Dacians - Civilization

    Dacia, the cradle of the tracian civilization, spread from the Dinaric Alps and the Italic Peninsula in the West, to the mountains of continental Greece in the South. At the center of this territory there stood the Carpathian mountains, which served as natural fortifications to the Dacians, and divided their people in several tribes. The waters that spring from these mountains segmented their land, and those that make up its borders (the Danube, Tisa and Nistru rivers) helped creating bonds with the mediteranean and aegean peoples, and lead to continual mutual influences between the Dacians and the southern peoples, thoughout their history.
    The Dacians are the descendants of the first humans to inhabit these lands; they didn't appear inside this territory as a result of a migration, instead they were born and their culture evolved here. The age of the dacian civilization is proven by a long series of archaeological discoveries, of which the most recent are also the most spectacular. The oldest bronze furnaces in Europe have been discovered in today's Romania, and their age is over 8000 years. The bronze objects found together with these furnaces show good skill from their makers, which suggests that the civilization that produced them had some time to develop this skill, and thus it is much older than the objects.
    Other "firsts" were discovered in Romania, once the territory of the ancient Dacians: the oldest house built above the ground, as well as the first writing in the world. In 1961, the archaeologists have unburied a few clay tablets near Tartaria, in Transylvania. These tablets contain abstract drawings - i.e. not representation of images from the nature - which have been interpreted as a written message. Having been dated to around 4800 - 4500 BC, these tablets are about 2000 years older than the sumerian writings, which have long been considered the oldest writings in the world. Neither the Tartaria tablets, nor the sumerian symbols have been deciphered, but they are considered "writing" by the same principle of abstraction.
    The spiritual and scientific preocupations of this ancient culture can be seen in the calendars they left us, which are made up by structures simmilar to those found in the Britannic peninsula. The most well known calendar of this kind is that in the Sarmizegetusa city (the capital of the Dacian kingdom), where researchers have uncovered a solar sanctuary with a complex structure, apparently used for measuring time and keeping track of astronomical phenomena.
    The main occupations of the Dacians were pottery, metal crafting, sheep tending and apiculture. The ancient Greeks - which called them hiperboreans - wrote that the Dacians ate mostly honey, milk and derrivatives and that they lived in perfect harmony with the nature. Their society was divided in three classes: the priests, called kapnobatai before Zalmoxe and ktistai after; the nobles, called tarabostes; and the common folk, called pileati or comati. The identifying mark of the nobles was a specific fur hat they wore, while common people didn't cover their heads. The romanian word "coama", which means "mane", comes from these "comati", because they wore long hair and beard.

    The military history of the Dacians contains numerous events. At the peak of their power - the rule of king Burebista, first century BC - the borders of Dacia extended in the West until they reached the territory of today's Switzerland. They became a threat for the Roman Empire, such that a roman emperor, Domitianus, even payed tribute to them in exchange for peace. The famous Caesar planned an attack against the Dacians, but a series of factors stopped him: on one side, the campaigns that the Empire was already fighting didn't allow him to raise enough troops; on the other hand, the Dacians carried out frequent short and powerful attacks at the Empire's borders, which created the impression that they had a large military force, able to travel fast. More than one century had to pass until emperor Trajan continued Caesar's intentions, and decided to crush the Dacians by setting off the full force of the roman war machine against them. The first war between the Dacians and the Romans led by Trajan was fought between 101 and 102 AD, and ended in truce. The Dacians sustained heavy losses in this war and the terms of the armistice forced them to even reduce their military power. Compared to them, the Romans had huge resources and were able to regroup relatively fast, so that a second campaign begun in the spring of 105. The second war ended in 106 with the defeat of the Dacians and the conquest of their capital city, Sarmizegetusa. The southern part of Dacia was declared a roman province and was given the name "Dacia Felix", which means "Wealthy Dacia" (not "Happy Dacia", an alternative translation, erroneous in this context). To celebrate this victory, Trajan held the biggest celebration in the history of the Roman Empire, which lasted no less than 123 days. The emperor was so proud of this victory that he ordered bread and money to be given to all roman citizens, and he suspended taxes for his people for a whole year; this says a lot about the importance of the Dacians, at least in the eyes of the Romans. Trajan's Column, the famous monument in Rome, dedicates a large area to the illustration of the war against the Dacians. The Romans maintained an occupation force in Dacia Felix until 275 AD, when a series of external factors forced emperor Aurelian to recall it.