section_path: History/Relations with Scythians/Agathyrsi Transylvania
section_name: Agathyrsi Transylvania
paragraph_text: Agathyrsi Transylvania
  
  The Scythians' arrival in the Carpathian mountains is dated to 700 BC. The Agathyrsi of Transylvania had been mentioned by Herodotus (fifth century BC), who regarded them as not a Scythian people, but closely related to them. In other respects, their customs were close to those of the Thracians. The Agathyrsi were completely denationalized at the time of Herodotus and absorbed by the native Thracians.
  
  The opinion that the Agathyrsi were almost certainly Thracians results also from the writings preserved by Stephen of Byzantium, who explains that the Greeks called the Trausi the Agathyrsi, and we know that the Trausi lived in the Rhodope Mountains. Certain details from their way of life, such as tattooing, also suggest that the Agathyrsi were Thracians. Their place was later taken by the Dacians. That the Dacians were of Thracian stock is not in doubt, and it is safe to assume that this new name also encompassed the Agathyrsi, and perhaps other neighbouring Thracian people as well, as a result of some political upheaval.