Sarmizegetusa Regia ( also Sarmisegetusa, Sarmisegethusa, Sarmisegethuza, Ζαρμιζεγεθούσα ( Zarmizegethousa ), Ζερμιζεγεθούση ( Zermizegethouse )) was the capital and the most important military, religious and political center of the Dacians.

For at least one and a half century, Sarmizegethusa was the Dacians ' capital and reached its acme under King Decebal.

The area around Giurgiu was densely populated at the time of the Dacians ( first century BC ) as archeological evidence shows, and Burebista's capital was in this area ( it is thought to be in Popeşti on the Argeş river ).

Kogaionon's location is still under debate, but thought to be either in the area around the Dacian capital Sarmizegetusa ( there is a 2291m summit there called Gugu and there are speculations that it could be the holy mountain ; it may also have been Dealul Grădiştei where the ruins of the sanctuaries of Sarmizegetusa are located ) or even the Ceahlău mountain, because every year on 6 / 7 August the shadow of the mountain forms a pyramid which is thought to have been made by the Dacians.

The Dacians repelled the first attack, but the Romans, with the help of a local treacherous nobleman, found and destroyed the water pipes of the Dacian capital.

Nicopolis ad Nestum was one of two fortified towns founded to mark Emperor Trajan ’ s victory in 105-106 AD over the Dacians.

This inevitably led to inaccuracies regarding Dacian wars and Dacians military system based solely on insufficient information.

* Trajan builds Trajan's Column near the Colosseum in Rome to commemorate his victory over the Dacians in the Second Dacian War.

The campaign against the Dacians ended without a decisive outcome, and Decebalus, the Dacian King, had brazenly flouted the terms of the peace ( 89 AD ) which had been agreed on at the war's end.

During Trajan's Dacian Wars, the Roxolani at first sided with the Dacians, providing them with most of their cavalry strength, but they were defeated in the first campaign of AD 101-102.

Initially inhabited by Dacians, Oltenia was incorpored in the Roman Empire ( 106, at the end of the Dacian Wars ; see Roman Dacia ).

Inhabited by the ancient Dacians, today's territory of Romania was conquered by the Roman Empire in 106, when Trajan's army defeated the army of Dacia's ruler Decebalus ( see Dacian Wars ).

After the Marcomannic Wars ( 166 – 180 AD ), Dacian groups from outside Roman Dacia had been set in motion, and thus were the 12, 000 Dacians " from the neighbourhood of Roman Dacia sent away from their own country ".

According to Strabo, the Thracians spoke the same language as the Dacians, in which case Dacian was spoken as far as the Aegean sea and the Bosporus.

Strabo's statement that the Moesian people spoke the same language as the Dacians and Getae is confirmed by the distribution of placenames, attested in Ptolemy's Geographia, which carry the Dacian suffix-dava (" town " or " fort ").

Despite wide acknowledgement of Dacian influence, there is little support for the view that the people of this region were ethnic Dacians.

There are no records that indicate a major migration of Dacians into present day Albania, but two Dacian cities existed: Thermidava close to Scodra and Quemedava in Dardania.

Dacian, Geto-Dacian, Daco-Getic or Daco-Getian () refers to something of or relating to Dacia, the Dacians or the Dacian language.

The extinct Dacian language has left few traces, but in De Materia Medica by Pedanius Dioscorides, a plant called Strychnos alikakabos ( Στρύχνος άλικακάβος ) is discussed, which was called kykolis ( or cycolis ) by the Dacians.

He argues that the Dacians are " Getae or Thracians of Dacian race ":

The Bulgarian historian and thracologist Alexander Fol considers that the Getae became known as " Dacians " in Greek and Latin in the writings of Caesar, Strabo and Pliny the Elder, as Roman observers adopted the name of the Dacian tribe to refer to all the unconquered inhabitants north of the Danube.

In his 11th century Strategikon manual, Kekaumenos, a Byzantine historian, described the Vlachs from Great Wallachia as being descendants of ancient Dacians and Bessi, who had invaded Thessaly from the area to the north of Greece, from somewhere on the Danube, supposedly seeking revenge for the defeat inflicted to their ancestors by Trajan during the Dacian Wars.

This indicates that the Dacian draco stems from the art of Asia Minor where the religious-military symbology of dragon extended both eastward to the Indo-Iranians and westward to the Thraco-Cimmeriano-Getians / Dacians.

According to Mihăilescu-Bîrliba ( 2009 ) the depiction of the Dacian standard is certain and similar representations can be observed on the most important monuments of the Roman triumph over Dacians.

In the Iron Age, the area was inhabited by a population identified with the Getae and Dacians ( speaking an Indo-European language ; the view holding that the two groups were in fact one and the same is disputed, while the culture's latter phase can be attributed to the Dacians-small Dacian settlements were found in various places around Bucharest, such as Herăstrău, Radu Vodă, Dămăroaia, Lacul Tei, Pantelimon and Popeşti-Leordeni ).

The Free Dacians ( Romanian: Daci liberi ) is the name given by some modern historians to those Dacians who putatively remained outside, or emigrated from, the Roman Empire after the emperor Trajan's Dacian Wars ( AD 101-6 ).

During Trajan's Dacian Wars in AD 102 and AD 106, enormous numbers of Dacians were killed or taken into slavery.

In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks — a branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range.

Decebalus, King of The Dacians, bearing a draco — bronze statue, Deva, Romania | Deva, Romania

Since the reign of Burebista, widely considered to be the greatest king of Dacia — who ruled between 82 BC and 44 BC — the Dacians had represented a threat for the Roman Empire.

The Dacians are defeated in the Battle of Sarmizegetusa, the city is encircled with a circumvallation line.

In 88, the Roman offensive continued, and the Roman army, this time under the command of Tettius Julianus defeated the Dacians at the outlying Dacian fortress of Sarmizegetusa, also at Tapae, near the current village of Bucova.

Around 60 BC they clashed with the rising power of the Dacians under their king Burebista and were defeated.

Although the Goths certainly contributed to it, so probably did other peoples of the region such as the Dacians, proto-Slavs, Carpi, and possibly the Bastarnae.

Nevertheless, several important wars were fought in Gaul, against the Chatti, and across the Danube frontier against the Suebi, the Sarmatians, and the Dacians.

The most significant threat the Roman Empire faced during the reign of Domitian arose from the northern provinces of Illyricum, where the Suebi, the Sarmatians and the Dacians continuously harassed Roman settlements along the Danube river.

Of these, the Sarmatians and the Dacians posed the most formidable threat.

In approximately 84 or 85 the Dacians, led by King Decebalus, crossed the Danube into the province of Moesia, wreaking havoc and killing the Moesian governor Oppius Sabinus.

Fuscus successfully drove the Dacians back across the border in mid-85, prompting Domitian to return to Rome and celebrate his second triumph.

Domitian probably wanted a new war against the Dacians, and reinforced Upper Moesia with two more cavalry units brought from Syria and with at least five cohorts brought from Pannonia.

Hadrian was involved in the wars against the Dacians ( as legate of the V Macedonica ) and reputedly won awards from Trajan for his successes.

In Thracians and Dacians legend it is said that there are underground chambers occupied by an ancient God called Zalmoxis.

Even though the Dacians had many other deities Zalmoxis was regarded as " the one true god " by most Dacians and many Thracians.

Militarily, he wanted to conquer the Dacians, Parthians, and avenge the loss at Carrhae.

Julius Caesar intended to start a campaign against the Dacians, due to the support that Burebista gave to Pompey, but was assassinated in 44 BC.

The Dacians were eventually defeated by Emperor Trajan in two campaigns stretching from 101 AD to 106 AD, and the core of their kingdom was turned into the province of Roman Dacia.

* Dacians under Decebalus engage in two wars against the Romans from this year to 88 or 89.

Rome must pay tribute to the Dacians in exchange for a vague recognition of Rome's importance.

* Maximinus campaigns against Dacians and Sarmatians from his supply depot at Sirmium.

Except for the Black Sea shore in the south, Bessarabia remained outside direct Roman control ; the myriad of tribes there are called by modern historians Free Dacians.

During the late Roman Empire, several Roman provinces covered the territory that comprises present-day Bulgaria: Scythia ( Scythia Minor ), Moesia ( Upper and Lower ), Thrace, Macedonia ( First and Second ), Dacia ( Coastal and Inner, both south of Danube ), Dardania, Rhodope ( Roman province ) and Haemismontus, and had a mixed population of Byzantine Greeks, Thracians and Dacians, most of whom spoke either Greek or variants of Vulgar Latin.

Dacians ( or Getae ) were North Thracian tribes.

The latter eventually conquered, and linguistically and culturally assimilated the Dacians.