Decebalus, sometimes referred to as Diurpaneus, was the last Dacian king. He is famous for fighting three wars, with varying success, against the Roman Empire under two emperors. After raiding south across the Danube, he defeated a Roman invasion in the reign of Domitian, securing a period of independence during which Decebalus consolidated his rule.
Decebalus' suicide, from Trajan's Column
Trajan
Plaster cast (Cichorius 108) of panel on Trajan's Column. The head of the defeated Dacian king Decebalus (left background) is displayed on a shield to Roman troops (AD 106). The head was then taken to Rome to form the central exhibit in the emperor Trajan's official Triumph
Tiberius Claudius Maximus memorial
The Dacians were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often considered a subgroup of the Thracians. This area includes mainly the present-day countries of Romania and Moldova, as well as parts of Ukraine, Eastern Serbia, Northern Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary and Southern Poland. The Dacians and the related Getae spoke the Dacian language, which has a debated relationship with the neighbouring Thracian language and may be a subgroup of it. Dacians were somewhat culturally influenced by the neighbouring Scythians and by the Celtic invaders of the 4th century BC.
Two of the eight marble statues of Dacian warriors surmounting the Arch of Constantine in Rome.
Dacian Draco from Trajan's Column
Dacian cast in Pushkin Museum, after original in Lateran Museum. Early second century AD.
Roman monument commemorating the Battle of Adamclisi clearly shows two giant Dacian warriors wielding a two-handed falx