The auxiliary units involved in the conquest of Dacia
Florian Matei-Popescu, Ovidiu Ţentea
- abstract -
Along the legions that took part to the both expeditiones Dacicae, an important role was played by the auxiliary units stationed in the provinces neighboring Decebalus' kingdom, namely Pannonia, Moesia Inferior and especially Moesia Superior. Taking into account the fact that Moesia Superior was the main bridge-head for the attack against the Dacians, the auxiliary units in this province played a much more important role than the units in the other two above-mentioned provinces. Trajan only brought units to Moesia Inferior starting with 102, when auxiliary units in this province first saw action north of the Danube, following the attack of Decebalus and his allies against the province in question. This indicates that Trajan did not plan a so-called second front, believing that a direct attack against the center of the Dacian kingdom through Banat would have been decisive.
Compared to the fairly clear situation in Moesia Inferior, auxilia Moesiae superioris was strengthened in the period around the first expeditio Dacica, as we can gather from the evidence provided by the military diplomas.
After the Dacian Wars, an important part of these auxiliary units formed the garrison of the new province Dacia.
It is a fact that the units stationed for longer or shorter periods of time in the territory of Dacia, later of Dacia Superior and Dacia Porolissensis, also took part in military operations. For the other units, for which we have no certain data concerning their involvement in Dacian Wars, we cannot say for sure if they took part in military operations or not.