The Decebalus reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Decebalus

Decebalus (ruled 87-106) (Decebal in Romanian) was a Dacian king.

He unified the various Dacian tribes into one nation, organized an army and in 85, he began raids against the Roman province of Moesia, located South of Danube.

Domitian decided to send his prefect of the Praetorian Guards, Cornelius Fuscus to punish and conquer the Dacians, but the two Roman legions sent were defeated.

Another attack on Dacia, in 88, was successful, but revolts of the Germans on the Rhine required the military force of Moesia and the Romans were forced to pay large sums of money to the Dacians for maintaining peace in this region.

Decebalus was defeated by the Romans when they invaded Dacia in 102, but he was left king under Roman protectorate. Three years later, Decebalus destroyed the Roman troops in Dacia, and the Romans were forced to send reinforcements.

After a long siege on the Sarmisegetusa and a long battle, the Romans conquered Dacia. The battle is described in Trajan's Column. After his army was defeated, rather than being captured as a prisoner by the Roman soldiers, Decebalus committed suicide.

His real name was Diurpaneus, but after the victorious wars of 84-85 against the Romans, he was named "Decebalus", probably meaning "the strength of the Dacians" (as "balus" is an Indo-European word meaning strength and "Dece" seems to be a Genitive of "Dac", meaning "of the Dacians").

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