Everything about The Daci totally explained
The
Dacians (
Lat. Daci,
Gr. Dákai) were the ancient inhabitants of
Dacia (located in the area in and around the Carpathian mountains and east of there to the Black Sea), present day
Romania and parts of
Moesia (mostly in northern
Bulgaria) in southeastern
Europe. They spoke the
Dacian language, closely related with
Thracian.
History
The first mention of the Dacians is in
Roman sources, but classical authors are unanimous in considering them a branch of the
Getae, a
Thracian people known from
Greek writings.
Strabo specified that the Daci are the Getae who lived in the area towards the
Pannonian plain (
Transylvania), while the Getae proper gravitated towards the Black Sea coast (
Scythia Minor).
The Roman Emperor
Trajan invaded Dacia mostly to benefit from its vast
gold mines.
Trajan's Column was constructed to celebrate the invasion of Dacia.
The Dacian kingdom reached its maximum expansion during King
Burebista. The capital of the kingdom was the city
Argedava (also called
Sargedava in some historical writings) situated close to river
Danube.
Greek geographer
Strabo claimed that the Dacians and Getae once had been able to muster a combined army of 200,000 men, but that their entire population had dropped to 40,000 by Strabo's own era.
Name
The
Dacians (tribe) were known as
Geton (plural
Getae) in
Greek writings, and
as Dacus
(plural Daci
) and also Getae in
Roman documents; also as Dagae and Gaete—see the late Roman map
Tabula Peutingeriana.
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 may be supported by the fact that one of the Dacian standards, the
Dacian Draco, had a wolf head.
Phrygii was another cognate used within the region, and in later times, some
Roman auxiliaries recruited from the area were referred to as Phrygi. Their capital wasn't Argedava near the Danube, but Sarmizegetusa, in the Sureanu mountains, in the Romanian Western Carpathians.
Further Information
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