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Decebalus (ancient Dacian: Decebal) was the last great king of the Dacians and their greatest hero. Starting out as a lowly nobleman he would in time become King, and would also in time lead Dacia’s last resistance to Rome.
No one knows when or where Decebalus was born. In an unknown place to unknown parents Decebalus was born. We know nothing about his early life except that his name was not Decebalus originally, it was Diurpaneus, and that he was born a Tarabostes or local aristocrat. From his later actions we can tell that as a young man Decebalus probably bemoaned the fact that Dacia had been divided into four or five small bickering states since the Great King Burebista died (roughly around the same time as Julius Caesar).
As an adult Decebalus would do much to remedy the problems he saw. Details are scarce on Decebalus’ activities before 85 AD, but we do know that he spent those years apparently unifying the land for his king (whether or not this king was the same one who gave Decebalus his throne is unknown) and concentrating power in the citadel of Sarmizegetusa (modern Hunedoara county, Romania). In 85 AD Decebalus, who was commander-in-chief of Dacia apparently, reformed the army into a feared force and then led this new army across the Danube into the Roman province of Moesia to raid. When the Romans heard of this and that the Dacians had killed the governor of Moesia the Emperor Domitian responded by dispatching Praetorian prefect Cornelius Fuscus with two legions (among them the famous Legio V ‘Alaudae’) to punish Dacia. However Decebalus had expected this and set up an ambush for the Romans at a mountain pass called Taepae (now known as ‘The Iron Gates of Transylvania’). The result was a massacre of the Roman forces: Prefect Fuscus lay dead, two whole legions were wiped out, and their eagles captured. Decebalus’ popularity with the people had reached the point now that King Duras Durbaneus stepped down from the throne, and to no one’s surprise Decebalus was chosen to replace him. Upon ascension the new king adopted the nickname of ‘Decebalus’ (ancient Dacian: Braveheart) as his new name and a cult soon grew up around him.
Now as King, Decebalus would set out to earn even more glory for himself and Dacia. In Rome Domitian prepared for a second attack on Dacia, to reverse the defeat from the previous year. This time Domitian sent an officer known as Tettius Julianus, whom like his predecessor was set to enter Dacia through the Iron Gates. This time around the battle ended in a tie, with both sides suffering heavy casualties, but the Romans eventually retreated. Decebalus celebrated the tie as a great victory and told the people that. Domitian in reply to this made preparations for a new campaign against Dacia, but an uprising in Germania made this impossible. Knowing he could not afford a two front war Domitian sent a peace delegation to Decebalus, who agreed to keep the peace of the region intact if Rome would pay him tribute and loan him some military engineers. Domitian hastily agreed and in 89 AD peace settled over the region, until the coming of Trajan.
With his realm at peace Decebalus decided to improve Dacia domestically. Decebalus set out first of all to improve national unity, for although Dacia was one nation again the bickering still continued, but on a much smaller scale. Decebalus also set out to improve Dacia’s buildings, using the engineers on loan from Rome he would beautify his capital of Sarmizegetusa with palaces and temples, Decebalus also built workshops to teach his people how to maintain the buildings and build even more. On the political front Decebalus would conclude treaties with the surrounding nations, most notably the Sarmatian tribes of the Iazyges and Roxolani. However during all of this Decebalus did not forget the army and constantly strengthened it throughout the period. In 101 AD the peace was shattered when the new Emperor of Rome, Trajan, launched his invasion.
In 101 AD the new Roman emperor, Trajan, set out to conquer Dacia, in order to reverse the dishonour of Domitian’s actions 87-89 AD (Trajan also had an ulterior motive in that he supposed that rich Dacian gold could alleviate Rome’s financial woes). On March 25th, 101 AD the Romans launched their third invasion of Dacia with 15 legions. Decebalus, who had been watching the Roman buildup decided to adopt a scorched earth policy and let the huge Roman army cross the Danube and advance into Dacia unmolested, meanwhile Decebalus called on all Dacian warriors to converge on Taepae, where he planned to make a stand against the enemy. Decebalus hoped that by denying the enemy food supplies from the villages and farms he would face a much weakened foe at ‘the Iron Gates’. Much to the surprise of the Dacians the Romans were well rested and fed, but Decebalus continued with the original battle plan. In the ensuing battle, like the one in 88 AD, they were heavy casualties on both sides, but this time it was the Dacians who pulled back. Thinking fast Decebalus went to the Roxolani, Burs (Dacians outside Decebalus’ rule) and thier allies and convinced them to join him in his war. Together with an army of around 160,000 men (140,000 Dacians and 20,000 Roxolani, Burs, and thier allies) Decebalus laid waste to the Roman settlements of Lower Moesia along the coast of the Pontus Euxinus (modern Black Sea). Decebalus then spends the winter of 101 fighting Trajan in Lower Moesia. In the spring of 102 AD Trajan launched a new offensive against Decebalus, and the alarming rate at which the Romans advanced worried Decebalus more then he cared to admit. Despite everything he throws at them the Romans keep coming and Decebalus sends two peace delegations to Trajan, but nothing gets done in the negotiations. Soon the Romans cross the Carpathian Mountains and reach the plains. In the ensuing battles Decebalus and his Dacians fight hard against the Romans, but eventually he calls for parley with Trajan once he hears that Sarmizegetusa had fallen to the Romans (with the help of traitorous local nobles) and that his sister had been captured in one of the foothill cities to the northeast of the capital. Trajan grants the request; his own troops were exhausted by all of the hard campaigning and he needed a respite in the fighting. In the negotiations Trajan and Decebalus came to a peace agreement favorable to Rome. In it the Dacians had to hand over a large chunk of land, disarm, and Decebalus had to become a client king of Rome. To keep the treaty and the peace Trajan forced Decebalus to allow Roman garrisons in his territory. Decebalus agreed and Trajan returned to Rome a hero, he was even given the title of Dacius (Latin: Conqueror of Dacia) by the Senate, something that Decebalus deeply resented.
Decebalus and all of the Dacians soon began to resent the Roman occupation forces, so he planned a revolt to chase the Romans back across the Danube. In 105 AD, just three years after the last war Decebalus began to gather all of the warriors to Sarmizegetusa and other fortresses, where he began to rearm his men. Completely taking the Romans by surprise Decebalus slaughters them and takes their fortresses, at the same time he attacks the Iazyges, in order to keep both Rome and her allies tied up. In Rome Trajan hears of this and makes ready to depart when there is a assassination attempt on his life, as a result Decebalus gains much needed time to make ready his defenses (it has been suggested by Romanian historians that Decebalus was behind the assassination attempt). In the summer of 105 Trajan arrived in Dacia and gathered all remaining Romans to him. Decebalus hearing of this ordered all available troops to finish the Romans once and for all; this campaign takes up the rest of 105. In the spring of 106 AD Trajan starts his counter offensive against Decebalus, whose troops dug in the towns and cities to await the onslaught. But the Romans brake through and they torch every settlement. Decebalus, realizing that Dacia’s only hope lies in outlasting Rome in a siege calls every warrior available to hole up in Sarmizegetusa. Trajan soon arrived at the walls of the Dacian capital and set to siege it. Decebalus and the garrison are able to repulse the first assault against the walls of Sarmizegetusa (which makes one wonder if Decebalus had those loaned engineers ‘update’ Sarmizegetusa’s walls). At this victory Decebalus knew he was in for a long siege. At some point during all this the Romans find Sarmizegetusa’s main water supply and cut it, causing the garrison to begin to die of thirst. The biggest blow to morale came when the Romans broke through a section of the defensive wall and set the interior alight, killing the elderly high priest Vezina in the process. Decebalus now knew that in order for his cause to survive he had to escape, so at the last minute Decebalus and a contingent of soldiers escaped, they would go to the city of Porolissum (modern Moigrad). At Porolissum Decebalus learned that his enormous treasury (which was reported to have weighed l65,500 kilos in gold and 331,000 in silver) had been discovered at its secret hiding place under the Sargetia River and carted off by the Romans. Trajan soon discovered Decebalus had escaped Sarmizegetusa and it did not take long for the Romans to find Decebalus and his army at Porolissum. At Porolissum Trajan defeated the Dacians in battle for the last time and once again Decebalus fled, this time to the wild and untamed regions where he hoped to raise an army of liberation. But the Romans were relentless and dispatched a cavalry unit to capture him. Decebalus, preferring death to captivity in Rome committed suicide, and as a last wish ordered his retainers to do the same. And so died Decebalus, the last king of Greater Dacia at an unknown age in the wilderness.
In the aftermath of Decebalus’ death much happened. Trajan upon hearing of Decebalus’ death had his head cut off and sent to Rome as proof of his death. Despite this the memory of Decebalus and what he did has never died in Romania, where he is remembered as the first and greatest of their national heroes. |
User Comments:
| Wijitmaker
:: June 28 2005 |
| The Braveheart of Romania. Excellent article Joshua, I very much enjoyed reading it. You have quite a few things in here that I didn't know about. |
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| Titus Ultor
:: June 29 2005 |
| Excellent biography as usual, Joshua. Quite thorough and very informative. |
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| Paal_101
:: June 29 2005 |
I knew very little about him, this article has widened my view of him  |
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