Reign of Tarabostes the Restorer 238 - 265
A new king for a new war 238 – 242
Tarabostes died quietly in the spring of 238, his son, Tarabostes II succeded him. He was a different man from his father, even before taking the throne he was a notorious public figure. Obsessed with riches, glory, ruthless and often taking naive decisions, he was about to drag the kingdom in a new war without thinking too much. A war against a powerful empire. and a lesson the king and the army would have to learn the hard way.
The situation in Anatolia reached a boiling point. Failed royal marriges, failed assasination attempts, bloody repressions and terriotorial interests finally reached the critical point in 239, late summer of the same year war was declared.
The current king of Cappadocia was Ariobarzanes V. His father ruled for many years, he saw his father beat and conquer both Pontus and East Rome, he saw the kingdom grow like never before. However dire times were waiting ahead, maintaining the new kingdom would prove to be a challenge. The old king left him an unstable kingdom, he was forced to put down costant revolts. Few years ago he had to move the capital away from Byzantion as a huge rebellion threatened the life of the ruler himself. East Rome was responsible for this, the greeks, the western greeks, were responsible for this. He was even almost on the verge to order a massacre in the city but threats from East Rome stopped him. His attempts of cappadociaziation of the population in the ionian region also failed and backfired spectacularly causing even more instability and revolts in the kingdom. The situation was becoming completly unsustainable. The Palmyrean Kingdom was quick to see this weakness this and decided to take the opportunity to expand further. Pontus decided to intervene too, with the promise to get back the lands they lost. Obviously the Palmyrean Kingdom was backed by Romanus Aegipti and they were too eager to enter the war. This was a great opportunity to further expand their sphere of influence.
The war began in a harsh way for Cappadocia. Not only the kingdom had to deal with invading neighbours but rebellions inside the whole kingdom. Peasant revolts, noble revolts, byzantine greek revolts, the land become a battleground before even the invading forces arrived. The situation was already bad. It was Cappadocia's fault in part for this war too and the rebellions they had. In fact Byzantion was not anymore the capital. Too the one was being moved to Colonia, an old Cappadocian city renamed during the Roman Era and retained its new name. Ariobarzanes V, the current ruler might have been the last one to rule an indipendent Cappadocia.
It had a much bigger scale than Cappadocia could ever expect. The Kingdom of Palmyra was the one to declare war, Romanus Aegipti decided to intervene too on behalf of their ally and the the Pontic Kingdom was quick enough to join this war too, they had lost great portions of land to their Cappadocian counterpart. The Dacian King was excited and exuberant at the tought of a new war, a war that started with his ascention to throne, a war that will shape his future reign and make him a great king, peraphs extending the influence of the kingdom, make Dacia truly an empire! Dacia had fought a civil war and invaders that left the kingdom with many problems. Entire generations of young men died and the kingdom was suffering a serious demographic decline. New armies had continously to be created over and over. A proper veteran core of the army was lacking or was very small in most cases. Dacia had great extension but was mostly empty in population and not even the costant importing of slaves was solving this issue in any way, as costant rebellions and costant brutal reprisals on the slaves meant their numbers did not grow much and was only dropping down. It was an issue the upper Dacian class did not realize until, Tarabostes II came to power, this war would highlight all the issues the kingdom was suffering from, in the aftermath of the war and consequently later. Dacia was doomed to become a failed kingdom if things were to continue as they were now. The young king, did not realize this. He instead assembled an expedionary army of 20.000 Dacians and a few thousands from its clients. His generals called it expeditionary force, in fear not to anger the new king. In reality these were all the forces Dacia could muster.
Siracia refused the call to war as they were having troubles with a new neighbour, they were calling themselves Hunns.
To answer the call to war of Cappadocia were the small Ghassind state and Dacia. The war started in late summer of 239 but the Dacian army arrived in Anatolia only in the spring of 240. By this time most of the Cappadocian army has been beaten badly and no news came from the Ghassanid ally. Only two kingdoms remained, it was obvious at this point that the mighty armies of Roman Egypt and Palmyra simply forced them to unconditional surrender.
The first battle in which Dacia was involved happened in June, the Dacian commander waited all the spring in Byzantion for Cappadocian reinforcements or any retreating armies. Only seven thousand Cappadocians showed, the rest of their army was scattered all across the kingdom or simply was slaughtered in earlier engagements by Romanus Aegipti. It came to no one as a surprise that the legions were already bordering Cappadocia even before the start of the conflict, it was clear that someone else beside Palmyra was as eager to start the war. The old king was defiant to Roman Hegemony in the region, he sided with Dacia with the hope to create a new strong alliance to oppose dangerous neighbours. Unfortunately, as we know, both kingdoms had rough times and were weakened. For almost a year Cappadocia was left alone to fight against the many rebellions and invading armies. No wonder by the time Dacia arrived Cappadocia was left almost with no army.
The combined forces were ordered to move and defend the capital Colonia (in game its Aksarai, however its the modern name, more or less, in that era makes more sense to call it by the old name). There were rumours that over forty thousand Palmyrean and Romans were marching to siege the city. As it was unclear, the Dacian commander disregarded these rumours as false and decided to march regardless towards the city. He tasked the Cappadocian cavalry to scout the area and report any hostile movement. In a suspicious circumstance the scouting cavalry reported about an army of over twenty thousand coming from Palmyra. They were traversing the region of Cilicia and were probably to meet with the Pontic army in Galatia.
The reports were false, in reality the Palmyrean army of twenty-six thousand were marching through Pamphylia to directly siege Colonia and the Pontic army were to follow through Galatia, as the historical reports of the era suggest. It is unclear if the Cappadocian cavalry was bribed to deliver false news or simply was fooled by another army and failed to forsee the incoming one right under their nose. When the two armies met, the Palmyrean were completly unaware of any hostile army and was caught completly by surprise. A short lived surprise, the absolute incompetence led to a great loss of life and a phyrric victory and it was generous to call it as such.
Berisades attacked with his nine thousand under his direct command, the other generals had to attack along with him. It did not go as planned at all, for a few days only one army was attacking an enemy almost three times its size. To make the matter worse, it was the most trained core of the dacian army and it was wiped out. Few hundred at best remained of it. They fought with valour and bravery but the Palmyrean legions were highly trained and skilled soldiers, they were no mere barbarians and decided to retreat in order after the arrival of the reinforcements after their general was killed by a stray arrow to avoid strategical errors. Dacia had won, a victory so that had such a high price, it single-handedly decided the winner of this war. The attackers could easily replace their losses while the offended side did not have such luxury.
The battle was hard fought and only a phiric victory was obtained, the sustained casualties were so high, the Dacian army was crippled enough to not being anymore in any state to operate on Cappadocian land.
To make things worse a rebellion in Thracia happened. Thracia always thrived and developed despite all the Dacia's troubles. Unlike Maladina, an impoverished backwater and Pannensis, a shadow of its former glory, Thracia had special trade deals with many kingdoms including those rival to Dacia, its true that the overlord benefitted from this too, but the real one to gain the most was Thracia, selling overpriced goods in Dacia, otherwise would be unavalaible. Despite the king's autorithy, Thracia was slowly becoming more and more indipendent from Dacia. This war gave opportunity to Raizdos of Thracia, an ambitious and powerful noble that wanted to reign over his personal kingdom and this war gave him a reason to rebel, especially after the last defeat. News arrived faster in Thracia than in Sarmisegetuza. Not everyone in Thracia had the same toughts, many rich merchants and nobles were more than content to enjoy the Dacian protection, enjoy the higher prices the Dacians agreed to pay and see the kingdom prosper like never before.
Thracia could deploy more than twenty thousand men, but as some were fighting in Anatolia and a law that was forbiding armies of equal size or bigger than Dacia's was in place, Raizdos was able to call only seven thousand. It was a law in place since the reign of Spartocos, a law that stated any transgression meant rebellion and treason.
Since then the clients had to respect it, on one hand it kept Dacia in control over its clients on the other hand it limited strongly the real military effectivness of the kingdom. To make the matters worse the population in the clients grew while in the homeland shrinked with each conflict. Raizods wanted more indipendence from Dacia, not total, as even he knew, it was not a very realistic prospect, as East Rome was still a threat. He wanted to become ally to Dacia, standing on equal footing and not under their yoke.
An unexpected civil war broke in Thracia, it was a troublesome issue as many trade and supply routes risked to be cut out and overflow the remaining ones. Tarabostes II, was an ambitious king, without any doubt reckless, ruthless and greedy. He came to realise the great mistake he made, pleading his commitment to this war. However he was not a stupid man, he understood the urgency of the situation and tried to supress the situation in Thracia as soon as possible.
What followed was an even a bigger display of incompetence, despite the loss of life it was still a victory and a great general would be able to capitalize on this, demoralize the enemy and win the war. If Dacia had good commanders there would be no such massive loss of life in first place...
Berisades was the most skilled commander, he was a fairly decent commander, good in ambush tactics but failing to further exploit his success. The rest of Dacian military was composed by nobles that ended in that position of power because of connections or wealth and were, to put it a gentle way, less than competent. Barely grasping any military concept, always acting with delayed time, but let's stop at pointing out their flaws, it would take more than one chapter...
As the Palmyrean army had to concede terrain to the Dacians. Berisades decided to split the army and move on Pontus. His plan was to force the Pontic Kingdom out the war. It surely would not be enough to win but as the weakest partecipant was the most obvious target.
He sent sixteen thousand men to attack the smaller Pontic army, destroy it and siege the enemy capital. It was a fairly decent plan but it soon took a completly wrong turn. Ariobarzanes V decided to call his army back to Byzantion, for unkown motives, be it to reinforce it with mercenaries or for his own protection, as he moved back to the previous capital as Colonia was under Palmyrean threat. He left the Dacians alone to deal with the massive invading force, to which the Dacians were still completly unware. This left the Dacian southern army completly exposed to enemy attacks. Cappadocia lost few hundred in the first engagement and could still pose a significant threat combined with a dacian army. This opportunity was not wasted by Romanus Aegipti that attacked in force supported by Iberia and Pontus, while besieng at the same time Colonia with ten thousand men and the nearby cities with another five thousand.
The army sent to destroy the Pontic army failed completly as it was unable to catch it or even lay siege to the enemy capital, what really did, was a huge waste of time for no gains at all. The eight thousand men under Berisades found themselves attacked from every direction. It was a force bigger than twenty thousand men, but historians are sure the army the Cappadocian cavalry was was this one and not the Palmyrean one, either way, despite hasty retreat to avoid complete encirclement and destruction, more than half army was lost. One more time, Dacia had great losses that was unable to replace. After this disaster the remaning army was ordered to retreat to avoid another one.
As 240 ended, in spring 241, sixteen thousand were sent to counter attack Raizdos, he was besieging the Thracian capital and needed few more weeks to make the city fall. The attack happened from two sides, Dacia had nine thousand and Cappadocia sent their remaining army too, while seven thousand Dacians were sent back to Sarmisegetuza. Historians are unsure why they were sent, as there is no mention of the motive and this was found in a Cappadocian report. Sources are conflicting about the reason those seven thousand retreated deep into the heart of homeland instead of creating a proper defence against Romanus Aegipti that found no opposition in crossing the strait after a brief fight with the Cappadocian navy. There are no written sources about the size of the fleets but if Dacia had sent their fleet too, the legionary fleet would have been destroyed, as neither Palmyra or Pontus is mentioned sent any naval forces of their own. Tarabostes probably was too scared to lose his fleet but was overly confident about his army.
This war was nothing but a display of total stupidity and incompetence, the offenders did not display any significant strategic brilliance they simply had to march their armies combined and destroy any opposition.
The ambitious rebel had to face an army over double the size he commanded, he was defeated with high casualties. In an unusual manner, he was executed on the battlefield and the thousand man that remained alive, shared his same fate, they were deemed traitors and unreliable to serve in the Dacian army. What the Dacians did was one thing the Thracians wont forget and thus will come later to bite back time and time again not so far in the future and also in distant future. If Dacia was hoping to integrate the Thracians, now it was late, from now on to the next centuries the Thracian culture will endure any attempts of assimilation. Be it from the Greek or Dacian side, but that's for the future, better focus on the events that shaped the fate of Asia Minor for now.
One problem was solved with minimal casualties, however this time an army of over eight thousand was already besieging Byzantion and more were even approaching, the mighty military force of Roman Egypt was simply unstoppable. There was nothing the enemies of the empire could do if not be destroyed under the Roman might. The old empire might have fallen but in Egypt the old legacy was surviving strong and became rooted ensuing total dominance over the neighbours.
For the first time Dacia had to fight a different enemy than itself. The Burgundian Invasion, especially the second war, the biggest and most devasting was almost entirely fought and won by mercenaries, at point in time, dacian army was really almost non existent or consisted poorly trained peasants. The latest attempt to create a proper army under Tarabostes I, was completly wasted as the created was still too green to partake in conflicts of great scale. During the civil war, armies were specificlly built to counter themselves, this old tradition still remained in place, despite many decades passing, it proved to be an old and outdated line of tought. Times were changing, warfare was changing and Dacia was slowly lagging behind.
In less than two years Cappadocia was completly seized down, the next target was Dacia, the allied forces have been defeated in a decisive manner and only few thousands stood to defend against the massive force gathering at the doorstep of Byzantion.
Tarabostes II saw the situation for what it was, grim and unstoppable. He had to act now before things would get much more worse. Despite him knowing and seeing that there was no hope, he still was reluctant to leave the war. By the winter 241, Byzantion had already fallen and the Dacian king had failed to assemble any proper force to counter the advancing enemy. The cost of mercenaries so exorbitantly high and paying of the Palmyrean nobilty might prove cheaper and less destructive. The war at this point has been truly lost for Cappadocia, however Dacia still weighted and the Cappadocian king was desperate and refused to still call for peace. Calling for peace meant the end of his mighty kingdom. The Palmyrean Kingdom had now to take down the ally backing Cappadocia. Almost than thirty thousand Romans only were already entering Dacia and Thracia, followed by other reinforcements and even a similar army in size of Pontus and Palmyra. The Iberians decided to not enter in Dacia as their part of the deal was already done, they joined the war as mercenaries and looters as they did not gain any land per se but the loot, all the loot they would be able to seize. The biggest army Tarabostes II had time to put togheter was twenty-two thousand, including few thousands Cappadocians. He was vastly outnumbered and in 242 he made the hardest choice he was ever faced with, ask for peace. He betrayed his ally, he the Cappadocians alone, a betryal that will be remember for centuries, an infamous mark that Dacia will never be able to truly cancel. Even after becoming an empire this betrayal will haunt them.
A separate peace was negotiated, despite the strong Roman backing, the aggressor was Palmyra and it did not hold any grudge or particular rivalry against Dacia. It simply saw the Dacians as an honorable people asnwering the call to war so the prospect of peace was easy to negotiate. Peace came, but at a heavy price. Romanus Aegipti was far away from Dacian borders and could not really ask for any territorial demand or concession. They indeed truly desired to weaken the Dacians, as not few In Alexandria viewed Dacian aggression as aggression against the empire, the True Roman Empire. Even if the prospect of riunification between East Rome and Romanus Egipti became impossible. Less of a dream was the return to the old city of Rome as it was appeared to be under total control of the League...
They still wanted to have exclusive influence over the area. The Palmyrean Kingdom was an excellent example of that and to a certain extent Pontus. The alliance between Cappadocia and Dacia, the Cappadocian defiance to the empire and the Dacian aggression made the empire extremely hostile towards both.
Dacia was forced to give 20% percent of its entire treasury, which was a massive amount of tons and tons of gold, silver and other precious metals and gems. This went directly into Roman treasury and Dacia was forced to pay for a decade massive war reparations to the participants. It was a heavy blow but at least the kingdom was saved from devastation. It was one sided war, Cappadocia almost ceased to exist, the Dacian army almost obliterated and a new balance in Anatolia was created.
The small kingdom was saved by the bickerings of Pontus and Palmyra, thus both agreed to leave Cappadocia as a buffer state and maintain balance in the area. A short lived balance as East Rome was quick to seize huge portion of the ionian coast, but lacked significant naval capacity to conquer the ionian islands.
The new king made a huge blunder, the autority of the monarch risked to be irrelevant. The kingdom was again on verge on another civil, possibly bigger than any other, if nothing was done, the influential nobles would size more and more for themselves eventually splitting the kingdom and even cause its disintegration.
The first thing in order to preserve power, Tarabostes II created elite guards. A special military unit to serve and protect the king exclusively, his personal army. They numbered five thousand, but in later days, during the military peak of the empire it would number up to 30 thousand, making the king autority undisputed. It was an unheard move before in Dacia. There are speculations, that Tarabostes inspired himself from the immortals the Persian king had. Once he made his personal army, he immeditaly rooted out and executed any possible dangerous noble and bribed the rest with generous donations from the rich royal treasury. The next thing he did was to maintain fairly friendly relations with the neighbours. It was easy with the Germanic people, since they themselves had devastating wars, everyone else was in no position to threaten Dacia and an interesting deal was made. The Sarmatians were in urgent need of money.
It was a war where no one wanted to back down. Sarmatia needed funds, food and especially safe borders. Envoys of the Sarmatian Khan, arrived in Dacia in late 242 and offered, the province of Olbia, or rather the future province of Olbia, as later the city of Olbia was founded and grew as Dacian settlers were sent to colonize that area. The request was simple, Dacia would pay a fair price for the land and preferential trade with Sarmatia. Alans and Siracians would not be able to trade with Dacia anymore. Tarabostes II saw this as an opportunity to strenghten his rule, expand Dacian territory and secure a possible future ally, he agreed.
Cappadocia, was no more ally to Dacia. They lost the war and now the had to abide to all the demands. Palmyra expanded the most, taking the whole Anatolian South Coast. Pontus regained back most of the land they had lost. The defeated kingdom was sacked of most of its riches, many cities were emptied of their inhabitans that were sent as slaves in Pontus, Cappadocia and Roman Egypt and other were transfered as citizens. Cappadocia was on its knees, it was a golden opportunity for East Rome, however the decadent adminstration was facing one of the many civil wars it had faced over the years and was only partially succesful.
Few years of Splendid Dacian Isolationism 243 – 259
Tarabostes II started his reign in one of the most disastrous of possible ways. He almost entirely threw out of the window the hard obtained efforts of his ancestors. Despite such poor rulership and reckless geopolitical plays he will be remember as Tarabostes the Restorer. This title entered in the controversy during the next centuries but despite flaws and negative opinions of some historians, Tarabostes II founded the base for Dacian Imperialism. He destroyed Dacian outdated traditions and replaced with new ones. He was an extremly controversial figure, sometimes revered as just and sometimes as the most evil man in Dacia. One of the reasons attributed to his personality change is the death of his newborn son and soon of his wife due to birth complications, this took a heavy blow on an already changed man. Losing the war, was a harsh to his ego, the king promised to never go to another war unless necessary. Such war would not come for many years and Dacia would enjoy few years of splendid isolationism, with around an world that constantly changes.
After dealing with dangerous nobles, he hired many learned men from Thracia, majority being greeks philosopers, mathematicians and architects. With the help of new commanders, the peasant Dacian army was replaced with a proper standing army, always trained and ready to fight the enemy at any time.
This would give Dacia the edge over its enemies. Secondly new laws were institued and old ones were revised. An entire new legal system was created in Dacia. The power the priests possesed to judge people was rewoked and special judges, paid by the crown were placed all over the kingdom. This solved the issue of the continous growing power of church.
During 247 he lost his son and wife, this caused great sadness to the king. It is possible that he even entered a state of depression and focused even more on affair states. From this point on, the life of the king becomes more myth than reality, as very little is known, since he became very reserved but worked continously to ensue the prosperity of the kingdom. Is it possible the he blamed himself for the death of his family, he viewed losing the war and many Dacian lifes as punishment from God. However this still was only a rumour even during those times, less alone centuries and centuries after.
His many reforms further stabilized the kingdom. Thanks to his unrelentless work, the economy of kingdom grew, trade boomed and quality of life improved by a lot. New regulations on the slaves were imposed, the poor were fed by the crown. The Dacian army was becoming finally a proper force. He even took upon the project of his predecesors and expanded and improved more the navy. Maritime trade was protected by a strong Dacian navy, at least in some areas, while in others Dacia still relied on foreign mercenaries to patrol the seas.
In this period the greed of Pontus was unsatiable and they sized again a huge portion of Cappadocia, while East Rome, as we mentioned earlier was only able to capture the ionian coast before falling again in internal instability.
In Germania, the feared Kingdom of Rugiland was no more than a shadow of the past. The feared Rugii had been defeated and in their place a new kingdom was born Denmark. The Rugii were in part responsible for unitining the scattered tribes.
The situation was fairly calm all over the continent, except in Gaul, the emperor was dealing with Frisian and Frankish Invasions in the West and was barely able to contain the invader with his allied foederati. The Frisians had entered conflicts with each other and the the most remote tribes allied themselves with the Franks that gladly took this alliance and started to march on Parisium. The troubles did not only end there for the Gallic emperor, Atrebatia decided to enter the alliance with the attacking Frank-East Frisian coalition and started to land in thousands on the defenseless coats of Gallia. The war would continue well over 259...
Dacian intervention in the East Roman-Cappadocian War 260 - 265
Twenty-two years passed since Tarabostes II ascended to the throne. The second war between East Rome and Cappadocia reached a stand off. Neither side was able to prevail other another. This time the aggressor was Cappadocia after the the next Byzantine move, retake the old capital. Rebels stormed Byzantion and forced the king in exile almost killing him in the process. Needless to say the Cappadocian monarch was not amused at all and when he heard East Rome eagerly accepted the city back into their empire he declared war.
By this time Dacia possessd over fifty thousand highly skilled and trained falhxmen. The Splendid Dacian Isolationism was about to end. The king felt that he would be able to withhold even against the Roman Egypt. Should they decide to intervene in the next war: Invasion of both East Rome and Cappadocia.
Dacian soldiers started to march into Hellenic land in 260, the Byzantine army of twelve thousand was engaged in late summer and surrendered after half day of fighting, with promises to spare their life if they would surrender. The Romans were tired of fighting the Cappadocians for years now and gladly surrendered, Tarabostes II kept his promise and the survivors were allowed to go back to their homes. They had to give up all their equipment and at this point East Rome was virtually defenseless. The invasion of Hellenic mainland would continue until 262 reaching Athens, the capital of the empire. The emperor could do nothing if not accept unconditional surrender, he was not able to recruit another army as soldiers refused to fight and many cities simply surrendered to the Dacians. The Dacian Intervention in Hellas was almost a bloodless one, contrary to what it would face while fighting the Cappadocians.
East Rome was forced to cede Macedonia, Thrace and Epirus, the accord was finally signed next year in 263. Maladina received Epirus under its administration while the rest was given to Thracia. Tarabostes II still hesitatet to directly annex lands as some great power could say something in merit and despite this war of aggression...
Romanus Aegipti remained silent, this embolded Tarabostes to push farther.
The moment an army entered Athens another war was declared, the Intervention in Cappadocia.
The Dacians gave barely acceptable justifications that they were entering the war to secure the trade, that was damaged in the war, bring peace to the tormented people of the region and other fabricated excuses.
The attack came as total surprise to Cappadocia, not only their old betrayed them in times of need while they kept fighting along when Dacia was in dire times.
"The barbarian scum had now the nerve to invade our lands too... " A famous phrase spoken by the last king of old Cappadocia Ariobarzanes VI. It soon became common to adress to the Dacians as invading barbarians, destroyers of civilization and culture. Yet again in their path to create an empire made Dacia made another culture hostile towards them. Such hatred will persist for centuries. It will be less felt during the golden era but with the decline of the empire and the start of the Dark Ages things would change.
Adrianopoli surrendered quickly under threat of retaliation should the siege subside for a prolonged time. For the firs time the Dacian navy was used to transport troops across the sea, Pontus agreed to let Dacian troops pass, unaware of their true intentions. The Cappadocian army was caught across the sea in Byzantine lands. A white peace was negotiated with East Rome, as Athens had no legions to wage war and their enemy was facing a huge invading force.
A huge rebellion broke in Byzantion, militias composed of twenty-three thousand attacked a nearby army forcing it to retreat quickly, the rest of the army was called to put an end to such rebellion. After a day the city was full of dead bodies. The rebellion was repressed in an efficient and brutal manner. At the same time, while the invading force was stuck in Byzantion, seven thousand launched an attack to rout the isolated army of five thousand. The Dacian commander was expecting the enemy and took a defensive position, the attack resulted in almost three thousand casualties for Cappadocia that retreated into Palmyrean territory. As of late the relations between Pontus and Palmyra were quite bad. If Pontus decided to allow Dacia to pass through its territory, Palmyra allowed Cappadocia.
The second and decisive battle was fought in Adrianopoli. Eight thousand tried to capture the city back, they were met by only twelve thousand Dacians, but the new armies proved to be quite effective. Cappadocia lost an oustanding number of men being left with merely one thousand and several hundred injured. The battle was so devastating to Cappadocian morale the king himself asked peace, no matter what it would be, but peace.
To the surprise of the monarch no land was seized, he was relieved he kept his kingdom. But for many in Cappadocia the peace he agreed to was a much worse fate. Cappadocia became a Dacian client state. The small royal treasure was completely seized and sent to Sarmisegetuza. It was not enough and heavy taxation was imposed on the population. Dacia now justified these actions as there was finally peace in the region. It was too late for Pontus and Palmyra to say anything in the matter as the whole affair was concluded in the span of mere days and Romanus Aegipti hesitated to intervene, one of the many mistakes that would cause its ultimate and inevitable demise. The king was assassinated one year later and a loyal noble was put on the throne. We will never know who was the responsible, the enraged local nobility or Tarabostes II himself.
The known world in 265
