Getae and Dacians? Are they the same? Or is this unknowable?

[diegis]

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Thank you. I just thought it was a question worth asking, because if it turned out that the government did in fact attempt to influence academia, it wouldn't be the first time in human history that this happened. :wink:
I just wonder, if in fact the words "Daci" and "Getae" refer to the same ethnic group, why we have two words. I see no reason to differentiate between Daci and Getae, but I suppose there is no way to find out for sure because we can't travel back in time.

Well, about that names, just see another comparation. Germans are called by most of the peoples "Germans", but they call themselves "Deutsch". Another comparation, "Latin" with "Roman", again two words, so i think something like that hapend with Dacians too, mostly greeks and sometimes even roman writers call them Getae, for ex. the personal doctor of Traian, Criton, wrote a book called "Getica", about Daco-Romans wars, but most Romans ( and Dacians themselvs, as Dio Cassius said ) use the name "Daci"( supposedly related with a phryigian word "daos", meaning "Wolf" ).Unfortunately most of writings about Dacians, especialy ones about Traian wars, including his "De bello Dacico" was lost or disapear ( i read an interesting theory why's that, but is just a theory and dont know how realistic is ).