the river, while the Dacians (Berciu and Pippidi 1965, I: 99–105; 1928/2003:
177–178; Scorpan 1997), whose territory was known under the name of Dacia,
settled on its left bank, quickly enlarging their vital space. In time, they made a
single people, and under their king Burebista (82–44 BCE), and formed a centralized slave-owning state.
During the Iron Age, the Thracian tribes moved toward full scale slave-labor
relations of production. For a while, the Getae tribes led a flourishing and peaceful
life, yet, about the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, they were faced with a large
wave of migratory peoples, coming from the north and the east. About the year
1000 BC, the Cimmerians invaded the region. In the eighth century BC, the
Scythians, a numerous people who had settled in the steppe north of the Black
Sea, forced their entrance into the Getic province. A second wave of Scythian
migrators penetrated into the space inhabited by the Getae, and finally settled there,
often siding with the Getae in their conflicts against other migrants, or even against
the Romans. The traces they have left, to which the archaeologist and historian
Vasile P^ arvan makes frequent references, indicate their strong presence in the
province. The Scythians who settled in the Getic province were eventually absorbed
by the autochthonous population. Zaldapa, the name of the stronghold they raised
here, as well as those of the rivers Asampaios and Kalabaois have been lost (P^ arvan
1926: 32 ff). The period coincides with the colonization of the Black Sea coast by
the Greeks, to whom the Getae opposed no residence, conscious as they were of the
advantages that the presence of such well-known traders and navigators offered.
Firstly, the Greeks proposed to turn the sea with its unhospitable name into a
hospitable one, and thus, Άξείνoς, which, in the idiom of the Getae have meant
“bluish-grey, dark, inhospitable” (figuratively), by reference to similar word from
Persian, was replaced by Ευξείνoς “hospitable”.
4 Starting with the latter half of the
seventh century, the Greeks set up a number of city-states, starting from the north to
the south of the Black Sea coast. Firstly, between 657 and 656 BC, colonists from
Miletus founded Histria (Ίστρίς, Ίστρooς, Ίςτρoπo ´λις), in the north, then, in the
sixth century BC, those from Heraclea Pontica set up the city-state of Callatis
signal the presence of two Getic tribes on the right bank of the Danube. The Dacians are mentioned
later on, at the beginning of the second century BC (cf. Radu Vulpe 1968, II: 29); C. Daicoviciu,
(SCIV, VI, 1955, no. 2: 50 ff). After the creation of a Dacian centralized state by Burebista,
appellations such as Daco-Getae or Geto-Dacians appear more frequently in documents. We
should underlie that the name get was mostly used by the Greeks, while the Romans favored the
term dac.
4 D. M. Pippidi doubts the meaning of the initial word, and even considers it wrong (Berciu and
Pippidi 1965, I: 145). We believe that Aks ˇeina can be reported to another topic name form the
Getic province, i.e., Axiopolis, a Greek citadel, founded by the colonists of Miletus, today Carasu,
from Turk. cara “black” and su “flowing water, river”. In the present day Romanian province,
there is a town with the name of Cernavoda ˘ „black water”, in Old Slavic, yet it is an officially
given name, in a period that preceded the change of some Turkish settlements. By contrast, the
name of the sea – the Black Sea – has preserved by means of calque. The Slavs, who disappeared in
the process of symbiosis and bilingualism, perhaps named it C ¸ ernoe more “black sea”, thus
contributing to the preservation of the meaning of the word from antiquity.
2 Dobrudja, in the Mesopotamia of the West
29
177–178; Scorpan 1997), whose territory was known under the name of Dacia,
settled on its left bank, quickly enlarging their vital space. In time, they made a
single people, and under their king Burebista (82–44 BCE), and formed a centralized slave-owning state.
During the Iron Age, the Thracian tribes moved toward full scale slave-labor
relations of production. For a while, the Getae tribes led a flourishing and peaceful
life, yet, about the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, they were faced with a large
wave of migratory peoples, coming from the north and the east. About the year
1000 BC, the Cimmerians invaded the region. In the eighth century BC, the
Scythians, a numerous people who had settled in the steppe north of the Black
Sea, forced their entrance into the Getic province. A second wave of Scythian
migrators penetrated into the space inhabited by the Getae, and finally settled there,
often siding with the Getae in their conflicts against other migrants, or even against
the Romans. The traces they have left, to which the archaeologist and historian
Vasile P^ arvan makes frequent references, indicate their strong presence in the
province. The Scythians who settled in the Getic province were eventually absorbed
by the autochthonous population. Zaldapa, the name of the stronghold they raised
here, as well as those of the rivers Asampaios and Kalabaois have been lost (P^ arvan
1926: 32 ff). The period coincides with the colonization of the Black Sea coast by
the Greeks, to whom the Getae opposed no residence, conscious as they were of the
advantages that the presence of such well-known traders and navigators offered.
Firstly, the Greeks proposed to turn the sea with its unhospitable name into a
hospitable one, and thus, Άξείνoς, which, in the idiom of the Getae have meant
“bluish-grey, dark, inhospitable” (figuratively), by reference to similar word from
Persian, was replaced by Ευξείνoς “hospitable”.
4 Starting with the latter half of the
seventh century, the Greeks set up a number of city-states, starting from the north to
the south of the Black Sea coast. Firstly, between 657 and 656 BC, colonists from
Miletus founded Histria (Ίστρίς, Ίστρooς, Ίςτρoπo ´λις), in the north, then, in the
sixth century BC, those from Heraclea Pontica set up the city-state of Callatis
signal the presence of two Getic tribes on the right bank of the Danube. The Dacians are mentioned
later on, at the beginning of the second century BC (cf. Radu Vulpe 1968, II: 29); C. Daicoviciu,
(SCIV, VI, 1955, no. 2: 50 ff). After the creation of a Dacian centralized state by Burebista,
appellations such as Daco-Getae or Geto-Dacians appear more frequently in documents. We
should underlie that the name get was mostly used by the Greeks, while the Romans favored the
term dac.
4 D. M. Pippidi doubts the meaning of the initial word, and even considers it wrong (Berciu and
Pippidi 1965, I: 145). We believe that Aks ˇeina can be reported to another topic name form the
Getic province, i.e., Axiopolis, a Greek citadel, founded by the colonists of Miletus, today Carasu,
from Turk. cara “black” and su “flowing water, river”. In the present day Romanian province,
there is a town with the name of Cernavoda ˘ „black water”, in Old Slavic, yet it is an officially
given name, in a period that preceded the change of some Turkish settlements. By contrast, the
name of the sea – the Black Sea – has preserved by means of calque. The Slavs, who disappeared in
the process of symbiosis and bilingualism, perhaps named it C ¸ ernoe more “black sea”, thus
contributing to the preservation of the meaning of the word from antiquity.
2 Dobrudja, in the Mesopotamia of the West
29