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Burebista () was the king of the Getae and Dacians tribes from 82/61BC to 45/44BC. He was the first king who successfully unified the tribes of the Dacian kingdom, which comprised the area located between the Danube, Tisza, and Dniester rivers, and modern day Romania and Moldova. In the 7th and 6thcenturies BC it became home to the Thracians peoples, including the Getae and the Dacians. From the 4thcentury to the middle of the 2ndcentury BC the Dacian peoples were influenced by La Tène Celts who brought new technologies with them into Dacia. Sometime in the 2ndcentury BC, the Dacians expelled the Celts from their lands. Dacians often warred with neighbouring tribes, but the relative isolation of the Dacian peoples in the Carpathian Mountains allowed them to survive and even to thrive. By the 1stcentury BC the Dacians had become the dominant power.
From 61 BC onwards Burebista pursued a series of conquests that expanded the Dacian kingdom. The tribes of the Boii and Taurisci were destroyed early in his campaigns, followed by the conquest of the Bastarnae and probably the Scordisci peoples. He led raids throughout Thrace, Macedonia, and Illyria. From 55BC the Greek cities on the west coast of the Black Sea were conquered one after another. These campaigns inevitably culminated in conflict with Rome in 48BC, at which point Burebista gave his support to Pompey. This in turn made him an enemy to Julius Caesar, who decided to start a campaign against Dacia. This plan fell through in 44BC when Caesar was assassinated. Burebista himself was assassinated in a plot by the Dacian aristocracy at around the same time.
After Burebista's death, the empire he had created broke up into smaller kingdoms. From the reign of Tiberius to Domitian, Dacian activity was reduced into a defensive state. The Romans abandoned plans of mounting an invasion against Dacia. In 86AD the Dacian king, Decebalus, successfully re-united the Dacian kingdom under his control. Domitian attempted a hasty invasion against the Dacians that ended in disaster. A second invasion brought peace between Roman Empire and Dacia for nearly a decade, until Trajan became emperor in 98AD. Trajan also pursued two conquests of Dacia. The first, in 101–102AD, concluded in a Roman victory. Decebalus was forced to agree to harsh terms of peace, but did not honour them, leading to a second invasion of Dacia in 106AD that ended the independence of the Dacian kingdom.
Before Burebista's rule, the Dacians had experienced a succession of kings through the period 450 to 60BC. The kings included Dromichaetes, Oroles, and Rubobostes in the 3rd and 2ndcenturies BC. From the 4thcentury BC to the 2ndcentury BC the LaTène Celts of the Danube, Alpines, and Balkans influenced the Dacian culture. LaTène material culture was found in the central and north-west regions of Dacia. The development of a LaTène-based economy in the 3rd and 2ndcenturies BC allowed the consolidation of political power through tribal unions. Such regional unions were found among both the Transylvanian Dacians under the rule of Rubobostes and the Moldavian and Muntenian Getae in Argedava.
It is from the LaTène that the Dacians were introduced to the potter's wheel, superior metal-working techniques, and probably a tradition of minting coins. In homes were found a combination of Celtic and Dacian pottery, and certain Celtic-style graves contain Dacian style vessels. This suggests a sort of co-existence and fusion between the cultures. Sometime after around 150BC, however, evidence of LaTène culture peters out, around the same time the Dacian culture began to mature, as evidenced by population and economic growth. Under Rubobstes the authority of the Dacians appears to have increased, thus ending the dominance of the Celtic culture, and leading to the Celts being expelled from the area or merging into the culture, or both. There is archaeological evidence to suggest that relations between Dacians and Celts living in the areas north and west of Dacia continued. Painted ceramics of late LaTène-style have been found in Dacian sites in west and central Dacia. Some of these ceramics were imported while others were made by Dacian potters imitating Celtic style. A stable monarchy, however, only developed when Burebista became king. Burebista's accession came with the expulsion of Celts around 60BC when his forces moved through to the middle Danube region, and with the support of the religious establishment and leaders in Dacia which brought around a stricter moral code in the Dacian kingdom. Around this time the pottery of the Dacian style began appearing in Celtic settlements in Central Europe, including the area covered by the former Yugoslavia, especially in Gomolava, Yugoslavia, and Budapest, Hungary.
Decebalus' reign saw nearly constant warfare between the Dacians and Roman administrations south of the Danube. Around 85AD raiding resumed in Moesia, Illyria, and Macedonia, culminating in the death of the Roman Governor of Moesia, Oppius Sabinius. In response, Domitian launched a campaign the same year under the command of the Praetorian Prefect Cornelius Fuscus. Domitian ignored Decebalus' offer of peace, an error which caused the Romans to suffer a disastrous defeat, losing not only Fuscus, but his forces and the Roman standards and war machines. A second expedition was launched in 88AD, this time under the command of Tettius Julianus. This second campaign was somewhat victorious as both sides suffered massive casualties in battle. However, revolts and defections forced Domitian to negotiate a hasty peace treaty with Decebalus in 89AD. This peace had benefits and costs to both sides: Rome had to pay financial tributes and provide technological assistance to Dacia; in exchange, Dacia effectively became a client kingdom of Rome, acting as a bulkhead for the empire, separating Rome from other warring tribes.
This peace lasted for around a decade, until Trajan became emperor in 98AD. Immediately upon becoming emperor, Trajan travelled to the frontier stretching from Pannonia to Moesia, where he worked to strengthen the fortifications. In 101–102AD Trajan assembled an army of up to 150,000 men to send against Decebalus' 50,000. The army was split into two and entered into Dacian territory at two points along the frontier. The columns met at Tibiscum and marched together towards Sarmizegetusa. At Tapae they encountered and defeated the Dacian force. This in turn forced Decebalus to sue for peace. Trajan agreed but imposed harsh terms against the Dacians. Decebalus failed to meet the terms of the peace, and in 105 Trajan launched a second campaign against him. By 106 Trajan had completed the conquest of Dacia, ending its existence as an independent kingdom.
In the 1960s statues were erected for the two leaders of the Dacian kingdom, Burebista and Decebalus. These came as part of a gradual process of disassociating Socialist Romania from the Soviet Union. The statues depict the kings as freedom fighters, and nationwide celebrations were held for the anniversaries of ancient battles. Additionally, two government-funded film productions were created as part of this same process. The Column focus on the history of Dacia in the 1st and 2ndcentury AD and the exploits of Decebalus, while Burebista is almost ignored.
Starting in the 1970s, the Nicolae Ceaușescu regime used nationalistic and questionable interpretations of ancient history (Protochronism) to legitimize its rule. In 1980 the Romanian government declared a celebration of the 2,050th anniversary of the founding of the "unitary and centralized" Dacian state of Burebista, drawing comparisons with Ceaușescu's Romania and claiming an uninterrupted existence of the state from Burebista to Ceaușescu. The epic movie Burebista (1980) based on the king's life was released the same year, and celebrated him as the Romanian pater patriae. This commemoration led the press to note "similarities" between Burebista and Ceaușescu, and even professional historians such as Ion Horațiu Crișan spoke about Burebista in ways similar to how party activists spoke about Ceaușescu.
Burebista and his descendants are considered by Romanian nationalists to be the true ancestors of their nation. Historian László Kürti describes this as an imaginary history, and notes that during the regime of Ceaușescu this alternate history was used as a political device. In 1984 the brother of President Ceaușescu, Ilie Ceaușescu, published a treatise stating that; "the archaeological evidence conclusively shows the uninterrupted ethnic, political, and military continuity of the Romanians." Kürti notes that similar political devices are used by Hungarians to promote their claim to the same Transylvanian region, part of Romania.
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