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

[Alanus]

What i said is that Goths was not a people with a clear ancestors, and just that. They was a mix of different peoples, with Germanic, Dacian/Getian, even Sarmatian origins, we cannot say pure and simple that those classic Goths are 100 % germanic people and came from Scandinavia, maybe just a part of them, and even like that, peoples from those nordic area came froum southern parts of Europe, when the harsh living conditions there was able to permit to peoples to develop in larger comunities, and most likely they arrived there from Germanic areas and from Getians area, who already live anyway close to southern Baltic area. This tribes mixed again with some Dacian tribes, some Sarmatians too and who know if not some Celtic or other Germanic ones, and just then we can speak about Goths, as we know them in their classic times. As well, i wanted to point the influence of Dacians/Getae in this mix of people, both as prestige and as physical presence, and the fact that they was considered the ancestors of Goths, by the Goths themselves, and by previous ancient writers too.

The Goths/Gaets/Gothini/Gutones WERE a people with "clear ancestors." They knew exactly who their ancestors were and where they came from. Two royal families controlled both groups, Tyrfingi and Greutungi, from a time that was earlier than Pythias of Massilia (before the time of Herodotus). We have traces of their heritage recorded by Pythias, the isle of Balcia and the Amalcian Sea. These Baltic locations were named after the two families, the Balths and the Amals. They knew they emigrated from Scandia, as Jordanes points out. The Gothic "singers of songs" recorded their ancestors in the same way the Celts recorded theirs.

Yes, as they moved south they assimilated with other tribes, but never within the other tribes (Dacians included). Their first cultural exchanges were with the Celts and Sarmatians. They probably absorbed some of the remaining Dacian culture, but it was never heavily influential beyond the traditional reuse of nomens. They even brought individuals from Asia Minor into their culture; the mother of Bishop Ulfilas was a Cappadocian.

Once again, I point at the fruitlessness of talking about "physical appearance." Physically, Dacians were no different than Celts, Goths, Greeks, Romans... and a multitude of Germanic tribes which included Scandians, the people from whom the Goths originated. The Goths had a separate and distinct language which was only remotely related to Dacian or Thracian in the sense that it was Indo-European.

For a period that exceeded 800 years, the Goths were controlled by the two familes mentioned above. Theodoric the Great was an Amal. And the Kingdom of Toulouse was founded by Theodoric, the son-in-law of Alaric and a Balth.