Editing Trajan (section)

==Succession==
Trajan in person could have lawfully nominated Hadrian as his successor, but Dio claims that Trajan's wife, [[Pompeia Plotina]], assured Hadrian's succession by keeping Trajan's death a secret, long enough for her to produce and sign a document attesting to Hadrian's adoption as son and successor. Dio, who tells this narrative, offers his father{{snds}}the governor of Cilicia [[Cassius Apronianus|Apronianus]]{{snds}}as a source, so his narrative may be based on contemporary rumour. It may also reflect male Roman displeasure that an empress{{snds}}let alone any woman{{snds}} could presume to meddle in Rome's political affairs.<ref>Francesca Santoro L'Hoir, ''Tragedy, Rhetoric, and the Historiography of Tacitus' Annales''. University of Michigan Press, 2006, {{ISBN|0-472-11519-7}}, p. 263.</ref>

Hadrian had held an ambiguous position during Trajan's reign. After commanding [[Legio I Minervia]] during the Dacian Wars, he had been relieved from front-line duties at the decisive stage of the Second Dacian War, being sent to govern the newly created province of [[Pannonia Inferior]]. He had pursued a senatorial career without particular distinction and had not been officially adopted by Trajan although he received from him decorations and other marks of distinction that made him hope for the succession.{{sfn|Birley|2013|p=52}}{{sfn|Birley|2013|pp=50, 52}} He received no post after his 108 consulate and no further honours other than being made [[Archon eponymos]] for [[Athens]] in 111/112.{{sfn|Des Boscs-Plateaux|2005|p=306}}{{sfn|Birley|2013|p=64}} He probably did not take part in the Parthian War. Literary sources relate that Trajan had considered others, such as the jurist [[Lucius Neratius Priscus]], as heir.{{sfn|Birley|2013|p=50}} Hadrian, who was eventually entrusted with the governorship of Syria at the time of Trajan's death, was Trajan's cousin and was married to Trajan's grandniece, which all made him as good as heir designate.<ref>Christopher S. Mackay, ''Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History''. Cambridge University Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-521-80918-5}}, p. 229.</ref>{{sfn|Petit|1976|p=53}} Hadrian seems to have been well connected to the powerful and influential coterie of Spanish senators at Trajan's court, through his ties to Plotina and the Prefect Attianus.{{sfn|Des Boscs-Plateaux|2005|p=307}} His refusal to sustain Trajan's senatorial and expansionist policy during his own reign may account for the "crass hostility" shown him by literary sources.{{sfn|Garzetti|2014|p=379}}

Hadrian's first major act as emperor was to abandon Mesopotamia as too costly and distant to defend, and to restore Armenia and Osrhoene to Parthian hegemony, under Rome's suzerainty.<ref name="Christol & Nony, 171" /> The Parthian campaign had been an enormous setback to Trajan's policy, proof that Rome had overstretched its capacity to sustain an ambitious program of conquest. According to the ''[[Historia Augusta]]'', Hadrian claimed to follow the precedent set by [[Cato the Elder]] towards the Macedonians, who "were to be set free because they could not be protected" – something Birley sees as an unconvincing precedent.{{sfn|Birley|2013|p=78}}{{sfn|Luttwak|1979|p=110}} Other territories conquered by Trajan were retained.{{sfn|Young|2001|p=132}}<ref>D. S. Potter, ''The Inscriptions on the Bronze Herakles from Mesene: Vologeses IV's War with Rome and the Date of Tacitus' "Annales"''. ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' Bd. 88, (1991), pp. 277–290.</ref>