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Battle of Sarmizegetusa | |||||||
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Part of the Dacian Wars | |||||||
The sanctuaries at Sarmizegetusa Regia, the capital of ancient Dacia (modern Romania) | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Dacia | Roman Empire | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Decebalus | Trajan | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
18,000–20,800 | 12 legions | ||||||
The Battle of Sarmizegetusa (also spelled Sarmizegethuza) was a siege of Sarmizegetusa, the capital of Dacia, fought in Trajan's Second Dacian War in 106 between the army of the Roman Emperor Trajan, and the Dacians led by King Decebalus.
After Trajan's First Dacian War (101-2), Decebalus did not respect the peace conditions imposed by Trajan, and in retaliation the Emperor prepared to annihilate the Dacian kingdom and finally conquer Sarmizegetusa in Trajan's Second Dacian War.
It is estimated that the Dacians most likely had fewer than 20,000 men capable of fighting the invasion.[ citation needed ]
The Roman forces approached Sarmizegetuza in three main columns.[ citation needed ] The first column crossed the bridge built by Apollodorus of Damascus, and then followed the valleys of rivers Cerna and Timiş up to Tibiscum. They then turned on the valley of the river Bistra, through the Țara Haţegului depression. In these places, there were already Roman garrisons stationed from the first war, greatly easing the advance. They passed through Valea Cernei, Haţeg, and Valea Streiului and destroyed the Dacian fortresses at Costești, Blidaru, and Piatra Roșie.[ citation needed ]
The second column of the army is believed to have crossed the Danube somewhere near ancient Sucidava and then marched northwards on the valley of Jiu, linking with the first Roman column in Țara Haţegului.[ citation needed ]
The combined forces of the two columns then began attacking the area of the Şureanu Mountains, meeting sporadic but desperate resistance from the Dacians.[ citation needed ]
The third Roman column, most likely led by Trajan himself, advanced through eastern Muntenia, crossed the Carpathians at a location close to what is now Bran, and marched westwards through southern Transylvania.[ citation needed ]
The rest of the troops left from Moesia Inferior and passed through Bran, Bratocea, and Oituz and destroyed the Dacian fortresses between Cumidava (now Râșnov, in Romania) and Angustia (now Brețcu, in Romania). At the battle for the conquest of Sarmizegetusa the following legions participated: II Adiutrix, IV Flavia Felix, and a vexillatio of VI Ferrata which until this war had been stationed in Iudaea.
The Roman forces then enveloped Sarmizegetusa.
Other Roman units are believed to have attacked other Dacian settlements and rally points, as far as the river Tisa to the north, and Moldavia to the east. Dacian settlements in the west, such as Ziridava, were completely destroyed in this period. However, Moldavia and Maramureş, located in modern-day northern Romania, were never part of the Roman province of Dacia and would remain free from Roman rule.
The only historical record of the siege is Trajan's Column, which is a controversial source. There is debate as to whether the Romans did actually fight for Sarmizegetusa, or whether the Dacians destroyed their capital while fleeing ahead of the advancing legions. Most historians agree that a siege of Sarmizegetusa actually took place.[ citation needed ]
The first assault was repelled by the Dacian defenders. The Romans bombarded the city with their siege weapons and, at the same time, built a platform to more easily breach the fortress. They also encircled the city with a circumvallatio wall.
Finally, the Romans destroyed the water pipes of Sarmizegetusa and obliged the defenders to surrender before they set fire to the city. Roman forces succeeded in entering the Dacian sacred enclosure, hailed Trajan as emperor, and then levelled the whole fortress. Legio IV Flavia Felix was stationed there to guard the ruins of Sarmizegetusa.
The Romanian state was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877. During World War I, after declaring its neutrality in 1914, Romania fought together with the Allied Powers from 1916. In the aftermath of the war, Bukovina, Bessarabia, Transylvania, and parts of Banat, Crișana, and Maramureș became part of the Kingdom of Romania. In June–August 1940, as a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and Second Vienna Award, Romania was compelled to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union and Northern Transylvania to Hungary. In November 1940, Romania signed the Tripartite Pact and, consequently, in June 1941 entered World War II on the Axis side, fighting against the Soviet Union until August 1944, when it joined the Allies and recovered Northern Transylvania.
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Year 101 (CI) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Traianus and Paetus. The denomination 101 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
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Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus roughly corresponds to present-day Romania, as well as parts of Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Ukraine.
Sarmizegetusa Regia was the capital and the most important military, religious and political centre of the Dacians before the wars with the Roman Empire. Built on top of a 1200 m high mountain, the fortress, consisting of six citadels, was the core of a strategic and defensive system in the Orăștie Mountains.
The Dacians were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often considered a subgroup of the Thracians. This area includes mainly the present-day countries of Romania and Moldova, as well as parts of Ukraine, Eastern Serbia, Northern Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary and Southern Poland. The Dacians and the related Getae spoke the Dacian language, which has a debated relationship with the neighbouring Thracian language and may be a subgroup of it. Dacians were somewhat culturally influenced by the neighbouring Scythians and by the Celtic invaders of the 4th century BC.
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Trajan's First Dacian War took place from 101 to 102.
Trajan's Second Dacian War was fought between 105 and 106 because the Dacian king, Decebalus, had broken his peace terms with the Roman Emperor Trajan from the Trajan's First Dacian War.
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