TRAJAN

By J. S. REID, Litt.D.

(53-117)

[Illustration: Trajan.]

The Roman Empire reached its greatest extent under Marcus Ulpius

Traianus, the fourteenth emperor. Of him it was said that he "built

the world over," and the Romans themselves regarded him as the best,

and perhaps the greatest of their emperors. He was a native of

Italica, in Spain. The family to which he belonged was probably

Italian, and not Iberian, by blood. His father began life as a common

legionary soldier, and fought his way up to the consulship and the

governorship of Asia. He was one of the hardest fighters in Judaea

under Vespasian and Titus; he served, too, against the Parthians, and

won the highest military distinction open to a subject, the grant of

the triumphal insignia. Thus he acquired a prominent place among the

brand new patricians created by the Flavians as substitutes for the

nobles of old descent who had succumbed to the cruelty and rapacity of

the emperors from Tiberius to Nero.

The younger Trajan was rigorously trained by his father, and deeply

imbued with the same principles and tastes. He was a soldier born and

bred. No better representative of the true old hardy Roman type,

little softened either by luxury or education, had come to the head

of affairs since the days of Marius. The date of his birth was

probably 53 A.D. His training was almost exclusively military, but his

experience as an officer gave him an acquaintance with almost every

important province of the empire, which was of priceless value to him

when he came to the throne. For ten years he held a commission as

military tribune, which took him to many lands far asunder; then he

filled important posts in Syria and Spain. How much actual warfare

Trajan saw in those days we can hardly tell; he certainly went through

some severe service under his father's command against the Parthians.

By the year 89 he had achieved a considerable reputation. At that time

L. Antonius Saturninus headed a rebellion in Germany, which threatened

seriously to bring Domitian's rule to an end. Trajan was ordered in

hot haste from Farther Spain to the Rhine. Although he carried his

troops over that long and arduous march with almost unexampled

rapidity, he only arrived after the insurrection had been put down.

But his promptitude raised him higher in the favor of Domitian, and he

was advanced to the consulship in 91. Of the next five years of his

life we know nothing positively. It is not unlikely that they were

spent at Rome or in Italy in the fulfilment of some official duties.

When the revolution of 96 came, and Nerva replaced the murdered

Domitian, Trajan had conferred upon him one of the most important

posts in the Empire, that of consular legate of Upper Germany. An

officer whose nature, as the event showed, was interpenetrated with

the spirit of legality, was a fitting servant of a revolution whose

aim it was to substitute legality for personal caprice, as the

dominant principle of affairs. The short reign of Nerva really did

start the Empire on a new career, which lasted more than

three-quarters of a century. But it also demonstrated how impossible

it was for any one to govern at all who had no claim, either personal

or inherited, to the respect of the legions. Nerva saw that if he

could not find an Augustus to control the army, the army would find

another Domitian to trample the Senate under foot. In his difficulties

he took counsel with L. Licinius Sura, a lifelong friend of Trajan,

and in October, 97, he ascended the Capitol, and with all due

solemnity proclaimed that he adopted Trajan as his son.

The Senate confirmed the choice, and acknowledged the emperor's

adopted son as his successor. In a letter which Nerva sent at once to

Trajan, he quoted most significantly a line from the beginning of the

"Iliad," where Chryses, insulted by Achilles, prays to Apollo: "May

thy shafts afford me vengeance on the Greeks for my tears." After a

little hesitation Trajan accepted the position, which was marked by

the titles of Imperator, Caesar, and Germanicus, and by the tribunician

authority. He immediately proceeded to Lower Germany, to assure

himself of the fidelity of the troops in that province, and while at

Cologne he received news of Nerva's death (January, 98).

The authority of the new emperor was recognized at once all the Empire

over. The novel fact that a master of the Romans should have been born

on Spanish soil seems to have passed with little remark, and this very

absence of 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 establishment of a temple and cult in honor of his adoptive

father, but he did not present himself at Rome for nearly two years

after his accession. Possibly he had taken measures before Nerva's

death to secure the revenge which Nerva craved, but probably did not

live to see. In his dealings with the mutinous praetorians the strength

of the new emperor's 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 gift which it was customary for them to receive from a

new emperor, though the civil population of the capital were paid

their largess (_congiarium_) in full. By politic management Trajan was

able to represent the diminution as a sort of discount for immediate

payment, while the civilians had to wait a considerable time before

their full due was handed to them.

The secret of Trajan's power lay in his close personal relations with

the officers and men of the army, and in the soldierly qualities which

commanded their esteem. He possessed courage, justice, and frankness

to a high degree. Having a good 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 somewhat ostentatious

_camaraderie_. His features were firm and clearly cut; his figure was

tall and soldierly, and exhibited the sinewy hard health of a veteran

campaigner. His hair was already gray before he came to the throne,

though he was not more than forty-four years old. The stoutness of the

emperor's arm had been proved in the face of his men in many a hard

fight. When on service he used the mean fare of the common private,

dining on salt pork, cheese, and sour wine. Nothing pleased him better

than to take part with the centurion, or the soldier in fencing or

other military exercise, and he would applaud any shrewd blow which

fell upon his own 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 free indulgence in sensual pleasures, with

which, as Bacon remarks, the soldier is apt to pay himself for the

perils he encounters. Yet every man felt and knew that no detail of

military duty, however minute, escaped the emperor's eye, and that any

relaxation of discipline would be rigidly punished, yet with

unwavering justice.

Trajan emphasized at once his personal control and the

constitutionality of his sway, by bearing on his 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, to remodel the whole military institutions

of the empire, and to bring them into a shape from which there was

comparatively little departure so long as the army lasted. In

disciplinary matters no emperor since Augustus had been able to keep

so strong a control over the troops. Pliny rightly praises Trajan as

the lawgiver and the founder of discipline, and Vegetius classes

Augustus, Trajan, and 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 election Trajan did not appear in Rome.

He had decided already what the great task of his reign should be--the

establishment of security upon the dangerous north-eastern frontier.

Before visiting the capital he determined to put affairs in train for

the attainment of this great object. He made a thorough inspection of

the great lines of defence between the Danube and the Rhine, and

framed, and partly carried out, a vast scheme for strengthening and

securing them. The policy of opposing uncivilized tribes by the

construction of the _limes_, a raised embankment of earth or other

material, intersected here and there by fortifications, was not his

invention, but it owed in great measure its development to him. This

grand work, which would have excited the envy of Augustus, is

traceable in its main extent at the present day. Among a people of

roadmakers, Trajan was one of the greatest, and we have definite

evidence from 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 civilization, and the Roman influence, if not the Roman

arms, soon began to affect powerfully the regions beyond.

After his careful survey of the Rhine end of the great defensive

barrier, Trajan proceeded to consider it and plan it from the Danube.

From the age of Tiberius onward, the Romans possessed the whole

southern bank of the river from its source to the Euxine. But the

precarious tenure of their possession, had been deeply impressed on

them by the disasters and humiliations they had undergone in these

districts during the reign of Domitian. A prince had arisen among the

Dacians, Decebalus by name, worthy to be placed at the head of all the

great 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 genius. After he had swept

the province of Moesia bare, he was defeated by one of Domitian's

lieutenants, but the position of affairs on the Danubio-Rhenish border

was still so threatening, that the emperor was glad to conclude a

treaty which conferred extraordinary advantages on his foe. Not only

did the Romans stipulate to pay to Decebalus an annual subsidy, which

he must have regarded as a tribute, but they agreed to supply him with

engineers and craftsmen skilled in all kinds of construction, but

particularly in the erection of fortifications and defensive 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 kingdom from the Roman side. He had also

equipped and drilled his formidable army after the Roman fashion. It

was impossible for a soldier like Trajan to endure the conditions

laid down by Domitian; but the conquest of Dacia had become one of the

most formidable tasks that had ever confronted the Empire. Trajan, no

doubt, planned a war before he left the Danube for Rome late in 99.

The arrival of the emperor had been awaited in the capital with an

impatience which is expressed by Pliny and by Martial. All that had

happened since Trajan's elevation to the throne had raised high at

Rome the hope of a prosperous and glorious reign. As he entered the

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 liberty, inaugurated, as Tacitus

says, by Nerva, seemed now to be securely achieved. Trajan was

absolutely open and 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 citizen ruler. The assurance that no senator should suffer was

renewed by 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 order of voting at the comitia. The veneration for republican

tradition is curiously attested by the reproduction of many republican

types of coin struck 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 laws. He was determined, he said, to be to his

subjects such a ruler as he had desired for himself when a subject.

There is a pretty story to the effect that he handed the commander of

the praetorians his sword, and said, "Use it for me if I do well, but

against me if I do ill." Martial, who had called Domitian his lord and

his god, now cried, "In him we have no lord, but an imperator!" Real

power and influence were accorded to the Senate, which had now, by the

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 company every kind of

recreation. All pomp was distasteful to him, and discarded by him.

There was practically no court, and no intrigues of any kind were

possible. The approach to his house was free, and he loved to pass

through the city unattended, and to pay unexpected visits to his

friends. He thirsted for no senator's blood, and used severity against

the _delatores_ alone. There was but one insignificant conspiracy

against him during his whole reign.

Though not literary himself, Trajan conciliated the literary men, who

at all times had close relations with the Senate. His intimate, M.

Licinius, played an excellent Maecenas to his Augustus. In his efforts

to win the affections of Roman society, Trajan was excellently aided

by his wife Plotina, who was as simple as her 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 food, his public works, and his spectacles were all

on a generous scale. The exhibitions in the arena were perhaps at

their zenith during his tenure of power. Though, for some unexplained

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

triumph to restore them again. The people were delighted by the

removal of the imperial _exedra_ in the circus, whereby five thousand

additional places were provided. Taxation was in many directions

reduced, and the financial exactions of the imperial officers

controlled by the erection of a special court. Elaborate precautions

were taken to save Italy from famine; it is said that corn for seven

years' consumption at the capital was retained in the granaries.

Special encouragement was given to merchants to import articles of

food. The corporation of bakers was organized, and made more effective

for the service of the public. The internal trade of Italy was

powerfully stimulated by the careful 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 orphan 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

outer barbarians, and he preferred that these men should be of Italian

birth. He was only carrying a step further the policy of Augustus, who

by a system of rewards and penalties had tried to encourage marriage

and the nurture of children. The annual effect of Trajan's regulations

is hard to measure; they were probably more effectual for their object

than those of Augustus. The foundations were confiscated by Pertinax,

after they had existed less than a century.

Toward the end of 100, or early in 101, 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 modern Orsova. The year 101 was spent mainly

in roadmaking and fortification. In the following campaign, after

desperate fighting to the north of the Danube in the mountainous

region of Transylvania, such as Caesar never encountered in all his

Gaulish wars, 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 suzerainty of Rome. Trajan came back to Italy with Dacian envoys,

who in ancient style begged the Senate to confirm the conditions

granted by the commander in the field. The emperor now enjoyed his

first Dacian triumph, and assumed the title of Dacicus. At the same

time he royally entertained the people, and no less royally rewarded

his brave officers.

But the Dacian chief could not school his high spirit to endure the

conditions of the treaty, and Trajan soon found it necessary to

prepare for another war. A massive stone bridge was built across the

Danube, near the modern Turn Severin, by Apollodorus, the gifted

architect who afterward designed the forum of Trajan. In 105 began the

new struggle, which on the side of Decebalus could now only lead to

victory or to destruction. The Dacians fought their ground 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

drawn from different parts of the empire. The work done by Trajan in

the Danubian regions left a lasting mark upon their history. The

emperor returned to the capital in 106, laden with captured treasure.

His triumph outdid in splendor all those that went before it. Games

are said to have been held continuously for four months. The chariot

races were the grandest ever seen. Ten thousand gladiators contended

in the arena, and eleven thousand beasts were killed in the contests.

Congratulatory embassies came from all lands, even from India. The

grand and enduring monument of the Dacian wars is the noble 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.

Many details in the administration of the law, and particularly of the

criminal law, were improved. To cure corruption in the Senate the

ballot was introduced at elections to magistracies. The finances of

the state were economically managed, and taxpayers were most carefully

guarded from oppression. Trajan never lacked 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 toward

religion was, like that of Augustus, moderate and conservative. The

famous letter to Pliny about the Christians is, according to Roman

ideas, merciful and considerate. It was impossible, however, for a

Roman magistrate of the time to rid himself of the idea that all forms

of religion must do homage to the civil power. Hence the conflict

which made Trajan appear in the eyes of Christians like Tertullian,

the most infamous of monsters. On the whole, Trajan's civil

administration was sound, careful, and sensible, rather than brilliant

or epoch-making.

[Illustration: Rome under Trajan--A chariot race.]

In 113 or 114 Trajan left Italy to make war in the East. The

never-ending Parthian problem confronted him, and with it were more or

less connected a number of minor difficulties. Already by 106 the

position of Rome in the East had been materially improved by the

peaceful annexation of districts bordering on the province of Syria.

The district of Damascus, hitherto a dependency, and the last

remaining fragment of the Jewish kingdom, were incorporated with

Syria; Bostra and Petra were permanently occupied, and a great portion

of the Nabathaean kingdom was constituted the Roman province of Arabia.

Rome thus obtained mastery of the most important positions lying on

the great trade-routes from East to West. These changes could not but

affect the relations of the Roman with the Parthian empire, and the

affairs of Armenia became, in 114, the occasion of war. Trajan's

campaigns in the East ended in complete though brilliant failure.

In the retreat from Ctesiphon (117), the old emperor tasted for almost

the first time the bitterness of defeat in the field. He attacked the

desert city of Hatra, westward of the Tigris, whose importance is

still attested by grand ruins. The want of water made it impossible to

maintain a large force near the city, and the brave Arabs routed the

Roman cavalry. Trajan, who narrowly escaped being killed, was forced

to withdraw.

A more alarming difficulty lay before him. Taking 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 Parthia, the Jews all over the East had taken up

arms at the same moment, and at a given signal. The massacres they

committed were portentous. In Cyprus 240,000 men are said to have been

put to death, and at Cyrene 220,000. At Alexandria, on the other hand,

many Jews were killed. The Romans punished 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 Mesopotamia, and of avenging his defeat at

Hatra, but he was stricken with sickness and compelled to take ship

for Italy. His illness increasing, he landed in Cilicia, and died at

Selinus in that country about the end of July, 117.

Trajan, who had no children, had continually delayed to settle the

succession to the throne, though Pliny, in the "Panegyric" had

pointedly drawn his attention to the matter, and it must have caused

the Senate much anxiety. Whether Hadrian, the cousin of Trajan, was

actually adopted by him or not, is impossible to determine; certainly

Hadrian had not been advanced to any great honors by Trajan. Even his

military service had not been distinguished. Plotina asserted the

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 chose to

celebrate. For the first time a dead 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 machine, which when once set in

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 an 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 breach made in Trajan's _felicitas_ by the

failure in the East was no greater than that made in the _felicitas_

of Augustus by his retirement from the right bank of the Rhine.