the Triballi;
but Alexander the Great found them on the northern bank of the river
when he undertook the conquest of the Thracian tribes prior to his
expedition into Persia. He is said to have crossed the Danube at a place
not clearly defined (B.C. 335), and to have defeated about
10,000 foot and 4,000 horsemen. These took refuge with their families in
a wooden town, from which they were also dislodged, and fleeing to the
steppes they escaped from the victorious Greeks. Now it is that we find
the name Getae changed into that of Dacians,[77] and in the events which
followed during the reign of Lysimachus they are known by both
designations. After the death of Alexander the Great, Lysimachus
inherited Thrace, and subsequently acquired Macedonia and Asia Minor;
but in order to secure the first-named territory he found it necessary
to cope with barbarian tribes, who formed a coalition against him. These
he defeated; but inasmuch as the Getae or Dacians, under their king
(hellenised) Dromichaetes, had co-operated with the barbarians, he
undertook an expedition into their country north of the Danube shortly
afterwards. Penetrating to their barren plains, he sustained a defeat,
and was captured along with his whole army. According to certain Greek
writers he was treated with great magnanimity by the Dacian king; but
all are agreed that the latter only liberated him for a ransom of some
kind, either in money or territory. Paget thinks he secured a large
treasure, as many thousands of gold coins have been found, some of them
bearing the name of Lysimachus. 'I am in possession of some of these
coins,' he says, 'and though many were melted down by the Jews in
Wallachia, to whom they were conveyed across the frontier in loaves of
bread, they are still [1850] very common, and are frequently used by the
Transylvanians for signet rings and other ornaments.'[78]

From the time of Lysimachus until about that of Augustus Caesar we hear
little or nothing of the Getae or Dacians, and we will therefore pass on
to what may be called the Roman period.

[Footnote 77: Full accounts of the relations, or supposed relations,
between the Thracians, the Getae, and the Dacians will be found in Smith,
_Geog. Dict._, articles 'Dacia,' Geography; 'Thracia,' p. 325; 'Moesia,'
p. 677; and 'Dacia,' p. 679. In Dierauer (pp. 63-4 and note 1) and
Roesler (chap, i.) everything of interest from the Greek and Roman
historians is fully discussed, but the other G