The Getae
It's hoped that examination of the remains found in the Sveshtari tomb will shed new light on the civilization of the Getae , an important Thracian tribe who inhabited both banks of the lower Danube in classical times. Ancient authors disagreed on whether to classify the Getae as Thracians or as Dacians (who lived north of the Danube in what is now Romania), although it's safe to assume that all these groups came from the same ethnic roots. Thucydides alluded to their skill as horsemen, and they proved more than a handful for successive invaders - from Darius' Persians in the fifth century BC to the Romans in the first. In 335 BC Alexander the Great chased the Getae north of the Danube and destroyed some of their settlements, but failed to subdue them. His successor, Lysimachus, was captured by Getae ruler Dromichaetes in 292 BC, only to be lectured on the value of peace and sent home. However, their period of greatest glory came in the first century BC, when King Burebista presided over a short-lived Danubian empire which exercised control of the whole western seaboard of the Black Sea - from what is now the Ukraine in the north to Apollonia (present-day Sozopol) in the south. Evidence suggests that the Getae honoured a trinity of deities comprising mother earth, sun and moon, and, indeed, items of treasure recovered from the Sveshtari tombs were often found positioned in symbolic groups of three. A sceptical Herodotus relates how the Getae believed they were immortal, and worshipped a certain Zalmoxis (thought to be a north-Balkan version of Orpheus), who hid himself in an underground chamber for several years before re-emerging, much to the surprise of his contemporaries, to proclaim that he had died and come back to life again. Herodotus also tells of how the Getae sent "messengers" to Zalmoxis every five years by choosing a suitable courier, then tossing him onto a forest of upturned spear-points.
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