Trajan

I was born in Italica in Hispania. The camp taught me how to measure men, roads, and grain before glory. Nerva adopted me when age pressed him; I took power without swords drawn, kept the style of a princeps, and worked with the Senate rather than rule as a master. Law and discipline carry farther, I found, than fear.

Across the Danube, Decebalus tested Rome twice. I had Apollodorus of Damascus throw a bridge over that broad river; we crossed, broke his works, and made Dacia a province. The gold and silver there steadied the treasury. In Rome I raised a column so the deeds and hardships of those campaigns would be set in stone, not in boasts.

In 106 I took the Nabataean kingdom into the empire as Arabia Petraea, tying the roads from Petra to the Red Sea and Syria. Later I marched east against Parthia, restored our standing in Armenia, entered Mesopotamia, and looked upon the Persian Gulf. Victories lengthen frontiers; they also stretch wagons and tempers. Unrest and distances teach an emperor to count rations as carefully as eagles.

I built for peace as I fought for security: roads, bridges, aqueducts, and the new basin at Portus to keep Rome fed; the Forum and Markets that ordered the city’s business. With the alimenta I used state credit to sustain children and the countryside of Italy. I answered governors—Pliny among them—closely, forbidding anonymous accusations and general hunts, yet punishing the obstinate when the law required. Ill returning from the East, I died at Selinus and named Hadrian. Judge me by the granaries filled, the laws kept, and the limits I drew with care.