Trajan Ascends: Rome Reaches Its Greatest Territorial Extent

Trajan succeeded his adoptive father Nerva as Roman Emperor on January 28, 98 AD, beginning a nineteen-year reign that would expand the empire to its greatest territorial extent. Born in Italica in the province of Hispania Baetica around 53 AD, he was the first emperor born outside Italy, a fact that demonstrated how thoroughly the Roman world had expanded beyond its peninsular origins. His father had been a successful military commander and provincial governor, and Trajan followed the same path, serving with distinction on the Germanic and Syrian frontiers before Nerva adopted him as heir in 97 AD, a political decision designed to stabilize the succession by linking the elderly Nerva to a popular and competent military commander. Trajan's conquests transformed the imperial map. His two Dacian Wars, fought between 101 and 106, conquered modern Romania and brought its gold mines under Roman control, providing an enormous windfall that funded his domestic building program. His eastern campaigns conquered Armenia, Mesopotamia, and temporarily pushed Roman control to the Persian Gulf. His massive public works program produced Trajan's Forum, the largest public space in Rome, Trajan's Column, a 125-foot monument carved with a continuous spiral relief depicting the Dacian Wars, and Trajan's Market, a multi-level commercial complex often called the world's first shopping mall. He expanded the alimenta system, which provided food and education for poor children across Italy, and built roads, bridges, and aqueducts throughout the provinces. The Roman Senate honored him with the title Optimus Princeps, the best ruler, a distinction no subsequent emperor ever received.