Trajan

Reign: 98 – 117
Life: 53–117

9 August 117) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva, Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier-emperor who presided over one of the greatest military expansions in Roman history, during which, by the time of his death, the Roman Empire reached its maximum territorial extent. He was given the title of optimus princeps ('the best ruler') by the Roman Senate. Trajan was born in the municipium of Italica in the present-day Andalusian province of Seville in southern Spain, an Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his gens Ulpia came from the town of Tuder in the Umbria region of central Italy.

During Trajan's reign, Emperor Keikō ruled Japan, Pope Evaristus ruled Papacy, and Emperor An of Han ruled China.

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Trajan: Optimus Princeps by Julian Bennett

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The most notable rulers who held power elsewhere at the same time, from European courts to Ottoman, Mughal, and Chinese thrones.

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Trajan: Optimus Princeps

Julian Bennett

Bennett's life of Rome's soldier-emperor at the empire's greatest territorial extent.

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