Battle of Sarmisegetusa

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The Battle of Sarmisegetusa (also spelled Sarmizegethusa) was a siege of the capital of Dacia, fought in 106 between the Roman army of Emperor Trajan, and the Dacians led by King Decebalus.

[edit] Background

Because the Dacians represented an obstacle against Roman expansion in the east, in the year 101 Emperor Trajan decided to begin a new campaign against them. The first war began on 25 March and the Roman troops, consisting of four principal legions (X Gemina, XI Claudia, II Traiana Fortis and XXX Ulpia Victrix), defeated the Dacians.

Although the Dacians had been defeated during this First Dacian War, the emperor postponed the final siege for conquest of their capital Sarmizegetuza, because his armies needed reorganization. Trajan imposed on the Dacians very hard peace conditions: Decebalus had to renounce claim to some regions of his kingdom, including Banat, Tara Hategului, Oltenia, and Muntenia in the area south-west of Transylvania. He also had to surrender all the Roman deserters and all his war machines. At Rome, Trajan was received as a winner and he took the name of Dacicus, a title that appears on his coinage of this period.

However, during the years 103–105, Decebalus did not respect the peace conditions imposed by Trajan and the emperor then decided to completely destroy the Dacian kingdom and to conquer Sarmizegetuza. The siege for the conquering of Sarmizegetuza took place in the summer of the year 106. It is estimated that the Dacians had probably less than 20,000 men capable of fighting.

[edit] Advance

Roman soldiers building a bridge and a mountain road in Dacia, from Trajan's Column. Note the heads on pikes at the right.

The Romans marched towards Sarmizegetuza on three main columns. The first column marched across the bridge built by Apollodorus of Damascus, then it followed the valleys of rivers Cerna and Timiş up to Tibiscum, then turned on the valley of the river Bistra, through the Tara Hategului. In these places, there were already placed Roman garrisons from the first war, making the advance easier. They passed through Valea Cernei, Hateg, and Valea Streiului and destroyed the Dacian fortresses at Costesti, Blidaru, and Piatra Rosie.

The second column of the army is believed to have crossed the Danube somewhere near ancient Sucidava, then marching northwards on the valley of Jiu, linking with the first Roman column in Tara Hategului.

These two columns, united, began attacking the area of the Surianu Mountains, meeting sporadic but desperate resistance from the Dacians.

The third Roman column, led probably by Trajan, advanced through eastern Muntenia, crossed the Carpathians at a location close to what is now Bran, and through southern Transylvania marched westwards.

The rest of the troops left from Moesia Inferior and passed through Bran, Bratocea, and Oituz and destroying the Dacian fortresses between Cumidava (now Rasnov, in Romania) and Angustia (now Bretcu, in Romania). At the battle for the conquest of Sarmizegetuza the following legions participated: II Adiutirx, IV Flavia Felix, and a vexillatio of VI Ferrata (which until this war had been stationed in Iudaea).

The Roman columns enveloped Sarmizegetuza.

Other Roman units are believed to have attacked other Dacian settlements and concentration points, as far north as the river Tisa, to the east, through what is now Moldavia. Dacian settlements in the west, such as Ziridava, were completely destroyed in this period. Although Moldavia and Maramureş (northern Romania) were never part of the Roman province of Dacia and remained free from Roman rule.

[edit] Siege

Because there is no real evidence in historical acts about the siege, the only information we have is the Trajan's Column, but it is quite a controversial source. There is a strong debate whether the Romans did actually fight for Sarmizegetuza, or whether the Dacians left the capital destroying it themselves to flee to a safer place. However, most of the historians agree that a siege of Sarmizegetuza actually took place.

The first assault was repelled by the Dacians. The Romans attacked again with their war machines and, at the same time, they built a platform to more easily attack the fortress. They also encircled the city with a circumvallatio wall.

Then, they destroyed the water pipes of Sarmizegetuza and obliged the defenders to retire before they set fire to their city. The Romans finally succeeded in entering the Dacian sacred enclosure, hailed Trajan as emperor and then destroyed the whole fortress. IV Flavia Felix was stationed there to guard what remained of Sarmizegetuza. After the end of the siege, Bicilis, a confidant of Decebalus, betrayed his king and the Romans discovered the Dacian treasure which, according to Jerome Carcopino (p.73), consisted of 165,000 kilograms of pure gold and 331,000 kilograms of silver in the bed of the Sergetia River (Cassius Dio 68.14).

[edit] Aftermath

Decebalus and many of his most loyal men escaped from the siege. They headed east, probably towards the fortification of Ranistorum (modern location can not be identified), only to be caught behind by Roman cavalrymen. Knowing the unlucky fate of the prisoners of war taken by Romans, Decebalus committed suicide.

His head and his right arm were brought to Trajan. The Romans reorganized Dacia as a Roman province and built another center of administration at a distance of 40 km from the old Sarmizegetuza. This center was named Colonia Ulpia Traiana Dacica Augusta Sarmizegetuza. This founding was celebrated by the minting by order of the Roman Senate of a sestertius dedicated to the optimus princeps.

Dacian losses in this war where tremendous, but the Roman army also paid a large price for the conquest of Dacia. The first great Dacian rebellion against the Romans would take place exactly at the death of Traian, in 117, showing how feared and respected the emperor remained in the hearts of the Dacians. Even in modern Romanian folklore (Romanians being the descendants of Romanized Dacians), Trajan was remembered as Traian, and his great wars with the "people of the mountains" are still remembered in Romanian epic songs.

[edit] References

• Mihai Manea, Adrian Pascu, and Bogdan Teodorescu, Istoria romanilor (Bucharest, 1997), pages 107-122.
• Cassius Dio, Roman History, books 67-68.
• Jerome Carcopino, Points de vue sur l'ìmpérialisme romain (Paris, 1924).

[edit] See also

• List of Roman battles