151 



TRAJANUS, MA11CUS ULPIUS NERVA. 



TKAPP, JOSEPH, D.D. 



His military talents and hia amiable character made him popular with 

 the troops : and though we know very little about his early life, we 

 must suppose that his merits were great. This we may conclude from 

 the circumstance that the Emperor Nerva, an old man without issue, 

 adopted him in A.D. 97, and chose him for hia successor, although 

 there were several relations of Nerva who had perhaps more claims 

 to the throne than Trajan. But, says Diou Cassius (Ixviii. c. 4), Nerva 

 was exclusively led in his choice by his cure for the welfare of the 

 empire ; and he considered Trajan's Iberian origin as a matter of 

 indifference. Yet Trajan's nomination as Cscsar was a new thing in 

 Roman history, the imperial throne having hitherto been exclusively 

 occupied by members of the old Roman aristocracy, so that Trajan 

 was tho first emperor who was born beyond the limits of Italy. 



Trajan received tho news of his nomination iu Cologne, and three 

 months later (Aurclius Victor, ' Epitome,' c. 12) the death of Nerva, 

 which took phco ou the 27th of January, 98, made him master of the 

 Roman empire. On his arrival at Rome' the people received him with 

 great demonstrations of joy, and Trajan soon proved that he deserved 

 hia high station. He appointed distinguished and honest men as 

 public functionaries ; he curbed the turbulent body of the Praetorians; 

 he issued an edict against false accusers, and banished those who were 

 convicted of this crime to the barren islands of the Mediterranean. 

 Corn being dear in Rome, he allowed its entrance duty-free, and he 

 thus won the hearts of the people, while those whom he honoured 

 with his intercourse were delighted by his affability. Yet the emperor 

 never forgot his dignity. His virtues and eminent qualities became 

 conspicuous in the first years of his reign, as we may see from the 

 panegyric of Trajan, which Pliny the younger read in the seuate as 

 early as 100, after he had been made consul. In 103 Pliny, who was 

 a personal friend of the emperor, was appointed proconsul of Bithv-nia 

 and Pontus ; and having inquired into the fatate of the Christians, he 

 recommended them to the emperor, and thus mitigated the persecu- 

 tions to which they had hitherto been exposed by PJiny himself. The 

 letters that passed between Pliny and Trajan are the best sources with 

 regard to the private character of this emperor. 



As early as 100 Trajan was engaged in a war with Decebalus, king of 

 the Dacians ; at the head of a numerous army Trajan crossed tho 

 Danube, defeated the enemy, and in 101 took their capital, Zermize- 

 gethusa (Dion Cassius, Ixviii. c. 9), which was most probably situated 

 on the eite of the present village of Varhely, not far from the pass of 

 the 'Iron Porte,' in Transylvania. In 102 Decebalus was compelled 

 to purchase peace by the cession of a part of his territory ; and on his 

 return to Rome Trajau celebrated his first triumph, and was saluted 

 with the name Dacicus. Lucius Quintus and Hadrianus, afterwards 

 emperor, distinguished themselves in, this war. Annoyed by his de- 

 pendence on Rome, Decebalus violated the peace as early as 104, and 

 Trajau hastened to the Danube, resolved to finish the war by the 

 conquest of Dacia. He ordered a bridge to be constructed over the 

 Danube, which was the largest work of this kiud mentioned by the 

 ancients. According to Dion Cassius it consisted of twenty piers, 

 150 feet high, 60 wide, and 170 feet apart; the piers were united by 

 wooden arches. (Dion Case., Ixviii. c. 13. ed. Reimar, and the note.) 

 The whole length cf it has been calculated at 4770 Roman feet. If 

 the statement of Dion Cassius is true, this bridge seems not only to 

 have served for the passage of the river, but the immense height of 

 the pillars, of which scarcely more than seventy feet can have been 

 under water, leads to the supposition that it was at the same time a 

 strong fortification destined to command the navigation. At a height 

 of eighty feet above the water, soldiers were protected against the 

 missiles of the Dacian ships, while the fleet of the enemy in passing 

 that bridge ran the ri->k of destruction. This bridge was either at 

 Szernccz in Hungary, or five leagues above the juuction of the Alt 

 with the Danube, in Wallachia, not far from Nicopolis, where ruins of 

 the Roman colonies of Rornula and Castra Nova, and a Roman road, 

 which is pretty well preserved, still exist. The war proved fatal to 

 Decebalus. Defeated wherever ho encountered the Romans, he 

 killed himself in despair (105); and in 106 all Dacia was conquered 

 and made a Roman province by Trajau, who sent there numerous 

 colonists. Trajan returned to Rome iu the same year, and celebrated 

 hia second Dacian triumph. In memory of his victories over the 

 Dacians a column was erected, in- 11 4, by the architect Apollodorus, 

 on the Forum Trajani, which, having been preserved from ruin, is still 

 admired as one of the finest remnants of ancient art. The column 

 was 144 Roman feet high, according to Eutropius (viii. c. 2). Another 

 column, which is likewise extant, was erected in honour of Trajan by 

 the inhabitants of Eeneventum after his victories over the Parthians. 



After the conquest of Dacia, eight years of peace elapsed, which 

 Trajan employed in a careful administration, and in adorning Rome 

 with beautiful buildiugs ; he also founded a library, the Bibliotheca 

 Ulpia, and an institution for the education of poor children of Italian 

 parents. (Fr. A. Wolf, ' Von einer milden Stiftung Trajan's,' Berlin, 

 4to, 1808.) In 114 Trajan left Rome to lead his armies against the 

 Parthians. 



In tho Asiatic part of the empire peace had already several times 

 been disturbed, principally by the Arabs, who however were subdued 

 by Cornelius Palma, the proconsul of Syria, who, in 105, conquered 

 Arabia Petrrea, and made it a Roman province. Some years later 

 Cosrhoes, or Khosrew, king of the Parthiaus, deprived Exedares, king 



of Armenia, of his dominions, and created his brother Parthamaspes, 

 or Parthamasiris, king of Armenia. The Romans having always been 

 anxious to maintain their influence in Armenia the independence, or 

 rather dependence of this country on Rome was necessary for the 

 security of the East Trajau declared war against Khosrew. The 

 Parthians were defeated, and in one campaign Trajan conquered 

 Mesopotamia and delivered Armenia. He took up his winter-quarters 

 at Antioch, relieved the Syrians, who were Buffering from the conse- 

 quences of a violent earthquake, and in the following year, 115, opened 

 a new campaign. He crossed tho Tigris, in the province of Adiabeue, 

 and the Partbians having again been defeated, he took the towns of 

 Nisibis, Edessa, Ctesiphon, and Seleucia ; Babylouia, Assyria, Armenia, 

 and Mesopotamia became Roman provinces; a rebellion of the Jews 

 in Eaypt and Cyrenaica was quelled ; Khosrew was deposed, and his 

 brother Parthamasiris was put by Trajan on the throne of Parthia. 

 After the conquest of these extensive provinces Trajan sailed with his 

 fleet on the Tigris to the Persian Gulf, and took up bis winter-quarters 

 in the town of Spasinus. When he had reached the sea, the example 

 of Alexander suggested to him the idea of conquering India, but 

 remembering his advanced age, he renounced that scheme. (Dion 

 Cassius, Ixviii. c. 29.) In 117 Trajan made an incursion into Arabia, 

 and ordered a fleet to be kept on the Red Sea. Suffering from dropsy, 

 he set out for Rome, but he died on his way at Selinus, a town iu 

 Cilicia, in the month of August 117, at the age of sixty-three years 

 nine months and four days, according to Eutropius (viii. c. 2). 



Trajan was one of the greatest emperors of Rome. He is said to 

 have been addicted to women and wine ; but his public character was 

 without reproach, except his passiou for warfare and conquest. How- 

 ever he undertook no war for frivolous motives. He deserved the 

 title of ' Optimus,' which the senate conferred on him. The memory 

 of hia name lasted for centuries, and two hundred years later the 

 seuatora used to receive the emperors with the acclamation, " Be 

 happier than Augustus, and better than Trajan ! " 



The body of Trajan was transported to Rome, where it was deposited 

 under the Columna Trajani. His successor was Hadrian. 



(Aurelius Victor, De Ccesaribus, c. 13; Epitome, c. 13; Sextua 

 Rufus, Brcviarium, c. 8, 14, 20; H. Francke, Zur Gcsckichtc Trujans 

 und seiner Zeitgenossen, 1837, is a very valuable book.) 



Coin of Trajan, with Reverse. 

 British Museum. Actual Size. Bronze. 



Reverse of Coin of Trajan. 

 British Museum. Actual Size. Bronze. 



TRAPP, JOSEPH, D.D., was born at CherriDgton in Gloucester- 

 shire, in November 1679. He was entered at Wad ham College, 

 Oxford, iu 1695, took his degree of Master of Arts in 1702, and was 

 chosen a Fellow of his college in 1704. In 1708 he was appointed 

 the first professor of poetry at Oxford, and at the expiration of his 

 term of office published the lectures ho had delivered on the subject, 

 under the title of ' Prselectiones Poeticce,' in 3 vols. 8vo, 1718. Dr. 

 Trapp was warmly attached to the Tory party in the government, and 

 took an active part iu the political disputes of the time. He acted as 

 manager for Dr. Sacheverell ou his trial in 1710, and upon the Tories 

 coming into power in the autumn of the same year he was appointed 

 chaplain to Sir Constantino Phipps, lord chancellor of Ireland. He 

 was afterwards appointed chaplain to Lord Boliugbroke, and wrote 

 several papers in the ' Examiner ' in defence of his administration. 

 He obtained the living of Dauntsey in Wiltshire in 1720, but 

 resigned it in the following year upon obtaining the vicarage of the 

 united parishes of Christ Church, Newgate-street, and St. Leonard'?, 



