Ultimate Fate
The latest secure mention of the Free Dacians in the ancient sources is Constantine I's acclamation as Dacicus Maximus in 336. For the year 381, the Byzantine chronicler Zosimus records an invasion over the Danube by a barbarian coalition of Huns, Scirii and what he terms Karpodakai, or Carpo-Dacians. There is much controversy about the meaning of this term and whether it refers to the Carpi. However, it certainly refers to the Dacians, and most likely means the "Dacians of the Carpathians". However, it is uncertain whether this term constitutes reliable evidence that the Dacians were still a significant force at this time. Zosimus is widely regarded as an unreliable chronicler and has been criticised by one scholar as having "an unsurpassable claim to be regarded as the worst of all the extant Greek historians of the Roman Empire...it would be tedious to catalogue all the instances where this historian has falsely transcribed names, not to mention his confusion of events...". Even if it is accepted that the Zosimus quote proves the continued existence in 381 of the Dacians as a distinct ethnic group, it is the last such mention in the ancient sources.
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