Comosicus was a

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 ...

n king and high priest who lived in the 1st century BC. The only reference to Comosicus is a passage in the writings of the Roman historian

Jordanes Jordanes (), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat widely believed to be of Gothic descent who became a historian later in life. Late in life he wrote two works, one on Roman history ('' Romana'') a ...

Sources

Jordanes refers to

Burebista Burebista ( grc, Βυρεβίστας, Βοιρεβίστας) was the king of the Getae and Dacian tribes from 82/61BC to 45/44BC. He was the first king who successfully unified the tribes of the Dacian kingdom, which comprised the area loca ...

as king of

, but then goes on to discuss a high priest called Dicineus who taught the Dacians astronomy and whose wisdom was revered. He then says that "after the death of Dicienus, they held Comosicus in almost equal honour, because he was not inferior in knowledge. By reason of his wisdom he was accounted their priest and king, and he judged the people with the greatest uprightness. When he too had departed Coryllus ascended the throne as king of the Goths etaeand for forty years ruled his people in Dacia."

Interpretations

"Coryllus" is widely believed to be identical to

Scorilo Scorilo (died 70) was a Dacian king who may have been the father of Decebalus. Evidence for his life and reign is fragmentary. Sources The Roman historian Jordanes lists a series of Dacian kings before Decebalus, placing a ruler called "Coryll ...

, but there is no other evidence concerning Comosicus. Jordanes' ambiguity about the status of Dicineus in relation to Burebista possibly arises from the fact that after Burebista's assassination in 44 BC his empire dissolved, with the exception of the nucleus around the Orăștie Mountains, while the rest divided into various kingdoms.Strabo, ''Geography'', VII:3.5 The concept of a priest-judge may have provided a trans-tribal unity. Louis Marin refers to Dicineus as "a sort of double for the king, a double who also stood in for Burebista's successor Comosicus", since Comosicus embodies a "twin royalty, political and religious".Marin, Louis, "Utopian Discourse and Narrative of Origins", ''On Representation'', Stanford University Press, 2001, pp.109; 415. Since Comosicus's successor Scorilo appears to have come to power sometime between 30 and 40 AD, Comosicus's accession immediately after Burebista would imply an impossibly long reign. Other evidence suggests that a ruler called

Cotiso Cotiso, Cotish or Cotison (flourished c. 30 BC) was a Dacian king who apparently ruled the mountains between Banat and Oltenia (modern-day Romania). Horace calls him king of the Dacians.John T. White, D.D. Oxon, ''The first (-fourth) book of the ...

was the dominant power in the late 1st century BC. Ioana A. Oltean argues that Comosicus probably succeeded Cotiso at some point during the campaign of Marcus Vinicius in the Dacian area c.9 BC and ruled until 29 AD. He may have been the first Dacian ruler to combine the positions of priest and king.

External links

Enciclopedia Dacia - Comosicus
(Romanian)

References

Works cited

* {{Dacia topics 1st-century BC rulers in Europe 1st-century monarchs in Europe Dacian names Dacian kings