Dacian

The Dacians were a Thracian people who inhabited the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea and were somewhat culturally influenced by the neighbouring Scythians and by the Celtic invaders of the 4th century BC. Best known from Trajan's Column in Rome, which commemorates Trajan's victory over the Dacians and the incorporation of Dacia into the Empire, the Dacians were no pushover. During the reign of the emperor Domitian the Dacians butchered a Roman army and forced the Romans to negotiate a peace treaty. Famed for their use of the deadly falx, a three foot haft with a sickle like blade on the end, the Dacian warbands also used javelins and spears and were supported by archers. The Dacian cavalry was supplemented by troops from the neighbouring Sarmatian tribes and included Sarmatian cataphracts - armoured men on armoured horses.