The Dacians: Rome\'s Greatest Enemy?

[Nathan Ross]

he used the biggest Roman army ever against a foreign enemy

No source, ancient or modern, claims that Trajan's army was the biggest, or even one of the biggest, ever fielded by Rome. In fact, no ancient source tells us anything about the size of his army at all. I've already suggested evidence for an army of perhaps between fifty and sixty-five thousand. If you have other evidence, what is it?

Tettius took profit and make his raid in autumn, the harvest season when most people was occupied... he met just a little Dacian army made of parts of local garrisons and whatever part time warriors... a simple raid ended with a rather minor clash at Tapae, followed by Romans retreat.

You seem to know a lot about the first battle of Tapae all of a sudden! :-)

As I've already written, Tettius' expedition was probably not intended to conquer Dacia (otherwise the emperor would have led in person). The battle at Tapae was clearly believed (at least by the Romans) to have been a definite victory: the war ended there, and we have inscriptions from soldiers decorated in what was almost certainly the same campaign. Domitian was very popular with the army, as shown after his murder - this would not have been the case if he had been 'humiliated' or 'run away' in Dacia.

Some said that this humiliation was one of the reasons that lead to Domitian assasination later

Who says this? Domitian was murdered eight years after the end of the Dacian war, by a cabal of palace officials, mainly because he had switched from executing senators to executing his own staff. Or do you know different?

Trajan Column was the first and the biggest and most impressive of such Columns

Actually the Column of M Aurelius is a few feet higher (mainly the base, I think) and the same diameter. Whatever you think of its artistic merits, it was obviously intended to be as impressive as Trajan's version.

However, Trajan was a great builder with plenty of time and money to renovate Rome; Marcus Aurelius was not. Trajan's column, forum etc were intended as propaganda, to reflect the glory of the emperor himself, not that of his conquered foes.

none of those statues depict Dacians as prisoner, like chained, fall on the ground or dying

They do actually - or did. Sketches of reliefs from the Great Trajanic Frieze (in T's forum) show Dacian captives being led in chains, and sitting in a cart with chains around their necks. There's also, of course, the depiction on the Adamklissi reliefs of chained captives.

The Dacian figures later reused on the Arch of Constantine and elsewhere all stand with heads bowed and hands clasped before them, probably a gesture of humility and surrender. They may be intended to show the emissaries of a defeated nation, rather than captives taken in war.

There's also, of course, the large heap of Dacian spolia at the base of the column. Either way, these depictions are obviously of a conquered people - since the monuments they adorned were set up to celebrate a victory...

;-)