Roman Empire reaches its greatest territorial extent under Trajan

Date

117 CE

Category

Military & conflict

Region

Roman Empire (Mediterranean and Near East)

Era

Classical Antiquity

Significance

At the death of the emperor Trajan in 117 CE, the Roman Empire reached its maximum territorial extent, spanning roughly 5 million square kilometres from the Atlantic and Britain to the Persian Gulf, and from the Rhine and Danube to the Sahara.

Trajan's conquest of Dacia (modern Romania) in two wars (101 to 102 and 105 to 106 CE) yielded vast gold wealth and was commemorated by Trajan's Column in Rome, while his Parthian campaigns from 114 CE annexed Armenia and Mesopotamia and reached the Persian Gulf. The eastern gains proved fragile: revolts erupted across the Jewish diaspora and the newly seized provinces, and Trajan's successor Hadrian almost immediately withdrew from Mesopotamia and Armenia to consolidate defensible frontiers. The moment nonetheless marks the apogee of Roman power and the high point of the Pax Romana, after which imperial policy shifted decisively from expansion toward the defence and management of fixed borders.

Empires active in 117 CE

• Roman Empire
  27 BCE to 476 CE
• Han Dynasty
  202 BCE to 220 CE
• Kingdom of Funan
  50 CE to 550 CE
• Zapotec State of Monte Albán
  500 BCE to 800 CE
• Kushan Empire
  30 CE to 375 CE
• Parthian Empire
  247 BCE to 224 CE

Related military & conflict events

• Bar Kokhba revolt and the renaming of Judaea to Syria Palaestina
  132 to 135 CE
• Battle of Actium ends the Hellenistic age
  2 September 31 BCE
• Yellow Turban Rebellion weakens the Han
  184 CE
• Battle of the Teutoburg Forest halts Roman expansion in Germania
  September 9 CE
• Shapur I captures Emperor Valerian at the Battle of Edessa
  260 CE
• Caesar's Gallic Wars and the Siege of Alesia
  58 to 50 BCE (Alesia 52 BCE)

Essential reading

• Cai Lun standardises papermaking
  105 CE
• Indianisation of Southeast Asia: Spread of Hindu-Buddhist Culture
  c. 1st century CE
• Nagarjuna Founds the Madhyamaka School and Systematises Mahayana Philosophy
  c. 150 CE
• Antonine Plague
  165-180 CE

Further reading

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

The wider story

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

Mary Beard

Bestselling single-volume history of Rome by a leading classicist.

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