Hadrian was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born into a Roman family which had settled in Spain some 250 years before, from the Italian city of Atri in Picenum. His father was of senatorial rank and was a first cousin of Emperor Trajan. Hadrian married Trajan's grand-niece Vibia Sabina early in his career, before Trajan became emperor and possibly at the behest of Trajan's wife Pompeia Plotina. Plotina and Trajan's close friend and adviser Lucius Licinius Sura were well disposed towards Hadrian. When Trajan died, his widow claimed that he had nominated Hadrian as emperor immediately before his death.
Trajan was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared by the Senate optimus princeps, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presided over one of the greatest military expansions in Roman history and led the empire to attain the greatest territorial extent in history by the time of his death. He is also known for his philanthropic rule, overseeing extensive public building programs and implementing social welfare policies, which earned him his enduring reputation as the second of the Five Good Emperors who presided over an era of peace within the Empire and prosperity in the Mediterranean world.
The 110s decade ran from January 1, 110, to December 31, 119.
The Praetorian Guard was a unit of the Imperial Roman army that served as personal bodyguards and intelligence agents for the Roman emperors. During the Roman Republic, the Praetorian Guard were an escort for high-rank political officials and were bodyguards for the senior officers of the Roman legions. In the year 27 BC, after Rome's transition from republic to empire, the first Emperor of Rome, Caesar Augustus, designated the Praetorians as his personal security escort. For three centuries, the guards of the Roman emperor were also known for their palace intrigues, by which influence upon imperial politics the Praetorians could overthrow an emperor, and then proclaim his successor as the new Caesar of Rome. In AD 312, Constantine the Great disbanded the cohortes praetoriae and destroyed their barracks at the Castra Praetoria.
The Roman provinces were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as governor.
Legio III Gallica was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. The cognomen Gallica suggests that its earliest recruits came from veterans of the Gallic legions of Gaius Julius Caesar, a supposition supported by its emblem, a bull, a symbol associated with Caesar. The legion was based for most of its existence at Raphanea, Roman Syria, and was still active in Egypt in the early 4th century.
The praetorian prefect was a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders becoming the Emperor's chief aides. Under Constantine I, the office was much reduced in power and transformed into a purely civilian administrative post, while under his successors, territorially-defined praetorian prefectures emerged as the highest-level administrative division of the Empire. The prefects again functioned as the chief ministers of the state, with many laws addressed to them by name. In this role, praetorian prefects continued to be appointed by the Eastern Roman Empire until the reign of Heraclius in the 7th century AD, when wide-ranging reforms reduced their power and converted them to mere overseers of provincial administration. The last traces of the prefecture disappeared in the Byzantine Empire by the 840s.
Aureolus was a Roman military commander during the reign of Emperor Gallienus before he attempted to usurp the Roman Empire. After turning against Gallienus, Aureolus was killed during the political turmoil that surrounded the Emperor's assassination in a conspiracy orchestrated by his senior officers. Aureolus is known as one of the Thirty Tyrants and is referenced in ancient sources including the Historia Augusta, Zonaras' epitome and Zosimus' Historia Nova, as well as in John Bray's biography of Gallienus.
The Dacian Wars were two military campaigns fought between the Roman Empire and Dacia during Emperor Trajan's rule. The conflicts were triggered by the constant Dacian threat on the Danubian province of Moesia and also by the increasing need for resources of the economy of the Empire.
The Kitos War was one of the major Jewish–Roman wars (66–136). The rebellions erupted in 115, when most of the Roman armies were fighting Trajan's Parthian War on the eastern border of the Roman Empire. Major uprisings by Jews in Cyrenaica, Cyprus and Egypt spiralled out of control, resulting in a widespread slaughter of the remaining Roman garrisons and Roman citizens by Jewish rebels.
Lusius Quietus was a Roman Berber general and 11th legate of Judaea in 117–120. He was the principal commander against the Jewish rebellion known as the Kitos War. As both a general and a highly acclaimed commander, he was notably one of the most accomplished Berber statesmen in ancient Roman history. After the death of the emperor Trajan, Quietus was murdered or executed, possibly on the orders of Trajan's successor Hadrian.
In the Late Roman Empire, usually dated 284 AD to 602 AD, the regional governance district known as the Roman or civil diocese was made up of a grouping of provinces each headed by a Vicarius, who were the representatives of praetorian prefects. There were initially twelve dioceses, rising to fourteen by the end of the 4th century.
Cornelius Fuscus was a Roman general who fought campaigns under the Emperors of the Flavian dynasty. During the reign of Domitian, he served as prefect of the imperial bodyguard, known as the Praetorian Guard, from 81 until his death in 86 AD. Prior to this appointment, Fuscus had distinguished himself as one of Vespasian's most ardent supporters during the civil war of 69 AD, known as the Year of the Four Emperors.
Lucius Laberius Maximus was a governor of Roman Egypt in 83 CE, and prefect of the imperial bodyguard, known as the Praetorian Guard, during the reign of Roman Emperor Domitian, in 84 CE.
Sextus Attius Suburanus Aemilianus, commonly abbreviated as Suburanus, was a Roman eques who helped Trajan consolidate his position as emperor. Originally procurator of Gallia Belgica, Suburanus was appointed prefect of the Roman imperial bodyguard, known as the Praetorian Guard, in the year 98 and brought this important military unit under Trajan's control. For his achievement, at the end of his command of the Guard, Suburanus was adlected into the Roman senate inter praetores, then held the suffect consulship as the colleague of the consul posterior Quintus Articuleius Paetus in AD 101.
Nerva was Roman emperor from 96 to 98. Nerva became emperor when aged almost 66, after a lifetime of imperial service under Nero and the rulers of the Flavian dynasty. Under Nero, he was a member of the imperial entourage and played a vital part in exposing the Pisonian conspiracy of 65. Later, as a loyalist to the Flavians, he attained consulships in 71 and 90 during the reigns of Vespasian and Domitian, respectively. On 18 September 96, Domitian was assassinated in a palace conspiracy involving members of the Praetorian Guard and several of his freedmen. On the same day, Nerva was declared emperor by the Roman Senate. As the new ruler of the Roman Empire, he vowed to restore liberties which had been curtailed during the autocratic government of Domitian.
The gens Ulpia was a Roman family that rose to prominence during the first century AD. The gens is best known from the emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, who reigned from AD 98 to 117. The Thirtieth Legion took its name, Ulpia, in his honor. The city of Serdica, modern day Sofia, was renamed as Ulpia Serdica.
Lucius Julius Ursus was a relative of the Flavian dynasty, who was originally one of the equites who held several imperial appointments, but afterwards was promoted to the Roman senate. He was suffect consul three times: once under Domitian and twice under Trajan.
Servius Sulpicius Similis was an eques of ancient Rome who held several imperial positions, both civil and military, under Trajan and Hadrian, culminating with praefectus or governor of Egypt from 107 to 112.
Tiberius Claudius Livianus was an eques and general who was appointed praetorian prefect by Trajan, playing an important role in his First Dacian War, and continued as prefect into the reign of Hadrian. His full name, as attested in an inscription found in Rome, is Tiberius Julius Aquilinus Castricius Saturninus Claudius Livianus.
