Dacians, thracians, and their stuff.

Cert. no, but the heavy armoured riders were sarmatians on both sides. The dacian cavalry is wearing dacian clothes on the c.

Cert. no, but the heavy armoured riders were sarmatians on both sides. The dacian cavalry is wearing dacian clothes on the c.

OK, you are right.

Most of the emperors of the Late Roman empire and of the Romano-Byzantine empire up to Phocas (610, the last Latin speaking emperor) were from Moesia Inferior (today North of Serbia), where the population was mainly Thracian and Dacian (the population refugiated from Dacia arround 270 was settled here):


Decius (249-251)


Regalianus (260) was a Dacian, falsely pretended to be a descendant of Decebal


Aureolus (268), a Dacian, born North of Danube

Claudius II (268-270)


Quintillus (270)


Aurelian (270-275)


Probus (276-282)


Maximian (250-310)


Constantius Chlorus (305-306)


Galerius (305-311), son of a Dacian woman. He wished put the population of Rome and Italy to taxes for revenging the humiliation of Dacians by Trajan who subdued them to tribute. He wished to change the name of the Roman empire in Dacian empire


Constantine the Great (307-337) who considered himself a Dacian, as we see in the statues of Dacian warriors on his arch:






Licinius (308-324), Dacian from Moesia


Maximinus Daia (310-313)

Jovian (363-364)

Gratian (359-383)

Constantius III (421)


Marcian (450-457)


Justinian (527-565)


Leo I, known as Leo the Thracian (457-474)


Phocas (602-610)

Is very important that in 6th century were Thracians whose names were exactly as in the classical period, before the Roman conquest.



There is interesting information about the presence of Bessi in Sinai and Palestine in 6th century:




The chronicler Eutychius of Alexandria writes in 10th century that Justinian, when founding the St. Ecaterine monastery in Sinai he has sent one hundred families of "abid-al-Rum", meaning 'servants of the Romans'.


A manuscript from the monastery, considered to be a copy after a document from 530, speaks about the foundation of the monastery mentioning the bringing of Christians from Black Sea, from the land of the Wallachs: bilad-al-Aflah.



In 570, at short time after the founding of the monastery, the pilgrim Antoninus Placentinus says that at St. Ecaterine were spoken the Latin, the Greek, Syriac, Egyptian and Bessian. The Bessi were the most important Thracian tribe and this is how is mentioned the Thracian population from Balkans in Justinian's time.


Even today, a tribe of bedouins called Bezy, living near the Ter town, not far from Sinai mountain.


In 16th century, a Chech traveller named Cristophe Harant stories about the bedouins near the monastery of St. Ecaterine that their chiefs are called capi, like in Romanian (cap or capetenie means chief, plural is capi).


The German traveller Samuel Kiechel in 16th century relates that these bedouins call the louses "pedoci" (the Romanian word for louse is paduche, plural paduchi, of Latin origin).



A British autor, John Levis Burckardt, in a book published in 1822, offers interesting details about the Gebalie, the bedouin tribe near the monastery: "When Justinian has built the monastery, he sent a group of slaves originar from the coasts of Black Sea (...) They unanomous declares their descendants from the Christian slaves, and this is why the others are calling them Bedouins. They mary only among themselves, making an apart community of arround one undred and twenty armed people. They are a hardworking and robust race".


Marcu Beza (a Romanian diplomate and writed, died in 1949) has personaly knowed such a Bedouin, which served him as a guide. It was a young and well built man, with white bead and shirt, with leather belt, laced moccasins. He showed to Marcu in the garden of the monastery the place where was buried the last Christian woman of the tribe, in 1750.

The blood analysises made in the seventies at all bedouins from Sinai mountain showed that the Gebalie (the Mountain people), the Bedouin tribe near the monastery is different from all the others. Unfortunately, there have not been comparations with the population from Romania and Bulgaria.




In the work "The life of Saint Theodosius" is sayed that in the monastery founded by Theodosius East of Bethleem in 6th century there were four churches: one for mental patients, one with services in in Greek language, one in which "The Bessian nation were rising their prayer to our common Lord" and one in Armenian language.


In "The life of Saint Saba the Hallowed" were are told about several Bessian monasteries in Palestine. A Bessian monastery was existing in 553 at Constantinople.

From 6-7th century we have an information from John Moscu, who says that in Palestine were two monasteries called Soubiba, one of Bessian language and one of Syriac language.

I wonder how big in terms of population their towns got...

How far did exactly Dacian infuence stretch to the East after the expedition of king Burebista against Olvia?

Much of the information here on Dacians is distorted. The group "Dacia Nemuritoare" (the Immortal Dacia) and several others (responsible for parts of the materials references here) are relatively well-known in the Romanian historiography for their "Dacomanism", or more generally "Protochronism", ideological movements which attempt to make the Dacian civilization much more brilliant and developed than it really was (after the most extreme form of it - the first civilization ever, starting with Tărtăria) and to make the Romanians the proud descendents of them (and usually in a total unscientific way, by inventing realities beyond what the evidences really say). In a way similar with some recent extremist positions from the thread on the origins of Bulgarians.

Edited by Chilbudios - 13-Oct-2007 at 20:26

One more question. Did Julius Ceasar planned to conquer Dacia and did he say smth. that the conquest of Dacia would be even more difficult than the conquest of Gaul ?

One more question. Did Julius Ceasar planned to conquer Dacia and did he say smth. that the conquest of Dacia would be even more difficult than the conquest of Gaul ?

I will give you the sources I know of (in my translation if not said otherwise, the parantheses are added by me) on that and let you judge by yourself:

Edited by Chilbudios - 13-Oct-2007 at 22:34

Originally posted by Chilbudios I will give you the sources I know of (in my translation if not said otherwise, the parantheses are added by me) on that and let you judge by yourself:   C. Velleius Paterculus (early 1st century AD), Historia Romana, II, 59, 4: He (Caesar) intended to take him (Octavianus) in his expeditions against Getae and the Parthians.   Appianus (1-2nd centuried AD), Historia Romanorum, De rebus Illyricis, XVII: Near this river (Sava) there was a fortification Caesar wanted to use for supplies and the war he was preparing against the Dacians and the Bastarnae living across the Ister.   Strabo, Geographia (early 1st century AD, from the translation I've already linked), VII, 3, 5: at the time when Byrebistas, against whom already the Deified Caesar had prepared to make an expedition, was reigning over the Getae and VII, 5, 12: However, certain men rose up against Boerebistas and he was deposed before the Romans sent an expedition against him; and those who succeeded him divided the empire into several parts.   Paulus Orosius (5th century AD, please note how late is this chronicle!), Adversum paganos, I, 16 Getae which today are called Goths (sic!), which Alexander the Great said he had to avoid them, Pyrrhus was terrified by them, and Caesar had to stay away from them.