Dacia, in ancient geography was the land of the
Dacians. It was named by the ancient
Hellenes (
Greeks) "
Getae". Dacia was a large district of
South Eastern Europe, bounded on the north by the
Carpathians, on the south by the
Danube, on the west by the
Tisia or
Tisa, on the east by the
Tyras or
Nistru, now in eastern
Moldova. It thus corresponds in the main to modern
Romania and
Moldova, as well as parts of
Hungary,
Bulgaria and
Ukraine. The capital of Dacia was
Sarmizegetusa. The inhabitants of this district are generally considered as belonging to the
Thracian nations.
The Dacians were known as Geta (plural Getae) in Greek writings, and as Dacus (plural Daci) and Getae in Roman documents; also as Dagae and Gaete—see the late Roman map Tabula Peutingeriana. Strabo tells that the original name of the Dacians was "daoi", which could be explained with a possible Phrygian cognate "daos", meaning "wolf". This assumption is enforced by the fact that the Dacian standard, the Dacian Draco, had a wolf head.
It can be confusing that the geographical name "Dacia" was much later also used during the Middle Ages by the Roman Catholic Church for its northernmost province, namely Denmark-Norway-Sweden (Scandinavia) and even for Denmark alone. In some historical documents, members of royalty of that area have been called "of Dacia".
Towards the west Dacia may originally have extended as far as the Danube, where it runs from north to south at Waitzen (Vác). Julius Caesar in his De Bello Gallico (book 6) speaks of the Hercynian forest extending along the Danube to the territory of the Dacians. Ptolemy puts the eastern boundary of Dacia Trajana as far back as the Hierasus (Siret river, in modern Romania).
