11 Facts About Burebista

Burebista was the first king who successfully unified the tribes of the Dacian kingdom, which comprised the area located between the Danube, Tisza, and Dniester rivers, and modern day Romania and Moldova.

From 61 BC onwards Burebista pursued a series of conquests that expanded the Dacian kingdom.

Burebista himself was assassinated in a plot by the Dacian aristocracy at around the same time.

Only few ancient sources on Burebista survive: Strabo: Geographica 7.3.5,7.3.11 and 16.2.39 ; Jordanes: Getica67 ; a marble inscription found in Balchik, Bulgaria, which represents a decree by the citizens of Dionysopolis about Akornion and another inscription found in Nesebar.

Burebista's accession came with the expulsion of Celts around 60BC when his forces moved through to the middle Danube region, and with the support of the religious establishment and leaders in Dacia which brought around a stricter moral code in the Dacian kingdom.

The historian John Koch states that Burebista founded an empire sometime during the 1stcentury BC and that around 61BC Burebista expelled the Celts and moved into the middle Danube.

From around 61 BC Burebista began to lead a series of campaigns of conquest against neighbouring tribes and clans.

Akornion was sent as an ambassador to Pompey to claim the title of "king of kings" for Burebista to be used within the Hellenistic kingdoms of the Balkans and the Near East.

Caesar was never able to start his intended campaign because he was assassinated in 44BC, with Burebista being killed in a civil uprising in either 45 or 44BC.

In 1980 the Romanian government declared a celebration of the 2,050th anniversary of the founding of the "unitary and centralized" Dacian state of Burebista, drawing comparisons with Ceausescu's Romania and claiming an uninterrupted existence of the state from Burebista to Ceausescu.

The epic movie Burebista based on the king's life was released the same year, and celebrated him as the Romanian pater patriae.