Rome’s Dacian Wars: Domitian, Trajan, and Strategy on the Danube, Part 1

Two recent major monographs, one on the Dacian wars of Domitian and Trajan (Stefan) and another on ancient migrations from the Ukraine into the eastern Balkans (Batty, Rome and the Nomads) invite discussion and evaluation. A survey of the problematic literary and archaeological sources (not least Trajan’s Column) for the history of this area in the first and second centuries A.D. prefaces an evaluation of new archaeological evidence on Dacian defenses and innovative topographical identifications. The development of a Geto-Dacian state in Transylvania within the context of multiple ethnicities on the Lower and Middle Danube is discussed and use of new archaeological discoveries to clarify narratives of the wars of 84–89, 101–102, and 105–106 is evaluated. Interpretations of scenes on Trajan’s Column and the metopes of the Adamklissi monument remain controversial.