A number of ancient sources mention the existence in the Haemus Mountains, at the southern border of the kingdom of the Getae, of a sanctuary dedicated to Dionysos. The earliest attestation is due to the Athenian playwright Euripides, for the year 438 BC. The priesthood of Dionysos had, in the Geto-Dacian world, but also in the southern Thracians and in much of the Hellenistic world, the status of an official religion.