Deceneus or Decaeneus (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Δεκαίνεος, ''Dekaineos'') was a priest of

Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus ro ...

during the reign of Burebista (82/61–45/44 BC). He is mentioned in the near-contemporary Greek ''

Geographica The ''Geographica'' (, ''Geōgraphiká''; or , "Strabo's 17 Books on Geographical Topics") or ''Geography'', is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books', written in Greek in the late 1st century BC, or early 1st cen ...

'' of

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

and in the 6th-century

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

Getica ''De origine actibusque Getarum'' (''The Origin and Deeds of the Getae''), commonly abbreviated ''Getica'' (), written in Late Latin by Jordanes in or shortly after 551 AD, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of the ori ...

'' of

Jordanes Jordanes (; Greek language, Greek: Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, claimed to be of Goths, Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on R ...

, where he is called ''Dicineus''. In Strabo's account, Decaeneus is the second most powerful man among the Dacian and Getic tribes and their high priest. His support for Burebista is key to the latter's attaining and holding power over all the tribes. He succeeded to political power in a reduced area after Burebista's death, but he does not appear to have taken the royal title. Jordanes' account is derivative of Strabo's. He credits Dicineus with bringing civilization to the

Goths The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...

(whom he equates with the Getae). Shami Ghosh, ''Writing the Barbarian Past: Studies in Early Medieval Historical Narrative'' (Brill, 2015), pp. 49–50. He places him between Zeuta and Zalmoxis as second in a succession of Dacian wise men.

Footnotes

Dacians 1st-century BC clergy {{Dacia topics