Burebista

The Pannonian Boii attested in later sources, contrary to the interpretation of the classical writers, are not simply the remnants of those who had fled from Italy, but rather another division of the tribe, which had settled there much earlier.

The burial rites of the Italian Boii show many similarities with contemporary Bohemia, such as inhumation, which was uncommon with the other Cisalpine Gauls, or the absence of the typically western Celtic torcs.

This makes it much more likely that the Cisalpine Boii had actually originated from Bohemia rather than the other way round.

Having migrated to Italy from north of the Alps, some of the defeated Celts simply moved back to their kinsfolk.

Other parts of the Boii had remained closer to their traditional home, and settled in the Slovak and Hungarian lowlands by the Danube and the Mura, with a center at Bratislava.

Around 60 BCE, they clash with the rising power of the Dacians under their king Burebista and are defeated.

Rome has begun in recent decade to exercise stronger influence on the Getae.

Roman merchants have arrived to exchange goods, and the Getae have begun counterfeiting Roman coins.

The Getae, or Geto-Dacians, have revived their old tribal union under the leadership of Burebista (reigned 82-44 BCE), who has amassed formidable military power with the help of the high priest Deceneu.

Cogaionon, the sacred mountain of the Dacians, is at the center of the kingdom's nucleus in the area of the iron-rich Orastie mountains in the southern Carpathians.

In 60-59, Burebista campaigns successfully against the Celts who threaten his kingdom from the northeast.

Burebista, king of the Dacians, conquers the economically important Greek cities on the Black Sea coast, from Apollonia to Olbia, after 55, forcing the retreat of the Scythians to the lands east of the Dniester River. 

The Geto-Dacian walled city of Pecica is built during the reign of Burebista.

Burebista, whose Geto-Dacian union now stretches from the Black Sea to the Adriatic and from the Balkan Mountains to Bohemia, offers his support to Pompey in his struggle against Caesar.

Burebista, in battles mentioned by Strabo, defeats the Celts who menace his western borders after 48 BCE, forcing them back westward into Pannonia, a region originally peopled by the Pannonii (sometimes called Paeonii by the Greeks) and invaded from the fourth century BCE by various Celtic tribes.

Rome exercises stronger influence on the Getae as decades pass.

Roman merchants arrive to exchange goods, and the Getae begin counterfeiting Roman coins.

In the middle of the first century BCE, the Romans ally with the Getae to defend Moesia, an imperial province roughly corresponding to present-day northern Bulgaria, against the Sarmatians, a group of nomadic Central Asian tribes.

Roman engineers and architects help the Getae construct fortresses until the Romans discover that the Getae are preparing to turn against them.

Burebista, a Getian king who amasses formidable military power, routs the Celts, forces them westward into Pannonia, and leads large armies to raid Roman lands south of the Danube, including Thrace, Macedonia, and Illyria.

Burebista offers the Roman general, Pompey, support in his struggle against Julius Caesar.

Caesar apparently planned to invade Getian territory before his assassination in 44 BCE; in the same year Getian conspirators murder Burebista and divide up his kingdom.

For a time Getian power wanes, and Emperor Octavian expels the Getae from the lands south of the Danube.

The Getae continue, however, to interfere in Roman affairs, and the Romans in turn periodically launch punitive campaigns against them.

The Dacia of King Burebista stretches from the Southern Bug river in modern Ukraine to the Danube in modern Slovakia, and from the Balkan mountains in modern Bulgaria to Zakarpattia Oblast (Transcarpathia) in modern Ukraine.

Burebista, widely considered to be the greatest king of Dacia, had in 48 sided with Pompey during his struggle against Julius Caesar in the Roman civil war.

Caesar, preparing a Parthian war to avenge Crassus, apparently had planned also to invade Getian territory before his assassination in 44; later in this year, Getian conspirators murder Burebista in a court plot and divide his kingdom into four, then five, smaller polities.

(The real name of Burebista is lost, but his fame will be evoked by the Greek writers under the name of Byrebistas.)