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The 'Dacians' (Lat. ''Daci'', Gr. ''Dákai'') were the ancient inhabitants of Dacia (roughly corresponding to modern Romania and Moldova) and parts of Moesia (mostly in northern Bulgaria) in southeastern Europe. They spoke the Dacian language, closely related with Thracian and Albanian. The first mention of them is in Roman sources, but classical authors are unanimous in considering the Dacians a branch of the Getae, a Thracian people known from Greek writings. Strabo specified that the Daci are the Getae who lived in the area towards the Pannonian plain (Transylvania), while the Getae proper gravitated towards the Black Sea coast (Scythia Minor).
The Roman Emperor Trajan invaded Dacia mostly to benefit from its vast gold mines. Trajan's Column was constructed to celebrate the invasion of Dacia.
The Dacian kingdom reached its maximum expansion during King Burebista. The capital of the kingdom was the city Argedava (also called Sargedava in some historical writings) situated close to river Danube.

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Population

Notes

Population

Their population was around 2,000,000 inhabitants, as they were estimated by contemporaneous sources to muster close to 200,000 men as total mobilization of the army.^[1] In any population the number of fighting men usually equals about 1/10 of the total population.

Notes

1. Strabo, ''Geographia''