Dacia

Definition

by Adrian DUMITRU published on 28 April 2011

Dacia was a region inhabited by the Dacians in the north of the Danube (modern Romania). The kingdom of Dacia was the creation of Burebistas (ca. 80-44 BCE), who conquered and united several other Dacian principalities. Burebistas practically destroyed the Celtic tribes of the Scordiscii and subjected or allied with the Greek cities of the Western Black Sea coast, from Odessus (today's Varna) to Olbia (near today's Odessa). During the Roman Civil War, the Dacians would have probably come to support Pompey. Burebistas was eventually killed in the same year as Julius Caesar, who allegedly was preparing an expedition against the Dacians and the Parthians.

The Dacian kingdom crumbled into four (or five) principalities, only to re-emerge under Decebalus (ca 87-106 CE). He fought victoriously against Domitian's general Cornelius Fuscus, but he was eventually defeated and forced to sign a peace treaty which made the Dacian kingdom a client of Rome, receiving Roman money and technical support in return. The situation lasted until Trajan, waged two extensive wars (101-102 CE and 105-106 CE) in order to crush the Dacian kingdom and raze all the strongholds.

Dacia became a Roman province for 170 years, until Aurelian (or possibly Gallienus) abandoned it, evacuating the army and the administration. Two new provinces, each called Dacia were created to the South of the Danube, in the territory of modern Serbia in order to show that the Roman Empire had lost nothing. After 275 CE Dacia was overcome by the Goths, the Huns, and the Avars in the Migration Age.

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Written by Adrian DUMITRU, published on 28 April 2011 under the following license: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms.

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Illustrations

Dacia Books

• Roman Legionary Fortresses 27 BC-AD 378 Duncan Campbell Osprey Publishing (25 April 2006) Price: $16.65

• The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and His Mysteries Manfred Clauss Routledge (08 January 2001) Price: $79.13

• The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region... Florin Curta Cambridge University Press (30 July 2001) Price: $130.17

• The Roman Army, 31 BC - AD 337: A Sourcebook Brian Campbell Routledge (18 May 1994) Price: $39.31

• The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine Pat Southern Routledge (14 October 2001) Price: $32.96