Editing Dacians (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Dacia}}

===Early history===
[[File:Herodotus world map-en.svg|thumb|Getae on the World Map according to Herodotus]]

In the absence of historical records written by the Dacians (and Thracians) themselves, analysis of their origins depends largely on the remains of material culture. On the whole, the Bronze Age witnessed the evolution of the ethnic groups which emerged during the [[Eneolithic]] period, and eventually the syncretism of both autochthonous and Indo-European elements from the steppes and the Pontic regions.{{sfn|Dumitrescu|Boardman|Hammond|Sollberger |1982|p=166}} Various groups of Thracians had not separated out by 1200 BC,{{sfn|Dumitrescu|Boardman|Hammond|Sollberger |1982|p=166}} but there are strong similarities between the ceramic types found at Troy and the ceramic types from the Carpathian area.{{sfn|Dumitrescu|Boardman|Hammond|Sollberger |1982|p=166}} About the year 1000 BC, the Carpatho-Danubian countries were inhabited by a northern branch of the Thracians.{{sfn|Parvan|1928|p=35}} At the time of the arrival of the Scythians (c. 700 BC), the Carpatho-Danubian Thracians were developing rapidly towards the Iron Age civilization of the West. Moreover, the whole of the fourth period of the Carpathian Bronze Age had already been profoundly influenced by the first Iron Age as it developed in Italy and the Alpine lands. The Scythians, arriving with their own type of Iron Age civilization, put a stop to these relations with the West.{{sfn | Parvan | Vulpe|Vulpe | 2002 | p=49 }} From roughly 500 BC (the second Iron Age), the Dacians developed a distinct civilization, which was capable of supporting large centralised kingdoms by the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD.{{sfn | Koch | 2005 | p=549 }}

Since the very first detailed account by Herodotus, Getae are acknowledged as belonging to the Thracians.{{sfn|Herodotus|440 BC|loc=4.93–4.97}} Still, they are distinguished from the other Thracians by particularities of religion and custom.{{sfn|Oltean|2007|p=45}} The first written mention of the name "Dacians" is in Roman sources, but classical authors are unanimous in considering them a branch of the Getae, a Thracian people known from Greek writings. [[Strabo]] specified that the Daci are the Getae who lived in the area towards the [[Pannonian plain]] ([[Transylvania]]), while the Getae proper gravitated towards the Black Sea coast ([[Scythia Minor (Dobruja)|Scythia Minor]]).

===Relations with Thracians===
{{See also|Dromichaetes}}

Since the writings of Herodotus in the 5th century BC,{{sfn|Herodotus|440 BC|loc=4.93–4.97}} Getae/Dacians are acknowledged as belonging to the Thracian sphere of influence. Despite this, they are distinguished from other Thracians by particularities of religion and custom.{{sfn|Oltean|2007|p=45}} Geto-Dacians and Thracians were kin people but they were not the same.{{sfn|Pârvan|1926|p=661}} The differences from the southern Thracians or from the neighbouring Scythians were probably faint, as several ancient authors make confusions of identification with both groups.{{sfn|Oltean|2007|p=45}} Linguist [[Vladimir I. Georgiev|Vladimir Georgiev]] says that based on the absence of toponyms ending in  ''dava'' in [[Southern Bulgaria]], the [[Moesi]]ans and Dacians (or as he calls them Daco-Mysians) couldn't be related to the [[Thracians]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Georgiev |first=Vladimir |date=1966 |title=The Genesis of the Balkan Peoples |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4205776 |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |volume=44 |issue=103 |pages=286–288 |issn=0037-6795 |jstor=4205776}}</ref>

In the 19th century, [[Wilhelm Tomaschek|Tomaschek]] considered a close affinity between the Besso-Thracians and Getae-Dacians, an original kinship of both people with Iranian peoples.{{sfn|Tomaschek|1883|pp=400–401}} They are [[Aryan]] tribes, several centuries before [[Scolotes]] of the Pont and [[Sauromatae]] left the Aryan homeland and settled in the Carpathian chain, in the [[Haemus]] (Balkan) and [[Rhodope Mountains|Rhodope mountains]].{{sfn|Tomaschek|1883|pp=400–401}} The Besso-Thracians and Getae-Dacians separated very early from Aryans, since their language still maintains roots that are missing from Iranian and it shows non-Iranian phonetic characteristics (i.e. replacing the Iranian "l" with "r").{{sfn|Tomaschek|1883|pp=400–401}}

===Relations with Celts===
{{See also|Celts in Transylvania|Gallic invasion of the Balkans|Boii|Taurisci|Scordisci|Anartes|Burebista|List of Celtic cities in Thrace and Dacia|Púchov culture}}
[[File:Celtic expansion in Europe.png|thumb|right|Diachronic distribution of Celtic peoples: <br />
{{legend|#ffff43|core [[Hallstatt culture|Hallstatt]] territory, by the 6th century BC}}
{{legend|#97ffb6|maximal Celtic expansion, by 275 BC}}
]]
[[File:KMM - Kriegergrab Clumesti Rekonstruktion 03.jpg|left|thumb|Replica of the raven-totem helmet from [[Ciumeşti/Satu Mare County]]|258x258px]]
Geto-Dacians inhabited both sides of the [[Tisa River]] before the rise of the Celtic [[Boii]], and again after the latter were defeated by the Dacians under king Burebista.{{sfn | Taylor | 2001 |p=215}} During the second half of the 4th century BC, Celtic cultural influence appears in the archaeological records of the middle Danube, Alpine region, and north-western Balkans, where it was part of the Middle [[La Tène culture|La Tène]] material culture. This material appears in north-western and central Dacia, and is reflected especially in burials.{{sfn | Koch | 2005 | p=549 }} The Dacians absorbed the Celtic influence from the northwest in the early third century BC.{{sfn| MacKendrick |2000|p=50}} Archaeological investigation of this period has highlighted several Celtic warrior graves with military equipment. It suggests the forceful penetration of a military Celtic elite within the region of Dacia, now known as Transylvania, that is bounded on the east by the Carpathian range.{{sfn | Koch | 2005 |p=549}} The archaeological sites of the third and second centuries BC in Transylvania revealed a pattern of co-existence and fusion between the bearers of La Tène culture and indigenous Dacians. These were domestic dwellings with a mixture of Celtic and Dacian pottery, and several graves in the Celtic style containing vessels of Dacian type.{{sfn | Koch | 2005 |p=549}} There are some seventy Celtic sites in Transylvania, mostly cemeteries, but most if not all of them indicate that the native population imitated Celtic art forms that took their fancy, but remained obstinately and fundamentally Dacian in their culture.{{sfn| MacKendrick |2000|p=50}}

The Celtic Helmet from [[Ciumeşti]], [[Satu Mare County|Satu Mare]], Romania (northern Dacia), an Iron Age raven totem helmet, dated around the 4th century BC. A similar helmet is depicted on the Thraco-Celtic [[Gundestrup cauldron]], being worn by one of the mounted warriors (detail tagged [https://www.flickr.com/photos/28433765@N07/3219662507/ here]). See also an [https://www.flickr.com/photos/celtico/3751742958/ illustration of Brennos wearing a similar helmet].
Around 150 BC, La Tène material disappears from the area. This coincides with the ancient writings which mention the rise of Dacian authority. It ended the Celtic domination, and it is possible that Celts were driven out of Dacia. Alternatively, some scholars have proposed that the [[Celts in Transylvania|Transylvanian Celts]] remained, but merged into the local culture and thus ceased to be distinctive.{{sfn | Koch | 2005 | p=549 }}{{sfn| MacKendrick |2000|p=50}}

Archaeological discoveries in the settlements and fortifications of the Dacians in the period of their kingdoms (1st century BC and 1st century AD) included imported Celtic vessels and others made by Dacian potters imitating Celtic prototypes, showing that relations between the Dacians and the Celts from the regions north and west of Dacia continued.{{sfn | Koch | 2005 | p=550}} In present-day [[Slovakia]], archaeology has revealed evidence for mixed Celtic-Dacian populations in the [[Nitra]] and [[Hron]] river basins.{{sfn | Skvarna | Cicaj | Letz| 2000 | p=14}}

After the Dacians subdued the Celtic tribes, the remaining [[Cotini]] stayed in the mountains of Central Slovakia, where they took up mining and metalworking. Together with the original domestic population, they created the [[Puchov culture]] that spread into central and northern Slovakia, including [[Spiš|Spis]], and penetrated northeastern [[Moravia]] and southern Poland. Along the [[Bodrog]] River in [[Zemplín (region)|Zemplin]] they created Celtic-Dacian settlements which were known for the production of painted ceramics.{{sfn | Skvarna | Cicaj | Letz| 2000 | p=14}}

===Relations with Persians===

Herodotus says: "before [[Darius I|Darius]] reached the Danube, the first people he subdued were the Getae, who believed that they never die".{{sfn|Herodotus|440 BC|loc=4.93–4.97}} A persian clay tablet found at [[Gherla]] mentions Darius and although the Persian army probably did not reach the modern findspot of the tablet, the object is probably evidence of the Persian campaign to Dacia.{{sfn|Brodersen|2020|pp=46–47}}

It is possible that the Persian expedition and the subsequent occupation may have altered the way in which the Getae expressed the immortality belief. The influence of thirty years of [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] presence may be detected in the emergence of an explicit iconography of the "Royal Hunt" that influenced Dacian and Thracian metalworkers, and of the practice of [[Falconry|hawking]] by their upper class.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}

===Relations with Greeks===
{{See also|Decree of Dionysopolis|List of Greek cities in Thrace and Dacia|Lysimachus}}
Greek and Roman chroniclers record the defeat and capture of the Macedonian general [[Lysimachus]] in the 3rd century BC by the Getae (Dacians) ruled by [[Dromichaetes|Dromihete]], their military strategy, and the release of Lysimachus following a debate in the assembly of the Getae.{{sfn|Brodersen|2020|pp=56–59}}

===Relations with Scythians===
{{See also|Agathyrsi|Scythia Minor (Dobruja)|Alans|Roxolani|Iazyges}}

====Agathyrsi Transylvania====
The Scythians' arrival in the Carpathian mountains is dated to 700 BC.{{sfn|Parvan|1928|p=48}} The [[Agathyrsi]] of Transylvania had been mentioned by Herodotus (fifth century BC),{{sfn|Herodotus|440 BC|loc=4.48–4.49}} who regarded them as not a Scythian people, but closely related to them. In other respects, their customs were close to those of the Thracians.<ref>Herodotus, Rawlinson G, Rawlinson H, Gardner (1859) 93</ref> The Agathyrsi were completely denationalized at the time of Herodotus and absorbed by the native Thracians.{{sfn| Thomson |1948|p=399}}{{sfn|Parvan|1928|p=48}}

The opinion that the Agathyrsi were almost certainly Thracians results also from the writings preserved by [[Stephen of Byzantium]], who explains that the Greeks called the [[Trausi]] the [[Agathyrsi]], and we know that the [[Trausi]] lived in the [[Rhodope Mountains]]. Certain details from their way of life, such as tattooing, also suggest that the Agathyrsi were Thracians. Their place was later taken by the Dacians.{{sfn|Hrushevskyi|1997|p=97}} That the Dacians were of Thracian stock is not in doubt, and it is safe to assume that this new name also encompassed the Agathyrsi, and perhaps other neighbouring Thracian people as well, as a result of some political upheaval.{{sfn|Hrushevskyi|1997|p=97}}

===Relations with Germanic tribes===
{{See also|Suebi|Bastarnae|Goths|Marcomannic Wars|Chernyakhov culture}}

[[File:GothicInvasions250-251-en.svg|thumb|right|Map showing the Dacian-speaking Carpi place in invading Roman Dacia in AD 250–1, under the Gothic leader [[Cniva|Kniva]]]]

The [[Goths]], a confederation of east German peoples, arrived in southern Ukraine no later than 230.{{sfn | Watson | 2004 | p=8 }} During the next decade, a large section of them moved down the Black Sea coast and occupied much of the territory north of the lower Danube.{{sfn | Watson | 2004 | p=8 }} The Goths' advance towards the area north of the Black Sea involved competing with the indigenous population of Dacian-speaking Carpi, as well as indigenous Iranian-speaking Sarmatians and Roman garrison forces.{{sfn | Heather | 2006 | p=85 }} The Carpi, often called "Free Dacians", continued to dominate the anti-Roman coalition made up of themselves, Taifali, [[Astringi]], Vandals, Peucini, and Goths until 248, when the Goths assumed the hegemony of the loose coalition.{{sfn | Burns | 1991 |pp=26–27}} The first lands taken over by the [[Thervingi]] Goths were in Moldavia, and only during the fourth century did they move in strength down into the Danubian plain.{{sfn | Burns | 1991 | pp=110–111 }} The Carpi found themselves squeezed between the advancing Goths and the Roman province of Dacia.{{sfn | Watson | 2004 | p=8 }} In 275 AD, [[Aurelian]] surrendered the Dacian territory{{clarify|date = November 2013}} to the Carpi and the Goths.{{sfn | Southern | 2001 | p=325 }} Over time, Gothic power in the region grew, at the Carpi's expense. The Germanic-speaking Goths replaced native Dacian-speakers as the dominant force around the Carpathian mountains.{{sfn | Heather | 2010 | p=128}} Large numbers of Carpi, but not all of them, were admitted into the Roman empire in the twenty-five years or so after 290 AD.{{sfn | Heather | 2010 | p=116}} Despite this evacuation of the Carpi around 300 AD, considerable groups of the natives (non-Romanized Dacians, Sarmatians and others) remained in place under Gothic domination.{{sfn | Heather | 2010 | p=165}}

In 330 AD, the Gothic Thervingi contemplated moving to the Middle Danube region,{{citation needed|date = November 2013}} and from 370 relocated with their fellow Gothic Greuthungi to new homes in the Roman Empire.{{sfn | Heather | 2010 | p=116}} The [[Ostrogoths]] were still more isolated, but even the [[Visigoths]] preferred to live among their own kind. As a result, the Goths settled in pockets. Finally, although Roman towns continued on a reduced level, there is no question as to their survival.{{sfn | Burns | 1991 | pp=110–111 }}

In 336 AD, Constantine took the [[List of Roman imperial victory titles|title]] ''Dacicus Maximus'' 'great victor in Dacia', implying at least partial reconquest of Trajan Dacia.{{sfn | Barnes | 1984 | p=250}} In an inscription of 337, Constantine was commemorated officially as Germanicus Maximus, Sarmaticus, Gothicus Maximus, and Dacicus Maximus, meaning he had defeated the Germans, Sarmatians, Goths, and Dacians.{{sfn| Elton | Lenski | 2005 | p=338}}

===Dacian kingdoms===
{{Main|Dacia}}
{{Further|Burebista|Decebalus}}
[[File:Dacia 82 BC.png|right|thumb|[[Dacia]]n kingdom during the reign of [[Burebista]], 82 BC]]

Dacian polities arose as confederacies that included the Getae, the Daci, the Buri, and the Carpi{{dubious|date = November 2013}} (cf. Bichir 1976, Shchukin 1989),{{sfn | Taylor | 2001 |p=215}} united only periodically by the leadership of Dacian kings such as [[Burebista]] and [[Decebalus|Decebal]]. This union was both military-political and ideological-religious{{sfn | Taylor | 2001 |p=215}} on ethnic basis. The following are some of the attested Dacian kingdoms:

The kingdom of [[Cothelas]], one of the Getae, covered an area near the Black Sea, between northern Thrace and the Danube, today Bulgaria, in the 4th century BC.{{sfn|Lewis|Boardman| Hornblower| Ostwald|2008| p= 773}} The kingdom of [[Rubobostes]] controlled a region in Transylvania in the 2nd century BC.{{sfn | Berresford Ellis | 1996 | p=61}} [[Gaius Scribonius Curio (consul 76 BC)|Gaius Scribonius Curio]] (proconsul 75–73 BC) campaigned successfully against the Dardani and the [[Moesi]], becoming the first Roman general to reach the river Danube with his army.<ref>Smith's Dictionary: ''Curio''</ref> His successor, [[Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus|Marcus Licinius Lucullus]], brother of the famous [[Lucullus|Lucius Lucullus]], campaigned against the Thracian [[Bessi]] tribe and the Moesi, ravaging the whole of [[Moesia]], the region between the Haemus (Balkan) mountain range and the Danube. In 72 BC, his troops occupied the Greek coastal cities of Scythia Minor (the modern [[Dobrogea]] region in Romania and Bulgaria), which had sided with Rome's [[Hellenistic]] arch-enemy, king [[Mithridates VI]] of [[Kingdom of Pontus|Pontus]], in the [[Third Mithridatic War]].<ref>Smith's Dictionary: ''Lucullus''</ref> Greek geographer Strabo claimed that the Dacians and Getae had been able to muster a combined army of 200,000 men during Strabo's era, the time of Roman emperor [[Augustus]].{{sfn|Strabo|20 AD|loc=VII 3,13}}

====The kingdom of Burebista====
The Dacian kingdom reached its maximum extent under king [[Burebista]] (ruled 82 – 44 BC). The capital of the kingdom was possibly the city of [[Argedava]], also called Sargedava in some historical writings, situated close to the river Danube. The kingdom of Burebista extended south of the Danube, in what is today Bulgaria, and the Greeks believed their king was the greatest of all Thracians.{{sfn|Grumeza|2009|p=54}}{{better source needed|date=February 2014}} During his reign, Burebista transferred the Geto-Dacians' capital from Argedava to [[Sarmizegetusa Regia|Sarmizegetusa]].{{sfn| MacKendrick |2000|p=48}}{{sfn| Goodman | Sherwood |2002|p=227}} For at least one and a half centuries, [[Sarmizegethusa]] was the Dacian capital, reaching its peak under king [[Decebalus]].  Burebista annexed the Greek cities on the Pontus.(55–48 BC).{{sfn|Crișan|1978|p=118}} Augustus wanted to avenge the defeat of [[Gaius Antonius Hybrida]] at [[Histria (Sinoe)]] 32 years before, and to recover the lost standards. These were held in a powerful fortress called [[Genucla]] (Isaccea, near modern Tulcea, in the Danube delta region of Romania), controlled by [[Zyraxes]], the local Getan petty king.<ref name="Dio LI.26.5">Dio LI.26.5</ref> The man selected for the task was [[Marcus Licinius Crassus (consul 30 BC)|Marcus Licinius Crassus]], grandson of [[Marcus Licinius Crassus|Crassus]] the [[First Triumvirate|triumvir]], and an experienced general at 33 years of age, who was appointed proconsul of Macedonia in 29 BC.<ref>Dio LI.23.2</ref>
[[File:Dacian_Kingdom_under_Burebista.png|thumb|right|alt=Dacia under Burebista|One of the greatest existence of Dacia]]

====The kingdom of Decebalus 87 – 106====
By the year AD 100, more than 400,000 square kilometres were dominated by the Dacians, who numbered two million.{{efn|1=[http://www.roman-emperors.org/assobd.htm#s-inx. De Imperatoribus Romanis] Retrieved 2007-11-08. "In the year 88, the Romans resumed the offensive. The Roman troops were now led by the general Tettius Iulianus. The battle took place again at Tapae but this time the Romans defeated the Dacians. For fear of falling into a trap, Iulianus abandoned his plans of conquering [[Sarmizegetusa Regia|Sarmizegetuza]] and, at the same time, [[Decebalus]] asked for peace. At first, [[Domitian]] refused this request, but after he was defeated in a war in [[Pannonia]] against the [[Marcomanni]] (a Germanic tribe), the emperor was obliged to accept the peace."}} Decebalus was the last king of the Dacians, and despite his fierce resistance against the Romans was defeated, and committed suicide rather than being marched through Rome in a [[Roman triumph|triumph]] as a captured enemy leader.

===Conflict with Rome===
{{Main|Domitian's Dacian War|Trajan's Dacian Wars}}

[[Burebista]]'s Dacian state was powerful enough to threaten Rome, and [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] contemplated campaigning against the Dacians.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}} Despite this, the formidable Dacian power under [[Burebista]] lasted only until his death in 44 BC. The subsequent division of Dacia continued for about a century until the reign of [[Scorilo]]. This was a period of only occasional attacks on the Roman Empire's border, with some local significance.{{sfn|Oltean|2007|pp=53–54}}

The unifying actions of the last Dacian king [[Decebalus]] (ruled 87–106 AD) were seen as dangerous by Rome. Despite the fact that the Dacian army could now gather only some 40,000 soldiers,{{sfn|Oltean|2007|pp=53–54}} Decebalus' raids south of the Danube proved unstoppable and costly. In the Romans' eyes, the situation at the border with Dacia was out of control, and Emperor [[Domitian]] (ruled 81 to 96 AD) tried desperately to deal with the danger through military action.  But the outcome of Rome's disastrous campaigns into Dacia in AD 86 and AD 88 pushed Domitian to settle the situation through diplomacy.{{sfn|Oltean|2007|pp=53–54}}

Emperor [[Trajan]] (ruled 98–117 AD) opted for a different approach and decided to conquer the Dacian kingdom, partly in order to seize its vast [[gold mines]] wealth. The effort required two major wars (the Dacian Wars), one in 101–102 AD and the other in 105–106 AD.  Only fragmentary details survive of the Dacian war: a single sentence of Trajan's own Dacica; little more of the Getica written by his doctor, [[T. Statilius Crito]]; [[Lost literary work|nothing whatsoever]] of the poem proposed by [[Caninius Rufus]] (if it was ever written), [[Dio Chrysostom]]'s Getica or [[Appian]]'s Dacica.  Nonetheless, a reasonable account can be pieced together.{{sfn|Bennett|1997|p=97}}

In the first war, Trajan invaded Dacia by crossing the river Danube with a boat-bridge and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Dacians at the [[Second Battle of Tapae]] in 101 AD. The Dacian king Decebalus was forced to sue for peace. Trajan and Decebalus then concluded a peace treaty which was highly favourable to the Romans. The peace agreement required the Dacians to cede some territory to the Romans and to demolish their fortifications. Decebalus' foreign policy was also restricted, as he was prohibited from entering into alliances with other tribes.

However, both Trajan and Decebalus considered this only a temporary truce and readied themselves for renewed war. Trajan had Greek engineer [[Apollodorus of Damascus]] construct a stone bridge over the Danube river, while Decebalus secretly plotted alliances against the Romans.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} In 105, Trajan crossed the Danube river and besieged Decebalus' capital, [[Sarmizegetusa Regia|Sarmizegetusa]], but the siege failed because of Decebalus' allied tribes. However, Trajan was an optimist. He returned with a newly constituted army and took Sarmizegetusa by treachery. Decebalus fled into the mountains, but was cornered by pursuing Roman cavalry. Decebalus committed suicide rather than being captured by the Romans and be paraded as a slave, then be killed. The Roman captain took his head and right hand to Trajan, who had them displayed in the [[Forum Romanum|Forums]]. [[Trajan's Column]] in Rome was constructed to celebrate the conquest of Dacia.

[[File:106 Conrad Cichorius, Die Reliefs der Traianssäule, Tafel CVI.jpg|thumb|left|Death of Decebalus (Trajan's Column, Scene CXLV)]]

The Roman people hailed Trajan's triumph in Dacia with the longest and most expensive celebration in their history, financed by a part of the gold taken from the Dacians.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}} For his triumph, Trajan gave a 123-day festival ([[ludi]]) of celebration, in which approximately 11,000 animals were slaughtered and 11,000 gladiators fought in combats. This surpassed Emperor Titus's celebration in AD 70, when a 100-day festival included 3,000 gladiators and 5,000 to 9,000 wild animals.{{sfn|Snooks|2002|p=153}}

===Roman rule===
{{Main|Roman Dacia}}
{{See also|Danubian provinces}}
Only about half part of Dacia then became a Roman province,{{sfn | Boia | 2001 |p=47}} with a newly built capital at [[Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa]], 40&nbsp;km away from the site of Old Sarmisegetuza Regia, which was razed to the ground. The name of the Dacians' homeland, Dacia, became the name of a Roman province, and the name Dacians was used to designate the people in the region.{{sfn|Waldman |Mason |2006|p=205}} ''Roman Dacia'', also ''[[Dacia Traiana]]'' or ''Dacia Felix'', was a province of the Roman Empire from 106 to 271 or 275 AD.<ref name="Klepper">{{Cite book |last=Klepper |first=Nicolae |url=https://archive.org/details/romaniaillustrat00klep |title=Romania: An Illustrated History |publisher=Hippocrene Books |year=2002 |isbn=9780781809351 |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=March 2011}}{{sfn|MacKendrick|2000}}{{sfn|Pop|2000}} Its territory consisted of eastern and southeastern [[Transylvania]], and the regions of [[Banat]] and [[Oltenia]] (located in modern Romania).<ref name="Klepper" /> Dacia was organised from the beginning as an [[imperial province]], and remained so throughout the Roman occupation.{{sfn|Oltean|2007}} It was one of the empire's [[Latin]] provinces; official [[Epigraphy|epigraphs]] attest that the language of administration was Latin.<ref name="Köpeczi">{{Cite book |last=Köpeczi |first=Béla |title=History of Transylvania – From the Beginnings to 1606 |last2=Makkai |first2=László |last3=Mócsy |first3=András |last4=Szász |first4=Zoltán |last5=Barta |first5=Gábor}}</ref>  Historian estimates of the population of Roman Dacia range from 650,000 to 1,200,000.{{sfn|Georgescu|1991}}
[[File:Dacia 125.png|thumb|Map of [[Roman Dacia]] by the year 125 AD.]]
Dacians that remained outside the Roman Empire after the Dacian wars of AD 101–106 had been named Dakoi prosoroi (Latin ''Daci limitanei''), "neighbouring Dacians".<ref name="Garašanin, Benac 1973 243" /> Modern historians use the generic name "Free Dacians" or ''Independent Dacians''.{{sfn|Bowman| Cameron |Garnsey | 2005|p=224}}{{sfn|Schütte|1917|p=143}}{{sfn|Tomaschek|1883|p=407}} The tribes Daci Magni (Great Dacians), Costoboci (generally considered a Dacian subtribe), and Carpi remained outside the Roman empire, in what the Romans called ''Dacia Libera'' (Free Dacia).{{sfn|Waldman |Mason |2006|p=205}} By the early third century the "Free Dacians" were a significantly troublesome group, by now identified as the Carpi.{{sfn|Bowman| Cameron |Garnsey | 2005|p=224}} Bichir argues that the Carpi were the most powerful of the Dacian tribes who had become the principal enemy of the Romans in the region.{{sfn|Siani-Davies|Siani-Davies|Deletant|1998|p=33}} In 214 AD, [[Caracalla]] campaigned against the Free Dacians.{{sfn | Cowan | 2003 | p=5 }} There were also campaigns against the Dacians recorded in 236 AD.{{sfn | Hazel | 2002 | p=360}}

Roman Dacia was evacuated by the Romans under emperor Aurelian (ruled 271–5 AD). Aurelian made this decision on account of counter-pressures on the Empire there caused by the [[Carpi (people)|Carpi]], [[Visigoths]], [[Sarmatians]], and [[Vandals]]; the lines of defence needed to be shortened, and Dacia was deemed not defensible given the demands on available resources. Roman power in Thracia rested mainly with the legions stationed in Moesia. The rural nature of Thracia's populations, and the distance from Roman authority, encouraged the presence of local troops to support Moesia's legions. Over the next few centuries, the province was periodically and increasingly attacked by migrating Germanic tribes. The reign of [[Justinian]] saw the construction of over 100 [[Roman Legion|legionary]] fortresses to supplement the defence. Thracians in Moesia and Dacia were [[Romanized]], while those within the [[Byzantine Empire]] were their Hellenized descendants that had mingled with the Greeks.

===After the Aurelian Retreat===
{{See also|Free Dacians|Carpi (people)|Costoboci|Origin of the Romanians}}
[[File:Dacian Constantin Arch IMG 6559.jpg|upright|thumb|Dacian on the Constantine Arch]]
Roman Dacia was never a uniformly or fully Romanized area. Post-Aurelianic Dacia fell into three divisions: the area along the river, usually under some type of Roman administration even if in a highly localized form; the zone beyond this area, from which Roman military personnel had withdrawn, leaving a sizable population behind that was generally Romanized; and finally what is now the northern parts of Moldavia, Crisana, and Maramures, which were never occupied by the Romans. These last areas were always peripheral to the Roman province, not militarily occupied but nonetheless influenced by Rome as part of the Roman economic sphere. Here lived the free, unoccupied Carpi, often called "Free Dacians".{{sfn | Burns | 1991 | pp=110–111 }}

The Aurelian retreat was a purely military decision to withdraw the Roman troops to defend the Danube. The inhabitants of the old province of Dacia displayed no awareness of impending dissolution. There were no sudden flights or dismantling of property.{{sfn | Southern | 2001 | p=325 }} It is not possible to discern how many civilians followed the army out of Dacia; it is clear that there was no mass emigration, since there is evidence of continuity of settlement in Dacian villages and farms; the evacuation may not at first have been intended to be a permanent measure.{{sfn | Southern | 2001 | p=325 }} The Romans left the province, but they didn't consider that they lost it.{{sfn | Southern | 2001 | p=325 }} Dobrogea was not abandoned at all, but continued as part of the Roman Empire for over 350 years.{{sfn| MacKendrick |2000|p=161}} As late as AD 300, the [[Tetrarchy|tetrarchic]] emperors had resettled tens of thousands of Dacian [[Carpi (people)|Carpi]] inside the empire, dispersing them in communities the length of the Danube, from Austria to the Black Sea.{{sfn | Heather | 2006 | p=159 }}