Getae
The Getae (
Ethnonym
The ethnonym Getae was first used by Herodotus. The root was also used for the Tyragetae, Thyssagetae, Massagetae, and others.
Getae and Dacians
Ancient sources
Strabo, one of the first ancient sources to mention Getae and Dacians, 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.[2] The ancient geographer also wrote that the Dacians and Getae spoke the same language,[3] after stating the same about Getae and Thracians.[4]
Strabo's account of the lands inhabited by the Getae:
- As for the southern part of 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 Black Forest (for the land of the Getae also embraces a part of the mountains), afterwards broadens out towards the north as far as the Tyragetae; but I cannot tell the precise boundaries
- [...]
- they give the name "Ister" to the lower part [of the Danuvius], from the cataracts on to the Pontus, the part which flows past the country of the Getae.
In his
In ancient times, it is true, Moesians and Getae occupied all the land between
Modern interpretations
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 is generally considered that the two groups were related to a certain degree;[14] the exact relation is a matter of controversy.
Same people
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".
Same language, distinct people
Historian and archaeologist Alexandru Vulpe found a remarkable uniformity of the Geto-Dacian culture;[26] 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 the Romanian historiography that considered the two people the same.[27] 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".[27]
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 the probable linguistic situation with the relation between modern
The Romanian
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.[33] In his opinion, Alexandru Vulpe saw ancient people as modern nations, leading the latter to interpret the common language as a sign of a common people, despite Strabo making a distinction between the two.[27]
History
7th – 4th century BC
From the 7th century BC onwards, the Getae came into economic and cultural contact with the
Between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC, the Getae were mostly under the rule of the flourishing Odrysian kingdom. During this time, 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.
Prosperity
Before setting out on his
The Getae flourished especially in the first half of the 3rd century BC. By about 200 BC, the authority of the Getic prince,
Conflict with Rome
In 72–71 BC
, 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.[25]
Culture
According to
One episode from the history of the Getae is attested by several ancient writers.[47][48]
When
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 is any god but their own.
— Herodotus. Histories, 4.94.
The
Physical appearance
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.[51]
Fringe views on alternative origins
Suggested link to Goths
The Getae are sometimes confused with the
.During 5th and 6th centuries, several historians and ethnographers (
Suggested link to Jats
There have long been attempts to link the Getae and
Less credible, however, are parallel claims by Alexander Cunningham that the
See also
Notes
- ^ "Getae". Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
Getae, an ancient people of Thracian origin, inhabiting the banks of the lower Danube region and nearby plains
- ^ Strabo & 20 AD, VII 3,13.
- ^ Strabo & 20 AD, VII 3,14.
- ISBN 1108007147.
- ^ Pliny the Elder & 77 AD, IV 25.
- ^ Appian & 160 AD, Praef. 1.4.
- ISBN 978-0-8078-5520-1.
- ^ Justin & 3rd century AD, XXXII 3.
- ISBN 978-90-256-0793-7.
- ISBN 1-57309-220-7.
- ^ Sidebottom 2007, p. 6.
- ^ Cassius Dio. Roman History, 55.22.6-55.22.7. "The Suebi, to be exact, dwell beyond the Rhine (though many people elsewhere claim their name), and the Dacians on both sides of the Ister; those of the latter, however, who live on this side of the river near the country of the Triballi are reckoned in with the district of Moesia and are called Moesians, except by those living in the immediate neighbourhood, while those on the other side are called Dacians and are either a branch of the Getae are Thracians belonging to the Dacian race that once inhabited Rhodope."
- ^ Cassius Dio LI 27
- ^ The Cambridge Ancient History (Volume 10) (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. 1996. J. J. Wilkes mentions "the Getae of the Dobrudja, who were akin to the Dacians"; (p. 562)
- ISBN 0-7100-7714-9. See p. 364, n. 41: "If there is any justification for dividing the Thracian ethnic group, then, unlike V. Georgiev who suggests splitting it into the Thraco-Getae and the Daco-Mysi, I consider a division into the Thraco-Mysi and the Daco-Getae the more likely."
- ^ Duridanov, Ivan. "The Thracian, Dacian and Paeonian languages". Retrieved 2007-02-11.
- Daco-Moesian language / dialectal areasupported by linguists like Vladimir Georgiev, Ivan Duridanov and Sorin Olteanu.
- ^ ISBN 0-631-22039-9., p. 120
- ^ Minahan 2000, p. 549.
- ^ Avery 1962, p. 497.
- ^ Sandler Berkowitz & Morison 1984, p. 160.
- ^ Matyszak 2009, p. 215.
- ^ Fol 1996, p. 223.
- ^ Bunbury 1979, p. 151.
- ^ a b Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 335.
- ^ Petrescu-Dîmbovița, Mircea; Vulpe, Alexandru, eds. (2001). Istoria Românilor, vol. I (in Romanian). Bucharest.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[page needed] - ^ ISBN 978-0-226-45059-9.
- Thraco-Dacian' language.
- ISBN 0-8078-4939-1. "The natives with whom we shall be concerned in this chapter are the Getae of Muntenia and Moldavia in the eastern steppes, and the Dacians of the Carpathian Mountains. Herodotus calls them 'the bravest and the justest of the Thracians,' and they were in fact two branches of the same tribe, speaking two dialects of the same Indo-European language." (p. 45)
- ^ ISBN 1-86189-103-2.
- ^ ISBN 963-9116-97-1.
- ^ Janakieva, Svetlana (2002). "La notion de ΟΜΟΓΛΩΤΤΟΙ chez Strabon et la situation ethno-linguistique sur les territoires thraces". Études Balkaniques (in French) (4): 75–79. The author concluded Strabo's claim sums an experience following of many centuries of neighbourhood and cultural interferences between the Greeks and the Thracian tribes
- ^ Niculescu, Gheorghe Alexandru (2004–2005). "Archaeology, Nationalism and "The History of the Romanians" (2001)". Dacia, Revue d'Archéologie et d'Histoire Ancienne (48–49): 99–124. He dedicates a large part of his assessment to the archaeology of "Geto-Dacians" and he concludes that with few exceptions "the archaeological interpretations [...] are following G. Kossinna’s concepts of culture, archaeology and ethnicity".
- ISBN 978-0521228046p 494
- ^ Herodotus. Histories, 4.93–4.97.
- ^ Arrian. Anabasis, Book IA. "The Getae did not sustain even the first charge of the cavalry; for Alexander’s audacity seemed incredible to them, in having thus easily crossed the Ister, the largest of rivers, in a single night, without throwing a bridge over the stream. Terrible to them also was the closely locked order of the phalanx, and violent the charge of the cavalry. At first they fled for refuge into their city, which was distant about a parasang from the Ister; but when they saw that Alexander was leading his phalanx carefully along the side of the river, to prevent his infantry being anywhere surrounded by the Getae lying in ambush, but that he was sending his cavalry straight on, they again abandoned the city, because it was badly fortified."
- ^ Strabo. Geography, 7.6.1. "On this coast-line is Cape Tirizis, a stronghold, which Lysimachus once used as a treasury."
- ^ Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 18.288
- ^ Strabo. Geography, 16.2.38–16.2.39.
- ^ Cassius Dio. Roman History, 68.9.
- Ab urbe condita, 103.
- ^ Cassius Dio. Roman History, 38.10.1–38.10.3.
- ^ Cassius Dio. Roman History, 51.24.7; 26.1.
- ^ Cassius Dio. Roman History, 51.26.
- ^ Cassius Dio. Roman History, 54.20.1–54.20.3.
- ^ a b Herodotus. Histories, 4.93.
- ^ Strabo. Geography, 3.8.
- ^ Pausanias. Description of Greece, 1.9.5.
- .
- ^ Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia, 4.26. "Leaving Taphræ, and going along the mainland, we find in the interior the Auchetæ, in whose country the Hypanis has its rise, as also the Neurœ, in whose district the Borysthenes has its source, the Geloni, the Thyssagetæ, the Budini, the Basilidæ, and the Agathyrsi with their azure-coloured hair."
- ^ "Jerome". orthodoxchurchfathers.com.
- ^ Theodor Mommsen (2005). A History of Rome Under the Emperors. New York: Routledge. p. 281. "The Getae were Thracians, the Goths Germans, and apart from the coincidental similarity in their names they had nothing whatever in common."
- John Wiley & Sons. p. 31.
- ^ Robert W. Rix (2014). The Barbarian North in Medieval Imagination: Ethnicity, Legend, and Literature. New York: Routledge. p. 33.
- ^ Harold W. Attridge (1992). Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. p. 696.
- ^ Irmeli Valtonen (2008). The North in the Old English Orosius: A Geographical Narrative in Context. Helsinki: Société Néophilologique. p. 110.
- ^ Shami Ghosh (2015). Writing the Barbarian Past: Studies in Early Medieval Historical Narrative. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 49–50.
- ^ Procopius. History of the Wars, Book III (Wikisource).
- ^ Maurus, Rabanus (1864). Migne, Jacques Paul (ed.). De universo. Paris.
The Massagetae are in origin from the tribe of the Scythians, and are called Massagetae, as if heavy, that is, strong Getae.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ W. W. Hunter, 2013, The Indian Empire: Its People, History and Products, Routledge, 2013, p. 179-180.
- ^ a b Alexander Cunningham, 1888, cited by: Sundeep S. Jhutti, 2003, The Getes, Philadelphia, PA; Department of East Asian languages & Civilizations University of Pennsylvania, p. 13.
- ^ a b Sundeep S. Jhutti, 2003, "The Getes", Sino-Platonic Papers, no. 127 (October), pp. 15–17. (Access: 18 March 2016).
- ISBN 9789080057272.
The evidence of both the ancient authors and the archaeological remains point to a massive migration of Sacian (Sakas)/Massagetan ("great" Jat) tribes from the Syr Daria Delta (Central Asia) by the middle of the second century B.C. Some of the Syr Darian tribes; they also invaded North India.
- ^ Rishi, Weer Rajendra (1982). India & Russia: linguistic & cultural affinity. Roma. p. 95.
- ^ Chakraberty, Chandra (1948). The prehistory of India: tribal migrations. Vijayakrishna Bros. p. 35.
- ISBN 8173051100.
References
Ancient
- Appian. Historia Romana [Roman History] (c. 160 A.D.) (in Ancient Greek).
- Justin. Trogi pompei historiarum philippicarvm epitoma [Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus] (c. 3rd century AD (200–300)) (in Latin).
- Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia [Natural History] (77–79 A.D) (in Latin).
- Strabo. Geographica (c. 20 A.D) (in Ancient Greek).
Modern
- Avery, Catherine B. (1962). The New Century classical handbook. Appleton-Century-Crofts.
- ISBN 978-90-70265-11-3.
- ISBN 978-92-3-102812-0.
- ISBN 978-0-8078-5520-1.
- ISBN 978-0-500-28772-9.
- Minahan, James B. (2000). One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups. ISBN 978-0313309847.
- Sandler Berkowitz, David; Morison, Richard (1984). Humanist Scholarship and Public Order: Two Tracts Against the Pilgrimage of Grace. ISBN 978-0918016010.
- ISBN 978-0-521-78274-6.
- Waldman, Carl; Mason, Catherine (2006). Encyclopedia of European Peoples. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-8160-4964-6.
External links
- Media related to Dacia and Dacians at Wikimedia Commons