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61-562: Roman authors associated the Varisti, Hermunduri, Marcoamnni and Quadi as Suebian peoples who moved into the Danube region under Marcomanni leadership, taking over from the remaining Boii still living in this part of their ancient homelands. Very likely, then, all three allies were not from that region, but moved into it from the north under pressure from the Roman invasions into Germania during

122-526: A Celtic tribe of the later Iron Age , attested at various times in Cisalpine Gaul (present-day Northern Italy ), Pannonia (present-day Austria and Hungary ), present-day Bavaria , in and around present-day Bohemia (after whom the region is named in most languages; comprising the bulk of today's Czech Republic ), parts of present-day Slovakia and Poland , and Gallia Narbonensis (located in modern Languedoc and Provence ). In addition,

183-533: A Venetic personal name; Boioi , an Illyrian tribe; Boiōtoi , a Greek tribal name (the Boeotians ); and a few others. The same wider connections can be hypothesized for the 'cow' derivation: the Boeotians have been known for well over a century as a people of kine, which might have been parallel to the meaning of Italy as 'land of calves'. Indo-European reconstructions can be made using *gʷou- 'cow' as

244-614: A basis, such as *gʷowjeh³s ; the root may itself be an imitation of the sound a cow makes. Contemporary derived words include Boiorix ('king of the Boii', one of the chieftains of the Cimbri ) and Boiodurum ('gate/fort of the Boii', modern Passau ) in Germany. Their memory also survives in the modern regional names of Bohemia ( Boiohaemum ), a mixed-language form from boio- and Proto-Germanic * haimaz , 'home': 'home of

305-573: A common Roman administrative term designating both a city and the tribal district around it, was later adjoined to the city of Carnuntum . Plautus refers to the Boii in Captivi : At nunc Siculus non est, Boius est, Boiam terit (Translation:) But now he is not a Sicilian – he is a Boius, he has got a Boia woman. There is a play on words: Boia means 'woman of the Boii', also 'convicted criminal's restraint collar'. In volume 21 of his History of Rome , Livy (59 BC – 17 AD) claims that it

366-432: A common language. Linguists such as Polomé and Katičić expressed reservations about both theories. The Dacians are generally considered to have been Thracian speakers, representing a cultural continuity from earlier Iron Age communities loosely termed Getic, Since in one interpretation, Dacian is a variety of Thracian, for the reasons of convenience, the generic term ‘Daco-Thracian" is used, with "Dacian" reserved for

427-588: A debated relationship with the neighbouring Thracian language and may be a subgroup of it. Dacians were somewhat culturally influenced by the neighbouring Scythians and by the Celtic invaders of the 4th century BC . The Dacians were known as Geta (plural Getae ) in Ancient Greek writings, and as Dacus (plural Daci ) or Getae in Roman documents, but also as Dagae and Gaete as depicted on

488-524: A mixture of indigenous peoples and Indo-Europeans from the time of Proto-Indo-European expansion in the Early Bronze Age (3,300–3,000 BC) when the latter, around 1500 BC, conquered the indigenous peoples. The indigenous people were Danubian farmers, and the invading people of the 3rd millennium BC were Kurgan warrior-herders from the Ukrainian and Russian steppes. Indo-Europeanization

549-672: A pot with an Etruscan female name scratched on it. In the second half of the 3rd century BC, the Boii allied with the other Cisalpine Gauls and the Etruscans against Rome. They also fought alongside Hannibal , killing the Roman general Lucius Postumius Albinus in 216 BC, whose skull was then turned into a sacrificial bowl. A short time earlier, they had been defeated at the Battle of Telamon in 225 BC, and were again at Placentia in 194 BC (modern Piacenza ) and Mutina in 193 BC (modern Modena ). Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica completed

610-453: Is difficult. In the 19th century, Tomaschek (1883) proposed the form "Dak", meaning those who understand and can speak , by considering "Dak" as a derivation of the root da ("k" being a suffix); cf. Sanskrit dasa , Bactrian daonha . Tomaschek also proposed the form "Davus", meaning "members of the clan/countryman" cf. Bactrian daqyu , danhu "canton". Since the 19th century, many scholars have proposed an etymological link between

671-415: Is found under various forms within ancient sources. Greeks used the forms Δάκοι " Dakoi " ( Strabo , Dio Cassius , and Dioscorides ) and Δάοι "Daoi" (singular Daos). The form Δάοι "Daoi" was frequently used according to Stephan of Byzantium . Latins used the forms Davus , Dacus , and a derived form Dacisci (Vopiscus and inscriptions). There are similarities between the ethnonyms of

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732-650: Is somewhere in the vicinity of the river Duria, the present-day Váh (Waag). Dacians lived on both sides of the Danube. According to Strabo , Moesians also lived on both sides of the Danube. According to Agrippa , Dacia was limited by the Baltic Ocean in the North and by the Vistula in the West. The names of the people and settlements confirm Dacia's borders as described by Agrippa. Dacian people also lived south of

793-435: Is supported by Romanian historian Ioan I. Russu (1967). Mircea Eliade attempted, in his book From Zalmoxis to Genghis Khan , to give a mythological foundation to an alleged special relation between Dacians and the wolves: Evidence of proto-Thracians or proto-Dacians in the prehistoric period depends on the remains of material culture . It is generally proposed that a proto-Dacian or proto-Thracian people developed from

854-506: Is that of Moesian (or Mysian) for the language of an intermediate area immediately to the south of Danube in Serbia, Bulgaria and Romanian Dobruja: this and the dialects north of the Danube have been grouped together as Daco-Moesian. The language of the indigenous population has left hardly any trace in the anthroponymy of Moesia, but the toponymy indicates that the Moesii on the south bank of

915-548: The * ambouii , as opposed to the man of status, who was * bouios , a cattle owner, and the * bouii were originally a class, 'the cattle owners'. The 'warrior' derivation was adopted by the linguist Julius Pokorny , who presented it as being from Indo-European *bhei(ə)- , *bhī- , 'hit'; however, not finding any Celtic names close to it (except for the Boii), he adduces examples somewhat more widely from originals further back in time: phohiio-s- ,

976-629: The Battle of Alesia six years later. The eastern Boii on the Danube were incorporated into the Roman Empire in 8 AD. From all the different names of the same Celtic people in literature and inscriptions, it is possible to abstract a Continental Celtic segment, boio- . There are two major derivations of this segment, both presupposing that it belongs to the family of Indo-European languages : from 'cow' and from 'warrior.' The Boii would thus be either 'the herding people' or 'the warrior people'. The 'cow' derivation depends most immediately on

1037-680: The Celts were close neighbors of the Etruscan civilization and "cast covetous eyes on their beautiful country". Invading the Po Valley with a large army, they drove out the Etruscans and resettled it, the Boii taking the right bank in the center of the valley. Strabo confirms that the Boii emigrated from their lands across the Alps and were one of the largest tribes of the Celts. The Boii occupied

1098-645: The Daci until they perished, tribe and all—and thus they left their country, which was a part of Illyria , to their neighbours as a pasture-ground for sheep. Around 60 BC, a group of Boii joined the Helvetiis ' ill-fated attempt to conquer land in western Gaul and were defeated by Julius Caesar , along with their allies, in the Battle of Bibracte . Caesar settled the remnants of that group in Gorgobina , from where they sent 2,000 warriors to Vercingetorix 's aid at

1159-465: The Old Irish legal term for 'outsider': ambue , from Proto-Celtic * ambouios (< *an-bouios ), 'not a cattle owner'. In a reference to the first known historical Boii, Polybius relates that their wealth consisted of cattle and gold, that they depended on agriculture and war, and that a man's status depended on the number of associates and assistants he had. The latter were presumably

1220-576: The Pannonians and therefore first became known to the Romans. According to Strabo's Geographica , the original name of the Dacians was Δάοι " Daoi ". The name Daoi (one of the ancient Geto-Dacian tribes) was certainly adopted by foreign observers to designate all the inhabitants of the countries north of Danube that had not yet been conquered by Greece or Rome. The ethnographic name Daci

1281-696: The endonym of the Dacians and wolves. However, according to Romanian historian and archaeologist Alexandru Vulpe , the Dacian etymology explained by daos ("wolf") has little plausibility, as the transformation of daos into dakos is phonetically improbable and the Draco standard was not unique to Dacians. He thus dismisses it as folk etymology . Another etymology, linked to the Proto-Indo-European language roots *dhe- meaning "to set, place" and dheua → dava ("settlement") and dhe-k → daci

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1342-599: The oppidum of Gorgobina . Although attacked by Vercingetorix during one phase of the war, they supported him with two thousand troops at the battle of Alesia (Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico , VII, 75). Again, other parts of the Boii had remained closer to their traditional home, and settled in the Slovak and Hungarian lowlands by the Danube and the Mura , with a centre at Bratislava . Around 60 BC, they clashed with

1403-702: The 8th to 7th centuries BC, the migration of the Scythians from the east into the Pontic Steppe pushed westwards and away from the steppes the related Scythic Agathyrsi people who had previously dwelt on the Pontic Steppe around the Lake Maeotis . Following this, the Agathyrsi settled in the territories of present-day Moldova , Transylvania and possibly Oltenia , where they mingled with

1464-532: The Boii expelled the Etruscans and perhaps some were forced to leave. It indicates the Boii neither destroyed nor depopulated Felsinum, but simply moved in and became part of the population by intermarriage. The cemeteries of the period in Bologna contain La Tène weapons and other artifacts, as well as Etruscan items such as bronze mirrors. At Monte Bibele not far away one grave contained La Tène weapons and

1525-510: The Boii south across the Danube and out of their territory, at which point the Boii abandoned any further plans for invasion. Some Hungarian historians consider the Dacians and Getae the same as the Scythian tribes of the Dahae , Massagetae , also the exonym Daxia one with Dacia. North of the Danube, Dacians occupied a larger territory than Ptolemaic Dacia, stretching between Bohemia in

1586-614: The Boii to further pressure them. Once the Boii were defeated or weakened, the Dacians would have annexed their territory, incorporating it into their expanding kingdom. The migration of the Boii through Europe may have been a consequence of their defeat and the Dacian occupation of their lands, as they sought new territories and opportunities elsewhere. However, specific details of this conquest and migration are often scarce in historical records, leaving much open to interpretation. When

1647-566: The Boii', and Bayern , Bavaria , which is derived from the Germanic Baiovarii tribe (Germanic *baja-warjaz : the first component is most plausibly explained as a Germanic version of Boii ; the second part is a common formational morpheme of Germanic tribal names, meaning 'dwellers', as in Old English -ware ); this combination 'Boii-dwellers' may have meant 'those who dwell where the Boii formerly dwelt'. According to

1708-472: The Dacians and those of Dahae (Greek Δάσαι Δάοι, Δάαι, Δαι, Δάσαι Dáoi , Dáai , Dai , Dasai ; Latin Dahae , Daci ), an Indo-European people located east of the Caspian Sea , until the 1st millennium BC. Scholars have suggested that there were links between the two peoples since ancient times. The historian David Gordon White has, moreover, stated that the "Dacians ... appear to be related to

1769-483: The Dahae". (Likewise White and other scholars also believe that the names Dacii and Dahae may also have a shared etymology – see the section following for further details.) By the end of the first century AD, all the inhabitants of the lands which now form Romania were known to the Romans as Daci, with the exception of some Celtic and Germanic tribes who infiltrated from the west, and Sarmatian and related people from

1830-611: The Danube, but are not mentioned after that. The best guess as to their eventual fate is that they were transplanted to Italy, along with many other Danube-dwelling warrior peoples, by Marcus Aurelius, where he could watch over them. They are the presumed prior inhabitants of a medieval district, Provincia Variscorum , the same (in presumption) as the Vogtland district of Saxony in Germany . Boii The Boii ( Latin plural, singular Boius ; Ancient Greek : Βόιοι ) were

1891-866: The Danube, north of the Haemus Mountains, and the Triballi in the valley of the Morava, shared a number of characteristic linguistic features with the Dacii south of the Carpathians and the Getae in the Wallachian plain, which sets them apart from the Thracians though their languages are undoubtedly related. Dacian culture is mostly followed through Roman sources. Ample evidence suggests that they were

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1952-483: The Danube. Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Dacians and Getae were always considered as Thracians by

2013-660: The Italian Boii show many similarities with contemporary Bohemia, such as inhumation , which was uncommon with the other Cisalpine Gauls, or the absence of the typically western Celtic torcs . This makes it much more likely that the Cisalpine Boii had actually originated from Bohemia rather than the other way round. Having migrated to Italy from north of the Alps, some of the defeated Celts simply moved back to their kinsfolk. The Pannonian Boii are mentioned again in

2074-488: The Roman conquest of the Boii in 191 BC, celebrating a triumph for it. After their losses, according to Strabo, a large portion of the Boii left Italy. Contrary to the interpretation of the classical writers, the Pannonian Boii attested in later sources are not simply the remnants of those who had fled from Italy, but rather another division of the tribe, which had settled there much earlier. The burial rites of

2135-499: The Romans finally conquered Pannonia in 8 AD, the Boii seem not to have opposed them. Their former territory was now called deserta Boiorum (deserta meaning 'empty or sparsely populated lands'). However, the Boii had not been exterminated: There was a civitas Boiorum et Azaliorum (the Azalii being a neighbouring tribe) which was under the jurisdiction of a prefect of the Danube shore ( praefectus ripae Danuvii ). This civitas ,

2196-539: The Romans in the Battle of Mutina (193 BC) and their territory became part of the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul . According to Strabo , writing two centuries after the events, rather than being destroyed by the Romans like their Celtic neighbours, The Boii were merely driven out of the regions they occupied; and after migrating to the regions round about the Ister , lived with the Taurisci , and carried on war against

2257-644: The ancient authors, the Boii arrived in northern Italy by crossing the Alps . While of the other tribes who had come to Italy along with the Boii, the Senones , Lingones and Cenomani are also attested in Gaul at the time of the Roman conquest. It remains therefore unclear where exactly the Central Europe origins of the Boii lay, if somewhere in Gaul, Southern Germany or in Bohemia. Polybius relates that

2318-477: The ancients (Dio Cassius, Trogus Pompeius, Appian , Strabo and Pliny the Elder), and were both said to speak the same Thracian language . The linguistic affiliation of Dacian is uncertain, since the ancient Indo-European language in question became extinct and left very limited traces, usually in the form of place names, plant names and personal names. Thraco-Dacian (or Thracian and Daco-Mysian) seems to belong to

2379-600: The archaeological evidence indicates that in the 2nd century BC Celts expanded from Bohemia through the Kłodzko Valley into Silesia , now part of Poland and the Czech Republic. They first appear in history in connection with the Gallic invasion of northern Italy , 390 BC, when they made the Etruscan city of Felsina their new capital, Bononia (Bologna) . After a series of wars, they were decisively beaten by

2440-586: The area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea . They are often considered a subgroup of the Thracians . This area includes mainly the present-day countries of Romania and Moldova , as well as parts of Ukraine , Eastern Serbia , Northern Bulgaria , Slovakia , Hungary and Southern Poland . The Dacians and the related Getae spoke the Dacian language , which has

2501-501: The arrival of ambassadors from the Boii, and of a petty prince called Magalus , diverted from an immediate engagement; who, declaring that they would be the guides of his journey and the companions of his dangers, gave it as their opinion, that Italy ought to be attacked with the entire force of the war, his strength having been nowhere previously impaired. In the first century BC, the Boii living in an oppidum of Bratislava minted Biatecs , high-quality coins with inscriptions (probably

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2562-515: The east. The name Daci , or "Dacians" is a collective ethnonym . Dio Cassius reported that the Dacians themselves used that name, and the Romans so called them, while the Greeks called them Getae. Opinions on the origins of the name Daci are divided. Some scholars consider it to originate in the Indo-European * dha-k -, with the stem * dhe - 'to put, to place', while others think that

2623-531: The eastern (satem) group of Indo-European languages. There are two contradictory theories: some scholars (such as Tomaschek 1883; Russu 1967; Solta 1980; Crossland 1982; Vraciu 1980) consider Dacian to be a Thracian language or a dialect thereof. This view is supported by R. G. Solta, who says that Thracian and Dacian are very closely related languages. Other scholars (such as Georgiev 1965, Duridanov 1976) consider that Thracian and Dacian are two different and specific Indo-European languages which cannot be reduced to

2684-582: The indigenous population of Thracian origins. When the Agathyrsi were later completely assimilated by the Geto-Thracian populations;, their fortified settlements became the centres of the Getic groups who would later transform into the Dacian culture; an important part of the Dacian people descended from the Agathyrsi. When the La Tène Celts arrived in the 4th century BC, the Dacians were under

2745-568: The influence of the Scythians. Alexander the Great attacked the Getae in 335 BC on the lower Danube, but by 300 BC they had formed a state founded on a military democracy, and began a period of conquest. More Celts arrived during the 3rd century BC, and in the 1st century BC the people of Boii tried to conquer some of the Dacian territory on the eastern side of the Teiss river. The Dacians drove

2806-541: The language or dialect that was spoken north of Danube, in present-day Romania and eastern Hungary, and "Thracian" for the variety spoken south of the Danube. There is no doubt that the Thracian language was related to the Dacian language which was spoken in what is today Romania, before some of that area was occupied by the Romans. Also, both Thracian and Dacian have one of the main satem characteristic changes of Indo-European language, *k and *g to *s and *z. With regard to

2867-554: The late 2nd century BC when they repelled the Cimbri and Teutones (Strabo VII, 2, 2). Later on, they attacked the city of Noreia (in modern Austria) shortly before a group of Boii (32,000 according to Julius Caesar ) joined the Helvetii in their attempt to settle in western Gaul. After the Helvetian defeat at Bibracte , the influential Aedui tribe allowed the Boii survivors to settle on their territory, where they occupied

2928-687: The late Roman map Tabula Peutingeriana . It was Herodotus who first used the ethnonym Getae in his Histories . In Greek and Latin, in the writings of Julius Caesar , Strabo , and Pliny the Elder , the people became known as 'the Dacians'. Getae and Dacians were interchangeable terms, or used with some confusion by the Greeks. Latin poets often used the name Getae . Vergil called them Getae four times, and Daci once, Lucian Getae three times and Daci twice, Horace named them Getae twice and Daci five times, while Juvenal one time Getae and two times Daci . In AD 113, Hadrian used

2989-574: The later "Dacia." In the 1st century AD, Strabo suggested that its stem formed a name previously borne by slaves: Greek Daos, Latin Davus (-k- is a known suffix in Indo-European ethnic names). In the 18th century, Grimm proposed the Gothic dags or "day" that would give the meaning of "light, brilliant". Yet dags belongs to the Sanskrit word-root dah- , and a derivation from Dah to Δάσαι "Daci"

3050-434: The name Daci originates in * daca 'knife, dagger' or in a word similar to dáos, meaning 'wolf' in the related language of the Phrygians . One hypothesis is that the name Getae originates in Indo-European * guet- 'to utter, to talk'. Another hypothesis is that Getae and Daci are the Iranian names of two Iranian-speaking Scythian groups that had been assimilated into the larger Thracian-speaking population of

3111-440: The names of kings) in Latin letters. At the oppidum of Manching there was a ceramic found bearing the labeling "Boius" or "Baius" which is being displayed at the local Celts and Romans museum. Dacians The Dacians ( / ˈ d eɪ ʃ ən z / ; Latin : Daci [ˈdaːkiː] ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Δάκοι, Δάοι, Δάκαι ) were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia , located in

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3172-493: The old Etruscan settlement of Felsina, which they named Bononia (modern Bologna ). Polybius describes the Celtic way of life in Cisalpine Gaul as follows: They lived in unwalled villages, without any superfluous furniture; for as they slept on beds of leaves and fed on meat and were exclusively occupied with war and agriculture, their lives were very simple, and they had no knowledge whatever of any art or science. Their possessions consisted of cattle and gold, because these were

3233-432: The only things they could carry about with them everywhere according to circumstances and shift where they chose. They treated comradeship as of the greatest importance, those among them being the most feared and most powerful who were thought to have the largest number of attendants and associates. The archaeological evidence from Bologna and its vicinity contradicts the testimony of Polybius and Livy on some points, who say

3294-435: The poetic term Getae for the Dacians. Modern historians prefer to use the name Geto-Dacians . Strabo describes the Getae and Dacians as distinct but cognate tribes. This distinction refers to the regions they occupied. Strabo and Pliny the Elder also state that Getae and Dacians spoke the same language. By contrast, the name of Dacians , whatever the origin of the name, was used by the more western tribes who adjoined

3355-434: The reign of Augustus . The Roman geographer Ptolemy stated the names of some towns in the district, but what language they used or whether they were taken over or founded anew he does not say. The towns that might reasonably be interpreted as in the Variscan domain are Bicurgium , Menosgada , Marobudum , Setuacotum , Brodentia , Abilunum and Usbium on the Danube. During the Marcomannic Wars which occurred during

3416-405: The reign of Marcus Aurelius , the chief of the Naristi was killed by the Roman General Marcus Valerius Maximianus . The Marcomannic Wars are chronicled and explained in Marcellinus Ammianus , although the Varisci are not mentioned there. They do find brief mention as the Varistae of the Vita Marci Antonini Philosophi (Chapter 22) of Julius Capitolinus . They were among the tribes who crossed

3477-493: The rising power of the Dacians under their king Burebista and were defeated. The Dacians , under the leadership of Burebista , likely used a combination of military force and political strategies to conquer the Boii and compel some of them to migrate. Burebista's aggressive expansionist policies may have included military campaigns aimed at weakening the Boii and forcing them to surrender or flee. Additionally, Burebista may have employed diplomatic tactics to sow discord among

3538-437: The term "Getic" (Getae), even though attempts have been made to distinguish between Dacian and Getic, there seems no compelling reason to disregard the view of the Greek geographer Strabo that the Daci and the Getae, Thracian tribes dwelling north of the Danube (the Daci in the west of the area and the Getae further east), were one and the same people and spoke the same language. Another variety that has sometimes been recognized

3599-400: The west and the Dnieper cataracts in the east, and up to the Pripyat , Vistula , and Oder rivers in the north and northwest. In 53 BC, Julius Caesar stated that the Dacian territory was on the eastern border of the Hercynian forest . According to Strabo's Geographica , written around AD 20, the Getes (Geto-Dacians) bordered the Suevi who lived in the Hercynian Forest , which

3660-442: Was a Boio man that offered to show Hannibal the way across the Alps . When, after the action had thus occurred, his own men returned to each general, Scipio could adopt no fixed plan of proceeding, except that he should form his measures from the plans and undertakings of the enemy: and Hannibal, uncertain whether he should pursue the march he had commenced into Italy , or fight with the Roman army which had first presented itself,

3721-419: Was complete by the beginning of the Bronze Age. The people of that time are best described as proto-Thracians, which later developed in the Iron Age into Danubian-Carpathian Geto-Dacians as well as Thracians of the eastern Balkan Peninsula. Between 15th–12th century BC, the Dacian-Getae culture was influenced by the Bronze Age Tumulus-Urnfield warriors who were on their way through the Balkans to Anatolia. In

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