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The Dacians
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Salah ad-Din View Drop Down
Samurai
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Posts: 138 		  Quote Salah ad-Din Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: The Dacians
    Posted: 04-Feb-2013 at 21:38
The Dacians were a group of tribes in the Thracian family who inhabited what is now Romania.  They were briefly united under a king named Burebista in the 1st Century BCE; he achieved fame for driving the Celtic Boii out of what became his personal kingdom.  The nobles of the the tribes murdered him because they feared he had grown too powerful - interestingly, they did this in 44 BCE.
 
After a century of tribal anarchy, Dacia was reunited under a chieftain named Decebalus, who subsequently waged war againt the Roman Empire.  The Emperor Domitian paid him tribute, but in 101 CE the Emperor Trajan waged a war against Dacia.  Decebalus surrendered the next year and was made a client king, with Roman officers overseeing the Emperor's will in Dacia.
 
In 105, Decebalus rose in revolt and initiated a bloody war against Rome.  The next year his capital at Sarmizegetusa was destroyed, its people sold into slavery, and Decebalus took his own life while being pursued by the Roman cavalry.  Though sporadic violence continued, Dacia became a heavily romanized province, until it was abandoned to the Goths by Aurelian in the early 270s.
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Nick1986 View Drop Down
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Posts: 7940 		  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Feb-2013 at 17:58
The Romans were terrified of the Dacians' weapons. Their preferred sword was the single edged falcata: capable of severing limbs with a single blow. Perhaps their most dreaded weapon was the war scythe. The Romans had to adapt gladiator armor to counter it
Me Grimlock not nice Dino! Me bash brains!
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TheAlaniDragonRising View Drop Down
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Posts: 6084 		  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14-Feb-2013 at 14:54
Originally posted by Nick1986

The Romans were terrified of the Dacians' weapons. Their preferred sword was the single edged falcata: capable of severing limbs with a single blow. Perhaps their most dreaded weapon was the war scythe. The Romans had to adapt gladiator armor to counter it
Is there any knowledge of how their swords were made, Nick?
What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture.
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Salah ad-Din View Drop Down
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Posts: 138 		  Quote Salah ad-Din Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14-Feb-2013 at 15:17
Originally posted by Nick1986

The Romans were terrified of the Dacians' weapons. Their preferred sword was the single edged falcata: capable of severing limbs with a single blow. Perhaps their most dreaded weapon was the war scythe. The Romans had to adapt gladiator armor to counter it
 
The Dacian 'war scythe' was known as a falx; the falcata was a Spanish weapon.  Dacian swords were short and doubled-edged, presumably based on the gladius or the xiphos.
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Nick1986 View Drop Down
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Posts: 7940 		  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Feb-2013 at 12:30
http://trajan.numizmat.net/dacia/falx.jpg
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Shamshir View Drop Down
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Posts: 56 		  Quote Shamshir Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Feb-2013 at 17:25


Their swords are indeed terrifying!

Btw, isn't that a Sarmatian Draco?
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Nick1986 View Drop Down
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Posts: 7940 		  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Feb-2013 at 12:16
Those dragon kites do look familiar. Maybe Alani knows?
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Salah ad-Din View Drop Down
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Posts: 138 		  Quote Salah ad-Din Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Feb-2013 at 15:29
The 'draco' was reportedly a Scythian/Sarmatian invention, but it was very heavily used by the Dacians.  By the 3rd Century it had also been adopted by the Romans and the Germanic peoples.
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