The Dacians were an Indo-European people who occupied a territory located between the Carpathians, the Danube and the Black Sea, the historically attested limits being to the west the plain of Pannonia, to the north the Carpathians of Ukraine and Slovakia, to the east beyond the Dniester (Tyras) and the Black Sea and to the south the Danube. From their name derives the Roman name of this territory, Dacia.
Called Getae by the Greeks and Dacians by the Romans, they were part of the great Thracian family and their presence has been attested since ancient times. They speak a Thracian dialect (Indo-European language). They develop an agricultural civilization, know gold and silver, and practice trade. Their religion seems to be based on divinations and initiations. Their medicine is holistic. Their calendar is very precise.
Dacians and Thracians
The Dacians are often confused with the Thracians (and with the Goths) in historical writings. In this part of the ancient world, many peoples called themselves Thracians. However, some accounts speak of the Thracians and the Dacians as two different peoples.
The sources of information are very limited, but writings of Herodotus affirm:"The nation of the Thracians is, after that of the Indians, the most important in the world. If they had only one king, and if they could hear among themselves, they would be invincible and, in my opinion, far more powerful than any other nation." Then:"among the Thracians, the Getae (Dacians) are the bravest and most upright".
Activities
Their main activities are agriculture and animal husbandry. Horses are mainly used as draft animals. Gold and silver mines are exploited in present-day Transylvania. The wealth of the Dacians consists of very large reserves of gold, salt and cereals.
Foreign trade is important, given the number of foreign currencies found in the country. Trade was mainly with Greece, then with the Roman Empire.
From the end of the second century BC, the Dacians no longer contented themselves with using coins from other countries, but began to manufacture gold coins, no doubt with the help of Greek colonists. Most are perfect counterfeits of Roman coins. Others, on the other hand, are original, and bear inscriptions in the Greek alphabet.
The most numerous are the famous KOSON coins, so named by the inscription they bear, and which is supposed to be the name of the chief of the Dacians in a region, after the assassination of Caesar in Rome and of Burebista in Dacia. On part of the coins, we see a Roman consul considered as the adversary with an "R" and "KOSON" in the Greek alphabet. On the reverse, we see a vulture with open wings, a talon on a scepter and, in the other talon, a crown. 8.41 grams gold, 18-21 mm diameter (description by Constantin Preda).
The Dacians know and use a sacred solar calendar, which is kept inside the city of Sarmizegetusa. It can be considered among the most precise of all antiquity, because the error of this calendar is only 1h 15min 3 sec each year (8840 years if we apply corrections every 3 years).
They know many medicinal plants and use holistic medicine.
Social organization
The social organization of the Dacians illustrates the "Indo-European trilogy" defined by Dumézil. The Dacians are ruled by dynasties of priest-kings (Polists) at the head of troops of aristocratic horsemen (Tarabostes) and peasant warriors (Comates). The Polistes, sorts of druids, progress in knowledge through successive initiations, similar to those of the Orphists and the Pythagoreans. To mark their membership, they cover their heads with a white felt cap. The Tarabostes, owners of forests, rivers, fords and mills, cannot work:their destiny is to transmit and exercise the art of war. They are often the ones who mount plundering expeditions to neighboring peoples and cities. To mark their membership, they cover their heads with a red felt cap (similar to the cap of the Phrygian Thracians of Anatolia, a symbol of freedom in France as a reminder of the Phrygian revolts). Thus tarabostesei =pileati; they form the class of horsemen. The Comates (coma =mane) fight on foot:soldiers, peasants, craftsmen, they wear long hair (capillati) and remain bareheaded (later, after Romanization and Christianization, they will adopt a black woolen cap). But all are free men.
Originally, they lived in wooden huts grouped in villages surrounded by a palisade, then, at a later time, they built fortresses and conical stone towers (toponyms in ...dava:Sarcidava, Cumidava, Capidava, Piroboridava, etc).
Lifestyle
Plato (Charmides) writes that he learned from a Thracian who worshiped Zalmoxis, a melody to make a man immortal. A musical instrument dating from the 3rd century BC, made up of three wooden flutes, has been discovered in a region of the Geto-Dacians (in Histria). Orpheus, one of the greatest poets of antiquity, despite contradictory legends, seems to come from a Thracian people. It is also said that Musaios (friend of Orpheus), Thamiris and even Eumolpe are Thracian.
The Dacians have a military strategy with defense points separated from living areas. The construction of the defense points takes maximum advantage of the physico-geographical characteristics of the region. The military structures are the result of the union of the tribes in case of danger. They can focus on a single objective, such as building a defense set. For the first time, we can speak of a Dacian army around the 4th or 3rd century, under Dromihete, with all the institutions of a state.
There are two types of weapons:ranged weapons and melee weapons. The cavalry has a role of harassment, to try to attract the enemy, lay traps for him, and put him in an unfavorable position. The Dacians do not use massive techniques with rigid and numerous units.
For hand-to-hand combat, the Dacians prefer to carry a specific weapon, the sica, adorned with sacred symbols. This weapon is then used by part of the gladiators in Rome, called Thracians by the Romans.
Indo-European, the speech of the Thracians and Dacians belongs to the Thraco-Illyrian language group of Western Iranian languages. It remains poorly known, only a few supposedly Dacian words (160) are found in Romanian. For writing, we only have the Rohonczi Codex and some writings in Greek and Latin (see both in translation at the same time).
Religion
The Dacians call themselves wolves or those who are similar to wolves. Thus, the Dacians have two types of symbols of war:the flag and the dragon with the head of a wolf and the tail of a serpent, which flies while inflating.
The Dacians reached a high level of spirituality, when the Romans discovered their existence. They believe in two worlds and in the immortality of the soul, in the form of a continuation of the "self" after death in the other world:a world where Zalmoxis awaits them (Zalmoxis being apparently a Pythagorean Poliste, prophet of the unique creator Gabeleisos).
The presence of a few other deities, for life on earth, testifies to the radically different nature of these two worlds. The image opposite is a detail in Aleksandrovo in southeastern Bulgaria, the character has been identified as Zalmoxis, who with his sacred ax opens the arduous path of Knowledge.
The Dacians in Rome before Jesus Christ
The Dacians are found in Rome, along with other populations of the region known today as the Balkans, such as the Illyrians for example, from the period between 44 BC (death of Julius Caesar) and 31 BC, during the establishment of the Augustan principate. They have many occupations, the main one being the profession of gladiator which suits them well, given their aptitude for individual combat. Gladiators train in small arenas called "ludus". We know four denominations of these arenas:Dacicus, Gallicus, Magnus, Matutinus. The existence of the Dacicus arena suggests a significant number of Dacian gladiators. Later, when Dacia became a Roman province, the Dacians moved more towards military activities, becoming members of the imperial guard - the Praetorians and the Horse Guard - equites singulares. The inscriptions of the funeral stones of the soldiers belonging to the imperial guard carry without fail and with some distinction the place of origin of the deceased. For instance; natione Tharx - for Thracians.
A good example is that of Lucius Avilius Dacus, on marble, from the year 70 BC, two centuries before the conquest of Dacia. Another inscription, discovered Via Flaminia, is dedicated to the memory of Queen Zia, widow of the king of the Costoboces, Dieporus, established by her grandchildren Natoporus and Driglisa. It seems that Via Flaminia were received prisoners of royal and noble origin. The Dacian presence in Rome, in the imperial guard, can be seen in numerous marble inscriptions, dedicated to the emperors:there are also the names of the soldiers, with the place of origin:Aurelius Valerius Drubeta, Antonius Bassinass Zermizegetusa, Titus Lempronius Augustus Apulum. Of a total of 120 Dacian surnames, 15 originate from Sarmizegetusa. Among these, Claudiano, centurion of the sixth cohort. But also Iulius Secondinus, natione Dacus, praetorian again called to the service, having reached the age of 85 in conditions where at that time one rarely exceeded the age of 50.
The spirituality of the Dacians according to Trajan
Roman Emperor Trajan wrote:
"receiving the empire rotting and weak in all its directions from that tyranny which had long worked it within and from the numerous invasions of the Getae from without, I was the only one who dared to attack those peoples of the other side of the Danube. I conquered even these Getae, the most warlike nation that ever existed, not only by body, but also by those maxims of Zalmoxis, who lives with them in such reverence, he touched them so deeply in their heart. For not believing that they die, but only change their habitation...”