Trajan

Trajan: Optimus Princeps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGvFPsPyXkY

Images:
1. Trajan’s second gift, Trajan’s Column, was dedicated in 113 CE. At the base of the 100-foot column were a number of friezes depicting his battles against the Dacians
2. Trajan, detail of a marble bust; in the British Museum.
3. Detail of Trajan's Column, Rome, depicting the Roman emperor's victories beyond the Danube River..
4. Trajan’s Market, Rome photo by Mark Cartwright

Background from {[http://www.roman-emperors.org/trajan.htm]}

Background from {[http://www.roman-emperors.org/trajan.htm]}
An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors Trajan (A.D. 98-117)
Herbert W. Benario Emory University
Introduction and Sources
"During a happy period of more than fourscore years, the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines. It is the design of this and of the two succeeding chapters to describe the prosperous condition of their empire, and afterwards, from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most important circumstances of its decline and fall, a revolution which will ever be remembered and is still felt by the nations of the earth." [[1]]
This is perhaps the most important and best known of all Edward Gibbon's famous dicta about his vast subject, and particularly that period which he admired the most. It was a concatenation of chance and events which brought to the first position of the principate five men, each very different from the others, who each, in his own way, brought integrity and a sense of public duty to his tasks. Nerva's tenure was brief, as many no doubt had expected and hoped it would be, and perhaps his greatest achievement was to choose Trajan as his adoptive son and intended successor. It was a splendid choice. Trajan was one of Rome's most admirable figures, a man who merited the renown which he enjoyed in his lifetime and in subsequent generations.
The sources for the man and his principate are disappointingly skimpy. There is no contemporaneous historian who can illuminate the period. Tacitus speaks only occasionally of Trajan, there is no biography by Suetonius, nor even one by the author of the late and largely fraudulent Historia Augusta. (However, a modern version of what such a life might have been like has been composed by A. Birley, entirely based upon ancient evidence. It is very useful.) Pliny the Younger tells us the most, in his Panegyricus, his long address of thanks to the emperor upon assuming the consulship in late 100, and in his letters. Pliny was a wordy and congenial man, who reveals a great deal about his senatorial peers and their relations with the emperor, above all, of course, his own. The most important part is the tenth book of his Epistulae, which contains the correspondence between him, while serving in Bithynia, and the emperor, to whom he referred all manner of problems, important as well as trivial. Best known are the pair (96,97) dealing with the Christians and what was to be done with them. These would be extraordinarily valuable if we could be sure that the imperial replies stemmed directly from Trajan, but that is more than one can claim. The imperial chancellery had developed greatly in previous decades and might pen these communications after only the most general directions from the emperor. The letters are nonetheless unique in the insight they offer into the emperor's mind. [[2]]
Cassius Dio, who wrote in the decade of the 230s, wrote a long imperial history which has survived only in abbreviated form in book LXVIII for the Trajanic period. [[3]] The rhetorician Dio of Prusa, a contemporary of the emperor, offers little of value. Fourth-century epitomators, Aurelius Victor and Eutropius, offer some useful material. Inscriptions, coins, papyri, and legal texts are of major importance. Since Trajan was a builder of many significant projects, archaeology contributes mightily to our understanding of the man.

Early Life and Career
The patria of the Ulpii was Italica, in Spanish Baetica [[4]], where their ancestors had settled late in the third century B.C. This indicates that the Italian origin was paramount, yet it has recently been cogently argued that the family's ancestry was local, with Trajan senior actually a Traius who was adopted into the family of the Ulpii.[[4a]] Trajan's father was the first member of the family to pursue a senatorial career; it proved to be a very successful one. Born probably about the year 30, he perhaps commanded a legion under Corbulo in the early sixties and then was legate of legio X Fretensis under Vespasian, governor of Judaea. Success in the Jewish War was rewarded by the governorship of an unknown province and then a consulate in 70. He was thereafter adlected by the emperor in patricios and sent to govern Baetica. Then followed the governorship of one of the major military provinces, Syria, where he prevented a Parthian threat of invasion, and in 79/80 he was proconsul of Asia, one of the two provinces (the other was Africa) which capped a senatorial career. His public service now effectively over, he lived on in honor and distinction, in all likelihood seeing his son emperor. He probably died before 100. He was deified in 113 and his titulature read divus Traianus pater. Since his son was also the adoptive son of Nerva, the emperor had officially two fathers, a unique circumstance. [[5]]
The son was born in Italica on September 18, 53; his mother was Marcia, who had given birth to a daughter, Ulpia Marciana, five years before the birth of the son. In the mid seventies, he was a legionary legate under his father in Syria. He then married a lady from Nemausus (Nimes) in Gallia Narbonensis, Pompeia Plotina, was quaestor about 78 and praetor about 84. In 86, he became one of the child Hadrian's guardians. He was then appointed legate of legio VII Gemina in Hispania Tarraconensis, from which he marched at Domitian's orders in 89 to crush the uprising of Antonius Saturninus along the Rhine. He next fought in Domitian's war against the Germans along Rhine and Danube and was rewarded with an ordinary consulship in 91. Soon followed the governorship of Moesia inferior and then that of Germania superior, with his headquarters at Moguntiacum (Mainz), whither Hadrian brought him the news in autumn 97 that he had been adopted by the emperor Nerva, as co-ruler and intended successor. Already recipient of the title imperator and possessor of the tribunician power, when Nerva died on January 27, 98, Trajan became emperor in a smooth transition of power which marked the next three quarters of a century.

Early Years through the Dacian Wars
Trajan did not return immediately to Rome. He chose to stay in his German province and settle affairs on that frontier. He showed that he approved Domitian's arrangements, with the establishment of two provinces, their large military garrisons, and the beginnings of the limes. [[6]] Those who might have wished for a renewed war of conquest against the Germans were disappointed. The historian Tacitus may well have been one of these. [[7]]
Trajan then visited the crucial Danube provinces of Pannonia and Moesia, where the Dacian king Decebalus had caused much difficulty for the Romans and had inflicted a heavy defeat upon a Roman army about a decade before. Domitian had established a modus vivendi with Decebalus, essentially buying his good behavior, but the latter had then continued his activities hostile to Rome. Trajan clearly thought that this corner of empire would require his personal attention and a lasting and satisfactory solution. [[8]]
Trajan spent the year 100 in Rome, seeing to the honors and deification of his predecessor, establishing good and sensitive relations with the senate, in sharp contrast with Domitian's "war against the senate." [[9]] Yet his policies essentially continued Domitian's; he was no less master of the state and the ultimate authority over individuals, but his good nature and respect for those who had until recently been his peers if not his superiors won him great favor. [[10]] He was called optimus by the people and that word began to appear among his titulature, although it had not been decreed by the senate. Yet his thoughts were ever on the Danube. Preparations for a great campaign were under way, particularly with transfers of legions and their attendant auxiliaries from Germany and Britain and other provinces and the establishment of two new ones, II Traiana and XXX Ulpia, which brought the total muster to 30, the highest number yet reached in the empire's history.
In 101 the emperor took the field. The war was one which required all his military abilities and all the engineering and discipline for which the Roman army was renowned. Trajan was fortunate to have Apollodorus of Damascus in his service, who built a roadway through the Iron Gates by cantilevering it from the sheer face of the rock so that the army seemingly marched on water. He was also to build a great bridge across the Danube, with 60 stone piers (traces of this bridge still survive). When Trajan was ready to move he moved with great speed, probably driving into the heart of Dacian territory with two columns, until, in 102, Decebalus chose to capitulate. He prostrated himself before Trajan and swore obedience; he was to become a client king. Trajan returned to Rome and added the title Dacicus to his titulature.
Decebalus, however, once left to his own devices, undertook to challenge Rome again, by raids across the Danube into Roman territory and by attempting to stir up some of the tribes north of the river against her. Trajan took the field again in 106, intending this time to finish the job of Decebalus' subjugation. It was a brutal struggle, with some of the characteristics of a war of extirpation, until the Dacian king, driven from his capital of Sarmizegethusa and hunted like an animal, chose to commit suicide rather than to be paraded in a Roman triumph and then be put to death.
The war was over. It had taxed Roman resources, with 11 legions involved, but the rewards were great. Trajan celebrated a great triumph, which lasted 123 days and entertained the populace with a vast display of gladiators and animals. The land was established as a province, the first on the north side of the Danube. Much of the native population which had survived warfare was killed or enslaved, their place taken by immigrants from other parts of the empire. The vast wealth of Dacian mines came to Rome as war booty, enabling Trajan to support an extensive building program almost everywhere, but above all in Italy and in Rome. In the capital, Apollodorus designed and built in the huge forum already under construction a sculpted column, precisely 100 Roman feet high, with 23 spiral bands filled with 2500 figures, which depicted, like a scroll being unwound, the history of both Dacian wars. It was, and still is, one of the great achievements of imperial "propaganda." [[11]] In southern Dacia, at Adamklissi, a large tropaeum was built on a hill, visible from a great distance, as a tangible statement of Rome's domination. Its effect was similar to that of Augustus' monument at La Turbie above Monaco; both were constant reminders for the inhabitants who gazed at it that they had once been free and were now subjects of a greater power. [[12]]

Administration and Social Policy
The chief feature of Trajan's administration was his good relations with the senate, which allowed him to accomplish whatever he wished without general opposition. His auctoritas was more important than his imperium. At the very beginning of Trajan's reign, the historian Tacitus, in the biography of his father-in-law Agricola, spoke of the newly won compatibility of one-man rule and individual liberty established by Nerva and expanded by Trajan (Agr. 3.1, primo statim beatissimi saeculi ortu Nerva Caesar res olim dissociabiles miscuerit, principatum ac libertatem, augeatque cotidie felicitatem temporum Nerva Traianus,….) [13] At the end of the work, Tacitus comments, when speaking of Agricola's death, that he had forecast the principate of Trajan but had died too soon to see it (Agr. 44.5, ei non licuit durare in hanc beatissimi saeculi lucem ac principem Traianum videre, quod augurio votisque apud nostras aures ominabatur,….) Whether one believes that principate and liberty had truly been made compatible or not, this evidently was the belief of the aristocracy of Rome. Trajan, by character and actions, contributed to this belief, and he undertook to reward his associates with high office and significant promotions. During his principate, he himself held only 6 consulates, while arranging for third consulates for several of his friends. Vespasian had been consul 9 times, Titus 8, Domitian 17! In the history of the empire there were only 12 or 13 privati who reached the eminence of third consulates. Agrippa had been the first, L. Vitellius the second. Under Trajan there were 3: Sex. Iulius Frontinus (100), T. Vestricius Spurinna (100), and L. Licinius Sura (107). There were also 10 who held second consulships: L. Iulius Ursus Servianus (102), M.' Laberius Maximus (103), Q. Glitius Atilius Agricola (103), P. Metilius Sabinus Nepos (103?), Sex. Attius Suburanus Aemilianus (104), Ti. Iulius Candidus Marius Celsus (105), C. Antius A. Iulius Quadratus (105), Q. Sosius Senecio (107), A. Cornelius Palma Frontonianus (109), and L. Publilius Celsus (113). These men were essentially his close associates from pre-imperial days and his prime military commanders in the Dacian wars.
One major administrative innovation can be credited to Trajan. This was the introduction of curatores who, as representatives of the central government, assumed financial control of local communities, both in Italy and the provinces. Pliny in Bithynia is the best known of these imperial officials. The inexorable shift from freedmen to equestrians in the imperial ministries continued, to culminate under Hadrian, [[14]] and he devoted much attention and considerable state resources to the expansion of the alimentary system, which purposed to support orphans throughout Italy. [[15]] The splendid arch at Beneventum represents Trajan as a civilian emperor, with scenes of ordinary life and numerous children depicted, which underscored the prosperity of Italy. [[16]]
The satirist Juvenal, a contemporary of the emperor, in one of his best known judgments, laments that the citizen of Rome, once master of the world, is now content only with "bread and circuses."
Nam qui dabat olim / imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se / continet, atque duas tantum res anxius optat, / panem et circenses. (X 78-81)
Trajan certainly took advantage of that mood, indeed exacerbated it, by improving the reliabilty of the grain supply (the harbor at Ostia and the distribution system as exemplified in the Mercati in Rome). [[17]] Fronto did not entirely approve, if indeed he approved at all. [[18]] The plebs esteemed the emperor for the glory he had brought Rome, for the great wealth he had won which he turned to public uses, and for his personality and manner. Though emperor, he prided himself upon being civilis, a term which indicated comportment suitable for a Roman citizen. [[19]]
There was only one major addition to the Rome's empire other than Dacia in the first decade and a half of Trajan's reign. This was the province of Arabia, which followed upon the absorption of the Nabataean kingdom (105-106). [[20]]

Building Projects
Trajan had significant effect upon the infrastructure of both Rome and Italy. His greatest monument in the city, if the single word "monument" can effectively describe the complex, was the forum which bore his name, much the largest, and the last, of the series known as the "imperial fora." Excavation for a new forum had already begun under Domitian, but it was Apollodorus who designed and built the whole. Enormous in its extent, the Basilica Ulpia was the centerpiece, the largest wood roofed building in the Roman world. In the open courtyard before it was an equestrian statue of Trajan, behind it was the column; there were libraries, one for Latin scrolls, the other for Greek, on each side. A significant omission was a temple; this circumstance was later rectified by Hadrian, who built a large temple to the deified Trajan and Plotina.
The column was both a history in stone and the intended mausoleum for the emperor, whose ashes were indeed placed in the column base. An inscription over the doorway, somewhat cryptic because part of the text has disappeared, reads as follows:
Senatus populusque Romanus imp. Caesari divi Nervae f. Nervae Traiano Aug. Germ. Dacico pontif. Maximo trib. pot. XVII imp. VI p.p. ad declarandum quantae altitudinis mons et locus tant[is oper]ibus sit egestus
(Smallwood 378)
On the north side of the forum, built into the slopes of the Quirinal hill, were the Markets of Trajan, which served as a shopping mall and the headquarters of the annona, the agency responsible for the receipt and distribution of grain. [[21]]
On the Esquiline hill was constructed the first of the huge imperial baths, using a large part of Nero'sDomus Aurea as its foundations. On the other side of the river a new aqueduct was constructed, which drew its water from Lake Bracciano and ran some 60 kilometers to the heights of the Janiculum Hill. It was dedicated in 109. A section of its channel survives in the basement of the American Academy in Rome. [[22]]
The arch in Beneventum is the most significant monument elsewhere in Italy. It was dedicated in 114, to mark the beginning of the new Via Traiana, which offered an easier route to Brundisium than that of the ancient Via Appia. [[23]]
Trajan devoted much attention to the construction and improvement of harbors. His new hexagonal harbor at Ostia at last made that port the most significant in Italy, supplanting Puteoli, so that henceforth the grain ships docked there and their cargo was shipped by barge up the Tiber to Rome. Terracina benefited as well from harbor improvements, and the Via Appia now ran directly through the city along a new route, with some 130 Roman feet of sheer cliff being cut away so that the highway could bend along the coast. Ancona on the Adriatic Sea became the major harbor on that coast for central Italy in 114-115, and Trajan's activity was commemorated by an arch. The inscription reports that the senate and people dedicated it to the providentissimo principi quod accessum Italiae hoc etiam addito ex pecunia sua portu tutiorem navigantibus reddiderit (Smallwood 387). Centumcellae, the modern Civitavecchia, also profited from a new harbor. The emperor enjoyed staying there, and on at least one occasion summoned his consilium there. [[24]]
Elsewhere in the empire the great bridge at Alcantara in Spain, spanning the Tagus River, still in use, [[25]] testifies to the significant attention the emperor gave to the improvement of communication throughout his entire domain.

Family Relations; the Women
After the death of his father, Trajan had no close male relatives. His life was as closely linked with his wife and female relations as that of any of his predecessors; these women played enormously important roles in the empire's public life, and received honors perhaps unparalleled. His wife, Pompeia Plotina, is reported to have said, when she entered the imperial palace in Rome for the first time, that she hoped she would leave it the same person she was when she entered. [[26]] She received the title Augusta no later than 105. She survived Trajan, dying probably in 121, and was honored by Hadrian with a temple, which she shared with her husband, in the great forum which the latter had built.
His sister Marciana, five years his elder, and he shared a close affection. She received the title Augusta, along with Plotina, in 105 and was deified in 112 upon her death. Her daughter Matidia became Augusta upon her mother's death, and in her turn was deified in 119. Both women received substantial monuments in the Campus Martius, there being basilicas of each and a temple of divae Matidiae. Hadrian was responsible for these buildings, which were located near the later temple of the deified Hadrian, not far from the column of Marcus Aurelius. [[27]]
Matidia's daughter, Sabina, was married to Hadrian in the year 100. The union survived almost to the end of Hadrian's subsequent principate, in spite of the mutual loathing that they had for each other. Sabina was Trajan's great niece, and thereby furnished Hadrian a crucial link to Trajan.
The women played public roles as significant as any of their predecessors. They traveled with the emperor on public business and were involved in major decisions. They were honored throughout the empire, on monuments as well as in inscriptions. Plotina, Marciana, and Matidia, for example, were all honored on the arch at Ancona along with Trajan. [[28]]

The Parthian War
In 113, Trajan began preparations for a decisive war against Parthia. He had been a "civilian" emperor for seven years, since his victory over the Dacians, and may well have yearned for a last, great military achievement, which would rival that of Alexander the Great. Yet there was a significant cause for war in the Realpolitik of Roman-Parthian relations, since the Parthians had placed a candidate of their choice upon the throne of Armenia without consultation and approval of Rome. When Trajan departed Rome for Antioch, in a leisurely tour of the eastern empire while his army was being mustered, he probably intended to destroy at last Parthia's capabilities to rival Rome's power and to reduce her to the status of a province (or provinces). It was a great enterprise, marked by initial success but ultimate disappointment and failure.
In 114 he attacked the enemy through Armenia and then, over three more years, turned east and south, passing through Mesopotamia and taking Babylon and the capital of Ctesiphon. He then is said to have reached the Persian Gulf and to have lamented that he was too old to go further in Alexander's footsteps. In early 116 he received the title Parthicus.
The territories, however, which had been handily won, were much more difficult to hold. Uprisings among the conquered peoples, and particularly among the Jews in Palestine and the Diaspora, caused him to gradually resign Roman rule over these newly-established provinces as he returned westward. The revolts were brutally suppressed. In mid 117, Trajan, now a sick man, was slowly returning to Italy, having left Hadrian in command in the east, when he died in Selinus of Cilicia on August 9, having designated Hadrian as his successor while on his death bed. Rumor had it that Plotina and Matidia were responsible for the choice, made when the emperor was already dead. Be that as it may, there was no realistic rival to Hadrian, linked by blood and marriage to Trajan and now in command of the empire's largest military forces. Hadrian received notification of his designation on August 11, and that day marked his dies imperii. Among Hadrian's first acts was to give up all of Trajan's eastern conquests.

Trajan's honors and reputation
Hadrian saw to it that Trajan received all customary honors: the late emperor was declared a divus, his victories were commemorated in a great triumph, and his ashes were placed in the base of his column. Trajan's reputation remained unimpaired, in spite of the ultimate failure of his last campaigns. Early in his principate, he had unofficially been honored with the title optimus, "the best," which long described him even before it became, in 114, part of his official titulature. His correspondence with Pliny enables posterity to gain an intimate sense of the emperor in action. His concern for justice and the well-being of his subjects is underscored by his comment to Pliny, when faced with the question of the Christians, that they were not to be sought out, "nor is it appropriate to our age." [[29]] At the onset of his principate, Tacitus called Trajan's accession the beginning of a beatissimum saeculum, [[30]] and so it remained in the public mind. Admired by the people, respected by the senatorial aristocracy, he faced no internal difficulties, with no rival nor opposition. His powers were as extensive as Domitian's had been, but his use and display of these powers were very different from those of his predecessor, who had claimed to be deus et dominus. Not claiming to be a god, he was recognized in the official iconography of sculpture as Jupiter's viceregent on earth, so depicted on the attic reliefs of the Beneventan arch. [[31]] The passage of time increased Trajan's aura rather than diminished it. In the late fourth century, when the Roman Empire had dramatically changed in character from what it had been in Trajan's time, each new emperor was hailed with the prayer, felicior Augusto, melior Traiano, "may he be luckier than Augustus and better than Trajan." [[32]] That reputation has essentially survived into the present day.

Bibliography
Bennett, J., Trajan Optimus Princeps. A Life and Times (London and New York, 1997)
Birley, A., Lives of the Later Caesars: The First Part of the Augustan History with Newly Compiled Lives of Nerva and Trajan (London, 1976)
Bourne, F.C., "The Roman Alimentary Program and Italian Agriculture," TAPA 91 (1960) 47-75
Bowersock, G.W., Roman Arabia (Cambridge, MA, 1983)
Canto, A.M., "Los Traii béticos: revisiones y novedades sobre la familia y el origen de Trajano," in XIX Centenario del emperador Trajano, Actas del Curso de Verano 1998, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, dir. J.M. Blázquez Martinez, in press.
Cizek, E., L'Epoque de Trajan. Circonstances Politiques et Problèmes Idéologiques (Paris, 1983)
Duncan-Jones, R., "The Purpose and Organisation of the Alimenta," PBSR 32 (1964) 123-46
Durry, M., Pline le Jeune. Panégyrique de Trajan (Paris, 1938)
________. "Sur Trajan père," in Les Empereurs Romains d'Espagne (Paris 1965) 48-57
Fears, J.R., Princeps A Diis Electus: The Divine Election of the Emperor as a Political Concept at Rome (Rome, 1977)
Fell, M., Optimus princeps?: Anspruch und Wirklichkeit der imperialen Programmatik Kaiser Traians (Munich, 1992)
Garzetti, A., From Tiberius to the Antonines (translated by J.R. Foster, London, 1974)
Gibbon, E., The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1, (London, 1776)
Hammond, M., The Antonine Monarchy (Rome, 1959)
________. "Res olim dissociabiles: Principatus ac Libertas - Liberty Under the Early Roman Empire," HSCP 67 (1963) 93-113
Hands, A.R., Charities and Social Aid in Greece and Rome (Ithaca, NY, 1968)
Hassel, F.J., Der Trajansbogen in Benevent: ein Bauwerk des römischen Senates (Mainz, 1966)
Lepper, F.A., Trajan's Parthian War (Oxford, 1948)
Lepper, F., and S. Frere, Trajan's Column. A New Edition of the Cichorius Plates (Gloucester, 1988)
Longden, R.P., "Nerva and Trajan" and "The Wars of Trajan," in Cambridge Ancient History (Cambridge, 1936) 188-252
Masi, F., Traiano (Il principe che portò l'Impero Romano alla massima espansione) (Rome, 1993)
Millar, F., A Study of Cassius Dio (Oxford, 1964)
________. The Emperor in the Roman World (Ithaca, NY, 1977)
Nash, E., Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome, two volumes (London, 1961-62)
Packer, J.E., The Forum of Trajan in Rome: A Study of the Monuments (Berkeley, CA, 1997)
Paribeni, R., Optimus Princeps: Saggio sulla storia e sui tempi dell'imperatore Traiano, two vols., (Messina 1926-27)
Raepsaet-Charlier, M.-T., Prosopographie des Femmes de l'Ordre Sénatorial(Ier-IIe siècles) (Louvain, 1987)
Richmond, I.A., "Trajan's Army on Trajan's Column," PBSR 13 (1935) 1-40
________. "Adamklissi," PBSR 35 (1967) 29-39
________. "The Arch of Beneventum," in P. Salway, ed., Roman Archaeology and Art (London, 1969) 229-38
Rossi, L., Trajan's Column and the Dacian Wars (London, 1971)
Sherwin-White, A.N., The Letters of Pliny. A Historical and Social Commentary (Oxford, 1966)
Smallwood, E.M., Documents Illustrating the Principates of Nerva Trajan and Hadrian (Cambridge, 1966)
Strobel, K., Untersuchungen zu den Dakerkriegen Trajans: Studien zur Geschichte des mittleren und unteren Donauraumes in der Hohen Kaiserzeit (Bonn, 1984)
Syme, R., Tacitus (Oxford, 1958)
Talbert, R.J.A., The Senate of Imperial Rome (Princeton, NJ, 1984)
Temporini, H., Die Frauen am Hofe Trajans: Ein Beitrag zur Stellung der Augustae im Prinzipat (Berlin, 1978)
Waters, K.H., "Traianus Domitiani Continuator," AJP 90 (1969) 385-404
________. "Trajan's Character in the Literary Tradition," in J.A.S. Evans, ed., POLIS AND IMPERIUM. Studies in Honour of Edward Togo Salmon (Toronto, 1974) 233-52
________. "The Reign of Trajan, and its Place in Contemporary Scholarship (1960-72)," in ANRW II 2 (Berlin/New York, 1975) 381-431
Footnotes
[[1]] The end of Gibbon's first paragraph
[[2]] See Sherwin-White and Millar, Emperor
[[3]] See Millar, Cassius Dio
[[4]] Syme, Tacitus, 30-44; PIR Vlpivs 575
[[4a]] See Canto.
[[5]] Durry, "Sur Trajan père"
[[6]] Syme, CAH XI (Cambridge, 1936) 158-87; A. King, Roman Gaul and Germany (Berkeley, CA, 1990); C.-M. Ternes, Die Römer an Rhein und Mosel (Stuttgart, 1975)
[[7]] See H.W. Benario, Tacitus Germany (Warminster, 1999)
[[8]] See Syme, "Domitian: The Last Years," in idem, Roman Papers IV (Oxford, 1988) 252-77
[[9]] Tacitus, Agricola 1-3
[[10]] Waters, "Traianus Domitiani Continuator"
[[11]] See Lepper and Frere, Packer, and Richmond, "Trajan's Army"
[[12]] See P. MacKendrick, Roman France (London, 1971) 86-89
[[13]] See Hammond, "Res olim"
[[14]] See Millar, Emperor
[[15]] See Bourne, Duncan-Jones, and Hands
[[16]] See Hassel
[[17]] R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia (Oxford, 19732) and Packer
[[18]] Principia Historiae 20, ut qui sciret populum Romanum duabus praecipue rebus, annona et spectaculis, teneri; imperium non minus ludicris quam seriis probari atque maiore damno seria, graviore invidia ludicra neglegi.
[[19]] I. Lana, "Civilis, cililiter, civilitas in Tacito e in Suetonio. Contributo alla storia del lessico politico-romano nell'età imperiale," Atti Acc. Sc. Torino. Cl. Sc. Mor. Stor. Filol. 106 (1972) f.II, 465-87
[[20]] See Bowersock
[[21]] See G. Rickman, The Corn Supply of Ancient Rome (Oxford, 1980)
[[22]] See P.J. Aicher, Guide to the Aqueducts of Ancient Rome (Wauconda, IL, 1995) 44, 76-79
[[23]] See G. Radke, Viae publicae Romanae (Stuttgart, 1971) cols. 96-98
[[24]] Epist. 6.31
[[25]] Smallwood 389; C. O'Connor, Roman Bridges (Cambridge, 1993) 109-11
[[26]] Dio 68.5.5
[[27]] See Nash
[[28]] See Temporini, Raepsaet-Charlier 631, 681, 802, 824
[[29]] Epist. 10.97.2, nam et pessimi exempli nec nostri saeculi est
[[30]] Agr. 44.5
[[31]] See Fears
[[32]] Eutropius, Breviarium 8.5.3

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Trajan - The Best Emperor #13 (Optimus Princeps) Roman History Documentary Series
Named Optimus Princeps or the best emperor during his time. Trajan has been remember as one of the best Roman Emperors and he presided over a period of renewed conquest and during his reign the empire would reach it's greatest extent and a true start of the Golden Age of the Roman Empire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BagdB-pqno

Images:
1. Trajan military conquests map - The Dacian Wars 101 AD to 106 AD.
2.Dacian King Decebalus rock carving - he was defeated by Trajan in 105 AD photo by Byron Howes
3. Trajan Bust, Vatican Museums photo by Mark Cartwright
4. Trajan statue

Background from {[https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Trajan%27s_Dacian_Wars]}
Trajan's Dacian Wars
________________________________________
Date 101–102 and 105–106
Location Ancient Dacia
Result Decisive Roman victory
Territorial
changes Dacia annexed by Roman Empire

Belligerents
Kingdom of Dacia Roman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Decebalus Trajan

Strength
Around 40,000 in the first war - 15,000 in the second war (based on population estimate) 150,000 in the first war - 200,000 in the second war

The Dacian Wars (101–102, 105–106) were two military campaigns fought between the Roman Empire and Dacia during Roman Emperor Trajan's rule. The conflicts were triggered by the constant Dacian threat on the Danubian Roman Province of Moesia and also by the increasing need for resources of the economy of the Roman Empire.
Trajan turned his attention to Dacia, an area north of Macedon and Greece and east of the Danube that had been on the Roman agenda since before the days of Caesar[1][2] when they defeated a Roman army at the Battle of Histria.[3] In AD 85, the Dacians swarmed over the Danube and pillaged Moesia[4][5] and initially defeated the army that Emperor Domitian sent against them,[6] but the Romans were victorious in the Battle of Tapae in 88 and a truce was established.[6]
Emperor Trajan recommenced hostilities against Dacia and, following an uncertain number of battles,[7] defeated the Dacian King[8] Decebalus in the Second Battle of Tapae in 101.[9] With Trajan's troops pressing towards the Dacian capital Sarmizegetusa Regia, Decebalus once more sought terms.[10] Decebalus rebuilt his power over the following years and attacked Roman garrisons again in 105. In response Trajan again marched into Dacia,[11] besieging the Dacian capital in the Siege of Sarmisegetusa, and razing it.[12] With Dacia quelled, Trajan subsequently invaded the Parthian empire to the east, his conquests expanding the Roman Empire to its greatest extent. Rome's borders in the east were indirectly governed through a system of client states for some time, leading to less direct campaigning than in the west in this period.[13]

Early clashes
Since the reign of Burebista, widely considered to be the greatest Dacian king—who ruled between 82 BC and 44 BC—the Dacians had represented a threat for the Roman Empire. Caesar himself had drawn up a plan to launch a campaign against Dacia. The threat was reduced when dynastic struggles in Dacia lead to a division into four (or five, depending on the source) separately governed tribal states after Burebista's death in 44 BC. Augustus later came into conflict with Dacia after they sent envoys offering their support against Mark Antony in exchange for "requests", the nature of which have not been recorded. Augustus rejected the offer and Dacia gave their support to Antony. In 29 BC, Augustus sent several punitive expeditions into Dacia led by Marcus Licinius Crassus (Marcus Licinius Crassus the Younger, also known as Marcus Licinius Crassus Dives, grandson of the famed Marcus Licinius Crassus who put down the Spartacus slave rebellion, and of the 1st Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Gnaeus Pompey) that inflicted heavy casualties and apparently killed three of their five kings. Although Dacian raids into Pannonia and Moesia continued for several years despite the defeat, the threat of Dacia had effectively ended.[14]

Domitian's humiliation
The Roman emperor Domitian led legions into the ravaged province and reorganized the possession into Moesia Inferior and Moesia Superior, planning an attack into Dacia for the next campaign season. The next year, with the arrival of fresh legions in 87 AD, Domitian began what became the First Dacian War. General Diurpaneus sent an envoy to Domitian offering peace. He was rejected and the praetorian prefect Cornelius Fuscus crossed the Danube into Dacia with 5 or 6 legions on a bridge built on boats. The Roman army was ambushed and defeated at the First Battle of Tapae by Diurpaneus who was subsequently renamed Decebalus (Dacian for "the Brave") and who, as a consequence, was chosen to be the new king. Fuscus was killed and the legions lost their standards, adding to the humiliation.[15] In 88, the Roman offensive continued, and the Roman army, this time under the command of Tettius Julianus defeated the Dacians at the outlying Dacian fortress of Sarmizegetusa, also at Tapae, near the current village of Bucova. After this battle Decebalus, now the king of the four reunited arms of the Dacians asked for peace which was again refused. Domitian later accepted the offer, mainly because his legions were needed along the Rhine to put down the revolt of Lucius Antonius Saturninus, the Roman governor of Germania Superior who had allied with the Marcomanni, Quadi and Sarmatian Yazgulyams against Domitian.[16]

Causes of the first war
Throughout the 1st century, Roman policy dictated that threats from neighbouring nations and provinces were to be contained promptly. The peace treaty following the First Battles of Tapae, followed by an indecisive and costly Roman victory on the same ground a year later, was unfavorable for the Empire. Following the peace of 89 AD, Decebalus became a client of Rome, with acceptance of Decebalus as king (Rex Amicas). He received a lump sum of money, annual financial stipends, craftsmen in trades devoted to both peace and war, and war machines to defend the empire's borders. The craftsman were used by the Dacians to upgrade their own defences. Some historians believe this was an unfavorable peace and that it might have led to Domitian's assassination in September 96. Despite some co-operation on the diplomatic front with Domitian, Decebalus continued to oppose Rome.[17]
At the time, Rome was suffering from economic difficulties largely brought on by military campaigns throughout Europe and in part due to a low gold content in Roman money as directed by Emperor Nero. Confirmed rumors of Dacian gold and other valuable trade resources inflamed the conflict, as did the Dacian's defiant behavior, as they were "bowed and unbroken".
However other pressing reasons motivated them to action. Researchers estimate that only ten percent of barbarians such as Spanish and Gallic warriors had access to swords, usually the nobility. By contrast Dacia had rich resources of iron and copper and were prolific metal workers. A large percentage of Dacians owned swords, greatly reducing Rome's military advantage.[18] Dacia sported 250,000 potential combatants, enough to enable an invasion. It was allied to several of its neighbors and on friendly terms with others that Rome considered enemies. Rome had no concrete defense policy and would not have been able to sustain a war of defense. As such, the new Emperor Trajan, himself an experienced soldier and tactician, began preparing for war. That Dacia was considered a substantial threat can be seen by the fact that Trajan withdrew troops from other borders leaving them dangerously undermanned.[19]

The first war
After gaining the Senate's blessing for war, by 101 Trajan was ready to advance on Dacia. This was a war in which the Roman military's ingenuity and engineering were well demonstrated. The Roman offensive was spearheaded by two legionary columns, marching straight to the heart of Dacia, burning towns and villages en route. Trajan defeated a Dacian army at the Battle of Tapae, and in 102 Decebalus chose to make peace after additional minor conflicts. The war had concluded with an important Roman victory. A stone bridge later known as Trajan's bridge was constructed across the Danube at Drobeta to assist with the legionaries' advance. This bridge, probably the biggest at that time and for centuries to come, was designed by Apollodorus of Damascus and was meant to help the Roman army to advance faster in Dacia since the "peace" was actually lost by the Roman Empire. According to the peace terms, Decebalus got technical and military reinforcement from the Romans in order to create a powerful allied zone against the dangerous possible expeditions from the northern and eastern territories by hostile migrating peoples. The resources were instead used to rebuild Dacian fortresses and strengthen the army. Soon thereafter Decebalus turned against the Romans once again.

The second war

Following the first war, Decebalus complied with Rome for a time, but was soon inciting revolt among tribes against them and pillaging Roman colonies across the Danube. True to his intrepid and optimistic nature, Trajan rallied his forces in AD 105 for a second war.

Like the first conflict, the second war involved several skirmishes that proved costly to the Roman military. Faced with large numbers of allied tribes, the legions struggled to attain a decisive victory, resulting in a second temporary peace. Eventually, goaded by the behavior of Decebalus and his repeated violations of the treaty, Rome again brought in reinforcements, took the offensive and prevailed in 105. The next year they gradually conquered the mountain fortress system that surrounded the Dacian capital, Sarmisegetusa. The final decisive battle took place near the walls of Sarmisegetusa, during the summer of 106, with the participation of the legions II Adiutrix and IV Flavia Felix and a detachment (vexillatio) from VI Ferrata.
The Dacians repelled the first attack, but the Romans, helped by a treacherous local nobleman, found and destroyed the water pipes of the Dacian capital. Running out of water and food the city fell and was razed. Decebalus fled, but was followed by the Roman cavalry and committed suicide rather than submit. Nevertheless, the war went on. Thanks to the treason of a confidant of the Dacian king, Bicilis, the Romans found Decebalus's treasure in the river of Sargesia/Sargetia - a fortune estimated by Jerome Carcopino at 165,500 kg of gold and 331,000 kg of silver. The last battle took place at Porolissum (Moigrad).

Conclusion and aftermath
Denarius issued by Trajan to celebrate the winning of the Dacian Wars.
----Front. Text: IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC PM TR P COS V PP. File: Laureate head right; the legend abbreviates as Imperator. Trajan. Augustus. Germanicus. Dacicus. Pontifex Maximus. Tribuniciae Potestate. Consul V. Pater Patriae.
----Reverse. Text: SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI. File: Dacian soldier wearing the Dacian peaked cap, seated on shield in mourning, with the curbed Dacian Falx (sabre) below. The reverse abbreviates Senatus Populus Que Romanus. Optimo Principi.
---- Trajan was notorious for the length of his inscriptions, which are the longest of the imperial series. Here, the titles actually form a continuum on both sides of the coin. It all translates as "Imperator, Trajan the Augustus, victor over the Germans and Dacians, chief priest, with the power of a tribune, consul for the fifth time, father of his country, the Senate and People of Rome: best of emperors.". - Reference: RIC II 219, BMC 175, RSC 529.
The conclusion of the Dacian Wars marked a triumph for Rome and its armies. Trajan announced 123 days of celebrations throughout the Empire. Dacia's rich gold mines were secured and it is estimated that Dacia then contributed 700 million Denarii annually to the Roman economy, providing finance for Rome's future campaigns and assisting with the rapid expansion of Roman towns throughout Europe.[20] The remains of the mining activities are still visible, especially at Roşia Montană. One hundred thousand male slaves were sent back to Rome; and to discourage future revolts, legions XIII Gemina and V Macedonica were permanently posted in Dacia. The veterans of these legions were given land and married Dacian women. This was the origin of the Romanian people. The conquered half (southern) of Dacia was annexed, becoming a province while the northern part remained free but never formed a state.
The two wars were notable victories in Rome's extensive expansionist campaigns, gaining Trajan the people's admiration and support. The conclusion of the Dacian Wars marked the beginning of a period of sustained growth and relative peace in Rome. Trajan began extensive building projects and was so prolific in claiming credit that he was given the nickname Ivy.[20] Trajan became an honorable civil leader, improving Rome's civic infrastructure, thereby paving the way for internal growth and reinforcement of the Empire as a whole.

References
• "Assorted Imperial Battle Descriptions", De Imperatoribus Romanis.
Notes and citations
1.• Goldsworthy, In the Name of Rome, p. 322
2 • Matyszak, The Enemies of Rome, p. 213
3 • Matyszak, The Enemies of Rome, p. 215
4 • Matyszak, The Enemies of Rome, p. 216
5 • Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, p. 53
6 • Matyszak, The Enemies of Rome, p. 217
7 • Matyszak, The Enemies of Rome, p. 219
8 • as per Dio Cassius
9 • Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, p. 54
10 • Goldsworthy, In the Name of Rome, p. 329
11 • Matyszak, The Enemies of Rome, p. 222
12 • Matyszak, The Enemies of Rome, p. 223
13 • Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, p. 39
14 • Michael Schmitz Pg 9 - 10
15 • "De Imperatoribus Romanis". "Battle of Sarmizegetusa (Sarmizegetuza), A.D. 105. During Trajan's reign one of the most important Roman successes was the victory over the Dacians. The first important confrontation between the Romans and the Dacians took place in the year 87 and was initiated by Domitian. The praetorian prefect Cornelius Fuscus led five or six 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 general was originally known as Diurpaneus (see Manea, p.109), but after this victory he was called Decebalus ("theb
16 • "De Imperatoribus Romanis". "In the year 88, the Romans resumed the offensive. The Roman troops were now led by the general Tettius Julianus. The battle took place again at Tapae but this time the Romans defeated the Dacians. For fear of falling into a trap, Julianus abandoned his plans of conquering Sarmizegetuza and, at the same time, Decebalus asked for peace. At first, Domitian refused this request, but after he was defeated in a war in Pannonia against the Marcomanni (a Germanic tribe), the emperor was obliged to accept the peace."
17 • "De Imperatoribus Romanis" (Assorted Imperial Battle Descriptions). An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
18 • Michael Schmitz The Dacian threat, 101-106 AD Caeros 2005 Pg 30 ISBN 0-9758445-0-4
19 • Michael Schmitz Pg 7 - 8
20 • Michael Schmitz Pg 8



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