Editing History of Romania (section)

=== Culture ===
Body-painting was customary among the Dacians.{{specify|date = October 2013}} It is probable that the tattooing originally had a religious significance.{{sfn | Bury | Cook |Adcock|Percival Charlesworth| 1954 |p=543 }} They practiced symbolic-ritual tattooing or body painting for both men and women, with hereditary symbols transmitted up to the fourth generation.{{sfn|Oltean|2007|p=114}}

Dacian religion was considered by the classic sources as a key source of authority, suggesting to some that Dacia was a predominantly theocratic state led by priest-kings. However, the layout of the Dacian capital Sarmizegethusa indicates the possibility of co-rulership, with a separate high king and high priest.{{sfn | Taylor | 2001 | p=215 }} Ancient sources recorded the names of several Dacian high priests (Deceneus, Comosicus and Vezina) and various orders of priests: "god-worshipers", "smoke-walkers" and "founders".{{sfn | Taylor | 2001 | p=215 }} Both Hellenistic and Oriental influences are discernible in the religious background, alongside [[chthonic]] and solar motifs.{{sfn | Taylor | 2001 | p=215 }}
According to Herodotus' account of the story of [[Zalmoxis]] or Zamolxis,{{sfn|Herodotus|440 BC|loc=4.93–4.97}} the Getae (speaking the same language as the Dacians and the Thracians, according to [[Strabo]]) believed in the immortality of the soul, and regarded death as merely a change of country. Their chief priest held a prominent position as the representative of the supreme deity, Zalmoxis, who is called also Gebeleizis by some among them.{{sfn|Herodotus|440 BC|loc=4.93–4.97}}<ref>Histories by Herodotus Book 4 translated by G. Rawlinson</ref> Strabo wrote about the high priest of King Burebista [[Deceneus]]: "a man who not only had wandered through [[Egypt]], but also had thoroughly learned certain prognostics through which he would pretend to tell the divine will; and within a short time he was set up as god (as I said when relating the story of Zamolxis)".{{sfn|Strabo|20 AD|loc=VII 3,11}}

[[File:Relief Bendis BM 2155.jpg|thumb|Votive stele representing Bendis wearing a Dacian cap at the [[British Museum]] in [[London]]]]

The Goth [[Jordanes]] in his ''[[Getica]]'' (''[[The origin and deeds of the Goths]]''), also gives an account of Deceneus the highest priest, and considered Dacians a nation related to the Goths. Besides Zalmoxis, the Dacians believed in other deities, such as Gebeleizis, the god of storm and lightning, possibly related to the Thracian god [[Zibelthiurdos]].{{sfn|Tomaschek|1893}} Another important deity was [[Bendis]], goddess of the moon and the hunt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theoi.com/Thrakios/Bendis.html|title=BENDIS - Thracian Goddess of the Moon & Hunting|website=www.theoi.com}}</ref> By a decree of the [[Dodona|oracle of Dodona]], which required the Athenians to grant land for a shrine or temple, her cult was introduced into [[Attica, Greece|Attica]] by immigrant Thracian residents,{{efn|1=Extensive discussion of whether the date is 429 or 413 BC was reviewed and newly analyzed in Christopher Planeaux, "The Date of Bendis' Entry into Attica" ''The Classical Journal'' '''96'''.2 (December 2000:165–192). Planeaux offers a reconstruction of the inscription mentioning the first introduction, p}} and, though Thracian and Athenian processions remained separate, both cult and festival became so popular that in Plato's time (c. 429–13 BC) its festivities were naturalized as an official ceremony of the Athenian city-state, called the Bendideia.{{efn|1=Fifth-century fragmentary inscriptions that record formal descrees regarding formal aspects of the Bendis cult, are reproduced in Planeaux 2000:170f}}