Dacia (/ˈdeɪʃə/, DAY-shə; Latin: [ˈd̪aːkija]) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus roughly corresponds to the present-day countries of Romania, as well as parts of Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Ukraine.
A Dacian Kingdom of variable size existed between 82 BC until the Roman conquest in AD 106, reaching its height under King Burebista. As a result of the two wars with Emperor Trajan, the population was dispersed and the central city, Sarmizegetusa Regia, was destroyed by the Romans, but was rebuilt by the latter to serve as the capital of the Roman province of Dacia. The Free Dacians, living the territory of modern-day Northern Romania disappeared with the start of the Migration Period.
The Dacians are first mentioned in the writings of the Ancient Greeks, in Herodotus (Histories Book IV XCIII: "[Getae] the noblest as well as the most just of all the Thracian tribes") and Thucydides (Peloponnesian Wars, Book II: "[Getae] border on the Scythians and are armed in the same manner, being all mounted archers").[2] Some historians argue that Daxia (mentioned in 3rd century BC) was the previous home of Indo-Iranian nomads[3] who later came to form the Geto-Dacian people.[4][5]
The Dacia of King Burebista (82–44 BC) stretched from the Black Sea to the source of the river Tisza and from the Balkan Mountains to Bohemia.[7] During that period, the Getae and Dacians conquered a wider territory and Dacia extended from the Middle Danube to the Black Sea littoral (between Apollonia and Pontic Olbia) and from the Northern Carpathians to the Balkan Mountains.[8] In 53 BC, Julius Caesar stated that the lands of the Dacians started on the eastern edge of the Hercynian (Black) Forest.[9] After Burebista's death, his kingdom fell apart.
″As for the southern part of Germany beyond the Albis, the portion which is just contiguous to that river is occupied by the Suevi; then immediately adjoining this is the land of the Getae, which, though narrow at first, stretching as it does along the Ister [Danube] on its southern side and on the opposite side along the mountain-side of the Hercynian [Black] Forest (for the land of the Getae also embraces a part of the mountains), afterwards broadens out towards the north as far as the Tyregetae; but I cannot tell the precise boundaries″
On this basis, Lengyel and Radan (1980), Hoddinott (1981) and Mountain (1998) consider that the Geto-Dacians inhabited both sides of the Tisza river prior to the rise of the Celtic Boii, and again after the latter were defeated by the Dacians.[11] The hold of the Dacians between the Danube and Tisza was tenuous.[12] However, the archaeologist Parducz argued a Dacian presence west of the Tisa dating from the time of Burebista.[13] According to Tacitus (AD 56–117) Dacians bordered Germania in the south-east, while Sarmatians bordered it in the east.[14]