Editing Getae (section)

== Culture ==
According to [[Herodotus]], the Getae were "the noblest as well as the most [[justice|just]] of all the Thracian tribes".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daskalov |first1=Roumen |last2=Vezenkov |first2=Alexander |title=Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume Three Shared Pasts, Disputed Legacies |date=2015 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004271166 |page=21 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WDRzBwAAQBAJ&dq=Herodotus+Getae&pg=PA21}}</ref><ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', 4.93.</ref> When the [[Persian Empire|Persian]]s, led by [[Darius I of Persia|Darius the Great]], campaigned against the [[Scythians]], the Thracian tribes in the [[Balkans]] [[Surrender (military)|surrendered]] to Darius on his way to [[Scythia]], and only the Getae offered resistance.<ref name="Herodotus. Histories, 4.93">Herodotus. ''Histories'', 4.93.</ref>

One episode from the history of the Getae is attested by several ancient writers.<ref>Strabo. ''Geography'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/7C*.html#3.8 3.8].</ref><ref>Pausanias. ''Description of Greece'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160&layout=&loc=1.9.5 1.9.5].</ref>

When [[Lysimachus]] tried to subdue the Getae he was defeated by them. The Getae king, [[Dromichaetes]], took him prisoner but he treated him well and convinced Lysimachus there is more to gain as an ally than as an enemy of the Getae and released him. According to Diodorus, Dromichaetes entertained Lysimachus at his palace at Helis, where food was served on gold and silver plates. The discovery of the celebrated tomb at [[Sveshtari]] (1982) suggests that Helis was located perhaps in its vicinity,<ref>{{cite journal|author=Delev, P.|title=Lysimachus, the Getae, and Archaeology (2000)|journal=The Classical Quarterly |series=New Series|pages=384–401|issue=2|year=2000|doi=10.1093/cq/50.2.384|volume=50}}</ref> where remains of a large antique city are found along with dozens of other Thracian mound tombs.

As stated earlier, just like the Dacians, the principal god of the Getae was [[Zalmoxis]] whom they sometimes called [[Gebeleizis]].

{{blockquote|These same Thracians, whenever there is thunder or lightning, fire arrows up into the sky, and shake their fists at Zeus, in the belief that there is no god save their own.|Herodotus. ''the Histories'', 4.94. trans. Tom Holland}}

[[Pliny the Elder]] in his ''[[Naturalis Historia]]'' mentions a tribe called the [[Tyragetae]],<ref>Pliny the Elder. ''Naturalis Historia'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+4.26 4.26]. "Leaving Taphræ, and going along the mainland, we find in the interior the Auchetæ, in whose country the Hypanis has its rise, as also the Neurœ, in whose district the Borysthenes has its source, the Geloni, the Thyssagetæ, the Budini, the Basilidæ, and the Agathyrsi with their azure-coloured hair."</ref> apparently a Daco-Thracian tribe who dwelt by the river Tyras (the [[Dniester]]). Their [[ethnonym|tribal name]] appears to be a combination of ''Tyras'' and ''Getae''; see also the names [[Thyssagetae]] and [[Massagetae]].

The [[Roman people|Roman]] poet [[Ovid]], during his long exile in [[History of Constanța|Tomis]], is asserted to have written poetry (now lost) in the [[Getic language]]. In his ''[[Epistulae ex Ponto]]'', written from the northern coast of the Black Sea, he asserts that two major, distinct languages were spoken by the sundry tribes of Scythia, which he referred to as Getic, and Sarmatian.