| Comosicus | |
|---|---|
| Dacian king | |
 symbols of the Dacian kingdom | |
| Reign | 9 BC(?) -30s AD. |
| Predecessor | Cotiso |
| Successor | Scorilo |
Comosicus was a Dacian king and high priest who lived in the 1st century BC. [1] [2] The only reference to Comosicus is a passage in the writings of the Roman historian Jordanes.
Jordanes refers to Burebista as king of Dacia, but then goes on to discuss a high priest called Dicineus who taught the Dacians astronomy and whose wisdom was revered. He then says that "after the death of Dicienus, they held Comosicus in almost equal honour, because he was not inferior in knowledge. By reason of his wisdom he was accounted their priest and king, and he judged the people with the greatest uprightness. When he too had departed Coryllus ascended the throne as king of the Goths [Getae] and for forty years ruled his people in Dacia." [3]
"Coryllus" is widely believed to be identical to Scorilo, but there is no other evidence concerning Comosicus. Jordanes' ambiguity about the status of Dicineus in relation to Burebista possibly arises from the fact that after Burebista's assassination in 44 BC his empire dissolved, with the exception of the nucleus around the Orăștie Mountains, [4] while the rest divided into various kingdoms. [5] The concept of a priest-judge may have provided a trans-tribal unity. Louis Marin refers to Dicineus as "a sort of double for the king, a double who also stood in for Burebista's successor Comosicus", since Comosicus embodies a "twin royalty, political and religious". [6]
Since Comosicus's successor Scorilo appears to have come to power sometime between 30 and 40 AD, Comosicus's accession immediately after Burebista would imply an impossibly long reign[ citation needed ]. Other evidence suggests that a ruler called Cotiso was the dominant power in the late 1st century BC. Ioana A. Oltean argues that Comosicus probably succeeded Cotiso at some point during the campaign of Marcus Vinicius in the Dacian area c.9 BC and ruled until 29 AD. [1] He may have been the first Dacian ruler to combine the positions of priest and king.
Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians. The Greeks referred to them as the Getae and the Romans called them Daci.
Decebalus, sometimes referred to as Diurpaneus, was the last Dacian king. He is famous for fighting three wars, with varying success, against the Roman Empire under two emperors. After raiding south across the Danube, he defeated a Roman invasion in the reign of Domitian, securing a period of independence during which Decebalus consolidated his rule.
Burebista was a Thracian king of the Getae and Dacian tribes from 82/61 BC to 45/44 BC. He 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. In the 7th and 6th centuries BC it became home to the Thracian peoples, including the Getae and the Dacians. From the 4th century to the middle of the 2nd century BC the Dacian peoples were influenced by La Tène Celts who brought new technologies with them into Dacia. Sometime in the 2nd century BC the Dacians expelled the Celts from their lands. Dacians often warred with neighbouring tribes, but the relative isolation of the Dacian peoples in the Carpathian Mountains allowed them to survive and even to thrive. By the 1st century BC the Dacians had become the dominant power.
Cotiso, Cotish or Cotison was a Dacian king who apparently ruled the mountains between Banat and Oltenia. Horace calls him king of the Dacians. Suetonius calls him king of the Getae. He is mentioned also by Florus, who wrote that Cotiso and his armies used to attack towards south when the Danube froze.
Deceneus or Decaeneus was a priest of Dacia during the reign of Burebista. He is mentioned in the near-contemporary Greek Geographica of Strabo and in the 6th-century Latin Getica of Jordanes, where he is called Dicineus.
Argedava was an important Dacian town mentioned in the Decree of Dionysopolis (48 BC), and potentially located at Popești, a district in the town of Mihăilești, Giurgiu County, Muntenia, Romania.
Rubobostes was a Dacian king in Transylvania, during the 2nd century BC.
Aelius Catus was a Roman commander near the Danube who, according to Strabo's geography, transplanted 50,000 Getae from what is now Muntenia in Romania far to the south of Danube, in Moesia.
Duras, also known as Duras-Diurpaneus, was king of the Dacians between the years AD 69 and 87, during the time that Domitian ruled the Roman Empire. He was one of a series of rulers following the Great King Burebista. Duras' immediate successor was Decebalus.
Teurisci was a Dacian tribe at the time of Ptolemy. They were originally considered a branch of the Celtic Taurisci (Noricum), who moved to Upper Tisza. However, the archaeology shows that Celts have been absorbed by Dacians, at some pointcreating a Celto-Dacian cultural horizon in the upper Tisza.
Argidava was a Dacian fortress town close to the Danube, inhabited and governed by the Albocense. Located in today's Vărădia, Caraș-Severin County, Romania.
The Decree of Dionysopolis was written around 48 BC by the citizens of Dionysopolis to Akornion, who traveled far away in a diplomatic mission to meet somebody's farther in Argedauon. The decree, a fragmentary marble inscription, is located in the National Historical Museum in Sofia.
Amutria was a Dacian town close to the Danube and included in the Roman road network, after the conquest of Dacia.
Ad Mutriam was a fort in the Roman province of Dacia in the 2nd century AD.
This section of the timeline of Romanian history concerns events from Late Neolithic until Late Antiquity, which took place in or are directly related with the territory of modern Romania.
Scorilo was a Dacian king who may have been the father of Decebalus. Evidence for his life and reign is fragmentary.
At least two of his successors, Comosicus and Scorillo/Corilus/Scoriscus, became high priests and eventually Dacian kings
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