The Parallel Reigns of Roman Emperors Trajan and Hadrian
By William Haynes - October 28, 2019
The Parallel Reigns of Roman Emperors Trajan and Hadrian
Research Question: In what ways and to what extent were Hadrian’s policies a reaction to Trajan’s?
Word Count: 3908
Abstract:
Ancient Rome was one of the most financially, culturally, military, civically, and territorially successful empires of all time. The empire itself came to fruition in 27 BCE under the first Emperor Augustus-heir of Julius Caesar. Imperial Rome would then continue in one form or another for 1,500 years, eventually falling to the Ottomans in the Siege of Constantinople at the dawn of the early modern age.
English Historian and Author, Edward Gibbon Esq. in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire describes the two most consequential emperors during the period of Roman prosperity known as the Pax Romana: Trajan and Hadrian. For Gibbon the “success of the reign of Trajan, however transient, was rapid and specious” and “the restless activity of Hadrian was not any less remarkable”. Trajan and Hadrian both had a tremendous effect, not only on the world around them, but on the future of society as a whole. The reigns of these two political and military juggernauts coincided with the height of the Roman Empire, which is why studying them is so important.
The purpose of this essay is to investigate the causes and effects of the policies of both Emperors in an unbiased and purposeful way as well as to answer the question: In what ways and to what extent were Hadrian’s policies a direct reaction to those of Trajan? Throughout the essay, it will become clear that Hadrian employed a more domestic approach to Rome’s position in the world, while Trajan actively sought to expand her borders. Hadrian’s policies were a reaction to Trajan’s to a large extent because Trajan’s foreign interventions overexpanded and exhausted the Roman Empire.
Contents
3.2: Annexation of Arabia Petraea
3.3: The War With Parthia
3.4: The Legacy of Trajan
4. Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus
4.1: Mending the Empire
4.2: The Travelling Emperor: Western Provinces
4.3 Anatolia and Greece
4.4 Sicilian Restorer and Legacy
5. Conclusion
6. Reference
1. Introduction to the Time
After the year of the four Emperors, which saw Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian all claim the imperial purple, things in the Roman Empire settled down. Vespasian and his heir Titus presided over the Mediteranean with military efficiency and cultural prosperity. Monuments and circuses such as the Colosseum in Rome were built during this period of stability. Unfortunately, the third ruler of Vespasian’s Flavian dynasty would be its last. Domitianus Augustus (anglicized as Domitian) was one of Rome’s worst tyrants. His political purges left thousands of Senators, Governors, and Mayors dead causing mass instability and culminating in his assasination in 96 CE.
Thus began the reign of Nerva, the first of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. Unfortunately, as Gibbon states, “Nerva had scarcely accepted the purple from the assassins of Domitian before he discovered that his feeble age was unable to stem the torrent of public disorders which had multiplied under the long tyranny of his predecessor”. He grew increasingly ill, reigning for only two years, and ultimately adopting General Trajan as his heir before dying in 98 CE. Nerva’s adoption of Trajan established a precedent of Imperial adoption rather than hereditary rule, something that would become a definitive part of the rule of the Five Good Emperors. All five were adopted though it should be noted that despite Cassius Dio’s assertion that “Nerva did not esteem family relationship above the safety of the State,” Nerva’s adoption of Trajan was less a matter of chivalrous pragmatism and more of maintaining the support of the army.
3. Marcus Ulpius Traianus (Trajan)
Trajan had a virtually unmatched wit and was a superb manipulator. Becoming Emperor in 98 CE, he began the process of gaining a consensus around himself within the Senate. However, upon the inauguration of his third consulship in 100 CE things started to change. Trajan gave a speech denouncing the corruption in the upper echelons of the Senate and suggesting an equal power split between the Emperor and the Senate. Although painted as Trajan sharing power with the senate it was effectively a power grab in which, as Pliny the Younger puts it “Everything depends on the whims of a single man who, on behalf of the common welfare, has taken upon himself all functions and all tasks”. The following years of Trajan’s reign saw the single most successful military expansion in Roman history, one that would begin to rot Rome from the inside out.
3.1: The War with Decebalus
The Dacians had been a thorn in the side of the Romans for decades, launching raids on the Roman provinces of Illyricum and Dalmatia which crippled maritime trading in the Adriatic. In response to the Dacian King Decebalus’ formation of an anti-roman bloc north of the Danube, Trajan launched a campaign into Dacia in 101 CE. His decision to attack the Dacians was brilliant. The treaties between the Romans and the peoples north of the Danube were widely unpopular as many were negotiated by Domitian-the tyrant-and the treaty with Decebalus endorsed the Dacian claim by declaring him rex amicus-client king unpopular. Many were negotiated by Domitian, the notoriously paranoid tyrant and the treaty with Decebalus endorsed the Dacian claim by declaring him rex amicus-client king. Furthermore a large sum of gold from the imperial treasury was sent to the Dacian Capital of Sarmizegetusa Regia which many in Rome saw as ransom to a barbarian warlord. By raising legions and crossing the Danube, Trajan was viewed as a reincarnation of Julius Caesar-the Father of the Empire. Trajan’s bridge over the Danube-the first of its kind in Eastern Europe-was equated to Caesar’s across the Rhine, widely seen as a testament to Roman ingenuity and strength. Meanwhile Decebalus was depicted as an enemy King on par with Orgetorix of the Helvetti or Cassivellaunus of the Britons. Some even likened him to the Gallic King Vercingetorix. Trajan and Caesar were viewed as glorious Romans and it was with his Comentarii de Bello Dacico (modeled after Caesar’s Comentarri de Bello Gallico) that he cemented himself as a populist firebrand unmatched by anyone in the Senate.
In 105 CE, Trajan marched into Rome and threw the head of Decebalus onto the steps of the Curia. With the acquisition of the rich Dacian Gold Mines, Rome’s economy boomed, funding a wave of military expeditions in Asia.
Unfortunately, despite the initial restoration of Adriatic trade, Trajan did littleto rejuvenate the region. Herein lies the problem at the core of Trajan’s reign: Trajan was a conqueror, not a ruler.
3.2: Annexation of Arabia Petraea
In 106 CE the Roman client King Rabbell II Soter of Nabatea (modern day Jordan and the Sinai Peninsula) died and although the circumstances of Roman intervention are not clear we do know that by the next year Roman Legions were stationed in Petra and Bostra. The evidence for this comes in the form of troop allocation records from the Roman Provinces of Egypt and Cyrene.
With Trajan’s annexation of the Nabatean Kingdom, he formed the Roman Province of Arabia Petraea, successfully provincializing the Roman East. In one fell swoop, Trajan gained Roman supremacy over everything west of the Euphrates river for the first and only time in history.
3.3: The War with Parthia
Trajan is best known for his war against the Parthians. For years Rome and Parthia had fought for supremacy over the east. In 113 CE the King of Armenia (a buffer state between the two superpowers) died and was replaced by a Parthian sympathizer who sought to break contact with Rome. Motivated by this and the promise of glory and the riches of the silk road (as well as avenging the death of Crassus) Trajan built a massive armada to sail down the Gulf of Arabia, the Tigris and the Euphrates-pillaging all along the way.
As Edward Gibbon puts it:
“ His fleets ravaged the coast of Arabia; and Trajan vainly flattered himself that he was approaching towards the confines of India. 20 Every day the astonished senate received the intelligence of new names and new nations, that acknowledged his sway. They were informed that the kings of Bosphorus, Colchos, Iberia, Albania, Osrhoene, and even the Parthian monarch himself, had accepted their diadems from the hands of the emperor; that the independent tribes of the Median and Carduchian hills had implored his protection; and that the rich countries of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, were reduced into the state of provinces.”
Four years after his initial grand invasion, the Parthians finally submitted and Roman influence reached its greatest extent.
3.4: Legacy
On his return trip to Rome, Trajan fell ill and died later that year. His legacy in Europe and abroad is complex. On the one hand he is seen as an enlightened figure who brought Rome to its greatest territorial extent. On the other hand Trajan can be seen as a brutal warmonger with an unquenchable thirst for conquest who viewed the Dacians and Parthians as Barbarians unfit to rule their own worlds.
Trajan’s conquests, despite the Dacian Gold, were enormously expensive and the lack of gold in the imperial treasury meant that subsidies to provinces in need of help (like Anatolia which had recently been mostly demolished by an Earthquake) remained in Rome to pay the army. The empire under Trajan began to fall into disrepair and by 110 CE, the populations of major cities such as Athens, Nicomedia, and Alexandria had dwindled to such a large extent, that entire districts within these cities were uninhabited ghost towns. Urban life under Trajan suffered to a massive extent, and migration of city-dwellers to the countryside created a tremendous burden on the Roman economy.
4. Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus (Hadrian)
Upon Trajan’s death in 117 CE, Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus ascended to the imperial throne. The military supported him as the perfect man to lead the remainder of Trajan’s conquests.
When Trajan died he left behind plans to completely defeat the Parthian holdouts in the east, annexing territories as far east as Turkmenistan. Career military men and the immensely powerful Praetorian guard welcomed Hadrian as the next soldier emperor. Hadrian, though, had other plans in mind.
The Emperor recognized the existential threat that empires, states, and other municipalities posed to Rome. He knew that when an empire gets too big, the vultures appear, and from there it’s a steady decline into obscurity and extermination. Thus Hadrian decided not to continue Trajan’s campaign into the east, instead opting for a more restrained foreign policy based on diplomacy.
4.1: Mending the Empire
For many in the empire (though certainly not the military) the reign of Hadrian was the peak of Roman prosperity. Hadrian knew very well that Trajan had neglected the people, treating them as a treasury for his wars. He knew that the Empire was beginning to come apart at the seams. A massive influx of potential catastrophes seemed to appear overnight as the Trajan bubble burst.
Trajan’s policies had expanded Roman influence to its greatest extent, coming into contact with new states and spheres of influence in the process. His annexation of Arabia Petrea brought hostility from the nomadic people of the Arabian Peninsula-an unmatched horde of cavalry which would destroy the infantry-heavy Roman legions. His neglect of the people brought revolts in Mauritania (Modern day Algeria and Morocco) as well as Judaea (Israel). Furthermore the Parthian forces were amassing east of the Tigris, threatening the entire conquest of the western Parthian Empire. In addition to all of this, once great cities like Syracuse, Athens, Alexandria, and even Rome to some extent had fallen into disrepair during the excessive years of Nero, Caligula, Domitian, and Trajan. Worst though was Nicomedia-arguably the most important Roman city east of Greece-which had been hit by a massive earthquake and was almost in ruin. Finally the Roman governors of Greece had become oppressive to the Province, leading to resentment from the locals and even whispers of a Hellenic revolt.
Hadrian, for his part, was ready and able to deal with the Empire’s problems. He sought to be the antithesis to the brash and bold Trajan. While Trajan had only gone abroad for conquests or to inspect troops, Hadrian made several journeys around the empire to better acquaint himself with the problems of the local provinces. He was famous for spending the vast majority of his reign outside of Italy. During his tenure Hadrian visited all of the Imperial provinces, earning him the nickname omnium curiositatum explorator by Tertullian. Hadrian’s hands on approach to the empire was exactly what it needed. The overexpansion by Trajan and his forebears had left the empire disunited, something which Hadrian hoped to rectify by ushering in an age of prosperity for the empire and all her people.
Hadrian’s use of Greek iconography in his many hundreds of public works projects is one example of his attempts to bring his empire together with a unifying architectural style. Hadrian commissioned the building of many temples, roads and defences in order to appeal to the people while exalting the culture of the Greeks. This had the added effect of securing the support of Greeks across the empire.
Hadrian’s fascination with the Hellenistic culture lead to a small renaissance and it is largely thanks to him that epics such as Homer’s Iliad survive to this day. This period of learning and culture within the Pax Romana is known as the Hadrianic Renaissance and its effects were widespread throughout Roman territory. For the first time since the reign of Augustus, intelligence was not measured by military skill but rather by devotion to the arts, sciences, and mathematics.
Trajan had clearly overextended the imperial legions and effective government of the new provinces was next to impossible. Hadrian’s very first act as Roman Emperor was to completely abandon the new provinces of Armenia and Mesopotamia, including Babylon. This was virtually unprecedented and brought a tremendous backlash from the army. Hadrian’s anti-expansionist policy was a great offense to the military, which had become the backbone of the empire under Trajan. The Praetorians themselves threatened the Emperor personally but Hadrian simply left Rome to deal with the western provinces.
4.2: Western Provinces
The rapid expansion out of Italy by the Romans in the past few centuries had brought innumerable problems from each new state that Rome came into contact with. Resources traditionally maintained in the warehouses of large urban centers in the west like Tarentum, Rome, and Alesia, quickly became the property of the state and were sent to the front. Longer borders meant more armies and more armies meant less commodities for the people. Hadrian sought to combat this by establishing and fortifying clear borders with the tribes and barbarian states on the horizon.
Along the Rhine River Hadrian built a series of self-sufficient forts and impenetrable defenses in order to protect the people of Gaul from the Germanic raiding. He would later do the same along the Danube. As the forts were self-sustaining, resources from the local towns no longer needed be taken, contributing to the growth of provincial cities such as Luvavum (Salzburg) Andautonia (Zagreb), Tercium (Zurich) and even Paris lutetia (Paris).
Hadrian’s magnum opus was Hadrian’s Wall in Northern Britannia. The greatest threat to Roman rule on Britannia was the Caledonian and Pictish tribes in the Scottish Highlands who resisted Roman rule and frequently raided Roman settlements.
Hadrian built his wall from the west to the east coast of Brittania stretching as high as 50 feet in some places, though it should be noted that most of the wall was little more than 7 feet high and had to be manned around the clock by thousands of legionnaires. Despite the enormous cost and maintenance, the wall stands as a testament to Roman engineering prowess. Additionally, the wall acted as a deterrent for the Scots who began to leave Roman Britannia alone for the most part. This combined with Hadrianic learning centers (made in the likeness of the Greek Great Library of Alexandria) contributed to a massive population boom in Britannia in the second century. Cities like York, Dover, and London all flourished during this time and remain today on top of Hadrian’s foundations.
Interestingly, Hadrian’s plan all along was not to keep the Scots out, but the Romans in. This way the imperial throne could focus on bettering the standard of living within the provinces. Herein lies the core philosophy of Hadrian: to keep the Roman Empire from over expanding and collapsing in on itself by strengthening borders, diplomatic ties, and internal security.
After constructing his wall in Britannia, Hadrian set off for the province of Mauretania, where he defeated some local rebels in one of his few military campaigns. In 118 CE, Hadrian continued on along North Africa to Cyrene via the Mediterranean. Trajan’s lack of concern for the provinces had left most of North Africa in disrepair, with local uprisings in which rebels, according to Cassius Dio, “would eat the flesh of their victims, make belts for themselves of their entrails, anoint themselves with their blood and wear their skins for clothing.” Evidence suggests that in addition to the destruction of many important highways, forums, and aqueducts, as many as 220,000 Roman citizens were massacred in North Africa during the Anti-Trajan revolts.
Hadrian’s rebuilding of Cyrene was arguably the greatest accomplishment of his early reign. The Romans prided themselves on the quick movement of goods and troops on their immaculate highway system. Many of these highways had been destroyed during the revolts and, although it had taken 50 years to build them in the first place, Hadrian completed the reintegration of Northern Africa into the highway system in under two.
Hadrian’s revitalization of North Africa was not limited to roadways, however. A dedicatory inscription and archaeological research indicate that Hadrian restored and enlarged the forums, public baths, aqueducts, and temples of cities including Alexandria, Cyrenaica, Leptis Magna, and Cario. Later, and most strikingly, Hadrian would found two cities in North Africa, Antinopolis (named for his dead lover) and Hadrianopolis in the hopes of restoring confidence in the region’s stability and security.
This is another example of the vast difference between the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. Trajan founded only one city in Dacia, and it was mostly for military and administrative use. Meanwhile Hadrian founded a handful of cities for the purpose of bettering his subjects through learning, clean living standards, and patronage of the arts.
4.3: Anatolia and Greece
In 124 CE Hadrian arrived at the ruined city of Nicomedia and rebuilt the entire city within five years. He was hailed as restorer of Asia Minor: Hadrianus Asiatacus. Hadrian then continued across the Aegean, arriving in Athens around 124 CE.
The second century geographer and historian, Pausanias claimed “the Emperor Hadrian’s generosity to his subjects was bestowed most of all on Athens” in his Periegesis Hellados or Description of Greece. Furthermore, Cassius Dio describes Hadrian’s generosity and love for the Greeks by recounting how “He granted the Athenians large sums of money, an annual dole of grain, and the whole of Cephallenia”-a strategically important isle at the mouth of the Adriatic.
Athens had fallen into disrepair, especially under Trajan due to his off-hands governance and Hadrian’s Greek Restoration became a rallying cry for unity in the Empire. Hadrian presided over the greatest period in the Pax Romana, refounding Greek culture and reintroducing it to the world. Pausanias goes on at length in the Periegesis Hellados about the various infrastructure projects, sanitary cities, and ease of travel sponsored by Hadrian during his year in Greece.
Before departing Greece, Hadrian commissioned the construction of several notable public works projects which helped Greece regain its status as the cultural capital of the Mediteranean and inspired millennia of Greek exaltation. In addition to refurbishing the roads and posting guard towers along trade routes, Hadrian built the Scriptorium at Athens-at the time one of the greatest libraries in the world. Hadrian also finally completed the Temple of Olympian Zeus-a temple whose cornerstone had been lain 600 years earlier. Hadrian further subsidized the mercantile industries which lead to tremendous growth in the wealth and prestige of the Greek naval states.
4.4: Sicilian Restorer and Legacy
Hadrian returned to Rome in 126 CE and didn’t stay long, he travelled south to Sicily, arriving in Syracuse-a once great Greek city, now ravished by famine and a derelict haven for bandit highwaymen. According to Anthony Birley in his book “The Restless Emperor” about Hadrian’s incessant travels, coins from around 127 CE venerate Hadrian as restaurator magnus sicilianos-the great restorer of Sicily. Hadrian certainly earned this nickname, his efforts to recentralize seafaring trade around Sicily was pure genius and contributed to a maritime silk road centered around the Roman Province. By 132 CE The island was literally overflowing with wealth, and the extra taxes collected from the surplus were sent to the impoverished parts of the empire, this investment grew and by 130 CE, Hadrian’s Empire was richer and more urbanized than any state on the planet.
On July 10 of 138 CE Hadrian died. His reign is considered a golden age for Rome specifically because of how reactionary he was to Trajan’s absurd expansion policies. Trajan had made a horrible mistake in his overexpansion of the empire and had he not died, Rome would have easily been overrun by any number of tribes from the frontier. Trajan’s excessive use of the army had made it a bloated, corrupt, politically active entity with a real say in the running of the Empire. The increased autonomy of the army would eventually lead to the crisis of the third century, which fractured the empire almost beyond repair.
5: Conclusion
Trajan and Hadrian were two of the most consequential rulers of the ancient world. Trajan brought Rome out of the tyranny of Domitian and the disinterest of Nerva. His purposeful expansions, while short-sighted and vain, greatly added to the prestige of ancient Rome by bringing new wealth and opening up more trade with the east. However his failures on the home front laid the foundations for infighting and the eventual fracture of the Roman Empire during the third century crisis.
Historians such as Glenn Barnett and Nathaniel Andrade have posited that Trajan’s obsession with Alexander the Great-conqueror of Persia-is likely why he was so dead set on taking the east. In many ways Trajan and Alexander are similar-two young ambitious conquerors who were ultimately unable to rule effectively over all they conquered. The short-sightedness of these two conquerors is why both of their domains would eventually fracture from overextension. Fortunately, “The martial and ambitious of spirit Trajan formed a very singular contrast with the moderation of his successor”.
Hadrian, meanwhile, was a model Emperor and perfect for the time. By visiting every corner of the Empire, Hadrian made sure to acquaint himself with the region-specific problems. Hadrian claimed that “the true birthplace is that wherein for the first time one looks intelligently upon the world, our first homelands have been books and schools”. In this light it is easy to see why Hadrian built so many Academies, Scriptoriums, and repositories for knowledge. Ruling over a vast domain is possible, but one must also be intelligent and learn about the various peoples within his domain.
The effects of Hadrian’s reign are quite visible today. Without his domestic policies cities like London, York, Paris, Munich, Rome, and Cairo wouldn’t be what they are now. His road systems are still utilized in many countries today and the mark his construction projects and welfare programs left on Mediterranean culture is frankly incalculable. His reforms kept the Empire together for another 100 years and similar policies were later enforced by Emperor Diocletian and by Emperor Aurelian-saviors of the Empire.
It’s quite clear that Hadrian sought to defy his predecessor and his reactionary laws were exactly what Rome needed at the time. His generous policies and charismatic attitude easily reunified the Empire into the cohesive juggernaut of a state that it would remain for the duration of the Pax Romana.
6. References
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Go Back Research Question: In what ways and to what extent were Hadrian’s policies a reaction to Trajan’s?
Word Count: 3908
Abstract:
Ancient Rome was one of the most financially, culturally, military, civically, and territorially successful empires of all time. The empire itself came to fruition in 27 BCE under the first Emperor Augustus-heir of Julius Caesar. Imperial Rome would then continue in one form or another for 1,500 years, eventually falling to the Ottomans in the Siege of Constantinople at the dawn of the early modern age.
English Historian and Author, Edward Gibbon Esq. in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire describes the two most consequential emperors during the period of Roman prosperity known as the Pax Romana: Trajan and Hadrian. For Gibbon the “success of the reign of Trajan, however transient, was rapid and specious” and “the restless activity of Hadrian was not any less remarkable”. Trajan and Hadrian both had a tremendous effect, not only on the world around them, but on the future of society as a whole. The reigns of these two political and military juggernauts coincided with the height of the Roman Empire, which is why studying them is so important.
The purpose of this essay is to investigate the causes and effects of the policies of both Emperors in an unbiased and purposeful way as well as to answer the question: In what ways and to what extent were Hadrian’s policies a direct reaction to those of Trajan? Throughout the essay, it will become clear that Hadrian employed a more domestic approach to Rome’s position in the world, while Trajan actively sought to expand her borders. Hadrian’s policies were a reaction to Trajan’s to a large extent because Trajan’s foreign interventions overexpanded and exhausted the Roman Empire.
Contents
- Introduction to the Time
- Marcus Ulpius Traianus
3.2: Annexation of Arabia Petraea
3.3: The War With Parthia
3.4: The Legacy of Trajan
4. Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus
4.1: Mending the Empire
4.2: The Travelling Emperor: Western Provinces
4.3 Anatolia and Greece
4.4 Sicilian Restorer and Legacy
5. Conclusion
6. Reference
1. Introduction to the Time
After the year of the four Emperors, which saw Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian all claim the imperial purple, things in the Roman Empire settled down. Vespasian and his heir Titus presided over the Mediteranean with military efficiency and cultural prosperity. Monuments and circuses such as the Colosseum in Rome were built during this period of stability. Unfortunately, the third ruler of Vespasian’s Flavian dynasty would be its last. Domitianus Augustus (anglicized as Domitian) was one of Rome’s worst tyrants. His political purges left thousands of Senators, Governors, and Mayors dead causing mass instability and culminating in his assasination in 96 CE.
Thus began the reign of Nerva, the first of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. Unfortunately, as Gibbon states, “Nerva had scarcely accepted the purple from the assassins of Domitian before he discovered that his feeble age was unable to stem the torrent of public disorders which had multiplied under the long tyranny of his predecessor”. He grew increasingly ill, reigning for only two years, and ultimately adopting General Trajan as his heir before dying in 98 CE. Nerva’s adoption of Trajan established a precedent of Imperial adoption rather than hereditary rule, something that would become a definitive part of the rule of the Five Good Emperors. All five were adopted though it should be noted that despite Cassius Dio’s assertion that “Nerva did not esteem family relationship above the safety of the State,” Nerva’s adoption of Trajan was less a matter of chivalrous pragmatism and more of maintaining the support of the army.
3. Marcus Ulpius Traianus (Trajan)
Trajan had a virtually unmatched wit and was a superb manipulator. Becoming Emperor in 98 CE, he began the process of gaining a consensus around himself within the Senate. However, upon the inauguration of his third consulship in 100 CE things started to change. Trajan gave a speech denouncing the corruption in the upper echelons of the Senate and suggesting an equal power split between the Emperor and the Senate. Although painted as Trajan sharing power with the senate it was effectively a power grab in which, as Pliny the Younger puts it “Everything depends on the whims of a single man who, on behalf of the common welfare, has taken upon himself all functions and all tasks”. The following years of Trajan’s reign saw the single most successful military expansion in Roman history, one that would begin to rot Rome from the inside out.
3.1: The War with Decebalus
The Dacians had been a thorn in the side of the Romans for decades, launching raids on the Roman provinces of Illyricum and Dalmatia which crippled maritime trading in the Adriatic. In response to the Dacian King Decebalus’ formation of an anti-roman bloc north of the Danube, Trajan launched a campaign into Dacia in 101 CE. His decision to attack the Dacians was brilliant. The treaties between the Romans and the peoples north of the Danube were widely unpopular as many were negotiated by Domitian-the tyrant-and the treaty with Decebalus endorsed the Dacian claim by declaring him rex amicus-client king unpopular. Many were negotiated by Domitian, the notoriously paranoid tyrant and the treaty with Decebalus endorsed the Dacian claim by declaring him rex amicus-client king. Furthermore a large sum of gold from the imperial treasury was sent to the Dacian Capital of Sarmizegetusa Regia which many in Rome saw as ransom to a barbarian warlord. By raising legions and crossing the Danube, Trajan was viewed as a reincarnation of Julius Caesar-the Father of the Empire. Trajan’s bridge over the Danube-the first of its kind in Eastern Europe-was equated to Caesar’s across the Rhine, widely seen as a testament to Roman ingenuity and strength. Meanwhile Decebalus was depicted as an enemy King on par with Orgetorix of the Helvetti or Cassivellaunus of the Britons. Some even likened him to the Gallic King Vercingetorix. Trajan and Caesar were viewed as glorious Romans and it was with his Comentarii de Bello Dacico (modeled after Caesar’s Comentarri de Bello Gallico) that he cemented himself as a populist firebrand unmatched by anyone in the Senate.
In 105 CE, Trajan marched into Rome and threw the head of Decebalus onto the steps of the Curia. With the acquisition of the rich Dacian Gold Mines, Rome’s economy boomed, funding a wave of military expeditions in Asia.
Unfortunately, despite the initial restoration of Adriatic trade, Trajan did littleto rejuvenate the region. Herein lies the problem at the core of Trajan’s reign: Trajan was a conqueror, not a ruler.
3.2: Annexation of Arabia Petraea
In 106 CE the Roman client King Rabbell II Soter of Nabatea (modern day Jordan and the Sinai Peninsula) died and although the circumstances of Roman intervention are not clear we do know that by the next year Roman Legions were stationed in Petra and Bostra. The evidence for this comes in the form of troop allocation records from the Roman Provinces of Egypt and Cyrene.
With Trajan’s annexation of the Nabatean Kingdom, he formed the Roman Province of Arabia Petraea, successfully provincializing the Roman East. In one fell swoop, Trajan gained Roman supremacy over everything west of the Euphrates river for the first and only time in history.
3.3: The War with Parthia
Trajan is best known for his war against the Parthians. For years Rome and Parthia had fought for supremacy over the east. In 113 CE the King of Armenia (a buffer state between the two superpowers) died and was replaced by a Parthian sympathizer who sought to break contact with Rome. Motivated by this and the promise of glory and the riches of the silk road (as well as avenging the death of Crassus) Trajan built a massive armada to sail down the Gulf of Arabia, the Tigris and the Euphrates-pillaging all along the way.
As Edward Gibbon puts it:
“ His fleets ravaged the coast of Arabia; and Trajan vainly flattered himself that he was approaching towards the confines of India. 20 Every day the astonished senate received the intelligence of new names and new nations, that acknowledged his sway. They were informed that the kings of Bosphorus, Colchos, Iberia, Albania, Osrhoene, and even the Parthian monarch himself, had accepted their diadems from the hands of the emperor; that the independent tribes of the Median and Carduchian hills had implored his protection; and that the rich countries of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, were reduced into the state of provinces.”
Four years after his initial grand invasion, the Parthians finally submitted and Roman influence reached its greatest extent.
3.4: Legacy
On his return trip to Rome, Trajan fell ill and died later that year. His legacy in Europe and abroad is complex. On the one hand he is seen as an enlightened figure who brought Rome to its greatest territorial extent. On the other hand Trajan can be seen as a brutal warmonger with an unquenchable thirst for conquest who viewed the Dacians and Parthians as Barbarians unfit to rule their own worlds.
Trajan’s conquests, despite the Dacian Gold, were enormously expensive and the lack of gold in the imperial treasury meant that subsidies to provinces in need of help (like Anatolia which had recently been mostly demolished by an Earthquake) remained in Rome to pay the army. The empire under Trajan began to fall into disrepair and by 110 CE, the populations of major cities such as Athens, Nicomedia, and Alexandria had dwindled to such a large extent, that entire districts within these cities were uninhabited ghost towns. Urban life under Trajan suffered to a massive extent, and migration of city-dwellers to the countryside created a tremendous burden on the Roman economy.
4. Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus (Hadrian)
Upon Trajan’s death in 117 CE, Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus ascended to the imperial throne. The military supported him as the perfect man to lead the remainder of Trajan’s conquests.
When Trajan died he left behind plans to completely defeat the Parthian holdouts in the east, annexing territories as far east as Turkmenistan. Career military men and the immensely powerful Praetorian guard welcomed Hadrian as the next soldier emperor. Hadrian, though, had other plans in mind.
The Emperor recognized the existential threat that empires, states, and other municipalities posed to Rome. He knew that when an empire gets too big, the vultures appear, and from there it’s a steady decline into obscurity and extermination. Thus Hadrian decided not to continue Trajan’s campaign into the east, instead opting for a more restrained foreign policy based on diplomacy.
4.1: Mending the Empire
For many in the empire (though certainly not the military) the reign of Hadrian was the peak of Roman prosperity. Hadrian knew very well that Trajan had neglected the people, treating them as a treasury for his wars. He knew that the Empire was beginning to come apart at the seams. A massive influx of potential catastrophes seemed to appear overnight as the Trajan bubble burst.
Trajan’s policies had expanded Roman influence to its greatest extent, coming into contact with new states and spheres of influence in the process. His annexation of Arabia Petrea brought hostility from the nomadic people of the Arabian Peninsula-an unmatched horde of cavalry which would destroy the infantry-heavy Roman legions. His neglect of the people brought revolts in Mauritania (Modern day Algeria and Morocco) as well as Judaea (Israel). Furthermore the Parthian forces were amassing east of the Tigris, threatening the entire conquest of the western Parthian Empire. In addition to all of this, once great cities like Syracuse, Athens, Alexandria, and even Rome to some extent had fallen into disrepair during the excessive years of Nero, Caligula, Domitian, and Trajan. Worst though was Nicomedia-arguably the most important Roman city east of Greece-which had been hit by a massive earthquake and was almost in ruin. Finally the Roman governors of Greece had become oppressive to the Province, leading to resentment from the locals and even whispers of a Hellenic revolt.
Hadrian, for his part, was ready and able to deal with the Empire’s problems. He sought to be the antithesis to the brash and bold Trajan. While Trajan had only gone abroad for conquests or to inspect troops, Hadrian made several journeys around the empire to better acquaint himself with the problems of the local provinces. He was famous for spending the vast majority of his reign outside of Italy. During his tenure Hadrian visited all of the Imperial provinces, earning him the nickname omnium curiositatum explorator by Tertullian. Hadrian’s hands on approach to the empire was exactly what it needed. The overexpansion by Trajan and his forebears had left the empire disunited, something which Hadrian hoped to rectify by ushering in an age of prosperity for the empire and all her people.
Hadrian’s use of Greek iconography in his many hundreds of public works projects is one example of his attempts to bring his empire together with a unifying architectural style. Hadrian commissioned the building of many temples, roads and defences in order to appeal to the people while exalting the culture of the Greeks. This had the added effect of securing the support of Greeks across the empire.
Hadrian’s fascination with the Hellenistic culture lead to a small renaissance and it is largely thanks to him that epics such as Homer’s Iliad survive to this day. This period of learning and culture within the Pax Romana is known as the Hadrianic Renaissance and its effects were widespread throughout Roman territory. For the first time since the reign of Augustus, intelligence was not measured by military skill but rather by devotion to the arts, sciences, and mathematics.
Trajan had clearly overextended the imperial legions and effective government of the new provinces was next to impossible. Hadrian’s very first act as Roman Emperor was to completely abandon the new provinces of Armenia and Mesopotamia, including Babylon. This was virtually unprecedented and brought a tremendous backlash from the army. Hadrian’s anti-expansionist policy was a great offense to the military, which had become the backbone of the empire under Trajan. The Praetorians themselves threatened the Emperor personally but Hadrian simply left Rome to deal with the western provinces.
4.2: Western Provinces
The rapid expansion out of Italy by the Romans in the past few centuries had brought innumerable problems from each new state that Rome came into contact with. Resources traditionally maintained in the warehouses of large urban centers in the west like Tarentum, Rome, and Alesia, quickly became the property of the state and were sent to the front. Longer borders meant more armies and more armies meant less commodities for the people. Hadrian sought to combat this by establishing and fortifying clear borders with the tribes and barbarian states on the horizon.
Along the Rhine River Hadrian built a series of self-sufficient forts and impenetrable defenses in order to protect the people of Gaul from the Germanic raiding. He would later do the same along the Danube. As the forts were self-sustaining, resources from the local towns no longer needed be taken, contributing to the growth of provincial cities such as Luvavum (Salzburg) Andautonia (Zagreb), Tercium (Zurich) and even Paris lutetia (Paris).
Hadrian’s magnum opus was Hadrian’s Wall in Northern Britannia. The greatest threat to Roman rule on Britannia was the Caledonian and Pictish tribes in the Scottish Highlands who resisted Roman rule and frequently raided Roman settlements.
Hadrian built his wall from the west to the east coast of Brittania stretching as high as 50 feet in some places, though it should be noted that most of the wall was little more than 7 feet high and had to be manned around the clock by thousands of legionnaires. Despite the enormous cost and maintenance, the wall stands as a testament to Roman engineering prowess. Additionally, the wall acted as a deterrent for the Scots who began to leave Roman Britannia alone for the most part. This combined with Hadrianic learning centers (made in the likeness of the Greek Great Library of Alexandria) contributed to a massive population boom in Britannia in the second century. Cities like York, Dover, and London all flourished during this time and remain today on top of Hadrian’s foundations.
Interestingly, Hadrian’s plan all along was not to keep the Scots out, but the Romans in. This way the imperial throne could focus on bettering the standard of living within the provinces. Herein lies the core philosophy of Hadrian: to keep the Roman Empire from over expanding and collapsing in on itself by strengthening borders, diplomatic ties, and internal security.
After constructing his wall in Britannia, Hadrian set off for the province of Mauretania, where he defeated some local rebels in one of his few military campaigns. In 118 CE, Hadrian continued on along North Africa to Cyrene via the Mediterranean. Trajan’s lack of concern for the provinces had left most of North Africa in disrepair, with local uprisings in which rebels, according to Cassius Dio, “would eat the flesh of their victims, make belts for themselves of their entrails, anoint themselves with their blood and wear their skins for clothing.” Evidence suggests that in addition to the destruction of many important highways, forums, and aqueducts, as many as 220,000 Roman citizens were massacred in North Africa during the Anti-Trajan revolts.
Hadrian’s rebuilding of Cyrene was arguably the greatest accomplishment of his early reign. The Romans prided themselves on the quick movement of goods and troops on their immaculate highway system. Many of these highways had been destroyed during the revolts and, although it had taken 50 years to build them in the first place, Hadrian completed the reintegration of Northern Africa into the highway system in under two.
Hadrian’s revitalization of North Africa was not limited to roadways, however. A dedicatory inscription and archaeological research indicate that Hadrian restored and enlarged the forums, public baths, aqueducts, and temples of cities including Alexandria, Cyrenaica, Leptis Magna, and Cario. Later, and most strikingly, Hadrian would found two cities in North Africa, Antinopolis (named for his dead lover) and Hadrianopolis in the hopes of restoring confidence in the region’s stability and security.
This is another example of the vast difference between the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. Trajan founded only one city in Dacia, and it was mostly for military and administrative use. Meanwhile Hadrian founded a handful of cities for the purpose of bettering his subjects through learning, clean living standards, and patronage of the arts.
4.3: Anatolia and Greece
In 124 CE Hadrian arrived at the ruined city of Nicomedia and rebuilt the entire city within five years. He was hailed as restorer of Asia Minor: Hadrianus Asiatacus. Hadrian then continued across the Aegean, arriving in Athens around 124 CE.
The second century geographer and historian, Pausanias claimed “the Emperor Hadrian’s generosity to his subjects was bestowed most of all on Athens” in his Periegesis Hellados or Description of Greece. Furthermore, Cassius Dio describes Hadrian’s generosity and love for the Greeks by recounting how “He granted the Athenians large sums of money, an annual dole of grain, and the whole of Cephallenia”-a strategically important isle at the mouth of the Adriatic.
Athens had fallen into disrepair, especially under Trajan due to his off-hands governance and Hadrian’s Greek Restoration became a rallying cry for unity in the Empire. Hadrian presided over the greatest period in the Pax Romana, refounding Greek culture and reintroducing it to the world. Pausanias goes on at length in the Periegesis Hellados about the various infrastructure projects, sanitary cities, and ease of travel sponsored by Hadrian during his year in Greece.
Before departing Greece, Hadrian commissioned the construction of several notable public works projects which helped Greece regain its status as the cultural capital of the Mediteranean and inspired millennia of Greek exaltation. In addition to refurbishing the roads and posting guard towers along trade routes, Hadrian built the Scriptorium at Athens-at the time one of the greatest libraries in the world. Hadrian also finally completed the Temple of Olympian Zeus-a temple whose cornerstone had been lain 600 years earlier. Hadrian further subsidized the mercantile industries which lead to tremendous growth in the wealth and prestige of the Greek naval states.
4.4: Sicilian Restorer and Legacy
Hadrian returned to Rome in 126 CE and didn’t stay long, he travelled south to Sicily, arriving in Syracuse-a once great Greek city, now ravished by famine and a derelict haven for bandit highwaymen. According to Anthony Birley in his book “The Restless Emperor” about Hadrian’s incessant travels, coins from around 127 CE venerate Hadrian as restaurator magnus sicilianos-the great restorer of Sicily. Hadrian certainly earned this nickname, his efforts to recentralize seafaring trade around Sicily was pure genius and contributed to a maritime silk road centered around the Roman Province. By 132 CE The island was literally overflowing with wealth, and the extra taxes collected from the surplus were sent to the impoverished parts of the empire, this investment grew and by 130 CE, Hadrian’s Empire was richer and more urbanized than any state on the planet.
On July 10 of 138 CE Hadrian died. His reign is considered a golden age for Rome specifically because of how reactionary he was to Trajan’s absurd expansion policies. Trajan had made a horrible mistake in his overexpansion of the empire and had he not died, Rome would have easily been overrun by any number of tribes from the frontier. Trajan’s excessive use of the army had made it a bloated, corrupt, politically active entity with a real say in the running of the Empire. The increased autonomy of the army would eventually lead to the crisis of the third century, which fractured the empire almost beyond repair.
5: Conclusion
Trajan and Hadrian were two of the most consequential rulers of the ancient world. Trajan brought Rome out of the tyranny of Domitian and the disinterest of Nerva. His purposeful expansions, while short-sighted and vain, greatly added to the prestige of ancient Rome by bringing new wealth and opening up more trade with the east. However his failures on the home front laid the foundations for infighting and the eventual fracture of the Roman Empire during the third century crisis.
Historians such as Glenn Barnett and Nathaniel Andrade have posited that Trajan’s obsession with Alexander the Great-conqueror of Persia-is likely why he was so dead set on taking the east. In many ways Trajan and Alexander are similar-two young ambitious conquerors who were ultimately unable to rule effectively over all they conquered. The short-sightedness of these two conquerors is why both of their domains would eventually fracture from overextension. Fortunately, “The martial and ambitious of spirit Trajan formed a very singular contrast with the moderation of his successor”.
Hadrian, meanwhile, was a model Emperor and perfect for the time. By visiting every corner of the Empire, Hadrian made sure to acquaint himself with the region-specific problems. Hadrian claimed that “the true birthplace is that wherein for the first time one looks intelligently upon the world, our first homelands have been books and schools”. In this light it is easy to see why Hadrian built so many Academies, Scriptoriums, and repositories for knowledge. Ruling over a vast domain is possible, but one must also be intelligent and learn about the various peoples within his domain.
The effects of Hadrian’s reign are quite visible today. Without his domestic policies cities like London, York, Paris, Munich, Rome, and Cairo wouldn’t be what they are now. His road systems are still utilized in many countries today and the mark his construction projects and welfare programs left on Mediterranean culture is frankly incalculable. His reforms kept the Empire together for another 100 years and similar policies were later enforced by Emperor Diocletian and by Emperor Aurelian-saviors of the Empire.
It’s quite clear that Hadrian sought to defy his predecessor and his reactionary laws were exactly what Rome needed at the time. His generous policies and charismatic attitude easily reunified the Empire into the cohesive juggernaut of a state that it would remain for the duration of the Pax Romana.
6. References
Primary Sources
- Livy, and Martin Julius Hertz. 1857. Ab urbe condita libri. Leipzig: Tauchnitz.
- Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome, Penguin Classics, Michael Grant Publications Ltd, 1971, Reprinted 1985,
- Birley, Anthony R. 1967. Histora Augusta In Latin biography. Edited by Thomas A. Dorey, 113–138. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (published circa 400 CE)
- Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Earnest Cary, and Herbert Baldwin Foster. 1914. Dio's Roman history. London: W. Heinemann.
- Suetonius, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. New York :R. Worthington, 1883.
Secondary Sources
- Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527. Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (Discourses on Titus Livy). Chicago :University of Chicago Press, 1996.
- Alighieri, Dante (1998) [1st pub. 1993]. The Divine Comedy . Translated by Sisson, Charles H. Oxford: Oxford University Press---
- Jaeger, Mary (1997). Livy's Written Rome. University of Michigan Press.
- Mckay, John P; Hill, Bennett D.; Buckler, John; Ebrey, Patricia B.; & Beck, Roger B. (2007). A History of World Societies (7th ed.). Boston: Houghton MIfflin Company
- Grainger, John D. (2003). Nerva and the Roman Succession Crisis of AD 96–99. London: Routledge.
- Jones, Brian W. (1992). The Emperor Domitian. London: Routledge.
- Caesar, Julius, and Philip Smith. 1842. De bello Gallico. London: Simpkin
- Gibbon, Edward. 1790. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire: By Edward Gibbon, Esq. London: Printed for A Strahan.
- Barnes, T. D. “Hadrian and Lucius Verus.” Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 57, no. 1-2, 8 July 1967, pp. 65–79., doi:10.2307/299345.
- Benario, Herbert W. “Trajan.” De Imperatoribus Romanis, 7 Aug. 2006, De Imperatoribus Romanis .
- Alighieri, Dante (1998) [1st pub. 1993]. The Divine Comedy. Translated by Sisson, Charles H. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Yourcenar, Marguerite, and Grace Frick. Memoirs of Hadrian ; and, Reflections on the Composition of Memoirs of Hadrian. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
- Bowersock, G. Roman Arabia, Harvard University Press. Harvard, 1983
- De Maigret, Alessandro. Arabia Felix. Stacey International. London, 2002.
- Miller, James Innes (1969). The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University PressMommsen, Theodor. Römische Geschichte 8 Volumes. dtv, München 2001. 3-423-59055-6
- O'Leary, De Lacy (2001). Arabia Before Muhammad. London: RoutledgeVon Wissmann, H. "Die Geschichte des Säbaerreichs und der Felzug des Æelius Gallus". Haase ed. Munchen, 1976
- Young, Gary Keith. Rome's Eastern Trade: International Commerce and Imperial Policy, 31 BC-AD 305. Routledge. London, 2001
- 0Pausanias, Description of Greece, Volume 1: Central Greece, translated by Peter Levi (Penguin Classics 1971)
- Anthony R. Birley Hadrian: The Restless Emperor (Routledge 1997)
- Boatwright, M. T. Further Thoughts on Hadrianic Athens http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/147788.pdf
- Boatwright, M. T. Hadrian And The Cities Of The Roman Empire (Princeton Universtiy Press 2000)
- Benjamin, A. S. 1963. The Altars of Hadrian in Athens and Hadrian’s Panhellenic Program. Hesperia 32 (1): 57-86.
- Arja Karivieri Just One of the Boys – Hadrian in the Company of Zeus, Dionysus a
- Theseus in Greek Romans and Roman Greeks (Aarhus University Press 2002)
- Christopher Mee and Antony Spawforth Greece An Oxford Archaeological Guide(Oxford University Press 2001)
- Nathanael John Andrade, "Imitation Greeks": Being Syrian in the Greco-Roman World (175 BCE – 275 CE). Doctoral Thesis, University of Michigan, 2009, page 192. Available at [1]. Retrieved June 11, 2014
- Barnett, Glenn. Emulating Alexander: How Alexander the Great's Legacy Fuelled Rome's Wars with Persia. Pen Et Sword Military, 2017
- Pliny, the Younger. The Letters of Pliny the Younger. New York :G. E. Stechert, 1936.
- I. Romeo, “The Panhellenion and Ethnic Identity in Hadrianic Greece” ClPhil, vol. 97, 2002
- 30 Boardman, John; N.G.L. Hammond; D.M. Lewis; F. W. Walbank; A.E. Astin; J.A. Crook; Andrew Lintott; Elizabeth Rawson; Alan K. Bowman; Edward Champlin; Averil Cameron; Peter Garnsey (2005). The Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge University Press.