“May He be as lucky as Augustus, and as good as Trajan.”
Emperor Trajan had ruled for fifteen years as Roman Emperor. During this period he had expanded the Empire’s borders north of the Rhine and east of the River Jordan to include the kingdoms of Dacia and Nabatea and the ancient city of Petra. However, his internal politics had also been marked by success and harmony. The Senate was assuaged by fears of another Domitian as Trajan gave more powers to local governors and appointed Senators to important positions, rather than his own supporters. He encouraged freedom at the provincial level, and encouraged officials to be independent and to sort out their own problems. However, he kept a tight control of affairs, with his hand around the Empire’s purse strings and the army fiercely loyal to their Imperator.
Rome was reaching the zenith of her power; having survived the absolutism of its God and Emperor Domitian, and the lax sycophancy of Nerva, she was revelling in the military glories and economic splendour of the early 2nd century. However, tensions were high both internally and externally, and all these would be ignited by a small mountain kingdom far to the east.
Armenia had long been a battleground for Rome; since the days when Pompey stomped through it fighting Tigranes it had been a clash of civilisation; east versus west. As per the terms of a treaty signed in the days of the Emperor Nero, the Kingdom was to be ruled as a joint protectorate of Rome and the eastern kingdom of Parthia. After an Armenian king died, his successor would be chosen by the Parthian monarch. This choice was then sent by Rome for ratification. If they agreed, the new king would enjoy both kingdoms support.
In 113 the king of Armenia died, and so through due process a new heir was selected. Instead of being a member of the Armenian nobility, however, the candidate was the King of Parthia’s own nephew. When news of this reached Trajan, he demanded that the candidate step down. when the Parthian king refused, Trajan declared war.
Taking twelve legions east he swiftly overran Armenia and wintered there in 114, reorganising it as a Roman province and founding a new city on the shores of Lake Van. He pacified the region and rebuffed several half-hearted Parthian sorties into occupied territory. Finally, in the Spring he plunged south through the Zagros Mountains of Persia, seizing several Parthian centres in swift succession before reaching the Tigris. He crossed this and headed for the Euphrates, thus taking a large part of northern Mesopotamia. In Summer 115 he received ambassadors from the King of Parthia requesting peace. Trajan demanded that Armenia remain a Roman province and his gains in Asia Minor be recognised.
Trajan had, in the heady heat of the east, toyed with the idea of marching to the Persian Gulf and burning Ctesiphon. Such idea were knocked from his head, however, when minor Jewish uprisings turned into full scale rebellion. The province of Judea had been the forge of the Flavian Dynasty in the 60s and 70s AD and now they threatened Trajan’s supply lines. He sent three extra legions to Lucius Quietus to quell the rebellion, which had exacted a heavy death toll on civilians and soldiers alike. After nearly three years of fighting the rebellion was quashed. The Province of Judea was disarmed and although Judaism was not outlawed, it was subject to many discriminatory laws and edicts. The Jewish populations of Egypt and North Africa were forced to swear allegiance to the Emperor, a practice which only increased tensions.
During the three years of rebellion, Trajan ruled from Antioch. He sent frequent dispatches to Rome informing the Senate that it was only the direst of circumstances that kept him from the city, and that he would be with them soon. For those three years he built up his forces; he trained his men, bolstered his numbers and secured the support of the Arabian tribes who would secure his right flank in his eventual Mesopotamian adventure.
In 117 he finally amassed six legions; some 40,000 men and attacked down the Fertile Crescent. He had prepared two fleets which sailed down both rivers to act as supply craft as well as water borne support. The flat-bottomed barges had been designed by the architect Appolodorus to carry small artillery weapons such as ballistae and catapults, as well as detachments of archers. The legions, meanwhile, marched quickly and headlong for Ctesiphon. The city was reached quickly and besieged. The siege did not last long as the city’s defences were breached by an attack from the river made by the Roman flotilla. Trajan’s legions burst through the city and captured the Royal Palace. Here they found many royal family members, but not the king nor his three sons, who had all fled. Many nobles too were found, and these were all imprisoned.
Trajan then spent the next two years pacifying Mesopotamia. He sent a message accompanied by a laurel to the Senate notifying them of his stupendous victory, and informed them that he had stood on the southern shores cursing the Gods that he was too old to emulate Alexander and go further. Opposition arose from two sources: the Parthian state and the nobility. The Parthian king, who had escaped, withdrew east to Persia where he hoped to consume the Romans energy among the Zagros Mountains. Trajan, however, did not fall for the bait and so he conducted a campaign of guerrilla warfare that had small armed bands emerge from the mountains, attack outposts and disappear. Trajan solved this problem with the aid of his friend the architect Appolodorus. Appolodorus constructed numerous bridges across the Tigris that had guard posts and checkpoints at either end. These checkpoints had guard towers overhead that would have a contingent of auxiliaries manning them. These bridges aided communications while strengthening Roman hold of the west bank of the Tigris. He also built a series of watchtowers, fortified camps and walls that formed an impressive defence system along the Zagros that would protect Roman interests for years to come. These would take years to complete, and Trajan would never see them finished. They were, however, heavily sponsored by the Emperor’s eventual successor, Hadrian.
The Mesopotamian nobility too resented the yoke of Roman subjugation. They were loyal to their king and hated Rome’s new taxes. Trajan responded by opening up Mesopotamia to military colonists. Thousands were settled in armed encampments along the whole length of the new provinces. The nobility would be a pain for years and Trajan kept a tight control over them. However, he offered significant rewards to any noble who would send his son to Rome for education, or would wear a toga and sacrifice to Caesar. He also lowered taxes on them and allowed them to keep their arms. He know that if they were eventually robbed of a reason to revolt, then they could keep their means to do so. Thus over the next several decades, the Parthian nobility would Romanise, however there would be numerous uprisings, most notably in 119, 123 and 127.
Trajan sent ambassadors east of the Zagros offering to return all Parthian hostages free of ransom if only the King would sign a peace treaty with Rome and cease his border transgressions. Trajan was growing old, and he did not want to leave an open ended conflict to his successor. Finally in 118 the Parthian king was persuaded to accede to Trajan’s demands. Some 2,000 hostages were returned, including the kings mother, his sisters and several of his other close family members. Parthian power was from then on limited to Persia and the east, and the death of the king in 120 began a civil war that would consume the kingdom for a decade.
The new acquisitions in Mesopotamia were reorganised as three new Imperial provinces: Assyria, Babylonia and Mesopotamia, in order from north to south. As well as numerous military colonies he also built four new cities. One of these was on the Gulf Coast and it was through here that all Roman dealings with India would occur. On the site of Ctesiphon he built Traidorum, a large city with impressive temples and a forum that would grow rapidly as the areas administrative centre.
Following the conquest and pacification of Mesopotamia, Trajan was physically and mentally exhausted. He returned to Italy where he declined a Triumph offered by the Senate, giving it instead to Lucius Quietus whom he appointed Governor of Mesopotamia in 119. He also appointed Hadrian, a close associate of his and rumoured by some to be his heir presumptive, as Governor of Assyria. For three years Hadrian ruled well here with an energy and exuberance that was missed following the departure of the shattered Emperor.
Trajan, for his part, lived a life of semi retirement for his last three years. During this time he laid the foundations for a civil service of public slaves that he bequeathed to his successor, and also engaged with his official architect Appolodorus about public works. In 120 Trajans Way was completed. It was a new road through Rome, cutting a straight line from the south from the Ostian Gate past the Circus Maximus between the Aventine and Caelian Hills past the Coliseum to a new forum that Trajan built, along with its own Curia and food market. This new complex rejuvenated Rome’s city centre and provided a new grand entry way both for merchants from the coast who had previously been crammed into a much smaller street, and also for triumphant armies heading to the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.
Trajan died in 123 AD aged seventy. He had extended the Empire across the Danube into Dacia, and east to Armenia and Mesopotamia. On his deathbed he still had no appointed heir, yet he finally adopted Hadrian as his own and made it clear that he would receive the imperial insignia. Hadrian arrived in Rome two months later where he was acclaimed emperor publicly. Trajan was buried in a mausoleum on the west bank of the Tiber that was designed by none other than Appolodorus.
Hadrians reign would see Rome go from glory to glory. His style of rulership, however, was very different from Trajan’s. whereas Trajan liked to keep his distance from provincial affairs, encouraging freedom and independent-ness, preferring to spend his time on the fronts or in Rome sorting out crucial matters, Hadrian would spent more than half his reign travelling; from Britain, Mesopotamia, Germania, Moesia to Armenia. He visited almost every province in his empire, missing nothing and always directing the Empire’s affairs.
However, one of his main projects throughout his reign would be the consolidation of Trajan’s gains. The Appolodorian Wall, as the defences in Mesopotamia were called, proved effective and Hadrian oversaw their completion in the mid 120s. there was no one continuous wall, however the defences were so large and pervasive that there may as well have been.
A second front was that of the Rhine. The Rhine legions were the Empire’s finest, yet they had shown, especially in the first half of the 1st century, that they had a penchant for rebellion if they weren’t kept busy. While touring the Rhine frontier in 125, therefore, Hadrian ordered the construction of a series of fortifications all along the Rhine that involved walls, fortified bridges, fortified settlements and a system of roads that in some areas stretched for several miles east of the Rhine. Hadrian encouraged diplomacy with Germanic tribes which had become Romanised, and they were made client kings, protected by the force of the legions who were kept on constant alert. The legions were kept constantly drilled and equipped so they could respond to any aggression or need of the Emperors.
Two more walls built were the famous Hadrians Wall in Britain, which was completed some time in the 130s, after Hadrians visit to the province in 134, and the Mauritanian Wall, completed in the early 140s after Hadrians visit in 139. Both were meant not to separate Rome from the barbarians, but to divide and rule. The wall in Britain was meant to divide the territory of the British tribe the Brigantes. These had shown themselves capable of rebellion, as they had done so several items beforehand. By cutting their territory in half, their relations with northern tribes and their commerce could be regulated. As for Mauritania, North Africa was subject to frequent Bedouin raids that caused considerable disruption to provincial affairs. The Mauritanian Wall was built to split the nomads responsible from their oases. This meant that any nomad who wanted to water his livestock and herds, or to trade, had to be checked, counted, searched and taxed.
These defensive measures allowed Hadrian to spend his time enriching the empire rather than fussing over border skirmishes and worrying about hostile incursions. The Parthian kingdom was in a state of civil war and no other state had the power to topple Rome. Hadrian was overseeing a new golden age.
Comments, critisisms, rabid denunciations? All are welcome.