Karansebes, at the junction of the Temes and the Bistra. The gorge of the latter stream leads up to the pass of the Iron Gate, by which the Carpathian chain is crossed into the valley of the Maros, and by this route the united army of Trajan penetrated to the royal residence of Sarmizegethusa.*

But this success was little more than an introduction to the next campaign. The Dacians, retreating up the valley of the Maros, suffered a great defeat at Tapæ, an unknown site; and their king Decebalus, pursued into his mountain fastnesses about the sources of the Maros, consented to form an alliance with Rome. His submission is represented on the celebrated column of Trajan. The war, begun in A.D. 101, had lasted through the whole of the following year; and it was not till A.D 103 that Trajan returned to Rome to celebrate his triumph, and to assume the surname of DACICUS. The appearance of the Dacian envoys in the Senate House, in the attitude of suppliants for the ratification of peace, gave a proof-had such been needed-that this was no repetition of the mock triumphs of a Caligula or Domitian.

But the Dacians were not yet subdued; and, besides minor infractions of the treaty, they crossed the Theiss, and attacked the Iazyges Metanasta, who were under the protection of Rome. Trajan was prepared for the renewal of hostilities. His military genius had created a complete line of defence against the barbarian tribes of Central Europe, from the Rhine and the Main across the Odenwald and Black Forest to the Upper Danube, and thence along the right bank of the river to the Euxine. A part of this system was to connect the Middle Danube, the scene of his recent operations, with the lower course of the river. "At one spot, the gorge, namely, of the Danube, just below Orsova, popularly known as the Iron Gate,† the mark of Trajan's hand may be discovered in a scar which indents for some miles the face of the cliff, forming a terrace about five feet in width. We cannot believe that the way was actually so narrow, but additional width may have been gained by a wooden gallery, supported on a pro

This city, the name of which is explained as Zarmi-tzeket-Kusa (a house covered with skins), was afterwards the Colonia Ulpia Trajana Augusta, and the capital of the province of Dacia. It stood on the river Sargetia (Strel, or Strey, a confluent of the Maros), where its ruins are seen at Vahely, also called Gradischte, about five miles from the pass of the Iron Gate.

+ This must not be confounded with the pass of the Iron Gate in the Carpathian

jecting framework." The operations which Trajan commenced in the spring of A.D. 104 had for their basis a much greater length of the river than before. The rivers Schyl and Alouta (the ancient Rhabon and Aluta), which flow southward through Wallachia into the Danube, pierce the chain of the southern Carpathians by the passes of the Volkan and Rothenthurm, the latter giving direct access to the strongholds of the Dacians in the mountains of Transylvania. The remains of an ancient bridge over the Danube at Gieli, about 220 miles below Belgrade, and of a Roman causeway up the valley of the Alouta to the Rothenthurm pass, seem to leave no doubt that Roman armies have penetrated Dacia by this route; and the general opinion of antiquaries used to identify the piers and towers still standing in the river at Gieli with the celebrated bridge constructed for Trajan by the architect Apollodorus. But in recent years that opinion has been changed by the remains discovered at Severin, a little below Orsova, where the river, issuing from the Iron Gate, expands to a width of 1300 yards, and shows, when the water is very low, a number of piers answering to the account of Dion. That historian, who was governor of Pannonia 120 years later (though the superstructure of the bridge had by that time been overthrown), describes it as having a total length of 4770 Roman feet (about 4570 English), the span of each arch being 170 Roman feet (about 163 English), and the height no less than 150 (about 144 English). The piers were most massive structures of stone, to resist the pressure of floods and ice; and the superstructure was of wood. The work, which will bear a comparison with the grandest triumphs of modern engineering, might well make good the boast of an inscription supposed to have belonged to it, though found at a different spot :

SUB JUGUM ECCE RAPITUR ET DANUVIUS.†

The building of Trajan's bridge, and the other preparations which he pressed on during its construction, appear not to have been completed before the end of the second year (A.D. 105). Meanwhile Decebalus, finding that the emperor would be content

"The construction of this road is described by Mr. Paget in his Hungary and Transylvania, ii. 123. It is ascertained to be the work of Trajan from an inscription on the cliff overhanging the road at a place called Ogradina. The inscription, slightly supplied by Arnett in a memoir (Wien, 1856), points to the year 101. Trajan, trib. pot. iv. cons. iv. (while he was Germanicus, but not yet Dacicus) montis et fluvii anfractibus superatis viam patefecit."-Merivale, vol. vii., p. 233.

An authentic picture of the bridge is happily preserved for us on Trajan's column;

with nothing short of a complete conquest, tried every device of barbarian cunning. An emissary whom he employed to assassinate Trajan was arrested, and confessed the treacherous design under torture; and a Roman officer, named Longinus, who had fallen into his hands, put himself to death rather than suffer Trajan to be embarrassed by the demands made as the price of his freedom. It says much for the Romans and their emperor, that the self-sacrifice of Regulus could be repeated in this age. Early in A.D. 106, Trajan crossed the Danube, and rapidly subdued the whole country between that river and the Carpathians. While Sarmizegethusa, which had been held by a Roman garrison ever since the former war, afforded a base of operations on his left, his main body penetrated by the Rothenthurm pass into the very heart of the Dacian strongholds. Decebalus retired, disputing post after post, till he was deserted by his Sarmatian allies, the mailed cavalry whose prowess Darius had long since experienced, and whose figures are seen upon Trajan's column. On that monument, too, we may still read the "counterfeit presentment" of the final scene, when, the last stronghold of Decebalus being stormed, the king and his nobles set fire to their houses, and killed themselves by sword or poison amidst the conflagration. The head of Decebalus was sent to Rome, probably to prove to the people that so inveterate an enemy was really dead. The treasures, which he is said to have buried beneath a river's bed, putting to death the slaves who had done the work, were nevertheless discovered to Trajan. After defraying the expenses of the war, and providing rewards for the veterans, there was enough left for the celebration of Trajan's triumph, with games in which 11,000 beasts were slain and 10,000 gladiators fought, and for a magnificent architectural monument of the Dacian conquest. The but the apparent differences from Dion's account have occasioned much controversy.

*

Nor indeed, considering the close resemblance of the remains at Gieli to those at Severin, can the position of the bridge be regarded as settled beyond doubt.

It is worth while to observe how the revival of the old martial spirit was attended by the renewal of these gladiatorial exhibitions, which the Flavian emperors had discouraged.

號

IX.

THE REIGN OF TRAJAN.

The operations which

a song of An 104 had for their ba Hver than before. The rivers me Fion and Alma

which flow s

The T

rose

orum

Cæsars, cart of the excavated to

chan the Tube, pierce the chai , surpassing all as by the passes of the Volkan & This Forum TraSing it access to the strongh ts Basilica Ulpia, its Teams of Transylvania one Greek and the other me the Duche at Getz, about 2 with their gilded cornices, & SCY CLONeway up the valle pass seem to leave no ages, and its colossal equespenetrated Ducis by this route emperor; its arch of triumph of Constantine, who appropriated gories used to identify the pi 2Ter & Gel with the celebs memorial as his own; but the the architect Apollodorus Dorie column, which stood in the been changed by the rem he Forum, by far the finest example Orsors, where the river,t of monument in all the world, still width of 1300 yards, the height of 128 feet, its shaft, comnumber of piers answe nineteen stones, exhibiting to our view rian, who was govern d of Trajan's victories in Dacia, in a superstructure of the describes it as havi 4570 English), th (about 163 Englis English). The resist the pressu of wood. The grandest trium the boast of an found at a diff

"The cons Transylvania, on the cliff ove supplied by Ar pot. iv. cons. iv anfractibus su + An auther

spiral band of bas-reliefs, containing than 2500 figures. The golden urn, in the ashes of the founder were deposited in se, ensured the violation of his tomb; and

ssal statue had long been thrown down from amit, before Pope Sixtus V. replaced it by nge of St. Peter, a sign of the change from l to Papal Rome, and an undesigned satire religious ideas which could make scenes of the pedestal for the chief of the Apostles. were the monuments of the conquest of

The country itself was reduced to a Roprovince, which was divided on the east by ss or Danaster (Dniester) from the Sarmaand on the west by the Tibiscus (Theiss)

fact of this connection between the Quirinal and the seems to be put beyond a doubt by the inscription of the Trajan column, which purports to have been show how deep was the excavation made for the area vii. p. 243.) The column was also designed to be

hunday only as far as the Hierasus or Parata (Pruth), the

CONQUEST OF DACIA

of a complete conquest, tried everybod An emissary when he en

d. and confirmed the to.

man offer, sated bev Back to tal

de leuk zal de capa

"la on the north it extended to the · eastern Hungary, with the it of the Carpathians, ncipalities of Moldavia of the Dacians still claim sides founding four colonies the conquest which he comthe city of Nicopolis ad Iatrum rated thirteen centuries later for y Bajazet (A.D. 1396). The province, the Goths, was finally surrendered to urelian, who withdrew the Roman inhank of the Danube, salving his pride by the name of Dacia (A.D. 270).

thus carrying the empire in Europe to the Sarmatian steppes, his lieutenant, Cornelius its security in Asia by subduing the Arabian oubled the south-eastern frontier of Syria. The on the eastern border of Palestine and Arabia Petræa, Mount Gilead, Bostra (Bozrah), Philadelphia (Rabnon), and Petra,—were included within the province, ▲ this period chiefly we may date the splendid remains of architecture that adorn their sites. The occupation of cities secured the great caravan routes between Egypt and the ; and it was now that Petra, in particular, rose to the splenur still attested by its rock-hewn temples and other edifices in Je Roman style. The conquests of Cornelius Palma were made in A.D. 106; and for the next seven years Trajan occupied himself with the internal government of the empire. The extent to which his personal care embraced the details of administration in the provinces is attested by his correspondence with Pliny, who went out as governor of Bithynia in A.D. 103. His numerous "rescripts" to the magistrates created a large body of legislation, though chiefly relating to minor matters; and his personal administration of justice was alike firm and impartial. Augustus had maintained the dignity of the Senate from aristocratic predilection and policy, while using the forms of the constitution for his own aggrandisement: Trajan returned to the same policy in the more liberal spirit of restoring as much freedom as was compatible with the modern boundary between Moldavia and Russia, while some modern enquirers find traces of Roman settlements as far as the Don.