Names of Dacian Kings

brian_costello · Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 2:32 am Post subject: Names of Dacian Kings

The Dacians were a fierce tribe of horsemen living along the banks of the Danube River in ancient times and the native inhabitants of what is today Romania. The Greek historian, Herodotus says that "the Dacii or Dacians were the bravest of all the Thracian tribes." They were certainly very warlike and were known to torture war captives and impale enemy heads on top of stakes not unlike some Native American tribes at the time Columbus and Captain Vancouver first encountered them.

After two bloody battles, the Dacians were finally conquered by Roman legions lead by Emperor Trajan (of Spanish origin) in 106 A.D. There is still a lot of debate over whether the Dacians were completely wiped out by the Romans, and how much Dacian blood is in the modern Romanian population.

Nevertheless, the Dacians had two very famous kings. One of them, Burebista in the 1st century B.C., expanded the Dacian Kingdoms borders by seizing some Celtic held territory in Transylvania and Moldavia (some people call the whole region Molvania) and some Greek cities on the Black Sea coast like Tomi, the modern Romanian city of Constant,a. Burebista even interfered in the dispute between Julius Caesar and Pompei, siding with Pompei as the lesser evil. Caesar had plans to punish Burebista but was assasinated before he could carry them out.

The other major king, Decebalus, ruled the country at the time of the Roman conquest. He put up a bloody, valiant resistance to the Roman forces but was eventually defeated. Unlike other Roman victims in the past, Decebalus wisely chose to commit suicide rather than be taken prisoner. It is said that he buried a fortune in treasure before he died to prevent the Romans from getting it. To this day, none of it for certain has been found.

Some etymologists claim that the name of Burebista is related to two Old English words *beorn meaning "man, noble, hero, chief, prince or warrior" and wis ("wise, learned, cunning") or its derivative *wisste "obsrvant; perceptive". Thus, Burebista might mean something like "Cunning Warrior" or "The Wise Warrior".

The other name, Decebalus, is believed to derived from Deci, the genitivie form of *Daci "Dacian" and -balus meaning "strength" from an Indo-European root *wal- related to Latin *valere (cf. English valor, valiant, valence etc.) and Old English wealdan, Old High German *waldan "to rule" still found in the Modern English word 'to wield'.

Even after the Romans conqured them, the Dacians still had a reputation of being good fighting men as auxiliaries in the Roman Army. Dacian legions helped guard Hadrian's wall in Britain during the latter days of the Roman Empire and the Roman general who defeated Attila The Hun at the Battle of Chalon in 451 A.D., Decius, was of Dacian origin. Smile

Brazilian dude · Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 12:28 pm Post subject:

Welcome, Brian. I wonder how you got here.

Brazilian dude
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KatyBr · Senior Lexiterian Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 959

lol, BD. I wonder too.

Brazilian dude · Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 4:12 pm Post subject:

Katy, you don't even want to know.

Brazilian dude
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KatyBr · Senior Lexiterian Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 959

hmmmm BD, you making confession here?

Katy

anders · Lexiterian Joined: 16 Feb 2005 Posts: 405 Location: Sweden

Despite my loving a good word fight, I plead not guilty.
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KatyBr · Senior Lexiterian Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 959

I know Anders the guilty party confessed, nevermind, he/she'll be out of the clique forthwith!

Katy
J/K

M. Henri Day · Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 4:47 pm Post subject:

Did I just detect, as usual a month too late, a prime - and effective ! - example of the deep freeze ?!!...

Henri
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KatyBr · Senior Lexiterian Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 959

I was just kidding J/K= just kidding

Katy
Henri, it's called a day late and a dollar short.....

KatyBr · Senior Lexiterian Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 959

Henri, try this to see the latest posts: tenrecent

Katy

M. Henri Day · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 12:54 pm Post subject:

Katy, you must be a mind reader - that is what I was looking for ! But how does one get to it ? I should have thought there'd be a button at the top (or the bottom - I'm eclectic in these matters), but I haven't found one. Can you help me out ?...

Henri
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曾记否，到中流击水，浪遏飞舟？

KatyBr · Senior Lexiterian Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 959

Andrew gave me the link when I complained that the new Agora didn't have a ten recent posts page. I, like you, kept missing the latest posts so...

Katy
I have an elaborate links button array on my browser, I use Myie2 or Maxthon, I keep that url in there, I'd keep it in my favorites if I were you, it's not on the site.

Brazilian dude · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 3:46 pm Post subject:

I just go to the topics that are marked orange.

Brazilian dude
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tcward · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 5:43 pm Post subject:

Me too. But I bookmarked the link Katy gave us, anyway. Is that silly?

-Tim Wink

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-John Adams, 2nd US president (1735-1826)

Brazilian dude · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 5:44 pm Post subject:

Maybe.

Brazilian dude
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