next »

[Please Support Us!]

Please Support Us!

November Goal: $40.00
Due Date: Nov 30
Gross Amount: $25.00
PayPal Fees: $1.58
Net Balance: $23.42
Below Goal: $16.58
©

59% 

November Donations

7th Anonymous $20.00

5th Anonymous $5.00

TRAILBLAZERS
for students

ArchaeoFind
Archaeology News
Articles
Browse Attachments
Calendar
Downloads
Forum
Gallery
Links
Member Map
Our News Feeds
Submit Article
Tag Cloud
Video Channel

Odyssey Marine in the media
Trailblazers
Play Phaos
Chat
Trailblazers: Virtual Tours

[Bart]

The Dacians - The Getae

Dacians and Getae are two names for one and the same people. Getae is the name that appears in the ancient Greek texts (beginning with the History of Herodotus, 5th century BC), and Dacians is the name that was used by the Romans. Probably, these were the names of two important tribes that were later assumed by the entire people, or at least by significant parts of it. Modern historians often call this people the Geto-Dacians.

The ancient writings, the archeological discoveries and the names of places certify the unity of the Geto-Dacians.

(In these articles I used the name Getae when referring to the older period, between 9th-2nd centuries BC, when all the written information comes from the Greeks; and Dacians for the period beginning with the 1st century BC.)



The Dacians inhabited an area bordered by the rivers Tisza, Dnestr, the Balkan Mountains and the Black Sea (this area is called the Carpathian-Danube territory, because it includes most of the Carpathian Mountains and the lower course of the Danube).

Between 2500-2000 BC the Indo-European tribes migrated from the steppes north of the Black Sea and occupied the entire European territory. The newcomers assimilated the local populations and imposed everywhere the Indo-European language.
After a process of separation and individualization, these Indo-Europeans populations became the European peoples of the ancient times, like the Greeks, the Italics, the Celts, the Germans, the Illyrians.

The Dacians were, also, one such Indo European people, that was completely individualized in the Carpathian-Danube territory at the beginning of the Iron Age (9th century BC).

The Dacians and the Thracians
https://historyhuntersinternational.org/index.php?topic=149.0
https://historyhuntersinternational.org/index.php?topic=259.0

The Dacians are often considered as the northern branch of the Thracians. This fact is mostly based on several ancient Greek texts. When the Greeks, who used to call their northern neighbors with the name of Thracians, met the Getae and noticed certain similitudes in language and customs, they considered them a Thracians tribe.



But, the political history, the archeological findings and especially the little that we know of the two languages, prove that the Thracians and the Dacians are two distinct peoples, well individualized, that spoke two different Indo-Europeans languages and that were only related to one another.
The Thracians, those who were always called so, inhabited an area bordered by the Vardar River, the Balkan Mountains, the Aegean Sea, the Sea of Marmar and the Black Sea, being the southern neighbors of the Dacians.

In the first half of the 1st millennium BC took place the invasion of the Scythians from the east, from the regions north of the Caspian Sea. For a few centuries, the Scythians dominated politically the territories left of the Danube.

The most important Scythian influence on the Dacians was the method of working iron and other metals. Another consequence of the Scythian invasion was the expansion of the Dacians to the north, west and south. This expansion took place between 900-500 BC and can be observed on the maps of the Ptolemy, where the Dacians appear outside their traditional area.

The Scythians

The first historical note about the Dacians was written by Herodotus. It refers to the expedition of Darius I in 514 BC. 

Darius, the great king of the Persians, organized a campaign to punish the Scythians. He crossed the Bosporus Strait with a very big army and continued his way to the north.

He met some Thracians populations which submitted without fight. Only the Getae stood against Darius but they were easily defeated. Herodotus says that the Getae pretend to be immortal.

The Country of the Getae

From Herodotus we also have a few more pieces of information about the regions north of the Danube:

the first one refers to the hemp that grows in this country, hemp that is used by the natives to make clothes;

the second is about the bees that are found in such a great number, that Dacia can be called the country of honey.

The Greek colonies on the coast of the Black Sea

The Scythians were the first people who established contacts with the Dacians and who had an important influence on them; after them come the Greeks.
In the 7th century BC Greeks from the coast of Asia Minor and from Greece begin a great process of emigration. Because of the population growth and of the desire for profit, large groups of people come and settle on the coast of the Black Sea, founding a number of cities. On the eastern coast of the Black Sea were founded the following cities: Olbia, at the mouth of river Bug, Tyras, at the mouth of Dnestr, Histria, Tomis, Callatis (all three in Dobruja, region of nowadays Romania), Odessos, Apollonia, Dionysopolis (in nowadays Bulgaria). The life in these cities was the same with the one in the cities where the colonists came from.

The main occupation of the colonists was the trade with the local populations. From the Geto-Dacians they bought wheat, honey, wax, skins, furs. The Greeks sold them jewelry, ceramics, fine tissues, oil, Greek wine. Due to the commerce, the colonies became flourishing cities.

Sometimes the colonies on the coast of the Black Sea were at war with the local populations. Often the cities made agreements with the Geto-Dacian of Scythian King, giving a sum of money in order to be left in peace.

The Greek influence upon the Dacians, that lasted for many centuries, is seen in: the Dacian coins, imitations of the Macedonian coins; and their ceramics.

Alexander the Great

In the year 335 BC Alexander the Great organized a raid against the Getae from the north of the Danube.



Alexander led a campaign against a Thracian population of whom he had heard that were willing to revolt. With this occasion he crossed one night the Danube with a part of his army. They used the boats of the natives - hollowed logs - that were found here in quite in a great number. On the left bank of the river there large fields of wheat.

The Getae raised an army of 4,000 horsemen and 10,000 infantry-men. Even so, they couldn't stand if front of Alexander's army. The Getae ran to their town, which was situated 6 km from the Danube. Finally, they left the town with as many children and women as they could carry on horses. Alexander plundered and destroyed the town. Then he returned to the other side of the Danube.

From these events we can say that: the bank of the Danube was densely populated (Alexander's army could cross the river, in just one night, using the boats of the natives);

the Getae were rich (Alexander carried with him an important loot after conquering just one town);

the fields of wheat show that agriculture was a very important occupation for the Geto-Dacians.

Dromihetes - king of the Getae

Dromihetes is the first great king of the Geto-Dacians. We have information about him related to his conflict with Lisimah. Lisimah was a general of Alexander the Great, who became the king of Thracia after Alexander's death.

The causes of this conflict were:

Lisimah wanted to extend his kingdom on the left side of the Danube;

Dromihetes wanted back some fortresses from the right bank of the Danube, that had been conquered by Lisimah.

There were some battles; the Geto-Dacians led by Dromihetes won all of them. In one of the battles (about 300 BC) the son of Lisimah, Agatocles, was captured. Dromihetes treated him very nice and after a while he sent him with gifts, back to his father. Dromihetes hoped to regain this way the lost fortresses.

But Lisimah didn't agree and he left in 292 BC with a big army against the the king of the Geto-Dacians. The Macedonian army crossed the Danube. After a short time the soldiers suffered of hunger and thirst (the Getae had burnt everything in their way). The army of Lisimah is surrounded and captured. Again, Dromihetes treated the prisoners very well. He takes Lisimah to Helis, the capital of the Getae.

The people of the town asked for the death of Lisimah. Dromihetes convinced them it is better to keep him alive, because this way they could regain their fortresses and because if Lisimah dies, another king would rise and would come with an army against them.

After this event, Dromihetes organizes a great banquet in honor of Lisimah. The Macedonian King promised to be the friend of the Getae and gave them back their fortresses. Dromihetes even married one of the daughters of Lisimah.

The Celts


After 300 BC takes place the migration of the Celts on the territory inhabited by the Dacians. The Bastarnians joined the Celts in their invasion.
 The Geto-Dacians held many battles against the Celts and the Bastarnians. Other times the Geto-Dacians helped them in their expeditions of plunder in the Balkan Peninsula.



12. Geto-Dacian kings

Other Geto-Dacian kings in this period (3rd century BC - 1st century BC) were:
Zalmodegicos and Rhemaxos (in Dobruja);
Oroles (in Transylvania) - we know that he defeated the Bastarnians.

13. The Roman threat

In the 2nd century BC the Roman power advances in the Balkan Peninsula. In the year 148 BC, the Macedonian kingdom is transformed into a Roman province.

http://www.geocities.com/cogaionon/article2.htm

[Administration]

Nice story, Bart! And here are some rather attractive coins:


Dacian gold coins of Koson type, 1st century BC.

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 were fluorishing 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 the dacian history.

[Bart]

The cloth of the fated language

09:00 Mon 22 Jan 2007 - Magdalena Rahn

     So, about 2000 years ago, there were these people in the land that is now called Romania. These people, themselves called Dacians (pronounced dachyanz), were of Indo-European stock, meaning that they belonged to, as defined by dictionary.com, ?a large, widespread family of languages, the surviving branches of which include Italic, Slavic, Baltic, Hellenic, Celtic, Germanic and Indo-Iranian, spoken by about half the world?s population: English, Spanish, German, Latin, Greek, Russian, Albanian, Lithuanian, Armenian, Persian, Hindi and Hittite are all Indo-European languages?. And so was Dacian. But that language isn?t exactly spoken anymore. Verily, about 160 words of Dacian origin still exist in modern Romania. But we?ll get to that later.

     Romanian is a Romance language, an East Romance language at that, spoken by about 24 to 26 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova, though it is also spoken in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (Serbia), where it and five other languages have official status. Also, in parts of northern Bulgarian along the Danube, some villages are home to Romanian speakers. How these people got there ? or how they ended up speaking what is now Romanian ? began with the Dacians.

     According to Dennis Deletant?s textbook Colloquial Romanian, the Dacians were believed to have spoken a Thracian tongue. Dacian words that remain in Romanian today point to an industrious family-oriented pastoral society with knowledge of viticulture and pisciculture. Examples include: baci = shepherd making cheese, branza = cheese, brad = fir-tree, copil = child, prunc = baby, zestre = dowry, balaur = dragon, mal = shore.

     Given the not insignificant number of cognates with the Albanian language, some linguists think that the Albanians were Dacians who were not Romanised and migrated south.

     In 106 CE, the Romans defeated the Dacians and part of their land (Oltenia/Wallachia Minor, Banat and Transylvania) became a Roman province for the next 165 years. As tends to happen when a land is colonised, local languages felt a linguistic influence, here Latin, with Vulgar Latin becoming the language of administration and commerce. Latin vocabularly also entered due to Christianity and church. As Constantin C Giurescu wrote in The Making of the Romanian People and Language, ?most of the Romanian words designating the essential notions connected with the Christian faith are of Latin origin?.

     Roman pull out in the late third century set the language free, in a sense, to develop independently of much outside influence. The language broke apart into four dialects, but, given its geographical placement, it wasn?t much influenced at all, actually, until sometime between the seventh to 10th century, when Slavonic words and thoughts came along with the Byzantine Empire. This is in contrast to Aromanian (a sort of Romanian dialect, also known as Macedo-Romanian, Arumanian or Vlach), which, while it follows the same grammatical structure as Romanian, has a very different vocabulary.

     It appears that the Slavs learned Latin, and the Dacians adopted Slavicisms. This is also reason for the unique pronunciation of Romanian, as compared with other Romance languages. [For example, the initial letter e of personal pronouns is palletised: ?el? (he) is pronounced ?yel?.]

     Old Church Slavonic, the liturgical language of the Romanian Orthodox Church (compared with the countries of Western and Central Europe, which used Latin) also greatly influened the language from the Middle Ages until the 18th century.

     The Daco-Romanian dialect (what most people just call Romanian, but called Daco-Romanian by linguists to distinguish it from other East Romance language; spoken throughout Romania and Moldova) varies little from place to place. Thus, a Romanian speaker from Moldova uses the same language as a Romanian speaker from the Serbian Banat. This indicates relatively recent migration.

     Among speakers of the language today, the largest distinguising factor is accent/pronunciation.

     Romanian remains one of the most uniform languages in Europe, and developed isolated from the other Romance languages.

     Instead of Germanic influence, it took on words and features of Greek, Turkish and Hungarian. As compared with the other Romance languages, it has maintained declinisions (the three cases are nominative/accusative, genitive/dative and vocative) and a neuter gender. Modern Romanian is closest to Italian, and not mutually intellible for the average person to Catalan, French, Portuguese or Spanish. Though, French and Italian have given a number of words to the Romanian vocabulary in the modern era.

     The Romanian Academy moderates and maintains the standards of the language, with the Institutul Limbii Romane promoting its learning and use.

     Romanian earns membership in the Balkan linguistic union (Balkansprachbund). This term classifies the languages of the Balkans that belong to various Indo-European branches, like Albanian, Greek, Romance and Slavic. These languages have similarities in grammar, syntax, vocabulary and phonology, enough to compel researchers to dig farther for a common heritage, or at least common influence. Such characteristics include the formation of the future and perfect tenses, the avoidance of infinitive, a postposed (enclitic) definite article and the syncretism of genitive and dative case.

      In the early ninth century, Byzantine chronicler Theophanes the Confessor provided the first written record of a Romanic language in his recount of a 587 military expedition against the Avars, in which a Vlach muleteer accompanying the Byzantine army noticed that the load was falling from one of the animals and shouted to a companion: ?Torna, torna fratre? (meaning ?Return, return brother!?).

     More than 700 years had passed when, in June 1521, Neacsu of Campulung wrote to the mayor of Brasov about an imminent attack of the Turks, thus providing the oldest existing record of written Romanian. Like most early Romanian writings, it was written in a Cyrillic alphabet similar to that used for Old Church Slavonic. Cyrillic actually remained in use in Walachia and Moldova until 1859.

     In the late 16th century, Cyrillic fell out of use, with favour leaning towards Hungarian alphabetic conventions. Shortly after that, at least as far as history goes, as it was all of some 200 years later, scholars, noting Romanian?s Latin roots, recommended a spelling system based on Italian. Gradually this took precedence and in 1860, Romanian writing was first officially regulated. The Soviet Republic of Moldova, however, used a version of the Cyrillic alphabet until 1989, when it adoped the Romanian version of the Latin alphabet.

http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/insight-the-cloth-of-the-fated-language/id_19982/catid_5

[Solomon]

There was a period during the Cold War when I hosted various Romanian academics in my London home. Though they were careful to not say anything that could later be used against them by their Soviet masters, I enjoyed learning something of that nation's history.

On 1 January this year, Romania became part of the European Union, which now consists of "27 democratic member states in Europe" with a combined population of some 500 million and an estimated GDP of US$13.4 trillion. The Roman empire reborn and enlarged, perhaps.

The above piece is a good example of the application of historical perspective to modern politics - not a bad thing. We could do with more of this, I believe.

Solomon

[Solomon]

Costesti Fortress

Southern Transylvania Projects:
DACIAN FORTRESS OF TILISCA
Prof. Dr. Lupu conducted an initial excavation between 1959-1965. His objectives were not to excavate the site but to map the main architectural elements. He managed to excavate less than  15% of the site, which proved to be incredibly rich. It is a large fortress (the outer wall is over 1200m long), important tribal and �industrial� center.

Short History

    The region was inhabited since neolithic times. On Catanas hill existed a powerful Dacian castle, indicating the administrative center of a union of tribes, outpost of the castles from Orastie Mountains. Here the Dacians fought the Romans in their second battle (105 - 106), when the castle is conquered and partially destroyed. After the south - eastern part of Transylvania was subdued by Hungarian royal domination, Tilisca becomes part of Amlas Dukedom, that, in the times of Mircea cel Batran (Mircea the Old) (1386 - 1418) and of his descendants, will be in Wallachia's possession. At the end of the fifteenth century, it is part of the Chair of Saliste, belonging to the Chair of Sibiu and the Saxon University.

    Gradually the village develops and consolidates itself economically. In the years preceding the Second World War, in Tilisca were living 588 families, summing up 2216 inhabitants, among which 126 shepherds, 340 handicraftsmen, 18 merchants.

HISTORY OF THE DACIAN WARS



        During Trajan's reign one of the most important Roman successes was the victory over the Dacians. The first important confrontation between the Romans and the Dacians took place in the year 87 and was initiated by Domitian. The praetorian prefect Cornelius Fuscus led five or six legions across the Danube on a bridge of ships and advanced towards Banat (in Romania). The Romans were surprised by a Dacian attack at Tapae (near the village of Bucova, in Romania). Legion V Alaude was crushed and Cornelius Fuscus was killed. The victorious general was originally known as Diurpaneus (see Manea, p.109), but after this victory he was called Decebalus (�the brave one�, a Romanian �Braveheart�).

        In the year 88, the Romans resumed the offensive. The Roman troops were now led by the general Tettius Iulianus. The battle took place again at Tapae but this time the Romans defeated the Dacians. For fear of falling into a trap, Iulianus abandoned his plans of conquering Sarmizegetuza and, at the same time, Decebalus asked for peace. At first, Domitian refused this request , but after he was defeated in a war in Pannonia against the Marcomanni (a Germanic tribe), the emperor was obliged to accept the peace.

        Because the Dacians represented an obstacle against Roman expansion in the east, in the year 101 the emperor Trajan decided to begin a new campaign against them. The first war began on 25 March 101 and the Roman troops, consisting of four principal legions (X Gemina , XI Claudia , II Traiana Fortis, and XXX Ulpia Victrix), defeated the Dacians. Although the Dacians had been defeated, the emperor postponed the final siege for the conquering of Sarmizegetuza because his armies needed reorganization. Trajan imposed on the Dacians very hard peace conditions: Decebalus had to renounce claim to some regions of his kingdom, including Banat, Tara Hategului, Oltenia, and Muntenia in the area south-west of Transylvania. He had also to surrender all the Roman deserters and all his war machines. At Rome, Trajan was received as a winner and he took the name of Dacicus, a title that appears on his coinage of this period. At the beginning of the year 103 A.D., there were minted coins with the inscription: IMP NERVA TRAIANVS AVG GER DACICVS.

    However, during the years 103-105, Decebalus did not respect the peace conditions imposed by Trajan and the emperor then decided to destroy completely the Dacian kingdom and to conquer Sarmizegetuza. The siege for the conquering of Sarmizegetuza took place in the summer of the year 106. The Roman armies headed towards this fortress: the first part passed through Valea Cernei, Hateg, and Valea Streiului and destroyed the Dacian fortresses at Costesti, Blidaru, and Piatra Rosie; the second part climbed the Valea Jiului, passed through the Sureanu Mountains and arrived at Banita; the third part, led probably by Trajan, left from Drobeta and passed through Sucidava, Romula (now Resca, in Romania), and Valea Oltului and arrived at Tilisca before going then to Capalna; the rest of the troops left from Moesia Inferior and passed through Bran, Bratocea, and Oituz and destroying the Dacian fortresses between Cumidava (now Rasnov, in Romania) and Angustia (now Bretcu, in Romania). At the battle for the conquest of Sarmizegetuza the following legions participated: II Adiutrix, IV Flavia Felix, and a special detachment from Legio VI Ferrata (which until this war had been stationed in Judaea).
       
        The first assault was repelled by the Dacians. The Romans attacked again with their war machines and, at the same time, after a while they built a platform to more easily attack the fortress. Then they destroyed the water pipes of Sarmizegetuza and obliged the defenders to retire before they set fire to their city. The Romans finally succeeded in entering the Dacian sacred enclosure, hailed Trajan as emperor and then destroyed the whole fortress. Legion IV Flavia Felix was stationed there to guard what remained of Sarmizegetuza. After the end of the siege, Bicilis, a confidant of Decebalus, betrayed his king and the Romans discovered the Dacian treasure which , according to Jerome Carcopino (p.73), consisted of 165,000 kilograms of pure gold and 331,000 kilograms of silver in the bed of the Sergetia River (Cassius Dio 68.14).

        Legend has it that after Decebalus' defeat, his daughter Meda, with a handful of the Dacian elite soldiers, sought refuge in the Tilisca fortress where they were finally found by the Romans. After a siege, the Romans took Tilisca and burned it down. The Dacians fought to the last able body and Meda died with sword in hand, a warrior princess, worthy of her father.

        Defeated, Decebalus retired to the mountains, but he was followed by the Romans and so was obliged to commit suicide. His head and his right arm were brought to Trajan who was at Ranistorum (modern location can not be identified). The Romans reorganized Dacia ( now Romania) as a Roman province and built another center of administration at a distance of 40 km from the old Sarmizegetuza. This center was named Colonia Ulpia Traiana Dacica Augusta Sarmizegetuza. This founding was celebrated at Rome by the minting by Senate order of a sestertius dedicated to the optimus princeps. The ancient city had an area of 32 hectares.

Bibliography
Manea, Mihai, Adrian Pascu and Bogdan Teodorescu. Istoria romanilor. Bucharest,1997.
Cassius Dio, Roman History, books 67-68.
Carcopino, Jerome. Points de vue sur l'�mp�rialisme romain. Paris, 1924.

[Solomon]

Royal helmet

Dacia
Dacia, in ancient geography was the land of the Daci. It was named by the ancient Hellenes "Getae". Dacia was a large district of South Eastern Europe, bounded on the north by the Carpathians, on the south by the Danube, on the west by the Tisia or Tisa, on the east by the Tyras or Nistru, now in eastern Moldova. It thus corresponds in the main to modern Romania and Moldova, as well as parts of Hungary, Bulgaria and Ukraine. The capital of Dacia was Sarmizegetusa. The inhabitants of this district are generally considered as belonging to the Thracian nations.


Dacian Kingdom, during the rule of Burebista, 82 BCE

Culture
Based on archaeological findings, the origins of the Dacian culture are believed to be in Moldavia, being identified as an evolution of the Iron Age Basarabi culture.

The Dacians had attained a considerable degree of civilisation by the time they first became known to the Romans.

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 were fluorishing 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.


Roman roads along the Danube

Roman conquest
From 85 to 89 CE, the Dacians were engaged in two wars with the Romans, under Decebalus.

In 87, the Roman troops under Cornelius Fuscus were defeated, and Cornelius Fuscus was killed by the Dacians under the authority of their ruler, Diurpaneus. After this victory, Diurpaneus took the name of Decebalus. The next year, 88, new Roman troops under Tettius Iullianus, gained a signal advantage, but were obliged to make peace owing to the defeat of Domitian by the Marcomanni, so the Dacians were really left independent. More than this, Decebalus received the statute of "king client to Rome", receiving from Rome military instructors, craftsmen and even money.

To expand the glory of his reign, restore the finances of Rome, and end the perceived humiliating treaty, Trajan resolved on the conquest of Dacia and with it the capture of the famous Treasure of Decebalus and control over the Dacian goldmines of Transylvania. The result of his first campaign (101�102) was the siege of the Dacian capital Sarmizegethusa and the occupation of a part of the country. The second campaign (105�106) ended with the suicide of Decebalus, and the conquest of the territory that was to form the Roman province Dacia Traiana. The history of the war is given by Cassius Dio, but the best commentary upon it is the famous Column of Trajan in Rome.


Dacian warriors storm the Roman fortifications
Trajan's Column is a monument in Rome raised by Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near the Quirinal Hill, north of the Roman Forum. Completed in 113, the freestanding column is most famous for its spiral bas relief, which commemorates Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars.

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 wasn't lost on much of the surviving aristocracy. Thus, most of the Romanian historians and linguists believe that many of the Dacians became Romanised.

Nonetheless, Germanic and Celtic kingdoms, particularly the Gothic tribes made a slow progression toward the Dacian borders and soon within a generation were making assaults on the province. Ultimately, the Goths succeeded in dislodging the Romans and restoring the independence of Dacia following Aurelian's withdrawal. At this time a surviving aristocratic Dacian line revived the kingdom under Regalianus. About his origin, the Tyranni Triginta says he was a Dacian, a kinsman of Decebalus. Nonetheless, the Gothic aristocracy remained ascendant and through intermarriage soon dominated the kingdom which was absorbed into their larger empire.

During Diocletian, circa 296 CE, in order to defend the Roman border, fortifications are erected by the Romans, on the both banks of the Danube.

[Solomon]

Denarius issued by Trajan to celebrate the winning of the Dacian Wars.
Front. Text: IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC PM TR P COS V PP. Image: Laureate head right; the legend abbreviates as Imperator. Trajan. Augustus. Germanicus. Dacicus. Pontifex Maximus. Tribuniciae Potestate. Consul V. Pater Patriae.
Reverse. Text: SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI. Image: Dacian soldier wearing the Dacian peaked cap, seated on shield in mourning, with the curbed Dacian Falx (sabre) below. The reverse abbreviates Senatus Populus Que Romanus. Optimo Principi.

Discovering Decebalus' Treasure
(Trajan's Column, Scene CXXXVIII = 112)



Scene CXXXVIII depicts the capturing of the treasure of the Dacian state. Three Roman soldiers, a legionary and two auxiliaries, in fact symbolizing a much larger number, are loading in the bags on animal backs, mules or mountain horses, a lot of items of precious metals, especially pots. Thus the Romans have captured the huge treasures gathered through the centuries by the Dacian kings, coming from taxes on trade, intertribal gifts, but above all from the exploitation of rocks and gold sands in the mountains and waters of the country. These riches had been increased by the Roman Empire itself through the subsidies that, even before Domitian and up to the first years of Trajan's reign, were paid to the Dacians to prevent them to attack south of the Danube.

In scene CXXXVIII is depicted only the transport of the treasures to Rome, with no clue as to the way they had been hidden. We can understand only from the trees and the rocky aspect of the place, that everything occurs in a woody region in the mountains, of course somewhere around conquered Sarmizegetusa, as it was normal and as revealed by Cassius Dio's account, in its plausible part.

The value of the treasure is huge. From doctor Cryton, who took part in Trajan's Dacian wars and wrote a book about them (unfortunately lost), we find out, due to an excerpt conveyed by the writer Ioannes Lydus, in the sixth century (II, 28), that, defeating the Dacians, Emperor Trajan brought to the Romans "five million gold and twice as much silver (= between 380 and 550 g), besides pots and items going beyond any price". Naturally, as agreed by all modern critics, these figures are totally exaggerated, even fantastic - the conveyor exaggerating it - but even reducing them to a tenth, as plausibly calculated by the French scholar J. Carcopino, namely summing up only 165000 kg of gold and 331000 kg of silver, they remain huge.

The Dacian spoils must have contributed immensely to the flourishing of the economic, social and constructive activities of the Empire. Before his wars against Decebalus, Trajan had been forced to take harsh measures to save in order to balance the finances of the state, left in a poor condition by his predecessors, but now he passes to sudden unlimited expenditure: draining the Pontine Marshes, extending Italy's ports, building a new aqueduct to provide water to Rome, remaking in Egypt the channel between the Nile and the Red Sea, increasing the army by founding two new legions, preparing the great war against the Parthes of 113 - 117, renouncing certain taxes, giving to the Roman people grand and long performances, allotting to the poor considerable grants, but, above all, building in the middle of the City the incomparable Forum Ulpium, with magnificent edifices and with his Column itself, whose relief depicts the Dacian wars we are so interested in.

[Solomon]

The Rogozen treasure (Bulgarian: Рогозенско съкровище), called the find of the century, was discovered by chance in 1985 by a tractor driver digging a trench in his garden. It consists of 165 receptacles, including 108 phials, 55 jugs and 3 goblets. The objects are silver with golden gilt on some of them with total weight of more that 20 kg. The treasure is an invaluable source of information for the life of the Thracians, due to the variety of motifs in the richly decorated objects. It is dated back to the 5th-4th centuries BCE.