Dacii | |
---|---|
Directed by | Sergiu Nicolaescu |
Written by | Titus Popovici Jaqcues Rémy |
Starring | Pierre Brice Amza Pellea Marie-Jose Nat Georges Marchal Mircea Albulescu Sergiu Nicolaescu Geo Barton |
Cinematography | Costache Ciubotaru |
Music by | Theodor Grigoriu |
Production companies | Studioul Cinematografic București Franco London Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 110 minutes |
Countries | Romania France |
Language | Romanian |
Dacii (The Dacians) is a 1967 historical drama film about the run up to Domitian's Dacian War, which was fought between the Roman Empire and the Dacians in AD 87-88. The film shows historical events about Romania.
The film was directed by Romanian director Sergiu Nicolaescu. It was released on 31 May 1967 in France. It was entered into the 5th Moscow International Film Festival. [1] In Romania the film was immensely successful, and it remains one of the most watched films of all time in the country.
In a pre-credit sequence, a massive Roman army arrives at the gates of a Dacian town. The Roman envoy asks them to open the gates, promising them life and liberty. The guard on watch asks who is making this demand, and gets the reply "the masters of the world". He responds "You will be when we will die".
After the credits we see a Roman army commanded by General Fuscus (Georges Marchal) arrayed at the Danube waiting for the right moment to attack Dacia. Fuscus and Roman senator Attius plot to kill the decadent emperor Domitian, who has just arrived to take command. Attius's son Severus (Pierre Brice) is a subordinate commander under Fuscus. News arrives that the Marcomanni have risen in rebellion. Domitian decides to make a deal with the Dacians so he can use the army to suppress the rebellion. Attius is sent across the Danube with Severus and a small contingent of legionaries to negotiate. But as soon as he enters Dacian territory Attius is killed by a Dacian sentry. Severus returns to camp with his father's body, and Domitian orders an attack.
In Dacia Cotyso (Alexander Herescu) and Meda (Marie-José Nat), children of King Decebalus (Amza Pellea), are hunting in the Carpathian Mountains. When news arrives that Attius has been killed Decebalus makes the mysterious remark that he was "the only Roman who was not supposed to die". Decebalus reveals that Attius was really a Dacian called Zoltes, sent to Rome 40 years ago as part of a plan to promote Dacian interests. He had been supplied liberally with gold annually so that he could become influential in Roman politics and keep Decebalus informed of events in the capital. When he died he had been carrying a letter to Decebalus informing him of Roman plans and dispositions.
Decebalus orders an evacuation of the border province accompanied by delaying operations against the Romans. He sends a symbolic message to Domitian: a caged mouse, frog, bird, a knife and a quiver of arrows. The message is misinterpreted by the Romans as a sign of Dacian submission to Rome (the animals signifying the land, waters and air, all being handed over with the weapons). Severus is deputed to travel to the Dacian capital to receive Decebalus' surrender. When he gets there, Decebalus reveals to him the truth about his father Attius. He also tells him that the true meaning of the message was that the Dacians would fight to the end against invaders.
The Dacians prepare for war. According to ancestral custom, the bravest young warrior must be sacrificed to the Dacian god Zalmoxis to win his favour. Since the king's son Cotyso won a contest of athletic and martial skill, he has been given the honour of being sent to Zalmoxis. Cotyso accepts that he must die and is sacrificed by being thrown onto spears. Decebalus says that the god will now be with them in their battles.
After Severus reports back, an angry Domitian sends Fuscus to crush the Dacians. Severus is ordered by Fuscus to lead the vanguard into an attack on the Dacians in a valley, but they are drawn into an ambush. Severus is badly injured. Believing him dead, Fuscus blames the disaster on Severus. Meanwhile, a wounded and delirious Severus is wandering through the mountains. He is found by Decebalus' daughter Meda, who takes him to her cabin. They fall in love. When Decebalus finds out, he asks Severus to convince Domitian to negotiate, but Severus says that he must do his duty as a Roman officer. Decebalus lets him go. Back at the camp, Severus argues violently with Fuscus. Fuscus says he intends to overthrow Domitian, offering Severus the position of governor of Dacia, but the latter refuses. The two generals fight each other, and Severus kills Fuscus. Witnessing the fight, Domitian gives Severus command of the army and tells him to attack the Dacians. Decebalus, meanwhile has assembled his own army. The two armies confront each other across the battlefield. Decebalus and Severus meet between the armies and engage in single combat. Severus is killed. As he dies he says "this is all I could do for you". The two armies then march towards each other into battle.
Meda, Severus and Cornelius Fuscus were played by French actors and their dialogues were dubbed into Romanian for the film. [2]
The film was one of several nationalist epics produced during Nicolae Ceaușescu's regime. According to Mark Stolarik it is about the ethnogenesis of the Romanian people as a "Dacian-Roman synthesis". After Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave), it is the most watched Romanian historical film, and the fourth most watched movie of all time in Romania. [3] Mira Liehm and Antonín J. Liehm argue that "the pathos of The Dacians and Michael the Brave was so moving to the Romanian audience and the films' naivete so sincere that their success became something of a sociological phenomenon." [4]
The Romanian state was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877. During World War I, after declaring its neutrality in 1914, Romania fought together with the Allied Powers from 1916. In the aftermath of the war, Bukovina, Bessarabia, Transylvania, and parts of Banat, Crișana, and Maramureș became part of the Kingdom of Romania. In June–August 1940, as a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and Second Vienna Award, Romania was compelled to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union and Northern Transylvania to Hungary. In November 1940, Romania signed the Tripartite Pact and, consequently, in June 1941 entered World War II on the Axis side, fighting against the Soviet Union until August 1944, when it joined the Allies and recovered Northern Transylvania.
Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus roughly corresponds to present-day Romania, as well as parts of Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Ukraine.
Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River. As a Roman domain Moesia was administered at first by the governor of Noricum as 'Civitates of Moesia and Triballia'. It included most of the territory of modern eastern Serbia, Kosovo, north-eastern Albania, northern parts of North Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobruja and small parts of Southern Ukraine.
The Dacians were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often considered a subgroup of the Thracians. This area includes mainly the present-day countries of Romania and Moldova, as well as parts of Ukraine, Eastern Serbia, Northern Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary and Southern Poland. The Dacians and the related Getae spoke the Dacian language, which has a debated relationship with the neighbouring Thracian language and may be a subgroup of it. Dacians were somewhat culturally influenced by the neighbouring Scythians and by the Celtic invaders of the 4th century BC.
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 the 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.
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The Third Battle of Tapae (101) was the decisive battle of the first of Trajan's Dacian Wars, in which the Roman Emperor defeated the Dacian King Decebalus's army. Other setbacks in the campaign delayed its completion until 102. The battle is most likely the battle-scene depicted on Plate 22 of Trajan's column.
Domitian's Dacian War was a conflict between the Roman Empire and the Dacian Kingdom, which had invaded the province of Moesia. The war occurred during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian, in the years 86–88 AD.
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The military history of Romania deals with conflicts spreading over a period of about 2500 years across the territory of modern Romania, the Balkan Peninsula and Eastern Europe and the role of the Romanian military in conflicts and peacekeeping worldwide.
Duras, also known as Duras-Diurpaneus, was king of the Dacians between maybe AD 69 and 87, during the time that Domitian ruled the Roman Empire. Duras' immediate successor was Decebalus.
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