Why did the romans develop a problem with Dacia?

The Dacian capital Sarmisegetusa, is supposed to have been constructed somewhere around 1 BC, and it was somewhat like the society of classical Greece with added comfort. Except for their stonework and pluming , there is evidence that Dacia had a tight commerce rope to Greece as well as Rome, from where they imported all sorts of luxury items.

So what exactly got in the way of that healthy trading relationship the romans had with Dacia? It is said that the Emperor Augustus betrothed his daughter to a dacian chief... Where did it all go wrong? 

Well, here's a clue. The local use a different name for this part of the Carpathian mountains, they call it - the Metal Mountains. Yes, you've got it. The dacians were cursed with gold. And lots of it.  Deep within the mountains there lay some of the purest white gold, as well as quartz, copper, iron and opal. Gold had made Dacia rich, well at least its ruler. 

As legend tells us, king Decebalus had a pretty astonishing treasure stashed away at Sarmisegetusa,  it was vastly more then he needed or knew what to do with.  And that's where the romans come in. They had plenty of ideas. They just needed to get their hands on it.  And all they needed was an excuse...  As usual it involved borders. Where exactly did Rome end and Dacia begin?  Well certainly not where the dacians thought. 

At the end of the 1st AD the dispute got pretty nasty. Up til then, the dacian king Decebalus had managed to run diplomatic rings around the roman emperor. All that changed when the the top job in Rome got vacant and it was occupied by Trajan.  And Trajan had a small problem. He needed cash. Fast. And lots of it. The Roman Empire was on an economic decline. And the dacians were, well, sitting on a gold mine. Literally. Trajan just couldn't resist. He just had to exterminate them.

101 AD he took a first bite of the apple. A hard one. Same thing that happened 100 years before when the romans fought the barbaric germanians and underestimated them, happend to him. The romans couldn't breach the fortifications, so he had to pull back.

In 106 AD he returned with 13 Legions, that makes, round about 100.000 men. This wasn't a fight for conquest anymore. It was extermination. They finally succeeded in bringing the dacian walls down, so they burned and wrecked  everything on their way in. 

When Trajan was done, it's said that he emptied Dacia of 1.600t of gold and 3.000t of silver demolished the temples and burned the cities down. There wasn't anything left anymore of the dacian civilisation. Maybe just a memory.

But at least, Trajan now, had enough cash to pay for some nice military campaigns and also to pay Apollodor of Damascus' fee for the pretty column he had designed, especially for Trajan.

(This nice statue depicts the all mighty emperor Trajan and the simple people of Dacia with a cute little boy, bringing him flowers, a small token of consideration for wiping his friends & family of the face of the Earth. )