The Dacian Wars

-98 AD- Trajan was now princeps!
   -One of the greatest Roman emperors of all time!
   -Spent his first year in office travelling around the Roman frontiers of the Rhine and Danube rivers.
      -Eventually arrived in the province of Moesia (next to the kingdom of Dacia) and concluded that the Dacians were obviously preparing for war with Rome.
         -Domitian had sent a bunch of money to Decebalus (king of Dacia) in exchange for Dacia to become a client kingdom of Rome, but Domitian had expected Decebalus to use this money to build up their fortifications and protect themselves neighboring barbarian hordes.  However, it was clear that the Dacians were instead using these funds to build up their fortifications to protect themselves from Rome instead!
-99 AD- Trajan finally arrived in Rome and held a triumph to celebrate his enthronement.
   -Surprisingly entered the city on foot (as opposed to a horse or chariot) and greeted the common folk personally on his way into the city.
   -Promised the Senate that he would continue Nerva's policy of "no treason trials". 
      -Interestingly enough, the Senate actually hated Trajan initially because he was a provincial from Hispania (in addition to being someone who had replaced Nerva without their own say in the matter), but after meeting him they immediately grew to like him.
      -Trajan soon announced that he was going back to the old Augustine model of referring to himself as "princeps" ("first", i.e. "first among equals"), which I guess emperors in the past hadn't been doing.
   -Trajan also freed many of the remaining aristocratic political personas who had been held prisoner by Domitian, and returned lots of their confiscated property.
   -Also, Trajan was kind of a libertarian- he had no interest in running an autocratic state, and envisioned all of the provinces governing themselves autonomously, with the emperor or Senate only issuing orders when it was absolutely necessary. 
      -He also didn't have time to micromanage the provinces anyway, as he was busy preparing for the war with Dacia!
      -Dismantled Domitian's central executive branch that managed the empire.
-Trajan then raised two legions and reorganized where the troops were stationed.
   -Also improved the road networks of Moesia in order to minimized fuck-ups involving supply routes.
      -Regarding the Dacian Wars, Trajan became legendary not because of his battle plans (which were fine), but because of his logistical planning (which was genius).
         -One of the key Roman engineers during this time was a genius dude named Apollodorus of Damascus, one of the greatest engineers/architects in all of history!
            -Apollodorus was Trajan's chief architect for everything.
   -One Trajan felt that he had prepared enough, he received the Senate's blessing (a formality) and decided to move forward with the war with Dacia.
-101 AD- in March, Trajan personally led the legions into Dacia.
   -Once again, a battle was fought near Tapae, and the Dacians actually put up a really good fight, with the Romans experiencing a surprisingly high number of casualties.
      -Technically the Romans won because the Dacians fled after a storm came, but this was definitely a Pyrrhic victory for Trajan.
         -Winter was also on the way, so Trajan quickly made the decision to retreat back into Moesia to regroup and make additional plans.
   -However, when winter came, the Danube River froze and Decebalus decided to launch an offensive on Moesia!
      -Unfortunately for him, the Danube River hadn't quite frozen as much as he'd thought, and he lost a bunch of troops due to thin ice and shit.
         -Demoralied, they launched a shitty attack on Moesia and were easily repelled by the Roman defenses.
-102 AD- Trajan decided to invade Dacia again in the spring, but this time Decebalus decided to surrender and sue for peace.
   -It was obvious to Trajan that the problem wasn't Dacia's independence, but rather it was Decebalus' belligerence and an apparent lack of honor.  So, he accepted Decebalus' surrender, but imposed far harsher penalties on Dacia.
      -Dacia had to give part of its territory to Rome and also had to tear down their fortifications and shit that had been set up to defend against Rome.
         -So, Trajan was satisfied and returned to Rome, where he held a triumph.
-Decebalus, of course, had other plans.  He saw no reason to actually submit to Rome, so he didn't take this surrender seriously and just used the money Trajan sent to do the same old shit as before.
   -Trajan acknowledged that it was possible, of course, for the Romans to have to invade Dacia again, so he had Apollodorus build what would come to be known as "Trajan's Bridge", a big-ass stone bridge across the Danube River which at that point was the first bridge to be built across that particular river, but it was  also to be the longest bridge ever built for the next 1000 years!  It was 1,100 meters long, 15 meters wide, and 19 meters tall.
-106 AD- Trajan ends up invading Dacia once again in the spring, leading the troops personally just like before.
   -Decebalus had been trying to agitate neighboring barbarian tribes to attack the Romans, so Trajan had finally decided that enough was enough.
      -This time, Trajan decided that Decebalus was to be killed and the entire kingdom of Dacia be brought under Roman rule as an annexed territory of Rome.
      -The legion marched straight for the capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia, and when they arrived there the besieged the city.
         -However, once again the Dacians proved to be surprisingly tenacious in their defense, so Trajan finally resorted to destroying the city's aqueducts so that they were cut off from their water supply.
            -Of course, this caused the city to surrender. 
               -Decebalus was on the run after this, but he eventually committed suicide before he could be caught.  His decapitated head was sent to Trajan.
-Trajan then ordered that Sarmizegetusa Regia be razed, and he had a new provincial capital be built roughly 40 km away (its official name was "Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa").
   -Dacia was to be hte last major province added to the empire.  It would remain in the empire until the 270s AD.
      -Dacia proved to be a great addition to the empire because it had vast amounts of resources such as iron and shit.
      -When Trajan returned back to Rome, he brought with him all of Decebalus' treasures, a scene not witnessed since the days of Pompey returning after his conquests in the East.
-Rome was now extremely rich and not hurting for money at all.
   -Trajan and Apollodorus began planning for a bunch of new projects, and the future looked very bright indeed! 
      -One of these projects was the huge "Trajan's Forum", another was "Trajan's Column".
         -Trajan's Column was 100 feet high, and covered by 600 feet of sculptures telling the story of Trajan's victories; it actually is still standing today! 
            -Much of the info we get about the Dacian Wars is from Trajan's Column, so of course a lot of the info is propaganda and shit and should be taken with a grain of salt (like all historical sources!).