Victory at Tapae, near the mountain pass called the Iron Gate, in 88, under the command of Tettius Julianus. Domitian himself returned to take part in the final surrender. Decebalus sued then for peace and in time a treaty was enjoined between Rome and Dacia. Domitian was caught by an uprising in Germania and had to accept terms for a general peace in the area. He recognized Dece-balus as a client in return for a promise not to engage in anti-imperial activities. Reasonably satisfied by this arrangement, Rome and Dacia agreed to the pact in 89.
However, the agreement was broken and war broke out in 101. Trajan intended to reduce the pressure along the Danube and Dacia. With hopes of luring the Romans to their destruction, as he had done to Cornelius Fuscus, Decebalus permitted an uncontested advance and then attacked at Tapae—a stalemate. Decebalus used the winter to counterattack, this time in Moesia. His gamble failed, and Trajan won more victories in the spring of 102. To save his capital and to spare his people more hardships, Decebalus capitulated. Trajan allowed him to keep his throne, and Decebalus plotted revenge. In 105, he threw off the cloak of obedience and client status and made war upon the Roman ally, the Iazyges. Accompanied by a vast army, Trajan swept into Dacia, reducing the opposition until at last the great Dacian city of SARMIZEGETHUSA was his. Decebalus fled north in 106 with the few trusted servants he had maintained over the years, finally killing himself in order to avoid capture. As a trophy for the Senate and for the people of Rome, the king’s head was dispatched to the Eternal City, and his kingdom became an imperial province.
The historian Dio wrote that Decebalus hid his vast treasure by diverting the course of the Sargetia River, burying the wealth in a large pit, covering it with rocks and then allowing the river to return to its normal path.
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