What did Trajan do for Rome?

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Trajan is best known as

a successful military commander. He fought the Dacians who attacked

the empire from across the river Danube. In the two Dacian Wars

(101-2 and 105-6) he conquered Dacia (Romania and Moldova). In

114-115 he fought a war against the Parthian Empire (the third of

the four pre-Islamic Persian empires) and conquered Armenia and

Mesopotamia (Iraq). He annexed the kingdom of Nabataea (modern

southern Jordan and northwest Saudi Arabia) which, although there

is epigraphic evidence of a military operation, appears to have

submitted to the Romans willingly. Thus, under his reign, the Roman

Empire reached its greatest extent. His successor, Hadrian gave

Mesopotamia back to the Persians because he did not want long and

bloody wars against this great military power.

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"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Trajan was a highly

phrased emperor and all ancient sources had a positive view of him.

He was described as just and wise and as a moral man who was always

dignified. The famous Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas discussed

Trajan as an example of a virtuous pagan. Machiavelli listed Trajan

as one of the five good emperors. He called them good emperors

because they were benign rulers, pursued moderate policies, ruled

wisely, allowed a lot of freedom and were popular. This contrasted

with the more tyrannical rule of other emperors.

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"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A legendary episode in

the life of Trajan in Cassius Dio's biography of the emperor had

been called "The Justice of Trajan." The emperor was petitioned for

justice by the mother of a murdered man. He asked her to wait until

he returned from a war, but she pointed out that he might not

return at all. He made time to settle her case despite all the

other calls on his time. According to Cassius Dio "He did not,

however, as might have been expected of a warlike man, pay any less

attention to the civil administration nor did he dispense justice

any the less; on the contrary, he conducted trials…" In the Divine

Comedy, Dante sees the spirit of Trajan in the Heaven of Jupiter

with other historical and mythological persons noted for their

justice. A mural of the justice of Trajan is in the first terrace

of Purgatory as a lesson to those who are purged for being proud.

This popularised the legend which appears in poems and

painting.

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"margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Trajan was a prolific

builder. He built monuments and roads in Italy and his native

Hispania. He rebuilt roads which were renamed via Traiana and via

Traiana Nova. In Rome he built Trajan's Forum and Trajan's Column.

He built the Alcántara Bridge in Spain. For his wars in Dacia he

built a road and canal around it the Iron gates (a gorge on the

river Danube) and Trajan's Bridge. This bridge was one of the

marvels of Roman engineering. It was 1,135 m (3,724 ft.) long, 15 m

(49 ft.) wide, and 19 m (62 ft.) above the water level. It had

twenty masonry pillars and arches with a span of 38 m (125 ft.).

Although it was functional for only a few decades, for more than

1,000 years it was the longest arch bridge in both total and span

length.