Teurisci was a Dacian tribe at the time of Ptolemy (140 AD). They were originally considered a branch of the Celtic

Taurisci The Taurisci were a federation of Celtic tribes who dwelt in today's Carinthia and northern Slovenia (Carniola) before the coming of the Romans (c. 200 BC). According to Pliny the Elder, they are the same as the people known as the Norici. Et ...

(

Noricum Noricum () is the Latin name for the kingdom or federation of tribes that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. In the first century AD, it became a province of the Roman Empire. Its borders were the Danube to the north, R ...

), who moved to Upper

Tisza The Tisza, Tysa or Tisa (see below) is one of the major rivers of Central and Eastern Europe. It was once called "the most Hungarian river" because it used to flow entirely within the Kingdom of Hungary. Today, it crosses several national bo ...

. However, the archaeology shows that

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

have been absorbed by Dacians, at some pointDacia: Landscape, Colonization and Romanization by Ioana A Oltean, , 2007, page 47 creating a Celto-Dacian cultural horizon in the upper Tisza.

Name

The name Teurisci is considered a variant of

or Tauristae.

Distribution

Taurisci

The Celtic Taurisci were settled in the south-eastern Alps and were known from the name of Mount Taurus. Due to iron mining, their centers (i.e. Noreia - now Newmarkt and Virunum now Magdalensburg) enjoyed great success in trade and commerce with the Balkans. The lowland Taurisci gradually grew in power and became largely separate from their mountain relatives. Therefore, the inhabitants of this eastern area became known collectively – from the place name Noreia – as Norici and the territory under their control as Noricum.

Teurisci

Teurisci, attested by Ptolemy in Dacia, were originally a group of the Celtic Taurisci from the Austrian Alps established in North-Western Dacia at the end of Iron Age.

Historical evidence

In 60 BC, when the king of the Dacians Burebista succeeded in uniting his own people with their kindred

Getae The Getae or Getai ( or , also Getans) were a large nation who inhabited the regions to either side of the Lower Danube in what is today northern Bulgaria and southern Romania, throughout much of Classical Antiquity. The main source of informa ...

and Burs into one kingdom he began to put pressure on the Celtic tribes of the Danubian Basin. He advanced against the Taurisci and Boii, gaining his most notable success near to the river Tisza After defeating the Taurisci (Cotini) and Boii, the Dacian King Burebista forced some of them to leave southwestern Slovakia. A Celto-Dacian cultural horizon was created in the conquered territory, Dacian settlement here continued into the second decade of the new era.

Posidonius Posidonius (; , "of Poseidon") "of Apameia" (ὁ Ἀπαμεύς) or "of Rhodes" (ὁ Ῥόδιος) (), was a Greeks, Greek politician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, historian, mathematician, and teacher native to Apamea (Syria), Apame ...

record that, at his time, Celtic (Boii, Scordisci, and Taurisci) were intermingling with Thracians on both sides of the Danube. Later,

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 ...

(about 20 AD), repeat this piece of information, yet he uses the variant Ligyrisci instead of the Posidinius's variant Teurisci. According to

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

(140 AD), Teurisci 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 ...

bordered Anarti of Dacia on the east. Further east of them were the Dacian Costoboci.

Archaeological evidence

About 150 BC, Celtic La Tène material disappears from Dacia. This coincides with the ancient writings which mentioned the rise of the Dacian authority. It ended the Celtic domination and it is possible Celts were thrust out of Dacia. Alternatively, some scholars have proposed that the Transylvanian Celts remained but merged into the local culture and thus ceased to be distinctiveKoch, John T (2005). ‘’Dacians and Celts’’ in Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia, Volume 1,. ABC-CLIO. ., page 549 The Celtic groups which spread as far as Transylvania had been assimilated by the Dacians.

Notes

References

* Koch, John T (2005). ‘’Dacians and Celts’’ in Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia, Volume 1,. ABC-CLIO. ., page 549 * Mannova Elena (1963) Studia historica Slovaca Bratislava : Vydavatel̕stvo Slovenskej Akadémie * Oltean, Ioana, (2007) Dacia: Landscape, Colonization and Romanization, Routledge, *

External links

{{Dacia topics Ancient tribes in Dacia Historical Celtic peoples Gauls