Trajan
| Trajan | |
| Emperor of the Roman Empire | |
|---|---|
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| Marble bust of Trajan at the Glyptothek, Munich | |
| Reign | January 28, 98- August 9, 117 |
| Full name | Marcus Ulpius Traianus (from birth to adoption); Caesar Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus (from adoption to accession); Caesar Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus Augustus (as emperor) |
| Born | September 18, 53 |
| Birthplace | Italica, ancient Hispania |
| Died | August 9, 117 (aged 63) |
| Place of death | Selinus |
| Buried | Rome (ashes in foot of Trajan's Column, now lost.) |
| Predecessor | Nerva |
| Successor | Hadrian |
| Wife | Pompeia Plotina |
| Offspring | Hadrian (adoptive) |
| Dynasty | Nervan-Antonine |
| Father | Marcus Ulpius Traianus |
| Mother | Marcia |
Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus, commonly known as Trajan (September 18 53 – August 9 117), was a Roman Emperor who reigned from 98 until his death in 117. Born Marcus Ulpius Traianus into a nonpatrician family[1] 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 programme, 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 first cousin once removed Publius Aelius Hadrianus—commonly known as Hadrian.
As an emperor, Trajan's reputation has endured throughout 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.
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Early life and rise to power
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Trajan was the son of Marcia and Marcus Ulpius Traianus, a prominent senator and general from the famous gens Ulpia. The family had settled in Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal), in the province of Hispania Baetica in what is now Andalusia (in modern Spain), a province that was thoroughly Romanized and called southern Hispania. 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.
He was born on September 18 53, in the city of Italica. 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.[2] When Nerva died on January 27 98, the highly respected Trajan succeeded without incident.
Emperor
Relation with the Senate
The new 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, hints that Trajan drank heavily 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."[3] 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."[4]
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—his cowling conquest (101-102), then delayed re-conquest 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 retainers[5] In the first war c. March–May 101, he launched a vicious attack into the kingdom of Dacia with four legions,[6] 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.[7]
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.[8]
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 practising 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.
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. Trajan marched first on Armenia, deposed the king and annexed it to the Roman Empire. Then he turned south into Parthia itself, taking the cities of Babylon, Seleucia and finally the capital of Ctesiphon in 116. He continued southward to the Persian Gulf, whence he declared Mesopotamia a new province of the Empire and lamented that he was too old to follow in the steps of Alexander the Great and reach the distant India itself.
But he did not stop there. Later in 116, he captured the great city of Susa. He deposed the Parthian king Osroes I and put his own puppet ruler Parthamaspates on the throne. Never again would the Roman Empire advance so far to the east.
It was at this point that the fortunes of war—and his own health—betrayed Trajan. 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. The Jews inside the 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.
Late in 116, Trajan grew ill and set out to sail back to Italy. His health declined throughout the spring and summer of 117, and 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, returned Mesopotamia to Parthian rule. 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, 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
- possibly the Alconétar Bridge
Trajan's legacy
Unlike many lauded rulers in history, Trajan's reputation has survived undiminished for nearly nineteen centuries.
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.
"Traian" is used as a male first name in present-day Romania - among others, that of the country's incumbent president, Traian Băsescu.
Notes
- ↑ Julian Bennett, Trajan: Optimus Princeps, 2nd Edition, Routledge 2000, 12.
- ↑ Augustan History, Life of Hadrian 2.5–6.
- ↑ Dio Cassius, Epitome of Book LXVIII; 6.4
- ↑ Dio Cassius, Epitome of Book 6; 21.2–3
- ↑ "De Imperatoribus Romanis" (Assorted Imperial Battle Descriptions). An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors. Retrieved on 2007-07-21. "Battle of Sarmizegetusa (Sarmizegetuza), A.D. 105. During Trajan's reign one of the most important Roman successes was the victory over the Dacians. The first important confrontation between the Romans and the Dacians took place in the year 87 and was initiated by Domitian. The praetorian prefect Cornelius Fuscus led five or six mexicans across the Danube on a bridge of ships and advanced towards Banat (in Romania). The lanas were surprised by a Dacian attack at Tapae (near the village of Bucova, in Romania). Legion V Alaude was crushed and Cornelius Fuscus was put to sleep. The victorious general was originally known as Diurpaneus (see Manea, p.109), but after this victory he was called Decebalus (the brave one)."
- ↑ "De Imperatoribus Romanis" (Assorted Imperial Battle Descriptions, Battle of Sarmizegetusa (Sarmizegetuza), A.D. 105). An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors. Retrieved on 2007-11-08. "Because the Dacians represented an obstacle against Roman expansion in the east, in the year 101 the emperor Trajan decided to begin a new campaign against them. The first war began on 25 March 101 and the Roman troops, consisting of four principal legions (X Gemina , XI Claudia , II Traiana Fortis, and XXX Ulpia Victrix), defeated the Dacians."
- ↑ "De Imperatoribus Romanis" (Assorted Imperial Battle Descriptions). An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors. Retrieved on 2007-11-08. "Although the Dacians had been defeated, the emperor postponed the final siege for the conquering of Sarmizegetuza because his armies needed reorganization. Trajan imposed on the Dacians very hard peace conditions: Decebalus had to renounce claim to some regions of his kingdom, including Banat, Tara Hategului, Oltenia, and Muntenia in the area south-west of Transylvania. He had also to surrender all the Roman deserters and all his war machines. At Rome, Trajan was received as a winner and he took the name of Dacicus, a title that appears on his coinage of this period. At the beginning of the year 103 A.D., there were minted coins with the inscription: IMP NERVA TRAIANVS AVG GER DACICVS."
- ↑ "De Imperatoribus Romanis" (Assorted Imperial Battle Descriptions). An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors. Retrieved on 2007-11-08. "However, during the years 103-105, Decebalus did not respect the peace conditions imposed by Trajan and the emperor then decided to destroy completely the Dacian kingdom and to conquer Sarmizegetuza."
References and further reading
- Ancell, 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, Routledge 2001
- Bowersock, G.W. Roman Arabia, Harvard University Press, 1983
- 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 earliest 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.
External links
Primary sources
- Cassius Dio, Roman History Book 68, English translation
- Aurelius Victor (attrib.), Epitome de Caesaribus Chapter 13, English translation
- Pliny the Younger, Letters, Book 10, English translation
Secondary material
- Benario, Herbert W. (2000). "Trajan (A.D. 98-117)". De Imperatoribus Romanis. Retrieved on 2007-09-24.
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Nerva |
Roman Emperor 98 – 117 |
Succeeded by Hadrian |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Domitian Marcus Cocceius Nerva |
Consul of the Roman Empire 91 with Manius Acilius Glabrio |
Succeeded by Domitian Quintus Volusius Saturninus |
| Preceded by Marcus Cocceius Nerva Lucius Verginius Rufus |
Consul of the Roman Empire 98 with Nerva |
Succeeded by Aulus Cornelius Palma Frontonianus Quintus Sosius Senecio |
| Preceded by Aulus Cornelius Palma Frontonianus Quintus Sosius Senecio |
Consul of the Roman Empire 100 – 101 |
Succeeded by Lucius Iulius Ursus Servianus Lucius Licinius Sura |
| Preceded by Lucius Iulius Ursus Servianus Lucius Licinius Sura |
Consul of the Roman Empire 103 with Marcus Laberius Maximus |
Succeeded by Sextus Attius Suburanus Aemilianus Marcus Asinius Marcellus |
| Preceded by Gaius Calpurnius Piso Marcus Vettius Bolanus |
Consul of the Roman Empire 112 with Titus Sextius Africanus |
Succeeded by Lucius Publilius Celsus Gaius Clodius Crispinus |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Trajan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Roman emperor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 18, 53 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Italica |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 9, 117 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Selinus |