herodotus in the fourth book of the histories, written in about 440 . herodotus wrote that the getae were defeated by the persian emperor darius the great when he battled the scythians. the getae were called the dacians by the romans. they were thracians who were living in dacia, which is where romania, moldova and the northern part of bulgaria are now. the dacians attacked the roman province, the border of which was formed by the danube, in 87 . this was during emperor domitian's rule. the dacians were defeated by the roman empire under emperor trajan in two battles that lasted from 101 until 106 . the roman empire made dacia into the province of roman dacia.