Romania -- Description and travel; Romania -- History
Whilst these events were occurring, Domitian is said to have been making
progresses and indulging in all kinds of excesses, but; fortunately for
him and for the honour of the Roman arms, another general succeeded in
stemming the tide of invasion, and eventually (A.D. 89) in
assuming the offensive. This was Tertius Julianus, who had already
distinguished himself in Mœsia under Otho and Vespasian. Following
Decebalus into his own dominions, he was not content to remain in the
plains, but pursued him into his mountain retreats, where he completely
overthrew him in a pitched battle and compelled him to sue for peace. It
is in the accounts of this expedition that mention is first made of
regular roads in Dacia, and two passes, the Vulcan and Rothenthurm (or
Red Tower), are referred to. A place called Tapæ is also named, near to
which Julianus is said to have overthrown Decebalus, and where
subsequently Trajan obtained a victory over the same prince; but so much
doubt attaches to the movements of Julianus that it will be better for
the present to defer any reference to those localities. The whole
account of Julianus's campaign in Dacia is mixed up with legendary
tradition. It is said that he threatened the capital of Dacia,
Sarmizegethusa, and that he would have succeeded in capturing it and in
reducing the whole country but for a stratagem of Decebalus, who caused
trees to be cut down to a man's height in the woods through which the
Romans had to pass, and clothed them in armour, which so terrified the
soldiers as to stay their progress. According to another account he cut
the trees through their trunks but allowed them to stand, and when the
Romans attempted to force their way through with their engines of war,
the trees fell on them and killed them. Whether it was the difficulty
encountered by the Roman general in attempting to cope with his warlike
enemy in his mountains and forests, where the arts of war as practised
by the former were not so readily applicable as in the plains, or the
more probable circumstance that Domitian had been unsuccessful in an
expedition against two other tribes, the Quadi and Marcomanni, and
needed the support of Julianus, certain it is that the overtures of
Decebalus were at length received favourably, and a peace was concluded
with him in the year 90, which was less favourable to the victors than
to the conquered. Decebalus refused to treat in person with the Roman
general, but sent one of his chiefs (some historians say his brother),
with whom the conditions were arranged. According to Roman accounts
Decebalus restored the Roman prisoners, acknowledged the supremacy of
Domitian, and accepted sovereignty at his hands. It subsequently
transpired, however, that this was not the whole treaty, and that
Domitian agreed to pay the Dacian king an annual tribute, and to send
him a number of skilled artificers to teach him the art of constructing
works and fabricating arms upon the Roman model. Domitian then
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