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{{short description|Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117}}
{{other uses}}
{{redirect2|Marcus Ulpius Trajanus|Traianus|the emperor's father|Marcus Ulpius Traianus (father of Trajan)||Traian (disambiguation)}}
{{good article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox Roman emperor
| title        = {{No self-redirect|Optimus Princeps}}
| image        = Traianus Glyptothek Munich 336.jpg
| image_size   = 
| alt          = White bust
| caption      = Marble bust, [[Glyptothek]], Munich
| succession   = [[Roman emperor]]
| reign        = 28 January 98{{snds}}9 August 117
| predecessor  = [[Nerva]]
| successor    = [[Hadrian]]
| birth_name   = Marcus Ulpius Traianus
| birth_date   = 18 September 53
| birth_place  = [[Italica]], [[Hispania Baetica]], Roman Empire (present-day [[Spain]])
| death_date   = {{circa|9 August 117}} (aged 63)
| death_place  = [[Selinus, Cilicia|Selinus]], [[Cilicia (Roman province)|Cilicia]], Roman Empire (present-day [[Turkey]])
| burial_place = Rome, in the [[Trajan's Column]], part of [[Trajan's Forum]]
| spouse       = [[Pompeia Plotina]]
| issue        = {{ubl|[[Hadrian]]}}
| issue-type   = Adoptive children
| full name    = Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus (AD 97)<ref>[[Cassius Dio]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/68*.html#3 Book 68, 3–4.]</ref>
| regnal name  = Imperator Caesar Nerva Traianus Augustus<ref>{{cite book |last=Cooley |year=2012 |first=Alison E. |title=The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=492 |isbn=978-0-521-84026-2 |url={{googlebooks|VlghAwAAQBAJ|plainurl=y}} |author-link=Alison E. Cooley}}</ref>
| dynasty      = [[Nerva–Antonine dynasty|Nerva{{ndash}}Antonine]]
| father       = {{ubl|[[Marcus Ulpius Traianus (father of Trajan)|Marcus Ulpius Traianus]]|[[Nerva]] (adoptive)}}
| mother       = [[Marcia (mother of Trajan)|Marcia]]
| religion     = [[Ancient Roman religion]]
}}
'''Trajan''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|r|eɪ|dʒ|ən}} {{respell|TRAY|jən}}; born '''Marcus Ulpius Traianus''', 18 September&nbsp;53{{snds}}{{circa|9 August&nbsp;117}}) was a [[Roman emperor]] from AD&nbsp;98 to 117, remembered as the second of the [[Five Good Emperors]] of the [[Nerva–Antonine dynasty]]. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier-emperor who presided over one of the greatest military expansions in [[Roman history]], during which, by the time of his death, the [[Roman Empire]] reached its maximum territorial extent. He was given the title of {{lang|la|Optimus}} ('the best') by the [[Roman Senate]].

Trajan was born in the {{lang|la|[[municipium]]}} of [[Italica]] in the present-day [[Andalusia]]n province of [[province of Seville|Seville]] in southern Spain, an [[Italic peoples|Italic settlement]] in [[Hispania Baetica]]; his {{langr|la|[[gens Ulpia]]}} came from the town of [[Todi|Tuder]] in the [[Regio VI Umbria|Umbria]] region of central Italy. His namesake father, [[Marcus Ulpius Traianus (father of Trajan)|Marcus Ulpius Traianus]], was a general and distinguished senator. Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of [[Domitian]]; in AD 89, serving as a {{lang|la|[[legatus legionis]]}} in {{langr|la|[[Hispania Tarraconensis]]}}, he supported the emperor against a revolt on the [[Rhine]] led by [[Antonius Saturninus]]. He then served as governor of [[limes Germanicus|Germania]] and [[Pannonia]]. In September 96, Domitian was succeeded by the elderly and childless [[Nerva]], who proved to be unpopular with the army. After a revolt by members of the [[Praetorian Guard]], Nerva decided to adopt as his heir and successor the more popular Trajan, who had distinguished himself in military campaigns against Germanic tribes.

As emperor of Rome, Trajan oversaw the construction of [[#Building projects|building projects]] such as the [[Trajan's Forum|forum named after him]], the expansion of [[Cura Annonae|social welfare policies]] such as the {{lang|la|[[alimenta]]}}, and new military conquests. He annexed [[Nabataean Kingdom|Nabataea]] and [[Roman Dacia|Dacia]], and [[Trajan's Parthian campaign|his war]] against the [[Parthian Empire]] ended with the incorporation of [[Roman Armenia|Armenia]], [[Mesopotamia (Roman province)|Mesopotamia]], and [[Assyria (Roman province)|Assyria]] as Roman provinces. In August AD&nbsp;117, while sailing back to Rome, Trajan fell ill and died of a stroke in the city of [[Selinus (Cilicia)|Selinus]]. He was [[Roman imperial cult|deified]] by the senate and his successor [[Hadrian]] (Trajan's cousin). According to historical tradition, Trajan's ashes were entombed in a small room beneath [[Trajan's Column]].

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== Sources ==
An account of the [[Trajan's Dacian Wars|Dacian Wars]], the ''[[Dacica|Commentarii de bellis Dacicis]]'', written by Trajan himself or a [[ghostwriter]] and modelled after [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]]'s ''[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico]]'', is lost with the exception of one sentence. Only fragments remain of the ''Getica'', a book by Trajan's personal physician [[Criton of Heraclea|Titus Statilius Criton]]. The ''Parthica'', a 17-volume account of the [[Roman–Parthian Wars|Parthian Wars]] written by [[Arrian]], has met a similar fate.{{sfn|Strobel|2010|p=14}} Book{{nbsp}}68 in Greek author [[Cassius Dio]]'s ''Roman History'', which survives mostly as [[Byzantine]] abridgements and [[epitome]]s, is the main source for the political history of Trajan's rule.{{sfn|Strobel|2010|p=15}} Besides this, [[Pliny the Younger]]'s ''Panegyricus'' and [[Dio Chrysostom]]'s orations are the best surviving contemporary sources. Both are adulatory [[Dispositio#Peroratio|perorations]], typical of the High Imperial period, that describe an idealized monarch and an equally idealized view of Trajan's rule, and concern themselves more with ideology than with fact.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|pp=xii/xiii & 63}}

The 10th volume of Pliny's letters contains his correspondence with Trajan, which deals with various aspects of imperial Roman government. It is generally agreed that Pliny, being part of the emperor's inner circle, provides a unique and valuable source of information through his letters with Trajan, the only surviving correspondence between a governor and his emperor. However, it has been argued that Pliny's correspondence with Trajan is neither intimate nor candid, but rather an exchange of official mail in which Pliny's stance borders on the servile. Some authors have even proposed that much of the text was written and/or edited by Trajan's Imperial secretary, his ''[[ab epistulis]]''.<ref>W. Williams, Pliny the Younger, Correspondence with Trajan from Bithynia, Epistles X, Warminster, 1990.</ref><ref>Sherwin-White, Trajan's replies to Pliny, 1962.</ref><ref>Hooper, Finley (1979). ''Roman Realities''. [[Wayne State University Press]], {{ISBN|0-8143-1594-1}}, p. 427.</ref><ref>Noreña, Carlos F. (2007). "The Social Economy of Pliny's Correspondence with Trajan". ''American Journal of Philology'', 128, 239–277, p. 251.</ref> Given the scarcity of literary sources, discussion of Trajan and his rule in modern historiography cannot avoid speculation. Non-literary sources such as archaeology, [[epigraphy]], and [[numismatics]] are also useful for reconstructing his reign.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=xiii}}
{{Clear}}

== Early life ==
{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
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|boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe;
|1= '''Marcus Ulpius Traianus'''
|2= [[Marcus Ulpius Traianus (father of Trajan)|Marcus Ulpius Traianus]]
|3= [[Marcia (mother of Trajan)|Marcia]]<ref>Her name is inferred from that of Trajan's sister Ulpia Marciana.</ref>
|4= [[Ulpia gens|Ulpius]]<ref>The [[epitome de Caesaribus]] names Trajan's grandfather simply as Ulpius, without giving his praenomen or cognomen.</ref>
|5=  [[Traia gens|Traia]]<ref>Her name is inferred from the cognomen of Marcus Ulpius Traianus. According to Antonio Caballos Rufino, she was named Traia or Traiana and was the sister or daughter of an epigraphically attested ''M.Traius C.Filii''.</ref>
|6= [[Quintus Marcius Barea Sura]]
|7= [[gens Antonia|Antonia Furnilla]]
|14= [[Aulus Antonius Rufus]]
|15= [[Furnia gens|Furnia]]
}}

[[File:TRAIANUS PATER RIC II 764-711445.jpg|thumb|left|260px|Gold [[aureus]] of Trajan depicting him alongside his [[Marcus Ulpius Traianus (father of Trajan)|namesake father]], c. AD 115]]
Marcus Ulpius Traianus was born on 18 September AD{{nbsp}}53 in the Roman province of [[Hispania Baetica]]<ref name="ReferenceA">Syme, Tacitus, 30–44; PIR Vlpivs 575.</ref> (in what is now [[Andalusia]] in modern [[Spain]]), in the ''municipium'' of [[Italica]] (now in the municipal area of [[Santiponce]], in the outskirts of [[Seville]]), a Roman colony established in 206{{nbsp}}BC by [[Scipio Africanus]].<ref>[[Appian]], Iberian Wars, Book VII, Chapter 38.</ref><ref>''Roman-Italic migration in Spain'', in ''The origins of the Social War'', [[Emilio Gabba]]</ref><ref name=syme64_144>{{cite journal |last=Syme |first=Ronald |title=Hadrian and Italica |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |volume=54 |page=144 |year=1964 |s2cid=162241585 |jstor=298660 |doi=10.2307/298660}}</ref> At the time of Trajan's birth it was a small town, without baths, theatre and amphitheatre, and with a very narrow territory under its direct administration.<ref name=syme64_144/> Trajan's year of birth is not reliably attested and may instead have been AD 56.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bennett |first=Julian |title=Trajan Optimus Princeps |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNjMqUWc5QkC |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |edition=2nd |date=1997 |page=13 |isbn=0253214351}}</ref>

The epitome of Cassius Dio's Roman history describes Trajan as "an Iberian and neither an Italian nor even an Italiote", but this claim is contradicted by other ancient sources and rejected by modern scholars, who have reconstructed Trajan's Italic lineage.<ref>"Cassius Dio, himself of provincial origin, had little respect for the phylogeny of the emperor Trajan, observing with barely disguised contempt that he was 'an Iberian, and neither an Italian nor even an Italiote'. In fact, one ancient account derives Trajan's paternal family, the gens Ulpia, from Tuder, on the northern border of ancient Umbria, an area where the clan is independently recorded... Traius, like Ulpius, while not especially common, occurs with some frequency in northern Italy, notably at Tuder and at the nearby municipality of Ameria, the probable origo of Trajan's mother, strengthening the possibility of close family ties with the region... an Italian pedigree for the gens Ulpia seems certain... his family had settled at Italica (Santiponce) in southern Spain, a few miles east of modern Seville. '''... strictly speaking, Trajan was an Hispaniensis, an Italian domiciled or born in Spain, as opposed to an Hispanus...'''." Bennett (2001). ''Trajan: Optimus Princeps'', pp. 1–3.</ref><ref>"... The Greek historian Cassius Dio made the baseless assertion that Trajan was an Iberian...'", Colonial elites: Rome and Spain, Ronald Syme, 1970, p. 22.</ref><ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Trajan Trajan, Mason Hammond, Britannica]</ref><ref>One author has argued that the Traii ancestors of Trajan were his paternal family and indigenous [[Iberians|Iberian]] [[Turdetani]] rather than Italic settlers, but this view departs from the prevailing view in academia.  ''Las raíces béticas de Trajano: los 'Traii' de la Itálica turdetana, y otras novedades sobre su familia'', Alicia M. Canto, Sevilla, 2003. The reasons for the rejection of Canto's theory are listed by Antonio Caballos Rufino in ''Las raíces famliares de Trajano'', A.Caballos Rufino, Cluj, 2014.</ref> [[Appian]] states that Trajan's hometown of Italica was settled by and named after Italic veterans who fought in Spain under Scipio, and new settlers arrived there from Italy in the following centuries. Among the Italic settlers were the [[Ulpia gens|Ulpii]] and the [[Traia gens|Traii]], who were either part of the original colonists or arrived as late as the end of the 1st century BC.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bennett |first=Julian |title=Trajan Optimus Princeps |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNjMqUWc5QkC |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |edition=2nd |date=1997 |page=3 |isbn=0253214351}}</ref> Their original home, according to the  description of Trajan as "Ulpius Traianus ex urbe Tudertina" in the [[Epitome de Caesaribus]], was the town of Tuder ([[Todi]]) in the [[Umbria]] region of central [[Roman Italy|Italy]].<ref> Hadrian: the Restless Emperor, London: Routledge p.12, (1997), Anthony Birley.</ref><ref>"The Epitome has clearly used a source which gave the ''origo vetustior'', or ''ultima origo'', as did the HA for Hadrian (H 1.1)...Umbrian Tuder as the original home of the Ulpii and the Traii surely derives from Maximus's ''Vita Traiani''," Anthony R. Birley, ''Sprache und Literatur. Einzelne Autoren seit der hadrianischen Zeit und Allgemeines zur Literatur des 2. und 3. Jahrhunderts'', p.2726, Germany, Druyter, 2016.</ref> This is confirmed by archeology, with [[epigraphy|epigraphic evidence]] placing both the Ulpii and the Traii in Umbria generally and Tuder specifically, and by linguistic studies of the family names ''Ulpius'' and ''Traius'' which show that both are of [[Osco-Umbrian]] origin.<ref>[[Appian]], Iberian Wars, Book VII, Chapter 38.</ref><ref>Epitome de Caesaribusabscriptum Aurelio Victori, XIII, ''Ulpius Traianus ex urbe Tudertina''...</ref><ref>{{CIL|11|4686}} and {{CIL|11|4725}}, Syme in Tacitus, App. 81, p. 786.</ref><ref>Chase, George Davis (1897). "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII, pp. 103–184.</ref> 

It is unknown whether Trajan's ancestors were [[Roman citizens]] or not at their arrival in Spain. They would have certainly possessed Roman citizenship in case they arrived after the [[Social War (91–87 BC)]], when Tuder became a municipium of Roman citizens. In Spain they may well have intermarried with native Iberians, in which case they would have lost their citizenship. Had they lacked or lost the status of Roman citizens, they would have achieved it or recovered it when Italica became a municipium with Latin rights in the mid-1st century BC.

Trajan's paternal grandfather [[Ulpia gens|Ulpius]] married a [[Traia gens|Traia]].<ref>The Imperial Families of Ancient Rome. (2019). Maxwell Craven, Fonthill Media. Table XVIII, p. 156.</ref> Their son, Trajan's namesake and father [[Marcus Ulpius Trajanus (father of Trajan)|Marcus Ulpius Traianus]], was born at Italica during the reign of [[Tiberius]] and became a prominent senator and general, commanding the [[Legio X Fretensis]] under [[Vespasian]] in the [[First Jewish-Roman War]].{{sfn|Strobel|2010|p=40}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Goldsworthy |first=Adrian |title=In the name of Rome: The men who won the Roman Empire |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |location=London |date=2003 |page=320}}</ref> Trajan's mother was [[Marcia (mother of Trajan)|Marcia]], a Roman noblewoman of the gens [[Marcia gens|Marcia]] and a sister-in-law of the second Flavian Emperor [[Titus]].{{sfn|Strobel|2010|p=41}} Little is known of her. Her father is believed to be [[Quintus Marcius Barea Sura]]. Her mother was [[gens Antonia|Antonia Furnilla]], daughter of [[Aulus Antonius Rufus]] and [[Furnia gens|Furnia]]. Trajan owned some lands called ''Figlinae Marcianae'' in [[Amelia, Umbria|Ameria]], another Umbrian town, located near both Tuder and [[Reate]] (the home of the Flavian dynasty) and believed to be the home of Marcia's family.

The line of the Ulpii continued long after Trajan's death. His elder sister was [[Ulpia Marciana]], and his niece was [[Salonia Matidia]]. Very little is known about Trajan's early formative years, but it is thought likely that he spent his first months or years in Italica before moving to Rome and then, perhaps at around eight or nine years of age, he almost certainly would have returned temporarily to Italica with his father during Trajanus's governorship of [[Baetica]] (ca. 64–65).<ref name=impression>{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Nicholas |chapter=Impressionable Years |title=Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror |publisher=GreenHill Books |location=UK |edition=1st |date=2022 |isbn=978-1784387075}}</ref> The lack of a strong local power base, caused by the size of the town from which they came, made it necessary for the Ulpii (and for the [[Aelia gens|Aelii]], the other important senatorial family of Italica with whom they were allied) to weave local alliances, in the Baetica (with the [[Annii]], the Ucubi and perhaps the Dasumii from Corduba), the [[Tarraconense]] and the [[Narbonensian Gaul|Narbonense]], here above all through [[Pompeia Plotina]], Trajan's wife.<ref name=syme64_144/><ref name=syme64_145>{{cite journal |last=Syme |first=Ronald |title=Hadrian and Italica |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |volume=54 |page=145 |year=1964 |s2cid=162241585 |jstor=298660 |doi=10.2307/298660}}</ref> Many of these alliances were made not in Spain, but in Rome.<ref name=syme64_145/> The family home in Rome, the Domus Traiana, was on the [[Aventine Hill]]; excavations under the [[Temple of Diana (Rome)|Piazza del Tempio di Diana]] found remains thought to be of the family's large suburban villa, with evidence of highly decorated rooms.<ref name=impression />

=== Military career ===
[[File:Perge - Trajan.jpg|thumb|Trajan wearing the [[civic crown]] and military garb such as a [[muscle cuirass]], 2nd century AD, [[Antalya Museum|Antalya Archaeological Museum]]]]
As a young man Trajan rose through the ranks of the [[Roman army]], serving in some of the most contested parts of the empire's frontier. In 76{{ndash}}77, his father was [[Roman governor|Governor]] of [[Syria (Roman province)|Syria]] (''[[Legatus]] pro praetore Syriae''), where Trajan himself remained as ''[[Tribunus]] legionis''. From there, after his father's replacement, he seems to have been transferred to an unspecified Rhine province, and Pliny implies that he engaged in active combat duty during both commissions.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|pp=22–23}}

In about 86, Trajan's cousin [[Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer|Aelius Afer]] died, leaving his young children [[Hadrian]] and [[Paulina (sister of Hadrian)|Paulina]] orphans. Trajan and his colleague [[Publius Acilius Attianus]] became co-guardians of the two children.{{sfn|Garzetti|2014|p=378}} Trajan, in his late thirties, was created ordinary [[Roman consul|consul]] for the year 91. This early appointment may reflect the prominence of his father's career, as his father had been instrumental to the ascent of the ruling [[Flavian dynasty]], held consular rank himself and had just been made a [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]].{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=13}} Around this time Trajan brought the architect and engineer [[Apollodorus of Damascus]] with him to [[Rome]],<ref name="2.5–6">Augustan History, ''Life of Hadrian'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Hadrian/1*.html#2.5 2.5–6]</ref> and married [[Pompeia Plotina]], a noblewoman from the Roman settlement at [[Nîmes]]; the marriage ultimately remained childless.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pompeia-Plotina|title=Pompei Plotina|encyclopedia=Britannica|access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref>

The details of Trajan's early military career are obscure, save for the fact that in 89, as legate of [[Legio VII Gemina]] in [[Hispania Tarraconensis]], he supported Domitian against an attempted coup by Lucius [[Antonius Saturninus]], the governor of [[Germania Superior]].{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=43}} Trajan probably remained in the region after the revolt was quashed, to engage with the [[Chatti]] who had sided with Saturninus, before returning the VII Gemina legion to Legio in Hispania Tarraconensis.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Nicholas |chapter=The Making of a General |title=Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror |publisher=GreenHill Books |location=UK |edition=1st |date=2022 |isbn=978-1784387075}}</ref> In 91 he held a consulate with [[Manius Acilius Glabrio (consul 91)|Acilius Glabrio]], a rarity in that neither consul was a member of the ruling dynasty. He held an unspecified consular commission as governor of either [[Pannonia]] or [[Germania Superior]], or possibly both. Pliny{{snds}}who seems to deliberately avoid offering details that would stress personal attachment between Trajan and the "tyrant" Domitian{{snds}}attributes to him, at the time, various (and unspecified) feats of arms.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|pp=45–46}}

=== Rise to power ===
[[File:Nerva Tivoli Massimo.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Bust of [[Nerva]], who became emperor following the assassination of Domitian]]
Domitian's successor, [[Nerva]], was unpopular with the army, and had been forced by his Praetorian Prefect [[Casperius Aelianus]] to execute Domitian's killers.{{sfn|Alston|2014|p=261}} Nerva needed the army's support to avoid being ousted. He accomplished this in the summer of 97 by naming Trajan as his adoptive son and successor, claiming that this was entirely due to Trajan's outstanding military merits.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|pp=45–46}} There are hints, however, in contemporary literary sources that Trajan's adoption was imposed on Nerva. Pliny implied as much when he wrote that, although an emperor could not be coerced into doing something, if this was the way in which Trajan was raised to power, then it was worth it. Alice König argues that the notion of a natural continuity between Nerva's and Trajan's reigns was an ''ex post facto'' fiction developed by authors writing under Trajan, including [[Tacitus]] and [[Pliny the Younger|Pliny]].<ref>Jason König, Tim Whitmarsh, eds., ''Ordering Knowledge in the Roman Empire''. [[Cambridge University Press]], 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-521-85969-1}}, p. 180.</ref>

According to the ''[[Historia Augusta]]'', the future Emperor [[Hadrian]] brought word to Trajan of his adoption.<ref name="2.5–6" /> Trajan retained Hadrian on the Rhine frontier as a [[military tribune]], and Hadrian thus became privy to the circle of friends and relations with whom Trajan surrounded himself. Among them was [[Lucius Licinius Sura]], a Roman senator born in Spain and the governor of [[Germania Inferior]], who was Trajan's personal friend and became an official adviser of the Emperor.{{sfn|Grainger|2004|pp=91, 109}} Sura was highly influential, and was appointed consul for a third term in 107.{{sfn|Veyne|1976|p=686, note 399}}<ref>Some sources credit Sura with building a bathhouse on Rome's [[Aventine Hill]], and naming the bathhouse after himself; others claim the bathhouse was named in his honour but built by Trajan. In either case, the association of his name with a public building was a signal honour; most public buildings in the capital were named after members of the imperial family. See Garrett G. Fagan, ''Bathing in Public in the Roman World''. [[University of Michigan Press]], 2002, {{ISBN|0-472-08865-3}}, pp. 113–114.</ref><ref>Sura's baths were later enlarged by the third century emperor [[Decius]], to emphasise his link to Trajan. See Stephen L. Dyson, ''Rome: A Living Portrait of an Ancient City''. Baltimore: JHU Press,2010,{{ISBN|978-0-8018-9253-0}}, p. 338.</ref> Some senators may have resented Sura's activities as a [[kingmaker]] and [[éminence grise]], among them the historian Tacitus, who acknowledged Sura's military and oratorical talents, but compared his rapacity and devious ways to those of [[Vespasian]]'s éminence grise [[Licinius Mucianus]].<ref>Eugen Cizek, "Tacite face à Trajan", available at [http://publicacions.iec.cat/repository/pdf/00000114%5C00000035.pdf], pp. 127/128. Retrieved 20 July 2014.</ref> Sura is said to have informed Hadrian in 108 that he had been chosen as Trajan's imperial heir.<ref>Levick, Barbara M. (2014). ''Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age''. [[Oxford University Press]], {{ISBN|978-0-19-537941-9}}, p. 42.</ref>

As governor of Upper Germany (Germania Superior) during Nerva's reign, Trajan received the impressive title of ''Germanicus'' for his skilful management and rule of the volatile Imperial province.<ref>Fritz Heichelheim, Cedric Veo, Allen Ward,(1984), The History of the Roman People, pp.&nbsp;353,&nbsp;354 Prentice-Hall, New Jersey.</ref> When Nerva died on 28 January 98, Trajan succeeded to the role of emperor without any outward adverse incident.<ref>''[[Feriale Duranum]]'' [http://papyri.info/ddbdp/rom.mil.rec;1;117 1.14-15]: "V K[al](endas) [Feb]rarias... ob imperium [Divi Traiani]."</ref> The fact that he chose not to hasten towards Rome, but made a lengthy tour of inspection on the Rhine and Danube frontiers, may suggest that he was unsure of his position, both in Rome and with the armies at the front.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}} Alternatively, Trajan's keen military mind understood the importance of strengthening the empire's frontiers.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}} His vision for future conquests required the diligent improvement of surveillance networks, defences and transport along the [[Danube]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Nicholas |chapter=Adoption and Accession |title=Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror |publisher=GreenHill Books |location=UK |edition=1st |date=2022 |isbn=978-1784387075}}</ref> Prior to his frontier tours, Trajan ordered Praetorian Prefect Aelianus to attend him in Germany, where he was apparently executed forthwith ("put out of the way"),{{sfn|Grainger|2004|p=111}} and his now-vacant post taken by [[Attius Suburanus]].{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=52}} Trajan's accession, therefore, could qualify more as a successful coup than an orderly succession.{{sfn|Alston|2014|p=262}}

== Roman emperor ==
{{Nerva–Antonine dynasty|image=[[File:INC-1573-a Ауреус Траян ок. 116-117 гг. (аверс).png|150px]]|caption=Aureus of Trajan}}
Trajan's belated ceremonial entry into Rome in 99 was notably understated, something on which Pliny the Younger elaborated;<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YkgTbON-GGUC&pg=PA254|editor1=Peter V. Jones|editor2=Keith C. Sidwell|title=The World of Rome: An Introduction to Roman Culture|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|date=1997|page=254|isbn=0-521-38421-4}}</ref> on his entry to Rome, he granted the [[Plebeians|plebs]] a direct gift of money. The traditional [[Donativum|donative]] to the troops, however, was reduced by half.{{sfn|Alston|2014|pp=200, 206}} 

=== The Senate ===
There remained the issue of the strained relations between the emperor and the Senate, especially after the supposed bloodiness that had marked Domitian's reign and his dealings with the [[Curia]].
By not openly supporting Domitian's preference for equestrian officers,{{sfn|Jones|2002|p=178}} Trajan appeared to conform to the idea (developed by Pliny) that an emperor derived his legitimacy from his adherence to traditional hierarchies and senatorial morals,<ref>Serghidou, Anastasia (2007). ''Fear of slaves, fear of enslavement in the ancient Mediterranean''. Presses Univ. Franche-Comté, {{ISBN|978-2-84867-169-7}}, p. 314.</ref> and by feigning reluctance to hold power, Trajan was able to start building a consensus around him in the Senate;{{sfn|Rees|2012|p=198}} therefore, he could point to the allegedly republican character of his rule.<ref>Wilkinson, Sam (2012). ''Republicanism during the Early Roman Empire''. New York: Continuum, {{ISBN|978-1-4411-2052-6}}, p. 131.</ref>

In a speech at the inauguration of his third consulship, on 1{{nbsp}}January 100, Trajan exhorted the senate to share the care-taking of the empire with him{{snds}}an event later celebrated on a coin.{{sfn|Rees|2012|p=121}}{{sfn|Veyne|2005|p=402}} In reality, Trajan did not share power in any meaningful way with the senate, something that Pliny admits candidly: "[E]verything depends on the whims of a single man who, on behalf of the common welfare, has taken upon himself all functions and all tasks".<ref>''Letters'' III, 20, 12.</ref>{{sfn|Veyne|2005|p=38, footnote}} One of the most significant trends of his reign was his encroachment on the senate's sphere of authority, such as his decision to make the senatorial provinces of [[Achaea (Roman province)|Achaea]] and [[Bithynia]] into imperial ones in order to deal with the inordinate spending on public works by local magnates<ref>Kathleen Kuiper, ed., ''Ancient Rome: From Romulus and Remus to the Visigoth Invasion''. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-61530-207-9}}, p. 128.</ref> and the general mismanagement of provincial affairs by various [[proconsul]]s appointed by the Senate.<ref>M.S. Gsell, "Étude sur le rôle politique du Sénat Romain à l'époque de Trajan", ''Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire'', 1887, V.7.7, available at [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/mefr_0223-4874_1887_num_7_1_6514]. Accessed 20 January 2015.</ref>

=== ''Optimus princeps'' ===
[[File:CVT APX Amphitheater Traiansstatue.jpg|thumb|Statue of Trajan, posing in military garb, in front of the Amphitheatre of Colonia Ulpia Traiana in the [[Xanten]] Archaeological Park in modern-day Germany]]

According to the ethics for autocracy developed by most political writers of the Imperial Roman Age, Trajan was a good ruler in that he ruled less by fear, and more by acting as a role model; for example, in the formula developed by Pliny, Trajan was a "good" emperor in that, by himself, he approved or blamed the same things that the Senate would have approved or blamed,{{sfn|Veyne|2005|p=37}} and in his words "men learn better from examples".<ref>Carlos F. Noreña, "The Ethics of Autocracy in the Roman World". IN Ryan K. Balot, ed., ''A Companion to Greek and Roman Political Thought''. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-4051-5143-6}}, p. 277.</ref> 
The idea is that Trajan wielded autocratic power through ''moderatio'' instead of ''contumacia''{{snds}}moderation instead of insolence,<ref>Roger Rees, ed., ''Latin Panegyric'', Oxford University Press, 2012, {{ISBN|978-0-19-957671-5}}, p. 137.</ref> and if in reality Trajan was an autocrat, his deferential behavior towards his peers qualified him to be viewed as a virtuous monarch.<ref>Ryan K. Balot, ed., ''A Companion to Greek and Roman Political Thought''.John Wiley & Sons, 2012.</ref> 

Eventually, Trajan's popularity among his peers was such that the Roman Senate bestowed upon him the [[honorific]] of ''optimus'', meaning "the best",<ref>Bernard W. Henderson, "Five Roman Emperors" (1927).</ref><ref>F. A. Lepper, "Trajan's Parthian War" (1948).</ref> which appears on coins from 105 on.<ref>Edward Togo Salmon,''A History of the Roman World from 30 B.C. to A.D. 138''. London: Routledge, 2004, {{ISBN|0-415-04504-5}}, p. 274.</ref> This title had mostly to do with Trajan's role as benefactor, such as in the case of his returning confiscated property.<ref>Elizabeth Forbis, ''Municipal Virtues in the Roman Empire: The Evidence of Italian Honorary Inscriptions''. Stuttgart: Teubner, 1996, {{ISBN|3-519-07628-4}}, pp. 23/24.</ref> The epithet ''optimus princeps'' had already been used for the emperors since the late republic, but Trajan was the only one officially honoured by the title.{{sfn|Hekster|Betjes|Heijnen|Iannantuono|2022}}

Pliny states that Trajan's ideal role was a conservative one, argued as well by the orations of [[Dio Chrysostom]], in particular his four ''Orations on Kingship'', composed early during Trajan's reign. Dio, as a Greek notable and intellectual with friends in high places, and possibly an official friend to the emperor (''amicus caesaris''), saw Trajan as a defender of the ''status quo''.<ref>Christopher J. Fuhrmann, ''Policing the Roman Empire: Soldiers, Administration, and Public Order''.Oxford University Press, 2012, {{ISBN|978-0-19-973784-0}}, p. 175.</ref>{{sfn|Veyne|2005|p=241}} In his third kingship oration, Dio describes an ideal king ruling by means of "friendship"{{snds}}that is, through patronage and a network of local notables who act as mediators between the ruled and the ruler.<ref>Joshua Rice, ''Paul and Patronage: The Dynamics of Power in 1 Corinthians''. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2013, {{ISBN|978-1-62032-557-5}}, p. 84 sqq.</ref> Dio's notion of being "friend" to Trajan (or any other Roman emperor), however, was that of an ''informal'' arrangement, that involved no formal entry of such "friends" into the Roman administration.<ref>Simon Swain, ed., ''Dio Chrysostom: Politics, Letters, and Philosophy''. Oxford University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-19-925521-0}}, p. 90.</ref>

=== Greek-Roman relations ===
{{See also|Greece in the Roman era|Greco-Roman relations in classical antiquity|}}
[[File:Traianus Glyptothek Munich 72.jpg|thumb|left|Bust of Trajan wearing the [[Civic Crown]], [[Glyptothek]], Munich]]
As a senatorial Emperor, Trajan was inclined to choose his local base of political support from among the members of the ruling urban oligarchies; in the West, that meant local senatorial families like his own, in the East, it meant the families of Greek notables. To this end, Trajan ingratiated himself with the Greek intellectual elite by recalling to Rome many (including Dio) who had been exiled by Domitian,<ref>Yun Lee Too, Niall Livingstone, eds. ''Pedagogy and Power: Rhetorics of Classical Learning''.Cambridge University Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-521-59435-6}}, p.{{nbsp}}202; Leonard L. Thompson, ''The Book of Revelation'', Oxford University Press, 1997, {{ISBN|0-19-511580-5}}, p.{{nbsp}}112.</ref> and by returning (in a process begun by Nerva) a great deal of private property that Domitian had confiscated. He also had good dealings with [[Plutarch]], who, as a notable of [[Delphi]], seems to have been favoured by the decisions taken on behalf of his home-place by one of Trajan's legates, who had arbitrated a boundary dispute between Delphi and its neighbouring cities.<ref>Lukas De Blois, ed., ''The Statesman in Plutarch's Works: Proceedings of the Sixth International Congerence of the International Plutarch Society Nijmegen/Castle Hernen, 1–5 May 2002''. Leiden: Brill, 2004, {{ISBN|90-04-13795-5}}, p. 28.</ref>

However, it was clear to Trajan that Greek intellectuals and notables were to be regarded as tools for local administration, and not be allowed to fancy themselves in a privileged position.<ref>Giuseppe Zecchini, "Plutarch as Political Theorist and Trajan" ''in'' Philip A. Stadter, L.{{nbsp}}Van der Stockt, eds.,''Sage and Emperor: Plutarch, Greek Intellectuals, and Roman Power in the Time of Trajan (98–117 A.D.)''. [[Leuven University Press]], 2002, {{ISBN|90-5867-239-5}}, p. 196.</ref> As Pliny said in one of his letters at the time, it was official policy that Greek civic elites be treated according to their status as notionally free but not put on an equal footing with their Roman rulers.<ref>Benjamin Isaac, ''The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity''. [[Princeton University Press]], 2013, {{ISBN|0-691-11691-1}}, p. 399.</ref> When the city of [[Apamea Myrlea|Apamea]] complained of an audit of its accounts by Pliny, alleging its "free" status as a Roman colony, Trajan replied by writing that it was by his own wish that such inspections had been ordered. Concern about independent local political activity is seen in Trajan's decision to forbid [[Nicomedia]] from having a corps of firemen ("If people assemble for a common purpose{{nbsp}}... they soon turn it into a political society", Trajan wrote to Pliny) as well as in his and Pliny's fears about excessive civic generosities by local notables such as distribution of money or gifts.<ref>Benjamin Isaac, 487; Albino Garzetti, ''From Tiberius to the Antonines'', 348.</ref>
Pliny's letters suggest that Trajan and his aides were as much bored as they were alarmed by the claims of Dio and other Greek notables to political influence based on what they saw as their "special connection" to their Roman overlords.{{sfn|Veyne|2005|p=240}} 

The Greeks indeed, had their own memories of independence, a commonly acknowledged sense of cultural superiority, and instead of seeing themselves as Roman, disdained Roman rule.{{sfn|Veyne|2005|pp=195–196}} What the Greek oligarchies wanted from Rome was, above all, to be left in peace, to be allowed to exert their right to self-government (i.e., to be excluded from the provincial government, as was Italy) and to concentrate on their local interests.{{sfn|Veyne|2005|p=229}} This was something the Romans were not disposed to do as from their perspective the Greek notables were shunning their responsibilities in regard to the management of Imperial affairs{{snds}}primarily in failing to keep the common people under control, thus creating the need for the Roman governor to intervene.{{sfn|Veyne|2005|pp=229–230}}

On the local level, among the lower section of the Eastern propertied,{{sfn|de Ste. Croix|1989|p=466}} the alienation of most Greek notables and intellectuals towards Roman rule, and the fact that the Romans were seen by most such Greek notables as aliens, persisted well after Trajan's reign.<ref>Hildegard Temporini, ed., ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der Neueren Forschung. Principat, Part 2, Volume 2'' .Leiden: De Gruyter, 1975, {{ISBN|3-11-004971-6}}, pp. 367/368.</ref> An excellent example of this Greek alienation was the personal role played by Trajan in his relationship with Dio of Prusa: Dio is described by [[Philostratus]] as Trajan's close friend, and Trajan as supposedly engaging publicly in conversations with Dio;<ref>Giovanni Salmeri, "Dio, Rome, and the Civic Life of Asia Minor" IN Simon Swain, ed., ''Dio Chrysostom: Politics, Letters, and Philosophy''. Oxford U. Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-19-925521-0}}, p. 91.</ref> nevertheless, as a Greek local magnate with a taste for costly building projects and pretensions of being an important political agent for Rome,<ref>Simon Goldhill, ''Being Greek Under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire''. Cambridge University Press, 2007, {{ISBN|0-521-66317-2}}, p. 293.</ref> Dio of Prusa was actually a target for ''[[corrector|correctores]]''.
However, while Pliny does tell of Dio of Prusa placing a statue of Trajan in a building complex where Dio's wife and son were buried, therefore incurring a charge of treason for placing the emperor's statue near a grave, Trajan dropped the charge.<ref>Simon Swain, ''Hellenism and Empire: Language, Classicism, and Power in the Greek World, AD 50–250''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996, {{ISBN|0-19-814772-4}}, p. 237.</ref> 

It must also be added that, although Trajan was wary of the civic oligarchies in the Greek cities, he also admitted into the senate at least fourteen prominent Eastern notables, who had been already slated for promotion during Domitian's reign by reserving for them one of the twenty posts open each year for minor magistrates (the ''[[Vigintisexviri|vigintiviri]]'');<ref>Brian Jones, ''The Emperor Domitian'', Routledge, 2002, {{ISBN|0-203-03625-5}}, p.{{nbsp}}171.</ref> such unprecedented recruitment number opens to question the issue of the "traditionally Roman" character of his reign, as well as the "Hellenism" of his successor Hadrian.<ref>Pierre Lambrechts, "Trajan et le récrutement du Sénat", ''L'antiquité classique'', 1936, 5–1, pp. 105–114. Available at [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/antiq_0770-2817_1936_num_5_1_3014]. Retrieved 4 January 2015.</ref>
But then Trajan's new Eastern senators were mostly very powerful and very wealthy men with more than local influence<ref>Stanley E. Hoffer, ''The Anxieties of Pliny, the Younger''. Oxford University Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-7885-0565-3}}, p. 121.</ref> and much interconnected by marriage, so that many of them were not altogether "new" to the Senate.{{sfn|de Ste. Croix|1989|p=119}}

Prominent Eastern senators included: the Galatian notable and "leading member of the Greek community" (according to one inscription) Gaius Julius Severus, who was a descendant of several [[Hellenistic]] dynasts and client kings,<ref>Brian Jones, ''The Emperor Domitian'', 172; Petit, ''Pax Romana'', 52; Martin Goodman, ''The Roman World 44 BC–AD 180''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013, {{ISBN|978-0-415-55978-2}}, p. 120.</ref> and grandfather of the prominent general [[Gaius Julius Quadratus Bassus]], consul in 105,<ref>Pergamum inscription (Smallwood NH 214), reproduced in Brian Campbell, ''The Roman Army, 31 BC – AD 337: A Sourcebook''. London: Routledge, 2006, {{ISBN|0-415-07172-0}}, p. 63.</ref> [[Gaius Julius Alexander Berenicianus]], a descendant of [[Herod the Great]], suffect consul in 116,<ref>Junghwa Choi, ''Jewish Leadership in Roman Palestine from 70 C.E. to 135 C.E.'' . Leiden: Brill, 2013, {{ISBN|978-90-04-24516-7}}, p. 162.</ref> and the [[Athenian]] [[Philopappos|Gaius Julius Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappos]], a member of the Royal House of [[Commagene]], who left behind him a [[Philopappos Monument|funeral monument]] on the [[Mouseion Hill]] that was later disparagingly described by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] as "a monument built to a [[Syrian]] man".<ref>K. W. Arafat, ''Pausanias' Greece: Ancient Artists and Roman Rulers''. Cambridge University Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-521-55340-7}}, p. 192.</ref>

==== Local notables' building projects ====
[[File:A bust of Traianus-Museo Chiaramonti.jpg|thumb|Bust of Trajan, [[Chiaramonti Museum]]]]
Roman authorities liked to play the Greek cities against one another,<ref>Potter, 246.</ref> something of which Dio of Prusa was fully aware:
{{blockquote|[B]y their public acts [the Roman governors] have branded you as a pack of fools, yes, they treat you just like children, for we often offer children the most trivial things in place of things of greatest worth [...] In place of justice, in place of the freedom of the cities from spoliation or from the seizure of the private possessions of their inhabitants, in place of their refraining from insulting you [...] your governors hand you titles, and call you 'first' either by word of mouth or in writing; that done, they may thenceforth with impunity treat you as being the very last!"<ref>Dio, Discourse 38,''To the Nicomedians on Concord with the Nicaeans'', 37. Available at [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dio_Chrysostom/Discourses/38*.html]. Retrieved February 20, 2016.</ref>{{sfn|Veyne|2005|pp=232–233}}}}

This sort of competition however came with many undesired effects for those same Roman authorities: rivalry among Greek cities and their ruling oligarchies was mainly for marks of pre-eminence, especially for titles bestowed by the Roman emperor. Such titles were ordered in a ranking system that determined how the cities were to be outwardly treated by Rome.<ref>David S. Potter, ed. ''A Companion to the Roman Empire''. Malden, MA: Wiley, 2010, {{ISBN|978-0-631-22644-4}}, p.{{nbsp}}246.</ref> The usual form that such rivalries took was that of grandiose building plans, giving the cities the opportunity to vie with each other over "extravagant, needless{{nbsp}}... structures that would make a show".<ref>Ramsey Macmullen, ''Enemies of the Roman Order''. London, Routledge, 1992, {{ISBN|0-415-08621-3}}, p. 185.</ref>

Such extravagant spending meant that junior and thus less wealthy members of the local oligarchies felt disinclined to present themselves to fill posts as local magistrates, positions that involved ever-increasing personal expense.<ref>Graham Anderson, ''Second Sophistic: A Cultural Phenomenon in the Roman Empire''. London, Routledge, 2005, Google e-book, available at [https://books.google.com/books?id=V4qJAgAAQBAJ]. Retrieved 15 December 2014.</ref> 
Additionally, inordinate spending on civic buildings was not only a means to achieve local superiority, but also a means for the local Greek elites to maintain a separate cultural identity{{snds}}something expressed in the contemporary rise of the [[Second Sophistic]]. This "cultural patriotism" acted as a kind of substitute for the loss of political independence,<ref>Paul Veyne, "L'identité grecque devant Rome et l'empereur", ''Revue des Études Grecques'', 1999, V.122-2, p. 515. Available at [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/reg_0035-2039_1999_num_112_2_4382]. Retrieved 20 December 2014.</ref> and as such was shunned by Roman authorities.<ref>Jesper Majbom Madsen, Roger David Rees, eds. ''Roman rule in Greek and Latin Writing: Double Vision''. Leiden: Brill, 2014, {{ISBN|978-90-04-27738-0}}, p.{{nbsp}}36.</ref> As Trajan himself wrote to Pliny: "These poor Greeks all love a [[Gymnasium (Ancient Greece)|gymnasium]]{{nbsp}}... they will have to content with one that suits their real needs".<ref>Quoted by Hooper, ''Roman Realities'', 429.</ref> 

An example of yet another challenge this system posed to the romans can be taken from [[Prusa (Bithynia)|Prusa]]: an embassy from Dio's city of Prusa was not favourably received by Trajan,<ref>Fergus Millar, ''Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Government, society, and culture in the Roman Empire''. University of North Carolina Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-8078-2852-1}}, p. 31.</ref> this had to do with Dio's chief objective, which was to elevate Prusa to the status of a free city, an "independent" city-state exempt from paying taxes to Rome.<ref>Jesper Majbom Madsen, ''Eager to be Roman: Greek Response to Roman Rule in Pontus and Bithynia''. London: [[Bloomsbury Publishing]], 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-7156-3753-1}}, p. 116.</ref> Eventually, Dio gained for Prusa the right to become the head of the assize-district, [[conventus iuridicus|conventus]] (meaning that Prusans did not have to travel to be judged by the Roman governor), but ''eleutheria'' (freedom, in the sense of full political autonomy) was denied.<ref>Simon Swain, ed., ''Dio Chrysostom: Politics, Letters, and Philosophy''. Oxford University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-19-925521-0}}, p.{{nbsp}}68.</ref>
Eventually, it fell to Pliny, as imperial governor of Bithynia in AD{{nbsp}}110, to deal with the consequences of the financial mess wrought by Dio and his fellow civic officials.<ref>Paraskevi Martzavou, Nikolaos Papazarkadas, eds., ''Epigraphical Approaches to the Post-Classical Polis: Fourth Century BC to Second Century AD'' . Oxford University Press, 2013, {{ISBN|978-0-19-965214-3}}, p.{{nbsp}}115.</ref> "It's well established that [the cities' finances] are in a state of disorder" Pliny once wrote to Trajan; plans for unnecessary works made in collusion with local contractors being identified as one of the main problems.<ref>Temporini & Haase, ''Politische Geschichte'', 669.</ref> This was obviously an issue for Roman authorities interested in assuring the cities' solvency and therefore ready collection of Imperial taxes.<ref>Hildegard Temporini, Wolfgang Haase, eds., ''Politische Geschichte: Provinzen und Randvoelker – Griescher Balkanraum: Kleinasien''. Berlin; de Gruyter, 1980, {{ISBN|3-11-008015-X}}, pp.{{nbsp}}668{{nsndns}}669.</ref>

One of the compensatory measures proposed by Pliny expressed a thoroughly Roman conservative position: as the cities' financial solvency depended on the councilmen's purses, it was necessary to have more councilmen on the local city councils. According to Pliny, the best way to achieve this was to lower the minimum age for holding a seat on the council, making it possible for more sons of the established oligarchical families to join and thus contribute to civic spending; this was seen as preferable to enrolling non-noble wealthy upstarts.{{sfn|de Ste. Croix|1989|p=530}} Such an increase in the number of council members was granted to Dio's city of Prusa, to the dismay of existing councilmen who felt their status lowered.<ref>Jesper Majbom Madsen, ''Eager to be Roman'', 117.</ref> A similar situation existed in [[Claudiopolis (Bithynia)|Claudiopolis]], where a public bath was built with the proceeds from the entrance fees paid by "supernumerary" members of the council, enrolled with Trajan's permission.<ref>Sviatoslav Dmitriev, ''City Government in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor''. Oxford University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-19-517042-9}}, p. 155.</ref> 

Furthermore, according to the [[Digest (Roman law)|Digest]], Trajan decreed that when a city magistrate promised to achieve a particular public building, his heirs inherited responsibility for its completion.<ref>Fergus Millar, '' Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Government, society, and culture in the Roman Empire''. [[University of North Carolina Press]], 2004, {{ISBN|0-8078-5520-0}}, pp. 37/38.</ref>

==== Correctores ====
Imerial correctores, one of Trajan's authoritarian innovations, were appointed to audit the civic finances<ref>Bradley Hudson McLean, ''An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy of the Hellenistic and Roman Periods from Alexander the Great Down to the Reign of Constantine (323 B.C.{{nsndns}}A.D. 337)''. University of Michigan Press, 2002, p.{{nbsp}}334.</ref> of the [[Free city (antiquity)|technically free Greek cities]],<ref>A. G. Leventis, ''Hellenistic and Roman Sparta''. London: Routledge, 2004, {{ISBN|0-203-48218-2}}, p.{{nbsp}}138.</ref> with the goal to curb the overenthusiastic spending on public works that served to channel ancient rivalries between neighbouring cities; but as Pliny wrote to Trajan, this had as its most visible consequence a trail of unfinished or ill-kept public utilities.<ref>Pliny, ''Letters'', 10.70.2.</ref> The first known corrector was charged with a commission "to deal with the situation of the free cities", as it was felt that the old method of ''ad hoc'' intervention by the Emperor and/or the proconsuls had not been enough to curb the pretensions of the Greek notables.<ref>JC Carrière, "À propos de ''la Politique'' de Plutarque "{{snds}}''Dialogues d'histoire ancienne'', V.3, no.3, 1977. Available at [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/dha_0755-7256_1977_num_3_1_2693] Retrieved 13 December 2014.</ref> As Pliny wrote to Trajan, this system had as its most visible consequence a trail of unfinished or ill-kept public utilities.<ref>Pliny, ''Letters'', 10.70.2.</ref>

Nevertheless, while the office of ''corrector'' was intended as a tool to curb any hint of independent political activity among local notables in the Greek cities,<ref>Thérèse Renoirte (Sœur), ''Les "Conseils politiques" de Plutarque. Une lettre ouverte aux Grecs à l'époque de Trajan''. Review by Robert Flacelière, ''  L'antiquité classique'', 1952, available at [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/antiq_0770-2817_1952_num_21_1_3210_T1_0162_0000_2] . Retrieved 12 December 2014.</ref> the correctores themselves were all men of the highest social standing entrusted with an exceptional commission. The post seems to have been conceived partly as a reward for senators who had chosen to make a career solely on the emperor's behalf. Therefore, in reality the post was conceived as a means for "taming" both Greek notables and Roman senators.<ref>E. Guerber, "Les correctores dans la partie hellénophone de l'empire Romain du règne de Trajan à l'avènement de Dioclétien : étude prosopographique"  ''Anatolia Antiqua'', V.5, no. 5, 1997; available at [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/anata_1018-1946_1997_num_5_1_876]. Retrieved 12 December 2014.</ref> 

=== Building projects ===
[[File:Remains of the Trajan's Bridge on the right bank of Danube, Serbia (27251575447).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|left|Supporting piers of [[Trajan's Bridge]] on the right bank of the [[Danube]], in modern Serbia. Its wooden superstructure was dismantled by [[Hadrian]], presumably to reduce the threat of invasion from the north.<ref>{{citation|last=Opper|first=Thorsten|title=Hadrian: Empire and Conflict|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|year=2008|isbn=9780674030954|page=[https://archive.org/details/hadrianempirecon0000oppe/page/67 67]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/hadrianempirecon0000oppe/page/67}}</ref>]]
Trajan was a prolific and well-rounded builder. Many of his buildings were designed and erected by the gifted architect [[Apollodorus of Damascus]], including a [[Trajan's Bridge|massive bridge over the Danube]], which the Roman army and its reinforcements could use regardless of weather; the Danube sometimes froze over in winter, but seldom enough to bear the passage of a party of soldiers.<ref>N. J. E. Austin & N. B. Rankov, ''Exploratio: Military & Political Intelligence in the Roman World from the Second Punic War to the Battle of Adrianople''. London: Routledge,  2002, p. 177.</ref> Trajan's works at the [[Iron Gates]] region of the [[Danube]] created or enlarged the [[boardwalk]] road cut into the cliff-face along the Iron Gate's gorge.<ref>Wiseman, James, 1997, "Beyond the Danube's Iron Gates". ''Archaeology'' 50(2): 24–29.</ref> A canal was built between the Danube's Kasajna tributary and Ducis Pratum, circumventing rapids and cataracts.<ref>Šašel, Jaroslav. 1973  "Trajan's Canal at the Iron Gate". ''The Journal of Roman Studies''. 63:80–85.</ref>

Trajan's [[Forum Traiani]] was Rome's largest forum. It was built to commemorate his victories in [[Dacia]], and was largely financed from that campaign's loot.<ref name="Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror">{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Nicholas |chapter=Biding Time between Wars |title=Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror |publisher=GreenHill Books |location=UK |edition=1st |date=2022 |isbn=978-1784387075}}</ref> To accommodate it, parts of the [[Capitoline Hill|Capitoline]] and [[Quirinal Hill]]s had to be removed, the latter enlarging a clear area first established by Domitian. [[Apollodorus of Damascus]]' "magnificent" design incorporated a [[Triumphal arch]] entrance, a forum space approximately 120 m long and 90m wide, surrounded by peristyles: a monumentally sized [[basilica]]: and later, the famous [[Trajan's Column]] and libraries. It was started in AD 107, dedicated on 1 January 112, and remained in use for at least 500 years. It still drew admiration when Emperor [[Constantius II]] visited Rome in the fourth century.<ref name="Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror"/> It accommodated Trajan's Market, and an adjacent brick market.<ref>Fritz Heichelheim, Cedric Veo, Allen Ward,(1984) History of the Roman People, p. 382, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Packer |first=James |title=Trajan's GLORIOUS FORUM |journal=Archaeology |date=January–February 1998 |volume=51 |issue=1 |page=32}}</ref>

Trajan was also a prolific builder of triumphal arches, many of which survive. He built roads, such as the [[Via Traiana]], an extension of the [[Via Appia]] from [[Benevento|Beneventum]] to [[Brundisium]]<ref>Martin Klonnek, ''Chronologie des Römischen Reiches 2: 2. Jh. – Jahr 100 bis 199''. Berlin: epubli, 2014, {{ISBN|978-3-7375-0702-8}}, p. 109.</ref> and the [[Via Traiana Nova]], a mostly military road between [[Damascus]] and [[Aqaba|Aila]], which Rome employed in its [[#Annexation of Nabataea|annexation of Nabataea]] and founding of [[Arabia Petraea|Arabia Province]].<ref>Dikla Rivlin Katz, Noah Hacham, Geoffrey Herman, Lilach Sagiv, ''A Question of Identity: Social, Political, and Historical Aspects of Identity Dynamics in Jewish and Other Contexts''. Berlin: Walter de Griyter, 2019 {{ISBN|978-3-11-061248-6}}, p. 304.</ref>

[[File:Trajan on the Roman Mammisi at Dendera, Egypt.jpg|thumb |upright 0.75 |Emperor Trajan in [[Pharaoh|Pharonic aspect]] with [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyph]] name ([[File:Trajan in Hieroglyphs.jpg|20px]]), making offerings to Egyptian Gods, on the Roman [[Mammisi]] at the [[Dendera Temple complex]], Egypt.<ref name="PAS"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Beard |first1=Mary |title=SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome |date=2015 |publisher=Profile |isbn=978-1-84765-441-0 |page=424 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x795CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT424 |language=en}}</ref>]]

Some historians attribute the construction or reconstruction of [[Old Cairo]]'s Roman fortress (also known as "Babylon Fort") to Trajan, and the building of a canal between the [[River Nile]] and the [[Red Sea]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Butler|first=A. J.|title=Babylon of Egypt: A study in the history of Old Cairo|url=https://archive.org/details/babylonofegyptst00butluoft|year=1914|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|page=[https://archive.org/details/babylonofegyptst00butluoft/page/5 5]}}</ref> In Egypt, Trajan was "quite active" in constructing and embellishing buildings. He is portrayed, together with [[Domitian]], on the [[propylon]] of the [[Dendera Temple complex|Temple of Hathor]] at [[Dendera]]. His [[cartouche]] also appears in the column shafts of the Temple of [[Khnum]] at [[Esna]].<ref name="PAS">"Trajan was, in fact, quite active in Egypt. Separate scenes of Domitian and Trajan making offerings to the gods appear on reliefs on the propylon of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera. There are cartouches of Domitian and Trajan on the column shafts of the Temple of Knum at Esna, and on the exterior a frieze text mentions Domitian, Trajan, and Hadrian"  {{cite book |last1=Stadter |first1=Philip A. |last2=Stockt |first2=L. Van der |title=Sage and Emperor: Plutarch, Greek Intellectuals, and Roman Power in the Time of Trajan (98–117 A.D.) |date=2002 |publisher=Leuven University Press |isbn=978-90-5867-239-1 |page=75 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jJjiYdxHmPMC&pg=PA75 |language=en}}</ref>

He built palatial villas outside Rome at [[Villa of Trajan|Arcinazzo]], at [[Centumcellae]] and at [[Talamone]].

He also built a [[Baths of Trajan|bath complex]] as well as the [[Aqua Traiana]].

=== Games ===
Trajan invested heavily in the provision of popular amusements. He carried out a "massive reconstruction" of the [[Circus Maximus]], which was already the empire's biggest and best appointed circuit for the immensely popular sport of [[chariot racing]]. The Circus also hosted [[Ludi|religious theatrical spectacles and games]], and public processions on a grand scale. Trajan's reconstruction, completed by 103, was modestly described by Trajan himself as "adequate" for the Roman people. It replaced flammable wooden seating tiers with stone, and increased the Circus' already vast capacity by about 5,000 seats. Its lofty, elevated Imperial viewing box was rebuilt among the seating tiers, so that spectators could see their emperor sharing their enjoyment of the races, alongside his family and images of the gods,<ref>{{cite book|last=Humphrey|first=John H.|title=Roman Circuses: Arenas for Chariot Racing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=couetXBQO9AC|year=1986|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-04921-5}} pp. 80, 102-103, 126-129. The images of the gods were brought from their temples to be laid on dining couches with great ceremony, so that they too could watch the spectacle.</ref>

At some time during 108 or 109, Trajan held 123 days of games to celebrate his Dacian victory. They involved "fully 10,000" [[gladiator]]s and the slaughter of thousands, "possibly tens of thousands," of animals, both wild and domestic.<ref>Epitome of Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'', 68.15.1.</ref> Trajan's careful management of public spectacles led the orator Fronto to congratulate him for paying equal attention to public entertainments and more serious issues, acknowledging that "neglect of serious matters can cause greater damage, but neglect of amusements greater discontent".<ref>Quoted by Andrea Giardina, ed. ''The Romans''. University of Chicago Press, 1993, {{ISBN|0-226-29049-2}}, p. 272.</ref> State-funded public entertainments helped to maintain contentment among the populace; the more "serious matter" of the [[Cura annonae|corn dole]] aimed to satisfy individuals.<ref>Z. Yavetz, "The Urban Plebs in the Days of the Flavians, Nerva and Trajan". IN ''Opposition et Resistances a L'empire D'auguste a Trajan''. Geneva: Droz, 1987, {{ISBN|978-2-600-04425-7}}, p. 181.</ref>

===Christians===
[[File:Church and Empire in the East under Trajan (Smith, 1915).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|In red, Christian communities in the Roman Empire under Emperor Trajan.]]
During the period of peace that followed the Dacian war, Trajan exchanged letters with Pliny the Younger on how best to deal with the Christians of [[Pontus (region)|Pontus]]. Trajan told [[Pliny the Younger on Christians|Pliny to continue]] prosecutions of Christians if they merited that, but not to accept anonymous or malicious denunciations. He considered this to be in the interests of justice, and to reflect "the spirit of the age". Non-citizens who admitted to being Christians and refused to recant were to be executed "for obstinacy". Citizens were sent to Rome for trial.<ref>Stephen Benko, ''Pagan Rome and the Early Christians''. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1986, {{ISBN|0-253-20385-6}}, pp. 6/7.</ref>

Further tests faced by Christians in Pontus are alluded to in correspondence between Pliny the Younger, governor of the Roman province of Bithynia and Pontus, and Emperor Trajan. Writing from Pontus in about AD 112, Pliny reported that the "contagion" of Christianity threatened everyone, regardless of gender, age, or rank. Pliny gave those accused of being Christians opportunity to deny it, and those who would not, he executed. Any who cursed Christ or recited a prayer to the gods or to Trajan’s statue were released. Pliny acknowledged that these were things that "those who are really Christians cannot be made to do."

=== Currency and welfare ===
{{see also|Alimenta}}
In 107, Trajan devalued the [[Roman currency]], decreasing the silver content of the [[denarius]] from 93.5% to 89.0%{{snds}}the actual silver weight dropping from 3.04{{nbsp}}grams to 2.88{{nbsp}}grams.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tulane.edu/~august/handouts/601cprin.htm |title=Tulane University "Roman Currency of the Principate" |publisher=Tulane.edu |access-date=5 December 2011 |archive-date=1 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081101003844/http://www.tulane.edu/~august/handouts/601cprin.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> This devaluation, along with the massive amounts of gold and silver acquired through his [[Trajan's Dacian Wars|Dacian wars]], allowed Trajan to mint many more denarii than his predecessors. He also withdrew from circulation silver denarii minted before Nero's devaluation. Trajan's devaluation may have had a political intent, enabling planned increases in civil and military spending.{{sfn|Petit|1976|p=188}} Trajan formalised the alimenta, a welfare program that helped orphans and poor children throughout Italy by providing cash, food and subsidized education. The program was supported out of Dacian War booty, estate taxes and philanthropy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tjbuggey.ancients.info/Alimenta.html |title=Alimenta |publisher=Tjbuggey.ancients.info |access-date=25 April 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140210160453/http://tjbuggey.ancients.info/Alimenta.html |archive-date=10 February 2014 }}</ref> The alimenta also relied indirectly on mortgages secured against Italian farms (''fundi''). Registered landowners received a lump sum from the imperial treasury, and in return were expected to repay an annual sum to support the alimentary fund.<ref>John Rich, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, eds., ''City and Country in the Ancient World''. London: Routledge, 2003, {{ISBN|0-203-41870-0}}, p. 158.</ref>

== Military campaigns ==

=== Conquest of Dacia ===

{{Main|Trajan's Dacian Wars}}

[[File:Trajan's Column HD.jpg|thumb|[[Trajan's Column]], Rome]]

The earliest of Trajan's conquests were Rome's two wars against [[Dacia]], an area that had troubled Roman politics for over a decade in regard to the unstable peace negotiated by [[Domitian]]'s ministers with the powerful Dacian king [[Decebalus]].<ref name="Romanis REquote01" /> Dacia would be reduced by Trajan's Rome to a [[satellite state|client kingdom]] in the first war (101{{ndash}}102), followed by a second war that ended in actual incorporation into the Empire of the trans-Danube border group of Dacia.<ref name="Romanis REquote01">{{cite web|access-date= 21 July 2007|url=https://roman-emperors.sites.luc.edu/assobd.htm#t-inx|title= De Imperatoribus Romanis|website= An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors|quote= 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]] had taken place in the year 87 and was initiated by Domitian. The [[praetorian prefect]] Cornelius Fuscus led five or six legions across the Danube on a bridge of ships and advanced towards [[Banat]] (in Romania). The Romans were surprised by a Dacian attack at Tapae (near the village of [[Bucova]], in Romania). [[Legion V Alaude]] was crushed and Cornelius Fuscus was killed. The victorious [[Dacia]]n general was called [[Decebalus]] (the brave one).}}</ref> According to the provisions of Decebalus's earlier treaty with Rome, made in the time of Domitian, Decebalus was acknowledged as ''rex amicus'', that is, client king; in exchange for accepting client status, he received from Rome both a generous stipend and a steady supply of technical experts.{{sfn|Schmitz|2005|p=9}} The treaty seems to have allowed Roman troops the right of passage through the Dacian kingdom in order to attack the [[Marcomanni]], [[Quadi]] and [[Sarmatians]]. However, senatorial opinion never forgave Domitian for paying what was seen as tribute to a barbarian king.<ref>Marcel Emerit. "Les derniers travaux des historiens roumains sur la Dacie". In: ''Revue des Études Anciennes''. Tome 41, 1939, n°1. pp. 57–64. available at [http://www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_1939_num_41_1_3025]. Retrieved 23 February 2016.</ref> Unlike the Germanic tribes, the Dacian kingdom was an organized state capable of developing alliances of its own,{{sfn|Luttwak|1979|p=100}} thus making it a strategic threat and giving Trajan a strong motive to attack it.{{sfn|Schmitz|2005|p=13}}

In May of 101, Trajan launched his first campaign into the Dacian kingdom,<ref name="Romanis REquote05">{{cite web|url=https://roman-emperors.sites.luc.edu/assobd.htm#t-inx|title=De Imperatoribus Romanis|website=An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors|access-date=8 November 2007|quote=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.}}</ref> crossing to the northern bank of the Danube and defeating the [[Dacian warfare|Dacian army]] at [[Tapae]] (see [[Second Battle of Tapae]]), near the [[Iron Gates of Transylvania]]. It was not a decisive victory, however.{{sfn|Le Roux|1998|p=73}} Trajan's troops took heavy losses in the encounter, and he put off further campaigning for the year in order to regroup and reinforce his army.<ref name="Romanis REquote03">{{cite web|title=Battle of Sarmizegetusa (Sarmizegetuza), A.D. 105: De Imperatoribus Romanis|url=https://roman-emperors.sites.luc.edu/assobd.htm#t-inx|website=An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors|access-date=8 November 2007|quote=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 part of his kingdom, including the 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.}}</ref> Nevertheless, the battle was considered a Roman victory and Trajan strived to ultimately consolidate his position, including other major engagements, as well as the capture of Decebalus' sister as depicted on Trajan's Column.<ref name="ReferenceD">{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Nicholas |chapter=First Dacian War |title=Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror |publisher=GreenHill Books |location=UK |edition=1st |date=2022 |isbn=978-1784387075}}</ref>

The following winter, Decebalus took the initiative by launching a counter-attack across the Danube further downstream, supported by Sarmatian cavalry,<ref>José Maria Blázquez, ''Las res gestae de Trajano militar: las guerras dácicas''. ''Aquila Legionis'', 6 (2005) 19.</ref> forcing Trajan to come to the aid of the troops in his rearguard. The Dacians and their allies were repulsed after two battles in Moesia, at [[Nicopolis ad Istrum]] and [[Adamclisi]].<ref>Ioan Glodariu, ''LA ZONE DE SARMIZEGETUSA REGIA ET LES GUERRES DE TRAJAN''. ''Studia Antiqua et Archaeologica'', VII, Iasi, 2000. Available at [http://www.sarmizegetusa.org/doc/Glodariu%20I.%20-%20La%20zone%20de%20Sarmizegetusa%20et%20les%20guerres%20de%20Trajan(Studia%20Antiqua%20et%20Archaeologica, VII, Iasi,2000).pdf]. Retrieved 2 July 2014.</ref> Trajan's army then advanced further into Dacian territory, and, a year later, forced Decebalus to submit. He had to renounce claim to some regions of his kingdom, return runaways from Rome then under his protection (most of them technical experts), and surrender all his war machines.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|pp=94–95}} Trajan returned to Rome in triumph and was granted the title ''Dacicus''.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=96}} The peace of 102 had returned Decebalus to the condition of more or less harmless client king; however, he soon began to rearm, to again harbour Roman runaways, and to pressure his Western neighbours, the [[Iazyges]] Sarmatians, into allying themselves with him. Through his efforts to develop an anti-Roman bloc, Decebalus prevented Trajan from treating Dacia as a protectorate instead of an outright conquest.<ref name="Christol & Nony, 171">Christol & Nony, 171.</ref> In 104, Decebalus devised an attempt on Trajan's life by means of some Roman deserters, a plan that failed. Decebalus also took prisoner Trajan's legate Longinus, who eventually poisoned himself while in custody. Finally, in 105, Decebalus undertook an invasion of Roman-occupied territory north of the Danube.{{sfn|Dando-Collins|2012|p=not numbered}}<ref name="Romanis REquote04">{{cite web|title=Battle of Sarmizegetusa (Sarmizegetuza), A.D. 105: De Imperatoribus Romanis|url=https://roman-emperors.sites.luc.edu/assobd.htm#t-inx|website=An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors|access-date=8 November 2007|quote=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.}}</ref>

[[File:Decebal's portrait.png|thumb|200px|left|Portrait of King [[Decebalus]] in the ''Cartea omului matur'' (1919)]]

Prior to the campaign, Trajan had raised two entirely new legions: [[Legio II Traiana Fortis|II Traiana]]{{snds}}which, however, may have been posted in the East, at the Syrian port of [[Laodicea ad Mare|Laodicea]]{{snds}}and [[XXX Ulpia Victrix]], which was posted to [[Brigetio]], in [[Pannonia (Roman province)|Pannonia]].{{sfn|Dando-Collins|2012|p=not numbered}}<ref>In the absence of literary references, however, the positioning of the new legions is conjectural: some scholars think that Legio II Traiana Fortis was originally stationed on the Lower Danube and participated in the Second Dacian War, being only later deployed to the East:cf. Ritterling, E., 1925. RE XII. Col. 1485. Syme, R., 1971. ''Danubian Papers'', Bucharest. p. 106. Strobel, K., 1984. "Untersuchungen zu den Dakerkriegen Trajans. Studien zur Geschichte des mittleren und unteren Donauraumes in der Hohen Kaiserzeit", ''Antiquitas'' I 33. Bonn. p. 98. Strobel, K., 2010. ''Kaiser Traian. Eine Epoche der Weltgeschichte'', Verlag Friedrich Pustet. Regensburg. pp. 254–255, 265, 299, 364. Urloiu, R-L., AGAIN ON LEGIO II TRAIANA FORTIS,. ''History and Civilization''. EUBSR 2013 International Conference, Volume 2.</ref> By 105, the concentration of Roman troops assembled in the middle and lower Danube amounted to fourteen legions (up from nine in 101){{snds}}about half of the entire Roman army.{{sfn|Mattern|1999|p=93}} Even after the Dacian wars, the Danube frontier would permanently replace the Rhine as the main military axis of the Roman Empire.{{sfn|Le Roux|1998|p=74}} Including [[auxilia]]ries, the number of Roman troops engaged on both campaigns was between 150,000 and 175,000, while Decebalus could dispose of up to 200,000.{{sfn|Le Roux|1998|p=73}} Other estimates for the Roman forces involved in Trajan's second Dacian War cite around 86,000 for active campaigning with large reserves retained in the proximal provinces, and potentially much lower numbers around 50,000 for Decebalus' depleted forces and absent allies.<ref name="ReferenceE">{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Nicholas |chapter=Second Dacian War |title=Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror |publisher=GreenHill Books |location=UK |edition=1st |date=2022 |isbn=978-1784387075}}</ref>

In a fierce campaign that seems to have consisted mostly of static warfare, the Dacians, devoid of manoeuvring room, kept to their network of fortresses, which the Romans sought systematically to storm{{sfn|Găzdac|2010|p=49}} (see also [[Second Dacian War]]). The Romans gradually tightened their grip around Decebalus' stronghold in [[Sarmizegetusa Regia]],{{sfn|Le Roux|1998|p=74}} which they finally took and destroyed. A controversial scene on Trajan's column just before the fall of Sarmizegetusa Regia suggests that Decebalus may have offered poison to his remaining men as an alternative option to capture or death while trying to flee the besieged capital with him.<ref name="ReferenceE"/> Decebalus fled but, when later cornered by Roman cavalry, committed suicide. His severed head, brought to Trajan by the cavalryman [[Tiberius Claudius Maximus]],<ref>Anton J. L. van Hooff, ''From Autothanasia to Suicide: Self-killing in Classical Antiquity''. London: Routledge, 2002, {{ISBN|0-415-04055-8}}, p. 277, note 41.</ref> was later exhibited in Rome on the steps leading up to the [[Capitoline Hill|Capitol]] and thrown on the [[Gemonian stairs]].<ref>Harriet I. Flower, ''The Art of Forgetting: Disgrace & Oblivion in Roman Political Culture''. University of North Carolina Press, 2006, {{ISBN|978-0-8078-3063-5}}, p. 253.</ref> The famous Dacian treasures were not found in the captured capital and their whereabouts were only revealed when a Dacian nobleman called Bikilis was captured.  Decebalus’ treasures had been buried under a temporarily diverted river and the captive workers executed to retain the secret.  Staggering amounts of gold and silver were found and packed off to fill Rome's coffers.<ref name="ReferenceE"/>

[[File:UlpiaTraianaSarmizegetusa.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The amphitheater at [[Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa]]]]

Trajan built a new city, [[Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa|Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa]], on another site (north of the hill citadel holding the previous Dacian capital),<ref>Martin Goodman, ''The Roman World 44 BC–AD 180'', 253.</ref> although bearing the same full name, Sarmizegetusa. This capital city was conceived as a purely civilian administrative centre and was provided the usual Romanized administrative apparatus ([[Decurion (administrative)|decurions]], [[aedile]]s, etc.).<ref>Jennifer Trimble, ''Women and Visual Replication in Roman Imperial Art and Culture''. Cambridge U. Press, 2011, {{ISBN|978-0-521-82515-3}}, p. 288.</ref> Urban life in Roman Dacia seems to have been restricted to Roman colonists, mostly military veterans;<ref>Ioana A. Oltean, ''Dacia: Landscape, Colonization and Romanization''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2007, {{ISBN|0-203-94583-2}}, p. 222.</ref> there is no extant evidence for the existence in the province of [[Peregrinus (Roman)|peregrine]] cities. Native Dacians continued to live in scattered rural settlements, according to their own ways.{{sfn|Le Roux|1998|p=268}} In another arrangement with no parallels in any other Roman province, the existing quasi-urban Dacian settlements disappeared after the Roman conquest.<ref>Carbó García, Juan Ramón. " ''Dacia Capta'': particularidades de un proceso de conquista y romanización." ''Habis'', 41, 275–292 (2010).</ref>

A number of unorganized urban settlements ([[vicus|''vici'']]) developed around military encampments in Dacia proper – the most important being [[Alba Iulia|Apulum]] – but were only acknowledged as cities proper well after Trajan's reign.<ref>Meléndez, Javier Bermejo, Santiago Robles Esparcia, and Juan M. Campos Carrasco. "Trajano fundador. El último impulso colonizador del imperio." ''Onoba. Revista de Arqueología y Antigüedad'' 1 (2013).</ref> The main regional effort of urbanization was concentrated by Trajan at the rearguard, in Moesia, where he created the new cities of Nicopolis ad Istrum and [[Marcianopolis]]. A [[vicus]] was also created around the Tropaeum Traianum.{{sfn|Sartre|1994|p=269}} The garrison city of [[Oescus]] received the status of [[Roman colony]] after its [[legionary]] garrison was redeployed.{{sfn|Sartre|1994|p=269}} The fact that these former Danubian outposts had ceased to be frontier bases and were now in the deep rear acted as an inducement to their urbanization and development.{{sfn|Luttwak|1979|pp=101, 104}} Not all of Dacia was permanently occupied. After the post-Trajanic evacuation of lands across the lower Danube,{{sfn|Luttwak|1979|p=101}} land extending from the Danube to the inner arch of the [[Carpathian Mountains]], including [[Transylvania]], the [[Metaliferi Mountains]] and [[Oltenia]] was absorbed into the Roman province, which eventually took the form of an "excrescence" with ill-defined limits, stretching from the Danube northwards to the [[Carpathians]].{{sfn|Le Roux|1998|p=74}} This may have been intended as a basis for further expansion within Eastern Europe, as the Romans believed the region to be much more geographically "flattened", and thus easier to traverse, than it actually was; they also underestimated the distance from those vaguely defined borders to the ocean.{{sfn|Mattern|1999|p=61}}

[[File:Londinium Roman Wall (39482079765).jpg|thumb|left|Modern [[statue of Trajan]] at [[Tower Hill]], London]]

Defence of the province was entrusted to a single legion, the [[Legio XIII Gemina|XIII Gemina]], stationed at [[Alba Julia|Apulum]], which functioned as an advance guard that could, in case of need, strike either west or east at the Sarmatians living at the borders.{{sfn|Luttwak|1979|pp=101, 104}} Therefore, the indefensible character of the province did not appear to be a problem for Trajan, as the province was conceived more as a sally-base for further attacks.<ref>Frank Vermeulen, Kathy Sas, Wouter Dhaeze, eds. ''Archaeology in Confrontation: Aspects of Roman Military Presence in the Northwest : Studies in Honour of Prof. Em. Hugo Thoen''. Ghent: Academia Press, 2004, {{ISBN|90-382-0578-3}}, p. 218.</ref> Even in the absence of further Roman expansion, the value of the province depended on Roman overall strength: while Rome was strong, the Dacian salient was an instrument of military and diplomatic control over the Danubian lands; when Rome was weak, as during the [[Crisis of the Third Century]], the province became a liability and was eventually abandoned.{{sfn|Luttwak|1979|p=104}} Trajan resettled Dacia with Romans and annexed it as a province of the Roman Empire. Aside from their enormous booty (over half a million slaves, according to [[John Lydus]]),<ref>Moses I. Finley, ed., ''Classical Slavery'', London: Routledge, 2014, {{ISBN|0-7146-3320-8}}, p. 122.</ref> Trajan's Dacian campaigns benefited the Empire's finances through the acquisition of Dacia's gold mines, managed by an imperial [[Procurator (Roman)|procurator]] of [[Equestrian order|equestrian]] rank (''procurator aurariarum'').{{sfn|Le Roux|1998|p=241}} On the other hand, commercial agricultural exploitation on the [[Roman villa|villa]] model, based on the centralized management of a huge landed estate by a single owner (''fundus'') was poorly developed.{{sfn|Le Roux|1998|pp=202, 242}} Therefore, use of slave labor in the province itself seems to have been relatively undeveloped, and epigraphic evidence points to work in the gold mines being conducted by means of labor contracts (''locatio conductio rei'') and seasonal wage-earning.<ref>Steven A. Epstein, ''Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe''. UNC Press, 1991, {{ISBN|0-8078-1939-5}}, p. 26; Paul du Plessis, ''Studying Roman Law''. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014, p. 82.</ref> The victory was commemorated by the construction both of the 102 cenotaph generally known as the [[Tropaeum Traiani]] in Moesia, as well of the much later (113) Trajan's Column in Rome, the latter depicting in stone carved bas-reliefs the Dacian Wars' most important moments.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|pp=102, 90}}

=== Nabataean annexation ===

In 106, [[Rabbel II Soter]], one of Rome's client kings, died. This event might have prompted the annexation of the [[Nabataean Kingdom]], but the manner and the formal reasons for the annexation are unclear. Some epigraphic evidence suggests a military operation, with forces from Syria and [[Egypt (Roman province)|Egypt]]. What is known is that by 107, Roman legions were stationed in the area around [[Petra]] and [[Bosra]], as is shown by a papyrus found in Egypt. The furthest south the Romans occupied (or, better, garrisoned, adopting a policy of having garrisons at key points in the desert){{sfn|Sartre|1994|p=46}} was [[Mada'in Saleh|Hegra]], over {{convert|300|km|mi}} south-west of [[Petra]].{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=177}} The empire gained what became the province of [[Arabia Petraea]] (modern southern Jordan and northwest Saudi Arabia).{{sfn|Bennett|2001|pp=172–182}} At this time, a Roman road (''[[Via Traiana Nova]]'') was built from Aila (now [[Aqaba]]) in [[Limes Arabicus]] to [[Bosra]]h.{{sfn|Browning|1982|p=33}} As Nabataea was the last client kingdom in Asia west of the Euphrates, the annexation meant that the entire Roman East had been provincialized, completing a trend towards direct rule that had begun under the Flavians.{{sfn|Sartre|1994|p=46}}

=== Parthian campaign ===

{{main|Trajan's Parthian campaign}}

[[File:Asia Minor in the 2nd century AD - general map - Roman provinces under Trajan - bleached - English legend.jpg|thumb|300px|Anatolia, western Caucasus and northern Levant under Trajan]]

In 113, Trajan embarked on his last campaign, provoked by [[Parthian Empire|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, already in Syria early in 113, consistently refused to accept diplomatic approaches from the Parthians intended to settle the Armenian imbroglio peacefully.<ref>Brian Campbell, "War and Diplomacy: Rome & Parthia 31 BC – AD 235". IN John Rich, Graham Shipley, eds.''War and Society in the Roman World''. London: Routledge, 1993, {{ISBN|0-203-07554-4}}, p. 234.</ref> As the surviving literary accounts of Trajan's Parthian War are fragmentary and scattered,<ref>R. P. Longden, "Notes on the Parthian Campaigns of Trajan". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 21 (1931), pp. 1–35. Available at [https://archive.org/stream/Longden1931TrajanParthians/Longden_1931_Trajan_Parthians_djvu.txt]. Retrieved 18 August 2019.</ref> it is difficult to assign them a proper context, something that has led to a long-running controversy about its precise happenings and ultimate aims.

==== Cause of the war ====

Modern historians advance the possibility that Trajan's decision to wage war against Parthia had economic motives: after Trajan's annexation of Arabia, he built a new road, [[Via Traiana Nova]], that went from [[Bosra|Bostra]] to [[Aqaba|Aila]] on the Red Sea.{{sfn|Sidebotham|1986|p=154}} That meant that [[Charax Spasinou|Charax]] on the Persian Gulf was the sole remaining western terminus of the Indian trade route outside direct Roman control,<ref name="Christol & Nony, Rome, 171">Christol & Nony, Rome, 171.</ref> and such control was important in order to lower import prices and to limit the supposed drain of precious metals created by the deficit in Roman trade with the Far East.{{sfn|Young|2001|p=181}} That Charax traded with the Roman Empire, there can be no doubt, as its actual connections with merchants from [[Palmyra]] during the period are well documented in a contemporary Palmyrene epigraph, which tells of various Palmyrene citizens honoured for holding office in Charax.<ref>Daniel T. Potts, ed., ''Araby the Blest: Studies in Arabian Archaeology''. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1988, {{ISBN|87-7289-051-7}}, p. 142.</ref> Also, Charax's rulers' domains at the time possibly included the Bahrain islands, which offered the possibility of extending Roman hegemony into the Persian Gulf itself.<ref>Potts, 143.</ref> (A Palmyrene citizen held office as [[satrap]] over the islands shortly after Trajan's death,{{sfn|Veyne|2005|p=279}} though the appointment was made by a Parthian king of Charax.<ref>Julian Reade, ed.,''The Indian Ocean In Antiquity''. London: Routledge, 2013, {{ISBN|0-7103-0435-8}}, p. 279.</ref>)  The rationale behind Trajan's campaign, in this case, was one of breaking down a system of Far Eastern trade through small Semitic ("Arab") cities under Parthia's control and to put it under Roman control instead.<ref>George Fadlo Hourani, ''Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times''. Princeton University Press, 1995, {{ISBN|0-691-00170-7}}, p. 15.</ref>

[[File:Trajan RIC 325 - 650918.jpg|thumb|left|270px|[[Aureus]] issued by Trajan to celebrate the conquest of Parthia. Inscription: IMP. CAES. NER. TRAIAN. OPTIM. AVG. GER. DAC. PARTHICO / P. M., TR. P., CO[N]S. VI, P. P., S.P.Q.R. – PARTHIA CAPTA]]

In his Dacian conquests, Trajan had already resorted to Syrian auxiliary units, whose veterans, along with Syrian traders, had an important role in the subsequent colonization of Dacia.{{sfn|Găzdac|2010|p=59}} He had recruited Palmyrene units into his army, including a camel unit,<ref>Pat Southern, ''Empress Zenobia: Palmyra's Rebel Queen''. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2008, {{ISBN|978-1-84725-034-6}}, p. 25.</ref> therefore apparently procuring Palmyrene support to his ultimate goal of annexing Charax. It has even been ventured that, when earlier in his campaign Trajan annexed Armenia, he was bound to annex the whole of Mesopotamia lest the Parthians interrupt the flux of trade from the Persian Gulf and/or foment trouble at the Roman frontier on the Danube.<ref>Freya Stark, ''Rome on the Euphrates: The Story of a Frontier''.London: I.{{nbsp}}B. Tauris, 2012, {{ISBN|978-1-84885-314-0}}, p. 211.</ref> Other historians reject these motives, as the supposed Parthian "control" over the maritime Far Eastern trade route was, at best, conjectural and based on a selective reading of Chinese sources{{snds}}trade by land through Parthia seems to have been unhampered by Parthian authorities and left solely to the devices of private enterprise.{{sfn|Young|2001|p=176 sqq}} Commercial activity in second century Mesopotamia seems to have been a general phenomenon, shared by many peoples within and without the Roman Empire, with no sign of a concerted Imperial policy towards it.{{sfn|Finley|1999|p=158}}

As in the case of the ''alimenta'', scholars like Moses Finley and [[Paul Veyne]] have considered the idea that a foreign trade policy underlay Trajan's war to be anachronistic; according to these scholars, the concern of Roman leaders with the trade in far eastern luxuries{{snds}}besides collecting toll taxes and customs<ref>Paul Erdkamp, ''The Grain Market in the Roman Empire: A Social, Political and Economic Study''. Cambridge University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-521-83878-8}}, p. 5.</ref>{{snds}}was moral in nature, because contemporary Roman mores frowned upon the "softness" of luxuries.{{sfn|Finley|1999|p=132}}{{sfn|Veyne|2001|pp=163/215}} In the absence of conclusive evidence, trade between Rome and India might have been far more balanced, in terms of quantities of precious metals exchanged: one of our sources for the notion of the Roman gold drain{{snds}}Pliny's the Younger's uncle Pliny the Elder{{snds}}had earlier described the [[Gangetic Plains]] as one of the gold sources for the Roman Empire.{{sfn|Veyne|2001|p=181}} Accordingly – in a controversial book on the Roman economy – Finley considers Trajan's "badly miscalculated and expensive assault on Parthia" to be an example of the many Roman "commercial wars" that had in common the fact of existing only in the books of modern historians.{{sfn|Finley|1999|p=158}}

[[File:Statue of Trajan from Minturno - Museo Archeologico di Napoli.jpg|thumb|Trajan, "[[Palladium (classical antiquity)|the Palladium]]", white marble statue at Naples Archeological Museum, late 1st century AD]]

The alternative view is to see the campaign as triggered by the lure of territorial annexation and prestige,{{sfn|Finley|1999|p=158}} the sole motive ascribed by Cassius Dio.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=188}} As far as territorial conquest involved tax-collecting,<ref>Michael Alexander Speidel: "Bellicosissimus Princeps". In: Annette Nünnerich-Asmus ed., ''Traian. Ein Kaiser der Superlative am Beginn einer Umbruchzeit?'' Mainz 2002, pp. 23/40.</ref> especially of the 25% tax levied on all goods entering the Roman Empire, the ''tetarte'', one can say that Trajan's Parthian War had an "economic" motive.{{sfn|Sidebotham|1986|p=144}} Also, there was the propaganda value of an Eastern conquest that would emulate, in Roman fashion, those of [[Alexander the Great]].<ref>Nathanael John Andrade, ''"Imitation Greeks": Being Syrian in the Greco-Roman World (175 BCE – 275 CE)''. Doctoral Thesis, University of Michigan, 2009, p. 192. Available at [https://www.proquest.com/docview/304928274]. Retrieved 11 June 2014.</ref> The fact that emissaries from the [[Kushan Empire]] might have attended to the commemorative ceremonies for the Dacian War may have kindled in some Greco-Roman intellectuals like [[Plutarch]]{{snds}}who wrote about only 70,000 Roman soldiers being necessary to a conquest of India{{Citation needed|date= June 2023}} {{snds}}as well as in Trajan's closer associates, speculative dreams about the booty to be obtained by reproducing Macedonian Eastern conquests.<ref>Raoul McLaughlin, ''Rome and the Distant East: Trade Routes to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China''. London: Continuum, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-84725-235-7}}, p. 130.</ref> There could also be Trajan's idea to use an ambitious blueprint of conquests as a way to emphasize quasi-divine status, such as with his cultivated association, in coins and monuments, to [[Hercules]].<ref>Olivier Hekster, "Propagating power: Hercules as an example for second-century emperors". ''Herakles and Hercules. Exploring a Graeco-Roman Divinity'' (2005): 205–21.Available at [https://www.academia.edu/2129770/Propagating_power_Hercules_as_an_example_for_second-century_emperors] Retrieved 18 August 2019.</ref>

Also, it is possible that the attachment of Trajan to an expansionist policy was supported by a powerful circle of conservative senators from Hispania committed to a policy of imperial expansion, first among them being the all-powerful Licinius Sura.{{sfn|Des Boscs-Plateaux|2005|pp=304, 311}} Alternatively, one can explain the campaign by the fact that, for the Romans, their empire was in principle unlimited, and that Trajan only took advantage of an opportunity to make idea and reality coincide.<ref>Dexter Hoyos, ed., ''A Companion to Roman Imperialism''. Leiden: Brill, 2012, {{ISBN|978-90-04-23593-9}}, p. 262.</ref> Finally, there are other modern historians who think that Trajan's original aims were purely military and strategic: to assure a more defensible Eastern frontier for the Roman Empire, crossing Northern Mesopotamia along the course of the [[Khabur (Euphrates)|Khabur River]] in order to offer cover to a Roman Armenia.{{sfn|Luttwak|1979|p=108}}<ref name="ReferenceF">{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Nicholas |chapter=Parthian War |title=Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror |publisher=GreenHill Books |location=UK |edition=1st |date=2022 |isbn=978-1784387075}}</ref> This interpretation is backed by the fact that all subsequent Roman wars against Parthia would aim at establishing a Roman presence deep into Parthia itself.<ref>David Kennedy & Derrick Riley, ''Rome's Desert Frontiers''. London: B.T. Datsford Limited, 2004, {{ISBN|0-7134-6262-0}}, pp. 31/32.</ref> It is possible that during the onset of Trajan's military experience, as a young tribune, he had witnessed engagement with the Parthians; so any strategic vision was grounded in a tactical awareness of what was needed to tackle Parthia.<ref name="ReferenceF"/>

==== Course of the war ====
[[File:Trajan inscription Artaxata, Armenia 116.jpg|thumb|An AD 116 [[:File:Trajan inscription Artaxata, Armenia 116 full.jpg|inscription]] of the [[Legio IV Scythica]] found near the Armenian capital [[Artaxata]] mentioning Trajan.<ref>Discovered in 1967 in [[Pokr Vedi]], made of [[Vedi]] [[limestone]]. Now kept at the [[History Museum of Armenia]] (see [[:File:Trajan inscription Artaxata, Armenia 116 sign.jpg|sign]]). {{cite journal |last1=Arakelyan |first1=Babken |author1-link=Babken Arakelyan |title=Լատիներեն արձանագրություններ Արտաշատ մայրաքաղաքից [Inscriptions in Latin from the Ancient Armenian Capital of Artashat] |journal=[[Patma-Banasirakan Handes]] |date=1967 |issue=4 |pages=302–311 |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161111133137/hpj.asj-oa.am/1121/ |language=hy}}</ref>]]

The campaign was carefully planned in advance: ten legions were concentrated in the Eastern theatre; since 111, the correspondence of Pliny the Younger witnesses to the fact that provincial authorities in Bithynia had to organize supplies for passing troops, and local city councils and their individual members had to shoulder part of the increased expenses by supplying troops themselves.<ref>Fergus Millar, ''The Roman Near East, 31 B.C. – A.D. 337''. Harvard University Press, 1993, {{ISBN|0-674-77886-3}}, p. 103.</ref> The intended campaign, therefore, was immensely costly from its very beginning.<ref>M.Christol & D. Nony, ''Rome et son Empire''. Paris: Hachette, 2003, {{ISBN|2-01-145542-1}}, p. 171.</ref> Trajan marched first on Armenia, deposed the Parthian-appointed king, [[Parthamasiris of Armenia|Parthamasiris]] (who was afterwards murdered while kept in the custody of Roman troops in an unclear incident, later described by [[Marcus Cornelius Fronto|Fronto]] as a breach of Roman good faith),<ref>John Rich, Graham Shipley, eds., ''War and Society in the Roman World''. London: Routledge, 1993, {{ISBN|0-415-06644-1}}, p. 235.</ref> 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{{snds}}a process that kept him busy until the end of 114.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|pp=194–195}} At the same time, a Roman column under the legate [[Lusius Quietus]]{{snds}}an outstanding cavalry general<ref>Hermann Bengtson, ''Römische Geschichte: Republik und Kaiserzeit bis 284 n. Chr''. Munich: Beck, 2001, {{ISBN|3-406-02505-6}}, p. 289.</ref> who had signalled himself during the Dacian Wars by commanding a unit from his native [[Mauretania]]<ref>Alfred S. Bradford, ''With Arrow, Sword, and Spear: A History of Warfare in the Ancient World''. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2001, {{ISBN|0-275-95259-2}}, p. 232.</ref>{{snds}}crossed the [[Aras (river)|Araxes]] river from Armenia into [[Media Atropatene]] and the land of the [[Mardians]] (present-day [[Ghilan]]).{{sfn|Choisnel|2004|p=164}} It is possible that Quietus' campaign had as its goal the extending of the newer, more defensible Roman border eastwards towards the [[Caspian Sea]] and northwards to the foothills of the Caucasus.<ref>S.J. De Laet, review of Lepper, ''Trajan's Parthian War''. ''L'Antiquité Classique'', 18-2, 1949, pp. 487–489.</ref> This newer, more "rational" frontier, depended, however, on an increased, permanent Roman presence east of the Euphrates.<ref>Richard Stoneman, ''Palmyra and Its Empire: Zenobia's Revolt Against Rome''. Ann Arbor: 1994, University of Michigan Press, {{ISBN|0-472-08315-5}}, p. 89.</ref>

[[File:Trajan Sestertius 116 833039.jpg|thumb|270px|right|[[Sestertius]] during 116 to commemorate [[Trajan's Parthian campaign|Trajan's Parthian victories]]. [[Obverse]]: bust of Trajan, with laurel crown; caption: IMP. CAES. NERV. TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG. GER. DAC. PARTHICO P. M., TR. P., COS VI, P. P.; Reverse: Trajan standing between prostrate allegories of [[Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)|Armenia]] (crowned with a [[tiara]]) and the Rivers Tigris & Euphrates; caption: ARMENIA ET MESOPOTAMIA IN POTESTATEM P. R. REDACTAE (put under the authority of the Roman People) – S. C. (Senatus Consultus, issued by [[Senate of the Roman Empire|the Senate]]).]]

The chronology of subsequent events is uncertain, but it is generally believed that early in 115 Trajan launched a Mesopotamian campaign, marching down towards the Taurus mountains in order to consolidate territory between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. He placed permanent garrisons along the way to secure the territory.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sheldon|first=Rose Mary|title=Rome's Wars in Parthia: Blood in the Sand|date=2010|publisher=Vallentine Mitchell|location=London|page=133}}</ref> While Trajan moved from west to east, Lusius Quietus moved with his army from the Caspian Sea towards the west, both armies performing a successful pincer movement,{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=195}} whose apparent result was to establish a Roman presence into the Parthian Empire proper, with Trajan taking the northern Mesopotamian cities of [[Nisibis]] and [[Suruç#History|Batnae]] and organizing a province of [[Mesopotamia (Roman province)|Mesopotamia]], including the Kingdom of [[Osrhoene]]{{snds}}where King [[Abgar VII]] submitted to Trajan publicly<ref>[[Maurice Sartre]], ''The Middle East Under Rome''. Harvard University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-674-01683-1}}, p. 146. According to Cassius Dio, the deal between Trajan and Abgaros was sealed by the king's son offering himself as Trajan's paramour—Bennett, 199.</ref>{{snds}}as a Roman protectorate.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=199}} This process seems to have been completed at the beginning of 116, when coins were issued announcing that Armenia and Mesopotamia had been put under the authority of the Roman people.<ref>Bennett, Trajan, 196; Christol & Nony, Rome,171.</ref> The area between the Khabur River and the mountains around [[Singara]] seems to have been considered as the new frontier, and as such received a road surrounded by fortresses.{{sfn|Petit|1976|p=44}}

After wintering in Antioch during 115/116 {{snds}}and, according to literary sources, barely escaping from a [[115 Antioch earthquake|violent earthquake]] that claimed the life of one of the consuls, [[Marcus Pedo Vergilianus|Marcus Pedo Virgilianus]]<ref>Fergus Millar, ''The Roman Near East, 31 B.C. – A.D. 337''. Harvard University Press, 1993, {{ISBN|0-674-77886-3}}, p. 101.</ref>{{sfn|Birley|2013|p=71}}{{snds}}Trajan again took to the field in 116, with a view to the conquest of the whole of Mesopotamia, an overambitious goal that eventually backfired on the results of his entire campaign. According to some modern historians, the aim of the campaign of 116 was to achieve a "pre-emptive demonstration" aiming not toward the conquest of Parthia, but for tighter Roman control over the Eastern trade route. However, the overall scarcity of manpower for the Roman military establishment meant that the campaign was doomed from the start.<ref>Patrick Le Roux, IN Ségolène Demougin, ed., ''H.-G. Pflaum, un historien du XXe siècle: actes du colloque international, Paris les 21, 22 et 23 octobre 2004''. Geneva: Droz, 2006, {{ISBN|2-600-01099-8}}, pp. 182/183.</ref> It is noteworthy that no new legions were raised by Trajan before the Parthian campaign, maybe because the sources of new citizen recruits were already over-exploited.{{sfn|Petit|1976|p=45}}

As far as the sources allow a description of this campaign, it seems that one Roman division crossed the [[Tigris]] into [[Adiabene]], sweeping south and capturing Adenystrae; a second followed the river south, capturing [[Babylon]]; Trajan himself sailed down the [[Euphrates]] from [[Dura-Europos]]{{snds}}where a triumphal arch was erected in his honour{{snds}}through Ozogardana, where he erected a "tribunal" still to be seen at the time of [[Julian the Apostate|Julian the Apostate's]] campaigns in the same area. Having come to the narrow strip of land between the Euphrates and the Tigris, he then dragged his fleet overland into the Tigris, capturing [[Seleucia on the Tigris|Seleucia]] and finally the Parthian capital of [[Ctesiphon]].{{sfn|Bennett|2001|pp=197/199}}{{sfn|Birley|2013|p=72}} He continued southward to the [[Persian Gulf]], when, after escaping with his fleet a tidal bore on the Tigris,<ref name="ReferenceC">Longden, "Notes on the Parthian Campaigns", 8.</ref> he received the submission of Athambelus, the ruler of [[Charax Spasinu|Charax]]. He declared Babylon a new province of the Empire and had his statue erected on the shore of the Persian Gulf,<ref>T. Olajos, "Le monument du triomphe de Trajan en Parthie. Quelques renseignements inobservés (Jean d'Ephèse, Anthologie Grecque XVI 72)". ''Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae'', 1981, vol. 29, no 1-4, pp. 379–383. The statue was torn down by [[Sassanids]] in 571/572.</ref> after which he 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]].{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=199}} Since Charax was a ''de facto'' independent kingdom whose connections to Palmyra were described above, Trajan's bid for the Persian Gulf may have coincided with Palmyrene interests in the region.{{sfn|Edwell|2007|p=21}} Another hypothesis is that the rulers of Charax had expansionist designs on Parthian Babylon, giving them a rationale for alliance with Trajan.<ref>E. J. Keall, ''Parthian Nippur and Vologases' Southern Strategy: A Hypothesis''. ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' Vol. 95, No. 4 (Oct. – Dec. 1975), pp. 620–632.</ref> The Parthian city of [[Susa]] was apparently also occupied by the Romans.<ref>George Rawlinson, ''Parthia''. New York: Cosimo, 2007, {{ISBN|978-1-60206-136-1}}, p. 310.</ref>

[[File:TrajanCoinAhinposhBuddhistMonasteryAfghanistan.jpg|thumb|200px|left|A coin of Trajan, found together with coins of the [[Kushan Empire|Kushan]] ruler [[Kanishka]], at the [[Ahin Posh]] Buddhist Monastery, Afghanistan. Caption: IMP. CAES. NER. TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG. GER. DAC.]]

According to late literary sources (not backed by numismatic or inscriptional evidence) a province of [[Roman Assyria|Assyria]] was also proclaimed,<ref>Christopher S. Mackay, ''Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History''.Cambridge University Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-521-80918-5}}, p. 227.</ref> apparently covering the territory of Adiabene.<ref>Various authors have discussed the existence of the province and its location: André Maricq (La province d'Assyrie créée par Trajan. A propos de la guerre parthique de Trajan. In: Maricq: ''Classica et orientalia'', Paris 1965, pp. 103/111) identifies Assyria with Southern Mesopotamia; Chris S. Lightfood ("Trajan's Parthian War and the Fourth-Century Perspective", ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 80, 1990, pp. 115–126), doubts the actual existence of the province; Maria G. Angeli Bertinelli ("I Romani oltre l'Eufrate nel II secolo d. C. – le provincie di Assiria, di Mesopotamia e di Osroene", In ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'', Bd. 9.1, Berlin 1976, pp. 3/45) puts Assyria between Mesopotamia and Adiabene; Lepper (1948, p. 146) considers Assyria and Adiabene to be the same province.</ref> Some measures seem to have been considered regarding the fiscal administration of Indian trade{{snds}}or simply about the payment of customs (''portoria'') on goods traded on the Euphrates and Tigris.{{sfn|Luttwak|1979|p=110}}{{sfn|Edwell|2007|p=21}} It is possible that it was this "streamlining" of the administration of the newly conquered lands according to the standard pattern of Roman provincial administration in tax collecting, requisitions and the handling of local potentates' prerogatives, that triggered later resistance against Trajan.<ref>Janos Harmatta and others, eds., ''History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations, 700 B.C. to A.D. 250''. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1999, {{ISBN|81-208-1408-8}}, p. 135.</ref> According to some modern historians, Trajan might have busied himself during his stay on the Persian Gulf with ordering raids on the Parthian coasts,<ref>Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh, ''Security and Territoriality in the Persian Gulf: A Maritime Political Geography'', London: Routledge, 2013, {{ISBN|0-7007-1098-1}}, p. 120.</ref> as well as probing into extending Roman suzerainty over the mountaineer tribes holding the passes across the [[Zagros Mountains]] into the [[Iranian plateau]] eastward, as well as establishing some sort of direct contact between Rome and the Kushan Empire.{{sfn|Choisnel|2004|pp=164/165}} No attempt was made to expand into the Iranian Plateau itself, where the Roman army, with its relative weakness in cavalry, would have been at a disadvantage.<ref>Axel Kristinsson, ''Expansions: Competition and Conquest in Europe Since the Bronze Age''. Reykjavík:  ReykjavíkurAkademían, 2010, {{ISBN|978-9979-9922-1-9}}, p. 129.</ref>

Trajan left the Persian Gulf for Babylon{{snds}}where he intended to offer sacrifice to Alexander in the house where he had died in 323{{nbsp}}BC<ref name="Bennett, Trajan, 199">Bennett, Trajan, 199.</ref>{{snds}} But a revolt led by [[Sanatruces II of Parthia|Sanatruces]], a nephew of the Parthian king [[Osroes I]] who had retained a cavalry force, possibly strengthened by the addition of [[Saka]] archers,<ref>Kaveh Farrokh, ''Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War''. Oxford: Osprey, 2007, {{ISBN|978-1-84603-108-3}}, p. 162.</ref> imperilled Roman positions in Mesopotamia and Armenia. Trajan sought to deal with this by forsaking direct Roman rule in Parthia proper, at least partially.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=200}} Trajan sent two armies towards Northern Mesopotamia: the first, under Lusius Quietus, recovered Nisibis and [[Edessa]] from the rebels, probably having King Abgarus deposed and killed in the process,{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=200}} with Quietus probably earning the right to receive the honors of a senator of praetorian rank (''adlectus inter praetorios'').<ref>''The Cambridge Ancient History: The Imperial peace, A.D. 70–192'', 1965 ed., p. 249.</ref> The second army, however, under Appius Maximus Santra (probably a governor of Macedonia) was defeated and Santra killed.<ref name=":0">Julián González, ed., ''Trajano Emperador De Roma'', 216.</ref>

Later in 116, Trajan, with the assistance of Quietus and two other legates, [[Marcus Erucius Clarus]] and Tiberius Julius Alexander Julianus,<ref>The last two were made consuls (''suffecti'') for the year 117.</ref><ref name=":0"/> defeated a Parthian army in a battle where Sanatruces was killed (possibly with the assistance of Osroes' son and Sanatruces' cousin, [[Parthamaspates of Parthia|Parthamaspates]], whom Trajan wooed successfully).<ref>E. Yarshater, ed., ''The Cambridge History of Iran'', Volume 3(1). Cambridge University Press, 1983, {{ISBN|0-521-20092-X}}, p. 91.</ref> After re-taking and burning Seleucia, Trajan then formally deposed Osroes, putting Parthamaspates on the throne as client ruler. This event was commemorated in a coin as the reduction of Parthia to client kingdom status: <small>REX PARTHIS DATUS</small>, "a king is given to the Parthians".{{sfn|Mommsen|1999|p=289}} That done, Trajan retreated north in order to retain what he could of the new provinces of Armenia{{snds}}where he had already accepted an armistice in exchange for surrendering part of the territory to Sanatruces' son Vologeses{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=203}}{{snds}}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.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=200}}

=== Diaspora revolt ===
{{main|Diaspora revolt}}

[[File:Ostia Museum 2013-03-08, Traianus.jpg|thumb|Statue of Trajan, [[Carrara marble|Luna marble and Proconessian marble]], 2nd century AD, from [[Ostia Antica]]]]

About this same time (AD 116–117), Jews in the Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire—Egypt, Cyprus, and Cyrene, which was likely the original trouble hotspot—rebelled in what appears to have been an ethnic and religious uprising against the local populations, later known as the [[Diaspora revolt|Diaspora Revolt]].<ref>James J. Bloom, ''The Jewish Revolts Against Rome, A.D. 66–135: A Military Analysis''. McFarland, 2010, p. 191.</ref> Additionally, Jewish communities in Northern Mesopotamia revolted, likely as part of a broader resistance against Roman occupation.<ref>Bloom, 194.</ref> Trajan had to withdraw his army to suppress these revolts, a move he considered a temporary setback. He never returned to command, delegating Eastern operations to Lusius Quietus, who was appointed governor of Judaea in early 117 and likely dealt with Jewish unrest there.<ref>A precise description of events in Judea at the time being impossible, due to the non-historical character of the Jewish (rabbinic) sources, and the silence of the non-Jewish ones: William David Davies, Louis Finkelstein, Steven T. Katz, eds., ''The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman–Rabbinic Period''. Cambridge U. Press, 2006, {{ISBN|978-0-521-77248-8}}, p. 100.</ref> Quietus discharged his commissions successfully, leading rabbinic sources to name the conflict in Judaea the "[[Kitos War]]," with ''Kitus'' being a corruption of ''Quietus''.<ref>Bloom, 190.</ref> Whether or not the Diaspora revolt included Judea proper, or only the Jewish Eastern diaspora, remains doubtful in the absence of clear epigraphic and archaeological evidence. What is certain is that there was an increased Roman military presence in Judea at the time.<ref>Christer Bruun, "the Spurious 'Expeditio Ivdaeae' under Trajan".  ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' 93 (1992) 99–106.</ref>

Quietus was promised a consulate<ref>He was already consul ''in absentia'': Tanja Gawlich, ''Der Aufstand der jüdischen Diaspora unter Traian''. GRIN Verlag, 2007, {{ISBN|978-3-640-32753-9}}, p. 11.</ref> in the following year (118) for his victories, but he was killed before this could occur, during the bloody purge that opened Hadrian's reign, in which Quietus and three other former consuls were sentenced to death after being tried on a vague charge of conspiracy by the (secret) court of the Praetorian Prefect [[Publius Acilius Attianus|Attianus]].<ref>Margret Fell, ed., ''Erziehung, Bildung, Recht''. Berlim: Dunker & Hunblot, 1994, {{ISBN|3-428-08069-6}}, p. 448.</ref> It has been thought that Quietus and his colleagues were executed on Hadrian's direct orders, for fear of their popular standing with the army and their close connections to Trajan.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=203}}<ref>Histoire des Juifs, Troisième période, I – Chapitre III – Soulèvement des Judéens sous Trajan et Adrien.</ref> In contrast, the next prominent Roman figure in charge of the repression of the Jewish revolt, the equestrian Quintus [[Marcius Turbo]], who had dealt with the rebel leader from Cyrene, Loukuas, retained Hadrian's trust, eventually becoming his [[Praetorian Prefect]].<ref>Bloom, 195/196.</ref> As all four consulars were senators of the highest standing and as such generally regarded as able to take imperial power (''capaces imperii''), Hadrian seems to have decided to forestall these prospective rivals.<ref>Gabriele Marasco, ed., ''Political Autobiographies and Memoirs in Antiquity: A Brill Companion''. Leiden: Brill, 2011, {{ISBN|978-90-04-18299-8}}, p. 377.</ref>

== Death ==

Early in 117, Trajan grew ill and set sail for Italy. His health declined throughout the spring and summer of 117, possibly acknowledged to the public by the display of a bronze portrait-bust at [[Roman Baths of Ankara|the public baths of Ancyra]], showing an aged and emaciated man, though the identification with Trajan is disputed.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=201}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mitchell |first=Stephen |title=The Trajanic Tondo from Roman Ankara: In Search of the Identity of a Roman Masterpiece |journal=[[Journal of Ankara Studies]] |date=2014 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=1–10 |url=https://jag.journalagent.com/jas/pdfs/JAS_2_1_1_10.pdf}}</ref> He reached [[Selinus (Cilicia)|Selinus]],{{efn|modern [[Gazipaşa]] in [[Cilicia]] afterwards called ''Trajanopolis''}} where he suddenly died, shortly before 11 August.{{efn|Dio states that Trajan ruled "nineteen years, six months and fifteen days", which gives 11 August.<ref>[[Cassius Dio]] ({{circa}} 230) [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/68*.html#33 68.33]. Dio later states that [[Hadrian]] ruled exactly "twenty years and eleven month" (using [[inclusive counting]]), as in the ''Historia Augusta''. This reign-length is repeated (in corrupted form) by [[Theophilus of Antioch]] ([[wikisource:Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 3.djvu/143|''To Autolycus'' XXVII]]) and [[Clement of Alexandria]] (''[[Stromata]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=HcpFAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA444 Book I]</ref> The ''[[Historia Augusta]]'' claims that Hadrian learned of his adoption on 9 August and received the news of Trajan's death on 11 August.<ref>''[[Historia Augusta]]'' (4th/5th century) [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Hadrian/1*.html#4 Hadrianus 4.6].</ref> Dio is not reckoning to Trajan's death, but to Hadrian's accession. A travel from Selinus to [[Antioch]] would take at least two days, so Trajan probably died around 9 August. This appears to be corroborated by the 10th-century [[Pseudo-Simeon]], who claims that Trajan lived "sixty-eight years, ten months, and twenty-two days", which also gives 9 August. The [[Chronograph of 354]] records his death as 9 July.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burgess |first=Richard W. |url=https://www.steiner-verlag.de/en/Roman-Imperial-Chronology-and-Early-Fourth-Century-Historiography/9783515107327 |title=Roman imperial chronology and early-fourth-century historiography |date=2014 |publisher=Steiner |isbn=978-3-515-10732-7 |series=Historia Einzelschriften |location=Stuttgart|pages=54–56}}</ref>}} 

According to a well-established historical tradition, Trajan's ashes were placed within the small cella that still survives at the base of Trajan's column. In some modern scholarship, his ashes were more likely interred near his column, in a mausoleum, temple or tomb built for his cult as a ''divus'' of the Roman state.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Trajan |title=Trajan |last=Hammond |first=Mason |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=21 June 2019}}</ref><ref>Claride, Amaanda, ''Hadrian's lost Temple of Trajan'', in: "Hadrian's Succession and the Monuments of Trajan", edited by Thorsten Opper, The British Museum, 2016, pp. 5 - 19.</ref>

==Succession==
Trajan in person could have lawfully nominated Hadrian as his successor, but Dio claims that Trajan's wife, [[Pompeia Plotina]], assured Hadrian's succession by keeping Trajan's death a secret, long enough for her to produce and sign a document attesting to Hadrian's adoption as son and successor. Dio, who tells this narrative, offers his father{{snds}}the governor of Cilicia [[Cassius Apronianus|Apronianus]]{{snds}}as a source, so his narrative may be based on contemporary rumour. It may also reflect male Roman displeasure that an empress{{snds}}let alone any woman{{snds}} could presume to meddle in Rome's political affairs.<ref>Francesca Santoro L'Hoir, ''Tragedy, Rhetoric, and the Historiography of Tacitus' Annales''. University of Michigan Press, 2006, {{ISBN|0-472-11519-7}}, p. 263.</ref>

Hadrian had held an ambiguous position during Trajan's reign. After commanding [[Legio I Minervia]] during the Dacian Wars, he had been relieved from front-line duties at the decisive stage of the Second Dacian War, being sent to govern the newly created province of [[Pannonia Inferior]]. He had pursued a senatorial career without particular distinction and had not been officially adopted by Trajan although he received from him decorations and other marks of distinction that made him hope for the succession.{{sfn|Birley|2013|p=52}}{{sfn|Birley|2013|pp=50, 52}} He received no post after his 108 consulate and no further honours other than being made [[Archon eponymos]] for [[Athens]] in 111/112.{{sfn|Des Boscs-Plateaux|2005|p=306}}{{sfn|Birley|2013|p=64}} He probably did not take part in the Parthian War. Literary sources relate that Trajan had considered others, such as the jurist [[Lucius Neratius Priscus]], as heir.{{sfn|Birley|2013|p=50}} Hadrian, who was eventually entrusted with the governorship of Syria at the time of Trajan's death, was Trajan's cousin and was married to Trajan's grandniece, which all made him as good as heir designate.<ref>Christopher S. Mackay, ''Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History''. Cambridge University Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-521-80918-5}}, p. 229.</ref>{{sfn|Petit|1976|p=53}} Hadrian seems to have been well connected to the powerful and influential coterie of Spanish senators at Trajan's court, through his ties to Plotina and the Prefect Attianus.{{sfn|Des Boscs-Plateaux|2005|p=307}} His refusal to sustain Trajan's senatorial and expansionist policy during his own reign may account for the "crass hostility" shown him by literary sources.{{sfn|Garzetti|2014|p=379}}

Hadrian's first major act as emperor was to abandon Mesopotamia as too costly and distant to defend, and to restore Armenia and Osrhoene to Parthian hegemony, under Rome's suzerainty.<ref name="Christol & Nony, 171" /> The Parthian campaign had been an enormous setback to Trajan's policy, proof that Rome had overstretched its capacity to sustain an ambitious program of conquest. According to the ''[[Historia Augusta]]'', Hadrian claimed to follow the precedent set by [[Cato the Elder]] towards the Macedonians, who "were to be set free because they could not be protected" – something Birley sees as an unconvincing precedent.{{sfn|Birley|2013|p=78}}{{sfn|Luttwak|1979|p=110}} Other territories conquered by Trajan were retained.{{sfn|Young|2001|p=132}}<ref>D. S. Potter, ''The Inscriptions on the Bronze Herakles from Mesene: Vologeses IV's War with Rome and the Date of Tacitus' "Annales"''. ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' Bd. 88, (1991), pp. 277–290.</ref>

== Legacy ==
[[File:Bust of Trajan, found in Salona (Solin, Croatia), ca. 108 AD, of the so-called “Decennalia type”, Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum, Austria (20405430933).jpg|thumb|right|190px|Bust of Trajan found in [[Salona]], in the [[Museum of Art History]] in [[Vienna]]]]
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. Cassius Dio added that he always remained dignified and fair.<ref name="ReferenceB">Dio Cassius, Epitome of Book 6; 21.2–3.</ref> A third-century emperor, Decius, even received from the Senate the name Trajan as a decoration.<ref>Eric M. Thienes, "Remembering Trajan in Fourth-Century Rome: Memory and Identity in Spatial, Artistic, and Textual Narratives". Ph.D Thesis, University of Missouri, 2015, p. 70. Available at [https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/46902?show=full] . Retrieved 28 March 2017.</ref> In the [[Later Roman Empire]], following the setbacks of the [[Crisis of the Third Century|third century]], Trajan, together with Augustus, became the paragon of the most positive traits of the Imperial order.<ref>Karl Strobel, ''Das Imperium Romanum im "3. Jahrhundert": Modell einer historischen Krise? Zur Frage mentaler Strukturen breiterer Bevölkerungsschichten in der Zeit von Marc Aurel bis zum Ausgang des 3. Jh.n.Chr''. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1993, {{ISBN|3-515-05662-9}}, p. 319.</ref>{{sfn|Hekster|Betjes|Heijnen|Iannantuono|2022}} Emperors in the 4th century were honoured by the Senate with the acclamation ''[[Felicior Augusto, melior Traiano|Felicior Augusto, Melior Traiano]]'' ("May you be more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan").<ref>[[Eutropius (historian)|Eutropius]], ''Breviarium'', 8.5.3.</ref> The fourth-century emperor [[Constantine the Great|Constantine I]] is credited with calling him a "plant upon every wall" for the many buildings bearing inscriptions with his name.<ref>[[Epitome de Caesaribus]] 41.13.</ref><ref>[[Ammianus Marcellinus]] 27.3.7.</ref>

=== Iconography ===

[[File:Marble statue depicting an ageing Trajan dressed in military cuirass, reworked in the 3rd century, from the theatre stage building at Perga, Antalya Museum (9643079289).jpg|thumb|The head of this statue was reworked with a beard in the 3rd century for the theater of [[Perge]]. Now at the [[Antalya Museum]] in Turkey.]]

All Roman emperors until Trajan, except [[Nero]] who occasionally wore sideburns, were depicted clean-shaven, according to the fashion introduced among the Romans by [[Scipio Africanus]] (236{{snds}}183 BC). This Imperial fashion was changed by Trajan's successor [[Hadrian]] who made [[beard#Rome|beards]] fashionable for emperors.<ref name="Gschwantler">{{cite web |last1=Gschwantler |first1=Kurt |last2=Bernhard-Walcher |first2=Alfred |last3=Laubenberger |first3=Manuela |last4=Plattner |first4=Georg |last5=Zhuber-Okrog |first5=Karoline |title=Emperor Trajan - unknown - Masterpieces in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities. A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/emperor-trajan/VAFRbvyPL4JQ4A |website=Google Arts & Culture |access-date=8 May 2021 |location=Vienna |language=en |date=2011 |quote=Trajan is always depicted without a beard.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Gschwantler|first1=Kurt|title=Masterpieces in the collection of Greek and Roman antiquities|last2=Laubenberger|first2=Manuela|last3=Plattner|first3=Georg|last4=Zhuber-Okrog|first4=Karoline|last5=Bernhard-Walcher|first5=Alfred|publisher=Kunsthistorisches Museum|others=[[Sabine Haag]], Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien|year=2012|isbn=978-3-99020-007-0|editor-last=Haag|editor-first=Sabine|location=Vienna|oclc=944109355}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Porträtbüste: Kaiser Traian|url=https://www.khm.at/objektdb/detail/50052/|access-date=30 December 2021|website=www.khm.at|language=de}}</ref><ref name="Dorsey">{{cite web |last1=Dorsey |first1=Lauren |title=How to Identify a Roman Emperor By His Beard? {{!}} DailyArt Magazine |url=https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/identify-roman-emperor-by-beard/ |website=DailyArtMagazine.com - Art History Stories |access-date=8 May 2021 |language=en |date=9 January 2021}}</ref>

=== After Rome ===

During the [[Middle Ages]], some 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 (mythology)|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.<ref>Dante 1998, p. 593. David H. Higgins in his notes to Purgatorio XI.75 says: "Pope Gregory the Great (d. 604) was held to have swayed the justice of God by prayer ('his great victory'), releasing Trajan's soul from Hell, who, resuscitated, was converted to Christianity. Dante accepted this, as Aquinas before him, and places Trajan in Paradise (Paradiso XX.44-8)."</ref>

<blockquote><poem>
I noticed that the inner bank of the curve...

Was of white marble, and so decorated
With carvings that not only Polycletus
But nature herself would there be put to shame...

There was recorded the high glory
Of that ruler of Rome whose worth
Moved Gregory to his great victory;

I mean by this the Emperor Trajan;
And at his bridle a poor widow
Whose attitude bespoke tears and grief...

The wretched woman, in the midst of all this,
Seemed to be saying: 'Lord, avenge my son,
Who is dead, so that my heart is broken..'

So he said: 'Now be comforted, for I must
Carry out my duty before I go on:
Justice requires it and pity holds me back.'

''Dante, The Divine Comedy, Purgatorio X, ll. 32 f. and 73 f.''<ref>Dante 1998, pp. 239–40.</ref>
</poem></blockquote>

[[File:Archaeological Museum of Pythagoreio - Statue of Trajan 2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Statue of Trajan depicting him in [[heroic nudity]], [[Samos]], [[Greece]].]]

In the [[Renaissance]], [[Niccolò Machiavelli|Machiavelli]], speaking on the advantages of adoptive succession over heredity, mentioned the five successive good emperors "from Nerva to [[Marcus Aurelius|Marcus]]"<ref>[[Discourses on Livy]], I, 10, 4.</ref>{{snds}}a [[Trope (literature)|trope]] out of which the 18th-century historian [[Edward Gibbon]] popularized the notion of the [[Five Good Emperors]], of whom Trajan was the second.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nelson |first=Eric |title=Idiots guide to the Roman Empire |publisher=Alpha Books |year=2002 |pages=207–209 |isbn=978-0-02-864151-5}}</ref>

In the 18th century, King [[Charles III of Spain]] commissioned [[Anton Raphael Mengs]] to paint ''The Triumph of Trajan'' on the ceiling of the banquet hall of the [[Royal Palace of Madrid]]{{snds}}considered among the best works of this artist.<ref>''Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World.'' Ed. Jonathan Dewald. Vol. 4. New York, NY:Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004. p 94-96.</ref>

[[File:La justice de Trajan.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''[[The Justice of Trajan]]'' by [[Eugène Delacroix]], 1840]]
It was only during the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] that this legacy began to be contested, when Edward Gibbon expressed doubts about the militarized character of Trajan's reign in contrast to the "moderate" practices of his immediate successors.<ref>Robert Mankin, "Edward Gibbon: Historian in Space", ''A Companion to Enlightenment Historiography'', Leiden: Brill, 2013, p. 34.</ref> [[Theodor Mommsen|Mommsen]] adopted a divided stance towards Trajan, at some point of his posthumously published lectures even speaking about his "vainglory" (''Scheinglorie'').{{sfn|Mommsen|1999|p=488}} Mommsen also speaks of Trajan's "insatiable, unlimited lust for conquest".<ref>''Römische Kaisergeschichte''. Munich: 1992, p. 389.</ref> Although Mommsen had no liking for Trajan's successor Hadrian{{snds}}"a repellent manner, and a venomous, envious and malicious nature"{{snds}}he admitted that Hadrian, in renouncing Trajan's conquests, was "doing what the situation clearly required".{{sfn|Mommsen|1999|p=290}}

It was exactly this military character of Trajan's reign that attracted his early twentieth-century biographer, the Italian historian Roberto Paribeni,<ref>{{Citation |last=Galimberti |first=Alessandro |title=Roberto Paribeni storico dell'età di Cesare e di Augusto |date=2023 |work=Augusto e il fascismo. Studi intorno al bimillenario 1937-1938 |pages=119–133 |url=https://staging-unicatt.elsevierpure.com/en/publications/roberto-paribeni-storico-dellet%C3%A0-di-cesare-e-di-augusto |access-date=2025-05-26 |publisher=Luoghinteriori |language=Italian}}</ref> who in his 1927 two-volume biography ''Optimus Princeps'' described Trajan's reign as the acme of the Roman principate, which he saw as Italy's patrimony.<ref>A. G. G. Gibson, ed. ''Robert Graves and the Classical Tradition''. Oxford University Press, 2015, {{ISBN|978-0-19-873805-3}}, pp. 257/258.</ref> Following in Paribeni's footsteps, the German historian Alfred Heuss saw in Trajan "the accomplished human embodiment of the imperial title" (''die ideale Verkörperung des humanen Kaiserbegriffs'').<ref>{{Cite book|title = Römische Geschichte|last = Heuß|first = Alfred|publisher = Westermann|year = 1976|location = Braunschweig|pages = 344ff|volume = 4}}</ref> Trajan's first English-language biography by [[Julian Bennett (archaeologist)|Julian Bennett]] is also a positive one in that it assumes that Trajan was an active policy-maker concerned with the management of the empire as a whole{{snds}}something his reviewer Lendon considers an anachronistic outlook that sees in the Roman emperor a kind of modern administrator.<ref>J.E. Lendon, "Three Emperors and the Roman Imperial Regime", ''The Classical Journal'' 94 (1998) pp. 87–93.</ref>

During the 1980s, the Romanian historian Eugen Cizek took a more nuanced view as he described the changes in the ''personal'' ideology of Trajan's reign, stressing the fact that it became ever more autocratic and militarized, especially after 112 and towards the Parthian War (as "only an universal monarch, a ''kosmocrator'', could dictate his law to the East").<ref>Richard Jean-Claude, "Eugen Cizek, ''L'époque de Trajan. Circonstances politiques et problèmes idéologiques''" [compte rendu]. ''Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume Budé'', Année 1985, Volume 44,  Numéro 4 pp. 425–426. Available at [http://www.persee.fr/doc/bude_1247-6862_1985_num_44_4_1698_t1_0425_0000_2]. Retrieved 13 December 2015.</ref> The biography by the German historian Karl Strobel stresses the continuity between Domitian's and Trajan's reigns, saying that Trajan's rule followed the same autocratic and sacred character as Domitian's, culminating in a failed Parthian adventure intended as the crown of his personal achievement.<ref>Jens Gering, Rezension zu: Karl Strobel, Kaiser Traian{{snds}}Eine Epoche der Weltgeschichte,''Frankfurter elektronische Rundschau zur Altertumskunde'' 15 (2011), [http://s145739614.online.de/fera/ausgabe15/Gering.pdf]. Retrieved 15{{nbsp}}December 2015.</ref> It is in modern French historiography that Trajan's reputation becomes most markedly deflated: Paul Petit writes about Trajan's portraits as a "lowbrow boor with a taste for booze and boys".<ref>Petit, ''Histoire Générale de L'Empire Romain, 1: Le Haut Empire (27 av. J.C.- 161 apr. J.C.)''. Paris: Seuil, 1974, {{ISBN|978-2-02-004969-6}}, p. 166.</ref> For [[Paul Veyne]], what is to be retained from Trajan's "stylish" qualities was that he was the last Roman emperor to think of the empire as a purely Italian and Rome-centred hegemony of conquest. In contrast, his successor Hadrian would stress the notion of the empire as ecumenical and of the emperor as universal benefactor and not ''kosmocrator''.{{sfn|Veyne|1976|pp=654/655}}

===In Romanian culture===
In [[Romania]], Trajan ([[Romanian language|Romanian]]: ''Traian'') is regarded as one of the founders of the Romanian nation and a historical figure of great importance to the [[Romanians|Romanian people]] and [[Culture of Romania|culture]]. This is due to his orchestration of the [[Trajan's Dacian Wars|Dacian Wars]] that led to the foundation of the [[Daco-Roman culture]] and the Latin-based Romanian language.<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 November 2023 |title=Dacia {{!}} Europe, Map, Culture, & History |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Dacia |access-date=9 January 2024 |website=Britannica|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Romanian language {{!}} Language Basics & Dialects |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romanian-language |access-date=9 January 2024 |website=Britannica |language=en}}</ref> The creation of [[Roman Dacia]] is therefore seen in the country as the ethnogenesis of the Romanian [[nation]].

=== In Jewish legend ===
In the Jewish homiletical works, such as ''[[Esther Rabbah]]'', Trajan is described with the epitaph "may his bones be crushed" ({{langx|he|שְׁחִיק עֲצָמוֹת|translit=sh'hik atzamot}}).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Esther_Rabbah%2C_Petichta.3| title=Esther Rabbah: Petikhta, par. 3| website=sefaria.org| access-date=22 February 2022}}</ref><ref>Smallwood, E. M. (1962). Palestine c. AD 115-118. ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'', (H. 4), 500-510.</ref> The same epitaph is also used for Hadrian.<ref>Pius, A., Italica, H., Sabina, V., Aelius, L., Hadrianus, P. A., Augustus, C. P. A. T. H., ... & Paulina, D. Roman imperial dynasties. Nerva, 96, 98.</ref>

{{Nerva-Antonine family tree}}

== See also ==
{{portal|Biography|History|Italy|Spain}}
* [[Felicior Augusto, melior Traiano]]
* [[Justice of Trajan]]
* [[Trajanic art]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Sources and further reading ==
* {{cite book |last=Alighieri |first=Dante |translator-last=Sisson |translator-first=Charles H. |title=The Divine Comedy |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |orig-year=1993 |date=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-283502-4}}
* {{cite book|last=Alston|first=Richard|title=Aspects of Roman History 31BC-AD117|location=Abingdon|publisher=Routledge|year=2014|isbn=978-0-415-61120-6}}
* Ancel, R. Manning. "Soldiers". ''[[Military Heritage]]''. December 2001. Volume 3, No. 3: 12, 14, 16, 20 (Trajan, Emperor of Rome).
* {{cite book|last=Bennett|first=Julian|title=Trajan. Optimus Princeps|location=Bloomington|publisher=[[Indiana University Press]]|year=2001|isbn=978-0-253-21435-5}}
* {{cite book|last=Birley |first=Anthony R. |author-link=Anthony Birley |title=Hadrian: The Restless Emperor |location=Abingdon |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-415-16544-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/hadrianrestlesse00birl}}
* {{cite book|last=Des Boscs-Plateaux|first=Françoise|title=Un parti hispanique à Rome?: ascension des élites hispaniques et pouvoir politique d'Auguste à Hadrien, 27 av. J.-C.-138 ap. J.-C|location=Madrid|publisher=Casa de Velázquez|year=2005|isbn=978-84-95555-80-9|language=fr}}
* Bowersock, G.W. ''Roman Arabia'', [[Harvard University Press]], 1983
*{{cite book |first=Iain |last=Browning |title=Jerash and the Decapolis |publisher=Chatto & Windus |location=London |year=1982 |language=en |oclc=1166989366}}
* {{cite book|last=Choisnel|first=Emmanuel|title=Les Parthes et la Route de la Soie|location=Paris|publisher=L'Harmattan|year=2004|isbn=978-2-7475-7037-4|language=fr}}
* {{cite book|last1=Christol |first1=Michel |author-link1=Michel Christol |last2=Nony |first2=N. |title=Rome et son Empire |location=Paris |publisher=Hachette |year=2003 |isbn=978-2-01-145542-0 |language=fr}}
* {{in lang|fr}} Cizek, Eugen. ''L'époque de Trajan: circonstances politiques et problèmes idéologiques''. Bucharest, Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, 1983, {{ISBN|978-2-251-32852-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Dando-Collins|first=Stephen|title=Legions of Rome: The definitive history of every Roman legion|location=London|publisher=Quercus|year=2012|isbn=978-1-84916-230-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Edwell|first=Peter|title=Between Rome and Persia: The Middle Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Palmyra Under Roman Control|location=Abingdon|publisher=Routledge|year=2007|isbn=978-0-203-93833-1}}
* {{cite book|last=Finley |first=M.I. |author-link=Moses Finley |title=The Ancient Economy |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-520-21946-5}}
* 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).
* {{cite book|last=Garzetti|first=Albino|title=From Tiberius to the Antonines: A History of the Roman Empire AD 14-192|location=Abingdon|publisher=Routledge|year=2014|isbn=978-1-138-01920-1}}
* {{cite book|last=Găzdac|first=Cristian|title=Monetary Circulation in Dacia and the Provinces from the Middle and Lower Danube from Trajan to Constantine I (AD 106–337)|location=Cluj-Napoca|publisher=Mega|year=2010|isbn=978-606-543-040-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Grainger|first=John D.|title=Nerva and the Roman Succession Crisis of AD 96–99|location=Abingdon|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=978-0-415-34958-1}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Hekster |first1=Olivier |last2=Betjes |first2=Sven |last3=Heijnen |first3=Sam |last4=Iannantuono |first4=Ketty |last5=Jussen |first5=Dennis |last6=Manders |first6=Erika |last7=Syrbe |first7=Daniel |date=2022 |title=The Fame of Trajan: A Late Antique Invention |journal=Klio |language=en |volume=104 |issue=2 |pages=693–749 |doi=10.1515/klio-2021-0052 |issn=2192-7669|doi-access=free}}
* Isaac, B. ''The Limits of Empire'', The Roman Army in the East, Revised Edition, Oxford University Press, 1990 {{ISBN|0-19-814891-7}} {{OCLC|20091873}}
* Jackson, N. ''Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror'', 1st edition, GreenHill Books, 2022. ISBN 9781784387075
* {{cite book|last=Jones|first=Brian|title=The Emperor Domitian|location=London|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=978-0-203-03625-9}}
* Kennedy, D. ''The Roman Army in Jordan'', Revised Edition, Council for British Research in the Levant, 2004. {{ISBN|0-9539102-1-0}} {{OCLC|59267318}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |article=TRAJAN |last=Kettenhofen |first=Erich |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/trajan |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica |year=2004}}
* Lepper, F.A. ''Trajan's Parthian War''. London: Oxford University Press, 1948. {{OCLC|2898605}} Also available online.
* {{cite book|last=Luttwak |first=Edward N. |author-link=Edward Luttwak |title=The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third |location=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-8018-2158-5}}
* {{cite book|last =Mattern|first=Susan P.|title=Rome and the Enemy: Imperial Strategy in the Principate|location=Berkeley|publisher=University of California Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-520-21166-7}}
* {{in lang|fr}} Minaud, Gérard, ''Les vies de 12 femmes d'empereur romain{{snds}}Devoirs, Intrigues & Voluptés'', Paris, L'Harmattan, 2012, ch. 6, ''La vie de Plotine, femme de Trajan'', p.{{nbsp}}147–168. {{ISBN|978-2-336-00291-0}}.
* {{cite book|last=Mommsen |first=Theodor |author-link=Theodor Mommsen |title=A History of Rome Under the Emperors |location=London |publisher=Routledge |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-203-97908-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Petit|first=Paul|title=Pax Romana|location=Berkeley|publisher=University of California Press|year=1976|isbn=978-0-520-02171-6}}
* {{cite book|last=Rees|first=Roger|title=Latin Panegyric|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0-19-957671-5}}
* {{cite book|last=Le Roux|first=Patrick|title=Le Haut-Empire Romain en Occident, d'Auguste aux Sévères|location=Paris|publisher=Seuil|year=1998|isbn=978-2-02-025932-3|language=fr}}
* {{cite book|last=de Ste. Croix|first=G.E.M.|title=The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World|location=London|publisher=Duckworth|year=1989|isbn=978-0-8014-9597-7}}
* {{cite book|last=Sartre|first=Maurice|author-link=Maurice Sartre|title=El Oriente romano, Parte 3|location=Madrid|publisher=AKAL|year=1994|isbn=978-84-460-0412-7|language=es}}
* Schallmayer, Egon (ed.) (1999). ''Traian in Germanien, Traian im Reich''. Saalburg-Schriften, vol. 5. Bad Homburg: Saalburgmuseum, {{ISBN|3-931267-04-0}}.
* {{cite book|last=Schmitz|first=Michael|title=The Dacian Threat, 101–106 AD|location=Armidale, Australia|publisher=Caeros Pty|year=2005|isbn=978-0-9758445-0-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Sidebotham|first=Steven E.|title=Roman Economic Policy in the Erythra Thalassa: 30 B.C. – A.D. 217|location=Leiden|publisher=Brill|year=1986|isbn=978-90-04-07644-0}}
* {{cite book|last=Strobel|first=Karl|title=Kaiser Traian: Eine Epoche der Weltgeschichte|location=Regensburg|publisher=F. Pustet|year=2010|isbn=978-3-7917-2172-9|language=de}}
* {{cite book|last=Veyne|first=Paul|title=Le Pain et le Cirque|location=Paris|publisher=Seuil|year=1976|isbn=978-2-02-004507-0|language=fr}}
* {{cite book|last=Veyne|first=Paul|title=La Société Romaine|location=Paris|publisher=Seuil|year=2001|isbn=978-2-02-052360-8|language=fr}}
* {{cite book|last=Veyne|first=Paul|title=L'Empire Gréco-Romain|location=Paris|publisher=Seuil|year=2005|isbn=978-2-02-057798-4|language=fr}}
* {{cite book|last=Young|first=Gary K.|title=Rome's Eastern Trade: International Commerce and Imperial Policy 31 BC – AD 305|location=Abingdon|publisher=Routledge|year=2001|isbn=978-0-203-47093-0}}
* Wildfeuer, C.R.H. ''Trajan, Lion of Rome: the Untold Story of Rome's Greatest Emperor'', Aquifer Publishing, 2009.  {{ISBN|0-9818460-6-8}} {{OCLC|496004778}} Historical fiction.

=== Primary sources ===
* [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/68*.html Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' Book 68], English translation
* [http://www.roman-emperors.org/epitome.htm Aurelius Victor (attrib.), ''Epitome de Caesaribus'' Chapter 13], English translation
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071029190241/http://www.princeton.edu/~champlin/cla219/219pliny.htm Pliny the Younger, Letters, Book 10], English translation

=== Secondary material ===
* {{cite web|last=Benario|first=Herbert W.|title=Trajan (A.D. 98–117)|publisher=De Imperatoribus Romanis|year=2000|url=https://roman-emperors.sites.luc.edu/trajan.htm|access-date= 24 September 2007}}

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