historians and ethnographers ( Marcellinus Comes , Orosius , John Lydus , Isidore of Seville , Procopius of Caesarea ) used

2626-566: The Ionian Revolt . Allied groups to the Scythians included the Tauri , Agathyrsi , Neuri , Androphagi , Melanchlaeni , Budini & Gelonians , Sauromatae , and Getae . Other Ionians mentioned as being involved included Aiaces of Samos, Laodamas of Phocaea, Aristagoras of Cymae, Daphnis of Abydos, Hippoclus of Lampsacus, Herophantus of Parium, Metrodorus of Proconnesus, Aristagoras of Cyzicus, and Ariston of Byzantium. The Scythian campaign

2727-607: The Ister . Two of the many tribes found among them are those formerly called the Triballi , and the Dardani , who still retain their old name. There is a dispute among scholars about the relations between the Getae and Dacians , and this dispute also covers the interpretation of ancient sources. Some historians such as Ronald Arthur Crossland state that even Ancient Greeks used the two designations "interchangeable or with some confusion". Thus, it

2828-638: The Sarmatae invaded the Getic territory and were driven back by Roman troops. The Getae were placed under the control of the Roman vassal king in Thrace, Rhoemetalces I . In 6   AD, the province of Moesia was founded, incorporating the Getae south of the Danube River . The Getae north of the Danube continued tribal autonomy outside the Roman Empire. According to Herodotus , the Getae were "the noblest as well as

2929-463: The Scythian campaign of Darius I in 513   BC, during which the latter conquered the Getae. According to Herodotus, the Getae differed from other Thracian tribes in their religion, centered around the god ( daimon ) Zalmoxis whom some of the Getae called Gebeleizis . Between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC, the Getae were mostly under the rule of the flourishing Odrysian kingdom . During this time,

3030-653: The southern part of Germany beyond the Albis , the portion which is just contiguous to that river is occupied by the Suevi ; then immediately adjoining this is the land of the Getae , which, though narrow at first, stretching as it does along the Ister [ Danube ] on its southern side and on the opposite side along the mountain-side of the Hercynian Forest (for the land of the Getae also embraces

3131-550: The "Scythians across the Sea" ( Old Persian cuneiform : 𐎿𐎣𐎠𐏐𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹𐏐𐎱𐎼𐎭𐎼𐎹, Sakā tayaiya paradraya ) are mentioned at Naqsh-e Rustam as one of the peoples the king conquered outside of Persia, and János Harmatta was of the opinion that the Persian expedition had instead successfully annexed Scythia, and that the Scythians were able to free themselves only in 496 BC, when the Achaemenids lost all their European territories due to

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3232-757: The 270s. There is no evidence that they were invaded in the following decades. Towns, including Apulum and Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa , and the surrounding areas continued to be inhabited but the urban areas diminished. The existence of local Christian communities can be assumed in Porolissum , Potaissa and other settlements. On the other hand, evidence – mainly pottery with " Chi - rho " (Χ-Ρ) signs and other Christian symbols – is "shadowy and poorly understood", according to archaeologists Haynes and Hanson. Urns found in late 3rd-century cemeteries at Bezid , Mediaş , and in other Transylvanian settlements had clear analogies in sites east of

3333-529: The Bastarnae across the Danube as a pretext to devastate the Getae and Thracians. He put Marcus Licinius Crassus in charge of the plan. In 29   BC, Crassus defeated the Bastarnae with the help of the Getic prince Rholes . Crassus promised him help for his support against the Getic ruler Dapyx . After Crassus had reached as far the Danube Delta , Rholes was appointed king and returned to Rome. In 16   BC,

3434-609: The Carpathians, suggesting that the Carpians were the first new arrivals in the former province from the neighboring regions. Other Carpian groups, pressured by the Goths, also departed from their homeland and sought refuge in the Roman Empire around 300. Nevertheless, " Carpo-Dacians " were listed among the peoples "mixed with the Huns" as late as 379. The Sarmatians of the Banat were allies of

3535-619: The Carpi, who had then possessed themselves of Dacia and Moesia". Even so, the Germanic and Celtic kingdoms, particularly the Gothic tribes , slowly moved toward the Dacian borders, and within a generation were making assaults on the province. Ultimately, the Goths succeeded in dislodging the Romans and restoring the "independence" of Dacia following Emperor Aurelian 's withdrawal, in 275. In AD 268–269, at Naissus , Claudius II (Gothicus Maximus) obtained

3636-595: The Dacians and Getae spoke the same language, after stating the same about Getae and Thracians. Strabo's account of the lands inhabited by the Getae: Pliny the Elder , in his Naturalis Historia (Natural History), c.   77–79   AD: "... though various races have occupied the adjacent shores; at one spot the Getae , by the Romans called Daci ". Appian , who began writing his Roman History under Antoninus Pius , Roman Emperor from 138 to 161, noted: "[B]ut going beyond these rivers in places they rule some of

3737-471: The Dacians and the Getae was formed under the rule of Burebista in 82 BC and lasted until the Roman conquest in AD 106. As a result of the wars with the Roman Empire , after the conquest of Dacia, the population was dispersed, and the capital city, Sarmizegetusa Regia , was destroyed by the Romans. However, the Romans built a settlement bearing the same name, Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetuza 40 km away, to serve as

3838-454: The Dacians are "Getae or Thracians of Dacian race": In ancient times, it is true, Moesians and Getae occupied all the land between Haemus and the Ister; but as time went on some of them changed their names, and since then there have been included under the name of Moesia all the tribes living above Dalmatia , Macedonia , and Thrace , and separated from Pannonia by the Savus , a tributary of

3939-567: The Dacians became Romanised (see also Origin of Romanians ). In AD 183, war broke out in Dacia: few details are available, but it appears two future contenders for the throne of emperor Commodus , Clodius Albinus and Pescennius Niger , both distinguished themselves in the campaign. According to Lactantius , the Roman emperor Decius (AD 249–251) had to restore Roman Dacia from the Carpo-Dacians of Zosimus "having undertaken an expedition against

4040-416: The Dacians effectively independent. Decebalus was given the status of "king client to Rome", receiving military instructors, craftsmen and money from Rome. To Rome, Domitian brought Italian peasants in Dacian clothing because he couldn't take slaves in the war. To increase the glory of his reign, restore the finances of Rome, and end a treaty perceived as humiliating, Trajan resolved on the conquest of Dacia,

4141-607: The Danube and the Hercynian Forest as far as the winter quarters of Pannonia at Carnutum and the plains and level country of the German frontiers there are occupied by the Sarmatian Iazyges, while the Dacians whom they have driven out hold the mountains and forests as far as the river Theiss". Starting with AD 85, Dacia was once again reunified under King Decebalus . Following an incursion into Roman Moesia , which resulted in

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4242-564: The European side in June. Thus, he may have started to go beyond the Danube in late August. Darius inflicted widespread damage on the Scythians and their allies, weakened the prestige of the Royal Scythians especially, and upset the balance of power among the various peoples of the region. However, he suffered very heavy losses and did not fulfill the tasks set for the campaign. He failed to bring

4343-469: The Getae and Massagetae to the Jats of South Asia. Likewise, the Dacians have been linked to the Dahae of Central Asia (and the Dahae to the Dasas of South Asia). W. W. Hunter claimed in 1886, suggested that the Jats were an Iranian people – most likely Scythian / Saka in origin, Alexander Cunningham (1888) believed that references in classical European sources – like Strabo , Ptolemy and Pliny  – to peoples such as

4444-486: The Getae and/or Jats. The Xanthii were later established to be a subgroup (tribe or clan) of the Dahae. Subsequent scholars, such as Edwin Pulleyblank , Josef Markwart (also known as Joseph Marquart) and László Torday , suggest that Iatioi may be another name for a people known in classical Chinese sources as the Yuezhi and in South Asian contexts as the Kuṣānas (or Kushans). Scythian campaign of Darius I 700,000 total The Scythian campaign of Darius I

4545-425: The Getae he was defeated by them. The Getae king, Dromichaetes , took him prisoner but he treated him well and convinced Lysimachus there is more to gain as an ally than as an enemy of the Getae and released him. According to Diodorus, Dromichaetes entertained Lysimachus at his palace at Helis, where food was served on gold and silver plates. The discovery of the celebrated tomb at Sveshtari (1982) suggests that Helis

4646-458: The Getae provided military services and became famous for their cavalry. After the disintegration of the Odrysian kingdom, smaller Getic principalities began to consolidate themselves. Before setting out on his Persian expedition, Alexander the Great defeated the Getae and razed one of their settlements. In 313   BC, the Getae formed an alliance with Callatis , Odessos , and other western Pontic Greek colonies against Lysimachus , who held

4747-407: The Goths dearly: reportedly, nearly one hundred thousand died before they submitted to Rome. In celebration of this victory Constantine took the title Gothicus Maximus and claimed the subjugated territory as the new province of Gothia. In 334, after Sarmatian commoners had overthrown their leaders, Constantine led a campaign against the tribe. He won a victory in the war and extended his control over

4848-411: The Persian force. Darius halted the advance to consolidate his gains, and built a defence line. Practically everything that is known of this campaign is from Herodotus 's book The Histories ; almost no Persian sources exist, and no Scythian ones. As a result, it is difficult to know for sure how much of Herodotus's account is accurate. Darius crossed the Black Sea at the Bosphorus Straits using

4949-419: The Roman agenda since before the days of Julius Caesar when a Roman army had been beaten at the Battle of Histria . From AD 85 to 89, the Dacians under Decebalus were engaged in two wars with the Romans. In AD 85, the Dacians had swarmed over the Danube and pillaged Moesia. In AD 87, the Roman troops sent by the Emperor Domitian against them under Cornelius Fuscus , were defeated and Cornelius Fuscus

5050-437: The Roman border, fortifications were erected by the Romans on both banks of the Danube . In 328 the emperor Constantine the Great inaugurated the Constantine's Bridge (Danube) at Sucidava, (today Corabia in Romania) in hopes of reconquering Dacia , a province that had been abandoned under Aurelian. In the late winter of 332, Constantine campaigned with the Sarmatians against the Goths . The weather and lack of food cost

5151-491: The Romanian historiography that considered the two people the same. Nevertheless, he chose to use the term "Geto-Dacians" as a conventional concept for the Thracian tribes inhabiting the future territory of Romania, not necessarily meaning an "absolute ethnic, linguistic or historical unity". Crossland suggested the two designations may refer to two groups of a "linguistically homogeneous people" that had come to historical prominence at two distinct periods of time. He also compared

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5252-429: The Romans allowed Burebista , the leader of this coalition, to dominate the region for a short period (60–50 BC). In the mid-first century BC Burebista organized a kingdom consisting of descendants of those whom the Greeks had called Getae , as well as Dacians , or Daci , the name applied to people of the region by the Romans. Augustus aimed at subjugating the entire Balkan peninsula , and used an incursion of

5353-456: The Romans from AD 301–308. Roman Dacia was left in AD 275 by the Romans, to the Carpi again, and not to the Goths. There were still Dacians in AD 336, against whom Constantine the Great fought. The province was abandoned by Roman troops, and, according to the Breviarium historiae Romanae by Eutropius , Roman citizens "from the towns and lands of Dacia" were resettled to the interior of Moesia. Under Diocletian , c. AD 296, in order to defend

5454-415: The Romans, from whom they obtained the right to settle in Oltenia . In 376, the region was conquered by Huns , who kept it until the death of Attila in 453. The Gepid tribe, ruled by Ardaric , used it as their base, until in 566, when it was destroyed by the Lombards . Lombards abandoned the country and the Avars (second half of the 6th century) dominated the region for 230 years, until their kingdom

5555-415: The Romans, though as yet they are not absolutely submissive, because of the hopes which they base on the Germans, who are enemies to the Romans." In fact, this occurred because Burebista 's empire split after his death into four and later five smaller states, as Strabo explains, "only recently, when Augustus Caesar sent an expedition against them, the number of parts into which the empire had been divided

5656-422: The Romans. Some scholars consider the Getae and Dacians to be the same people at different stages of their history and discuss their culture as Geto-Dacian . Historian and archaeologist Alexandru Vulpe found a remarkable uniformity of the Geto-Dacian culture; however, he is one of the few Romanian archaeologists to make a clear distinction between the Getae and Dacians, arguing against the traditional position of

5757-401: The Scythians and are armed in the same manner, being all mounted archers"). Some historians argue that Daxia (mentioned in 3rd century BC ) was the previous home of Indo-Iranian nomads who later came to form the Geto - Dacian people. The extent and location of Dacia varied in its three distinct historical periods (see below): The Dacia of King Burebista (82–44 BC) stretched from

5858-428: The Scythians to battle, he was unable to secure any territorial gains and he did not even complete the building of the forts at what could have been a frontier. The campaign was little more than an expensive stalemate. As winter now had come, Darius did not return to attack, and marched towards Thrace , towards his firmly secured territories. Some form of Persian authority perhaps remained after Darius withdrew, for

5959-413: The Scythians to respect the Persian forces. The whole area from central Thrace to Georgia and from Ukraine to the north-east Mediterranean formed a compact area with mutual economic interests between Scythians, Thracians or Ionians , and Iranians . In strategic terms, Darius must have seen that some Scythian-type peoples extended from Ukraine all the way to what is modern-day Uzbekistan, forming

6060-532: The Scythians, Darius's army chased the Scythian army deep into Scythian lands, mostly in what is modern-day Ukraine, where there were no cities to conquer and no supplies to forage. In frustration Darius sent a letter to the Scythian ruler Idanthyrsus to fight or surrender. The ruler replied that he would not stand and fight with Darius, unless the Persians found and desecrated the graves of the Scythians' forefathers. Until then, they would continue their strategy as they had no cities or cultivated lands to lose. Despite

6161-487: The Upper Tisa region, but other places cannot be excluded. The later Roman province Dacia Aureliana , was organized inside former Moesia Superior after the retreat of the Roman army from Dacia, during the reign of emperor Aurelian during AD 271–275. It was reorganized as Dacia Ripensis (as a military province) and Dacia Mediterranea (as a civil province). Ptolemy gives a list of 43 names of towns in Dacia, out of which arguably 33 were of Dacian origin. Most of

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6262-415: The ancient Kingdom of Dacia, a large remainder of the land remained outside of Roman Imperial authority. Additionally, the conquest changed the balance of power in the region and was the catalyst for a renewed alliance of Germanic and Celtic tribes and kingdoms against the Roman Empire. However, the material advantages of the Roman Imperial system was attractive to the surviving aristocracy. Afterwards, many of

6363-611: The annexation of most of Dacia and its reorganisation as a Roman Province , Dacia Felix . Written a few decades after Emperor Trajan 's Roman conquest of parts of Dacia in AD 105–106, Ptolemy's Geographia included the boundaries of Dacia. According to the scholars' interpretation of Ptolemy (Hrushevskyi 1997, Bunbury 1879, Mocsy 1974, Bărbulescu 2005) Dacia was the region between the rivers Tisza , Danube, upper Dniester, and Siret. Mainstream historians accept this interpretation: Avery (1972) Berenger (1994) Fol (1996) Mountain (1998), Waldman Mason (2006). Ptolemy also provided

6464-432: The archaeologist Parducz argued for a Dacian presence west of the Tisa dating from the time of Burebista. According to Tacitus (AD 56–117) Dacians bordered Germania in the south-east, while Sarmatians bordered it in the east. In the 1st century AD, the Iazyges settled West of Dacia, on the plain between the Danube and the Tisa rivers, according to the scholars' interpretation of Pliny 's text: "The higher parts between

6565-474: The capital of the new Roman province of Dacia . A group of " Free Dacians ", may have remained outside the Roman Empire in the territory of modern-day Northern Romania until the start of the Migration Period . The Dacians are first mentioned in the writings of the Ancient Greeks , in Herodotus ( Histories Book IV XCIII: "[Getae] the noblest as well as the most just of all the Thracian tribes") and Thucydides ( Peloponnesian Wars , Book II: "[Getae] border on

6666-493: The capture of the famous Treasure of Decebalus, and control over the Dacian gold mines of Transylvania . The result of his first campaign (101–102) was the siege of the Dacian capital Sarmizegethusa and the occupation of part of the country. Emperor Trajan recommenced hostilities against Dacia and, following an uncertain number of battles, and with Trajan's troops pressing towards the Dacian capital Sarmizegethusa , Decebalus once more sought terms. Decebalus rebuilt his power over

6767-408: The death of its governor, Gaius Oppius Sabinus , a series of conflicts between the Romans and Dacians ensued. Although the Romans gained a major strategic victory at Tapae in AD 88, Emperor Domitian offered the Dacians favourable terms, in exchange for which Roman suzerainty was recognised. However, Emperor Trajan restarted the conflicts in AD 101-102 and then again in AD 105–106, which ended with

6868-417: The east. His conquests brought the Roman Empire to its greatest extent. Rome's borders in the east were governed indirectly in this period, through a system of client states , which led to less direct campaigning than in the west. Some of the history of the war is given by Cassius Dio . Trajan erected the Column of Trajan in Rome to commemorate his victory. Although the Romans conquered and destroyed

6969-500: The empire, demonstrated by a Roman invasion in 332 against the Goths, their enemies. Sarmatians were admitted into the empire in 379, but other Sarmatian groups remained in the Tisa plains up until the 460s. The Victohali , Taifals , and Thervingians are tribes mentioned for inhabiting Dacia in 350, after the Romans left. Archeological evidence suggests that Gepids were disputing Transylvania with Taifals and Tervingians. Taifals, once independent from Gothia, became federati of

7070-404: The evading tactics of the Scythians, Darius' campaign was so far relatively successful. As presented by Herodotus , the tactics of the Scythians resulted in the loss of their best lands and damage to their loyal allies. The fact is thus that Darius held the initiative. As he moved eastwards in the cultivated lands of the Scythians, he remained resupplied by his fleet and lived to an extent off of

7171-404: The first half of the 2nd century BC under King Oroles . Conflicts with the Bastarnae and the Romans (112–109 BC, 74 BC), against whom they had assisted the Scordisci and Dardani , greatly weakened the resources of the Dacians. Burebista (Boerebista), a contemporary of Julius Caesar , ruled Geto-Dacian tribes between 82 BC and 44 BC. He thoroughly reorganised the army and attempted to raise

7272-528: The first half of the 6th century suggest a significant military presence in Oltenia —a region also characterized by the predominance of pottery with shapes of Roman tradition. The territory between the Lower Danube and the Black Sea (today Dobrogea in Romania) remained a fully integrated part of the Roman Empire, even after the abandonment of Trajan's Dacia. It was transformed into a separate province under

7373-498: The following years and attacked Roman garrisons again in AD 105. In response Trajan again marched into Dacia, attacking the Dacian capital in the Siege of Sarmizegethusa , and razing it to the ground; the defeated Dacian king Decebalus committed suicide to avoid capture. With part of Dacia quelled as the Roman province Dacia Traiana . Trajan subsequently invaded the Parthian empire to

7474-419: The frozen Danube during the winter and ravaging the Roman cities in the province of Moesia , which was under Roman occupation. Strabo testified: "although the Getae and Daci once attained to very great power, so that they actually could send forth an expedition of two hundred thousand men, they now find themselves reduced to as few as forty thousand, and they have come close to the point of yielding obedience to

7575-500: The identification, historian Constantin C. Giurescu claiming the two were identical. The archaeologist Mircea Babeș spoke of a "veritable ethno-cultural unity" between the Getae and the Dacians. According to Glanville Price , the account of the Greek geographer Strabo shows that the Getae and the Dacians were one and the same people. Others who support the identity between Getae and Dacians with ancient sources include freelance writer James Minahan and Catherine B Avery , who claim

7676-506: The land. While moving eastwards in the European Scythian lands, he captured Gelonos , the large fortified city of the Budini , one of the allies of the Scythians, and burnt it. Darius ordered a halt at the banks of Oarus , where he built "eight great forts, some eight miles distant from each other", no doubt as a frontier defence. As A. Fol and N. G. L. Hammond state, this evidently was as far eastwards as Darius intended to go, at least for

7777-428: The latter included the added suffix "dava" (meaning settlement, village). But, other Dacian names from his list lack the suffix (e.g. Zarmisegethusa regia = Zermizirga). In addition, nine other names of Dacian origin seem to have been Latinised. The cities of the Dacians were known as -dava , -deva , -δαυα ("-dawa" or "-dava", Anc. Gk. ), -δεβα ("-deva", Byz. Gk. ) or -δαβα ("-dava", Byz. Gk. ), etc. . Gil-doba ,

7878-512: The latter to interpret the common language as a sign of a common people, despite Strabo making a distinction between the two. From the 7th century BC onwards, the Getae came into economic and cultural contact with the Greeks , who were establishing colonies on the western side of Pontus Euxinus, nowadays the Black Sea. The Getae are mentioned for the first time together in Herodotus in his narrative of

7979-457: The moral standard and obedience of the people by persuading them to cut their vines and give up drinking wine. During his reign, the Dacian Kingdom expanded to its maximum extent. The Bastarnae and Boii were conquered, and even the Greek towns of Olbia and Apollonia on the Black Sea ( Pontus Euxinus ) recognized Burebista 's authority. In 53 BC, Caesar stated that the Dacian territory

8080-513: The most just of all the Thracian tribes". Herodotus. Histories , 4.93.</ref> When the Persians , led by Darius the Great , campaigned against the Scythians , the Thracian tribes in the Balkans surrendered to Darius on his way to Scythia , and only the Getae offered resistance. One episode from the history of the Getae is attested by several ancient writers. When Lysimachus tried to subdue

8181-466: The name of Scythia Minor around 293. The existence of Christian communities in Scythia Minor became evident under Emperor Diocletian (284–305). He and his co-emperors ordered the persecution of Christians throughout the empire, causing the death of many between 303 and 313. Under Emperor Constantine the Great (306–337), a bridge across the Danube was constructed at Sucidava ,

8282-554: The name of the Dacian tribe to refer to all the unconquered inhabitants north of the Danube . Also, Edward Bunbury believed 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

8383-504: The neighboring peoples in an attempt to keep the peace in the Balkans, the Avars regularly invaded Scythia Minor from the 580s. The Romans abandoned Sucidava in 596 or 597, but Tomis , which was the last town in Scythia Minor to resist the invaders, only fell in 704. Transylvania and northern Banat, which belonged to Dacia before Trajan conquest, had no direct contact with the Roman Empire from

8484-466: The ordinary man's belief that what brought him and his tribe honour was the killing of enemies. The various Scythian tribes co-operated with each other, winning support of other neighboring peoples as well. In that regard, they showed more of a sense of a community than the Greek city-states were to show through much of the subsequent Greco-Persian Wars . Dacia Dacia ( / ˈ d eɪ ʃ ə / , DAY -shə ; Latin: [ˈd̪aː.ki.a] )

8585-590: The people Dacians, the name used by the natives themselves as well as by the Romans , though I am not ignorant that some Greek writers refer to them as Getae , whether that is the right term or not...". He also said the Dacians lived on both sides of the Lower Danube ; the ones south of the river (today's northern Bulgaria ), in Moesia , were called Moesians , while the ones north of the river were called Dacians. He argued that

8686-400: The people whom the Greek called Getae were called Daci by the Romans. This same belief is stated by some British historians such as David Sandler Berkowitz and Philip Matyszak . The Bulgarian historian and thracologist Alexander Fol considers that the Getae became known as "Dacians" in Greek and Latin in the writings of Caesar , Strabo and Pliny the Elder , as Roman observers adopted

8787-402: The probable linguistic situation with the relation between modern Norwegian and Danish languages. Paul Lachlan MacKendrick considered the two as "branches" of the same tribe, speaking two dialects of a common language. The Romanian historian of ideas and historiographer Lucian Boia stated: "At a certain point, the phrase Geto-Dacian was coined in the Romanian historiography to suggest

8888-586: The region, as remains of camps and fortifications in the region indicate. Constantine resettled some Sarmatian exiles as farmers in Illyrian and Roman districts, and conscripted the rest into the army. The new frontier in Dacia was along the Brazda lui Novac line supported by Castra of Hinova , Rusidava and Castra of Pietroasele . The limes passed to the north of Castra of Tirighina-Bărboși and ended at Sasyk Lagoon near

8989-701: The same ethnonym Getae to name populations invading the Eastern Roman Empire ( Goths , Gepids , Kutrigurs , Slavs ). For instance, in the third book of the History of the Wars Procopius details: "There were many Gothic nations in earlier times, just as also at the present, but the greatest and most important of all are the Goths, Vandals, Visigoths, and Gepaedes. In ancient times, however, they were named Sauromatae and Melanchlaeni; and there were some too who called these nations Getic." The Getae were considered

9090-513: The same people as the Goths by Jordanes in his Getica written at the middle of the 6th century. He also claims that at one point the "Getae" migrated out of Scandza , while identifying their deity Zalmoxis as a Gothic king. Jordanes assumed the earlier testimony of Orosius. The 9th-century work De Universo of Rabanus Maurus states, "The Massagetae are in origin from the tribe of the Scythians, and are called Massagetae, as if heavy, that is, strong Getae. There have long been attempts to link

9191-618: The same year, Burebista was murdered, and the kingdom was divided into four (later five) parts under separate rulers. One of these entities was Cotiso 's state, to whom Augustus betrothed his own five-year-old daughter Julia. He is well known from the line in Horace ( Occidit Daci Cotisonis agmen , Odes, III. 8. 18). The Dacians are often mentioned under Augustus, according to whom they were compelled to recognize Roman supremacy. However they were by no means subdued, and in later times to maintain their independence they seized every opportunity to cross

9292-456: The time being. After chasing the Scythians for a month, Darius's army was suffering losses due to fatigue, privation and sickness. In his Histories , Herodotus states that the ruins of the forts were still standing in his day. Concerned about losing more of his troops, Darius halted the march at the banks of the Volga River and headed towards Thrace . He had failed to bring the Scythians to

9393-489: Was a military expedition into parts of European Scythia by Darius I , the king of the Achaemenid Empire , in 513 BC. The Scythians were an East Iranian -speaking people who had invaded Media , revolted against Darius and threatened to disrupt trade between Central Asia and the shores of the Black Sea as they lived between the Danube and Don Rivers and the Black Sea. The campaigns took place in parts of what

9494-502: Was decisive in that the Persians abandoned the attempt to subjugate the European Scythians. Herodotus was correct in his assessment that the Scythians owed their escape to their mobility, their lack of inhabited centres, and the skill of their mounted archers. He furthermore states that their refusal to submit to Persia was due to such factors as the authoritarian power of the kings, the widespread hatred of foreigners (IV.76.1), and

9595-424: Was first used by Herodotus . The root was also used for the Tyragetae , Thyssagetae , Massagetae , and others. Strabo stated in his Geographica ( c. 7   BC – 20   AD) that the Dacians lived in the western parts of Dacia , "towards Germania and the sources of the Danube", while the Getae lived in the eastern parts, towards the Black Sea , both south and north of the Danube. He also wrote that

9696-566: Was five, though at the time of the insurrection it had been four. Such divisions, to be sure, are only temporary and vary with the times". Decebalus ruled the Dacians between AD 87 and 106. The frontiers of Decebal's Dacia were marked by the Tisa River to the west, by the trans-Carpathians to the north and by the Dniester River to the east. His name translates into " strong as ten men ". When Trajan turned his attention to Dacia, it had been on

9797-514: Was killed by the Dacians by authority of their ruler, Diurpaneus. After this victory, Diurpaneus took the name of Decebalus , but the Romans were victorious in the Battle of Tapae in AD 88 and a truce was drawn up. The next year, AD 88, new Roman troops under Tettius Julianus , gained a significant advantage, but were obligated to make peace following the defeat of Domitian by the Marcomanni , leaving

9898-421: Was located perhaps in its vicinity, where remains of a large antique city are found along with dozens of other Thracian mound tombs. As stated earlier, just like the Dacians, the principal god of the Getae was Zalmoxis whom they sometimes called Gebeleizis . This same people, when it lightens and thunders , aim their arrows at the sky , uttering threats against the god; and they do not believe that there

9999-598: Was merely to destroy the Scythian lands, the erection of a bridge over the Hellespont contradicts this; his superior fleet could have easily shipped the troops over as the Scythians had no navy at all. Though Herodotus does not mention the season of the year, as Fol and Hammond write, it is possible to infer it, knowing that if Darius marched from Susa in spring 513 BC, he would have reached Chalcedon in May, and mustered his forces on

10100-562: Was on the eastern border of the Hercynian Forest . Burebista suppressed the indigenous minting of coinages by four major tribal groups, adopting imported or copied Roman denarii as a monetary standard. During his reign, Burebista transferred Geto-Dacians capital from Argedava to Sarmizegetusa Regia . For at least one and a half centuries, Sarmizegetusa was the Dacians' capital and reached its peak under King Decebalus . The Dacians appeared so formidable that Caesar contemplated an expedition against them, which his death in 44 BC prevented. In

10201-512: Was the land inhabited by the Dacians , its core in Transylvania , stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus roughly corresponds to present-day Romania , as well as parts of Moldova , Bulgaria , Serbia , Hungary , Slovakia , and Ukraine . A Dacian kingdom that united

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