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Forum, Markets and Column of Trajan |
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written
by mcwilson / 09.05.2004 |
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Introduction |
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| Trajan |
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| Trajanic Coin |
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“Pater Patriae” (Father of the Country) was the title given by the people of Rome to their leader Marcus Ulpius Traianus, who ruled as Roman Emperor from AD 98 to 117. Trajan was born around the year AD 53 in Spain, the son of a Consul and thus a member of a noble Roman family. Trajan, who was appointed by his predecessor Nerva to the Roman throne in AD 98, was believed to have been divinely chosen for his task as emperor, and thus shared a similar title to Jupiter: “Father of the Cosmos.” Just three years after taking the Imperial Throne, Trajan embarked on the first of what were to be two grand and harrowing wars against the Dacians, an amply civilized assembly of Germanic barbarians who lived across the Danube River, in the region of modern Romania. The Dacians were led by Decebalus, who made the war grueling for the Romans with his intelligence and skill in warfare. Even so, Trajan and his army were triumphant, and he returned to Rome to celebrate an exceptional conquest and to receive the award of the title "Dacicus." The Danube did not remain peaceful lastingly, however, and Trajan returned to Dacia in AD 105. At the end of Trajan’s second conquest, Dacia was not just defeated but also integrated into the Roman Empire as a new province. The twice-waged assault on Dacia was lengthily, costly, and difficult over time, and had potential for causing unrest in the Roman people, who might conclude that their Emperor had fought a frivolous and pointless war. Trajan avoided this revulsion with the construction of a new Forum, larger and more grandiose than any forum constructed before it, and built with plunder from the very war in question. This forum would not just serve as a place of meeting, business, sacrifice, lawmaking, debate, study, and trade – as many fora before it – but also as the site of a monument to Trajan himself, in celebration and defense of his conquests in Dacia.
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