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125-736: It was founded in AD 100 by the emperor Trajan for service in the Dacian Wars . The legion's first base camp was in the province of Dacia in the Danube frontier. It is likely that at least some of its legionaries took part in the Parthian campaigns of Trajan. In 122 they were moved to Colonia Ulpia Traiana (modern Xanten ) in Germania Inferior , where they remained for the following centuries. Their main tasks were public construction and police affairs. In

250-532: A Traia . Their son, Trajan's namesake father Marcus Ulpius Traianus , was born at Italica during the reign of Tiberius and became a prominent senator and general, commanding the Legio X Fretensis under Vespasian in the First Jewish-Roman War . Trajan's mother was Marcia , a Roman noblewoman of the gens Marcia and a sister-in-law of the second Flavian Emperor Titus . Little is known of her. Her father

375-448: A client kingdom in the first war (101–102), followed by a second war that ended in actual incorporation into the Empire of the trans-Danube border group of Dacia. According to the provisions of Decebalus's earlier treaty with Rome, made in the time of Domitian, Decebalus was acknowledged as rex amicus , that is, client king; in exchange for accepting client status, he received from Rome both

500-444: A Dacian nobleman called Bikilis was captured. Decebalus’ treasures had been buried under a temporarily diverted river and the captive workers executed to retain the secret. Staggering amounts of gold and silver were found and packed off to fill Rome's coffers. Trajan built a new city, Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa , on another site (north of the hill citadel holding the previous Dacian capital), although bearing

625-538: A banquet. The details of Trajan's early military career are obscure, save for the fact that in 89, as legate of Legio VII Gemina in Hispania Tarraconensis , he supported Domitian against an attempted coup by Lucius Antonius Saturninus , the governor of Germania Superior . Trajan probably remained in the region after the revolt was quashed, to engage with the Chatti who had sided with Saturninus, before returning

750-626: A basis for further expansion within Eastern Europe, as the Romans believed the region to be much more geographically "flattened", and thus easier to traverse, than it actually was; they also underestimated the distance from those vaguely defined borders to the ocean. Defence of the province was entrusted to a single legion, the XIII Gemina , stationed at Apulum , which functioned as an advance guard that could, in case of need, strike either west or east at

875-681: A bloody battle at the Catalaunian Fields in 274. With the re-organization of the Roman Army ( Constantius I Chlorus ), the legions guarding the border lost their importance to the comitatus , the main, cavalry-based army behind the limes . The collapse of the Rhine frontier after 408–410 marked the end of the legion's history. Trajan Trajan ( / ˈ t r eɪ dʒ ən / TRAY -jən ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus , 18 September 53 –  c.  9 August 117 )

1000-470: A chain of forts. We do not, however, know its date, save that, if not Domitian's work, it was carried out soon after his death, and the whole frontier thus constituted was reorganised, probably by Hadrian , with a continuous wooden palisade reaching from Rhine to Danube. The angle between the rivers was now almost full. But there remained further advance and further fortification. Either Hadrian or, more probably, his successor Antoninus Pius pushed out from

1125-460: A change of mores that began with the Severan dynasty , Trajan's putative lovers included the future emperor, Hadrian, pages of the imperial household, the actor Pylades, a dancer called Apolaustus, Lucius Licinius Sura, and Trajan's predecessor Nerva. Cassius Dio also relates that Trajan made an ally out of Abgar VII on account of the latter's beautiful son, Arbandes, who would then dance for Trajan at

1250-458: A clear area first established by Domitian. Apollodorus of Damascus ' "magnificent" design incorporated a Triumphal arch entrance, a forum space approximately 120 m long and 90m wide, surrounded by peristyles: a monumentally sized basilica : and later, Trajan's Column and libraries. It was started in AD 107, dedicated on 1 January 112, and remained in use for at least 500 years. It still drew admiration when Emperor Constantius II visited Rome in

1375-404: A coin. In reality, Trajan did not share power in any meaningful way with the senate, something that Pliny admits candidly: "[E]verything depends on the whims of a single man who, on behalf of the common welfare, has taken upon himself all functions and all tasks". One of the most significant trends of his reign was his encroachment on the senate's sphere of authority, such as his decision to make

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1500-609: A generous stipend and a steady supply of technical experts. The treaty seems to have allowed Roman troops the right of passage through the Dacian kingdom in order to attack the Marcomanni , Quadi and Sarmatians . However, senatorial opinion never forgave Domitian for paying what was seen as tribute to a barbarian king. Unlike the Germanic tribes, the Dacian kingdom was an organized state capable of developing alliances of its own, thus making it

1625-504: A grand scale. Trajan's reconstruction, completed by 103, was modestly described by Trajan himself as "adequate" for the Roman people. It replaced flammable wooden seating tiers with stone, and increased the Circus' already vast capacity by about 5,000 seats. Its lofty, elevated Imperial viewing box was rebuilt among the seating tiers, so that spectators could see their emperor sharing their enjoyment of

1750-601: A lengthy tour of inspection on the Rhine and Danube frontiers, may suggest that he was unsure of his position, both in Rome and with the armies at the front. Alternatively, Trajan's keen military mind understood the importance of strengthening the empire's frontiers. His vision for future conquests required the diligent improvement of surveillance networks, defences and transport along the Danube . Prior to his frontier tours, Trajan ordered his Prefect Aelianus to attend him in Germany, where he

1875-454: A line of frontier ( limes ) fortifications that bounded the ancient Roman provinces of Germania Inferior , Germania Superior and Raetia , dividing the Roman Empire and the unsubdued Germanic tribes from the years 83 to about 260 AD. The frontier used either a natural boundary such as a river or typically an earth bank and ditch with a wooden palisade and watchtowers at intervals, and

2000-412: A lump sum from the imperial treasury, and in return were expected to repay an annual sum to support the alimentary fund. The earliest of Trajan's conquests were Rome's two wars against Dacia , an area that had troubled Roman politics for over a decade in regard to the unstable peace negotiated by Domitian 's ministers with the powerful Dacian king Decebalus . Dacia would be reduced by Trajan's Rome to

2125-487: A network of local notables who act as mediators between the ruled and the ruler. Dio's notion of being "friend" to Trajan (or any other Roman emperor), however, was that of an informal arrangement, that involved no formal entry of such "friends" into the Roman administration. Trajan ingratiated himself with the Greek intellectual elite by recalling to Rome many (including Dio) who had been exiled by Domitian, and by returning (in

2250-551: A noblewoman from the Roman settlement at Nîmes ; the marriage ultimately remained childless. The historian Cassius Dio later noted that Trajan was a lover of young men , in contrast to the usual bisexual activity that was common among upper-class Roman men of the period. The emperor Julian also made a sardonic reference to his predecessor's sexual preference, stating that Zeus himself would have had to be on guard had his Ganymede come within Trajan's vicinity. This distaste reflected

2375-506: A pack of fools, yes, they treat you just like children, for we often offer children the most trivial things in place of things of greatest worth [...] In place of justice, in place of the freedom of the cities from spoliation or from the seizure of the private possessions of their inhabitants, in place of their refraining from insulting you [...] your governors hand you titles, and call you 'first' either by word of mouth or in writing; that done, they may thenceforth with impunity treat you as being

2500-601: A plan that failed. Decebalus also took prisoner Trajan's legate Longinus, who eventually poisoned himself while in custody. Finally, in 105, Decebalus undertook an invasion of Roman-occupied territory north of the Danube. Prior to the campaign, Trajan had raised two entirely new legions: II Traiana  – which, however, may have been posted in the East, at the Syrian port of Laodicea  – and XXX Ulpia Victrix , which

2625-438: A political intent, enabling planned increases in civil and military spending. Trajan formalised the alimenta, a welfare program that helped orphans and poor children throughout Italy by providing cash, food and subsidized education. The program was supported out of Dacian War booty, estate taxes and philanthropy. The alimenta also relied indirectly on mortgages secured against Italian farms ( fundi ). Registered landowners received

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2750-499: A privileged position. As Pliny said in one of his letters at the time, it was official policy that Greek civic elites be treated according to their status as notionally free but not put on an equal footing with their Roman rulers. When the city of Apamea complained of an audit of its accounts by Pliny, alleging its "free" status as a Roman colony, Trajan replied by writing that it was by his own wish that such inspections had been ordered. Concern about independent local political activity

2875-522: A process begun by Nerva) a great deal of private property that Domitian had confiscated. He also had good dealings with Plutarch , who, as a notable of Delphi , seems to have been favoured by the decisions taken on behalf of his home-place by one of Trajan's legates, who had arbitrated a boundary dispute between Delphi and its neighbouring cities. However, it was clear to Trajan that Greek intellectuals and notables were to be regarded as tools for local administration, and not be allowed to fancy themselves in

3000-456: A public bath was built with the proceeds from the entrance fees paid by "supernumerary" members of the council, enrolled with Trajan's permission. According to the Digest , Trajan decreed that when a city magistrate promised to achieve a particular public building, his heirs inherited responsibility for its completion. Trajan was a prolific builder. Many of his buildings were designed and erected by

3125-476: A role model, for, according to Pliny, "men learn better from examples". Eventually, Trajan's popularity among his peers was such that the Roman Senate bestowed upon him the honorific of optimus , meaning "the best", which appears on coins from 105 on. This title had mostly to do with Trajan's role as benefactor, such as in the case of his returning confiscated property. Pliny states that Trajan's ideal role

3250-461: A show". A side effect of such extravagant spending was that junior and thus less wealthy members of the local oligarchies felt disinclined to present themselves to fill posts as local magistrates, positions that involved ever-increasing personal expense. Roman authorities liked to play the Greek cities against one another  – something of which Dio of Prusa was fully aware: [B]y their public acts [the Roman governors] have branded you as

3375-428: A state of disorder", Pliny once wrote to Trajan, plans for unnecessary works made in collusion with local contractors being identified as one of the main problems. One of the compensatory measures proposed by Pliny expressed a thoroughly Roman conservative position: as the cities' financial solvency depended on the councilmen's purses, it was necessary to have more councilmen on the local city councils. According to Pliny,

3500-535: A strategic threat and giving Trajan a strong motive to attack it. In May of 101, Trajan launched his first campaign into the Dacian kingdom, crossing to the northern bank of the Danube and defeating the Dacian army at Tapae (see Second Battle of Tapae ), near the Iron Gates of Transylvania . It was not a decisive victory, however. Trajan's troops took heavy losses in the encounter, and he put off further campaigning for

3625-950: A strong local power base, caused by the size of the town from which they came, made it necessary for the Ulpii (and for the Aelii , the other important senatorial family of Italica with whom they were allied) to weave local alliances, in the Baetica (with the Annii , the Ucubi and perhaps the Dasumii from Corduba), the Tarraconense and the Narbonense , here above all through Pompeia Plotina , Trajan's wife. Many of these alliances were made not in Spain, but in Rome. The family home in Rome,

3750-563: A system of linked forts was built behind them. The path of the limes changed over time following advances and retreats due to pressure from external threats. At its height, the Limes Germanicus stretched from the North Sea outlet of the Rhine to near Regensburg ( Castra Regina ) on the Danube . These two major rivers afforded natural protection from mass incursions into imperial territory, with

3875-453: A very narrow territory under its direct administration. Trajan's year of birth is not reliably attested and may instead have been AD 56. The epitome of Cassius Dio's Roman history describes Trajan as "an Iberian and neither an Italian nor even an Italiote", but this claim is contradicted by other ancient sources and rejected by modern scholars, who have reconstructed Trajan's Italic lineage. Appian states that Trajan's hometown of Italica

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4000-512: Is believed to be Quintus Marcius Barea Sura . Her mother was Antonia Furnilla , daughter of Aulus Antonius Rufus and Furnia . Trajan owned some lands called Figlinae Marcianae in Ameria , another Umbrian town, located near both Tuder and Reate (the home of the Flavian dynasty) and believed to be the home of Marcia's family. The line of the Ulpii continued long after Trajan's death. His elder sister

4125-404: Is generally agreed that Pliny, being part of the emperor's inner circle, provides a unique and valuable source of information through his letters with Trajan, the only surviving correspondence between a governor and his emperor. However, it has been argued that Pliny's correspondence with Trajan is neither intimate nor candid, but rather an exchange of official mail in which Pliny's stance borders on

4250-507: Is lost with the exception of one sentence. Only fragments remain of the Getica , a book by Trajan's personal physician Titus Statilius Criton . The Parthica , a 17-volume account of the Parthian Wars written by Arrian , has met a similar fate. Book   68 in Greek author Cassius Dio 's Roman History , which survives mostly as Byzantine abridgements and epitomes , is the main source for

4375-534: Is one of the few rulers whose reputation has survived 19 centuries. Every new emperor after him was honoured by the Senate with the wish felicior Augusto, melior Traiano (that he be "luckier than Augustus and better than Trajan"). Among medieval Christian theologians, Trajan was considered a virtuous pagan . In the Renaissance , Machiavelli , speaking on the advantages of adoptive succession over heredity, mentioned

4500-462: Is said to have informed Hadrian in 108 that he had been chosen as Trajan's imperial heir. As governor of Upper Germany (Germania Superior) during Nerva's reign, Trajan received the impressive title of Germanicus for his skilful management and rule of the volatile Imperial province. When Nerva died on 28 January 98, Trajan succeeded to the role of emperor without any outward adverse incident. The fact that he chose not to hasten towards Rome, but made

4625-427: Is seen in Trajan's decision to forbid Nicomedia from having a corps of firemen ("If people assemble for a common purpose   ... they soon turn it into a political society", Trajan wrote to Pliny) as well as in his and Pliny's fears about excessive civic generosities by local notables such as distribution of money or gifts. Pliny's letters suggest that Trajan and his aides were as much bored as they were alarmed by

4750-743: The Epitome de Caesaribus , was the town of Tuder ( Todi ) in the Umbria region of central Italy . This is confirmed by archeology, with epigraphic evidence placing both the Ulpii and the Traii in Umbria generally and Tuder specifically, and by linguistic studies of the family names Ulpius and Traius which show that both are of Osco-Umbrian origin. It is unknown whether Trajan's ancestors were Roman citizens or not at their arrival in Spain. They would have certainly possessed Roman citizenship in case they arrived after

4875-518: The Roman Senate . Trajan was born in the municipium of Italica in the present-day Andalusian province of Seville in southern Spain, an Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica ; his gens Ulpia came from the town of Tuder in the Umbria region of central Italy. His namesake father, Marcus Ulpius Traianus , was a general and distinguished senator. Trajan rose to prominence during

5000-519: The Roman currency , decreasing the silver content of the denarius from 93.5% to 89.0% – the actual silver weight dropping from 3.04   grams to 2.88   grams. This devaluation, along with the massive amounts of gold and silver acquired through his Dacian wars , allowed Trajan to mint many more denarii than his predecessors. He also withdrew from circulation silver denarii minted before Nero's devaluation. Trajan's devaluation may have had

5125-468: The Second Sophistic ; this "cultural patriotism" acted as a kind of substitute for the loss of political independence, and as such was shunned by Roman authorities. As Trajan himself wrote to Pliny: "These poor Greeks all love a gymnasium   ... they will have to content with one that suits their real needs". The first known corrector was charged with a commission "to deal with the situation of

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5250-472: The Social War (91–87 BC) , when Tuder became a municipium of Roman citizens. In Spain they may well have intermarried with native Iberians, in which case they would have lost their citizenship. Had they lacked or lost the status of Roman citizens, they would have achieved it or recovered it when Italica became a municipium with Latin rights in the mid-1st century BC. Trajan's paternal grandfather Ulpius married

5375-415: The "contagion" of Christianity threatened everyone, regardless of gender, age, or rank. Pliny gave those accused of being Christians opportunity to deny it, and those who would not, he executed. Any who cursed Christ or recited a prayer to the gods or to Trajan’s statue were released. Pliny acknowledged that these were things that "those who are really Christians cannot be made to do." In 107, Trajan devalued

5500-441: The "tyrant" Domitian – attributes to him, at the time, various (and unspecified) feats of arms. Domitian's successor, Nerva , was unpopular with the army, and had been forced by his Praetorian Prefect Casperius Aelianus to execute Domitian's killers. Nerva needed the army's support to avoid being ousted. He accomplished this in the summer of 97 by naming Trajan as his adoptive son and successor, claiming that this

5625-729: The 2nd century and the beginning of the 3rd century, units of the XXX Ulpia Victrix were allocated in Parthia , as well as Gaul , Mauretania and other Roman provinces , due to the peaceful situation in Germania Inferior. They fought in Antoninus Pious ' campaigns in Mauritania. In the civil war of 193, XXX Ulpia Victrix supported Septimius Severus , who granted them the title of Pia Fidelis ("faithful and loyal"). The legion

5750-626: The Dacians, devoid of manoeuvring room, kept to their network of fortresses, which the Romans sought systematically to storm (see also Second Dacian War ). The Romans gradually tightened their grip around Decebalus' stronghold in Sarmizegetusa Regia , which they finally took and destroyed. A controversial scene on Trajan's column just before the fall of Sarmizegetusa Regia suggests that Decebalus may have offered poison to his remaining men as an alternative option to capture or death while trying to flee

5875-580: The Danube was lost, seemingly all within one short period, about 250. Germanic invasions in the late third century led to the abandonment of the so-called "Upper Raetian Limes" in favour of a Roman defence line along the rivers Rhine , Iller and Danube (Donau-Iller-Rhine-Limes). Support was provided to some degree by fast river boats, the navis lusoria being the standard type, that could reach outposts or points of crisis quickly. Watch towers were in sight contact and heavily fortified castra placed at important passes (e.g. Castrum Rauracense instead of

6000-725: The Danubian lands; when Rome was weak, as during the Crisis of the Third Century , the province became a liability and was eventually abandoned. Trajan resettled Dacia with Romans and annexed it as a province of the Roman Empire. Aside from their enormous booty (over half a million slaves, according to John Lydus ), Trajan's Dacian campaigns benefited the Empire's finances through the acquisition of Dacia's gold mines, managed by an imperial procurator of equestrian rank ( procurator aurariarum ). On

6125-1073: The Domus Traiana, was on the Aventine Hill ; excavations under the Piazza del Tempio di Diana found remains thought to be of the family's large suburban villa, with evidence of highly decorated rooms. As a young man Trajan rose through the ranks of the Roman army , serving in some of the most contested parts of the empire's frontier. In 76–77, his father was Governor of Syria ( Legatus pro praetore Syriae ), where Trajan himself remained as Tribunus legionis . From there, after his father's replacement, he seems to have been transferred to an unspecified Rhine province, and Pliny implies that he engaged in active combat duty during both commissions. In about 86, Trajan's cousin Aelius Afer died, leaving his young children Hadrian and Paulina orphans. Trajan and his colleague Publius Acilius Attianus became co-guardians of

6250-434: The East, that meant the families of Greek notables. The Greeks, though, had their own memories of independence – and a commonly acknowledged sense of cultural superiority – and, instead of seeing themselves as Roman, disdained Roman rule. What the Greek oligarchies wanted from Rome was, above all, to be left in peace, to be allowed to exert their right to self-government (i.e., to be excluded from

6375-611: The Great , suffect consul in 116. Trajan created at least fourteen new senators from the Greek-speaking half of the empire, an unprecedented recruitment number that opens to question the issue of the "traditionally Roman" character of his reign, as well as the "Hellenism" of his successor Hadrian. But then Trajan's new Eastern senators were mostly very powerful and very wealthy men with more than local influence and much interconnected by marriage, so that many of them were not altogether "new" to

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6500-552: The Iron Gate's gorge. A canal was built between the Danube's Kasajna tributary and Ducis Pratum, circumventing rapids and cataracts. Trajan's Forum Traiani was Rome's largest forum. It was built to commemorate his victories in Dacia , and was largely financed from that campaign's loot. To accommodate it, parts of the Capitoline and Quirinal Hills had to be removed, the latter enlarging

6625-581: The Odenwald and the Danube, and marked out a new frontier roughly parallel to, but in advance of these two lines, though sometimes, as on the Taunus, coinciding with the older line. This is the frontier which is now visible and visited by the curious. It consists, as we see it today, of two distinct frontier works, one, known as the Pfahlgraben, is a palisade of stakes with a ditch and earthen mound behind it, best seen in

6750-559: The Royal House of Commagene , left behind him a funeral monument on the Mouseion Hill that was later disparagingly described by Pausanias as "a monument built to a Syrian man". As a senatorial Emperor, Trajan was inclined to choose his local base of political support from among the members of the ruling urban oligarchies. In the West, that meant local senatorial families like his own. In

6875-471: The Sarmatians living at the borders. Therefore, the indefensible character of the province did not appear to be a problem for Trajan, as the province was conceived more as a sally-base for further attacks. Even in the absence of further Roman expansion, the value of the province depended on Roman overall strength: while Rome was strong, the Dacian salient was an instrument of military and diplomatic control over

7000-548: The Senate. On the local level, among the lower section of the Eastern propertied, the alienation of most Greek notables and intellectuals towards Roman rule, and the fact that the Romans were seen by most such Greek notables as aliens, persisted well after Trajan's reign. One of Trajan's senatorial creations from the East, the Athenian Gaius Julius Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappos , a member of

7125-695: The Temple of Khnum at Esna . He built palatial villas outside Rome at Arcinazzo , at Centumcellae and at Talamone . He also built a bath complex as well as the Aqua Traiana . Trajan invested heavily in the provision of popular amusements. He carried out a "massive reconstruction" of the Circus Maximus , which was already the empire's biggest and best appointed circuit for the immensely popular sport of chariot racing . The Circus also hosted religious theatrical spectacles and games , and public processions on

7250-542: The VII Gemina legion to Legio in Hispania Tarraconensis. In 91 he held a consulate with Acilius Glabrio , a rarity in that neither consul was a member of the ruling dynasty. He held an unspecified consular commission as governor of either Pannonia or Germania Superior , or possibly both. Pliny – who seems to deliberately avoid offering details that would stress personal attachment between Trajan and

7375-416: The advantages to be gained by recognising these movements of Roman subjects combined to urge a forward policy at Rome, and when the vigorous Vespasian had succeeded Nero , a series of advances began which gradually closed up the acute angle, or at least rendered it obtuse. The first advance came about 74 AD, when what is now Baden was invaded and partly annexed and a road carried from the Roman base on

7500-528: The aid of the troops in his rearguard. The Dacians and their allies were repulsed after two battles in Moesia, at Nicopolis ad Istrum and Adamclisi . Trajan's army then advanced further into Dacian territory, and, a year later, forced Decebalus to submit. He had to renounce claim to some regions of his kingdom, return runaways from Rome then under his protection (most of them technical experts), and surrender all his war machines. Trajan returned to Rome in triumph and

7625-434: The appointing of imperial correctores to audit the civic finances of the technically free Greek cities . The main goal was to curb the overenthusiastic spending on public works that served to channel ancient rivalries between neighbouring cities. As Pliny wrote to Trajan, this had as its most visible consequence a trail of unfinished or ill-kept public utilities. Competition among Greek cities and their ruling oligarchies

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7750-511: The besieged capital with him. Decebalus fled but, when later cornered by Roman cavalry, committed suicide. His severed head, brought to Trajan by the cavalryman Tiberius Claudius Maximus , was later exhibited in Rome on the steps leading up to the Capitol and thrown on the Gemonian stairs . The famous Dacian treasures were not found in the captured capital and their whereabouts were only revealed when

7875-545: The best way to achieve this was to lower the minimum age for holding a seat on the council, making it possible for more sons of the established oligarchical families to join and thus contribute to civic spending; this was seen as preferable to enrolling non-noble wealthy upstarts. Such an increase in the number of council members was granted to Dio's city of Prusa, to the dismay of existing councilmen who felt their status lowered. A similar situation existed in Claudiopolis , where

8000-679: The border was Augustus , shortly after the devastating Roman defeat at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. Originally there were numerous Limes walls, which were then connected to form the Upper Germanic Limes along the Rhine and the Rhaetian Limes along the Danube. Later these two walls were linked to form a common borderline. From the death of Augustus (14 AD) until after 70 AD, Rome accepted as her Germanic frontier

8125-432: The border was crucial to the Roman military. For a territory as large as the Roman Empire, there were few soldiers, and almost all of the legions were based close to the frontiers. Any hostile band that managed to pass this outer area of defense could travel within the Empire without much resistance. The limes provided an early warning system, deterrence of casual small-scale raiding, and the ability to counteract attacks while

8250-410: The case of the Galatian notable and "leading member of the Greek community" (according to one inscription) Gaius Julius Severus, who was a descendant of several Hellenistic dynasts and client kings. Severus was the grandfather of the prominent general Gaius Julius Quadratus Bassus , consul in 105. Other prominent Eastern senators included Gaius Julius Alexander Berenicianus , a descendant of Herod

8375-406: The claims of Dio and other Greek notables to political influence based on what they saw as their "special connection" to their Roman overlords. Pliny tells of Dio of Prusa placing a statue of Trajan in a building complex where Dio's wife and son were buried – therefore incurring a charge of treason for placing the emperor's statue near a grave. Trajan, however, dropped the charge. Nevertheless, while

8500-415: The construction or reconstruction of Old Cairo 's Roman fortress (also known as "Babylon Fort") to Trajan, and the building of a canal between the River Nile and the Red Sea . In Egypt, Trajan was "quite active" in constructing and embellishing buildings. He is portrayed, together with Domitian , on the propylon of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera . His cartouche also appears in the column shafts of

8625-470: The emperor and the Senate, especially after the supposed bloodiness that had marked Domitian's reign and his dealings with the Curia . By feigning reluctance to hold power, Trajan was able to start building a consensus around him in the Senate. His belated ceremonial entry into Rome in 99 was notably understated, something on which Pliny the Younger elaborated. By not openly supporting Domitian's preference for equestrian officers, Trajan appeared to conform to

8750-414: The exception of a gap stretching roughly from Mogontiacum (Mainz) on the Rhine to Castra Regina. The Limes Germanicus was divided into: The total length was 568 km (353 mi). It included at least 60 forts and 900 watchtowers. The potentially weakest, hence most heavily guarded, part of the Limes was the aforementioned gap between the westward bend of the Rhine at modern-day Mainz and

8875-415: The existing quasi-urban Dacian settlements disappeared after the Roman conquest. A number of unorganized urban settlements ( vici ) developed around military encampments in Dacia proper – the most important being Apulum – but were only acknowledged as cities proper well after Trajan's reign. The main regional effort of urbanization was concentrated by Trajan at the rearguard, in Moesia, where he created

9000-522: The five successive good emperors "from Nerva to Marcus "  – a trope out of which the 18th-century historian Edward Gibbon popularized the notion of the Five Good Emperors , of whom Trajan was the second. An account of the Dacian Wars , the Commentarii de bellis Dacicis , written by Trajan himself or a ghostwriter and modelled after Caesar 's Commentarii de Bello Gallico ,

9125-636: The fourth century. It accommodated Trajan's Market, and an adjacent brick market. Trajan was also a prolific builder of triumphal arches, many of which survive. He built roads, such as the Via Traiana , an extension of the Via Appia from Beneventum to Brundisium and the Via Traiana Nova , a mostly military road between Damascus and Aila , which Rome employed in its annexation of Nabataea and founding of Arabia Province . Some historians attribute

9250-535: The free cities", as it was felt that the old method of ad hoc intervention by the Emperor and/or the proconsuls had not been enough to curb the pretensions of the Greek notables. It is noteworthy that an embassy from Dio's city of Prusa was not favourably received by Trajan, and that this had to do with Dio's chief objective, which was to elevate Prusa to the status of a free city, an "independent" city-state exempt from paying taxes to Rome. Eventually, Dio gained for Prusa

9375-405: The gifted architect Apollodorus of Damascus , including a massive bridge over the Danube , which the Roman army and its reinforcements could use regardless of weather; the Danube sometimes froze over in winter, but seldom enough to bear the passage of a party of soldiers. Trajan's works at the Iron Gates region of the Danube created or enlarged the boardwalk road cut into the cliff-face along

9500-422: The idea (developed by Pliny) that an emperor derived his legitimacy from his adherence to traditional hierarchies and senatorial morals. Therefore, he could point to the allegedly republican character of his rule. In a speech at the inauguration of his third consulship, on 1   January 100, Trajan exhorted the senate to share the care-taking of the empire with him – an event later celebrated on

9625-449: The incorporation of Armenia , Mesopotamia , and Assyria as Roman provinces. In August AD 117, while sailing back to Rome, Trajan fell ill and died of a stroke in the city of Selinus . He was deified by the senate and his successor Hadrian (Trajan's cousin). According to historical tradition, Trajan's ashes were entombed in a small room beneath Trajan's Column . As an emperor, Trajan's reputation has endured – he

9750-546: The interests of justice, and to reflect "the spirit of the age". Non-citizens who admitted to being Christians and refused to recant were to be executed "for obstinacy". Citizens were sent to Rome for trial. Further tests faced by Christians in Pontus are alluded to in correspondence between Pliny the Younger, governor of the Roman province of Bithynia and Pontus, and Emperor Trajan. Writing from Pontus in about AD 112, Pliny reported that

9875-448: The limes it was necessary to pass the towers and so come to the notice of the garrison, or try to climb or destroy the wall and the stakes. Only individuals or small groups could climb the obstacles without being noticed, and they could not drive much stolen livestock with them. Large groups would be noticed; they could destroy one or several towers, but this also would draw the attention of the Romans. This knowledge of all traffic crossing

10000-511: The main flow of the Danube at Regensburg . This 300-kilometre-wide (190 mi) land corridor between the two great rivers permitted movement of large groups of people without the need for water transport, hence the heavy concentration of forts and towers there, arranged in depth and in multiple layers along waterways, fords, roads, and hilltops. Roman border defences have become much better known through systematic excavations financed by Germany and through other research connected to them. In 2005,

10125-465: The more popular Trajan, who had distinguished himself in military campaigns against Germanic tribes. As emperor of Rome, Trajan oversaw the construction of building projects such as the forum named after him , the introduction of social welfare policies such as the alimenta , and new military conquests. He annexed Nabataea and Dacia , and his war against the Parthian Empire ended with

10250-668: The neighbourhood of the Saalburg but once extending from the Rhine southwards into southern Germany. The other, which begins where the earthwork stops, is a wall, though not a very formidable wall, of stone, the Teufelsmauer; it runs roughly east and west parallel to the Danube, which it finally joins at Heinheim near Regensburg . The southern part of the Pfahlgraben is remarkably straight; for over 50 km (31 mi) it points almost absolutely true for Polaris . This frontier remained for about 100 years, and no doubt in that long period much

10375-479: The new cities of Nicopolis ad Istrum and Marcianopolis . A vicus was also created around the Tropaeum Traianum. The garrison city of Oescus received the status of Roman colony after its legionary garrison was redeployed. The fact that these former Danubian outposts had ceased to be frontier bases and were now in the deep rear acted as an inducement to their urbanization and development. Not all of Dacia

10500-435: The next one, and usually able also to signal to the forts several kilometers to the rear. The limes was never able to prevent whole Germanic tribes from entering the territory of the Roman Empire. This was not the intention of the builders. Near the watch towers, the limes was open to passage, especially by traders or persons coming to live or work within the Empire. The purpose of the limes was control of this traffic. To cross

10625-413: The office of corrector was intended as a tool to curb any hint of independent political activity among local notables in the Greek cities, the correctores themselves were all men of the highest social standing entrusted with an exceptional commission. The post seems to have been conceived partly as a reward for senators who had chosen to make a career solely on the emperor's behalf. Therefore, in reality

10750-449: The other hand, commercial agricultural exploitation on the villa model, based on the centralized management of a huge landed estate by a single owner ( fundus ) was poorly developed. Therefore, use of slave labor in the province itself seems to have been relatively undeveloped, and epigraphic evidence points to work in the gold mines being conducted by means of labor contracts ( locatio conductio rei ) and seasonal wage-earning. The victory

10875-580: The political history of Trajan's rule. Besides this, Pliny the Younger 's Panegyricus and Dio Chrysostom 's orations are the best surviving contemporary sources. Both are adulatory perorations , typical of the High Imperial period, that describe an idealized monarch and an equally idealized view of Trajan's rule, and concern themselves more with ideology than with fact. The 10th volume of Pliny's letters contains his correspondence with Trajan, which deals with various aspects of imperial Roman government. It

11000-465: The populace; the more "serious matter" of the corn dole aimed to satisfy individuals. During the period of peace that followed the Dacian war, Trajan exchanged letters with Pliny the Younger on how best to deal with the Christians of Pontus . Trajan told Pliny to continue prosecutions of Christians if they merited that, but not to accept anonymous or malicious denunciations. He considered this to be in

11125-426: The post was conceived as a means for "taming" both Greek notables and Roman senators. It must be added that, although Trajan was wary of the civic oligarchies in the Greek cities, he also admitted into the senate a number of prominent Eastern notables already slated for promotion during Domitian's reign by reserving for them one of the twenty posts open each year for minor magistrates (the vigintiviri ). Such must be

11250-406: The previously unwalled Augusta Raurica near to Basel ) and in the hinterland of the frontier (e.g. Vindonissa in today's Switzerland). The limes itself is a relatively simple construction. It is similar to the fortification that a travelling troop of Roman soldiers would construct every evening to protect their camp from attacks. On the outside, the soldiers dug a ditch. The earth from the ditch

11375-457: The provincial government, as was Italy) and to concentrate on their local interests. This was something the Romans were not disposed to do as from their perspective the Greek notables were shunning their responsibilities in regard to the management of Imperial affairs – primarily in failing to keep the common people under control, thus creating the need for the Roman governor to intervene. An excellent example of this Greek alienation

11500-655: The races, alongside his family and images of the gods, At some time during 108 or 109, Trajan held 123 days of games to celebrate his Dacian victory. They involved "fully 10,000" gladiators and the slaughter of thousands, "possibly tens of thousands," of animals, both wild and domestic. Trajan's careful management of public spectacles led the orator Fronto to congratulate him for paying equal attention to public entertainments and more serious issues, acknowledging that "neglect of serious matters can cause greater damage, but neglect of amusements greater discontent". State-funded public entertainments helped to maintain contentment among

11625-590: The reign of Domitian ; in AD 89, serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis , he supported the emperor against a revolt on the Rhine led by Antonius Saturninus . He then served as governor of Germania and Pannonia . In September 96, Domitian was succeeded by the elderly and childless Nerva , who proved to be unpopular with the army. After a revolt by members of the Praetorian Guard , Nerva decided to adopt as his heir and successor

11750-673: The remnants of the Upper Germanic & Rhaetian Limes were inscribed on the List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites as Frontiers of the Roman Empire . In 2021, the Lower Germanic Limes were separately inscribed on the World Heritage List. The Saalburg is a reconstructed fortification and museum of the Limes near Frankfurt . The first emperor who began to build fortifications along

11875-468: The right to become the head of the assize-district, conventus (meaning that Prusans did not have to travel to be judged by the Roman governor), but eleutheria (freedom, in the sense of full political autonomy) was denied. Eventually, it fell to Pliny, as imperial governor of Bithynia in AD   110, to deal with the consequences of the financial mess wrought by Dio and his fellow civic officials. "It's well established that [the cities' finances] are in

12000-611: The same full name, Sarmizegetusa. This capital city was conceived as a purely civilian administrative centre and was provided the usual Romanized administrative apparatus ( decurions , aediles , etc.). Urban life in Roman Dacia seems to have been restricted to Roman colonists, mostly military veterans; there is no extant evidence for the existence in the province of peregrine cities. Native Dacians continued to live in scattered rural settlements, according to their own ways. In another arrangement with no parallels in any other Roman province,

12125-455: The senatorial provinces of Achaea and Bithynia into imperial ones in order to deal with the inordinate spending on public works by local magnates and the general mismanagement of provincial affairs by various proconsuls appointed by the Senate. In the formula developed by Pliny, however, Trajan was a "good" emperor in that, by himself, he approved or blamed the same things that the Senate would have approved or blamed. If in reality Trajan

12250-420: The servile. Some authors have even proposed that much of the text was written and/or edited by Trajan's Imperial secretary, his ab epistulis . Given the scarcity of literary sources, discussion of Trajan and his rule in modern historiography cannot avoid speculation. Non-literary sources such as archaeology, epigraphy , and numismatics are also useful for reconstructing his reign. Marcus Ulpius Traianus

12375-455: The two children. Trajan, in his late thirties, was created ordinary consul for the year 91. This early appointment may reflect the prominence of his father's career, as his father had been instrumental to the ascent of the ruling Flavian dynasty , held consular rank himself and had just been made a patrician . Around this time Trajan brought the architect and engineer Apollodorus of Damascus with him to Rome , and married Pompeia Plotina ,

12500-401: The upper Rhine, Strasbourg , to the Danube just above Ulm . The point of the angle was broken off. The second advance was made by Domitian about 83 AD. He pushed out from Moguntiacum, extended the Roman territory east of it and enclosed the whole within a systematically delimited and defended frontier with numerous blockhouses along it and larger forts in the rear. Among the blockhouses

12625-413: The very last!" These same Roman authorities had also an interest in assuring the cities' solvency and therefore ready collection of Imperial taxes. Last but not least, inordinate spending on civic buildings was not only a means to achieve local superiority, but also a means for the local Greek elites to maintain a separate cultural identity – something expressed in the contemporary rise of

12750-464: The water-boundary of the Rhine and upper Danube . Beyond these rivers she held only the fertile plain of Frankfurt , opposite the Roman border fortress of Moguntiacum ( Mainz ), the southernmost slopes of the Black Forest and a few scattered bridge-heads. The northern section of this frontier, where the Rhine is deep and broad, remained the Roman boundary until the empire fell. The southern part

12875-461: The year in order to regroup and reinforce his army. Nevertheless, the battle was considered a Roman victory and Trajan strived to ultimately consolidate his position, including other major engagements, as well as the capture of Decebalus' sister as depicted on Trajan's Column. The following winter, Decebalus took the initiative by launching a counter-attack across the Danube further downstream, supported by Sarmatian cavalry, forcing Trajan to come to

13000-552: Was Lucius Licinius Sura , a Roman senator born in Spain and the governor of Germania Inferior , who was Trajan's personal friend and became an official adviser of the Emperor. Sura was highly influential, and was appointed consul for a third term in 107. Some senators may have resented Sura's activities as a kingmaker and éminence grise , among them the historian Tacitus, who acknowledged Sura's military and oratorical talents, but compared his rapacity and devious ways to those of Vespasian 's éminence grise Licinius Mucianus . Sura

13125-470: Was Ulpia Marciana , and his niece was Salonia Matidia . Very little is known about Trajan's early formative years, but it is thought likely that he spent his first months or years in Italica before moving to Rome and then, perhaps at around eight or nine years of age, he almost certainly would have returned temporarily to Italica with his father during Trajanus's governorship of Baetica (ca. 64–65). The lack of

13250-481: Was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty . He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier-emperor who presided over one of the greatest military expansions in Roman history , during which, by the time of his death, the Roman Empire reached its maximum territorial extent. He was given the title of Optimus ('the best') by

13375-483: Was a conservative one, argued as well by the orations of Dio Chrysostom—in particular his four Orations on Kingship , composed early during Trajan's reign. Dio, as a Greek notable and intellectual with friends in high places, and possibly an official friend to the emperor ( amicus caesaris ), saw Trajan as a defender of the status quo . In his third kingship oration, Dio describes an ideal king ruling by means of "friendship" – that is, through patronage and

13500-463: Was an ex post facto fiction developed by authors writing under Trajan, including Tacitus and Pliny . According to the Historia Augusta , the future Emperor Hadrian brought word to Trajan of his adoption. Trajan retained Hadrian on the Rhine frontier as a military tribune , and Hadrian thus became privy to the circle of friends and relations with whom Trajan surrounded himself. Among them

13625-504: Was an autocrat, his deferential behavior towards his peers qualified him to be viewed as a virtuous monarch. The idea is that Trajan wielded autocratic power through moderatio instead of contumacia  – moderation instead of insolence. In short, according to the ethics for autocracy developed by most political writers of the Imperial Roman Age, Trajan was a good ruler in that he ruled less by fear, and more by acting as

13750-419: Was apparently executed forthwith ("put out of the way"), and his now-vacant post taken by Attius Suburanus . Trajan's accession, therefore, could qualify more as a successful coup than an orderly succession. On his entry to Rome, Trajan granted the plebs a direct gift of money. The traditional donative to the troops, however, was reduced by half. There remained the issue of the strained relations between

13875-433: Was between 150,000 and 175,000, while Decebalus could dispose of up to 200,000. Other estimates for the Roman forces involved in Trajan's second Dacian War cite around 86,000 for active campaigning with large reserves retained in the proximal provinces, and potentially much lower numbers around 50,000 for Decebalus' depleted forces and absent allies. In a fierce campaign that seems to have consisted mostly of static warfare,

14000-410: Was born on 18 September AD   53 in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica (in what is now Andalusia in modern Spain ), in the municipium of Italica (now in the municipal area of Santiponce , in the outskirts of Seville ), a Roman colony established in 206   BC by Scipio Africanus . At the time of Trajan's birth it was a small town, without baths, theatre and amphitheatre, and with

14125-528: Was commemorated by the construction both of the 102 cenotaph generally known as the Tropaeum Traiani in Moesia, as well of the much later (113) Trajan's Column in Rome, the latter depicting in stone carved bas-reliefs the Dacian Wars' most important moments. Limes Germanicus The Limes Germanicus ( Latin for Germanic frontier ), or ' Germanic Limes' , is the name given in modern times to

14250-445: Was different. The upper Rhine and upper Danube are easily crossed. The frontier which they form is inconveniently long, enclosing an acute-angled wedge of foreign territory between the modern Baden and Württemberg . The Germanic populations of these lands seem in Roman times to have been scant, and Roman subjects from the modern Alsace-Lorraine had drifted across the river eastwards. The motives alike of geographical convenience and of

14375-407: Was done to it to which precise dates are difficult to fix. It cannot even be absolutely certain when the frontier laid out by Pius was equipped with the manpitts and other special fortifications. But we know that the pressure of the barbarians began to be felt seriously in the later part of the second century, and after long struggles the whole or almost the whole district east of the Rhine and north of

14500-441: Was entirely due to Trajan's outstanding military merits. There are hints, however, in contemporary literary sources that Trajan's adoption was imposed on Nerva. Pliny implied as much when he wrote that, although an emperor could not be coerced into doing something, if this was the way in which Trajan was raised to power, then it was worth it. Alice König argues that the notion of a natural continuity between Nerva's and Trajan's reigns

14625-592: Was granted the title Dacicus . The peace of 102 had returned Decebalus to the condition of more or less harmless client king; however, he soon began to rearm, to again harbour Roman runaways, and to pressure his Western neighbours, the Iazyges Sarmatians, into allying themselves with him. Through his efforts to develop an anti-Roman bloc, Decebalus prevented Trajan from treating Dacia as a protectorate instead of an outright conquest. In 104, Decebalus devised an attempt on Trajan's life by means of some Roman deserters,

14750-406: Was mainly for marks of pre-eminence, especially for titles bestowed by the Roman emperor. Such titles were ordered in a ranking system that determined how the cities were to be outwardly treated by Rome. The usual form that such rivalries took was that of grandiose building plans, giving the cities the opportunity to vie with each other over "extravagant, needless   ... structures that would make

14875-542: Was one which by various enlargements and refoundations grew into the well-known Saalburg fort on the Taunus near Bad Homburg . This advance necessitated a third movement, the construction of a frontier connecting the annexations of 74 and 83 AD. We know the line of this frontier which ran from the Main across the upland Odenwald to the upper waters of the Neckar and was defended by

15000-625: Was permanently occupied. After the post-Trajanic evacuation of lands across the lower Danube, land extending from the Danube to the inner arch of the Carpathian Mountains , including Transylvania , the Metaliferi Mountains and Oltenia was absorbed into the Roman province, which eventually took the form of an "excrescence" with ill-defined limits, stretching from the Danube northwards to the Carpathians . This may have been intended as

15125-492: Was posted to Brigetio , in Pannonia . By 105, the concentration of Roman troops assembled in the middle and lower Danube amounted to fourteen legions (up from nine in 101) – about half of the entire Roman army. Even after the Dacian wars, the Danube frontier would permanently replace the Rhine as the main military axis of the Roman Empire. Including auxiliaries , the number of Roman troops engaged on both campaigns

15250-557: Was settled by and named after Italic veterans who fought in Spain under Scipio, and new settlers arrived there from Italy in the following centuries. Among the Italic settlers were the Ulpii and the Traii , who were either part of the original colonists or arrived as late as the end of the 1st century BC. Their original home, according to the description of Trajan as "Ulpius Traianus ex urbe Tudertina" in

15375-425: Was the personal role played by Dio's relationship with Trajan. Dio is described by Philostratus as Trajan's close friend, and Trajan as supposedly engaging publicly in conversations with Dio. Nevertheless, as a Greek local magnate with a taste for costly building projects and pretensions of being an important political agent for Rome, Dio of Prusa was actually a target for one of Trajan's authoritarian innovations:

15500-790: Was used by Emperor Alexander Severus in his 235 campaign against the Sassanids . Later the legion would be involved in Alexander Severus' campaign on the Rhine Frontier. It was almost certainly involved in Gallienus's wars against the Franks in the 250s. L. Petronius Taurus Volusianus was Primus Pilus of the legion at this time. It supported the Gallic Empire of Postumus (260–274) and suffered great losses when Aurelian overthrew Tetricus I in

15625-405: Was used to build a mound. On top of the mound, stakes were attached. The limes had a deeper ditch and a higher mound than a camp fortification. The stakes were higher, too, and placed in front of the ditch; on several parts of the limes, instead of stakes, there was a simple stone wall. Behind the wall or mound a system of control towers, built of wood or stone, was installed, each within sight of

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