Our resident artist, King Arthur and the mighty Arbaces, through the lease of the units and icons of his Heir of Atlantis mod, contributed to give this Kingdom a very particular feeling. Thanks to both of them.



The Dacian tribal grouping represents a powerful force with which to forge new conquests. Milesian trading colonies along the Pontus Euxinus offer rich pickings as do the fertile Celtic regions lying to the west. However the wanderings of the Sarmatae may need to be warded off and the presence of the Romani should be viewed with caution. Dacian warriors are renowned for their ferocity in battle. Many are armed with the dreaded falx consisting of a wooden shaft with a long curved iron blade attached to the end. This frightful weapon is capable of piercing helmets and splitting shields. Other warriors typically carry an elaborately decorated oval shield with a short sword and javelins. According to Strabo, the original name of the Dacians was daoi and their ethnic name might derive from the Saka word “dahae” or “wolf”. A Thracian people divided into numerous separate tribes they absorb Celtic influences and begin trading with the Greeks who often confuse them with the Getae.Numerous fortified hill settlements are established during the first century BCE and the acceptance of coinage becomes more common. However the Dacian tribes still predominantly live in a subsistence economy less developed than that of the Danubian Celts.

It is with the arrival of Burebistas that the separate Dacian tribes are finally united. The establishment and consolidation of a centralized realm is accompanied by religious and moral reform overseen by the high priest Cecaenos. Burebistas completes his vast foreign conquests in a brief space of time, probably between 60–50 BCE. Firstly Burebistas subjugates Getian tribes along the lower reaches of the Danuvius, and also the Bastarnae on the eastern side of the Carpathians. Burebistas next turns southeast reaching as far as the Black Sea and seizing the Milesian cities from Olbia to Apollonia. His armies then cross the Danubius and plunder their way across the Balkan peninsula, heading for the Roman province of Macedonia. It is during this period of expansion that the Scordisci are defeated and become enforced allies. However there are no further tangible conquests in this direction.

The third, westward direction of Dacian expansion touches the neighbouring Celtic tribes. Burebista subjugates the Taurisci and the Anartes. In the process he confronts a Celtic tribal alliance headed by the Boii. His armies prove victorious and the resulting change in the balance of power on the middle and lower reaches of the Danuvius increasingly worries the Romani.Gaius Iulius Caesar plans a campaign to destroy Dacian power prior to his assassination. In the event Burebistas is also a victim of his political enemies. Dissident nobles, perhaps resentful at the likely bloodshed connected with the unification of the Dacian tribes and their own loss of prestige, assassinate the great king. His empire subsequently breaks up into four or five separate kingdoms. The Dacian problem thereafter becomes less of a concern for the res publica. During the Principate Trajan decisively smashes the power of the Dacian tribes now led by Decebalus and incorporates their territory into the Roman provincial structure.

Units Created by Arbaces:


Getai Peltastai


Hippotoxotai


Kometai Hippeis


Demotikoi

Units Created by King Arthur:


Kometai


Tarabostes


Machairophoroi, with the new Draco standard

I hope you like them as much as I do!