Editing Dacia (section)

== Political entities ==

=== Rubobostes ===
{{Main|Rubobostes}}

Geto-Dacians inhabited both sides of the Tisa river prior to the rise of the Celtic [[Boii]] and again after the latter were defeated by the Dacians under the king Burebista. It seems likely that the Dacian state arose as a tribal confederacy, which was united only by charismatic leadership in military-political and ideological-religious domains.{{sfn|Taylor|2001|p=215}} At the beginning of the 2nd century BC, under the rule of [[Rubobostes]], a Dacian king in modern [[Transylvania]], Dacian power in the [[Carpathian basin]] increased after they defeated the [[Celts]], who previously held power in the region.

=== Oroles ===
{{Main|Oroles}}

A kingdom of Dacia also existed as early as the first half of the 2nd century BC under King [[Oroles]]. Conflicts with the [[Bastarnae]] and the Romans (112–109 BC, 74 BC), against whom they had assisted the [[Scordisci]] and [[Dardani]], greatly weakened the resources of the Dacians.

=== Burebista ===
{{Main|Burebista}}

[[Burebista]] (Boerebista), a contemporary of [[Julius Caesar]], ruled Geto-Dacian tribes between 82 BC and 44 BC. He thoroughly reorganised the army and attempted to raise the moral standard and obedience of the people by persuading them to cut their vines and give up drinking wine.<ref name="StraboVII.3.11">Strabo, ''Geography'', VII:3.11</ref> During his reign, the Dacian Kingdom expanded to its maximum extent. The [[Bastarnae]] and [[Boii]] were conquered, and even the Greek towns of [[Pontic Olbia|Olbia]] and [[Apollonia, Thrace|Apollonia]] on the [[Black Sea]] (''Pontus Euxinus'') recognized [[Burebista]]'s authority. In 53 BC, Caesar stated that the Dacian territory was on the eastern border of the [[Hercynian Forest]].{{sfn|Mountain|1998|p=59}}

Burebista suppressed the indigenous minting of coinages by four major tribal groups, adopting imported or copied Roman denarii as a monetary standard.{{sfn|Taylor|2001|p=215}} During his reign, Burebista transferred Geto-Dacians capital from [[Argedava]] to [[Sarmizegetusa Regia]].{{sfn|MacKendrick|1975|p=48}}{{sfn|Goodman|Sherwood|2002|p=227}} For at least one and a half centuries, Sarmizegetusa was the Dacians' capital and reached its peak under King [[Decebalus]]. The Dacians appeared so formidable that Caesar contemplated an expedition against them, which his death in 44 BC prevented. In the same year, Burebista was murdered, and the kingdom was divided into four (later five) parts under separate rulers.

=== Cotiso ===
{{Main|Cotiso}}

One of these entities was [[Cotiso]]'s state, to whom Augustus betrothed his own five-year-old daughter Julia. He is well known from the line in [[Horace]] (''Occidit Daci Cotisonis agmen'', Odes, III. 8. 18).

The Dacians are often mentioned under Augustus, according to whom they were compelled to recognize Roman supremacy. However they were by no means subdued, and in later times to maintain their independence they seized every opportunity to cross the frozen Danube during the winter and ravaging the Roman cities in the province of [[Moesia]], which was under Roman occupation.

Strabo testified: "although the Getae and Daci once attained to very great power, so that they actually could send forth an expedition of two hundred thousand men, they now find themselves reduced to as few as forty thousand, and they have come close to the point of yielding obedience to the Romans, though as yet they are not absolutely submissive, because of the hopes which they base on the Germans, who are enemies to the Romans."<ref name=Strabo1/>

In fact, this occurred because [[Burebista]]'s empire split after his death into four and later five smaller states, as Strabo explains, "only recently, when [[Augustus Caesar]] sent an expedition against them, the number of parts into which the empire had been divided was five, though at the time of the insurrection it had been four. Such divisions, to be sure, are only temporary and vary with the times".

=== Decebalus ===
{{Main|Decebalus}}

Decebalus ruled the Dacians between AD 87 and 106. The frontiers of Decebal's Dacia were marked by the Tisa River to the west, by the trans-Carpathians to the north and by the Dniester River to the east.{{sfn|Vico|Pinton|2004|p=325}} His name translates into "''strong as ten men''".