Sarmizegetusa Regia

Sarmizegetusa Regia, also Sarmisegetusa, Sarmisegethusa, Sarmisegethuza, Ζαρμιζεγεθούσα (Zarmizegethoúsa) or Ζερμιζεγεθούση (Zermizegethoúsē), was the capital and the most important military, religious and political centre of the Dacians prior to the wars with the Roman Empire. Erected on top of a 1200 m high mountain, the fortress, comprising six citadels, was the core of a strategic defensive system in the Orăştie Mountains (in present-day Romania).

Sarmizegetusa Regia should not be confused with Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, the Roman capital of Dacia built by Roman Emperor Trajan some 40 km away, which was not the Dacian capital. Sarmizegetusa Ulpia was discovered earlier, was known already in the early 1900s, and was initially mistaken for the Dacian capital, a confusion which led to incorrect conclusions being made regarding the military history and organization of the Dacians.

Etymology

Several hypotheses have been advanced to explain the origin of the name Sarmizegetusa. The most important of these ascribe the following possible meanings to the city's name:

Ulpia (gens)

The gens Ulpia was a Roman family that rose to prominence during the 1st century AD. The gens is best known from the emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, who reigned from AD 98 to 117. The Thirtieth Legion took its name, Ulpia, in his honor.

Origin of the gens

The ancestors of the Ulpii were Roman colonists in Hispania. Little is known of them except that they were connected with a family of the Aelii, who had also settled in Hispania; Trajan's aunt was the grandmother of the emperor Hadrian. According to one account, the Ulpii were originally from Tuder, in northern Umbria, where indeed there is evidence of a family of this name. The name itself may be derived from an Umbrian cognate of the Latin word lupus, meaning "wolf."

Members of the gens

Ulpia (grandmother of Hadrian)

Ulpia (about 31 - before 86) was a noble Spanish Roman woman from the gens Ulpia during the 1st century CE.

Her mother is unknown and her paternal ancestors moved from Italy and settled in Italica (near modern Seville, Spain) in the Roman Province of Hispania Baetica in the late 3rd century BC. Her brother was Marcus Ulpius Traianus, who served as a distinguished Roman general and was the first person in her family to enter the Roman Senate. He was the biological father of Trajan, adopted son and heir of the deified Nerva.

Ulpia married a Roman Senator called Publius Aelius Hadrianus Marullinus, a wealthy and aristocratic Hispanic Roman from the gens Aelia. Ulpia and Marullinus had at least a son, Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer, who would become a distinct Roman soldier and politician. He married a noble Spanish Roman woman called Domitia Paulina and the couple had Aelia Domitia Paulina and Publius Aelius Hadrianus or Hadrian, who was adopted by Trajan and became his heir.