Dacia

Coordinates: 45°42′N 26°30′E / 45.7°N 26.5°E / 45.7; 26.5
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Kingdom of Dacia
)
This article is about a historic region in Southeastern Europe. For the Romanian automobile maker, see Automobile Dacia. For other uses, see Dacia (disambiguation).
Dacian Kingdom
c. 82 BC–106 AD
Dacian draco
Zamolxism
Demonym(s)Dacian
GovernmentMonarchy
King 
• 82-44 BC
Burebista (first)
• 87-106 AD
Decebal (last)
Historical eraClassical antiquity
• Established
c. 82 BC
84–88 AD
101–106 AD
• Disestablished
106 AD
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Dacians
Getae
Thracians
Roman Dacia
Free Dacians
This article is part of a series on
Dacia
Geography
Culture
History
Roman Dacia
Legacy

Dacia (/ˈdeɪʃə/, DAY-shə; Latin: [ˈd̪aː.ki.a]) 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.

Sarmisgetusa Regia
The Image of all the Sarmisgetusa ruins

A Dacian kingdom that united the Dacians and the Getae people existed between 82 BC until the Roman conquest in AD 106, reaching its height under King Burebista. As a result of the two wars with Emperor Trajan, the population was dispersed and the central city, Sarmizegetusa Regia, was destroyed by the Romans, but was rebuilt by them 40 km away to serve as the capital of the 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 provincial area was conquered by the Romans and incorporated as Roman Dacia, and the area was controlled by the Romans from the conquest in AD 106 to AD 275, over a century of rule.[1]

Nomenclature

Main article: Dacians § Name and etymology

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 the Scythians and are armed in the same manner, being all mounted archers").[2] Some historians argue that Daxia (mentioned in 3rd century BC) was the previous home of Indo-Iranian nomads[3] who later came to form the Geto-Dacian people.[4][5]

Geographical history

Main article: History of Dacia
Dacia cf. Strabo (c. 20 AD)[6]
The map of Dacia by Brue Adrien Hubert (1826)
View of the sanctuary from Dacians' capital Sarmizegetusa Regia
Dacia map cf. Ptolemy (2nd century AD)

The extent and location of Dacia varied in its three distinct historical periods (see below):

Dacia after 100 AD
For earlier events, see
Celts in Transylvania
.

1st century BC

The Dacia of

Northern Carpathians to the Balkan Mountains.[8] In 53 BC, Julius Caesar stated that the lands of the Dacians started on the eastern edge of the Hercynian (Black) Forest.[9]
After Burebista's death, his kingdom fell apart.

Dacia under Burebista
Dacia at one of its greatest existence

1st century AD

Strabo, in his Geography written around AD 20, says:[10]

″As for 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 [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 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, and again after the latter were defeated by the Dacians.[11] The hold of the Dacians between the Danube and Tisza was tenuous.[12] However, the archaeologist Parducz argued a Dacian presence west of the Tisa dating from the time of Burebista.[13] According to Tacitus (AD 56–117) Dacians bordered Germania in the south-east, while Sarmatians bordered it in the east.[14]

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 the Danube and the Hercynian Forest (Black 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".[15][16][17][18]

2nd century AD

Main articles: Trajan's Dacian Wars and Roman Dacia

Written a few decades after Emperor

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.[20][21][22][23] Mainstream historians accept this interpretation: Avery (1972) Berenger (1994) Fol (1996) Mountain (1998), Waldman Mason (2006).[24][9][25][26][27]

Ptolemy also provided a couple of Dacian

toponyms in south Poland in the Upper Vistula (Polish: Wisla) river basin: Susudava and Setidava (with a manuscript variant Getidava).[28][29][30][31] This could have been an "echo" of Burebista's expansion.[29] 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.[32][33] This Dacian group, possibly the Costoboci/Lipița culture, is associated by Gudmund Schütte with towns having the specific Dacian language ending "dava" i.e. Setidava.[30]

The Roman province Dacia Traiana, established by the victors of the Dacian Wars during AD 101–106, initially comprised only the regions known today as Banat, Oltenia, Transylvania, and was subsequently gradually extended to southern parts of Moldavia, while Dobruja and Budjak belonged to the Roman province of Moesia.

In the 2nd century AD, after the Roman conquest,

Upper Trajan Wall, and to areas in modern Muntenia
and Ukraine, except the Black Sea shore.

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 the Upper Tisa region, but other places cannot be excluded.[34]

The later Roman province

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).[35]

Cities

Main articles:
List of Dacian towns

Ptolemy gives a list of 43 names of towns in Dacia, out of which arguably 33 were of Dacian origin. Most of 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.[36]

The cities of the Dacians were known as -dava, -deva, -δαυα ("-dawa" or "-dava",

Byz. Gk.
), etc. .

  1. In Dacia: Acidava, Argedava, Buridava, 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.
  2. In Lower Moesia (the present Northern
    Aedeba
    , *Buteridava, *Giridava, Dausadava, Kapidaua, Murideba, Sacidava, Scaidava (Skedeba), Sagadava, Sukidaua (Sucidava) – 10 names in total.
  3. In Upper Moesia (the districts of Nish, Sofia, and partly Kjustendil):
    Aiadaba
    , Bregedaba, Danedebai, Desudaba, Itadeba, Kuimedaba, Zisnudeba – seven 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.

Political entities

Rubobostes

Main article: Rubobostes

Geto-Dacians inhabited both sides of the Tisa river prior to the rise of the Celtic

Carpathian basin increased after they defeated the Celts
, who previously held power in the region.

Oroles

Main article: Oroles

A kingdom of Dacia also existed as early as 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

Main article: Burebista

Apollonia on the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus) recognized Burebista's authority. In 53 BC, Caesar stated that the Dacian territory was on the eastern border of the Hercynian Forest.[9]

Burebista suppressed the indigenous minting of coinages by four major tribal groups, adopting imported or copied Roman denarii as a monetary standard.[11] During his reign, Burebista transferred Geto-Dacians capital from Argedava to Sarmizegetusa Regia.[38][39] 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 the same year, Burebista was murdered, and the kingdom was divided into four (later five) parts under separate rulers.


Cotiso

Main article: Cotiso

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 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 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."[10]

In fact, this occurred because

Augustus Caesar
sent an expedition against them, the number of parts into which the empire had been divided 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

Main article: Decebalus

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.[40] His name translates into "strong as ten men".

Roman conquest

Main articles: Domitian's Dacian War, Trajan's Dacian Wars, and Roman Dacia
Fiery battle scene between the Roman and Dacian armies, Trajan's Column, Rome

When Trajan turned his attention to Dacia, it had been on the Roman agenda since before the days of Julius Caesar[41][42] when a Roman army had been beaten at the Battle of Histria.[43]

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.

Battle of Tapae in AD 88 and a truce was drawn up.[47] 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 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.[48]

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, the capture of the famous Treasure of Decebalus, and control over the Dacian gold mines of

Sarmizegethusa, Decebalus once more sought terms.[50]

Moesia Inferior

Decebalus rebuilt his power over the following years and attacked Roman garrisons again in AD 105. In response Trajan again marched into Dacia,

client states, which led to less direct campaigning than in the west.[55]

Some of the history of the war is given by Cassius Dio.[56] Trajan erected the Column of Trajan in Rome to commemorate his victory.[57]

Provincial history

Although the Romans conquered and destroyed 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 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

Carpo-Dacians of Zosimus
"having undertaken an expedition against the Carpi, who had then possessed themselves of Dacia and Moesia".

Tarabostes on the Arch of Constantine

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

Claudius II (Gothicus Maximus) obtained 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.[59] At the boundaries of Roman Dacia, Carpi (Free Dacians) were still strong enough to sustain five battles in eight years against 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.[60] Under Diocletian, c. AD 296, in order to defend the Roman border, fortifications were erected by the Romans on both banks of the Danube.[35]

Constantinian reconquest

Gothic, Sarmatian and Dacian conquests of Constantine the Great

In 328 the emperor

Castra of Pietroasele.[61] The limes passed to the north of Castra of Tirighina-Bărboși and ended at Sasyk Lagoon near the Dniester River.[64] Constantine took the title Dacicus maximus in 336.[65] Some Roman territories north of the Danube resisted until Justinian
.

Dacia after the Romans

Main article: Romania in the Early Middle Ages

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 the Romans, from whom they obtained the right to settle Oltenia
.

In 376, the region was conquered by

Avars (second half of the 6th century) dominated the region for 230 years, until their kingdom was destroyed by Charlemagne in 791. At the same time, Slavic people
arrived.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "The Original Sarmatians: The Men Who Fought Attila the Hun". Culture.pl. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  2. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, pp. 145–146.
  3. ^ Mainly the Dahae and Massagetae
  4. ^ Padányi, Viktor (1963). Dentumagyaria (in Hungarian). Editorial Transsylvania.
  5. ^ Hollósy, István (1913). Magyarország őslakói és az oláhok eredete [Natives of Hungary and the origin of the Vlachs] (PDF). Mór Ráth.
  6. ^ Müller 1877, tabulae XV.
  7. ^ "History of Romania – Antiquity – The Dacians". Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 July 2023.
  8. ^ Murray 2001, p. 1120.
  9. ^ a b c Mountain 1998, p. 59.
  10. ^ a b Strabo, Geography
  11. ^ a b c d Taylor 2001, p. 215.
  12. ^ Lengyel & Radan 1980, p. 87: "No matter where the Boii first settled after they left Italia, however, when they arrived at the Danube they had to fight the Dacians who held the entire territory – or at least part of it. Strabo tells us that later animosity between the Dacians and the Boii stemmed from the fact that the Dacians demanded the land from the latter which the Dacians pretended to have possessed earlier."
  13. ^ Ehrich 1970, p. 228.
  14. ^ Gruen 2011, p. 204: Germany as a whole is separated from the Gauls and from the Raetians and Pannonians by the rivers Rhine and Danube, from the Sarmatians and Dacians by mutual fear or mountains; the ocean surrounds the rest of it
  15. ^ Hrushevskyi 1997, p. 93.
  16. ^ Bosworth 1980, p. 60.
  17. ^ Carnap-Bornheim 2003, p. 228.
  18. ^ Shelley 1997, p. 10.
  19. ^ Mattern 2002, p. 61.
  20. ^ Hrushevskyi 1997, p. 97: "Dacia, as described by Ptolemy, occupied the region between the Tisa, Danube, upper Dnister, and Seret, while the Black Sea coast – namely, the Greek colonies of Tyras, Olbia, and others – were included in Lower Moesia."
  21. ^ Bunbury 1979, p. 517.
  22. ^ Mocsy 1974, p. 21.
  23. ^ Bărbulescu 2005, p. 71.
  24. ^ Berenger 1994, p. 25.
  25. ^ Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 205.
  26. ^ Avery 1972, p. 113.
  27. ^ Fol 1996, p. 223.
  28. ^ Dobiáš 1964, p. 70.
  29. ^ a b Berindei & Candea 2001, p. 429.
  30. ^ a b Schütte 1952, p. 270.
  31. ^ Giurescu & Giurescu 1974, p. 31.
  32. ^ Childe 1930, p. 245.
  33. ^ Schütte 1917, pp. 109 & 143.
  34. ^ Opreanu 1997, p. 249.
  35. ^ a b Odahl 2003.
  36. ^ Oltean 2007, p. 114.
  37. ^ Strabo, Geography, VII:3.11
  38. ^ MacKendrick 1975, p. 48.
  39. ^ Goodman & Sherwood 2002, p. 227.
  40. ^ Vico & Pinton 2004, p. 325.
  41. ^ Goldsworthy 2004, p. 322.
  42. ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 213.
  43. ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 215.
  44. ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 216.
  45. ^ Luttwak 1976, p. 53.
  46. ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 217.
  47. Diurpaneus
    (see Manea, p.109), but after this victory he was called Decebalus (the brave one).
  48. ^ Koch, Nándor. Mangold, Lajos; Horváth, Cirill; Ballagi, Aladár (eds.). Tolnai Világtörténelme [World history of Tolnai] (in Hungarian). Budapest. p. 180.
  49. ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 219.
  50. ^ Goldsworthy 2004, p. 329.
  51. ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 222.
  52. ^ Matyszak 2004, p. 223.
  53. ^ Luttwak 1976, p. 54.
  54. ^ Stoica 1919, p. 52.
  55. ^ Luttwak 1976, p. 39.
  56. ^ J. Bennett. Trajan Optimus Princips, Routledge, London and New York, 1997, pp. xii–xiii
  57. ^ Sinnegen & Boak. A History of Rome to A.D. 565, 6th ed. MacMillan Publishing Co., New York, 1977 p. 312
  58. ^ "Of the Manner in which the persecutors died" by Lactantius (early Christian author AD 240–320)
  59. ^ Battle of Naissus and Cladius Gothicus. Beside Zosimuss account there is also Historia Augusta, The Life of Claudius.
  60. ^ Eutropious. "Eutropius, Abridgment of Roman History (Historiae Romanae Breviarium)". www.ccel.org. Archived from the original on 20 February 2009. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  61. ^ a b Madgearu 2008, pp. 64–126.
  62. ^ Heather, Peter (1996). The Goths. Blackwell Publishers. pp. 62, 63.
  63. ISBN 978-0-674-16531-1
    . p. 250.
  64. ISSN 1583-1817
    , p. 111.
  65. ISBN 0-415-38655-1
    , p. 261.

References

External links

Media related to Dacia at Wikimedia Commons

Preceded by
Prehistory of the Balkans
 		History of Romania Succeeded by
Roman Dacia

45°42′N 26°30′E / 45.7°N 26.5°E / 45.7; 26.5

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