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TRAJAN [MARCUS ULPIUS TRAJANUS] (A. D...
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See also:TRAJAN [See also:MARCUS ULPIUS TRAJANUS] (A. D. 53-117) , See also:Roman See also:emperor, was See also:born at Italica, in See also:Spain, on the 18th of See also:September 52 (or 53). The See also:family to which he belonged was probably See also:Italian and not Iberian by See also:blood. His See also:father began as a See also:common legionary soldier, and fought his way up to the consulship and the governorship of See also:Asia. The younger Trajan was rigorously trained by him, and imbued with the same principles and tastes. He was a soldier born and bred. No better representative of the true old See also:hardy Roman type, little softened by either luxury or See also:education, had come to the See also:head of affairs since the days of See also:Marius. His training was almost exclusively military, but his experience as an officer gave him an acquaintance with almost every important See also:province of the See also:empire, which was of priceless value to him when he came to the See also:throne. For ten years he held a See also:commission as military See also:tribune, which took him to many lands far asunder; then he filled important posts in See also:Syria and Spain. By the See also:year 89 he had achieved a considerable military reputation. At that See also:time L. See also:Antonius See also:Saturninus headed a See also:rebellion in See also:Germany, which threatened seriously to bring See also:Domitian's See also:rule to an end. Trajan was ordered in hot haste from Further Spain to the See also:Rhine. Although he carried his troops over that See also:long and arduous See also: See also:Licinius Sura, TRAJAN a lifelong friend of Trajan, and on the 27th of See also:October in the year 97 he ascended the Capitol and proclaimed that he adopted Trajan as his son. The senate confirmed the choice and acknowledged the emperor's adopted son as his successor. After a little hesitation Trajan accepted the position, which was marked by the titles of imperator, See also:Caesar and Germanicus, and by the tribunician authority. He immediately proceeded to See also:Lower Germany, to assure himself of the fidelity of the troops in that province, and while at See also:Cologne he received See also:news of Nerva's See also:death (See also:Jan. 25, 98). The authority of the new emperor was recognized at once all over the empire. The novel fact that a See also:master of the See also:Romans should have been born or. See also:Spanish See also:soil seems to have passed with little remark, and this See also:absence of See also:notice is significant. Trajan's first care as emperor was to write to the senate an assurance like that which had been given by Nerva, that he would neither kill nor degrade any senator. He ordered the See also:establishment of a See also:temple and cult in See also:honour of his adoptive father, but he did not come to Rome. In his dealings with the mutinous See also:praetorians the strength of the new emperor's See also:hand was shown at once. He ordered a portion of the force to Germany. They did not venture to disobey, and were distributed among the legions there. Those who remained at Rome were easily overawed and reformed. It is still more surprising that the soldiers should have quietly submitted to a reduction in the amount of the donative or See also:gift which it was customary for them to receive from a new emperor, though the See also:civil See also:population of the See also:capital were paid their largess (congiarium) in full. By politic management Trajan was able to represent the diminution as a sort of See also:discount for immediate See also:payment, while the civilians had to wait a considerable time before their full due was handed to them. The See also:secret of Trajan's See also:power See also:lay in his See also:close personal relations with the See also:officers and men of the army and in the soldierly qualities which commanded their esteem. He possessed courage, See also:justice and frankness. Having a See also:good See also:title to military distinction himself, he could afford, as the unwarlike emperors could not, to be generous to his officers. The common soldiers, on the other hand, were fascinated by his personal prowess and his camaraderie. His features were See also:firm and clearly cut; his figure was tall and soldierly. His See also:hair was already See also:grey before he came to the throne, though he was not more than See also:forty-five years old. When on service he used the mean fare of the common private, dining on See also:salt pork, See also:cheese and sour See also:wine. Nothing pleased him better than to take See also:part with the See also:centurion or the soldier in See also:fencing or other military exercise, and he would applaud any shrewd See also:blow which See also:fell upon his own See also:helmet. He loved to display his acquaintance with the career of distinguished veterans, and to talk with them of their battles and their wounds. Probably he lost nothing of his popularity with the army by occasional See also:indulgence in sensual pleasures. Yet every See also:man See also:felt and knew that no detail of military See also:duty, how-ever See also:minute, escaped the emperor's See also:eye, and that any relaxation of discipline would be punished rigorously, yet with unwavering justice. Trajan emphasized at once his personal control and the constitutionality of his sway by bearing on his See also:campaigns the actual title of " proconsul, " which no other emperor had done. All things considered, it is not surprising that he was able, without serious opposition from the army, entirely to remodel the military institutions of the empire, and to bring them into a shape from which there was comparatively lit tie departure so long a.s the army lasted. In disciplinary matters no emperor since Augustus had been able to keep so strong a control over the troops. See also:Pliny rightly praises Trajan as the lawgiver and the founder of discipline, and See also:Vegetius classes Augustus, Trajan and See also:Hadrian together as restorers of the morale of the army. The confidence which existed between Trajan and his army finds expression in some of the coins of his reign. For nearly two years after his See also:election Trajan did not appear in Rome. He had decided already what the See also:great task of his reign should be—the establishment of See also:security upon the dangerous See also:north-eastern frontier. Before visiting the capital he determined to put affairs in See also:train for the attainment of this See also:object. He made a thorough inspection of the great lines of See also:defence between the See also:Danube and the Rhine, and framed and partly carried out a vast See also:scheme for strengthening and securing them. The policy of opposing uncivilized tribes by the construction of the limes, a raised See also:embankment of See also:earth or other material, intersected here and there by fortifications, was not his invention, but it owed in great measure its development to him. It is probable that the northernmost part of the great limes Germaniae, from the Rhine at Rheinbrohl, nearly midway between See also:Coblenz and See also:Bonn, to a point on the See also:Main See also:east of See also:Frankfort, where that See also:river suddenly changes its course from north to See also:west, was begun by Domitian. The See also:extension of this great barrier southwards to the point at which it met the limes Raetiae was undertaken by Trajan, though we cannot say how far he carried the See also:work, which was not entirely completed till long after his time. We may without hesitation follow the See also:opinion of See also:Mommsen, who maintains that the limes was not intended, like Hadrian's See also:Wall between the See also:Tyne and the Solway, and like the From wall of See also:China, to oppose an See also:absolute barrier against incursions from the outside. It was useful as marking definitely the boundary of the Roman sway, and as assuring the Romans that no inroad could be made without intelligence being had of it beforehand, while the limes itself and the See also:system of roads behind it enabled troops to be directed rapidly to any threatened point, and the fortified positions could be held against large See also:numbers till reinforcements arrived. Great importance was no doubt attached to the perfection of the lines of communication bearing on the limes. Among a See also:people of roadmakers, Trajan was one of the greatest, and we have definite See also:evidence from See also:inscriptions that some of the military roads in this region were constructed by him. The more secure control which the Romans now maintained over the territory within the limes tended to its rapid See also:civilization, and the Roman See also:influence, i( not the Roman arms, soon began to affect powerfully the regions beyond. After his careful survey of the Rhine end of the frontier defences, Trajan proceeded to strengthen them in the direction of the Danube. From the See also:age of Tiberius onwards the Romans possessed the whole See also:southern See also:bank of the river from its source to the Euxine. But the See also:precarious See also:tenure of their See also:possession had been deeply impressed on them by the disasters and humiliations they had undergone in these districts during the reign of Domitian. A See also:prince had arisen among the Dacians, Decebalus by name, worthy to be placed at the head of all the great See also:barbarian antagonists of Rome. Like Maroboduus, he was able to combine the forces of tribes commonly hostile to each other, and his military ability almost went the length of See also:genius. Domitian attacked him but was compelled to make an ignominious See also:peace. He agreed to pay to Decebalus an See also:annual See also:subsidy, and to See also:supply him with See also:engineers and craftsmen skilled in all kinds of construction, but particularly in the erection of fortifications and defensive See also:works. During the nine or ten years which had elapsed since the conclusion of this remarkable treaty the Dacian prince had immensely strengthened the approaches to his See also:kingdom from the Roman See also:side. He had also equipped and drilled his formidable army after the Roman See also:fashion. It was impossible for a soldier like Trajan to endure the conditions accepted by Domitian; but the See also:conquest of See also:Dacia had become one of the most formidable tasks that had ever confronted the empire. Trajan no doubt planned a See also:war before he See also:left the Danube for Rome See also:late in 99. The arrival of the emperor had been awaited in the capital with an impatience which is expressed by Pliny and by See also:Martial.' As he entered the See also:city and went on foot to the Capitol the plaudits of the people were unmistakably genuine. During his stay in the city he riveted more firmly still the affections both of the senate and of the people. The reconciliation of the empire with See also:liberty, inaugurated, as See also:Tacitus says, by Nerva, seemed now to be securely achieved. Trajan was absolutely open and See also:simple, and lived with men at Rome as he had lived with his soldiers while on service. He realized the senate's ideal of the See also:citizen ruler. The assurance that no senator should suffer was renewed by See also:oath. All the old republican formalities were most punctiliously observed—even those attendant on the emperor's election to the consulate, so far as they did not involve a restoration of the old See also:order of voting at the See also:comitia. The veneration for republican tradition is curiously attested by the See also:reproduction of many republican types of See also:coin struck It has been conjectured, not improbably, that the Germania of Tacitus, written at this See also:period, had for one of its aims the enlightenment of the Romans concerning the formidable See also:character of the Germans, so that they might at once See also:bear more readily with the emperor's prolonged absence and be prepared for the See also:necessity of decisive See also:action on the frontier.by senatorial officers. Trajan seized every opportunity for emphasizing his view that the princeps was merely the greatest of the magistrates, and so was not above but under the See also:laws. He was determined, he said, to be to his subjects such a ruler as he had desired for himself when a subject. Real power and influence were accorded to the senate, which had now, by the See also:incorporation of members whose origin was provincial, become in a manner representative of the whole empire. Trajan associated with the senators on equal terms, and enjoyed in their See also:company every See also:kind of recreation. All pomp was distasteful to him and discarded by him. There was practically no See also:court, and no intrigues of any kind were possible. The approach to his See also:house was See also:free, and he loved to pass through the city unattended and to pay unexpected visits to his See also:friends. He thirsted for no senator's blood, and used severity against the delatores alone. There was but one insignificant See also:conspiracy against him during his whole reign. Though not See also:literary himself, Trajan conciliated the literary men, who at all times had close relations with the senate. His intimate, M. Licinius, played an excellent See also:Maecenas to his Augustus. In his efforts to win the affections of Roman society Trajan was aided by his wife Plotina, who was as simple as her See also:husband, benevolent, pure in character, and entirely unambitious. The hold which Trajan acquired over the people was no less firm than that which he maintained upon the army and the senate. his largesses, his distributions of See also:food, his public works, and his See also:spectacles were all on a generous See also:scale. The exhibitions in the See also:arena were perhaps at their See also:zenith during his tenure of power. Though, for some unexplained See also:reason, he abolished the mimes, so beloved of the populace, at the outset of his reign, he availed himself of the occasion of his first See also:triumph to restore them again. The people were delighted by the removal of the imperial See also:exedra (a large chamber with open front) in the See also:circus, whereby five thousand additional places were provided. See also:Taxation was in many directions reduced, and the See also:financial exactions of the imperial officers controlled by the erection of a See also:special court. Elaborate precautions were taken to See also:save Italy from See also:famine; it is said that See also:corn for seven years' See also:consumption at the capital was retained in the See also:granaries. Special encouragement was given to merchants to import articles of food. The See also:corporation of bakers was organized and made more effective for the service of the public. The See also:internal See also:trade of Italy was powerfully stimulated by the careful See also:maintenance and extension of the different lines of road. But the most striking evidence of Trajan's solicitude for his people's welfare is found in his institution of the alimenta, whereby means were provided for the rearing of poor and See also:orphan See also:children in Italy. The method had been sketched out by Nerva, but its great development was due to Trajan. The moneys allotted by the emperor were in many cases supplemented by private benevolence. As a soldier, Trajan realized the need of men for the maintenance of the empire against the See also:outer barbarians, and he preferred that these men should be of Italian See also:birth. He was only carrying a step farther the policy of Augustus, who by a system of rewards and penalties had tried to encourage See also:marriage and the nurture of children. The actual- effect of Trajan's regulations is hard to measure; they were probably more effectual for their object than those of Augustus. The See also:foundations were confiscated by See also:Pertinax, after they had existed less than a century. On the 1st of September in the year See also:ioo, when Trajan was See also:consul for the third time, Pliny, who had been designated consul for a part of the year, was appointed to deliver the " See also:Panegyric " which has come down to us, and forms a most important source of our knowledge concerning this emperor. Pliny's eulogy of Trajan and his denunciation of Domitian are alike couched in extravagant phrases, but the former perhaps rests more uniformly on a basis of truth and justice than the latter. The See also:tone of the " Panegyric " certainly lends itself to the supposition of sorr.e historians that Trajan was inordinately vain. That the emperor had an honest and soldierly See also:satisfaction in his own well-doing is clear; but if he had had anything like the vanity of a Domitian, the senate, ever eager to outrun a ruler's See also:taste for flattery, would never have kept within such moderate See also:bounds. On the 25th of March in the year tor Trajan left Rome for the Danube. Pretexts for a Dacian war were not difficult to find. Although there was no lack of hard fighting, victory in this war depended largely on the work of the engineer. The great military road connecting the posts in Upper Germany with those on the Danube, which had been begun by Tiberius, was now extended along the right bank of the river as far as the See also:modern Orsova. The See also:campaign of rot was devoted mainly to road-making and fortification. In the following campaign, after desperate fighting to the north of the Danube in the mountainous region of Transylvania, Sarmizegethusa, the capital of Decebalus, was taken, and he was forced to terms. He agreed to raze all fortresses, to surrender all weapons, prisoners and Roman deserters, and to become a dependent prince under the See also:suzerainty of Rome. Trajan came back to Italy with Dacian envoys, who in See also:ancient See also:style begged the senate to confirm the conditions granted by the See also:commander in the See also: In ro5 began the new struggle, which on the side of Decebalus could now only See also:lead to victory or to destruction. The Dacians fought their ground See also:inch by inch, and their army as a whole may be said to have bled to death. The prince put an end to his own life. His kingdom became an imperial province; in it many colonies were founded and peopled by settlers See also:drawn from different parts of the empire. The work done by Trajan in the Danubian regions left a lasting See also:mark upon their See also:history. The emperor returned to the capital in See also:rod, laden with captured treasure. His triumph outdid in splendour all those that went before it. See also:Games are said to have been held continuously for four months. Ten thousand See also:gladiators are said to have perished in the arena, and eleven thousand beasts were killed in the contests. Congratulatory embassies came from all lands, even from See also:India. The See also:grand and enduring See also:monument of the Dacian See also:wars is the See also:noble See also:pillar which still stands on the site of Trajan's forum at Rome. The end of the Dacian wars was followed by seven years of peace. During part of that time Pliny was imperial legate in the provinces of See also:Bithynia and See also:Pontus, and in See also:constant communication with Trajan. The See also:correspondence is extant and gives us the means of observing the principles and tendencies of the emperor as a civil See also:governor. The provinces (hitherto senatorial) were in considerable disorder, which Pliny was sent to cure. It is clear from the emperor's letters that in regard to nine out of ten of the matters which his anxious and deferential legate referred to him for his decision he would have been better pleased if the legate had decided them for him-self. Trajan's notions of civil See also:government were, like those of the See also:duke of See also:Wellington, strongly tinged with military prepossessions. He regarded the provincial ruler as a kind of officer in command, who ought to be able to 'discipline his province for himself and only to See also:appeal to the' commander-in-chief ih a difficult See also:case. In advising Pliny about the different free communities in the provinces, Trajan showed the same regard for traditional rights and privileges which he had exhibited in See also:face of the senate at Rome. At the same time, these letters bring See also:home to us his conviction that, particularly in financial affairs, it was necessary that See also:local self-government should be carried on under the vigilant super-See also:vision of imperial officers. The control which he began in this way to exercise, both in Italy and in the provinces, over the " municipia " and " libcrae civitates," by means of agents entitled (then or later) " correctores civitatium liberarum," was carried continually farther and farther by his successors, and at last ended in the See also:complete centralization of the government. On this See also:account the reign of Trajan constitutes a turning-point in civil as in military history. In other directions, though we find many salutary civil See also:measures, yet there were no far-reaching schemes of reform. Many details in the See also:administration of the See also:law, and particularly of the criminal law, were improved. To cure corruption in the senate the ballotwas introduced at elections to magistracies. The finances of the See also:state were economically managed, and taxpayers were most carefully guarded from oppression. Trajan never lacked See also:money to expend on great works of public utility; as a builder, he may fairly be compared with Augustus. His forum and its numerous appendages were constructed on a magnificent scale. Many regions of Italy and the provinces besides the city itself benefited by the care and munificence which the emperor bestowed on such public improvements. His attitude towards See also:religion was, like that of Augustus, moderate and conservative. The famous See also:letter to Pliny about the Christians is, according to Roman ideas, merciful and considerate. It was impossible, however, for a Roman See also:magistrate of the time to rid himself of the See also:idea that all forms of religion must do See also:homage to the civil power. Hence the conflict which made Trajan appear in the eyes of Christians like See also:Tertullian the most infamous of monsters. On the whole, Trajan's civil administration was See also:sound, careful and sensible, rather than brilliant. Late in 113 Trajan left Italy to make war in the East. The never-ending See also:Parthian problem confronted him, and with it were more or less connected a number of See also:minor difficulties. Already by io6 the position of Rome in the East had been materially improved by the peaceful See also:annexation of districts bordering on the province of Syria. The region of See also:Damascus, hitherto a dependency, and the last remaining fragment of the Jewish kingdom, were incorporated with Syria; Bostra and See also:Petra were permanently occupied, and a great portion of the Nabataean kingdom was organized as the Roman province of See also:Arabia. Rome thus obtained mastery of the most important positions lying on the great trade routes between East and West. These changes could not but affect the relations of the Roman with the Parthian Empire, and the affairs of See also:Armenia became in 114 the occasion of a war. Trajan's campaigns in the East ended in complete though brilliant failure. In the See also:retreat from See also:Ctesiphon (117) the old emperor tasted for almost the first time the bitterness of defeat in the field. He attacked the See also:desert city of Hatra, westward of the See also:Tigris, whose importance is still attested by grand ruins. The want of See also:water made it impossible to maintain a large force near the city, and the brave See also:Arabs routed the Roman See also:cavalry. Trajan, who narrowly escaped being killed, was forced to withdraw. A more alarming difficulty lay before him. Taking See also:advantage of the absence of the emperor in the Far East, and possibly by an understanding with the leaders of the rising in Armenia and the annexed portions of See also:Parthia, the See also:Jews all over the East had taken up arms at the same moment and at a given See also:signal. The massacres they committed were portentous. In See also:Cyprus 240,000 men are said to have been put to death, and at See also:Cyrene 220,000. At See also:Alexandria, on the other hand, many Jews were killed. The Romans punished See also:massacre by massacre, and the complete suppression of the insurrection was long delayed, but the Jews made no great stand against disciplined troops. Trajan still thought of returning to See also:Mesopotamia and of avenging his defeat at Hatra, but he was stricken with sickness and compelled to take See also:ship for Italy. His illness increasing, he landed in See also:Cilicia, and died at See also:Selinus See also:early in See also:August i i 7. Trajan, who had no children, had continually delayed to See also:settle the See also:succession to the throne, though Pliny in the ` Panegyric" had pointedly drawn his See also:attention to the See also:matter, and it must have caused the senate much anxiety. Whether Hadrian, the relative of Trajan (See also:cousin's son), was actually adopted by him or not. is impossible to determine; certainly Hadrian had not been advanced to any great honours by Trajan. Even his military service had not been distinguished. Plotina asserted the See also:adoption, and it was readily and most fortunately accepted, if not believed, as a fact. The senate had decreed to Trajan as many triumphs as he See also:chose to celebrate. For the first time a dead See also:general triumphed. When Trajan was deified, he appropriately retained, alone among the emperors, a title he, had won for himself in the field, that of " Parthicus." He was a patient organizer of victory rather than a strategic genius. He laboriously perfected the military See also:machine, which when once set in See also:motion went on to victory. Much of the work he did was great and enduring, but the last year of his life forbade the Romans to attribute to him that felicitas which they regarded as all inborn quality of the highest generals. Each succeeding emperor was saluted with the wish that he might be better than Trajan and more fortunate than Augustus." Yet the See also:breach made in Trajan's felicilds by the failure in the East was no greater than that made in the fehcitas of Augustus by his retirement from the right bank of the Rhine. The question whether Trajan's See also:Oriental' policy was See also:wise is answered emphatically by Mommsen in the affirmative. It was certainly wise if the means existed which were necessary to carry it out and sustain it. But succeeding history proved that those means did not exist. The assertion of Mommsen that the Tigris was a more defensible frontier than the desert See also:line which separated the Parthian from the Roman Empire can hardly be accepted. The See also:change would certainly have created a demand for more legions, which the resources of the Romans were not sufficient to meet without danger to their possessions on other frontiers. The records of Trajan's reign are miserably deficient. Our best authority is the 68th See also:book of Dio See also:Cassius; then comes the " Panegyric " of Pliny, with his correspondence. The facts to be gathered from other ancient writers are scattered and scanty. Fortunately the inscriptions of the time are abundant and important. Of modern histories which comprise the reign of Trajan the best in See also:English is that of See also:Merivale; but that in See also:German by H. See also:Schiller (Geschichte der rOmischen Kaiserzeit, See also:Gotha, 1883) is more on a level with See also:recent inquiries. There are special works on Trajan by H. See also:Francke (Giistrow, 1837), De la Berge (See also:Paris, 1877), and Dierauer in M. Budinger's Untersuchungen zur ronzischen Kaisergeschichte, (See also:Leipzig, 1868). A See also:paper by Mommsen in See also:Hermes, iii. pp. 3o seq., entitled " Zur Lebensgeschichte See also:des jungeren Plinius," is important for the See also:chronology of Trajan's reign. The inscriptions of the reign, and the Dacian campaigns, have been much studied in recent years, in scattered articles and monographs. (J. S. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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