Having dismantled the Dacian kingdom, Trajan creates a new province out of its territory and encourages colonists from across the empire to make the land their own.

Here is what the Carpathian region looked like in 109 CE following Trajan’s expansion of the empire and the founding of the first Roman city north of the Danube, Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica:

​Here’s a selection of scenes from Trajan’s Column:

Fighting in the forests (photograph by Conrad Cichorius on Wikipedia)

Crossing the Danube over Apollodorus’ bridge (photograph by Conrad Cichorius on Wikipedia)

Decebal’s suicide ​(photograph by Conrad Cichorius on Wikipedia)

You can check out National Geographic’s interactive display of the Column to see all the scenes.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to A history of Romania.

Season 1, Episode 8: A piece of the Earth for all

We ended last time with the complete subjugation of the Dacian kingdom by the Roman empire in 106 CE. The conquest had been grueling, but that was only half the work. Trajan now aimed to use the resources of the state to turn the land he had won into a province.

After hostilities ended, the emperor spent the winter of 106-107 CE organizing the territory north of the Danube. He split the former Dacian kingdom into two, gave the eastern half to the province of Moesia Inferior, and made a new province out of the western half, called Provincia Dacia. I’ve drawn a map of the region which you can find in this episode’s description.

For those of you who can’t look at it right now, the dividing line between the western and eastern parts of the former Dacian kingdom is the Olt River which flows from the Carpathians down to the Danube. Provincia Dacia was given the land west of the Olt, including the entire region inside the arc of the Carpathian Mountains with its precious gold deposits. The plains east of the Olt were added to Moesia Inferior. This region had not seen a lot of fighting during the wars, but in the last stages of the conquest, Roman forces had marched in to destroy all centres of organized resistance. To secure the area, they then built castra, which were fortified military camps that acted as defensive strongpoints.

These eastern plains were important because there were several well-established roads that ran from the Carpathians to the Danube, and from there to the Greek cities on the Black Sea coast, our old friends Istria, Tomis, and Callatis. The governor of Moesia Inferior was headquartered at Tomis, and these roads allowed him to maintain communication and trade with the province of Dacia. In the years following the conquest, he worked to extend Roman control north of the Danube using his legions.

Meanwhile, as snow piled atop his tent, Trajan worked to set down laws detailing Dacia’s frontiers, military garrisons, leadership, administration, and taxes. He dictated that the new province wouldn’t be administered by the Senate, but by the emperor, and so appointed a governor to act as his representative once he left. This man would run civilian affairs and have command of the three legions garrisoning the province. The only civilian aspect he wouldn’t control were the province’s finances; these would be overseen by a procurator who would set and collect taxes and tolls, pay the administrative staff and the soldiers, and answer only to the emperor.

After setting these guidelines, Trajan gave the governor instructions about how to colonize the territory in order to enact his vision of a prosperous Roman province. Then, when the spring of 107 CE thawed the roads, he headed back to Rome to celebrate his decisive triumph over the Dacians.

Trajan entered the capital with 65 tonnes of gold, 331 tonnes of silver, 50,000 prisoners, and Decebal’s head. He gifted every citizen money and inaugurated 123 days of festivities with thousands of gladiators fighting and animals dying. To give you some perspective, Trajan came back with about as much silver as would fit in seven Spanish galleons in the treasure fleets of later eras, and maintained celebrations for four continuous months.

The Senate ordered the construction of a column to honour the emperor. Immense marble drums were stacked to a height of 30 metres, and were topped with a statue of Trajan. The outer surface of the column was sculpted and painted into 155 scenes spiraling upwards that told the story of the emperor’s two Dacian wars. The monument was also flanked by two libraries with observation platforms to appreciate the images. These libraries likely contained an account of the wars written by Trajan, who had taken inspiration from Caesar’s writings about his Gallic campaigns. Unfortunately, Trajan’s account is now lost, so the column itself serves as one of the main sources for the Roman invasion of Dacia.

Trajan’s Column was a work of propaganda, but it’s still an invaluable source, especially since its builders couldn’t change the details of the events too much because veterans would’ve been alive to dispute them.

Battles make up only a quarter of the story; the other scenes that recur most often depict Trajan addressing his troops, the army on the march, landscape and architecture, religious sacrifices, building operations, and Trajan receiving ambassadors and prisoners. Among the 2,600 figures on the column, there’s only a single wounded Roman soldier – and none that are dead. The story emphasizes the might of Rome, the leadership of the emperor, and the bravery as well as the building abilities of the army. The Dacians are treated with respect for their courage and endurance, but are seen as desperate and enraged barbarians that are destined to lose.

Many of the scenes I’ve described in the previous episode can be seen on the column, such as the Dacian peace embassies, the fighting in the mountains, surrendering civilians, Decebal’s submission, Apollodorus’ bridge, and the destruction of Sarmizegetusa. I’ve put some pictures on the site if you want a selection.

Besides the column in Rome, Trajan commissioned a monumental trophy to be built on the site where he had defeated the Dacian counterattack on Roman territory. As you may recall, the Dacians had crossed the Danube in the winter of 101-102 CE and attacked Moesia Inferior to relieve pressure from the siege of Sarmizegetusa, but Trajan had defeated them in what is known as the battle of Adamclisi.

The monument built on the site consisted of a circular stone structure 30 metres in diameter whose roof supported a trophy. The base had scenes depicting Romans fighting enemies, and its walls were inscribed with the names of 3,000 soldiers who had died in the battle – which is a striking contrast to the omission of Roman deaths on Trajan’s Column. Yet its message was the same: Romans arms are invincible, and the Dacians are heroic, but doomed.

The monument, called the Trajanic Trophy, was as tall as Trajan’s Column and was visible from several kilometres away. But it had the misfortune of not being in Rome, so it isn’t as well preserved as the Column; what you see today is a reconstruction, with a nearby museum housing the scenes of the original base.

While the Romans were revelling and Trajan was commissioning monuments to his magnificence, the mood in Dacia was much less celebratory. The Roman authorities were tackling the thousands of matters that needed to be resolved to turn the territory into a viable province, and one of the main matters concerned the inhabitants of the former Dacian kingdom.

Here we encounter one of the biggest questions in Romanian history: what happened to the Dacians after Trajan conquered their kingdom? The reason why the fate of the Dacians remains in question is because there are two conflicting theories that aim to answer it; the first states that the Romans exterminated the Dacians and established the province of Dacia on unpopulated land, while the second states that Dacian communities continued to exist inside the borders of the Roman province and adapted to the new order. You may have already guessed which theory I find more plausible, but I’ll present to you both sides of the argument so you can arrive at your own conclusion, and if it’s different from mine, at least you’ll understand my position.

The theory which says that the Dacians were eradicated from the territory of the province mainly relies on two textual quotes. The first comes from the emperor and philosopher Julian, who writes that Trajan said: “I destroyed the Getae people.” The second comes from the historian Eutropius who says that Dacia “had been exhausted of inhabitants in the long war maintained by Decebal.”

The theory also points to the last scene on Trajan’s Column, which shows Dacian men, women, and children being driven away from their lands. Furthermore, it draws attention to the fact that Dacian names appear in only 3% of the inscriptions found in the province, and even these could be attributed to Thracians who immigrated from south of the Danube, since Dacian and Thracian names were similar.

Based on this evidence, the most convincing version of the theory that I’ve seen goes like this: a huge number of Dacian men died fighting in the war or were massacred by revengeful Roman soldiers during the conquest, while those men that survived were enrolled in auxiliary units and sent elsewhere in the empire. The remainder of the population – women, children, and old men – were either enslaved or driven beyond the borders. As such, all Dacian communities were removed from the province, and whatever Dacian individuals remained were isolated and couldn’t form distinct groups.

The theory which argues for the survival of the Dacian people inside the borders of the empire has some counterarguments and evidence of its own.

The quote attributed to Trajan that he “destroyed the Getae people” was written by Julian 260 years after the conquest in a fictional work of satire that depicted a competition between Roman emperors to see who’s the best. As to Eutropius, he wrote at the same time as Julian centuries after the event, and his entire passage about the conquest mentions that “Trajan, after he had subdued Dacia, had transplanted thither an infinite number of men from the whole Roman world to people the country and the cities, as the land had been exhausted of its inhabitants in the long war maintained by Decebal.” Obviously, the mention of an infinite number of men has the same literal value as the land being exhausted of inhabitants. And in the original Latin, the term he uses for inhabitants is viris, which means men, so even if we do interpret his account to the letter, it would mean that all the Dacian men had been killed, which would leave Dacian women, girls, and boys alive.

Other sources depict the conquest differently. Senator and historian Cassius Dio, who was born sixty years after the conquest, wrote that “Trajan … after a hard struggle, vanquished the Dacians.” Several other writers, namely Rufius Festus, Ammianus Marcellinus, Eusebius, Cassiodorus, Aurelius Victor, and Iordanes, say that Trajan either defeated, subjugated, or brought victory over the Dacians. They mention that many Dacian men of fighting-age died, but none of them speak of massacres.

As to the last scene on Trajan’s Column, it can be interpreted in several ways. It can be seen as a mass emigration, true, but it can also be seen as Dacian civilians returning home or being relocated to other lands inside the province. Plus, the Column doesn’t show the extermination of the Dacian population at any point. On the contrary, while we see Dacian warriors being killed, we see Dacian civilians surrendering before the Roman army and being shown mercy during both the first and second wars; if the Romans had massacred everyone they encountered, the Dacians wouldn’t have continued to surrender.

When we consider the low number of Dacian names in inscriptions, we have to keep in mind that, as we’ve seen in episode five, the Dacians didn’t have an established tradition of writing and didn’t erect monuments with inscriptions before the conquest, so it makes little sense to expect them to do so afterwards. You also had to be wealthy to build stone monuments, and most wealthy Dacians would’ve lost their lands and riches. Moreover, these inscriptions were found because they’re set in stone, whereas most Dacian remains found after the wars are in villages, where the population remains almost entirely anonymous in inscriptions.

Which brings up the most convincing piece of evidence for the continuity of Dacian communities in the province: archeological remains. Scholars have found Dacian settlements that existed before the conquest and that continued to be inhabited after it. They also found Dacian villages that were founded after the conquest in less fertile and more isolated areas, which implies that communities were displaced from their ancestral lands by the Romans and had to relocate to less desirable areas. Beyond such sites, Dacian pottery was also found in numerous Roman cemeteries, villages, towns, and military camps, which attests to the cohabitation of Dacians and Romans.

The presence of the native population can also be discerned from the fact that the Romans used Dacian names for major rivers, and named their own major settlements after the former Dacian ones next to which they were built. This makes sense if the Romans lived alongside Dacians who used these names on a daily basis and passed them on.

Finally, there’s also some evidence from a later period. A 4^th century history called the Historia Augusta recounts the story of Regalianus, a governor who proclaimed himself emperor in the 260s CE. The text says that he was a descendant of Decebal, and though this is almost certainly not true, the claim is still important. The reason is because this author doesn’t make a big deal about Regalianus being of Dacian descent. The way he writes makes it seem like it was common knowledge in his time that there were descendants of the Dacians in the empire, and so it wasn’t shocking that some of them rose to positions of prominence centuries later, as Regalianus had done by becoming governor. The point is not whether he was a Dacian, but that the author finds it normal that he could’ve been.

Based on all this evidence, I find it much more plausible that numerous Dacian communities continued to exist in the newly established province; and this is the theory with which I’ll continue the narrative. So, the answer to what happened to the Dacians after Trajan conquered their kingdom, is that many of their fighting-age men died and tens of thousands of them were enslaved, especially those who had been loyal to Decebal. But the vast majority survived, and the Romans allowed Dacian communities to live in the new province, especially since they could tax them and use them as labour to work the land and extract its resources.

For the next ten years after Trajan left Dacia in 107 CE, his governor worked to turn the territory into a typical Roman province. Trajan had instructed him to give land to his veterans, begin extracting gold from the mountains, and bring in settlers from across the empire so that Dacia could sustain itself and then feed the imperial treasury. The creation of this new province was not improvised, like when Caesar had conquered Gaul and left the Roman authorities to deal with the aftermath; this was a colonization effort sponsored by the emperor and directed by the state to impose Roman government and culture north of the Danube.

The first thing the governor of the province did was establish a capital. For its location, he chose a fertile plain 30 kilometres away from the ruins of Sarmizegetusa in the heartland of the former Dacian kingdom. This capital wasn’t going to be built over an existing Dacian settlement, but would be planned as a Roman city from the start.

In 109 CE, the governor stood behind a white bull and a white cow as they pulled a plow to mark the borders of the first city in Dacia, which honoured the emperor with the catchy name of Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica.

The governor directed legionaries to build the core of the settlement. Soldiers made two perpendicular roads that met in the city centre, where a forum was erected for the most important men of the province to transact business. Next to this building was the Aedes Augustalium, a palace for the official religion of the state which worshipped the imperial family. Baths were then built with cold, warm, and hot pools for both men and women, and an amphitheatre was constructed that could seat five thousand people. Meanwhile, legionary veterans – meaning only Roman citizens – that had participated in the conquest of Dacia were given plots of land in and around the city, and formed the nucleus of its population. With the governor, procurator, and priests of the imperial cult residing in the city, Ulpia Traiana became the established administrative, financial, and religious centre of the province.

With his headquarters in place, the governor now focused on setting up mines to extract the precious metals buried under the Carpathians. The gold and silver deposits were the property of the emperor, and the governor used both public and private means to exploit them. The state transplanted entire villages of experienced miners from the province of Dalmatia to come to the mountains, set up mines, and direct operations, and provided them with thousands of Dacian prisoners captured during the wars to do the actual mining. Simultaneously, the governor also leased out deposits to rich individuals who could establish mines and extract the metals using their own paid and enslaved labourers. Within a few years, silver and gold flowed regularly out of the earth and into the imperial treasury.

Meanwhile, Trajan had made it known through all the means at his disposal – from town criers to imagery on coins – that Dacia was a prosperous land that awaited industrious individuals. The state would give you land to cultivate at a fantastic price, and it wasn’t hard to get there; you could cross the mighty Danube River on foot, courtesy of Apollodorus, and get to your new home by walking on the imperial roads built by the army.

Many people realized they had a better chance of acquiring property and improving their lives in Dacia than in their home provinces. Soon, individuals and families from Britannia, Gaul, Germany, Hispania, Mauritania, Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Greece, Thrace, and Illyria headed for this new addition to the empire.

The land surrounding Ulpia Traiana was an attractive destination, as farmers were sure to find buyers for their food, and artisans, customers for their goods. Within a few years, buildings spilled beyond the stone walls that enclosed the centre of the city, and masons, potters, tilers, silversmiths, furriers, tailors, stonecutters, bakers, and barbers added to the vibrant population of the city.

Other popular destinations for immigrants were the castra where garrisons were stationed. Many of these military camps had been built next to destroyed Dacian davae to ensure the natives wouldn’t return to organize a resistance. The Dacians had obviously chosen fertile land on which to build their davae, which meant that many castra were now surrounded by good farmland. Plus, their soldiers needed food, goods, and services – and had the coin to pay for them. So, numerous colonists headed towards these military camps, and civilian settlements developed near them starting in the first years of the province.

The most important castrum was the one at Apulum, named after the former Dacian dava next to it. The location was near the province’s gold deposits, and the legion stationed in the camp, XIII Gemina, was there to protect the mines. As soon as hostilities ended, veterans from the unit as well as relatives of soldiers came to live next to the legion, and farmers, artisans, and traders settled near the camp to service it. The commander of the legion then ordered his men to construct workshops, brickyards, baths, and other buildings, and the civilian settlement at Apulum soon had all the amenities of a typical Roman town.

Though the Dacians had been dispersed from their ruined dava nearby, they continued to live in smaller settlements in the area. Some natives came to sell the soldiers and colonists agricultural and artisanal goods, while others moved near the castrum to find employment as servants or labourers. Economic and social ties developed between the natives and colonists, and it soon became common for Roman men to enter relationships with Dacian women.

Throughout the province, the Dacians had been driven away from the best land so that it could be given to colonists. However, the emperor was happy to let them live on territory that wasn’t used in exchange for a tax and for performing manual labour for the authorities. The way the state saw it, both sides benefitted: the Dacians continued to live among their relatives, while the authorities received free labour and goods.

Like elsewhere in the empire, the Romans worked with local leaders to maintain the peace. The state didn’t have the staff needed to monitor every settlement, so they put native collaborators in charge of them. These collaborators would’ve been the Dacian nobles that had defected to them during the wars; they were stripped of their lands and wealth, but were allowed to lead their communities under the new order. These former nobles had already shown their willingness to work with the Romans during the conquest, and now that their positions depended entirely on the state, the governor could be assured that they would keep their people loyal.

In the eastern part of Dacia near the foothills of the Carpathians, some native settlements remained in the same place as before since the land wasn’t as attractive to colonists, and so the Roman authorities had no reason to displace them.

Yet regardless of where these Dacian communities were, either next to castra or in more isolated areas, their inhabitants had begun a new chapter of their lives. Every Dacian family would have been affected by the wars, and there was surely widespread anger and resentment at the Romans. Some undoubtedly wanted to take revenge, but many of their warriors had died, many more of their men and women had been enslaved, and the former nobles who now led their communities were loyal to Rome. So, though they were dejected, most Dacians accepted that the order imposed by the empire was here to stay, and simply tried to navigate it to avoid trouble, have enough food for the winter, and provide a better life for their children.

Trajan’s colonization efforts were proving extremely successful, especially since the barbarians beyond the border had not disturbed the peace. When the frontiers had been drawn, Trajan hadn’t annexed the whole Dacian kingdom, only its most crucial parts, meaning that some Dacians were left outside of the empire. Yet these remnants didn’t have the forces to attack; and their former allies, the Sarmatians, had made a treaty with the Romans in which they received subsidies in exchange for peace. The situation on the border was so secure, in fact, that Trajan began withdrawing troops from Dacia to prepare for his next project: the conquest of Parthia. He launched his eastern campaign in 115 CE and enjoyed much success, even capturing the Parthian capital. But two years into the war, the emperor became ill and was forced to return to Rome. He never did make it back. Trajan died in August of 117 CE, eleven years after inaugurating the province of Dacia.

In two weeks, our narrative will resume on the frontiers. Sensing an opportunity to improve their position, the Sarmatians will strike the Romans before their new emperor has a chance to settle on the throne, and the empire’s legions will fight to defend the thousands of colonists who had made Dacia their home.