TRAJAN 98AD Beroea in Cyrrhestica Laurel Authentic Ancient Roman Coin i56584

Caesar: 97 A.D. (under

Nerva) | Augustus: 98-117 A.D.

| Adopted son of

Sabina |

Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus, commonly known as
Trajan (18 September, 53 – 8 August, 117), was a
Roman 
Emperor who reigned from AD 98 until his death in AD 117. Born
Marcus Ulpius Traianus into a non-patrician 
family in the
Hispania Baetica
province (modern day
Spain
), Trajan rose to prominence during the 
reign of emperor
Domitian
, serving as a general in the
Roman army
along the
German frontier
, and successfully crushing the 
revolt of
Antonius Saturninus
in 89. On September 18, 96, 
Domitian was succeeded by
Marcus Cocceius Nerva
, an old and childless 
senator who proved to be unpopular with the army. After a brief and tumultuous 
year in power, a revolt by members of the
Praetorian Guard
compelled him to adopt the 
more popular Trajan as his heir and successor. Nerva died on January 27, 98, and 
was succeeded by his adopted son without incident.

As a civilian administrator, Trajan is best known for his 
extensive public building program, which reshaped the city of

Rome and left multiple enduring landmarks such as
Trajan’s Forum
,
Trajan’s Market
and
Trajan’s Column
. It was as a military commander 
however that Trajan celebrated his greatest
triumphs
. In 101, he launched a
punitive expedition
into the kingdom of
Dacia
against king
Decebalus
, defeating the Dacian army near
Tapae
in 102, and finally conquering Dacia 
completely in 106. In 107, Trajan pushed further east and annexed the
Nabataean kingdom
, establishing the province of
Arabia Petraea
. After a period of relative 
peace within the Empire, he launched his final campaign in 113 against
Parthia
, advancing as far as the city of

Susa in 116, and expanding the Roman Empire to its greatest extent. 
During this campaign Trajan was struck by illness, and late in 117, while 
sailing back to Rome, he died of a
stroke
on

August 9
, in the city of
Selinus
. He was
deified
by the Senate and his ashes were laid 
to rest under
Trajan’s Column
. He was succeeded by his 
adopted son (not having a biological heir)
Publius Aelius Hadrianus
—commonly known as 
Hadrian.

As an emperor, Trajan’s reputation has endured – he is one of 
the few rulers whose reputation has survived the scrutiny of nineteen centuries 
of history. Every new emperor after him was honoured by the Senate with the 
prayer felicior Augusto, melior Traiano, meaning “may he be luckier than
Augustus
and better than Trajan”. Among
medieval
Christian theologians, Trajan was 
considered a
virtuous pagan
, while the 18th century 
historian
Edward Gibbon
popularized the notion of the
Five Good Emperors
, of which Trajan was the 
second.

Early life and rise to power

Trajan was born on September 18, 53 in the Roman province of
Hispania Baetica
(in what is now
Andalusia
in modern Spain), a province that was 
thoroughly Romanized and called southern Hispania, in the city of
Italica
, where the
Italian
families were paramount. Of
Italian
stock himself, Trajan is frequently but 
misleadingly designated the first provincial emperor.

Trajan was the son of
Marcia
and
Marcus Ulpius Traianus
, a prominent
senator
and general from the famous
Ulpia
gens. 
Trajan himself was just one of many well-known Ulpii in a line that continued 
long after his own death. His elder sister was
Ulpia Marciana
and his niece was
Salonina Matidia
. The
patria
of the Ulpii was
Italica
, in Spanish Baetica, where their 
ancestors had settled late in the third century B.C. This indicates that the 
Italian origin was paramount, yet it has recently been cogently argued that the 
family’s ancestry was local, with Trajan senior actually a Traius who was 
adopted into the family of the Ulpii.

As a young man, he rose through the ranks of the
Roman army
, serving in some of the most 
contentious parts of the Empire’s frontier. In 76–77, Trajan’s father was
Governor
of
Syria
(Legatus 
pro praetore Syriae), where Trajan himself remained as
Tribunus
legionis. Trajan was nominated as
Consul
and brought
Apollodorus of Damascus
with him to

Rome around 91. Along the
Rhine River
, he took part in the Emperor
Domitian
‘s wars while under Domitian’s 
successor, Nerva
, who was unpopular with the army and 
needed to do something to gain their support. He accomplished this by naming 
Trajan as his adoptive son and successor in the summer of 97. According to the

Augustan History
, it was the future Emperor
Hadrian
who brought word to Trajan of his 
adoption. When Nerva died on January 27, 98, the highly respected Trajan 
succeeded without incident.

 His 
reign

The new Roman emperor was greeted by the people of Rome with 
great enthusiasm, which he justified by governing well and without the 
bloodiness that had marked Domitian’s reign. He freed many people who had been 
unjustly imprisoned by Domitian and returned a great deal of private property 
that Domitian had confiscated; a process begun by Nerva before his death. His 
popularity was such that the
Roman Senate
eventually bestowed upon Trajan 
the honorific
of optimus, meaning “the 
best”.

Dio Cassius
, sometimes known as Dio, reveals 
that Trajan drank heartily and was
involved with boys
. “I know, of course, that he 
was devoted to boys and to wine, but if he had ever committed or endured any 
base or wicked deed as the result of this, he would have incurred censure; as it 
was, however, he drank all the wine he wanted, yet remained sober, and in his 
relation with boys he harmed no one.” This sensibility was one that influenced 
his governing on at least one occasion, leading him to favour the king of Edessa 
out of appreciation for his handsome son: “On this occasion, however,
Abgarus
, induced partly by the persuasions of 
his son Arbandes, who was handsome and in the pride of youth and therefore in 
favour with Trajan, and partly by his fear of the latter’s presence, he met him 
on the road, made his apologies and obtained pardon, for he had a powerful 
intercessor in the boy.”

 Dacian 
Wars

It was as a military commander that Trajan is best known to 
history, particularly for his conquests in the
Near East
, but initially for the two wars 
against Dacia
— the reduction to client kingdom 
(101-102), followed by actual incorporation to the Empire of the trans-Danube 
border kingdom of Dacia—an area that had troubled Roman thought for over a 
decade with the unfavourable (and to some, shameful) peace negotiated by
Domitian
‘s ministers In the first war c. 
March–May 101, he launched a vicious attack into the kingdom of
Dacia
with four legions, crossing to the 
northern bank of the
Danube River
on a stone bridge he had built, 
and defeating the Dacian army near or in a
mountain pass
called
Tapae
(see
Second Battle of Tapae
). Trajan’s troops were 
mauled in the encounter, however and he put off further campaigning for the year 
to heal troops, reinforce, and regroup.

During the following winter, King
Decebalus
launched a counter-attack across the
Danube
further downstream, but this was 
repulsed. Trajan’s army advanced further into Dacian territory and forced King 
Decebalus to submit to him a year later, after Trajan took the Dacian 
capital/fortress of
Sarmizegethusa
. The Emperor Domitian had 
campaigned against
Dacia from 86 to 87
without securing a decisive 
outcome, and Decebalus had brazenly flouted the terms of the peace (89 AD) which 
had been agreed on conclusion of this campaign.

Trajan now returned to Rome in triumph and was granted the 
title Dacicus Maximus. The victory was celebrated by the
Tropaeum Traiani
. Decebalus though, after being 
left to his own devices, in 105 undertook an invasion against Roman territory by 
attempting to stir up some of the tribes north of the river against her.

Trajan took to the field again and after building with the 
design of
Apollodorus of Damascus
his
massive bridge over the Danube
, he conquered 
Dacia completely in 106. Sarmizegethusa was destroyed,
Decebalus
committed
suicide
, and his severed head was exhibited in 
Rome on the steps leading up to the
Capitol
. Trajan built a new city, “Colonia 
Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa”, on another site than the previous 
Dacian Capital, although bearing the same full name, Sarmizegetusa. He resettled 
Dacia with Romans and annexed it as a province of the Roman Empire. Trajan’s 
Dacian campaigns benefited the Empire’s finances through the acquisition of 
Dacia’s gold mines. The victory is celebrated by
Trajan’s Column
.

 Expansion 
in the East

At about the same time
Rabbel II Soter
, one of Rome’s client kings, 
died. This event might have prompted the annexation of the
Nabataean kingdom
, although the manner and the 
formal reasons for the annexation are unclear. Some epigraphic evidence suggests 
a military operation, with forces from
Syria
and
Egypt
. What is clear, however, is that by 107, 
Roman legions were stationed in the area around
Petra
and
Bostra
, as is shown by a papyrus found in 
Egypt. The empire gained what became the province of
Arabia Petraea
(modern southern
Jordan
and north west
Saudi Arabia
).

 Period 
of peace

The next seven years, Trajan ruled as a civilian emperor, to 
the same acclaim as before. It was during this time that he corresponded with
Pliny the Younger
on the subject of how to deal 
with the
Christians
of
Pontus
, telling Pliny to leave them alone 
unless they were openly practicing the religion. He built several new buildings, 
monuments and roads in
Italia
and his native
Hispania
. His magnificent complex in Rome 
raised to commemorate his victories in
Dacia
(and largely financed from that 
campaign’s loot)—consisting of a
forum
,
Trajan’s Column
, and Trajan’s Market still 
stands in Rome today. He was also
a prolific builder of triumphal arches
, many of 
which survive, and rebuilder of roads (Via 
Traiana and
Via Traiana Nova
).

One notable act of Trajan was the hosting of a three-month
gladiatorial
festival in the great
Colosseum
in Rome (the precise date of this 
festival is unknown). Combining chariot racing, beast fights and close-quarters 
gladiatorial bloodshed, this gory spectacle reputedly left 11,000 dead (mostly 
slaves and criminals, not to mention the thousands of ferocious beasts killed 
alongside them) and attracted a total of five million spectators over the course 
of the festival.

Another important act was his formalisation of the
Alimenta, a welfare program that helped orphans and poor children throughout 
Italy. It provided general funds, as well as food and subsidized education. The 
program was supported initially by funds from the Dacian War, and then later by 
a combination of estate taxes and philanthropy.^[13]. 
Although the system is well documented in literary sources and contemporary 
epigraphy, its precise aims are controversial and have generated considerable 
dispute between modern scholars: usually, it’s assumed that the programme 
intended to bolster citzen numbers in Italy. However, the fact that it was 
subsidized by means of interest payments on loans made by landowners restricted 
it to a small percentage of potential welfare recipients (Paul 
Veyne has assumed that, in the city of
Veleia
, only one child out of ten was an actual 
beneficiary) – therefore, the idea, advanced by
Moses I. Finley
, that the whole scheme was at 
most a form of random charity, a mere imperial benevolence^[14].

 Maximum 
extent of the Empire

In 113, he embarked on his last campaign, provoked by
Parthia
‘s decision to put an unacceptable king 
on the throne of Armenia
, a kingdom over which the two great 
empires had shared
hegemony
since the time of

Nero some fifty years earlier. Some modern historians also attribute 
Trajan’s decision to wage war on Parthia to economic motives: to control, after 
the annexation of Arabia, Mesopotamia and the coast of the Persian Gulf, and 
with it the sole remaining receiving-end of the Indian trade outside Roman 
control – an attribution of motive other historians find absurd, as seeing a 
commercial motive in a campaign triggered by the lure of territorial annexation 
and prestige – by the way, the only motive for Trajan’s actions ascribed by Dio 
Cassius in his description of the events. Other modern historians, however, 
think that Trajan’s original aim was quite modest: to assure a more defensible 
Eastern frontier for the Roman Empire, crossing across Northern Mesopotamia 
along the course of the river
Khabur
in order to offer cover to a Roman 
Armenia.

Trajan marched first on Armenia, deposed the 
Parthian-appointed king (who was afterwards murdered while kept in the custody 
of Roman troops in an unclear incident) and annexed it to the Roman Empire as a 
province, receiving in passing the acknowledgement of Roman hegemony by various 
tribes in the Caucasus and on the Eastern coast of the Black Sea – a process 
that kept him busy until the end of 114^]. 
The cronology of subsequent events is uncertain, but it’s generally believed 
that early in 115 Trajan turned south into the core Parthian hegemony, taking 
the Northern Mesopotamian cities of
Nisibis
and
Batnae
and organizing a province of
Mesopotamia
in the beginning of 116, when coins 
were issued announcing that Armenia and Mesopotamia had been put under the 
authority of the Roman people.

In early 116, however, Trajan began to toy with the conquest 
of the whole of Mesopotamia, an overambitious goal that eventually backfired on 
the results of his entire campaign: One Roman division crossed the
Tigris
into
Adiabene
, sweeping South and capturing
Adenystrae
; a second followed the river South, 
capturing Babylon
; while Trajan himself sailed down the
Euphrates
, then dragged his fleet overland into 
the Tigris, capturing
Seleucia
and finally the Parthian capital of
Ctesiphon
. He continued southward to the
Persian Gulf
, receiving the submission of 
Athambelus, the ruler of
Charax
, whence he declared Babylon a new 
province of the Empire, sent the Senate a laurelled letter declaring the war to 
be at a close and lamented that he was too old to follow in the steps of
Alexander the Great
and reach the distant
India
itself. A province of
Assyria
was also proclaimed, apparently 
covering the territory of Adiabene, as well as some measures seem to have been 
considered about the fiscal administration of the Indian trade.

However, as Trajan left the Persian Gulf for Babylon – where 
he intended to offer sacrifice to Alexander in the house where he had died in 
323 B.C.- a sudden outburst of Parthian resistance, led by a nephew of the 
Parthian king, Sanatrukes, imperilled Roman positions in Mesopotamia and 
Armenia, something Trajan sought to deal with by forsaking direct Roman rule in 
Parthia proper, at least partially: later in 116, after defeating a Parthian 
army in a battle where Sanatrukes was killed and re-taking Seleucia, he formally 
deposed the Parthian king
Osroes I
and put his own puppet ruler
Parthamaspates
on the throne. That done, he 
retreated North in order to retain what he could of the new provinces of Armenia 
and Mesopotamia.

It was at this point that Trajan’s health started to fail 
him. The fortress city of
Hatra
, on the
Tigris
in his rear, continued to hold out 
against repeated Roman assaults. He was personally present at the
siege
and it is possible that he suffered a 
heat stroke while in the blazing heat. Shortly afterwards, the

Jews inside the Eastern Roman Empire rose up in rebellion once more, 
as did the people of Mesopotamia. Trajan was forced to withdraw his army in 
order to put down the revolts. Trajan saw it as simply a temporary setback, but 
he was destined never to command an army in the field again, turning his Eastern 
armies over to the high ranking legate and governor of Judaea,
Lusius Quietus
, who in early 116 had been in 
charge of the Roman division who had recovered Nisibis and
Edessa
from the rebels; Quietus was promised 
for this a consulate in the following year – when he was actually put to death 
by Hadrian
, who had no use for a man so committed 
to Trajan’s aggressive policies.

Early in 117, Trajan grew ill and set out to sail back to 
Italy. His health declined throughout the spring and summer of 117, something 
publicy acknowledged by the fact that a bronze bust displayed at the time in the 
public baths of
Ancyra
showed him clearly aged and edemaciated. 
By the time he had reached Selinus in
Cilicia
which was afterwards called 
Trajanopolis, he suddenly died from
edema
on August 9. Some say that he had adopted
Hadrian
as his successor, but others that it 
was his wife
Pompeia Plotina
who hired someone to 
impersonate him after he had died.

Hadrian
, upon becoming ruler, recognized the 
abandonment of Mesopotamia and restored Armenia – as well as
Osroene
– to the Parthian hegemony under Roman 
suzerainty – a telling sign the Roman Empire lacked the means for pursuing 
Trajan’s overambitious goals. However, all the other territories conquered by 
Trajan were retained. Trajan’s ashes were laid to rest underneath Trajan’s 
column, the monument commemorating his success.

 Building 
activities

Trajan was a prolific builder in Rome and the provinces, and 
many of his buildings were erected by the gifted architect
Apollodorus of Damascus
. Notable structures 
include
Trajan’s Column
,
Trajan’s Forum
,
Trajan’s Bridge
,
Alcántara Bridge
, and possibly the
Alconétar Bridge
. In order to build his forum 
and the adjacent brick market that also held his name Trajan had vast areas of 
the surrounding hillsides leveled.

 Trajan’s 
legacy

Unlike many lauded rulers in history, Trajan’s reputation has 
survived undiminished for nearly nineteen centuries.

Ancient sources on Trajan’s personality and accomplishments 
are unanimously positive. Pliny the younger, for example, celebrates Trajan in 
his panegyric as a wise and just emperor and a moral man.
Dio Cassius
admits Trajan had vices like heavy 
drinking and sexual involvement with boys, but added that he always remained 
dignified and fair. The
Christianisation
of Rome resulted in further 
embellishment of his legend: it was commonly said in
medieval
times that
Pope Gregory I
, through divine intercession, 
resurrected Trajan from the dead and baptized him into the Christian faith. An 
account of this features in the
Golden Legend
.

Theologians, such as
Thomas Aquinas
, discussed Trajan as an example 
of a virtuous pagan. In
the Divine Comedy
,
Dante
, following this legend, sees the spirit 
of Trajan in the Heaven of
Jupiter
with other historical and mythological 
persons noted for their justice.

He also features in
Piers Plowman
. An episode, referred to as 
the
justice of Trajan
was reflected in several art 
works.

In the 18th Century King
Charles III of Spain
comminsioned
Anton Raphael Mengs
to paint The Triumph of 
Trajan on the ceiling of the banqueting-hall of the
Royal Palace of Madrid
– considered among the 
best work of this artist.

“Traian” is used as a male first name in present-day
Romania
– among others, that of the country’s 
incumbent president,
Traian Băsescu
.