Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 1.djvu/84

48 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS massive stone bridge was built across the Danube, near the modern Turn Severin, by Apollodorus, the gifted architect who afterward designed the forum of Trajan. In 105 began the new struggle, which on the side of Decebalus could now only lead .to victory or to destruction. The Dacians fought their ground inch by inch, and their army as a whole may be said to have bled to death. The prince put an end to his own life. His kingdom became an imperial province ; in it many colonies were founded, and peopled by settlers drawn from different parts of the empire. The work done by Trajan in the Danubian regions left a lasting mark upon their history. The emperor returned to the capital in 106, laden with captured treas- ure. His triumph outdid in splendor all those that went before it. Games are said to have been held continuously for four months. The chariot races were the grandest ever seen. Ten thousand gladiators contended in the arena, and eleven thousand beasts were killed in the contests. Congratulatory embassies came from all lands, even from India. The grand and enduring monument of the Dacian wars is the noble pillar which still stands on the site of Trajan's forum at Rome. The end of the Dacian wars was followed by seven years of peace. Many details in the administration of the law, and particularly of the criminal law, were improved. To cure corruption in the Senate the ballot was introduced at elections to magistracies. The finances of the state were economically man- aged, and taxpayers were most carefully guarded from oppression. Trajan never lacked money to expend on great works of public utility ; as a builder, he may fairly be compared with Augustus. His forum and its numerous appendages were constructed on a magnificent scale. Many regions of Italy and the prov- inces, besides the city itself, benefited by the care and munificence which the emperor bestowed on such public improvements. His attitude toward religion was, like that of Augustus, moderate and conservative. The famous letter to Pliny about the Christians is, according to Roman ideas, merciful and consider- ate. It was impossible, however, for a Roman magistrate of the time to rid himself of the idea that all forms of religion must do homage to the civil power. Hence the conflict which made Trajan appear in the eyes of Christians like Ter- tullian, the most infamous of monsters. On the whole, Trajan's civil administra- tion was sound, careful, and sensible, rather than brilliant or epoch-making. In 113 or 114 Trajan left Italy to make war in the East. The never-end- ing Parthian problem confronted him, and with it were more or less connect- ed a number of minor difficulties. Already by 106 the position of Rome in the East had been materially improved by the peaceful annexation of districts bor- dering on the province of Syria. The district of Damascus, hitherto a depen- dency, and the last remaining fragment of the Jewish kingdom, were incorpo- rated with Syria ; Bostra and Petra were permanently occupied, and a great por- tion of the Nabathaean kingdom was constituted the Roman province of Arabia. Rome thus obtained mastery of the most important positions lying on the great trade-routes from East to West. These changes could not but affect the rela- tions of the Roman with the Parthian empire, and the affairs of Armenia became, in 114, the occasion of war. Trajan's campaigns in the East ended in complete