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Thracians
I decided to start a thread where we post whatever info we know/can find about Thracians (pre-Latin & Slavic peoples of Romania & Bulgaria & neighboring regions). This post is mostly focused on the Thracian tribe known as the "Getae" (Greek name) or "Dacians" (Latin name), but is not intended to be limited to them:
- Herodotus claimed that the Thracians were the second most numerous people after the Indians. He said that they were extremely divided and if they united, then they would far surpass any other nation. But unification among them was an impossible goal.
- Pliny the Elder tells us that the Greek name for a specific Thracian tribe was "Getae" whereas "Daci" was the Latin name for the same tribe.
- Strabo claimed that the Getae and Dacii were different but closely related tribes. He claimed that the Getae lived more to the east whereas the Daci lived more to the west. Strabo said that he thinks that the Daci were called Daï in earlier times which is where the slave names "Geta" and "Daï" that prevailed among Attic people come from.
- Herodotus first mentions the Getae in the fifth century and described them as the most powerful and noblest among the Thracian tribes. Other Thracian tribes such as the Scyrmidae and Nipsaeans gave up to Darius without a fight whereas the Getae persevered.
- The earliest Getic site is Zimnicea. It's inhabitants lived in thatched or reed-roofed log cabins. Based on objects found there, the inhabitants most likely imported bronze & gold jewelry from [southern] Thrace and oil & wine from the Greeks.
- In the mid-seventh century BC, Dorian and Ionian merchants set up trading posts in Thrace which developed into the city-states of Tomis, Calattis, Histria, Dionysopolis, Tyrras, and Axiopolis. In return for the wine and oil they sold to the Geto-Dacians, they bought slaves, fish, furs, and grains from the Geto-Dacians. Geto-Dacians also mined gold and silver in the region that they traded with the Greeks.
- Thucyclides said that the Getae beyond the Danube were neighbors of the Scythians that influenced them, calling all of them experts archers and horsemen. I think this cultural similarity results in the confusions that that the Getae were a Scythian tribe, when they most certainly were not.
- Celts reached the Danube in the Pannonian Plain in the fourth century B.C. living in Transylvania and southeastern Moldavia.
- Romanian historian Vasile Pârvan describes the Geto-Dacians as a blonde people with a spritualized belief in immortality. Though this is criticized in this book as a theory the result of interwar Romanian anti-intellectual anti-modernism and traditionalism thought.
- Geto-Dacian men were said to be bearded, long-haired, and wore long loose-fitting trousers over which they wore shirts tied with a belt. They also wore short sleeveless cloaks, and in the winter they wore long sheepskin coats and hoods. The women wore short-sleeved blouses and skirt covered with cloaks. Their heads were covered with kerchiefs. Noblemen wore a fur hat.
- The main god among Geto-Dacians was Zalmoxis. Strabo and Herodotus tell us the story that he was originally a slave at the House of Pythagaros at Samos that was said to have been able to make predictions from celestial signs. They believe they go to Zalmoxis in the afterlife (I guess they believe Zalmoxis has two forms - a man and a spirit). They sacrificed a messenger to him to see if they were a righteous nation. The man would be thrown into spears and if he died, that meant he was righteous and would go to heaven. If he died, then they'd choose a new messenger.
- Odrysians were another powerful Thracian tribe. They established the Odrysian kingdom which encompassed several Thracian and Paeonian tribes. This was the first ever Thracian state. It was south of the Danube and got conquered by the Roman Empire in 46 AD.
- Strabo describes the Triballians as a Thracian tribe. During Alexander's expansion against the Thracians, he saw that the Triballian lands extended as far as the Ister (old name for the Danube) and the island of Peuce was held by the Getae. According to Strabo and Arrian, Alexander didn't go to Peuce because he didn't have boats but he did cross the Ister River and go to the Getae country. When he went to the Getae land, on his first charge, he easily defeated the Getae, plundered their place, and razed it to the ground (sending the Gets northward to their city and then to the mountains). He then took whatever plunder the Getae left behind and returned back home when it was daylight.
- After Alexander died, the Macedonian Empire divided and the man that ended up ruling Thrace (south of the Isthmus) was Lysimach. The Geto-Dacians under King Dromichaites were more organized now so they were able to defeat Lysimach and ended up taking him prisoner. Their king was pretty kind so he invited Lysimach to a dinner and then made an alliance with Macedonia bound by a marriage to Lysimach's daughter.
- During the first century B.C., Burebista became the first man to unite the Geto-Dacians into one state. He crossed the Ister several times where he would go as far as the Illyrian, Macedonian, and Celtic lands. Strabo blames him for the entire extinction of two Celtic tribes, the Boii and the Taurisci. Though, we do know that the etymology of Bavarian and Bohemian both come come from the Boii tribe. The Romans saw what Burebista did to his neighbors so saw them as a threat and were planning an expedition into Dacia to conquer Burebista's kingdom. He even imposed full control over the Black Sea Greek city-states. Burebista also saw the problem of drunkards in his country so destroyed every single vineyard. Later in 44-45 A.D., he joined Pompey in a plot to overthrow Caesar of the Roman Empire but Caesar was assassinated before he could make his move (conquering Dacia). Shortly after, Burebista was assassinated by one of his chiefs and Dacia was never reunited again until several decades later under King Decebal.
- In 85, the Dacians defeated the Romans (under Oppius Sabinus) and killed their leader during the battle. In response, in 89, the Romans under Cornelius Fuscus entered Dacian territory and started marching up to the capital Sarmizegetusa before they were defeated again. Under Emperor Dormitian, the Romans reached the capital but were forced to reach a peace agreement. In it, they recognized Dacia as a state and Decebal as their king and had to pay tribute to Dacia. Decebal introduced Roman architecture, Roman discipline, Roman fighting methods, etc. afterwards. This lasted for 12 years, but the Romans felt humiliated paying tribute to Dacia.
- Trajan of Spain was chosen to become the Roman Emperor later (he was the first non-Italian emperor of Rome). He saw Dacia as a threat so spent three years amassing an army and building better roads to Dacia so his army could have an easier time travelling there. In the spring of 101, he got one of the largest Roman armies ever (100k-150k) and crossed the Danube into Dacia. Though the Romans were able to reach the capital, the Dacians launched a counterattack and both were forced to reach a peace agreement. Decebal was allowed to remain king but there had to be a Roman garrison and civil adviser. To better connect Rome with Dacia, a bridge was built between the two states. Decebal tried to get rid of Rome's tightening grip so he went to war with the Romans in 105. The Romans soundly defeated Dacia on two different fronts in 105 and then formally turned Dacia into a Roman province in 106.
- There are some scenes showing the Dacians burning their capital, other scenes showing them drinking poison preferring it to accepting Roman rule after their capital got captured, and others that show the Dacians surrendering to the Romans. After the conquest of Dacia, a building honoring Trajan's conquest known as Trajan's Column was built in Rome and Dacia was renamed Dacia Felix ("Happy Dacia").
- The name given to Dacians outside the Roman province of Dacia, including those that fled Roman Dacia after the conquest was "Free Dacians". They were later responsible for incursions into Roman Dacia.
- Romans then started settling in Dacia and mixing with the locals. After a while, the Romanian language developed. It replaced the native Dacian language but a few Dacian substrates still persist in Romanian. Romanian also got a lot of Slavic words (mainly from Old Church Slavonic from Bulgaria).
- For administrative purposes, [Roman] Dacia was divided into Dacia Superior and Dacia Inferior. Dacia Superior was then later divided into Dacia Apulensis and Dacia Porolissensis.
I'll probably add more info later, but this is the info I have now. Share whatever info you have on Thracians.
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Originally Posted by Bosniensis
He didn't interact with Slavs. He didn't even know about the existence of the concept of "Slav". He was also wrong when he stated they were the second most numerous people after the Indians. That was just his perception. There were also Chinese people who were multifolds more numerous that the Thracians.
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