Trajan's Dacian Wars - Early Clashes

Early Clashes

Since the reign of Burebista, widely considered to be the greatest Dacian king—who ruled between 82 BC and 44 BC—the Dacians had represented a threat for the Roman Empire. Caesar himself had drawn up a plan to launch a campaign against Dacia. The threat was reduced when dynastic struggles in Dacia lead to a division into four (or five, depending on the source) separately governed tribal states after Burebista's death in 44 BC. Augustus later came into conflict with Dacia after they sent envoys offering their support against Mark Antony in exchange for "requests", the nature of which have not been recorded. Augustus rejected the offer and Dacia gave their support to Antony. In 29 BC, Augustus sent several punitive expeditions into Dacia led by Marcus Licinius Crassus (Marcus Licinius Crassus the Younger, also known as Marcus Licinius Crassus Dives, grandson of the famed Marcus Licinius Crassus who put down the Spartacus slave rebellion, and of the 1st Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Gnaeus Pompey) that inflicted heavy casualties and apparently killed three of their five kings. Although Dacian raids into Pannonia and Moesia continued for several years despite the defeat, the threat of Dacia had effectively ended.

Then, after 116 years of relative peace along the Roman frontier, in the winter of 85 AD to 86 AD the army of King Duras led by general Diurpaneus attacked the Roman province of Moesia, killing the Moesian governor Oppius Sabinus, a former consul.