Burebista and the Getic-Dacian State (82–44 BC)

In the written sources, the history of the Romanian people begins with the world of the Thracians north of the Danube, whom the Greeks called Getae and the Romans Dacians. Herodotus considered them “the bravest and most just of the Thracians,” while Strabo notes that the Getae and the Dacians speak the same language. They lived in the Carpathian–Danubian–Pontic area, engaged in farming, cattle breeding, mining and ironworking. Their culture, known to archaeologists as the Getic-Dacian La Tène culture, reached a remarkable level in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, as shown by their wheel-made pottery, coins and fortified settlements.

The Getic-Dacian tribes were united under Burebista, who ruled from about 82 to 44 BC. The inscription of Dionysopolis (today Balchik, Bulgaria) calls him “the first and greatest of the kings of Thrace,” while Strabo describes him as a leader who strengthened his people and “raised them so high through exercise, abstinence and obedience to commands.” His political seat was probably at Argedava, a fortress which some scholars place in the area of Popești, in the Argeș valley. His kingdom was the first unified political formation of the Getic-Dacians.

At the king’s side stood the high priest Deceneus, who played a decisive part in religious and moral reforms. According to Strabo, Deceneus persuaded the people to give up the vine and the excessive drinking of wine, in order to preserve the discipline of the warriors. The religion of the Getic-Dacians centred on Zalmoxis, a deity associated with belief in the immortality of the soul, about whom Herodotus writes. The circular and rectangular sanctuaries at Sarmizegetusa Regia, in the Orăștie Mountains, show the importance of rituals and of the sacred calendar in the life of the community.

Under Burebista, the borders of the kingdom stretched from the mountains of Slovakia and the middle Danube to the Black Sea and the Balkans. The king subdued the Celtic tribes of the Boii and the Taurisci in the west and occupied the Greek cities on the western shore of the Black Sea, including Olbia, Tyras, Histria, Tomis and Apollonia. Around 60 BC he defeated the Roman army led by Gaius Antonius Hybrida, near Histria. To defend his country, he built stone fortresses in the Orăștie Mountains, a system of fortifications that would become a model for his successors.

In the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, Burebista supported Pompey, which drew the attention of Caesar, who was preparing a campaign against Dacia. The plan was never carried out, because Caesar was assassinated on 15 March 44 BC. In the same year Burebista died in a conspiracy, and the kingdom broke up into four, and then five, smaller parts. His legacy nevertheless remained strong: the idea of Dacian political unity was revived more than a century later by Decebalus. Burebista remains a symbol of native statehood.