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Emperor ofRome (A.D. 98-117), b. at ItalicaSpain, 18 September, 53; d. 7 August, 117.
He was descended from an old Romanfamily, 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 achivalrous 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 neitherproved of importance subsequently. The Governor ofSyria conquered Arabia Petraea and Trajan himself enteredArmenia during the Parthian War (114-7).
In his internal administration Trajan was incessantly occupied in encouraging commerce and industries. The harbour ofAncona was enlarged and new harbours and roads were constructed. Numerous stately ruins in and aroundRome giveproof of this emperor'szeal 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 Dacianwars. LaterHadrian built a temple to thedeified 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 thepersecution ofChristians during this reign. Pliny waslegate of the double Province of Bithynia andPontus. In this territory he found manyChristians and requested instructions from Trajan (Ep. 96). In his reply (Ep. 97) Trajan considers the confession ofChristianity as a crime worthy of death, but forbade a search forChristians and the acceptance of anonymous denunciations. Whoever shows by sacrificing to the gods that he is not aChristian is to be released. Where the adherence toChristianity isproved 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 againstChristians in other places also. The most distinguishedmartyrs under Trajan were Ignatius,Bishop ofAntioch, and Simeon,Bishop ofJerusalem. Legend names many others, but there was no actualpersecution on a large scale and the position of theChristians was in general satisfactory.
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).
APA citation.Löffler, K.(1912).Trajan. InThe Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15015a.htm
MLA citation.Löffler, Klemens."Trajan."The Catholic Encyclopedia.Vol. 15.New York: Robert Appleton Company,1912.<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15015a.htm>.
Transcription.This article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael T. Barrett.Dedicated to the martyrs of Rome.
Ecclesiastical approbation.Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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