Trajan | Military Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Selinus , Cilicia Trajan (English pronunciation: / ˈ t r eɪ dʒ ən / ; Latin language: Imperator Caesar Nerva Traianus Divi Nervae filius Augustus [1] 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 , [2] 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 . [3] 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.

[4] Contents File:027 Traianus.jpg Marcus Ulpius Traianus was born on 18 September 53 in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica [5] (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. [6] 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, [5] 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. [7] 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 . [8] 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. [7] When Nerva died on 27 January 98, the highly respected Trajan succeeded without incident. Roman Emperor Edit 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".

[9] [10] Conquest of Dacia Main article: Trajan's 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 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. [11] In the first military campaign c. March–May 101, Trajan launched a victorious ship into the Dacian Kingdom [12] 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. [13] Trajan's Column , Rome.

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. [14] 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. [15] 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. [16] 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 Edit 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 .

[17] The empire gained what became the province of Arabia Petraea (modern southern Jordan and north west Saudi Arabia). [18] Period of peace Tabula Traiana near Trajan's Bridge in Đerdap National Park , Serbia. 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. [19] 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 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. [20] 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. [21] War against Parthia Aureus issued by Trajan to celebrate the conquest of Parthia. The extent of the Roman Empire under Trajan (117).

[22] 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. [23] Other historians reject this motive, seeing the campaign as triggered by the lure of territorial annexation and prestige, [24] the motive ascribed by Cassius Dio. [25] 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.

[26] 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. [27] 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. [28] Bronze bust of Trajan in his later years, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations , Ankara, Turkey.

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. [29] 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 . [30] 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.

[31] A coin of Trajan, found together with coins of the Kushan ruler Kanishka , at the Ahin Posh Buddhist Monastery, Afghanistan. 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. [30] — 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. [32] 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. [32] Bust of Trajan, Glyptothek , Munich. 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. [32] 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. [32] 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.

[33] [34] Death and succession The Alcántara Bridge , widely hailed as a masterpiece of Roman engineering . Statue of Trajan at Tower Hill , London. 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. [35] 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. [31] 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 Edit 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, [36] 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 Edit 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.

[37] 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 . Notes ↑ Histoire des Juifs, Troisième période, I – Chapitre III – Soulèvement des Judéens sous Trajan et Adrien ↑ Bennett, Trajan, 203 ↑ Bennett, Trajan, 201 ↑ Butler, A. J. (1914). Babylon of Egypt: A study in the history of Old Cairo. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 5. ↑ Dio Cassius, Epitome of Book 6; 21.2–3 References and further reading Ancel, R. Manning. "Soldiers." Military Heritage . December 2001. Volume 3, No. 3: 12, 14, 16, 20 (Trajan, Emperor of Rome). Bennett, J.

Trajan: Optimus Princeps, 2nd Edition, Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2001, ISBN 0-253-21435-1 Bowersock, G.W. Roman Arabia, Harvard University Press, 1983 Christol, M. & Nony, N. Rome et son Empire, Paris: Hachette, 2003, ISBN 2-01-145542-1 Finley, M.I. The Ancient Economy, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999, ISBN 0-520-21946-5 Fuller, J.F.C. A Military History of the Western World. Three Volumes. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1987 and 1988. v. 1. From the late times to the Battle of Lepanto; ISBN 0-306-80304-6 : 255, 266, 269, 270, 273 (Trajan, Roman Emperor). Isaac, B.

The Limits of Empire, The Roman Army in the East, Revised Edition, Oxford University Press, 1990 Kennedy, D. The Roman Army in Jordan, Revised Edition, Council for British Research in the Levant, 2004 Lepper, F.A. Trajan's Parthian War. London: Oxford University Press, 1948. Luttvak, Edward N. The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979, ISBN 0-8018-2158-4 (French) Minaud, Gérard, Les vies de 12 femmes d’empereur romain - Devoirs, Intrigues & Voluptés , Paris, L’Harmattan, 2012, ch. 6, La vie de Plotine, femme de Trajan, p. 147-168. ISBN 978-2-336-00291-0 . Wildfeuer, C.R.H.

Trajan — Lion of Rome, Aquifer Publishing, 2009 Primary sources Roman Emperor - Trajan Roman Emperor - Trajan Updated on February 21, 2012 Photo by Bibi Saint-Pol AD 53 - 117 Trajan was born Marcus Ulpius Nerva Trajanus to a Spanish provincial family of Roman origins. His father was a provincial governor and honored by Emperor Vespasian , who made him a consul and enrolled him among the patricians. The younger Trajan held the usual magistracies and became commander of a legion and later governor of Upper Germany. He was respected as a firm and talented military commander and was adopted as successor by the ailing Nerva, who had been elected emperor on the death of the tyrant Domitian . As a professional soldier he was popular with the army and also with the senate. After serving with distinction in the east and in Germany, he was made consul in 91. Trajan automatically succeeded as emperor on Nerva's death in AD 98. He was the first Roman emperor born outside Italy. Trajan married Pompeia Plotina, who persuaded him to adopt Hadrian; as he had no children of his own.

Relief of Trajan surrounded by lictor (bodyguards). Military and Political Career The rule of the Roman emperor Trajan began an era in Rome's history that later writers were to call a golden age. This era was marked by security and prosperity and the emperors were for the most part efficient administrators and able to keep the army in check. The reign of Trajan began with firmness; he ordered the execution of those praetorian guardsmen who had forced Nerva to execute the murderers of Domitian. On returning to Rome from the Rhine in AD 99 he won the favor of the populace by distributing largesse and by other measures, including the establishment of grants of public money to support poor children in provincial cities. He was concerned with the efficient management of provinces and wherever possible sent out commissioners to reorganize municipal finances. The younger Pliny was one of these commissioners and he was sent to the province of Bithynia. Trajan also improved communication throughout the empire by road-building and road-repair schemes and the implementation of other public works, such as bridges, canals, ports and aqueducts. In foreign policy Trajan was aggressive.

In 101 he set out for his first Dacian (now Romania) campaign and celebrated a triumph in 103, when he assumed the title Dacicus. Trajan's Column, sculptured column in the Forum of Trajan at Rome. The column proper was 100 Roman feet high, and stood on a pedestal. It was erected by Trajan in AD 113 to commemorate his victories over the Dacians, and shows vivid scenes from the campaigns on a spiral band about 30 meter high which winds up the shaft. Trajan's tomb was in the pedestal of the column, and his statue (now replaced by one of St Peter) stood on its top. In Africa he extended the southern boundaries of Numidia to open up more agricultural land and on the eastern frontier he annexed the kingdom of the Nabateans, which became the province of Arabia. The second campaign opened in 104 and was entirely successful: the Dacian king Decebalus committed suicide (106), the capital Sarmizegethusa became the Roman colony of Ulpia Traiana, and Dacia itself was made a Roman province.

The celebrations in honor of these victories lasted at Rome for 123 days. At about this time Arabia Petraea was also made a Roman province. He then turned his attention to Rome's traditional enemy, Parthia. Armenia, a buffer state between the two superpowers, was made a Roman imperial province and Trajan's forces went on to conquer Upper Mesopotamia. Two campaigns (115-116) sufficed to overrun, but not to defeat, the Parthians , and the province of Mesopotamia was formed. Trajan then descended the Tigris to the Persian Gulf, but was obliged to return to Ctesiphon by news a series of revolts that broke out in AD 116 in the new provinces and Jewish communities in the East. In 117 he fell ill, set out for Italy, but died at Selinus in Cilicia (now Turkey) on his way back to Rome. As the emperor was childless on his deathbed he adopted a distant relative, Hadrian , who was a favorite of Empress Plotina, as his son and successor.

Trajan facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Trajan COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. Trajan The Roman emperor Trajan (ca. 53-117), or Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, was the first non-Italian emperor. He expanded Rome's territory to its farthest limits, and his designation as optimus princeps, "the best of princes, " attests to his reputation. When Nerva succeeded the murdered Domitian in 96, it was by no means certain that the armies would accept a nice old unknown emperor. The danger from ambitious generals was so real that Nerva adopted Trajan, the commander of the nearest armies (on the Rhine), and made him successor even though he was a native of Italica, a Romanized town of Spain. Henceforth non-Italian lineage was no bar to even the highest position in the empire. The two most important aspects of Trajan's reign were his forward policy on the frontiers and his administrative and building activities, particularly with regard to Italy.

Wars and Conquests A bit of glory is a source of strength to a new regime, and Trajan seems to have decided to correct Domitian's policy of "weakness" toward the Dacians. The result was two Dacian Wars (101-102 and 105-106), the first apparently sought by Rome, the second clearly a Dacian try for revenge. After the first war Dacia was humbled; after the second it was annexed. Trajan doubtless recognized the economic value of Dacia (roughly, modern Romania), but he must also have seen the wisdom of advancing a wedge of Roman territory between Rome's possible barbarian enemies, the Germans to the west and the Sarmatians to the east. Dacia in time became thoroughly Latinized, and the Romanians today speak a romance language. Also in 106 the client king of the Nabateans died, and Trajan ordered his territory— approximately modern Sinai, the Negeb, and Jordan— annexed as the province of Arabia.

Parthia, embracing essentially modern Iraq and Iran, was the only major power Rome faced, and the two were constantly at odds as to who should control Armenia, which was strategically important to both. When the question boiled up again, Trajan decided to annex Armenia, which he did (114) with little fighting. Armenia could hardly be held, however, if the Parthians could attack it from Mesopotamia, and in 115 Trajan occupied northern Mesopotamia. In 116 he continued south, took the Parthian capital, and advanced to the Persian Gulf. Trajan organized his new conquest into provinces, but revolts broke out behind him everywhere. Even within the empire the Jews erupted in a bitter revolt, massacring the Gentiles where they could and being massacred in return. Trajan intended to restore order and resume the war, but he died suddenly (117), and his successor, Hadrian, made peace with Parthia and abandoned the Eastern provinces except Arabia.

Administration and Public Works Though Trajan's public works were widespread throughout the empire, the most important were in Italy: roads, especially the Via Traiana in the south; large improvements to Claudius's artificial harbor at Ostia; and particularly the immense forum in Rome, surrounded by halls, libraries, and shops and centering on the most famous of all Trajan's works, the great column commemorating his Dacian victories. Trajan's administrative measures were chiefly designed to preserve the prosperity of Italy. He extended Nerva's scheme of alimenta, low-cost state loans to farmers, whose repayment went to the local communities for the support of poor children. Since the finances of some of the towns were becoming chaotic, he appointed temporary imperial officials, curatores, to control the town budgets. Like the alimenta, this system also spread, and the temporary officials tended to become permanent. Trajan even extended the practice to whole provinces, and his correspondence with his appointee Pliny the Younger shows how petty were the matters which might be referred to the central authority.

The ancients never revised their opinion that Trajan was the best of the emperors, and his reign did inaugurate almost a century in which nearly all elements of the empire worked in harmony, but modern historians have some reservations. Both in money and in manpower his wars overstrained Rome's resources, and his moving the imperial government into local administration started the trend to that overlarge, overworked bureaucracy whose cost (bureaucrats must be paid) and cumbersomeness ultimately contributed to the collapse of the empire. Further Reading Except for brief epitomes, very little ancient literary material on Trajan survives. Of some help are Pliny the Younger's Panegyric (though it tells more about Domitian than about Trajan) and some of his letters, including Trajan's replies. Among modern works, a study of Trajan is in Bernard W. Henderson, Five Roman Emperors (1927). For Trajan's buildings see Paul L. Mackendrick, The Mute Stones Speak: The Story of Archaeology in Italy (1960). Considerable information on Trajan is in F. A. Lepper's specialized work, Trajan's Parthian War (1948).

□ Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright The Columbia University Press Trajan (Marcus Ulpius Trajanus) (trā´jən), c.AD 53–AD 117, Roman emperor (AD 98–AD 117). Born in Spain, he was the first non-Italian to become head of the empire. Trajan served in the East, in Germany, and in Spain. He was adopted in AD 97 by Emperor Nerva , who died shortly afterward. A capable man, Trajan set about strengthening his regime by embarking on an aggressive foreign policy. In two wars against Dacia he brought that region, the parent of modern Romania, under Roman control. This conquest is commemorated by the sculptured Trajan's Column, which stands in the Forum of Trajan in Rome. Trajan then annexed Arabia Petraea, and in three campaigns he conquered the greater part of the Parthian empire, including Armenia and Upper Mesopotamia. On his way home from this campaign, he died in Cilicia. He was succeeded by Hadrian.

Trajan was an able military organizer and civic administrator. He partially drained the Pontine Marshes and restored the Appian Way, and at Rome he built an aqueduct, a theater, and the immense Forum of Trajan, containing basilicas and libraries. See F. A. Lepper, Trajan's Parthian War (1948); L. Rossi, Trajan's Column and the Dacian Wars (1972). Cite this article The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable © The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable 2006, originally published by Oxford University Press 2006. Trajan (c.53–117 ad), Roman emperor 98–117. His reign is noted for the many public works undertaken and for the Dacian wars (101–6), which ended in the annexation of Dacia as a province, and which are illustrated on Trajan's Column in Rome . Arch of Trajan a monumental arch at Benevento, decreed or dedicated c. 115 ad, and showing Trajan's achievements at home and abroad.

Trajan's Column a monument erected 106–113 ad in Rome, commemorating his successful Dacian campaign; his ashes were deposited at its base. Cite this article Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes © Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes 2007, originally published by Oxford University Press 2007.

Trajan •abrasion, Australasian, equation, Eurasian, evasion, invasion, occasion, persuasion, pervasion, suasion, Vespasian •adhesion, cohesion, Friesian, lesion •circumcision, collision, concision, decision, derision, division, elision, envision, excision, imprecision, incision, misprision, precisian, precision, provision, scission, vision •subdivision • television • Eurovision •LaserVision •corrosion, eclosion, erosion, explosion, implosion •allusion, collusion, conclusion, confusion, contusion, delusion, diffusion, effusion, exclusion, extrusion, fusion, illusion, inclusion, interfusion, intrusion, obtrusion, occlusion, preclusion, profusion, prolusion, protrusion, reclusion, seclusion, suffusion, transfusion •Monaghan • Belgian •Bajan, Cajun, contagion, Trajan •Glaswegian, legion, Norwegian, region •irreligion, religion •Injun • Harijan • oxygen • antigen •sojourn • donjon • Georgian •theologian, Trojan •Rügen •bludgeon, curmudgeon, dudge

on, gudgeon, trudgen •dungeon • glycogen • halogen •collagen • Imogen • carcinogen •hallucinogen • androgen •oestrogen (US estrogen) •hydrogen • nitrogen •burgeon, sturgeon, surgeon Cite this article

Question: Who succeeded the Roman emperor, Trajan?
Answer: Hadrian