Trajan Trajan ( English pronunciation : ; ; 18 September 53 – 9 August 117 AD ) was Roman Emperor from 98 AD until his death . Officially declared by the senate as " optimus princeps " ( " the best ruler " ) , Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier - emperor who presided over the greatest military expansion in Roman history , leading the empire to attain its maximum territorial extent by the time of his death . He is also known for his philanthropic rule , overseeing extensive public building programs and implementing social welfare policies , which earned him his enduring reputation as the second of the Five Good Emperors who presided over an era of peace and prosperity in the Mediterranean world . Born into a non - patrician family of Italian origin in the city of Italica in the province of Hispania Baetica , Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian . Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis , in 89 Trajan supported Domitian against a revolt on the Rhine led by Antonius Saturninus . In September 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 27 January 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 . Early in his reign , he annexed the Nabataean kingdom , creating the province of Arabia Petraea . His conquest of Dacia enriched the empire greatly — the new province possessed many valuable gold mines . However , the new province ' s exposed position to the north of the Danube made it susceptible to attack on three sides , and it was later abandoned by Emperor Aurelian . His war against the Parthian Empire ended with the sack of the capital Ctesiphon and the annexation of Armenia and Mesopotamia . His campaigns expanded the Roman Empire to its greatest territorial extent . In late 117 , while sailing back to Rome , Trajan fell ill and died of a stroke 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 Hadrian . As an emperor , Trajan ' s reputation has endured — he is one of the few rulers whose reputation has survived nineteen centuries . Every new emperor after him was honored by the Senate with the wish " felicior Augusto , melior Traiano " ( " [ 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 . Marcus Ulpius Traianus was born on 18 September 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 ( now in municipal area of Santiponce , in the outskirts of Seville ) , 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 " gens Ulpia " . 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 3rd century BC . 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 . Around this time he married Pompeia Plotina , a noble woman from the settlement at Nimes , although the marriage ultimately remained childless . It is not clear that Trajan was actively predisposed towards homosexuality , as bisexual activity was common among Roman men of the period , and so his homosexual activities could be interpreted as nothing more than a functional aspect of his class . Nevertheless , Dio Cassius makes reference to them , and his identified lovers included Hadrian and the pages of the imperial household , the actor Pylades , a dancer called Apolaustus , and possibly Licinius Sura and Nerva . 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 27 January 98 , the highly respected Trajan succeeded without incident . Roman Emperor . 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 that had been begun by Nerva ) . His popularity was such that the Roman Senate eventually bestowed upon Trajan the honorific of " optimus " , meaning " the best " . Conquest of Dacia . 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 into the Empire of the trans - Danube border group 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 military campaign c . March – May 101 , Trajan launched a victorious ship into the Dacian Kingdom crossing to the northern bank of the Danube River and defeating the Dacian army at Tapae ( see Second Battle of Tapae ) near the Iron Gates of Transylvania . Trajan ' s troops were mauled in the encounter , however and he put off further campaigning for the year to let the troops heal , 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 . Trajan 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 the empire . Trajan took to the field again and after building , with the design of Apollodorus of Damascus , his massive bridge over the Danube , he conquered part of Dacia in 106 . After a fierce campaign ( see also Second Dacian War ) , the Dacian capital , Sarmizegetusa Regia , was destroyed . Decebalus fled but , rather than being captured by the Roman cavalry , 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 . Trajan also reformed the infrastructure of the Iron Gates region of the Danube . Built around 103 to 105 , Trajan ' s Bridge , or Pontes , is considered an architectural marvel , at 3 , 500 feet across . He either commissioned the creation or enlargement of the road along the Iron Gates carved into the side of the gorge . Additionally , Trajan commissioned a canal to be built around the rapids of the Iron Gates . Evidence of this comes from a marble slab discovered near Caput Bovis , the site of a Roman fort . It can be dated to the year 101 and commemorates the building of at least one canal that went from the Kasajna tributary to at least Ducis Pratum , whose embankments were still visible until recently . However , the placement of the slab at Caput Bovis suggests that the canal extended to this point or that there was a second canal downriver of the Kasajna - Ducis Pratum one . Trajan 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 has been commemorated by the construction of Trajan ' s Column , which depicts in stone carved basreliefs the Dacian Wars ' most important moments . Annexation of Nabataea . 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 known 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 furthest south the Romans occupied was Hegra , over 300 km south - west of Petra . 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 continue but not to use an anonymous list in the interests of justice . 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 ) . In 107 he devalued the Roman currency . He decreased the silver purity of the denarius from 93 . 5 % to 89 % — the actual silver weight dropping from 3 . 04 grams to 2 . 88 grams . This devaluation , coupled with the massive amount of gold and silver carried off after Trajan ' s Dacian Wars , allowed the emperor to mint a larger quantity of denarii than his predecessors . One notable act of Trajan during this period was the hosting of a three - month gladiator ial 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 . 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 . It is usually assumed that the program was intended to bolster citizen 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 . War against Parthia . 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 . Trajan ' s decision to wage war against Parthia may have had economic motives : Charax on the Persian Gulf was the sole remaining western terminus of the Indian trade route outside Roman control . Other historians reject this motive , seeing the campaign as triggered by the lure of territorial annexation and prestige , the motive ascribed by Cassius Dio . 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 Khabur River 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 chronology 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 bemoaning that he was too old to go on any further and repeat the conquests of Alexander the Great . 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 BC . — 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 a consulate in the following year ( 118 ) for his victories but he was murdered before this could occur . It has been theorized that Quietus was executed on the orders of the new emperor , Hadrian , for fear of Quietus ' popular standing with the army and his close connections to Trajan . Death and succession . 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 publicly acknowledged by the fact that a bronze bust displayed at the time in the public baths of Ancyra showed him clearly aged and emaciated . By the time he had reached Selinus in Cilicia which was afterwards called Trajanopolis , he suddenly died from edema on 9 August . 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 ' s first act as emperor was to abandon the distant and indefensible Mesopotamia and restore Armenia — as well as Osroene – to the Parthian hegemony under Roman suzerainty . 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 , the road and canal around the Iron Gates ( see conquest of Dacia ) , and possibly the Alconétar Bridge . Some historians also attribute the construction of the Babylon fortress in Egypt to Trajan , the remains of the fort is what is now known as the Church of Mar Girgis and its surrounding buildings . 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 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 . Also a mural of Trajan stopping to provide justice for a poor widow is present in the first terrace of Purgatory as a lesson to those who are purged for being proud . 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 commissioned 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 current president , Traian Băsescu .