18-16. Dio fabricated arms, rebuilt his forts that had been demolished, and invited his neighbours to join him. Nay, some of Pliny's letters to Trajan seem Plin. Ep. X. to intimate an actual understanding in private with the Parthians. He attacked and harassed all that had sided against him in the late war, and took possession by main force of a territory belonging to the Jazygi. On the other hand, we know perfectly well how ambitious Trajan was of making conquests. He looked upon Decebalus's forced submission as nothing, and aimed at taking his crown from him. His usual asseveration, when he wanted to affirm a thing very strongly, was, "so surely as I hope to Amm.Marc. "make Dacia a Roman province!" We may there- XXIV. fore justly conclude he was glad of an opportunity to make the senate declare Decebalus an enemy to the Roman people. alarmed at tives, sues The senate's decree, and Trajan's preparatives in Decebalus, consequence of it, to carry on the war in person, as Trajan's he had done before, struck such terror on the Da- preparacians that they abandoned their king, and fled in in vain for crowds over to the Romans. Decebalus, alarmed peace. at their desertion, desired peace. The Romans refused it on any other terms than his giving up his arms and person, to be disposed of as the emperor should think proper. Decebalus's soul was too haughty to submit to such injurious terms. Rather than do it, he chose war, and accordingly assembled his troops, made alliances, and took every step he could to give Trajan a warm reception. vours to get None could have blamed him had he stopped He endea there. But, instead of that, he took the most coward- Trajan asly steps to get rid of an enemy he despaired of be- sassinated. ing able to conquer. He employed assassins to murder Trajan, who was always easy of access, and especially in time of war. One of those wretches was suspected and taken up; and, when put to the rack, discovered An officer of distinc discovered his accomplices, by which means Decebalus's black design miscarried. After failing in his attempt against Trajan, he ention, traite deavoured to lay hold of some friend or other of his, rously seiz- and succeeded in regard to Longinus, a brave ofpoisonshim- ficer, commander of a legion. Decebalus desired a ed by him, self. conference with him, under pretence of having at last resolved to surrender. His request was granted; Longinus met him, but was traiterously seized upon, loaded with irons, and dragged away to the enemy's camp. There the traitor began to question. him about Trajan's designs; but could get no answer from him. Decebalus, however, treated him with humanity, only keeping him close guarded, in hopes of obtaining better terms from Trajan, who, he knew, had a great value for that officer. Accordingly he sent a messenger to Trajan, with offers to set Longinus at liberty, on condition that the whole country taken from the Dacians should be restored them, as far as the Danube, and the expenses of the war reimbursed them. Though Trajan would have been very sorry to lose Longinus, he was not willing to buy him back at so dear a rate. He therefore returned Decebalus a general answer, which, leaving him still in some degree of uncertainty, prevented his proceeding to extremes. In the mean time Longinus took his resolution. Having procured a sufficient quantity of poison by means of a freedman that attended him, he wrote Trajan a letter, wherein, in order to deceive Decebalus, he entreated the emperor to save his life. The letter was dispatched, with a proper verbal message by the freedman, and in the night Longinus poisoned himself. The Dacian king was bitterly incensed when he found his prey had escaped him, and resolved, if possible, to be revenged on the freedman. He sent a centurion, taken with Longinus, to Trajan, with offers of the deceased's body and ten other prisoners in exchange for the freedman. Trajan, Trajan, very justly preferring the preservation of a living man to the burial of a dead corpse, retained not only the freedman, but the centurion too, who would hardly have been safe had he returned back to Decebalus. builds a the Danube. Trajan's aim, as I observed before, was to con- Trajan quer Dacia, and make it a Roman province. To that bridge over end he resolved to build a bridge over the Danube, to be a lasting communication and passage in case of need. No monument of antiquity is more famous in history than this bridge, of which we should form a very high idea, were we at liberty to credit all that Dion Cassius says of it. According to him, Trajan chose one of the narrowest, and consequently one of the deepest and most rapid parts of the river. (It was a little above the ancient town of Viminacium*, now Zwerin in Lower Hungary.) There he sunk twenty piles of hewn stone, an hundred and fifty feet high and sixty broad, which he crowned with one and twenty arches. Dion Cassius does not say whether those arches were of stone or wood. The distance between each pile was an hundred and seventy feet; which, added to the width of the piles, makes the length of the bridge four thousand seven hundred and seventy Roman feet, or upwards of seven hundred and twenty-one fathoms of our measure. This bridge was defended by a strong fortress on each side of the river. Dion Cassius admires the magnificence of this work, which he extols beyond all Trajan's other buildings, as by much the most difficult and expensive. He might have admired too the dispatch with * Near Fetislau, on the right hand side of the Danube, and Zwerin on the left, four small leagues above Ruszava, or Orsova. Viminacium was on the right hand side of the Danube, just where that river forms an elbow over against Vi-palanka. The spot is now called Ram, and some remains of ancient buildings are seen there to this day. I am indebted to M. d'Anville for these positions. Ant. Expl. Vol. IV. . 185. with which it was finished, for his account seems to imply its being built in one campaign, viz. in the year 855, and that Trajan marched his army over it the next year. Two circumstances, one of which is collected from Trajan's column, and the other from Count Marsigli's observations made on the spot, lessen our admiration, but at the same time make us amends by a greater degree of probability. We find by Trajan's column, on which his bridge over the Da nube is represented, that it consisted of only two stone arches, and that all the rest was wood-work Thes. Antiq. well and boldly executed. Count Marsigli, who Seallenger. declares he examined the spot where the bridge once T. II. .989. Decebalus conquered, and, in danger of be ing taken, kills himself. AR. 856. Dio. stood with great care, and saw the piles still subsisting, says the Danube is so far from being deep in summer, that there could be no manner of diffi culty in sinking stone-piles, especially in a country where there was such plenty of materials. He adds, that the bridge called the Pont St Esprit, over the Rhône, is infinitely superior to it in all respects. Trajan entered the enemy's country, and carried on the war with equal caution and activity. He hurried nothing, nor ventured any step without mature deliberation; always taking time to consider and make the most of his advantage, which he pursued with care and prudence, till at length he forced the royal city of Decebalus, and subdued the whole country. The Dacian king having no longer a single place left to retire to, and fearing to be taken alive, killed himself out of despair and rage. His head was sent to Rome. This is all that the abbreviator of Dion Cassius has thought proper to let us know of this war, which certainly was a very important one. Instead of acquainting us with Trajan's plan, and the manner in which he carried it into execution, or saying what his parti cular views were, how connected, and how one success paved the way for another, he tells us a trifling story story of a soldier, who, being wounded in battle, retired to the camp, and there, finding that his wound was mortal, returned to the field of battle, to spend the remainder of his life in the service of his prince and country. The action was undoubtedly fine; but a proper account of the whole plan and management of the war would have been much more interesting and instructive. discovered. Decebalus hit upon a new invention to secure His hidden his treasures. Turning the course of the river Sar- treasures gætia*, which washed the walls of his capital city, into another channel, he dug down into the bed of the river, and there built a stone vault, into which he carried his money, jewels, and such valuable effects as could not be hurt by the dampness of the place. He then closed the vault, covered it again with mud and slime, and let in the waters as before. As to his furniture, or such of it at least as was of value, rich stuffs, and other such like things, all that was carried to private and remote places under ground. The more effectually to secure the whole, and put it out of the power of any man to divulge his secret, he was barbarous enough to have every one killed that had been employed in assisting him. After his death, a Dacian nobleman called Bicilis, whom he had intrusted with his secret, being taken prisoner by the Romans, told them what I have now related. Trajan ordered the treasures to be searched for. They were found, and paid him amply for all the expenses of the war t Colonies esTrajan in tablished by Thus was Dacia reduced into a Roman province; the thing Trajan had so often wished for. His next care was to improve and fortify his conquest, the Dacia and VOL. VII. H extent * The Hungarians now call this river Strel, and the Germans Istrig. Lazius, quoted by Fabretti, (de Col. Traj. c. 8.) says, some fishermen employed on the river Istrig, towards the middle of the sixteenth century, found some remains of those treasures which had escaped Trajan. the neigh |