Emperor Trajan's Palace discovered in southwestern Romania

Chinaview ^ | May 15, 2009 | Xinhua (editor Mu Xuequan)

[Cronos]

Romanians ARE Western by ethnicity — they are the descendents of Italic and Spanish soldiers who were granted land in Dacia. Trajan slaughtered most Dacians (genocide) and gave the land as grants to his soldiers once they finished their terms. The land remained in Romanian hands despite the entry of the Slavs and the Magyars.

[Tramonto]

Does anyone know the early history of this region or is it all speculation?

[Cronos]

No, not speculation. The FACT is that the Dacians were related to the Thracians (similar language if not the same language)

The Dacian wars of Trajan were pretty well documented (the Romans were really sticklers for noting down things!).

One hundred thousand male slaves were sent back to Rome; and in order to discourage future revolts Legio XIII Gemina and Legio V Macedonica were permanently posted in Dacia, the veterans of these legions were given land in Dacia and married Dacian women

When Rome fell, the people living there had been living for over 200 years and would have stuck on, even under Gothic kings (just like the Goths conquered Spain, but never made much of a difference to the local genetics, or just like the Bulgars in Bulgaria basically were just the elite rulers and they were soon subsumed amongst their Slavic people)

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

I thought that the Dacians were the easternmost Celtic people in Europe? The Galatians were further east in Asia Minor, and the Helvetians were a little west in Switzerland. I kind of like the idea of a Celtic people speaking a romance language and belonging to the Orthodox Church.

[Cronos]

Not really -- the Dacians/Thracians/Getae were a separate sister-branch of the Indo-European family. As you see in the figure below, this is sandwiched between the Hellenic and Albanian families


The Galatians were invaders in the 3rd century but the Dacians are attested to far before that -- right from the Greek histories of the Thracians.

There isn't such a big deal though -- all of them were Aryanic peoples: Italics or Greeks or Thracians or Celts or Slavics or Germanic/Nordics or Baltics or Albanians or Anatolians or Iranis (Scyths/Sarmatians).

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

See other thread. Great chart, does not show Satem-Centum distinction though! Long time no see.