Dacia

The land of the Daci or Getæ. It comprised the various countries now known as Eastern Hungary, Transylvania, Wall a chia, and Moldavia. The Getæ came originally from Thrace, and were divided into various tribes, and seem to have been the most valiant of the Thracian barbarians. Curio, the first Roman general who ever penetrated as far north as the Danube, did not venture to a ail them. Julius Cæsar, however, is said to have intended their subjugation. In 10 B.C. , August us sent an army up the valley of the Maros. From this time a continual war was waged by the Dacians against the Romans, who actually compelled the latter, in the reign of Domitian, to pay a tribute. In 101 A.D. the Emperor Trajan cro ed the Thei , and marched into Transylvania, where he fought a great battle near Thorda. The Daci, who were commanded by their famous chief Decebalus, were defeated. A second expedition of the emperor’s (104 A.D. ) resulted in the destruction of their capital, the death of Decebalus, and the lo of their freedom. In 270 and 275 A.D. the Romans abandoned the country to the Goths, and the colonists were transferred to Mœsia. After a series of vici itudes, Dacia fell into the po e ion of the Magyars in the 9th century.