Trajan
Trajan
Trajans reign is of interest to the student of early Church history on account of its connexion with the treatment of Christians by the State. Spain, which had contributed during the 1st cent. a long line of celebrated names to Roman literature,-the Elder Seneca, Seneca the philosopher, Columella the agriculturist, Pomponius Mela the geographer, Lucan the epic poet, Martial the epigrammatist, and Quintilian the rhetorician,-gave in Trajan its first Emperor to the Roman Empire.
M. Ulpius Traianus was born at Italica, in the province of Hispania Baetica, which corresponded territorially to the modern Andalucia, on Sept. 18, a.d. 52 or 53. His father was the first of the family to attain to senatorial rank. Young Trajan served as military tribune under his father, who was governor of the important province Syria, in the year 76. This was only part of an extremely extensive military experience which fell to the lot of the future Emperor in his early manhood. It may be doubted, in fact, if any other aristocrat of the day had spent as much time in the field. Fortified by an assured military reputation, he returned to Rome in 78, and then passed through the regular succession of offices, attaining the praetorship, probably in 85. From 89 to 97 he was in command of a legion serving successively in Spain and Germany, and in the latter country he quelled a revolt of two legions at Vindonissa (modern Windisch). In recognition of these services, he was made one of the two chief consuls for 91. After a period of inaction he was, at the election of Nerva as Emperor in 96, appointed governor of the mountainous part of Germany (provincia Germania Superior), to secure a new frontier to the Empire, taking in the Agri Decumates (modern Schwarzwald, Black Forest). The aged Nerva on 27th October 97 adopted him as his son and successor, and he thus took the name Imperator Caesar Nerva Traianus Augustus. In the same year he obtained the honorary title Germanicus for his military exploits against the Germans. Later titles conferred upon him may be here enumerated: Pater Patriae in 98, Dacicus at the end of 102, Optimus in 114, and Parthicus in 116. Nerva died on 25th January 98, and Trajan thus succeeded to the sole rule of the Empire, but he did not leave Germany till about a year after his accession. In 99 he reached Rome. He had already proved himself the ablest general of the time. He now showed affability to all classes, and conducted all his relations with the Senate and aristocracy in the most tactful manner. Details of his rule need not be given, but those best qualified to judge consider that of all the Roman Emperors, with the possible exception of Augustus, Trajan was the wisest, most competent, and greatest. Much of his reign was spent in necessary military operations, but the conduct of civil affairs was quite as excellent. The Emperor had to leave Rome in March 101 for the invasion of Dacia, which had proved a very troublesome foe in the time of Domitian. After two campaigns the Decebalus was defeated and his capital Sarmizegetusa captured (end of 102). A permanent bridge over the Danube, still in use, was built at Drobetae. A rising of the Decebalus, however, took place late in 104, and early in 105 Dacia was again invaded by the Romans. Baffled and defeated, the Decebalus committed suicide. The Dacian population was almost completely exterminated, and a new province Dacia was created, to which colonists were introduced from various parts of the Empire. These were the ancestors of the present inhabitants of Transylvania and Rumania, and their origin explains the character of the Rumanian language and the sympathies of the Rumanian people to-day. By the end of 106 Trajan was again in Rome. In the preceding year it had been necessary, in the interests of trade, to annex the territory of the turbulent Nabataean tribes of Arabia Petraea, and thus the Roman province Arabia was formed. From 106 to about 112 Trajan was in Italy, and among much beneficial legislation the permanent establishment of the system of alimentationes, inaugurated by Nerva, deserves mention. This was a system for the support of poor boys and girls, including orphans and foundlings, throughout Italy. Trajans Forum and its features have been referred to in the article Rome. His interest in provincial government comes out in the official correspondence with C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus, governor of the province Bithynia-Pontus about 111-113. The reader is impressed by the careful attention paid to details the consistent desire to respect local customs and usages, the avoidance of general rules and principles, and the equitable spirit which insists on the execution of the laws, but observes vested interests, and avoids the appearance of anything arbitrary (E. G. Hardy, C. Plinii Caecilii Secundi Epistulae ad Traianum Imperatorem cum eiusdem Responsis, p. 12). Pliny, having written that he had never taken part in trials of Christians, asked the Emperor what procedure he ought to follow. Trajan laid down that they must not be sought out, but that if duly prosecuted and convicted they must pay the penalty of execution. There is no real reason to suppose that Trajan inaugurated this policy. It was probably in the time of Vespasian or one of the other Flavian Emperors that the confession of Christianity in itself began to be regarded as an offence against the State, punishable with death. The affairs of Armenia caused the inevitable conflict with the Parthians on the eastern frontier, which occupied the last years of Trajans life. The Emperor himself set out for the East at the end of 113, and in a succession of campaigns he was able to subdue the enemies of Rome and to add three provinces to the Empire-Armenia minor, Mesopotamia, and Assyria. But the conquest had been too rapid, and the last had to be relinquished. Trajan died at Selinus in Cilicia in August, 117.
Literature.-The chief ancient authorities are Xiphilinus Epitome of Dio Cassius, bk. lxviii.; Pliny, Panegyricus and Correspondence with Trajan. There are also many important inscriptions and coins. Besides the relevant parts of the histories of H. Schiller, Geschichte der rmischen Kaiserzeit, i. [Gotha, 1883]; V. Duruy, History of Rome, Eng. translation , 6 vols., London, 1883-86; J. B. Bury, Students History of the Roman Empire, do., 1893; A. von Domaszewski, Geschichte der rmischen Kaiser, ii. [Leipzig, 1909] 171-185, there are the special monographs: J. Dierauer, Beitrge zu einer kritischen Geschichte Trajans, Leipzig, 1868; G. A. T. Davles, Lecturer in Roman History in the University of Aberdeen, is preparing a monograph on the Dacian campaigns (cf. his paper The Dacian Campaign of Trajan in a.d. 102, read before the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies on 3rd March 1914, and to be published in JRS [Note: RS Journal of Roman Studies.] ); E. G. Hardys C. Plinii Caecilii Secundi Epistulae ad Traianum Imperatorem cum eiusdem Responsis, London, 1889, is important. On Trajans attitude to the Christians, consult W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire before a.d. 170, do., 1893, ch. x. pp. 196-225, and E. G. Hardy, Studies in Roman History, do., 1906, ch. vi. pp. 78-95; K. J. Neumann, Der rmische Staat und die allgemeine Kirche bis auf Diocletian, I. [Leipzig, 1890] 17-26, may also be read.
A. Souter.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Trajan
Emperor of Rome (A.D. 98-117), b. at Italica Spain, 18 September, 53; d. 7 August, 117.
He was descended from an old Roman family, and was adopted in 97 by the Emperor Nerva. Trajan was one of the ablest of the Roman emperors; he was stately and majestic in appearance, had a powerful will, and showed admirable consideration and a chivalrous kindliness. He gained a large amount of territory for the empire and laid the foundations of civilization all over the provinces by the founding of municipal communities. He established order on the borders of the Rhine, built the larger part of the boundary wall (limes) between Roman and Germanic territory from the Danube to the Rhine, and with great determination led two campaigns (101-2 and 105-7) against the Dacian king, Decebalus, whose country he converted into a new province of the empire. Two other provinces were conquered, although neither proved of importance subsequently. The Governor of Syria conquered Arabia Petraea and Trajan himself entered Armenia during the Parthian War (114-7).
In his internal administration Trajan was incessantly occupied in encouraging commerce and industries. The harbour of Ancona was enlarged and new harbours and roads were constructed. Numerous stately ruins in and around Rome give proof of this emperor’s zeal in erecting buildings for public purposes. The chief of these is the immense Forum Trajanum, which in size and splendour casts the forums of the other emperors into the shade. In the middle of the great open space was the colossal equestrian statute of Trajan; the free area itself was surrounded by rows of columns and niches surmounted by high arches. At the end of the structure was the Bibliotheca Ulpia, in the court of which stood the celebrated Trajan’s Column with its reliefs representing scenes in the Dacian wars. Later Hadrian built a temple to the deified Trajan at the end of the Forum towards the Campus Martius.
Art and learning flourished during Trajan’s reign. Among his literary contemporaries were Tacitus, Juvenal, and the younger Pliny with whom the emperor carried on an animated correspondence. This correspondence belonging to the years 111-3 throws light on the persecution of Christians during this reign. Pliny was legate of the double Province of Bithynia and Pontus. In this territory he found many Christians and requested instructions from Trajan (Ep. 96). In his reply (Ep. 97) Trajan considers the confession of Christianity as a crime worthy of death, but forbades a search for Christians and the acceptance of anonymous denunciations. Whoever shows by sacrificing to the gods that he is not a Christian is to be released. Where the adherence to Christianity is proved the punishment of death is to follow. The action he prescribed rests on the coercive power of the police, the right of repression of the magistracy, which required no settled form of procedure. In pursuance of these orders measures were taken against Christians in other places also. The most distinguished martyrs under Trajan were Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, and Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem. Legend names many others, but there was no actual persecution on a large scale and the position of the Christians was in general satisfactory.
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MERIVALE, Hist. of the Romans under the Empire (London, 1850-62), lxiii, lxiv; SCHILLER, Gesch. der römischen Kaiserzeit, I (Gotha, 1883), 543-94; DOMASZEWSKI, Gesch. der römischen Kaiser, II (Leipzig, 1909), 171-86; LA BERGE, Essai sur le regne de Trajan (Paris, 1877); RAMSAY, The Church in the Roman Empire (London, 1893); ARNOLD, Studien zur Gesch. de plinianischen Christenverfolgung (Konigsberg, 1887).
KLEMENS LOFFLER Transcribed by Michael T. Barrett Dedicated to the martyrs of Rome
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XVCopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York