Also known as Getae, the Dacians were an amalgamation of Thracian tribes who created a formidable state on the eastern confines of the Greco-Roman world. Their neighbours to the north-west were the Germanic tribes, to the north-east the Scythians, to the west the Celts, in Pannonia and to the south-west of the Danube the Illyrians, and to the south the Greeks but Dacia was occupied also by Daco-germans, and in the north-cast by Celto-Dacians. The Dacians inhabited the present territory of Romania and the lands south of the Danube. They were agricultural and those living in the mountains were shepherds. They also worked their rich mines of silver, iron, and gold. According to Strabo, the original name of the Dacians was Daoi. In fact the Daoi was the name of the Dacian warriors, members of the wolves' brotherhood. Agathyrsoi is the name of the first people living in Transylvania. They are described by Herodotus (iv. 104) as of luxurious habits, wearing gold ornaments (the district is still auriferous) and having wives in common.
The name of Dacians and Getae was of Scythic origin (Vasile Pârvan, Getica, p.286). Dhau means to press, to strangle, to squeeze. It is the root for various words meaning wolf: Phrygian daoi, Illyrian dhaunos. This may refer to the anecdotal belief of pastoral shepherds that the wolf when it came after the sheep would seize them by the throat so that they strangled and could make no sound as it dragged them away from the rest of the flock. In fact, it is well-known the fact that they thought of themselves as being warriors and having the character of wolves, being very courageous and never giving up.
Dacian villages and cities had their names ending with "dava", "deva", "daba", "deba" or "debai".
The Dacians leaders and priests, called Pilleati (from pilleus = cap)
or Tarabostes (from tiara = cap), were easily distinguished by their so-called Phrygian cap. The reason of this particular shape of
the cap is that Dacians twisted their hair, binding it up in a knot on the top of the head. Their caps and helmets were shaped to
accommodate this hair knot beneath. This knot was a Persian custom passed to Dacians through the Scythians / Sarmatians. An Achaemenian
relief from Dascylium (Anatolia), showing a female and male Zoroastrian priests, clearly depicts on their heads some soft caps
making wrinkles, meaning that the shapes of the caps was given by the hair knots bellow.
Historical depictions of Dacians with their
caps and without them, with their hair combed in a knot are found on the Trajan column and the Tropaeum Traiani relief, from Adamclisi,
Romania. The Romanian word for the hair knot is "mot" (read "mots"). Today, the land containing the ancient Dacian gold mines is called
"Tara Motilor"(= the country of the "moti"), and the inhabitants are called "moti" (pl. "motii"). The county to which belongs Tara
Motilor is called Bihor, very similar to Bihar region from India. "Motii" are blond people with blue eyes, living in villages
located at hights above 1400 m, being the highest villages from Romania.
According to Iordanes, Dicineus, a great Dacian priest, ruled also over kings, "selecting amongst them the noblest and wisest men, instructing them in theology, making priests of them and naming them Pileati" (Iord Get.XI, 71). Kings and priests came from the ranks of Pilleati. Other sources also describe them as the Dacian elite. Even Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, had personally learned, straight from one of Zalmoxis' apprentices, an incantation of those "able to make human beings immortals". Zalmoxis was surnamed "the enlighted" or "the shining", which happened because he was the priest of the only god of the Dacians - The Sun God. The Dacian lords were surnamed the shining ones because they were wearing tiaras and they were also considered priests because, while they performed the rituals, the Dacian lords wore tiaras.
Because of their philosophy and beliefs, Herodot described the Dacians as "the bravest and the most righteous of all the Thracians".
