In 105–106 CE, Trajan crossed his new bridge, hunted Decebalus to his death, and annexed Dacia. Gold and captives moved south; the Forum of Trajan would rise on their value. The map hardened, and Rome’s story gained a spiral [3][13][14].
What Happened
When the second campaign opened in 105, Trajan had what generals crave: a known theater, hardened routes, and a permanent bridge. The Danube at Drobeta no longer tested nerve; it tested scheduling. Columns rolled across in sequence. The air held the metallic tang of tools and the brass of horns. Decebalus faced a foe who could set pace [5][15].
Operations in Dacia were relentless. Forts fell; stockades burned; Dacian detachments found their paths blocked by Roman works raised almost overnight. Cassius Dio gives the outcome’s features: Decebalus, driven to flight, died in 106; the kingdom collapsed; Dacia became a Roman province [3]. Discipline, not drama, carried the day.
The consequences clattered south like coin. Dacia’s resources—especially gold—financed a building program in Rome that would make victory visible for centuries. The Forum of Trajan began to rise: the Basilica Ulpia’s long, bright hall; paired libraries; and the Column whose spiral frieze, about 190 meters long and studded with approximately 2,662 figures over 155 scenes, taught Romans what the Danube war looked like [13][14].
On the Column’s base, a spare inscription explained excavation, not exultation: ad declarandum quantae altitudinis mons…—the hill removed to make space measured the regime’s argument. Engineering is victory’s twin. In the helical scenes above, bridges, roads, negotiations, and surrenders are as prominent as charges [4][14].
Victory also altered administration. New towns, veteran settlements, and mines required governors, ledgers, and law. The sound of Dacia under Rome became the scrape of styluses on wax, listing taxes and rations. Meanwhile, the city of Rome rang with new legends on coinage: SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI, issued in gold, silver, and bronze, sometimes with Trajan’s Column itself on the reverse [8][14][18].
By the end of 106, the Danube frontier felt different. The bridge at Drobeta had become a Roman street; the Iron Gates road an old friend. Decebalus was no longer a king but a name in a narrative band of marble. The optimus princeps had proven what his adoption promised: victory conducted as a public work [3][14].
Why This Matters
The annexation of Dacia secured a rich province and removed a persistent military threat. It supplied Rome with bullion that financed the Forum complex, literally underwriting the visual program that made Trajan’s rule comprehensible to citizens and provincials [13][14].
The campaign exemplifies war-and-works synergy. Bridges and roads made conquest; monuments made meaning. Coinage with SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI circulated that meaning across the empire, tying moral authority to material benefits [8][14].
In the grand arc, Dacia is Trajan at maximum effectiveness: law at home, engineering in the field, victory as civic investment. It sets the expectation that he will carry the same model east, a promise later tested by the earthquake at Antioch and the walls of Hatra [3][17].
Event in Context
See what happened before and after this event in the timeline
People Involved
Key figures who played a role in Second Dacian War: Decebalus Defeated and Dacia Annexed
Ask About This Event
Have questions about Second Dacian War: Decebalus Defeated and Dacia Annexed? Get AI-powered insights based on the event details.