Dacia
（
Δακία), as a Roman province, lay between the Danube and
the Carpathian Mountains, and comprehended the modern Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia, and
part of Hungary. The Daci were of the same race and spoke the same language as the Getae, and
are therefore usually said to be of Thracian origin. They were a brave and warlike people. In
the reign of Domitian they became so formidable under their king, Decebalus, that the Romans
were obliged to purchase a peace of them by the payment of tribute. Trajan delivered the
Empire from this disgrace. He crossed the Danube, and after a war of five years (A.D. 101-106)
conquered the country, and made it a Roman province. At a later period Dacia was invaded by
the Goths; and as Aurelian considered it more prudent to make the Danube the boundary of the
Empire, he resigned Dacia to the barbarians, removed the Roman inhabitants to Moesia, and gave
the name of Dacia (Aureliani) to that part of the province along the Danube where they were
settled.
