Trajan

Roman Emperor AD 97-117.

    Trajan was adopted as heir by the previous Roman emperor, Nerva, and he in turn adopted his successor, *Hadrian. Trajan attempted to be an ideal emperor: he was a competent administrator and a lavish builder, who inaugurated such projects as his Forum and the Baths in Rome. In AD 106 he took Arabia, and once the Roman occupation of the area was complete, it was possible to reopen the canal built to join the Nile to the Red Sea, which had fallen into disrepair in the first century BC.

    There were also many building projects undertaken in Egypt during his reign. In the Temple of Khnum at Esna, there are important texts on the walls of the hypostyle hall; his name occurs at Denderah, together with that of *Hadrian, in reliefs on the Birth-house built by *Augustus; and at Kom Ombo, in the outer passageway around the temple, the wall-reliefs show Trajan kneeling and sacrificing to the Egyptian gods. A neighbouring scene of the same date shows a unique representation of medical instruments. On the island of Elephantine at Aswan there are the foundations of a small temple which also date to Trajan's reign, while among the buildings on the sacred island of Philae (which have now been moved to a neighbouring island, as part of the programme to save the monuments of Nubia following the construction of the High Dam at Aswan), Trajan's Kiosk remains an outstanding feature

BIBL. Milne, J.G. A History of Egypt under Roman rule. London: 1924.

Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Rosalie and Antony E. David