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“Titus, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, and Marcus had no need of Praetorian cohorts, or of countless legions to guard them, but were defended by their own good lives, the goodwill of their subjects, and the attachment of the Senate.”

Armenia had existed as an uneasy buffer betwixt Rome and Parthia for half a century, since the failed campaigns of Corbulo and the subsequent agreement with Nero that while the Parthians could choose the Armenian monarch, it must be with the agreement of, and with the crowning done by, Rome. In early 113 AD, Trajan was in Syria and refused to meet with Parthian emissaries, making implicit his desire for war.

Trajan’s war against Parthia is largely thought to have been driven by economic motives. Expansion into Persia, particularly gaining control of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, would have connected the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf and opened up trading opportunities with India. There was a desire in particular to annex the city of Charax, which was already heavily under Roman influence, and existed at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers near the Persian Gulf and thus a thriving trading port for goods from India, and further east.

However, the lure of an eastern expedition, and the glory associated with it – plus the anticipated riches – should not be underestimated. Rome had a mixed history of expansion into Persia, with success in expelling Parthian expeditions west of the Euphrates marred by the disasters of Marcus Crassus and Mark Antony in the late republic, and more recently Nero’s failed attempts to annex Armenia and Iberia (modern-day Georgia). The shadow of Alexander the Great still loomed large over ideals of male machismo some 400 years after his passing, and the epic tales of him leading the phalanx of Macedon into India inspired military leaders throughout antiquity and beyond. The concepts of glory and legacy were vital in antiquity, and with emperors being regularly deified, the conquest of Persia could be seen as ensuring Trajan’s immortality in history. The Romans too held fast the idea that they had a right to rule over the world, and thus expansion into Persia would merely be an extension of their ‘manifest destiny’.

When emissaries from the Kushan Empire, in India, attended Trajan’s celebratory feast following his conquest of Dacia, dissatisfied nobles assured him that he could conquer all of India with but 14 legions. The idea that he could conquer the vast, and resource rich, subcontinent, with half the number of troops that he deployed used to subject the Danube kingdom, must have been hugely appealing. The Parthian Empire stood firm betwixt Rome and India though, and thus would need to be annexed first. Alexander had swept through Persia and India in less than a decade, and the legions of Rome had proved their superiority over the phalanx of Macedon and gone onto dominate Greece. Why could Rome, led by a 57-year-old Trajan, thus not do the same?

The Roman military machine began grinding into action. Ten legions were amassed in Roman Persia, and governors of Asia Minor (Turkey) began to prepare supply routes and grain for troops. Marching to Armenia in 111 AD, Trajan deposed the Parthian-appointed king (who was later murdered while in Roman custody) and annexed it as a province, accepting pledges of loyalty from the tribes of the Caucuses and the coasts of the Euxine (Black) Sea. A column under the legate Quietus (or Kitos), who had commanded his native Mauritanian troops during the Dacian Wars, crossed the Araxes River into Media. The Romans may have been intending to establish the Caspian Sea as their eastern frontier, though this would necessitate legions garrisoned east of the Euphrates.

In early 115, Trajan advanced south into Mesopotamia, marching down the Taurus mountains to consolidate territory betwixt the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Quietus moved west from the Caspian Sea simultaneously, enveloping the Parthians in a pincer movement and creating a new province of Mesopotamia. The Osrhoene King Abgaros VII yielded to Trajan publicly, and in early 116 coins were issues announcing that both Armenia and Mesopotamia were Roman provinces. Trajan wintered in Antioch over 115, barely surviving an earthquake which claimed the life of one of the Consuls. Taking to the field in 116 to establish Roman supremacy over Persia, though the lack of Roman manpower meant the campaign was doomed from the outset. With no new legions raised due to the over-exploitation of citizen recruits already, establishing a permutant holding across the sweeping deserts appeared an impossible task.

116 saw one Roman division cross the Tigris to capture Adiabene, while a second followed the river south to occupy Babylon. Trajan sailed down the Euphrates, where a triumphal arch was erected for him at Europos. The fleet was dragged overland once he reached the narrow stretch of land betwixt the two great rivers so it could sail on the Tigris, capturing Seleucia and then the capital of Ctesiphon. Continuing south, the strategically vital city of Charax submitted, giving Rome a port on the Persia Gulf. Trajan then wrote to the Senate declaring the war to be over, bemoaning that his age and ill health prevented him from marching the legions further east to emulate the conquests of Alexander. Some sources claim that a further province of Assyria was established, while attention now turned to established taxes for Euphrates traffic and ensuring tariffs on Indian trade.

Trajan looked to assert Roman authority over the various neighbouring tribes, while also launching various raids along the Parthian coast, establishing a direct link betwixt Rome and the Indian kingdoms. No attempt was made to expand further east onto the Iranian Plateau, where the lack of cavalry would have left the legions at a huge disadvantage. Trajan returned to Babylon, offering sacrifices to Alexander, though an uprising in Mesopotamia necessitated a withdrawal of the legions from Parthia to quell it. Two armies headed north, with one under Quietus progressing well, though the second under Santra was routed, its commander killed. Trajan thus led the advance himself, defeating the Parthians and then retaking, and razing, Seleucia, deposing the Parthian leader. With Parthia established as a Roman client kingdom, Trajan headed north to retain what he could of Armenia and Mesopotamia.