Join the new world

Name

The Dacians, situated north of the lower Danube in the area of the Carpathians and Transylvania, are the earliest named people from the present territory of Romania. They are first mentioned in the writings of Herodotus (Histories) and Thucydides (Peloponnesian Wars). [2] Later the Dacians were mentioned in the Roman documents, and also under the name Geta (plural Getae) in Greek writings. Strabo tells that the original name of the Dacians was "daoi", which could be explained with a possible Phrygian cognate "daos", meaning "wolf". This assumption is enforced by the fact that the Dacian standard, the Dacian Draco, had a wolf head. The late Roman map Tabula Peutingeriana indicates them as Dagae and Gaete.
Much later, in the Late Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church used on a few occasions the term Dacia to denote Scandinavia or Jutland, and refer to several royalty from northern Europe as "of Dacia". As the term did not catch and was disused soon after its (re)introduction, normally there is no confusion with the usage of the original.

Towards the west Dacia may originally have extended as far as the Danube, where it runs from north to south at Waitzen (Vác). In the 1st century B.C., at the time of the first Dacian King Burebista, Julius Caesar in his De Bello Gallico (book 6) speaks of the Hercynian forest extending along the Danube to the territory of the Dacians. In the 2nd century A.D., after the Roman conquest, Ptolemy puts the eastern boundary of Dacia Trajana (the Roman provice) as far east as the Hierasus (Siret) river, in modern Romania. Roman rule extended to almost all Dacian area; it however did not extend to what later became known as Maramureş, to the parts of the later Principality of Moldavia east of the Siret and north of the Upper Trajan Wall, as well as to areas in modern Ukraine, except the Black Sea shore.
The extent and location of the geographical entity Dacia varied in its three distinct historical periods (see History, below);
The Dacia of King Burebista (82–44 BC), stretching from the Black Sea to the Adriatic and from the Balkan Mountains to Bohemia,[3] was only ephemerously (30 years) in such boundaries.
The Roman province Dacia Trajana, established as a consequence of the Dacian Wars during 101–106 AD, initially comprised only the regions known today as Banat, Crişana, Oltenia, Transylvania, and was subsequently gradually extended to Muntenia and parts of Moldavia, while Dobruja and Budjak belonged the Roman province of Moesia.
The later Roman province of Dacia Aureliana, reorganised as Dacia Ripensis (as military province) and Dacia Mediterranea (as civil province)[4], inside former Moesia Superior after the retreat of the Roman Army from Dacia during the emperor Aurelian during 271-275.

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 Muntenia. It is identified as an evolution of the Iron Age Basarabi culture.[citation needed]
The Dacian gold bracelets 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.

Religion

Main article: Dacian mythology
According to Herodotus History (book 4) account of the story of Zalmoxis (or Zamolxis), the Getae (speaking the same language as the Dacians, according to Strabo) 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. The chief priest was also the king's chief adviser. The Goth Jordanes in his Getica (The origin and deeds of the Goths), gives an account of Dicineus (Deceneus), the highest priest of King Buruista (Burebista), and considered Dacians a nation related to the Goths.
Besides Zalmoxis, the Dacians believed in other deities such as Gebeleizis and Bendis. Dacian religion and mythology was very elaborate.

Society



Comati
Dacians were divided into two classes: the aristocracy (tarabostes) and the common people (comati). The aristocracy alone had the right to cover their heads and wore a felt hat (hence pileati, their Latin name). The second class, who comprised the rank and file of the army, the peasants and artisans, might have been called capillati (in Latin). Their appearance and clothing can be seen on Trajan's Column.
Dacians had developed the Murus dacicus, characteristic to their complexes of fortified cities, like their capital Sarmizegetusa in what is today Hunedoara County, Romania. The degree of their urban development can be seen on Trajan's Column and in the account of how Sarmizegetusa was defeated by the Romans. The Romans identified and destroyed the water aqueducts or pipelines of the Dacian capital, only thus being able to end the long siege of Sarmizegetusa.
Greek and Roman chroniclers record the defeat and capture of Lysimachus in the 3rd century BC by the Getae (Dacians) ruled by Dromihete, their military strategy, and the release of Lysimachus following a debate in the assembly of the Getae.
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. . A list of Dacian davas 1 and, more actual, at SOLTDM:
In Dacia: Acidava, Argedava, Burridava, Dokidava, Carsidava, Clepidava, Cumidava, Marcodava, Netindava, Patridava, Pelendava, *Perburidava, Petrodaua, Piroboridaua, Rhamidaua, Rusidava, Sacidava, Sangidava, Setidava, Singidava, , Tamasidava, Utidava, Zargidava, Ziridava, Sucidava – 26 names altogether.
In Lower Moesia (the present Northern Bulgaria) and Scythia minor (Dobrudja): Aedeba, *Buteridava, *Giridava, Dausadava, Kapidaua, Murideba, Sacidava, Scaidava (Skedeba), Sagadava, Sukidaua (Sucidava) – 10 names in total.
In Upper Moesia (the districts of Nish, Sofia, and partly Kjustendil): Aiadaba, Bregedaba, Danedebai, Desudaba, Itadeba, Kuimedaba, Zisnudeba – 7 names in total.
Gil-doba, 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.

Occupations





The chief occupations of Dacians were agriculture, apiculture, viticulture, livestock, ceramics and metal working. The Roman province Dacia is represented on Roman Sestertius (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.
They also worked the gold and silver mines of Transylvania. They carried on a considerable outside trade, as is shown by the number of foreign coins found in the country (see also Decebalus Treasure).
Commercial relations flourished for centuries, first with the Greeks, then with Romans, as we can find even today an impressive collection of gold currency used in various periods of Dacian history. The first coins produced by the Geto-Dacians were imitations of silver coins of the Macedonian kings Philip II and Alexander III (the Great). Early in the 1st century BC, the Dacians replaced these with silver denarii of the Roman Republic, both official coins of Rome exported to Dacia and locally made imitations of them.

Language

Main article: Dacian language
Some historians consider Dacian language to be a dialect of, or the same language as Thracian. 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.)
[edit]Political entities

The migrations of the fore bearers of Ancient Greece (ca. 750 BC— or earlier) most likely originated at least in part from periodic swelled populations in the easy living found in the fertile plains of the region. Such migrations were in mythological times, and well before historical records. It is likely that trade with communities along the Danube via the Black sea was a regular occurrence, even in Minoan times (2700 to 1450 BC).


Classical Dacia and environs, from Alexander G. Findlay's Classical Atlas to Illustrate Ancient Geography, New York, 1849.
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 by defeating the Celts who previously held the power in the region.
A kingdom of Dacia was in existence at least as early as the first half of the 2nd century BC under King Oroles. Conflicts with the Bastarnae and the Romans (112 BC-109 BC, 74 BC), against whom they had assisted the Scordisci and Dardani, greatly weakened the resources of the Dacians.
Under Burebista (Boerebista), a contemporary of Julius Caesar, who thoroughly reorganised the army and raised the moral standard of the people, the limits of the kingdom were extended to their maximum. The Bastarnae and Boii were conquered, and even the Greek towns of Olbia and Apollonia on the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus) recognised Burebista's authority.
Indeed the Dacians appeared so formidable that Caesar contemplated an expedition against them; something his death prevented. About the same time, Burebista was murdered, and the kingdom was divided into four (or five) parts under separate rulers. One of these was Cotiso, whose daughter Augustus is said to have desired to marry and 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. 1😎.
The Dacians are often mentioned under Augustus, according to whom they were compelled to recognise Roman supremacy. However they were by no means subdued, and in later times to maintain their independence they seized every opportunity of crossing the frozen Danube during the winter and ravaging the Roman cities in the province of Moesia.