Editing Trajan (section)

== Early life ==
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|1= '''Marcus Ulpius Traianus'''
|2= [[Marcus Ulpius Traianus (father of Trajan)|Marcus Ulpius Traianus]]
|3= [[Marcia (mother of Trajan)|Marcia]]<ref>Her name is inferred from that of Trajan's sister Ulpia Marciana.</ref>
|4= [[Ulpia gens|Ulpius]]<ref>The [[epitome de Caesaribus]] names Trajan's grandfather simply as Ulpius, without giving his praenomen or cognomen.</ref>
|5=  [[Traia gens|Traia]]<ref>Her name is inferred from the cognomen of Marcus Ulpius Traianus. According to Antonio Caballos Rufino, she was named Traia or Traiana and was the sister or daughter of an epigraphically attested ''M.Traius C.Filii''.</ref>
|6= [[Quintus Marcius Barea Sura]]
|7= [[gens Antonia|Antonia Furnilla]]
|14= [[Aulus Antonius Rufus]]
|15= [[Furnia gens|Furnia]]
}}

[[File:TRAIANUS PATER RIC II 764-711445.jpg|thumb|left|260px|Gold [[aureus]] of Trajan depicting him alongside his [[Marcus Ulpius Traianus (father of Trajan)|namesake father]], c. AD 115]]
Marcus Ulpius Traianus was born on 18 September AD{{nbsp}}53 in the Roman province of [[Hispania Baetica]]<ref name="ReferenceA">Syme, Tacitus, 30–44; PIR Vlpivs 575.</ref> (in what is now [[Andalusia]] in modern [[Spain]]), in the ''municipium'' of [[Italica]] (now in the municipal area of [[Santiponce]], in the outskirts of [[Seville]]), a Roman colony established in 206{{nbsp}}BC by [[Scipio Africanus]].<ref>[[Appian]], Iberian Wars, Book VII, Chapter 38.</ref><ref>''Roman-Italic migration in Spain'', in ''The origins of the Social War'', [[Emilio Gabba]]</ref><ref name=syme64_144>{{cite journal |last=Syme |first=Ronald |title=Hadrian and Italica |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |volume=54 |page=144 |year=1964 |s2cid=162241585 |jstor=298660 |doi=10.2307/298660}}</ref> At the time of Trajan's birth it was a small town, without baths, theatre and amphitheatre, and with a very narrow territory under its direct administration.<ref name=syme64_144/> Trajan's year of birth is not reliably attested and may instead have been AD 56.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bennett |first=Julian |title=Trajan Optimus Princeps |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNjMqUWc5QkC |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |edition=2nd |date=1997 |page=13 |isbn=0253214351}}</ref>

The epitome of Cassius Dio's Roman history describes Trajan as "an Iberian and neither an Italian nor even an Italiote", but this claim is contradicted by other ancient sources and rejected by modern scholars, who have reconstructed Trajan's Italic lineage.<ref>"Cassius Dio, himself of provincial origin, had little respect for the phylogeny of the emperor Trajan, observing with barely disguised contempt that he was 'an Iberian, and neither an Italian nor even an Italiote'. In fact, one ancient account derives Trajan's paternal family, the gens Ulpia, from Tuder, on the northern border of ancient Umbria, an area where the clan is independently recorded... Traius, like Ulpius, while not especially common, occurs with some frequency in northern Italy, notably at Tuder and at the nearby municipality of Ameria, the probable origo of Trajan's mother, strengthening the possibility of close family ties with the region... an Italian pedigree for the gens Ulpia seems certain... his family had settled at Italica (Santiponce) in southern Spain, a few miles east of modern Seville. '''... strictly speaking, Trajan was an Hispaniensis, an Italian domiciled or born in Spain, as opposed to an Hispanus...'''." Bennett (2001). ''Trajan: Optimus Princeps'', pp. 1–3.</ref><ref>"... The Greek historian Cassius Dio made the baseless assertion that Trajan was an Iberian...'", Colonial elites: Rome and Spain, Ronald Syme, 1970, p. 22.</ref><ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Trajan Trajan, Mason Hammond, Britannica]</ref><ref>One author has argued that the Traii ancestors of Trajan were his paternal family and indigenous [[Iberians|Iberian]] [[Turdetani]] rather than Italic settlers, but this view departs from the prevailing view in academia.  ''Las raíces béticas de Trajano: los 'Traii' de la Itálica turdetana, y otras novedades sobre su familia'', Alicia M. Canto, Sevilla, 2003. The reasons for the rejection of Canto's theory are listed by Antonio Caballos Rufino in ''Las raíces famliares de Trajano'', A.Caballos Rufino, Cluj, 2014.</ref> [[Appian]] states that Trajan's hometown of Italica was settled by and named after Italic veterans who fought in Spain under Scipio, and new settlers arrived there from Italy in the following centuries. Among the Italic settlers were the [[Ulpia gens|Ulpii]] and the [[Traia gens|Traii]], who were either part of the original colonists or arrived as late as the end of the 1st century BC.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bennett |first=Julian |title=Trajan Optimus Princeps |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNjMqUWc5QkC |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |edition=2nd |date=1997 |page=3 |isbn=0253214351}}</ref> Their original home, according to the  description of Trajan as "Ulpius Traianus ex urbe Tudertina" in the [[Epitome de Caesaribus]], was the town of Tuder ([[Todi]]) in the [[Umbria]] region of central [[Roman Italy|Italy]].<ref> Hadrian: the Restless Emperor, London: Routledge p.12, (1997), Anthony Birley.</ref><ref>"The Epitome has clearly used a source which gave the ''origo vetustior'', or ''ultima origo'', as did the HA for Hadrian (H 1.1)...Umbrian Tuder as the original home of the Ulpii and the Traii surely derives from Maximus's ''Vita Traiani''," Anthony R. Birley, ''Sprache und Literatur. Einzelne Autoren seit der hadrianischen Zeit und Allgemeines zur Literatur des 2. und 3. Jahrhunderts'', p.2726, Germany, Druyter, 2016.</ref> This is confirmed by archeology, with [[epigraphy|epigraphic evidence]] placing both the Ulpii and the Traii in Umbria generally and Tuder specifically, and by linguistic studies of the family names ''Ulpius'' and ''Traius'' which show that both are of [[Osco-Umbrian]] origin.<ref>[[Appian]], Iberian Wars, Book VII, Chapter 38.</ref><ref>Epitome de Caesaribusabscriptum Aurelio Victori, XIII, ''Ulpius Traianus ex urbe Tudertina''...</ref><ref>{{CIL|11|4686}} and {{CIL|11|4725}}, Syme in Tacitus, App. 81, p. 786.</ref><ref>Chase, George Davis (1897). "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII, pp. 103–184.</ref> 

It is unknown whether Trajan's ancestors were [[Roman citizens]] or not at their arrival in Spain. They would have certainly possessed Roman citizenship in case they arrived after the [[Social War (91–87 BC)]], when Tuder became a municipium of Roman citizens. In Spain they may well have intermarried with native Iberians, in which case they would have lost their citizenship. Had they lacked or lost the status of Roman citizens, they would have achieved it or recovered it when Italica became a municipium with Latin rights in the mid-1st century BC.

Trajan's paternal grandfather [[Ulpia gens|Ulpius]] married a [[Traia gens|Traia]].<ref>The Imperial Families of Ancient Rome. (2019). Maxwell Craven, Fonthill Media. Table XVIII, p. 156.</ref> Their son, Trajan's namesake father [[Marcus Ulpius Trajanus (father of Trajan)|Marcus Ulpius Traianus]], was born at Italica during the reign of [[Tiberius]] and became a prominent senator and general, commanding the [[Legio X Fretensis]] under [[Vespasian]] in the [[First Jewish-Roman War]].{{sfn|Strobel|2010|p=40}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Goldsworthy |first=Adrian |title=In the name of Rome: The men who won the Roman Empire |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |location=London |date=2003 |page=320}}</ref> Trajan's mother was [[Marcia (mother of Trajan)|Marcia]], a Roman noblewoman of the gens [[Marcia gens|Marcia]] and a sister-in-law of the second Flavian Emperor [[Titus]].{{sfn|Strobel|2010|p=41}} Little is known of her. Her father is believed to be [[Quintus Marcius Barea Sura]]. Her mother was [[gens Antonia|Antonia Furnilla]], daughter of [[Aulus Antonius Rufus]] and [[Furnia gens|Furnia]]. Trajan owned some lands called ''Figlinae Marcianae'' in [[Amelia, Umbria|Ameria]], another Umbrian town, located near both Tuder and [[Reate]] (the home of the Flavian dynasty) and believed to be the home of Marcia's family.

The line of the Ulpii continued long after Trajan's death. His elder sister was [[Ulpia Marciana]], and his niece was [[Salonia Matidia]]. Very little is known about Trajan's early formative years, but it is thought likely that he spent his first months or years in Italica before moving to Rome and then, perhaps at around eight or nine years of age, he almost certainly would have returned temporarily to Italica with his father during Trajanus's governorship of [[Baetica]] (ca. 64–65).<ref name=impression>{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Nicholas |chapter=Impressionable Years |title=Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror |publisher=GreenHill Books |location=UK |edition=1st |date=2022 |isbn=978-1784387075}}</ref> The lack of a strong local power base, caused by the size of the town from which they came, made it necessary for the Ulpii (and for the [[Aelia gens|Aelii]], the other important senatorial family of Italica with whom they were allied) to weave local alliances, in the Baetica (with the [[Annii]], the Ucubi and perhaps the Dasumii from Corduba), the [[Tarraconense]] and the [[Narbonensian Gaul|Narbonense]], here above all through [[Pompeia Plotina]], Trajan's wife.<ref name=syme64_144/><ref name=syme64_145>{{cite journal |last=Syme |first=Ronald |title=Hadrian and Italica |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |volume=54 |page=145 |year=1964 |s2cid=162241585 |jstor=298660 |doi=10.2307/298660}}</ref> Many of these alliances were made not in Spain, but in Rome.<ref name=syme64_145/> The family home in Rome, the Domus Traiana, was on the [[Aventine Hill]]; excavations under the [[Temple of Diana (Rome)|Piazza del Tempio di Diana]] found remains thought to be of the family's large suburban villa, with evidence of highly decorated rooms.<ref name=impression />

=== Military career ===
[[File:Perge - Trajan.jpg|thumb|Trajan wearing the [[civic crown]] and military garb such as a [[muscle cuirass]], 2nd century AD, [[Antalya Museum|Antalya Archaeological Museum]]]]
As a young man Trajan rose through the ranks of the [[Roman army]], serving in some of the most contested parts of the empire's frontier. In 76{{ndash}}77, his father was [[Roman governor|Governor]] of [[Syria (Roman province)|Syria]] (''[[Legatus]] pro praetore Syriae''), where Trajan himself remained as ''[[Tribunus]] legionis''. From there, after his father's replacement, he seems to have been transferred to an unspecified Rhine province, and Pliny implies that he engaged in active combat duty during both commissions.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|pp=22–23}}

In about 86, Trajan's cousin [[Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer|Aelius Afer]] died, leaving his young children [[Hadrian]] and [[Paulina (sister of Hadrian)|Paulina]] orphans. Trajan and his colleague [[Publius Acilius Attianus]] became co-guardians of the two children.{{sfn|Garzetti|2014|p=378}} Trajan, in his late thirties, was created ordinary [[Roman consul|consul]] for the year 91. This early appointment may reflect the prominence of his father's career, as his father had been instrumental to the ascent of the ruling [[Flavian dynasty]], held consular rank himself and had just been made a [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]].{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=13}} Around this time Trajan brought the architect and engineer [[Apollodorus of Damascus]] with him to [[Rome]],<ref name="2.5–6">Augustan History, ''Life of Hadrian'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Hadrian/1*.html#2.5 2.5–6]</ref> and married [[Pompeia Plotina]], a noblewoman from the Roman settlement at [[Nîmes]]; the marriage ultimately remained childless.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pompeia-Plotina|title=Pompei Plotina|encyclopedia=Britannica|access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref>

The historian Cassius Dio later noted that Trajan was a lover [[Homosexuality in ancient Rome|of young men]], in contrast to the usual [[bisexual]] activity that was common among upper-class Roman men of the period. The emperor [[Julian (emperor)|Julian]] also made a sardonic reference to his predecessor's sexual preference, stating that Zeus himself would have had to be on guard had his [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]] come within Trajan's vicinity.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=58}} This distaste reflected a change of mores that began with the [[Severan dynasty]],<ref>Allen, Robert H. (2006). ''The Classical Origins of Modern Homophobia''. Jefferson: McFarland, {{ISBN|978-0-7864-2349-1}}, p. 131.</ref> Trajan's putative lovers included the future emperor, Hadrian, pages of the imperial household, the actor Pylades, a dancer called Apolaustus, Lucius Licinius Sura, and Trajan's predecessor Nerva.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=58}} Cassius Dio also relates that Trajan made an ally out of [[Abgar VII]] on account of the latter's beautiful son, Arbandes, who would then dance for Trajan at a banquet.

The details of Trajan's early military career are obscure, save for the fact that in 89, as legate of [[Legio VII Gemina]] in [[Hispania Tarraconensis]], he supported Domitian against an attempted coup by Lucius [[Antonius Saturninus]], the governor of [[Germania Superior]].{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=43}} Trajan probably remained in the region after the revolt was quashed, to engage with the [[Chatti]] who had sided with Saturninus, before returning the VII Gemina legion to Legio in Hispania Tarraconensis.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Nicholas |chapter=The Making of a General |title=Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror |publisher=GreenHill Books |location=UK |edition=1st |date=2022 |isbn=978-1784387075}}</ref> In 91 he held a consulate with [[Manius Acilius Glabrio (consul 91)|Acilius Glabrio]], a rarity in that neither consul was a member of the ruling dynasty. He held an unspecified consular commission as governor of either [[Pannonia]] or [[Germania Superior]], or possibly both. Pliny{{snds}}who seems to deliberately avoid offering details that would stress personal attachment between Trajan and the "tyrant" Domitian{{snds}}attributes to him, at the time, various (and unspecified) feats of arms.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|pp=45–46}}

=== Rise to power ===
[[File:Nerva Tivoli Massimo.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Bust of [[Nerva]], who became emperor following the assassination of Domitian]]
Domitian's successor, [[Nerva]], was unpopular with the army, and had been forced by his Praetorian Prefect [[Casperius Aelianus]] to execute Domitian's killers.{{sfn|Alston|2014|p=261}} Nerva needed the army's support to avoid being ousted. He accomplished this in the summer of 97 by naming Trajan as his adoptive son and successor, claiming that this was entirely due to Trajan's outstanding military merits.{{sfn|Bennett|2001|pp=45–46}} There are hints, however, in contemporary literary sources that Trajan's adoption was imposed on Nerva. Pliny implied as much when he wrote that, although an emperor could not be coerced into doing something, if this was the way in which Trajan was raised to power, then it was worth it. Alice König argues that the notion of a natural continuity between Nerva's and Trajan's reigns was an ''ex post facto'' fiction developed by authors writing under Trajan, including [[Tacitus]] and [[Pliny the Younger|Pliny]].<ref>Jason König, Tim Whitmarsh, eds., ''Ordering Knowledge in the Roman Empire''. [[Cambridge University Press]], 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-521-85969-1}}, p. 180.</ref>

According to the ''[[Historia Augusta]]'', the future Emperor [[Hadrian]] brought word to Trajan of his adoption.<ref name="2.5–6" /> Trajan retained Hadrian on the Rhine frontier as a [[military tribune]], and Hadrian thus became privy to the circle of friends and relations with whom Trajan surrounded himself. Among them was [[Lucius Licinius Sura]], a Roman senator born in Spain and the governor of [[Germania Inferior]], who was Trajan's personal friend and became an official adviser of the Emperor.{{sfn|Grainger|2004|pp=91, 109}} Sura was highly influential, and was appointed consul for a third term in 107.{{sfn|Veyne|1976|p=686, note 399}}<ref>Some sources credit Sura with building a bathhouse on Rome's [[Aventine Hill]], and naming the bathhouse after himself; others claim the bathhouse was named in his honour but built by Trajan. In either case, the association of his name with a public building was a signal honour; most public buildings in the capital were named after members of the imperial family. See Garrett G. Fagan, ''Bathing in Public in the Roman World''. [[University of Michigan Press]], 2002, {{ISBN|0-472-08865-3}}, pp. 113–114.</ref><ref>Sura's baths were later enlarged by the third century emperor [[Decius]], to emphasise his link to Trajan. See Stephen L. Dyson, ''Rome: A Living Portrait of an Ancient City''. Baltimore: JHU Press,2010,{{ISBN|978-0-8018-9253-0}}, p. 338.</ref> Some senators may have resented Sura's activities as a [[kingmaker]] and [[éminence grise]], among them the historian Tacitus, who acknowledged Sura's military and oratorical talents, but compared his rapacity and devious ways to those of [[Vespasian]]'s éminence grise [[Licinius Mucianus]].<ref>Eugen Cizek, "Tacite face à Trajan", available at [http://publicacions.iec.cat/repository/pdf/00000114%5C00000035.pdf], pp. 127/128. Retrieved 20 July 2014.</ref> Sura is said to have informed Hadrian in 108 that he had been chosen as Trajan's imperial heir.<ref>Levick, Barbara M. (2014). ''Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age''. [[Oxford University Press]], {{ISBN|978-0-19-537941-9}}, p. 42.</ref>

As governor of Upper Germany (Germania Superior) during Nerva's reign, Trajan received the impressive title of ''Germanicus'' for his skilful management and rule of the volatile Imperial province.<ref>Fritz Heichelheim, Cedric Veo, Allen Ward,(1984), The History of the Roman People, pp.&nbsp;353,&nbsp;354 Prentice-Hall, New Jersey.</ref> When Nerva died on 28 January 98, Trajan succeeded to the role of emperor without any outward adverse incident.<ref>''[[Feriale Duranum]]'' [http://papyri.info/ddbdp/rom.mil.rec;1;117 1.14-15]: "V K[al](endas) [Feb]rarias... ob imperium [Divi Traiani]."</ref> The fact that he chose not to hasten towards Rome, but made a lengthy tour of inspection on the Rhine and Danube frontiers, may suggest that he was unsure of his position, both in Rome and with the armies at the front. Alternatively, Trajan's keen military mind understood the importance of strengthening the empire's frontiers. His vision for future conquests required the diligent improvement of surveillance networks, defences and transport along the [[Danube]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Nicholas |chapter=Adoption and Accession |title=Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror |publisher=GreenHill Books |location=UK |edition=1st |date=2022 |isbn=978-1784387075}}</ref> Prior to his frontier tours, Trajan ordered his Prefect Aelianus to attend him in Germany, where he was apparently executed forthwith ("put out of the way"),{{sfn|Grainger|2004|p=111}} and his now-vacant post taken by [[Attius Suburanus]].{{sfn|Bennett|2001|p=52}} Trajan's accession, therefore, could qualify more as a successful coup than an orderly succession.{{sfn|Alston|2014|p=262}}