The King Decebalus

Dacia – year 106 AD. The war between the Dacians and the Romans was coming to an end. The Dacians, led by King Decebalus, offered a heroic resistance. The emperor of Rome, Trajan had mobilized the entire army of the empire to ensure victory. He wanted to get hold of Dacian gold, and above all eliminate the threat posed by the Dacians and their allies on the eastern border.

The last fortification of the Dacians, the citadel in the Orastiei Mountains, fell into the hands of the enemy. Despite the fierce resistance, Sarmisegetusa was besieged and conquered. Some of its defenders, including Decebalus, managed to leave the stronghold and decided to continue the resistance against the Romans within the country. Pursued by the Roman cavalry, Decebalus committed suicide, preferring to die rather than be captured alive by his enemies. His name remained in history and became a legend!

Cassius Dio – one of the most famous historians of antiquity – described Decebalus as very skilled in war plans, and expert in their implementation, he knew how to choose the right moment to attack the enemy, and retreat in time. Ingenious at setting traps, he was a good warrior and knew how to profit from victory, but also to emerge from defeat with his head held high. For this reason, he was a much-feared enemy by the Romans.

The stubbornness of the Dacian king was also evoked by Pliny the Younger in his epistles addressed to the emperor Trajan in which he referred to the fate of Decebalus removed from his residence, chased away while he was alive, never lost hope (from Epistolae, VIII, 4, 2 by Pliny the Younger to Trajan).

Cassius Dio – one of the most famous historians of antiquity – described Decebalus as very skilled in war plans, and expert in their implementation, he knew how to choose the right moment to attack the enemy, and retreat in time. Ingenious at setting traps, he was a good warrior and knew how to profit from victory, but also to emerge from defeat with his head held high. For this reason, he was a much-feared enemy by the Romans.

The stubbornness of the Dacian king was also evoked by Pliny the Younger in his epistles addressed to the emperor Trajan in which he referred to the fate of Decebalus removed from his residence, chased away while he was alive, never lost hope (from Epistolae, VIII, 4, 2 by Pliny the Younger to Trajan).

Decebalus was the last great king of the Dacians. Ancient sources present him as a feared enemy of Rome, but also as a daring warrior. The fact that he was a brave warrior and a feared enemy is demonstrated both by the war against Domitian, which he had won and by the two wars against the Romans in the years 101-102 and 105-106 AD. In the last war, Decebalus was definitively defeated, and as Cassio Dione tells us “When Decebalus saw that his throne and the whole country were in the hands of the enemy and that he was in danger of being captured as a prisoner, he took the life. His head was brought to Rome”.