Scorilo (died maybe 70) was a Dacian king who may have been the father of

Decebalus Decebalus (; ), sometimes referred to as Diurpaneus, was the last Dacians, Dacian king. He is famous for fighting three wars, with varying success, against the Roman Empire under two emperors. After raiding south across the Danube, he defeated a R ...

. Evidence for his life and reign is fragmentary.

Sources

A Dacian king (''dux Dacorum'') called Scorylo is also mentioned by

Frontinus Sextus Julius Frontinus (c. 40 – 103 AD) was a Roman civil engineer, author, soldier and senator of the late 1st century AD. He was a successful general under Domitian, commanding forces in Roman Britain, and on the Rhine and Danube frontier ...

, who says he was in power during a period of turmoil in Rome.Bǎrbulescu, Mihai, et al, ''The History of Transylvania: (Until 1541)'', Romanian Cultural Institute, 2005, pp.87-9. The Roman historian

Jordanes Jordanes (; Greek language, Greek: Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, claimed to be of Goths, Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on R ...

lists a series of Dacian-Getic kings before Decebalus, placing a ruler called "Coryllus" between Comosicus and Dorpaneus. Coryllus is supposed to have presided over a long peaceful 40-year rule. Modern scholars sometimes equate this otherwise unknown successor Dorpaneus with the king Duras attested in other sources. The name Coryllus is not mentioned by any other historian as well, and it has been argued that it "is a misspelling of Scorilo, a relatively common Dacian name". On this basis, the Coryllus mentioned by Jordanes has been equated with the Scorylo mentioned by Frontinus. It has been further speculated that this ruler is also named on an ancient Dacian pot bearing the latin stamp inscription “Decebalus per Scorilo”. Though far from certain, this has also been translated as "Decebalus son of Scorilo". If so, this might mean that Decebalus was the son of Scorilo, with Duras possibly being either an older son or a brother of Scorilo. From this evidence and references to Dacian kings elsewhere, it has been suggested that Scorilo ruled from the 30s or 40s AD through to 69-70.

Reign

Alba Iulia National Museum of the Union 2011 - Decebalus Per Scrorilo

The Dacians regularly raided into Roman territory in

Moesia Moesia (; Latin: ''Moesia''; ) was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River. As a Roman domain Moesia was administered at first by the governor of Noricum as 'Civitates of Moesia and Triballi ...

. The emperors

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...

and

Caligula Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), also called Gaius and Caligula (), was Roman emperor from AD 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the Roman general Germanicus and Augustus' granddaughter Ag ...

solved this problem by paying protection money to the Dacians in the form of annual subsidies. During the reign of Nero, troops were withdrawn from the Dacian border, leaving the empire vulnerable. When Nero was overthrown in 69, the empire was plunged into turmoil in the Year of Four Emperors. The Dacians appear to have tried to take advantage of the situation to launch an invasion of Moesia in alliance with the Sarmatian

Roxolani The Roxolani or Rhoxolāni ( , ; ) were a Sarmatian people documented between the 2nd century BC and the 4th century AD, first east of the Borysthenes (Dnieper) on the coast of Lake Maeotis (Sea of Azov), and later near the borders of Roman Daci ...

. The invasion was ill-timed. Licinius Mucianus, a supporter of

Vespasian Vespasian (; ; 17 November AD 9 – 23 June 79) was Roman emperor from 69 to 79. The last emperor to reign in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for 27 years. His fiscal reforms and consolida ...

, was advancing with an army through Moesia towards Rome to overthrow

Vitellius Aulus Vitellius ( ; ; 24 September 1520 December 69) was Roman emperor for eight months, from 19 April to 20 December AD 69. Vitellius became emperor following the quick succession of the previous emperors Galba and Otho, in a year of civil wa ...

. The Dacians unexpectedly encountered his forces and were pushed back, suffering a major defeat. These events could maybe have coincided with the reign of ScoriloIon Grumeza, ''Dacia: Land of Transylvania, Cornerstone of Ancient Eastern Europe'', University Press of America, 2009, p.154-5. who is, however, not mentioned in the ancient sources on these events.

References

Bibliography

* {{Dacia topics Kings of Dacia 1st-century monarchs in Europe Dacian names