The Roman emperor Trajan, or Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, was the first non-Italian emperor and a military leader of established experience loved both by the army and the Senate. He expanded Rome's territory to its farthest limits, and his designation as optimus princeps, "the best of princes," attests to his reputation.
Background
Ethnicity:
Trajan's non-patrician family was of Italian and Iberian origin.
Marcus Ulpius Traianus was born on September 18, 53 AD in Italica, Hispania (now Province of Seville, Andalusia, Spain); the son of Marcia, a Roman noblewoman and sister-in-law of the second Flavian Emperor Titus, and Marcus Ulpius Traianus, a prominent senator and general from the gens Ulpia. His elder sister was Ulpia Marciana, and his niece was Salonina Matidia.
Career
Trajan served 10 years as a legionary staff tribune. He then held the traditional magistracies through the praetorship, which qualified him for command of a legion in Spain in 89. Trajan clearly enjoyed the favour of Domitian, who in 91 allowed him to hold one of the two consulships, which, even under the empire, remained most prestigious offices.
When Nerva succeeded the murdered Domitian in 96, it was by no means certain that the armies would accept a nice old unknown emperor. The danger from ambitious generals was so real that Nerva adopted Trajan, the commander of the nearest armies (on the Rhine), and made him successor even though he was a native of Italica, a Romanized town of Spain. Henceforth non-Italian lineage was no bar to even the highest position in the empire.
Trajan seems to have decided to correct Domitian's policy of "weakness" toward the Dacians. The result was two Dacian Wars (101-102 and 105-106), the first apparently sought by Rome, the second clearly a Dacian try for revenge. After the first war Dacia was humbled; after the second it was annexed. Trajan doubtless recognized the economic value of Dacia (roughly, modern Romania), but he must also have seen the wisdom of advancing a wedge of Roman territory between Rome's possible barbarian enemies, the Germans to the west and the Sarmatians to the east. Dacia in time became thoroughly Latinized, and the Romanians today speak a romance language.
Also in 106 the client king of the Nabateans died, and Trajan ordered his territory-approximately modern Sinai, the Negeb, and Jordan-annexed as the province of Arabia. Parthia, embracing essentially modern Iraq and Iran, was the only major power Rome faced, and the two were constantly at odds as to who should control Armenia, which was strategically important to both. When the question boiled up again, Trajan decided to annex Armenia, which he did (114) with little fighting. Armenia could hardly be held, however, if the Parthians could attack it from Mesopotamia, and in 115 Trajan occupied northern Mesopotamia.
In 116 he continued south, took the Parthian capital, and advanced to the Persian Gulf. Trajan organized his new conquest into provinces, but revolts broke out behind him everywhere. Even within the empire the Jews erupted in a bitter revolt, massacring the Gentiles where they could and being massacred in return. Trajan intended to restore order and resume the war, but he died suddenly (117), and his successor, Hadrian, made peace with Parthia and abandoned the Eastern provinces except Arabia.
Though Trajan's public works were widespread throughout the empire, the most important were in Italy: roads, especially the Via Traiana in the south; large improvements to Claudius's artificial harbor at Ostia; and particularly the immense forum in Rome, surrounded by halls, libraries, and shops and centering on the most famous of all Trajan's works, the great column commemorating his Dacian victories.
Trajan's administrative measures were chiefly designed to preserve the prosperity of Italy. He extended Nerva's scheme of alimenta, low-cost state loans to farmers, whose repayment went to the local communities for the support of poor children. Since the finances of some of the towns were becoming chaotic, he appointed temporary imperial officials, curatores, to control the town budgets. Like the alimenta, this system also spread, and the temporary officials tended to become permanent. Trajan even extended the practice to whole provinces, and his correspondence with his appointee Pliny the Younger shows how petty were the matters which might be referred to the central authority.
Trajan was one of the greatest Roman emperors. During his rule the empire reached its maximum expansion with the conquest of Dacia (present Romania) and of vast Eastern territories (Arabia, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Assyria).
The acquisition of new riches allowed Trajan to lead a social policy in favor of the poor and to accomplish a grandiose program of public works in Rome and in the provinces.
Religion
Among medieval Christian theologians, Trajan was considered a virtuous pagan.
Politics
The two most important aspects of Trajan's reign were his forward policy on the frontiers and his administrative and building activities, particularly with regard to Italy.
He behaved with respect and affability toward the Senate. He was generous to the populace of Rome, to whom he distributed considerable cash gifts, and increased the number of poor citizens who received free grain from the state. He also lessened taxes and was probably responsible for an innovation—the institution of public funds (alimenta) for the support of poor children in the Italian cities. For the administration of the provinces, Trajan tried to secure competent and honest officials.
In his military campaigns, Trajan is renowned chiefly for abandoning the policy, established by Augustus and generally adhered to by his successors, of not extending the Roman frontiers.
Personality
The ancients never revised their opinion that Trajan was the best of the emperors, and his reign did inaugurate almost a century in which nearly all elements of the empire worked in harmony, but modern historians have some reservations. Both in money and in manpower his wars overstrained Rome's resources, and his moving the imperial government into local administration started the trend to that overlarge, overworked bureaucracy whose cost (bureaucrats must be paid) and cumbersomeness ultimately contributed to the collapse of the empire.
It has been also remarked by later authors that Trajan was personally inclined towards homosexuality, far in excess of the usual bisexual activity that was common among upper class Roman men of the period. Trajan's putative lovers included Hadrian, pages of the imperial household, the actor Pylades, a dancer called Apolaustus, Lucius Licinius Sura, and Nerva.
Quotes from others about the person
Dio Cassius: "He was most conspicous for his justice, for his bravery, and for the simplicity of his habits... He did not envy or slay any one, but honoured and exalted all good men without exception, and hence he neither feared nor hated any of them. To slanders he paid very little heed, and he was no slave of anger. He refrained from taking other people's money, and from unjust murders. He expended vast sums on wars and vast sums on works of peace; and while making very many urgently needed repairs to roads and harbours and public buildings, he drained no one's blood in any of these undertakings... He joined others in the chase and in banquets, as well as in their labours and plans and jests... He would enter the houses of citizens, sometimes even without a guard, and enjoy himself there. Education in the strictest sense he lacked, but its substance he both knew and applied. I know, of course, that he was devoted to boys and wine. And if he had ever committed or endured any base or wicked act as the result of these practices, he would have incurred censure. As it was however, he drank all the wine he wanted, yet remained sober. And in his relations with boys he harmed no one."
Connections
Trajan married Pompeia Plotina, a noble woman from the Roman settlement at Nîmes; the marriage ultimately remained childless. However, Trajan had an adopted son, Hadrian. In about 86, Trajan's cousin P. Aelius Afer died, leaving his young children Hadrian and Paulina orphans. Trajan and a colleague of his, Publius Acilius Attianus, became co-guardians of the two children.
Father:
Marcus Ulpius Traianus
Marcus Ulpius Traianus Maior (c. 30 AD – before 100 AD) was a Roman senator who lived in the 1st century. He was father to the Roman Emperor Trajan.
Marcus was the first to have a career in the imperial service. He became a provincial governor and in 67–68 commander of a legion in the war the future emperor Vespasian was conducting against the Jews. In 70 Vespasian, by then emperor, rewarded him with a consulship and a few years later enrolled him among the patricians. Finally, he became governor, successively, of Syria and Asia.
Mother:
Marcia
Marcia (about 33-before 100) was an ancient Roman noblewoman and the mother of the emperor Trajan. She was also a sister-in-law of the second Flavian Emperor Titus.
Sister:
Ulpia Marciana
Ulpia Marciana (August 48 – 112) was the beloved elder sister of Roman Emperor Trajan. After 105, her brother awarded her with the title of Augusta. She was the first sister of a Roman Emperor to receive this title. Marciana would often travel with her brother and assist him in decision making. Throughout the Roman Empire, Marciana was honored with monuments and inscriptions in her name.
niece:
Salonia Matidia
Salonia Matidia (4 July 68 CE – 23 December 119 CE) was the daughter and only child of Ulpia Marciana and wealthy praetor Gaius Salonius Matidius Patruinus. Her maternal uncle was the Roman emperor Trajan. Trajan had no children and treated her like his daughter. Her father died in 78 CE and Matidia went with her mother to live with Trajan and his wife, Pompeia Plotina.
Wife:
Pompeia Plotina
Pompeia Plotina Claudia Phoebe Piso was a Roman Empress and wife of Roman Emperor Trajan. She was renowned for her interest in philosophy, and her virtue, dignity and simplicity. She was particularly devoted to the Epicurean philosophical school in Athens, Greece.
Trajan: Optimus Princeps (Roman Imperial Biographies)
Did Trajan really deserve his reputation as the embodiment of all imperial virtues? Why did Dante, writing in the Middle Ages, place him in the sixth sphere of Heaven among the Just and Temperate rulers? In this, the only biography of Trajan available in English, Julian Bennett rigorously tests the substance of this glorious reputation. Surprisingly, for a Roman emperor, Trajan comes through the test with his reputation relatively intact.
Trajan: Lion of Rome, the Untold Story of Rome's Greatest Emperor
In the year 67 AD Roman rule in Palestine descends into chaos when the Jews rise to dispel their masters. Emperor Vespasian calls upon Trajan's father Traianus, commander of the famed Tenth Legion, to help defeat the rebellion. After a terrible war Trajan resolves to become a soldier like him. As a young general and successful beyond his own expectations he is soon drawn into the conflict between the tyrant Emperor Domitian and Nerva, leader of the Senate. Nerva prevails, becomes emperor and appoints Trajan as his successor. His rule is tumultuous and short, and when Nerva dies Trajan s time has come. Can he prove himself against the temptations of power and the siren song of military glory? Can he defeat rapacious northern raiders from Dacia and hold off the Parthian empire - and at the same time retain his dignity in the face of unrelenting challenges from all sides? In Trajan - Lion of Rome the ancient world comes alive. Based on factual events, C.R.H. Wildfeuer takes the reader with him on a great adventure and to a time when the Roman empire controlled the western world from Scotland to the Persian Gulf. Enjoy this epic tale of political intrigue, social struggles, ambitious women and gruesome battles.
Lives of the Later Caesars: The First Part of the Augustan History, with Newly Compiled Lives of Nerva & Trajan
One of the most controversial of all works to survive from ancient Rome, the Augustan History is our main source of information about the Roman emperors from 117 to 284 AD. Written in the late fourth century by an anonymous author, it is an enigmatic combination of truth, invention and humour. This volume contains the first half of the History, and includes biographies of every emperor from Hadrian to Heliogabalus - among them the godlike Marcus Antonius and his grotesquely corrupt son Commodus. The History contains many fictitious (but highly entertaining) anecdotes about the depravity of the emperors, as the author blends historical fact and faked documents to present our most complete - albeit unreliable - account of the later Roman Caesars. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Trajan’s Column
Trajan's column is surely the most famous Roman monument in the world, appreciated for very different reasons by historians, archaeologists, art historians and the general public. In recent years much concern has been expressed about the effects on the column of modern pollution, but more than a century ago casts were made of the entire column for Napoleon III, and , at the beginning of the century, photographs of these casts were published by Conrad Cichorius. They form an essential record for the students of today, but are now very difficult to come by. First published in 1988 and here extensively revised, this book re-publishes Cichorius's Plates (the complete series) and supplies in addition a new and detailed introduction, a full Commentary on all the reliefs, and some twenty-six specialised notes dealing with the design of the column, the chronological, archaeological and topographical problems affecting its interpretation and our understanding of those wars. This is the most comprehensive and best illustrated book on the Column yet written. See:
