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TRAJAN

Marcus Ulpius Traianus, Roman emperor (98-117 c.e.). His reign is sometimes described as a golden era similar to that during the reign of the great Augustus. The first Roman emperor to have come from the provinces, he was born in Spain in 53, his father the first member of the provincial Ulpii Traiani to have been granted senatorial status at Rome. Trajan rose to power through his success as a military commander, receiving senatorial rank and honors appropriate to his military position. The aged emperor Nerva chose Trajan, then governor of Upper Germany, to be his heir and successor on grounds of merit, adopting Trajan in 97. Upon Nerva’s death a year later a smooth transition saw Trajan elevated to the imperial purple.

Trajan pursued an expansionist foreign policy, adding Dacia (Romania), Armenia, and Mesopotamia to the empire. Under Trajan the Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent, and Roman arms achieved a reputation that did more to discourage Rome’s enemies than the fortifications of Trajan’s predecessors and successors. Excellent relations with the senate and a high level of internal harmony further marked Trajan’s administration. The historian Tacitus, also one of the leading senators of the era, was effusive in his praise of Trajan as optimus princeps, “the best of emperors.”

Provincial administration was similarly important to Trajan. The correspondence between the emperor and the governor of the province of Bithynia Pontus in Asia Minor, the well-known literary figure Pliny the Younger, establishes Trajan’s thorough involvement in the administration of the empire and its provinces. The correspondence is illuminating as it reveals the kinds of issues and concerns a provincial governor and the emperor faced.

Two of the Pliny-Trajan letters (Ep. 10.96, 97) provide information about the Roman perception of the early Christians and their rituals, as well as treating the issue of the legal status of Christians and their religion. Due to increasing accusations against Christians in his province, some of them anonymously made, Pliny writes Trajan to ascertain whether being a Christian is a crime in and of itself, or whether guilt on a specific charge must be proved. Trajan’s reply provides the official position of the imperial government on the question of the Christians. He instructs Pliny that there is to be no general prosecution; each case is to be tried on its own merit. Guilt must be proven through normal legal procedure. Being a Christian is not by itself cause for prosecution; a crime must be proven. Yet, Trajan continues, if a person so charged and convicted repents of his Christianity, he may be pardoned. While it is not a crime to be a Christian, and no persecution of Christians is to be conducted, clearly being a Christian would explain a person’s involvement in crime.

Bibliography. H. Mattingly, Christianity in the Roman Empire (New York, 1967).

John F. Hall

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TRAJAN

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)