Editing Trajan (section)

== Death ==

Early in 117, Trajan grew ill and set sail for Italy. His health declined throughout the spring and summer of 117, possibly acknowledged to the public by the display of a bronze portrait-bust at [[Roman Baths of Ankara|the public baths of Ancyra]], showing an aged and emaciated man, though the identification with Trajan is disputed.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=201}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mitchell |first=Stephen |title=The Trajanic Tondo from Roman Ankara: In Search of the Identity of a Roman Masterpiece |journal=[[Journal of Ankara Studies]] |date=2014 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=1–10 |url=https://jag.journalagent.com/jas/pdfs/JAS_2_1_1_10.pdf}}</ref> He reached [[Selinus (Cilicia)|Selinus]],{{efn|modern [[Gazipaşa]] in [[Cilicia]] afterwards called ''Trajanopolis''}} where he suddenly died, shortly before 11 August.{{efn|Dio states that Trajan ruled "nineteen years, six months and fifteen days", which gives 11 August.<ref>[[Cassius Dio]] ({{circa}} 230) [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/68*.html#33 68.33]. Dio later states that [[Hadrian]] ruled exactly "twenty years and eleven month" (using [[inclusive counting]]), as in the ''Historia Augusta''. This reign-length is repeated (in corrupted form) by [[Theophilus of Antioch]] ([[wikisource:Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 3.djvu/143|''To Autolycus'' XXVII]]) and [[Clement of Alexandria]] (''[[Stromata]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=HcpFAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA444 Book I]</ref> The ''[[Historia Augusta]]'' claims that Hadrian learned of his adoption on 9 August and received the news of Trajan's death on 11 August.<ref>''[[Historia Augusta]]'' (4th/5th century) [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Hadrian/1*.html#4 Hadrianus 4.6].</ref> Dio is not reckoning to Trajan's death, but to Hadrian's accession. A travel from Selinus to [[Antioch]] would take at least two days, so Trajan probably died around 9 August. This appears to be corroborated by the 10th-century [[Pseudo-Simeon]], who claims that Trajan lived "sixty-eight years, ten months, and twenty-two days", which also gives 9 August. The [[Chronograph of 354]] records his death as 9 July.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burgess |first=Richard W. |url=https://www.steiner-verlag.de/en/Roman-Imperial-Chronology-and-Early-Fourth-Century-Historiography/9783515107327 |title=Roman imperial chronology and early-fourth-century historiography |date=2014 |publisher=Steiner |isbn=978-3-515-10732-7 |series=Historia Einzelschriften |location=Stuttgart|pages=54–56}}</ref>}} 

According to a well-established historical tradition, Trajan's ashes were placed within the small cella that still survives at the base of Trajan's column. In some modern scholarship, his ashes were more likely interred near his column, in a mausoleum, temple or tomb built for his cult as a ''divus'' of the Roman state.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Trajan |title=Trajan |last=Hammond |first=Mason |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=21 June 2019}}</ref><ref>Claride, Amaanda, ''Hadrian's lost Temple of Trajan'', in: "Hadrian's Succession and the Monuments of Trajan", edited by Thorsten Opper, The British Museum, 2016, pp. 5 - 19.</ref>