The name Getae appeared in texts of the Greeks, such as those of the fifth-century b. c.e. historian Herodotus, in reference to a people living in present-day Romania from the Carpathian Mountains to the Danube River. Ancestral tribes, grouped together as THRACIANS, are thought to have settled the region by the sixth century b. c.e.
The Getae spoke a Thracian dialect but were influenced culturally by the SCYTHIANS and SARMATIANS living to the west and became skilled horse-mounted archers. Celts who settled in the region in the fourth and third centuries b. c.e. influenced their technology One of the Getic deities was Zalmoxis. Getae first appeared in the Athenian slave market in the fourth century. They eventually became trading partners with the Greeks, imported Greek wine, and began to use Greek coins. The Getae formed a royal alliance with the Macedonians; a Getic princess married Philip II in 342 b. c.e. Philip’s son, Alexander the Great, invaded their territory during his reign.
Some scholars consider the Getae and DACIANS to be the same people at different stages of their history and discuss their culture as Geto-Dacian. In the mid-first century b. c.e. Burebistas organized a kingdom consisting of descendants of those whom the Greeks had called Getae, as well as Dacians, or Daci, the name applied to people of the region by the Romans.
Other peoples of other language families became known as Dacians in ancient times because they lived in the province known as Dacia. The name Getae was mistakenly applied by later writers to the GOTHS.
World History
