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GETAE

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 911 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GETAE , an See also:

ancient See also:people of Thracian origin, closely akin to the Daci (see See also:DACIA). Their See also:original See also:home seems to have been the See also:district on the right See also:bank of the See also:Danube between the See also:rivers Oescus (Iskr) and latrus (Yantra). The view that the Getae were identical with the Goths has found distinguished supporters, but it is not generally accepted. Their name first occurs in connexion with the expedition of See also:Darius Hystaspis (515 B.C.) against the Scythians, in the course of which they were brought under his sway, but they regained their freedom on his return to the See also:East. During the 5th See also:century, they appear as furnishing a contingent of See also:cavalry to Sitalces, See also:king of the Odrysae, in his attack on See also:Perdiccas II., king of Macedon, but the decay of the Odrysian See also:kingdom again See also:left them See also:independent. When See also:Philip II. of Macedon in 342 reduced the Odrysae to the See also:condition of tributaries, the Getae, fearing that their turn would come next, made overtures to the conqueror. Their king Cothelas undertook to See also:supply Philip with soldiers, and his daughter became the wife of the Macedonian. About this See also:time, perhaps being hard pressed by the Triballi and other tribes, the Getae crossed the Danube. See also:Alexander the See also:Great, before transporting his forces into See also:Asia, decided to make his See also:power See also:felt by the Macedonian dependencies. His operations against the Triballi not having met with See also:complete success, he resolved to See also:cross the Danube and attack the Getae. The latter, unable to withstand the See also:phalanx, abandoned their See also:chief See also:town, and fled to the See also:steppes (Feria i7 gpn.lOS, See also:north of the Danube See also:delta), whither Alexander was unwilling to follow them. About 326, an expedition conducted by Zopyrion, a Macedonian See also:governor of See also:Thrace, against the Getae, failed disastrously.

In 292, See also:

Lysimachus declared See also:war against them, alleging as an excuse that they had rendered assistance to certain barbarous Macedonian tribes. He penetrated to the plains of See also:Bessarabia, where his See also:retreat was cut off and he was forced to surrender. Although the people clamoured for his See also:execution, Dromichaetes, king of the Getae, allowed him to depart unharmed, probably on See also:payment of a large See also:ransom, great See also:numbers of See also:gold coins having been found near Thorda, some of them bearing the name of Lysimachus. When the Gauls made their way into eastern See also:Europe, they came into collision with the Getae, whom they defeated and sold in large numbers to the Athenians as slaves. From this time the Getae seem to have been usually called Daci; for their further See also:history see DACIA. The Getae are described by See also:Herodotus as the most valiant and upright of the Thracian tribes; but what chiefly struck See also:Greek inquirers was their belief in the See also:immortality of the soul (hence they were called aOavar4"ovres) and their See also:worship of See also:Zalmoxis (or Zamolxis),, whom the euhemerists of the colonies on the Euxine made a See also:pupil of See also:Pythagoras. They were very fond of See also:music, and it was the See also:custom for their ambassadors the priests to See also:present themselves clad in See also:white, playing the See also:lyre and singing songs. They were experts in the use of the See also:bow and arrows while on horseback. See E. R. Roster, " See also:Die Geten and ihre Nachbarn," in Sitzungs- berichte der k. Akad. der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-hisiorische Classe, xliv.

(1863), and Romanische Studien (See also:

Leipzig, 1871); W. Tomaschek, " Die See also:alien Thraker," in above Sitzungsberichte, cxxviii. (See also:Vienna, 1893) ; W. See also:Bessel, De See also:rebus Geticis (See also:Gottingen, 1854) ; C. Miillenhoff in See also:Ersch and See also:Gruber's Allgemeine Encyclopadie; T. See also:Mommsen, Hist. of See also:Rome (Eng. trans.), bk. v. ch. 7.

End of Article: GETAE

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