Dacians

Two of the eight marble statues of Dacian warriors surmounting the Arch of Constantine in Rome.[1]

The Dacians (/ˈdʃənz/; Latin: Daci [ˈdaːkiː]; Greek: Δάκοι,[2] Δάοι,[2] Δάκαι[3]) were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often considered a subgroup of the Thracians.[4] This area includes mainly the present-day countries of Romania and Moldova, as well as parts of Ukraine,[5] Eastern Serbia, Northern Bulgaria, Slovakia,[6] Hungary and Southern Poland.[5] The Dacians and the related Getae[7] spoke the Dacian language, which has a debated relationship with the neighbouring Thracian language and may be a subgroup of it.[8][9] Dacians were somewhat culturally influenced by the neighbouring Scythians and by the Celtic invaders of the 4th century BC.

  1. ^ Westropp 2003, p. 104.
  2. ^ a b Strabo & 20 AD, VII 3,12.
  3. ^ Dionysius Periegetes, Graece et Latine, Volume 1, Libraria Weidannia, 1828, p. 145.
  4. ^ Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 205 "The Dacians were a people of present-day Romania, a subgroup of THRACIANS, who had significant contacts with the ROMANS from the mid-second century B.C.E. to the late third century C.E."
  5. ^ a b Nandris 1976, p. 731.
  6. ^ Husovská 1998, p. 187.
  7. ^ The Cambridge Ancient History (Volume 10) (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. 1996. J. J. Wilkes mentions "the Getae of the Dobrudja, who were akin to the Dacians"; (p. 562)
  8. ^ Fisher 2003, p. 570.
  9. ^ Rosetti 1982, p. 5.