Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
Dacia
- What was Dacia?
- Where was Dacia located in Europe?
- Who were the people that lived in Dacia?
- Why was Dacia important in ancient times?
- How did the Roman Empire become involved with Dacia?
- What is the legacy of Dacia in modern-day countries?
Dacia, inantiquity, an area of centralEurope bounded by theCarpathian Mountains and covering much of the historical region ofTransylvania (modern north-central and westernRomania).
TheDacian people had earlier occupied lands south of theDanube and north of the mountains, and those lands as aRoman province eventually included wider territories both to the north and to the east. The Dacians were ofThracian stock and, among the Thracian successor peoples in the region, were most akin to theGetae. (Indeed, the similarities between the groups led the Greek historianHerodotus to label both as Getae, while the Romans referred to all these populations as Dacians.) They first appeared in the Athenian slave market in the 4th centurybce. Subsequently they traded with the Greeks (importing especially wine) and used Greek coins. They spoke aThraciandialect but were influenced culturally by the neighbouringScythians—from whom they adopted the cult of theScythian deity Zalmoxis and a belief in immortality—and byCeltic invaders of the 4th centurybce.
The Dacians were members of an alliance that engaged Roman troops in 112, 109, and 75bce. By the time of that contact, Dacian society had divided into two distinct classes—anaristocracy and a proletariat. The former consisted of the nobility and the priesthood, and the lattercomprised the rank and file of the army, the peasantry, and artisans. Among the proletariat, chief occupations were agriculture and cattle breeding. Dacians also worked rich mines of silver, iron, and gold in Transylvania. Dacia carried on significant outside trade, as evidenced by the number of foreign coins found there.
About 60–50bce KingBurebista unified and expanded the kingdom, establishing it as a significant regional power. He overwhelmed the Greek cities on the northBlack Sea coast and expanded his borders west beyond theTisza River, north to modernSlovakia, and south of the Danube to the area beyondBelgrade. Burebista seems to have offeredPompey assistance in 49bce, and in 44Caesar was planning avast expedition against the Dacian kingdom. Caesar was murdered that year, however, and soon afterward Burebista was assassinated as well. His kingdom broke up into at least four parts, but the Dacians continued to harassRome, an invasion in 11 or 10bce being particularly devastating. Augustan generals gradually pushed them back from the left bank of the Danube while also settling 80,000 men within the Roman province ofMoesia on the right bank. No further trouble was recorded until autumn 69ce, when the Dacians found Moesiavulnerable after the legions had departed to fightVitellius. After capturing a number of forts, they were beaten back byVespasian’s general Gaius Licinius Mucianus, then on his way to Italy.
The origins of the more-serious wars under the emperorsDomitian andTrajan are hard to discern, but Roman provocation cannot be ruled out. The Dacians, unified once again underDecebalus, raided Moesia in 85ce, killing the provincial governor, Oppius Sabinus. Domitian restored order the following year, but his commander Cornelius Fuscus was killed with a large part of his army in a failed invasion. In 88 Rome won a victory at Tapae near theIron Gate pass, but, because of difficulties with tribes farther west, Domitian gave Dacia a favourable peace. Roman suzerainty was recognized, but the Dacians received a subsidy and the loan of engineers.
In 101Trajan reopened the struggle, and in 102 he dictated a peace under which the Dacian capital, Sarmizegethusa (probably near modern Sarmizegetusa, Romania), received a Roman garrison. In 105 the war was renewed, and in 106 the whole country was subdued, with large parts of its population being exterminated or driven northward. Trajan acquired enormous booty, his campaigns werecommemorated with a massive victorycolumn in Rome, and Dacia’s mines, perhaps a motive for the conquest, were immediately exploited. Roads were built, and Sarmizegethusa and Tsierna (modern Orșova) became colonies. Thenew Roman province was at first put under a consular legate with at least two legions, but underHadrian it was divided.Dacia Superior comprised Transylvania, under a praetorianlegate and supported by a single legion at Apulum (Alba Iulia), whileDacia Inferior—in what was afterwardWalachia—was governed by aprocurator. In 159Antoninus Pius redivided the area into three provinces, the Tres Daciae (Dacia Porolissensis, Dacia Apulensis, and Dacia Malvensis), allsubordinate to one governor ofconsular rank.Marcus Aurelius made them a single military area about 168.
- Related Places:
- ancient Rome
- Romania
- Transylvania
The limits of Roman territory were probably never clearly defined, but the Romans benefited both militarily and materially from the occupation. The need for troops south of the Danube most likely caused the abandonment of the province byAurelian about 270.
