Battle of Hulpe
The Battle of Hulpe in 105 (in present-day Transylvania , Romania ) is considered to be the end of the Dacian Empire under its King Decebalus , who had managed to keep the Roman legions behind the Danube border for several years .
prehistory
Although he lost the last great battle at Tapae in 89 against the troops of Emperor Domitian , they withdrew after the loss-making victory, as the troop strength in the battle had decreased so drastically that a complete conquest was out of the question. In the year 101 Trajan tried to finally take Dacia with a huge army of 60,000 men (11 legions ) . Decebalus , who had learned from the first of the Dacian wars with Domitian, relied on guerrilla tactics as he did 12 years earlier and thus weakened the Roman supply.
Trajan offered him the open battle, but Decebalus refused this because he could not oppose the well-organized Roman troops in the open field. He used this guerrilla tactic until shortly before Tapae, to face the Romans in a final battle and defeat them. His goal was to lure the Roman legions there into a high, narrow mountain pass where the Dacians could fully exploit their knowledge of the area and their advantages.
Indeed, Trajan was looking for the way through the bottleneck, but a sudden rain stopped the fast advance as the pass became too slippery to fight on. So the emperor was forced to turn back with his army. In return, Decebalus tried again to take the Danube border and sent a large army supported by Sarmatians towards the Danube.
It is still unclear whether there was a battle between Decebalus' army and Trajan's Danube fleet. The following spring, Trajan invaded Dacia again, but this time on two fronts, so that the Dacians were also forced to split their armies. A third army invaded the mountain passes and destroyed towns and fortresses there without encountering major resistance.
Decebalus found it impossible to trick the Romans back in this way, and so he withdrew with his troops to the capital Sarmizegetusa . The Dacian ruler asked the Romans once again for peace, which they only wanted to grant under very harsh conditions. Thereupon he ordered to continue fighting and to gather as many armies as possible outside the capital in order to oppose Trajan again.
When the Roman armies reassembled in front of the Dacian capital, the last great battle broke out, but it came to an end quickly as the Dacians surrendered in view of the hopeless situation. The dictates were still extremely mild: Decebalus was allowed to keep the highlands, but had to tear down all the fortresses.
The battle at Hulpe
Three years later (105) Decebalus took a Praetorian and good friend of Trajan hostage, which caused Roman troops to storm across the Danube again and bloodily slaughter any resistance. To avenge Trajan's friend, who committed suicide while in captivity, Trajan completely captured Dacien and pursued Decebalus across the country. When he realized that he would not be able to escape permanently, the Dacer king committed suicide in 106.
After the Second Dacian War, the Romans forced thousands of Dacians to settle outside the borders. Many prisoners were also taken in order to display them on the triumphal procession of Trajan. Many of the prisoners became slaves or gladiators . The old capital Sarmisegetuza was razed to the ground and rebuilt under the same name east of Tapae. Dacia became a Roman province and the Dacian culture quickly disappeared under the influence of the Romans, which was also very strong here.
Dacians were considered tough opponents by the Romans. According to Domitioan , they were fearless and honorable fighters ready to die for their homeland. The importance of the Dacian wars was reflected in the subsequent bloodlust in the Colosseum . Trajan hosted the largest "games" Rome ever saw, fighting over 10,000 gladiators for over a month.