The specificity of Trajan's way to power

The author of the article explores the peculiarities of Trajan's way to power considering the achievements of the contemporary historiography. The period of AD 96-100 from the assassination of Domitian to the rule of Nerva and the first years of Trajan's power is under analysis. The author examines such issues as Trajan's origin, the adoption of Trajan by Nerva, the reasons of Nerva's choice of the heir, the possible rivals of Trajan and legitimization of Trajan's power. Trajan who was born in Italica in Spain became the first Roman emperor of the provincial origin. According to A. Canto and contrary to the common version that the ancestors of Trajan came to Italica from Umbria in the III-d century BC (R. Syme, J. Bennett and others), Trajan could have been pure Spaniard by birth. Trajan was the first successful ruler among the Roman emperors who was adopted having no family relations with the adoptive father (Piso adopted by Galba in AD 69 was also not a relative of the latter, but he was killed in some days after adoption). Nerva being old and childless had still relatives living, so his choice of Trajan must have been done under the influence of the certain group of the senators. All the modern scholars (W. Eck, J. Grainger, K. Strobel and others) admit that there were candidates to power besides Trajan, P. Cornelius Nigrinus Curiatius Maternus especially. The main result of the succession crisis of AD 96-99 was that the civil war was avoided. The Roman aristocracy apparently did not want the events of AD 69 to be repeated. Trajan's position as a governor of the Upper Germania where he commanded the large army was possibly a guarantee against war. It is also peculiar that Trajan continued staying in Germania while the ceremony of his adoption by Nerva took place in Rome in October 97. Moreover even after Nerva's death in January 98 Trajan didn't haste with arriving to Rome and delayed it up to the end of 99. Taking into account all the specificity of Trajan's way to power the new emperor had to legitimize it. In 97 - 98 he got all the necessary titles that gave him powers and authority. The role of the official ideology in legitimization was also significant. The concept of Trajan as the best ruler (optimus princeps), vice-regent of Jupiter and parent to citizens began to be developed by Pliny no later than in 97 and was fully set forth in "Panegyricus" in 100. For Nerva and for the Roman society in the whole the oracle and some omens given to Trajan (omina imperii) could also have been important as justification of Trajan's coming to power.

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