Trajan reigned from 98-117 AD, and with him the Roman Empire reached its maximum extension. He was a wise, moderate and much-loved emperor, so that he was called Optimus Princeps (optimal prince). For the emperors who came after him the official wish was to be «luckier than Augustus and better than Trajan».
The Roman Empire at the time of Emperor Trajan
Publius Aelius Hadrianus reigned from 117 to 138 AD, and is considered one of the greatest emperors of antiquity, remembered for his culture, love of the arts and the extraordinary buildings he left: the Pantheon, Hadrian's Villa and his Mausoleum (Castel Sant'Angelo). But ancient sources, far from impartial, report that in the last years of his reign he was hated for his cruelty, to the point that his successor Antoninus Pius had to repeatedly insist with the Senate to obtain his deification.
Fundamental in Hadrian's life was his relationship with Trajan, to whom he was entrusted in 85 AD after the death of his father; he later married Vibia Sabina, his niece, strengthening family ties. Empress Plotina worked to favor his succession to her husband Trajan, who adopted him on his deathbed.
When he became emperor, Hadrian immediately asked the Senate to pay tribute to Trajan with the honors due to him, starting with the triumph over the Parthians, and his deification; he did the same with Plotina.
Hadrian's reign marked a period of adjustment and consolidation of the Roman Empire. As had already happened at the time of Augustus, it was necessary to put an end to the endless state of war, strengthen the borders of the empire and re-establish peace, the only way to improve economy, demography and give new prosperity to the empire.
The Roman Empire at the time of Emperor Hadrian
Hadrian followed the same policy as Augustus, proposing himself as his ideal continuator in renewing the glories of Rome. He decided to put an end to the wars of conquest and strengthen the borders of the empire, where the first signs of the problems that would become endemic after Marcus Aurelius had appeared: the barbarian invasions.
A key element of Roman conquests had always been the consular roads, created for the mobility of the army, which later promoted trade and the exploitation of newly conquered territories. The legionaries were specialized in building new roads, the first nucleus of an immense network that, thanks to the Roman invention of the arch and of concrete, allowed the construction of increasingly larger and more monumental bridges (and aqueducts).
Trajan built the spectacular Alcantara Bridge in Spain to cross the Tagus River and exploit the region's rich mines: thanks to that bridge, gold and silver reached Rome to support the empire's ever-increasing costs.
Trajan entrusted the design of the bridge to the architect Caius Iulius Lacer, who erected a small temple with an inscription proclaiming that «as long as my bridge lasts, the world will last». So far he has been right, because both the temple and the bridge (which has a 70-meter-high arch) still exist and even modern trucks pass over them, proving that Roman public works were designed to last (almost) forever.
Photo of peurmelestrabunilor
The very harsh and bloody wars in Dacia had yielded enormous booty with which Trajan built his Forum with the Basilica Ulpia and Trajan's Column, entrusting them to Apollodorus of Damascus - the archistar of the time - who also designed the Pantheon.
Trajan entrusted him with the construction of an even grander bridge over the Danube, to better exploit the riches of Dacia; but he obtained an unexpected side effect, because within a few years the bridge became the main route for barbarian incursions.
Trajan had already renounced the new territories beyond the Euphrates; Hadrian thought to do the same with Dacia but was advised not to do it; it seems that he decided to demolish the Danube bridge to protect the borders of the empire. In the same period he built his Wall in Britain to mark the border with the hostile populations of the north of the island.
To legitimize his power based on adoption, Hadrian emphasized the continuity of the dynastic power that came to him from the deified Trajan, giving him great honors, also extended to the empresses Plotina and Sabina. Having no children, he chose Antoninus Pius as his successor, and imposed on him the adoption of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, so that they would reign after him.
The dynastic succession, however, led to the unfortunate reign of Commodus, the degenerate son of Marcus Aurelius, highlighting the permanent problem of the Roman Empire: choosing the right man, regardless of blood ties, and having a peaceful, stable and lasting succession to power.
Starting from the end of the 2nd century AD, there were endless and bloody disputes between more or less legitimate pretenders to the throne, acclaimed by their own legions, which led to a state of permanent civil war much worse than those that had of those that preceded the reign of Augustus.
Diocletian tried in vain to resolve the issue with the system of the Tetrarchy, buto to no avail: after him there was the beginning of the end, but that is another story.