History of Dacia
The history of Dacia comprises the events surrounding the historical region roughly corresponding to the present territory of Romania and Moldova and inhabited by the Getae and Dacian peoples, with its capital Sarmizegetusa Regia.
Later invaded by Goths, Slavs, and other nomadic peoples, with the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages Dacia ceased to be understood as a unitary region and its territory was broken up between Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldova and Bessarabia.
In fact, the Thracians occupying the city of Salmydessus and inhabiting beyond Apollonia and the city of Mesambria, called Scirmiades and Nipsei, had surrendered without a fight to Darius: instead, the Getae turned to stubborn resistance, but were immediately subdued, despite being the most valiant and the most righteous of the Thracians.In 334 BC, the Getae were attacked and soundly beaten by the Macedonian armies of Alexander the Great, for they had allied themselves with the neighboring Triballi, who in previous years had carried out several raids against the Macedonia of Philip, father of the great Macedonian leader.
The Getae, however, this time succeeded in obtaining advantageous terms in the newly concluded peace treaty, achieving a solid bond between the two peoples, thanks in part to the marriage between Dromichaites and Lysimachus' daughter.
However, the exaggerated cost demanded by the Transdanubian mercenaries, a total of 150,000 gold pieces, deprived the Macedonian king's army of a sizable allied force that was crucial to the impending clash with the Romans near Pydna.
In fact, Pompeius Trogus tells of the conflict that led the then Dacian king, Oroles, to beat back and repel an incursion of Bastarnae Germans, who had attempted to penetrate from the east, into the fertile plains of the middle reaches of the Mureș river.
Indeed, Florus recounts that in 74 BC,[7] the governor of Macedonia, Gaius Scribonius Curio, after defeating the Dardanians (for whose victory he deserved a triumph), "came as far as Dacia, but retreated frightened before the thick shadows of its forests.
In the first half of the first century BC, a state arose on the territory of ancient Dacia, the main center of which was located in the southern Carpathians of Transylvania, in the area of the Orăștie massif, coming to encompass at the time of its greatest expansion the entire Dacian-Getic lineage.
The formation of this early Dacian state was enhanced especially under the enlightened leadership of King Burebista, a contemporary of Gaius Julius Caesar, who restructured the internal order, completely reorganized the army (which Strabo reports could field as many as 200,000 armed men[9]), so much so as to raise the morale of these people, and expanded the limits of the kingdom to their highest peak.
[22] Octavian's strategy in 35 BC, who was preparing to occupy much of the upper and middle reaches of the Sava River and intended to make the fortress of Siscia an outpost for eventual campaigns in the east against the powerful and fearsome Dacians and Bastarnae.
[23] A few years later, in 28 BC, the newly appointed governor of Macedonia, Marcus Licinius Crassus, beat the geto-dacians of Dobruja, in a punitive campaign because they were harassing, along with the Bastarnae, the Thracian peoples with whom Rome had made a treaty of alliance and threatening the province itself.
"[25] The Roman reaction led to marches against them and their Bastarnae allies, the legions of the then governor of Macedonia, Marcus Vinicius in 9 BC, as reported in an inscription found in Tusculum, near Frascati, which reads: — AE 1895, 122 Again in 6 AD when they forced Aulus Caecina Severus, in the midst of the Dalmatian-Pannonian revolt, to retreat to Moesia, since the Dacians and Sarmatians (probably the Iazyges) were ravaging its territories, while Tiberius lingered in Scythia.
[26] Augustus, as a result of their constant looting that occurred whenever the frozen Danube bridged its streams, decided to send against them some of his proven generals such as Sextus Aelius Catus and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Augur (sometime between AD 1-11[27]).
[citation needed] At an unspecified time, but nevertheless between 57 and 67, the consul of 45, the governor of Moesia, Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus, crossed the Danube and transferred 100,000 Transdanubians (among them certainly some Getae), including women, children and their kings, to Roman territory, ordering them to pay tribute to the Empire.
[39] Concerned by the growing power of the Dacian state, Trajan decided to put an end to the previous and disgraceful agreement signed by Domitian (perhaps also to restore the finances of the Roman Empire with the capture of the famous treasure of Decebalus), and to conquer Dacia, thus gaining control over the gold mines of Transylvania.
The Romans built forts to protect themselves from attacks by Roxolani, Alans, Carpi and free Dacians (from parts of Banat and Wallachia), as well as three new major military roads to join the main cities.
[41] Dacia, to which Trajan had given a new capital, Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa,[42] also allowed for a single assembly that discussed provincial affairs, communicated the grievances of those who were discontented, and calculated the distribution of taxation.
The Roman possession of Dacia was very precarious; Hadrian, aware of the difficulty in maintaining it, apparently contemplated abandoning it, and was discouraged only by the large number of settlers now transferred by Trajan and the rich gold and silver mines.
The strip of land north of the Danube, at least in Oltenia and parts of the Wallachian plain, was still subjected to Roman rule, as is well attested by the system of fortifications of the "Brazda lui Novac du Nord," built between 330 and 340, and which on several occasions was activated until under Justinian in the 6th century.
