Editing Trajan (section)

=== 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}}