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 Cæsar we hear little or nothing of the Getæ 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 Getæ, and the Dacians will be found in Smith, _Geog. Dict._, articles 'Dacia,' Geography; 'Thracia,' p. 325; 'Mœsia,' 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 German, French, and English writers treat the matter with more or less brevity, in some instances dismissing it in a few words.] [Footnote 78: Vol. ii. pp. 105-106. The whole question is involved in obscurity.] II. Some modern writers are of opinion that when the Romans first became acquainted with the country north of the Danube, they found two allied or germane tribes, the Getæ in the eastern, and the Dacians in the western part of the territory; but according to Dion Cassius the Romans called all the inhabitants north of the Ister '_Dacians_,' no matter whether they were Thracians, Getæ, or Dacians, and the probability is that the Getæ had spread themselves gradually over the plains westward, then acquired possession of the Carpathian mountains, and descended into the plains of Transylvania.[79] Their fastnesses, called forts or cities, were built of wood, and were situated in the mountains, and there it was that their fiercest contests with the Roman arms took place previous to their complete subjugation.