Original subtitles

[music playing]

NARRATOR: In 47 AD, \hEmperor Claudius

\h\h\hleaves a magnificent conquest to fabled Britain,

Rome’s first attempt since \hJulius Caesar, 100 years

earlier.

\h\hBut fueled by bloody rights, and led by a charismatic warrior

prince, the island’s fierce \h\hinhabitants plunge Rome

into an endless guerrilla war.

Now, almost 40 years \h\hlater, in 84 AD,

Emperor Domitian battles against barbarians on the frontier,

\hand treachery in the Senate, until a bloody conspiracy sets

Rome on a new course, and \hEmperor Trajan brutally

\h\h\h\hfinishes what Domitian has started.

[music playing]

Rome, 80 AD.

\hBy the end of the first century, the Roman Empire

is becoming well-established.

The army is strong.

Battles are won.

Dominance is gained.

STEVEN H RUTLEDGE: It’s entering into a very prosperous period

\h\hthat’s going to last about 150 years, up until the middle

of the third century \hAD, when they start

to run into real problems.

\hSo Rome is entering a very prosperous period

at this juncture.

NARRATOR: Rome has grown \hlarge, but surrounding

\hits civilized core, barbarian tribes in Germania and Dacia--

modern day Germany and Romania--

resist Roman domination.

\h\hMost troublesome of these are the Dacians.

Their King, Decebalus, is busy \hcourting smaller neighboring

tribes, offering slaves \hand gold in exchange

for their allegiance \h\h\h\hagainst Rome.

STEVEN H RUTLEDGE: He had cast about for alliances

to his north, and successfully gotten alliances to his north.

\h\hHe had also successfully gotten alliances to his east,

\h\h\h\hso he’s becoming increasingly formidable.

And the Romans do not like this.

\hThe Romans have never liked this.

NARRATOR: Through these efforts, King Decebalus

\hundermines Rome’s strategy to keep the various barbarian

tribes divided and weak.

\hCLIFFORD ANDO: The Romans dealt with all

of these configurations \h\h\h\h\h\hof tribes,

across both these borders, \h\h\h\hlargely by seeking

to pit them, the one \hagainst the other,

\hto manipulate them so that they never achieve solidarity

against Rome, on the one hand.

\hAnd so that none of them ever became powerful enough

\h\h\hin its own right by conquering all the others

\h\hthat they would pose a significant enough threat.

NARRATOR: Decebalus cements his tribal agreements against Rome,

just as a precarious imperial \htransition is taking place.

\h\h\hBack in Rome, an inexperienced nobleman

named Domitian stands poised to take the throne as his brother,

\hthe Emperor Titus, lies on his deathbed.

\h\hIt is a turn of events that no one has predicted,

and that Rome is not prepared for.

\h\hSTEVEN H RUTLEDGE: There is apparent conflict between Titus

and Domitian.

Titus will die of plague in 81 AD,

and there’ll be rumors of Domitian having poisoned

him, having gotten rid of his brother,

to gain imperial power.

\hNARRATOR: Titus, a popular emperor,

rules for only two years.

\hDomitian resents every minute of it,

according to second century \h\h\hbiographer Suetonius.

ACTOR AS SUETONIUS: \h\hDomitian never

failed to say that he and his brother

should have ruled Rome together, but their father’s will

had been tampered with.

And when Titus was seized with a dangerous illness,

Domitian ordered that he be left for dead before he had actually

drawn his last breath.

NARRATOR: Rome’s might lies \hin the power of its army

\hto crush the resistance of all who challenge the empire.

So to prove he is as worthy as his brother and father,

\h\hDomitian must earn his legacy on the battlefield.

In 83 AD, he leads his soldiers \h\h\hto the Germanic frontiers

\h\h\halong the Rhine and Danube in a showy display

of Roman strength.

\hBut Domitian, himself, will not face the first onslaught

of barbarian warriors alone.

Accompanying him, as his battle commander,

is someone who lacks both status and experience, someone who

can never be a threat to him--

Cornelius Fuscus.

CLIFFORD ANDO: The man who was most in a position to threaten

the emperor, that is the man in command of troops at Rome,

was too low rank to actually think

of himself as a significant \hcandidate for the throne.

\h\hThis is a way of protecting themselves

by putting someone lower ranked \h\hin charge of these troops.

NARRATOR: Domitian has chosen an easy target,

an unprepared and under-armed \hgroup of German barbarians.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: Emperors at \hthe beginning of their reign

\h\h\hoften like to undertake a campaign, particularly if they

\h\h\hfeel their position isn’t altogether secure.

We can imagine that Domitian, \hwho wasn’t that much liked

by many people, wanted to strengthen his ties

with the army and therefore, \h\h\h\ha successful campaign

against, perhaps, an opponent \h\h\h\hthat isn’t altogether

\hready for the attack, might be a good option.

NARRATOR: The Germans go down in a bloody defeat,

\hand Domitian praises his triumphant legions,

\hraising their pay 25% and taking for himself

a new honorary title--

Germanicus, conqueror \h\h\hof the Germans.

While Domitian actively \h\h\hpromotes himself,

a young soldier named Trajan \h\h\hasserts quiet authority

on the Rhine frontier, earning \h\hrespect through leadership

rather than violence.

\h\h\h\hHe is a man of ambition and patience.

EDWARD J WATTS: His father \h\hhad served effectively

in a number of campaigns \h\h\h\hunder Vespasian,

so he is of a senatorial stock and he is of a consular family.

He is not of the very elite \hof the elite of the Roman

senatorial class, so Trajan can be said to come from relatively

modest beginnings.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Trajan will continue his service to Rome

as he awaits an opportunity \h\h\h\h\hto prove himself

to the new emperor.

\h\hBut to the north, in their weapons workshops,

\h\hthe Dacians are operating overtime, hammering the steel

of swords and spears, \hfilling the armory

of their King, Decebalus.

\h\hHe knows that war with the Romans is drawing near

\h\h\hand he wants his people armed and ready.

\hHistorian Cassius Dio describes him.

\hACTOR AS CASSIUS DIO: Shrewd in his understanding of warfare

and shrewd, also, in \hthe waging of war,

\hDecebalus judged well when to attack

and chose the right moment to retreat.

\h\hHe was an expert in ambushes and a master in pitched battles.

\hHe knew not only how to follow up a victory well,

but also, how to manage a defeat.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: Dacians were quite a sophisticated-- perhaps

the most advanced civilization, \h\h\h\hapart from the Romans,

in the Mediterranean \harea at this time.

\hSo it’s not surprising they could pose a serious threat.

Absolutely.

\h\hNARRATOR: The Dacians gather with their shaman

to purify the tools needed to perform a sacred ritual

\h\hin which their heavenly god, Zalmoxis, will reveal

their fate.

\h\hFifth century BC historian, Herodotus.

\h\hACTOR AS HERODOTUS: Once every five years,

they chose, by lot, one of their people

\h\h\hand send him as a messenger to Zalmoxis,

charged to tell the god of their needs.

\hIf the messenger be killed by the caste,

they believed that the gods \h\hregard them with favor.

But if he be not killed, they blame the messenger, himself.

\hNARRATOR: Today, a Dacian messenger

travels far to bring Zalmoxis a wish for victory against Rome,

\h\hand the Dacians will settle for nothing less.

\h\h\hWithout warning or provocation, the Dacians

\h\hraid the Roman province of Moesia.

The markets of Moesia \hteam with the goods

of a bountiful province, fruit from the orchards,

grain from the fields, pottery \h\hfrom the skilled artisans,

and gold dug from the Moesian mines, a key source of metal

for Roman coinage.

Exploiting Rome’s lack of vigilance

\hon this part of the frontier, the Dacians

\h\h\h\h\hride in, catching the province completely off guard.

They wreak total havoc, looting, pillaging, and slaughtering

\hanyone who tries to stop them, including

the governor of Moesia.

It’s unclear exactly \h\hwhy, in 84, they

\hgo into Moesia, what this initial incursion is about.

This had, traditionally, \h\hbeen their territory,

\hat least part of Moesia had been their territory,

\hand so possibly there is a desire

to recover lost territory.

Or perhaps, just desire for \hplunder and a recognition

that there is a weakness \hthat can be exploited.

\h\h\hFLORIN CURTA: Clearly, waging war on the other side

\hof the Danube was a way to promote an elite of warriors,

and clearly, Decebalus \h\h\hhad come to power

as a consequence of that.

In other words, waging war against the Romans

\hwas the best way for the aristocracy

to come to political prominence.

\hNARRATOR: As Rome’s border comes under serious assault,

the untested Emperor Domitian \h\h\h\hwill rally his troops

against a lethal barbarian foe.

\h\h\h84 AD, with the death of his brother,

Domitian has unexpectedly \hbecome emperor of Rome.

\hNow, he must prove himself against an unexpected enemy.

\hUnprovoked, the Dacian barbarians

\h\hhave raided the province of Moesia and killed its governor.

The Romans send Cornelius Fuscus and his legion in reprisal.

\hThe Dacians close in from all sides.

\hThis attack on Moesia is more than an assault on Roman rule.

\h\h\hIt’s an assault on the emperor’s personal prestige.

\h\hThe barbaric murder of a governor cannot go unanswered

by Emperor Domitian.

And so what he’s \hgoing to do is,

he’s going to put in charge a successor, Cornelius Fuscus,

who is hopefully going to take care of the problem.

The problem with Cornelius Fuscus

is, he’s a man who likes to \htake risks unnecessarily.

NARRATOR: Domitian takes a risk, too.

By appointing this man who is not of senatorial class,

he is openly defying \h\hthe Roman Senate.

\h\hEDWARD J WATTS: The Dacian forces confront him and inflict

\ha major defeat on him, such a significant defeat

that his life is lost, his army \h\his essentially annihilated,

\hand the standards are taken, and this

is a major blow for the Romans.

\h\hNARRATOR: Rome pays for the Domitian’s misjudgment

in the blood of its soldiers.

But wars have other costs, too, \hand it’s the wealthy citizens

of Rome who are forced to fund \h\hDomitian’s expensive army.

\h\hThe emperor would stop at nothing to fill his coffers,

\hwrites second century biographer, Suetonius.

ACTOR AS SUETONIUS: Reduced of \hfinancial straits by the cost

of buildings and shows and the pay

\h\h\h\h\hraises he gave to the soldiers, the Domitian eagerly

resorted to every sort of robbery.

\hHe used any charge to seize the property

of the living and the dead.

In this way, he became an object of terror and hatred to all.

NARRATOR: All except the Roman \harmy, whose loyalty Domitian

has bought.

With a new general installed \h\h\h\hafter Fuscus’ death,

Emperor Domitian deploys his \hsoldiers across the border

to Tapae and Dacia.

\h\hNow, more than ever, the emperor must defeat Decebalus

and regain Roman honor.

He depends on auxiliary troops, foreign allies

paid to fight Rome’s battles.

\h\hSTEVEN H RUTLEDGE: So Rome has to do something about this

because it’s not just losing two governors,

\hit’s a matter of national prestige.

\hYou can’t have this kind of hit and run raid-- although,

\hkilling two governors is much more than a hit and run raid--

and not do something about it.

So Decebalus had to be dealt with in some way.

NARRATOR: As the Roman and Dacian forces clash again,

Rome is determined to settle the matter once and for all.

The Dacians are notoriously \h\h\h\h\hfierce fighters,

\hbut the Roman army, beefed up with auxiliary troops composed

of barbarian allies, \h\hwon’t back down.

EDWARD J WATTS: For the Dacians, the experience

of fighting Romans is certainly going

to be a terrifying experience.

\h\h\h\h\hNot just because you’re fighting a professional military

\h\h\h\hthat demonstrates its capacity and its organization

\hat every turn, but also, because you’re

going to be facing auxiliaries, \h\h\h\hwhose style of fighting

are things that you’ve \h\hnever encountered.

You’ve never encountered people \hwho look like this or people

\h\hwho dress like this or people who fight like this,

and so the experience \h\h\h\h\hof a battle

is going to be overwhelmingly \h\ha terrifying experience.

NARRATOR: Until, at last, Decebalus and the Dacians

\hare overwhelmed and they retreat,

\hbut circumstances won’t allow Domitian to press the advantage

against the Dacians.

\hWhile Domitian is preoccupied with Decebalus and the Dacians,

a Roman governor in Germania \hseizes his chance to rebel.

Domitian sends the young and \hloyal legionary commander,

named Trajan, to restore order.

The revolt is crushed, and the \h\hrebel leader taken captive.

CLIFFORD ANDO: Domestic problem \h\h\hthat Domitian faced in 89

was, apparently, dissatisfaction among at least one

of the commanders and his legions.

Elsewhere, in the European theater,

this was the general \h\h\hSaturninus, who

seems to have made an attempt \hto declare himself emperor

\h\h\h\h\hwhile Domitian was preoccupied with Dacian wars.

NARRATOR: Trajan helps quell \h\hthe Saturninus rebellion,

winning greater recognition \h\h\h\h\hfrom the emperor.

EDWARD J WATTS: As a reward, Domitian

makes him consul in 91.

Then it seems he’s \hgiven, probably,

two military governorships along the frontier, both of which

\hrequired great skill and also granted to him

great responsibility,

\hNARRATOR: But for the Dacian king Decebalus,

\h\h\h\hthe emperor Domitian’s political and military problems

provide an unexpected bonus.

Domitian, an inept \h\hleader at best,

\h\h\hsuddenly feels vulnerable because of dissent in his ranks

\h\hand the savagery of the Dacian resistance.

\h\h\h\hHoping to appease and control his defeated enemies,

\h\h\hthe insecure Domitian sends a messenger from Rome

\h\h\h\hinto Dacian territory, offering a generous treaty deal

with the warrior king.

\hIt is a weak and cowardly solution.

\hCLIFFORD ANDO: Any time a military leader settles

with an enemy for anything less than total victory, it’s always

going to be open for his critics to complain that this amounts

to a cowardice, to letting \h\han enemy off the hook.

Witness the criticism, \h\h\hboth in the ’90s

and early into this decade, that was leveled at George H.W. Bush

\h\h\h\hfor allowing Saddam Hussein to remain in power

after the first Gulf War.

NARRATOR: In this strange reversal,

\h\h\hDomitian’s messenger delivers the spoils of war

to his defeated enemy, according to historian Cassius Dio.

ACTOR AS CASSIUS DIO: Domitian \hhad given large sums of money

to Decebalus on the spot, \h\has well as artisan’s

\hof every trade pertaining to both peace and war and promise

to keep on giving large \h\hsums in the future.

\h\hNARRATOR: Domitian squanders Rome’s wealth

to buy a barbarian’s loyalty.

EDWARD J WATTS: He was forced \hto cut a deal that was very

unfavorable and to the permanent detriment of his reputation,

he had to grant the Dacians attribute.

\h\h\hHe also had to send engineers and technicians

and, in essence, laid the \hfoundation for a Dacian

resurgence.

NARRATOR: Then in 89 AD, Emperor Domitian

follows this display \h\hof Roman weakness

\h\hwith another foolish action, what he believes

will be a show of Roman strength against other barbarians

across the Danube.

But Domitian underestimates \h\h\h\h\h\htheir strength

\h\hand devotes too few of his troops.

\hEDWARD J WATTS: Domitian had felt that they had inadequately

supported him during the initial stages of his Dacian campaign,

so he launched a retaliatory \hattack on these two tribes,

probably thinking that this would be a very fast-moving

and easily resolved situation.

NARRATOR: Rome suffers \h\ha humiliating loss.

\h\h\hSTEVEN H RUTLEDGE: Domitian, at this point,

he’s really on a downward \h\h\hspiral, in a sense.

\h\h\hNot only is he buying off Decebalus,

\hthere’s rumors that he’s triumphed over the Germans

but these are false triumphs, that he’s

\hbeen buying blond wigs and dressing people up as Germans

to carry in his triumphs, \h\h\hthis sort of thing.

\hThings are really on the skids for Domitian.

NARRATOR: But not \hall of Domitian

enemies are on the frontier.

\h\hCLIFFORD ANDO: Domitian had a habit of killing off

\hhis relatives with fantastic regularity,

\hand also, in moments of pique, as it seems,

would discover, or claim to discover,

conspiracies among senators.

And this would lead to purges \h\hof the ranking membership

of the senate.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: By 93 AD, Domitian declares himself

Dominus at Deus--

Lord and God.

He has become unpredictable, \hvindictive, and dangerous.

\h\h\h\hCLIFFORD ANDO: He made virtually everyone close to him

feel continually under threat, and it was only

\h\h\h\ha matter of time before someone lashed out to kill him

before he killed them.

NARRATOR: As long as Domitian \h\hlives, no one around him

is safe.

\h\h\h\hHis wife Domitia, her steward Stephanus, and others

close to Domitian decide to take matters into their own hands,

\h\h\h\haccording to biographer Suetonius.

\h\hACTOR AS SUETONIUS: As the conspirators were deliberating

\h\h\hwhen and how to attack Domitian, whether at the bath

or at dinner, Stephanus, \hthe Domitia’s steward,

offered his aide.

To avoid suspicion, he wrapped up his left arm

in woolen bandages \h\hfor some days,

pretending that he had injured \h\h\hit and concealed in them

a dagger.

STEVEN H RUTLEDGE: We know that at the time

\hhe’s assassinated on September 18, 96

\hAD that he’s hated by his wife, Domitia,

that he’s hated by various \h\hcourtiers and freedman,

\h\hthat the senate’s not too fond of him.

No one likes Domitian, \h\h\h\hat this point.

\hSo there may have been a combination conspiracy

between the imperial house and various members of the senate.

NARRATOR: The plot \h\his worked out.

Now, it’s time to set it in motion.

\h\h\h\hHolding himself accountable to no one,

\hEmperor Domitian is despised by everyone.

By alienating Rome’s allies \hand depleting its wealth,

\hhe puts himself in mortal danger.

A trusted servant, Stephanus, \h\h\happroaches the emperor,

playing on his fears, according to Roman biographer, Suetonius.

ACTOR AS SUETONIUS: Given an \haudience with the emperor,

\hby pretending to reveal a conspiracy against him,

\hStephanus handed him a scroll of false evidence

\hand then stabbed him as he read it.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Hearing the commotion, Domitian’s guards

\h\hrush in, too late to save the emperor,

\h\h\h\htoo soon for Stephanus to escape.

Domitian is only 45 at the time of his assassination.

He has reigned for 15 years.

\h\h\hEDWARD J WATTS: The assassination of Domitian

unfolds as a plot within, \h\h\hat least initially,

within his household.

He’s assassinated by members of his court

\hand assassinated in a private space.

In many ways, this looks like a sort of open and shut case,

\hbut there are reasons to think that other things are

happening.

NARRATOR: With Domitian \h\h\hdead, the senate

presses its advantage, according to historian, Suetonius.

ACTOR AS SUETONIUS: The people \hreceive the news of Domitian

death with indifference, but the soldiers grieved

\h\h\hand at once, tried to call him Domitian the God.

The senators, on the other \h\hhand, were so overjoyed

\h\h\hthat they raced to insult the dead emperor,

pulling down his statue, \h\h\hchiseling his name

from the buildings, and smashing his likeness before the eyes

of the people.

NARRATOR: The Senate wastes no time appointing a new emperor.

CLIFFORD ANDO: In the immediate \h\h\h\haftermath of Domitian’s

\h\hassassination, the senate at Rome

sought out one of \hits own members

as a new emperor, a man named Nerva, who was an elderly man

\h\h\hand without children, and without any particular military

distinction.

The reasons for their choosing \h\hhim are shrouded in history

now.

EDWARD J WATTS: Nerva is acclaimed by the senate,

suspiciously quickly.

And Nerva is an excellent \h\hcompromise candidate,

if you’re looking to appoint an emperor that most people could

deal with, because Nerva’s \h\h\hold, Nerva’s sickly,

Nerva doesn’t have a son, and so he is in essence a placeholder

while you figure out what \hyou want to really do.

NARRATOR: Nerva knows his \hrole is only temporary,

and he makes the most of it.

\h\h\hCLIFFORD ANDO: Rather, of course, then Nerva abdicating,

or for that matter, Nerva being \hassassinated for his weakness

in controlling the troops, he took, in fact, a co-emperor,

one who gave him exactly those \h\hqualities that he, himself,

\h\h\h\hlacked, tremendous respect among the military

being foremost among them.

NARRATOR: Within a year, Nerva adopts

up-and-coming general \hTrajan as his heir,

and names him co-emperor.

\h\h\hHistory is silent on the question of whether Trajan was

part of the original conspiracy \h\h\hto assassinate Domitian.

\hEDWARD J WATTS: I don’t think we can say Trajan was involved,

\h\hbut he likely was aware of it, and that

doesn’t even necessarily \h\hmean he supported it.

He could have been aware of it, \hbut recognized that this was

a circumstance that he couldn’t change and was

willing to accept.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Three years later, Trajan--

on foot and in civilian guard--

is almost unrecognizable as he arrives at Rome’s gates

in 98 AD.

He has come to be declared sole emperor after Nerva’s

natural death.

He receives a hero’s welcome \honce the guards realize who

he is.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: When Trajan arrives in Rome,

everybody is overjoyed because \h\hhere is a relatively young

\h\hemperor who is keen to collaborate with the people

\h\hand the senate in governing the empire,

and it’s seen almost as the dawn of a new age.

NARRATOR: From the outset, it is clear that Trajan is everything

Domitian was not.

\h\h\h\h\hThe historian Pliny celebrates the new emperor’s

gloriously modest arrival.

ACTOR AS PLINY: The very \h\hmethod of your entry

\hwon delight and surprise, for your predecessors chose

\hto be carried in, not satisfied even

\h\hto be drawn by four white horses,

but lifted up on human shoulders in their overbearing pride.

You towered above \hus only because

of your own splendid physique.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: He had due \hrespect for the groups that

mattered, and perhaps, \h\h\hmore importantly,

\h\h\hfor the groups that wrote history, and that’s

\h\hwhy Trajan goes down as being such a good emperor.

NARRATOR: Trajan inherits Rome’s humiliating and costly treaty

with the Dacians.

\h\hThanks to Domitian, in exchange for peace,

\h\h\hthese barbarians are entitled to Roman weaponry,

Roman deserters, and each year, another large portion of Roman

\hwealth, and Trajan won’t tolerate that.

EDWARD J WATTS: Trajan, and probably many like Trajan,

\h\hlooked at the defeat that the Dacians had inflicted on

Domitian, or at least the treaty that the Dacians had inflicted

\h\hon Domitian as a real black eye for the Romans,

and so there was incentive to do something about this

and to fix this situation.

NARRATOR: Trajan doesn’t \h\h\hstay in Rome long.

He and nine Roman legions \h\hand auxiliary troops

\hhead to the Danube to take care of unfinished business.

He fortifies Rome’s military \h\hpresence on the frontier,

\h\h\h\hpreparing for a long engagement along the Danube.

\h\hBut before he can confront the Dacians,

he must build the infrastructure to support his troops.

\h\hOnly then, according to the historian Cassius Dio,

\h\hwill he be ready to repair the damage wrought by Domitian

and restore Rome’s honor \h\hby settling the score

with the Dacians.

ACTOR AS CASSIUS DIO: He took into account their past deeds

and was grieved at the amount of money they were receiving

\h\hannually, and he also observed that their power

and their pride were increasing.

NARRATOR: But vengeance \h\h\h\hmight not have

been Trajan’s sole motivation.

STEVEN H RUTLEDGE: There are any number of motives that Trajan

could have had for going after \h\h\hDecebalus, at this point.

It could have been revenge \h\h\h\hand national honor.

It could be a matter of a new emperor who

\h\h\h\h\hwants to gain prestige and authority

and solidify his position, so he’s

going to go off and make war.

Maybe both of those.

NARRATOR: The campaign is a huge undertaking.

Trajan spends a year building \h\hforts, roads, and bridges

in preparation.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: It’s a very \hdifficult area for the Romans

\h\hto penetrate, and a lot of engineering work

has to be carried out first of all, to cross the Danube there.

There’s lots of narrow \h\h\hgorges and so on.

\h\hNARRATOR: By 101 AD, Trajan is ready.

\h\h\hTrajan’s reputation as a master commander precedes him,

\h\h\hand the Dacian Decebalus wants to undermine his efforts

by making sure he \hdoesn’t profit.

\h\hTo keep the Dacian treasury from falling into Roman hands,

Decebalus buries his riches.

Only he and his henchman \h\h\hBicilis know where.

EDWARD J WATTS: Dacia is \ha relatively rich area.

If the Romans were \hto expand, Dacia

would be a natural choice.

The resources are there \hto make this, if not

\ha profitable campaign, at least a campaign that could

potentially pay for itself.

\h\hAnd so if we are willing to accept that Trajan had greater

\hambitions for conquest and greater ambitions for himself

and his state, it would be natural

for him to look to Dacia.

NARRATOR: In the year \h101 AD, the Dacians

\h\hknow their years of peace are about to end.

Many of them pack up and \h\hflee for their lives.

\hThough the Dacians have done battle with the Romans before,

\hthis time is very different, according to historian Cassius

Dio.

ACTOR AS SUETONIUS: Decebalus, \hlearning of Trajan’s advance,

became frightened since he well \hknew that before, it was not

\hthe Romans that he had conquered, but Domitian,

and now, he would be fighting \h\h\hagainst both the Romans

and Trajan the Emperor.

NARRATOR: Dacian families \hhead for safer ground,

knowing this time, there will be no negotiations.

EDWARD J WATTS: Trajan, \hthroughout his reign,

\h\h\h\h\his renowned for traveling with his armies

and enduring some of the same difficulties

that his army endures.

And I think this is what endears Trajan

\hvery much to the soldiers serving under his command,

eventually.

He appreciated the struggles that they were going through

and was willing to share some of these struggles, himself.

NARRATOR: And now, that struggle will take the Roman troops

to Dacia.

The new Roman emperor, Trajan, \h\h\hhas reconciled the senate

\h\hand the military, and now, he seeks Roman glory

and personal honor \h\hby confronting

\hthe troublesome Dacians at Tapae.

\h\h\hBy 101 AD, the Dacian king Decebalus

has grown familiar with Roman fighting tactics,

and with making friends \hwith Rome’s enemies.

\h\h\h\h\hDecebalus worked assiduously in building up

\h\ha nexus of alliances, not just amongst foreign peoples,

but also amongst his nobles, and he’ll create a fighting force

that’s formidable, but it’s not \has formidable as the Romans.

\hHowever, they are organized, and they

are a formidable enough force that they can beat the Romans

\hat times, and that’s important to remember.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: But it is not enough, and Decebalus knows it.

\hFaltering he even sends Trajan a plea for peace.

Trajan rejects it.

The emperor will stop at nothing short of victory,

though it comes at a high price, writes historian Cassius Dio.

\h\hACTOR AS SUETONIUS: Trajan engaged the foe

and saw many wounded \h\h\hon his own side

and killed many of the enemy.

And when bandages gave out, he has

said not to have spared even his own clothing,

\h\hbut to have cut it up into strips.

\h\hNARRATOR: A Dacian warrior will choose death over capture,

\h\h\hand they treat their own prisoners with abject cruelty.

Roman captives are handed \h\hover to Dacian women

to be humiliated, tortured, \h\hand eventually killed.

\h\h\hUltimately, Trajan prevails over Decebalus,

bending the barbarian \h\h\hto Rome’s will.

The vanquished king will surrender all

that he has gained from \hthe previous treaties

and swear his allegiance.

Cassius Dio recounts the terms.

ACTOR AS SUETONIUS: So \hDecebalus reluctantly

engaged to surrender his arms, \h\hto give back the deserters,

\h\hto demolish the forts, to withdraw

\h\hfrom captured territory, and furthermore, to consider

the same person’s enemies and \hfriends as the Romans did.

\hNARRATOR: With the terms of the treaty agreed upon,

Trajan has converted a fierce \h\h\hadversary into an ally,

\hand can return to Italy a proud man.

But the treaty falls \hshort of its mark.

It can’t curtail Decebalus’ \h\hbloodthirsty ambition,

and it can’t force him to \hsurrender his knowledge

of Roman technology.

\h\hThe Dacians are not to be trusted.

\hDenied Roman weaponry, they begin to construct their own,

\hbreaking their word by building their armories.

With sharpened blades and bolstered ranks,

they expand their territory \h\h\hin defiance of Rome.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: It’s very \h\hunclear why the Decebalus

should break the treaty.

Probably the answer \h\hwas that it was

a question of inevitability.

Decebalus no doubt \h\hsaw that a war

\h\h\hwith Rome, another showdown, was inevitable.

\h\hThe region was not big enough for the two of them,

if you like.

\hAnd therefore, he thought he would get his attack in first.

He took in deserters.

He made various menacing moves.

And perhaps, he hoped he could seize the initiative, take over

\h\h\h\hmore of the region, and therefore, forestall the attack

by Trajan, which he no doubt \h\h\hthought was inevitable.

NARRATOR: While Decebalus is \hrebuilding his war machine

\hin Dacia, Trajan travels from Italy to sabotage it.

Where Decebalus relies on force, Trajan employees diplomacy.

\h\h\h\h\h\hHe courts the Quadi, Marcomanni, and other barbarians

sympathetic to the Dacians but swayed by Roman wealth.

\h\h\hBy winning them over to Rome’s side,

Trajan deprives Decebalus \h\h\hof fighting power.

If Decebalus means \hto wage this war,

he’ll have to fight it alone.

FLORIN CURTA: Trajan’s responded to Decebalus’ very skillful way

to wage war against the Romans \hwith an equally skillful way

to engage, basically, every \hlittle group in the area

or surrounding the \h\hDacian kingdom.

STEVEN H RUTLEDGE: So there’s a lot of desperation on the part

\h\hof Decebalus at this juncture, and his allies

are growing restive.

They want to leave him, and \hthey’re making overtures

to the Romans.

\h\hSo what’s going on, at this point,

\h\h\h\his Decebalus certainly knows he’s

in a grave, grave situation.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: 106 AD, not settling for half measures,

\h\hTrajan leads his expansive forces to the political center

of the Dacian kingdom--

\h\hSarmizegetusa, in present day Romania.

Within the walls of the fortress city,

\h\hsoldiers and citizens prepare for the invasion

by Roman troops.

\h\h\hThe Dacians put their faith in their stout walls

\hand strong army, but should the Romans breach the gates,

the citizens will be ready, armed with torches and oil,

they will leave the Romans with nothing worth taking.

\hAnd for themselves, a poison is prepared,

so that no Dacian man, woman, or child will suffer capture

and Roman slavery.

\hIf they are defeated, they will all be joined in death.

To reach the Dacian \h\hcapital, Trajan

\h\hruns the gauntlet of Dacian forces defending the route that

leads to the gates of the city.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: This is a big fortified place that

was extremely difficult to take, and the Romans

\h\h\hhad to just proceed very slowly, taking each place, one

after the other, and as you can imagine, taking a lot of losses

as they did so.

It was a bitter struggle.

NARRATOR: An impenetrable gate \h\hwill confront Trajan’s iron

will.

106 AD, for more than two decades,

\hthe hostile Dacians have tormented Rome.

Now, as they once again \h\hbreak their treaty,

\h\h\hemperor Trajan mobilizes his troops

\h\hto break their will by breaching their stronghold.

\h\hThe Dacians have fought mightily to keep the Romans

\hfrom the gates of their citadel at Sarmizegetusa.

\hGEOFFREY GREATREX: Although the Dacian equipment was not

a good, they were fighting \h\h\h\hfor their homeland,

\h\h\h\hthey were occupying extremely strong positions,

and as I said about the capital, this is a big fortified place.

It was a bitter struggle.

NARRATOR: The Roman efforts pay off, as their forces penetrate

the doomed city.

\h\h\hBut the Dacians who choose death over defeat

have poisoned themselves and set the city ablaze.

Decebalus, cornered by Roman soldiers,

will not be taken alive.

But his aide, Bicilis, pleads for his own life

and is captured.

A better prize is Decebalus’ head, which Trajan’s soldiers

collect as the ultimate trophy.

\h\h\hThey will later paraded victoriously

through the streets of Rome.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: It was the \hfirst big military success

\h\hby a reigning emperor since the days of Augustus and Julius

Caesar.

This was a remarkable \h\h\h\hachievement.

NARRATOR: The victory reaps material benefits, as well.

Bicilis leads Roman soldiers \h\h\hto his king’s treasure.

STEVEN H RUTLEDGE: The amount of gold

that Trajan received or took \h\hin his conquest of Dacia

was enormous, by any stretch.

And it had actually been \h\hhidden by the Dacians

under the river Sargetia.

\h\hNARRATOR: These riches, along with the active gold

mines of Dacia, replenished \h\h\h\hthe Roman treasury.

\hAccording to the chronicles, Rome recovers 225 tons of gold,

500 tons of silver, and 50,000 slaves.

\hFLORIN CURTA: The gold and silver coming from the booty

that he had collected from the Dacian wars

was used to fund a fantastic \hprogram, building program,

in Rome, on a scale that Rome did not see before.

NARRATOR: The spoils of war provide Trajan

with the funds he needs to build a new forum complex in Rome,

the largest ever built. Though \h\h\hthe forum was magnificent

in its day, little but the centerpiece column remains,

but it’s enough.

\h\h\hThis astonishing edifice called Trajan’s Column provides

\h\h\h\h\ha cryptic pictorial narrative of the Dacian wars

that returned Rome to her glory.

\hGEOFFREY GREATREX: Trajan’s Column is about 100 foot high

with 155 different scenes from \hthe war against the Dacians.

It’s not a blow-by-blow \h\haccount, of course.

\h\hIt’s got, as it were, symbolic sort of scenes.

We also can see barbarians \h\h\h\h\hof various kinds

and their equipment and so on, but by and large, of course, it

\h\his the triumphal advance of the Romans

and their two victories \h\h\hin the two wars.

\h\hEDWARD J WATTS: The column represents a multifaceted piece

of propaganda.

It both shows the engineering \haccomplishments of Trajan’s

\hreign, and also demonstrates the great military achievements

that Trajan had brought about.

\h\hNARRATOR: The colossal spoils of war and the success in battle

will go to Trajan’s head and whet his appetite for power.

\h\h\h\h\hHis reign is punctuated by conquest,

and a decade after \hthe Dacian wars,

he begins an ambitious campaign \hagainst Parthia to the east,

in the area now known as Iraq.

\hAs far as we know, there were no strategic reasons for Trajan

\h\hto wage war against Parthia, at this time.

And it’s most likely his and his advisors

warmongering attitude that \h\hled to an open conflict

with Parthia.

\hNARRATOR: Trajan enjoys the success he’s come to expect,

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbut he has underestimated his enemy.

\h\hThe Parthians melt against this onslaught

\h\h\hof this enormous military machine that’s the Roman army.

And the Parthians are so shocked by how easily the Romans came

in that they manage, \h\hin the next year,

to stage an enormous \h\h\h\hinsurrection.

They kill or drive out \h\hthe Roman garrisons

that are in their country.

It’s not exactly similar, but it’s

somewhat similar to the situation

\hthe United States faced in Iraq, where you enter

with enormous military \hpower, but you end up

with an insurgency all over the place.

\hNARRATOR: Trajan, now aging and ill,

imagines himself to be the \hnew Alexander, conqueror

of the world.

But by 117, it is clear that his dream will never be realized.

His plans for expansion have \hstretched Rome to its limit

and into a hostile landscape.

CLIFFORD ANDO: Holding \hon to the territory,

across these inhospitable swaths of desert, is very, very hard,

and Trajan found himself, \h\h\hespecially fighting

in the north, middle, and \hsouth at the same time,

that he’d overextended \h\h\h\hhis resources.

NARRATOR: At last, in old age, Trajan

retreats, abandoning \h\h\h\hhis campaign

and heading back to Rome, but he dies before he gets there.

EDWARD J WATTS: The situation that Trajan found himself in,

in the last year of his life, is, in many ways,

similar to the situation \hthat the United States

and its allies finds itself in, in the same part of the world,

with the same porous defenses, \h\h\h\hthe same porous natural

frontiers, and the same desire, in essence, to fight a war that

\h\hought to have taken a long time in a relatively short span

\hof time, with a plan for winning a military victory,

\h\h\h\hbut no plan for absorbing the territory

and organizing the territory.

NARRATOR: Trajan is considered \hone of the greatest emperors,

but his ambitions could \h\hnot be maintained.

\hThe great failure of Trajan’s policy

is revealed almost immediately \hafter his death, when Hadrian

withdraws from most of the territory that Trajan took.

NARRATOR: Even the hard \hwon province of Dacia

is eventually given up.

An empire is molded \h\hby its leaders.

\h\hHistory judges Trajan and Domitian differently.

One good emperor, one bad, but both

ultimately forsake the \h\hneeds of the empire

in order to chase \hpersonal glory.

They won’t be the only emperors \hto walk this dangerous path,

\h\ha path that will eventually lead to the end of the empire.