Dacians
The father of history, Herodot, mentions the Dacians in his works as “the bravest and fairest of all the Thracians“. He also says that “the Thracian people is the most numerous one in the world; the Thracians have several names, according to their specific regions, but their habits are more or less the same”. At the peak of their power, the Thracians controlled over half the Europe and some territories in the Middle East. In some writings, the Dacians are also referred to as the Getae.
The territory of Dacia, the Getae’s country, was roughly that of today’s Romania, Hungary and parts of Bulgary and Ukraine. During the reign of king Burebista (1st century BC), the western border advanced to the Constanta lake, situated in today’s Switzerland.
The Dacians were a warrior people, and their polytheist religion saw death as a liberation. Their belief in the supreme god Gebeleizis made them fearless on the battlefield, and this virtue was passed on even after the old religion was replaced by the cult of Zalmoxe. As with other hiperboreean peoples, true life only began after death, where they would meet with their god. The Dacians cheered at the funerals, but cried when a child was born, weeping for the life he was going to have. This education and their beliefs meant that the Dacians were not afraid of death, and thus they were fearsome warriors in the eyes of any ancient civilization.
