Trajan
Trajan (Marcus Ulpius Traianus, Italica 53 – Selinus 117) was the first Iberian Roman emperor. His rule lasted from the year 98 until his death in 117. The second emperor of his dynasty, the Antonine, he was declared by the Senate as Optimus Princeps, the best ruler, and he was remembered as a successful soldier who led Roman Empire to its maximum extent.
Trajan became emperor through adoption. This was a very common system of succession in the Roman Empire, and in this case, it was the emperor Nerva who considered Trajan would be the right heir to lead the Empire. Nerva, apparently was right, as Trajan has been considered the archetype of the great ruler, not only due to his military successes, but also on the strength of his administrative reforms and the promotion of extensive building programs. The latter can be seen in the splendour of his hometown, Italica, reached during his and his successor’s rule.
Italica, very close to the city known nowadays as Santiponce, in the province of Seville, was one of the most important cities in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica. Whilst it was founded by Publius Cornelius Scipio in the 3rd century BC, it was under the rule of Trajan, and later Hadrian, when its major development was carried out. Under their command baths, temples and other civil constructions were built in the city, and it became one of the most important cities in all the Empire. But Trajan also promoted the construction of other structures across the empire. For instance, the bridge of Alcántara (Lusitania, Iberian Peninsula) and the so-called Trajan’s bridge (over the lower Danube), and the many constructions he promoted in the city of Rome. Amongst the latter, one of the best known is Trajan’s Column, which commemorates his victory in the Dacian Wars and where the ashes of the emperor are buried.
The emperor’s reputation remained intact during the centuries. Trajan was considered one of the archetypes of ruler in Alfonso X’s Estoria de Espanna and even included in the list of the Five Good Emperors described by Machiavelli centuries later.
Biography
Elena majored in History and did a master’s on Medieval Studies at the Universities of Huelva and Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Her interest in both history and literature led her to focus her studies in historiography. This is how now she became PhD student at the University of Birmingham where she works on the reception of the Empire in Alfonso X’s Estoria de Espanna.
Select bibliography in English
Bennett, Julian. 2001. Trajan: Optimus Princeps. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
Rossi, Lino. 1971. Trajan’s Column and the Dacian Wars. Aspects of Greek and Roman Life (London, England). London: Thames and Hudson.
Scarre, Christopher. 1995. Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome. London: Thames and Hudson.