ROMA SI ELITA SA-MILITARA -PARTEA 2!

 “May you be more fortunate than Augustus, and better than Trajan.”

Trajan likely harboured hopes of returning with the legions into Parthia, and consolidating the annexation of Roman Persia. Only Hatra held out, with Trajan attending the siege in person and likely suffering from heatstroke while there. Trajan would not take the legions further east though, nor would the Roman Empire ever extend further than it had under the reign of Trajan.

Now spreading from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Persia in the west, Trajan’s Roman Empire covered 3.2 million square miles (5 million square km), with a population of up to 100 million people – the largest population of any political entity in the west until the mid-19th Century, and comprising a sixth of the world’s population at the time. Each of the three largest cities – Rome Alexandria and Antioch – were double the size of any European city at the start of the 17th Century. The Roman Empire was the 25th largest empire in history, covering almost 4% of the world’s land. The Roman Empire was at its zenith, and when you look at a map of the Roman Empire today, what you see if the territories that Trajan controlled. While Romans at the time likely anticipated further expansion, Trajan’s successor would adopt a policy of consolidation, after which the empire would enter a slow, inexorable decline, never again to claim such vast territories.

The historian Christopher Kelly describes: “Then the empire stretched from Hadrian's Wall in drizzle-soaked northern England to the sun-baked banks of the Euphrates in Syria; from the great Rhine–Danube river system, which snaked across the fertile, flat lands of Europe from the Low Countries to the Black Sea, to the rich plains of the North African coast and the luxuriant gash of the Nile Valley in Egypt. The empire completely circled the Mediterranean ... referred to by its conquerors as mare nostrum—'our sea'.”

Rome’s military focus would turn back west, following the outbreak of the Kitos War, named after the prominent Roman legate Quietus. Revolt in Judea spread to Cyrene, Egypt, Cyprus and Mesopotamia, demanding a legionary response in response to Jewish violence. Up to 200,000 Jews were killed over the two years of the war, with many areas being so depopulated that Roman colonists had to move in to make them viable, with other areas having their Jews expelled to the eastern fringes of the empire. A further rebellion 15 years later saw 580,000 Jews killed in Judea, and the Emperor Hadrian erased the province of Judea to instead rename it as “Syria Palestina”.

The end of the Kitos War in 117 AD coincided with Trajan growing ill. As his health deteriorated, he made to sail back to Italia. After reaching Cilicia, he suddenly died from edema. Without a son, it was unclear who his successor was. While many believed he had adopted Hadrian as his son, others believed his wife assured the succession by keeping quiet news of Trajan’s death and hiring an impersonator to represent him, speaking from behind a curtain. Hadrian’s position was ambiguous, having held no further posts after his consulate a decade earlier, and having been relieved of military command midway through the Dacian Wars. He was still well linked with being heir though, governing Syria at the time of Trajan’s death, and being both his cousin and a fellow Spaniard. Despite this uncertainty, Hadrian managed to rise to the purple, quickly removing popular threats such as the legate Quietus.

His tenure saw a pedalling back on Trajan’s expansionist policies, almost immediately abandoning Mesopotamia and restoring the Euphrates and Armenia as the empire’s eastern frontier. Hadrian spent his reign touring the empire, first spending time in Britannia following a local rebellion, then heading to Africa and Parthia, then to Greece, before returning to Italia and Africa again. His reputation suffered at the hands of homophobic Senators, already disgruntled at his lack of military expansion, when he appeared to have a break down following the death of his prominent lover, Antinous. Further travels to Greece and the east, following by quelling the Second Jewish War, meant that he spent more time out of Rome than in it. In sharp contrast, his successor Antoninus Pius never left Rome during his 23-year tenure, and never went within 500 miles of a legion. He was followed by co-rulers Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, whose adoption had been stipulated by Hadrian in his will which adopted Pius. Their rule continued Roman prosperity, and the 11 years Aurelius ruled alone focussed largely on the Germanic tribe the Macromanni, with 14 years of warfare seeing 13 legions and 58 auxilliary cohorts looking to contain almost a million Germanic warriors.

Aurelius completed the cycle of “five good emperors”, and was the first to be succeeded by his biological son, Commodus. Returning Rome to the depravities of the days of Caligula and Nero, Commodus would fight gladiators in the Coliseum (once they had been handicapped with a lead sword), would trigger a grain famine, and would look to rename Rome as “the City of Commodus”. Soon abandoning the gains of his father, and accepting peace with the Macromanni, Commodus spent his days living a life of debauchery in Rome. His chaotic reign plunged Rome into crisis upon his death, ending a century-long period of prosperity.

Trajan would replace Augustus as the benchmark to which all subsequent emperors would aspire, and forays into Persia became a common theme among emperors looking to assert their authority. After his death, the Senate would announce at the inauguration of every emperor: “Felicior Augusto, melior Traiano” – “May you be more fortunate than Augustus, and better than Trajan.” While Rome still prospered after his death, the reign of Commodus would plunge the empire into a crisis which almost ended it in the third century, only to see a revival help Rome limp along for a further 200 years. The death of Trajan brought with it the death of expansionist ideals, crippling the war economy which had seen Rome grow prosperous from foreign conquests. The remainder of the Roman Empire would be spent looking inwards, attempting to expel barbarians from within, rather than take their lands from them. Following a split of the empire, the west persevered until 476 – some 361 years after Trajan had taken it to its zenith. A brief restoration under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian could not reconcile the whole empire, and the east limped along under the slow attrition of Muslim expansion until Mehmed the Conqueror captured Constantinople in 1453. The shadow of Rome would remain vast throughout history, even to this day – and it was Trajan who spread that shadow to its furthest extent.