The Dacians, The Wolf Warriors

The Dacians, a very important Indo-European people of the ancient world, were, like all Indo-European peoples, highly trained in the art of war. The legends of the ancient world placed the worship of Ares/Mars, the god of war, in the world of the Thracians, the Dacians being the most important of the Thracians, by the creation of a state and by their remarkable civilization, where war generated rank. The Dacian leaders, military aristocrats, Tarabostes are similar to the Bharathi of the Aryans, therefore the accounts of Herodotus, the father of history, who called the Thracians (including the Dacians, the northern Thracians), “the most important of the Indo-Europeans, after the race of the Indians” (i.e. the Persians and the Aryans, their relatives), also have a military meaning. The totemic symbol of the wolf was much present in Europe, especially with Indo-European peoples, like the Spartans, the aristocrats of war, but mostly with the Romans, the gendarmes of the ancient world. But the Dacians honoured this majestic animal above all, not only as a symbol of the state, but also, apparently, as their eponym. As warriors, the Dacians lay under the sign of the wolf, their battle flag, and acted like real wolves against their enemies, whether they were Celts, during the reign of Burebista, or Romans, during the reign of Decebalus. The Dacians made history in the military art, being perfectly integrated, after the Roman conquest, in the largest and best trained army of the ancient world, the Roman army. Moreover, the wolf warriors, mastering the equestrian art, were a success in the special, though auxiliary troops of the famous equites singulares in the Roman army. If the Romans were the eagles of war, the Dacians were its wolves, these two symbols best illustrating the military art of all times.