By whatever routes Trajan’s army invaded the dominions of the doomed king, it is known that his advance was prompt and successful, and that this time the fame of the Roman arms prevented Decebalus from securing many allies.  He once more sued for peace; but Trajan’s terms being a virtual relinquishment of his independence, he prepared himself for a supreme and desperate effort for the defence of his kingdom.  At first it is said that he attempted to remove Trajan by assassination, but that his emissaries were detected and put to death.  Another expedient seems to have been temporarily successful.  He managed to decoy into his power Longinus, a Roman general, said to have been a great favourite of Trajan, and, holding him as a hostage, Decebalus demanded extravagant terms of peace.  To this proposal Trajan gave an evasive reply, in order, if possible, to save the life of his officer.  The last-named, however, with true Roman patriotism, had a message conveyed to Trajan by his freedman, advising him to proceed with his operations, and at the same time he himself took a dose of poison in order to relieve his master from further perplexity on his account.  Decebalus then offered to give up the body of the Roman general and certain other captives in return for the escaped freedman, but Trajan returned no answer to his proposal.  Very little is known of the incidents of this campaign, excepting that Trajan forced the passes of the Carpathians, and, taking one defended post after another, drove the enemy into the vicinity of his capital; that the tribes who had allied themselves with the Dacians, amongst whom the Sarmatians, Jasyges, and Burri are named, deserted them one by one, and that the Romans at length laid siege to Sarmizegethusa, where Decebalus had taken refuge.  After a brave but ineffectual defence the king, rather than yield himself a prisoner, committed suicide with his sword; whilst his followers, after setting fire to the town, imitated the example of their leader by taking poison.  The head of Decebalus was cut off and sent to Rome by Trajan, who discovered and divided amongst his soldiers vast spoils and treasures which the Dacians had endeavoured to conceal, and then returned to Rome, where (A.D. 106) a triumph was celebrated on even a grander scale than after the conclusion of his first expedition.[95]

[Illustration:  DACIANS SETTING FIRE TO THEIR CAPITAL. (FROM TRAJAN’S COLUMN.)]

Before drawing to a close this hasty survey of the rise and fall of the Dacian monarchy, let us turn again for a moment to the bas-reliefs upon Trajan’s Column, the indelible and, after all, the most trustworthy record of his second expedition.[96] Passing hastily over the first scenes, which comprise tho landing of his troops, the assault and capture of a fortified place, the defeat of the Dacians, and what appears to be a refusal on the part of Trajan to grant them peace, we have a very faithful and circumstantial picture of a halt, where the emperor is present at