Decebalus

Died 106 A.D. King of the Dacians.

Decebalus became king in the year 87. In 89, after a successful war against the Romans under Emperor Domitian, he concluded a peace by which the Romans undertook to pay yearly subsidies and to furnish the Dacians with Roman craftsmen and masters of “the peaceful and martial trades.” In 101-02 and in 105-06 he waged wars with the Roman emperor Trajan which, despite the desperate resistance of the Dacians, ended in the conquest of their territory and its conversion into the Roman province of Dacia. After the Roman seizure of the Dacian capital, Sarmizegethusa, Decebalus for a time continued the struggle. Seeing that it was futile, he committed suicide by running himself through with a sword.