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Trajan: Rome's Last Conqueror
Until the publication of this captivating biography, no such volume on Trajan’s life has been tailored to the general reader. The unique book illuminates a neglected period of ancient Roman history, featuring a comprehensive array of maps, illustrations, and photographs to help orientate and bring the text to life.
Trajan rose from fairly obscure beginnings to become the emperor of Rome. He was born in Italica, an Italic settlement close to modern Seville in present-day Spain, and is the first Roman Emperor to be born outside of Rome. His remarkable rise from officer to general and then to emperor in just over 20 years reveals a shrewd politician who maintained absolute power. Trajan’s success in taking the Roman Empire to its greatest expanse is highlighted in this gripping biography.
Trajan’s military campaigns allowed the Roman Empire to attain its greatest military, political and cultural achievements. The book draws on novel theories, recent evidence and meticulous research, including field visits to Italy, Spain, Germany and Romania to ensure accurate, vivid writing that transports the reader to Trajan’s territory.
Trajan rose from fairly obscure beginnings to become the emperor of Rome. He was born in Italica, an Italic settlement close to modern Seville in present-day Spain, and is the first Roman Emperor to be born outside of Rome. His remarkable rise from officer to general and then to emperor in just over 20 years reveals a shrewd politician who maintained absolute power. Trajan’s success in taking the Roman Empire to its greatest expanse is highlighted in this gripping biography.
Trajan’s military campaigns allowed the Roman Empire to attain its greatest military, political and cultural achievements. The book draws on novel theories, recent evidence and meticulous research, including field visits to Italy, Spain, Germany and Romania to ensure accurate, vivid writing that transports the reader to Trajan’s territory.
303 pages, Hardcover
Published April 30, 2022
42 people are currently reading
223 people want to read
About the author
Nicholas Jackson
4 books1 followerNicholas is an infectious disease scientist by training (MSc., DLSHTM., PhD), with more than 20 years' professional experience in the pharmaceutical industry working on vaccines. Recently, he has worked in R&D on several COVID-19 vaccines and advised several institutions and sovereign states on their vaccine development efforts. In his career, he has published numerous peer-reviewed scientific papers, reviews and professional articles. As a life-long student of Roman history, he has now uniquely combined his passion for Imperial Rome with his research acumen and writing expertise for the pharma industry to bring to life the gripping stories of ancient Rome.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 22, 2023
This was a very good book on the emperor Trajan. Under Trajan's eventful reign, the Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent. Having a military background and being heavily inspired by Alexander the Great, Trajan led several military campaigns, conquering Dacia, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria and Babylonia. His reign also saw the annexation of Arabia. With the booty and tribute received from all of these successful campaigns, Trajan made several impressive building projects and implemented some type of social welfare policies. He was loved by the people, the army and even the Senate. The Senate even granted him the title of 'Optimus princeps’, or best ruler. Trajan left a great legacy and centuries after his death, whenever a new emperor came to power, Romans exclaimed:
'Be more fortunate than Augustus, better than Trajan!'
Jackson was very good at describing the events of Trajan's reign, even with the lack of sources. I also really enjoyed reading about the events before the accession of Trajan, as Jackson did a great job of summarising the reigns of Vespasian and the Flavian dynasty. All in all, this was a great book on an emperor that surprisingly is not as popular as he deserves to be. I am very close to giving it five stars, but I will give it my second highest honour: getting a four-star rating and being put on my favourites shelf!
'Be more fortunate than Augustus, better than Trajan!'
Jackson was very good at describing the events of Trajan's reign, even with the lack of sources. I also really enjoyed reading about the events before the accession of Trajan, as Jackson did a great job of summarising the reigns of Vespasian and the Flavian dynasty. All in all, this was a great book on an emperor that surprisingly is not as popular as he deserves to be. I am very close to giving it five stars, but I will give it my second highest honour: getting a four-star rating and being put on my favourites shelf!
December 6, 2022
Jackson faced a tough task and he did an admirable job. Summarize a Roman Emperor’s life when there is almost no source material for more than a third of it. To fill in the early years, he relies on things we know about the lives of others like Trajan. Well done but makes for speculative reading.
Once he catches up to documented history, the book picks up and describes Trajan’s life and rule to his death.
It’s no fault of Jackson that this didn’t grab me. It was just dry subject matter.
Once he catches up to documented history, the book picks up and describes Trajan’s life and rule to his death.
It’s no fault of Jackson that this didn’t grab me. It was just dry subject matter.
March 31, 2023
I have always wondered why Trajan has always been so neglected. That is until the coming out of this wonderful book.
You do not need to be an academic professor to enjoy it to its full extent. The writing is very nice. The narrative provides you with all the keys you need to understand the Roman world of then and how it was possible for a country boy -though a staggeringly well -off country boy, but still... - like Trajan, not only to leave the city of Italica in today's Andalusia on his way to becoming Nerva's heir and successor, but to being in his lifetime deemed "Optimus", a hitherto never heard- of title granted by an ecstatic Senate. The book is very good at explaining the Dacian Wars and their consequences on the Roman Empire, its economy and its growing status as an unrivaled superpower. With the same talent, Nicholas Jackson goes on to tell us how the conquest of Mesopotamia could only have been a short-lived deed of derring -do. The murky conditions in which Hadrian takes over at the death of the great conqueror are painted with honesty.
All this makes engrossing reading from cover to cover, which proves once again that the zeal of the amateur historian (Jackson is actually a medical scientist!) can outperform the work of the historian by trade.
I can only recommend this very good read!
You do not need to be an academic professor to enjoy it to its full extent. The writing is very nice. The narrative provides you with all the keys you need to understand the Roman world of then and how it was possible for a country boy -though a staggeringly well -off country boy, but still... - like Trajan, not only to leave the city of Italica in today's Andalusia on his way to becoming Nerva's heir and successor, but to being in his lifetime deemed "Optimus", a hitherto never heard- of title granted by an ecstatic Senate. The book is very good at explaining the Dacian Wars and their consequences on the Roman Empire, its economy and its growing status as an unrivaled superpower. With the same talent, Nicholas Jackson goes on to tell us how the conquest of Mesopotamia could only have been a short-lived deed of derring -do. The murky conditions in which Hadrian takes over at the death of the great conqueror are painted with honesty.
All this makes engrossing reading from cover to cover, which proves once again that the zeal of the amateur historian (Jackson is actually a medical scientist!) can outperform the work of the historian by trade.
I can only recommend this very good read!
December 12, 2022
Given the limitations inherent in the material--no source material before he became emperor and a dearth of source material thereafter--this was a solid biography of one of Rome's better emperors. The first half of the book was comprised of educated guesses concerning his early life and his career before he became emperor. Each section began by saying it is likely that Trajan did this, or if Trajan served in this capacity here, or it's likely he was a general with this legion. I don't blame the author for this and his suppositions were likely.
Other than one gigantic issue that is glossed over in the book, Trajan was a fine emperor, if you were Roman. He re-elevated the position. He largely did away with the incessant intrigues by the senators, including the practice of informing on other senators (often with completely made-up accusations) that often resulted in the death of the informed-upon senator. He did a ton of public building projects including a new forum that was in use for over 500 years. And he was the last of the emperors to expand the size of the empire, conquering Dacia, establishing 4-5 new provinces in the Middle East/Eastern Europe, and carving out large chunks of the Parthian Empire.
The gigantic issue is pedophilia. The author repeatedly mentioned Trajan's taste for young boys and how he had serial sexual relations with young pages, lower-borns, and slaves throughout his life. Even though I am viewing this through 21st-century lenses, dead wrong is still dead wrong. How the author could seemingly excuse serial statutory rape by saying that it was not out of the norm in those days is beyond me. Yes, this is a work of history and not social commentary, but it really irked me that the author chose not to condemn the practice. The best Jackson could manage was saying that Trajan never took an unwilling sexual partner, except, of course, that children cannot consent to such treatment (again I'm using 21st-century legal principles).
Finally, I was surprised to learn that it was OK for a Roman citizen to engage in homosexual sex so long as his partner was low-born or a slave--as they were considered property and not people-but it was illegal--and sometimes punishable by death (depending on the emperor)--for a Roman citizen to have homosexual sex with another free-born Roman citizen.
Other than one gigantic issue that is glossed over in the book, Trajan was a fine emperor, if you were Roman. He re-elevated the position. He largely did away with the incessant intrigues by the senators, including the practice of informing on other senators (often with completely made-up accusations) that often resulted in the death of the informed-upon senator. He did a ton of public building projects including a new forum that was in use for over 500 years. And he was the last of the emperors to expand the size of the empire, conquering Dacia, establishing 4-5 new provinces in the Middle East/Eastern Europe, and carving out large chunks of the Parthian Empire.
The gigantic issue is pedophilia. The author repeatedly mentioned Trajan's taste for young boys and how he had serial sexual relations with young pages, lower-borns, and slaves throughout his life. Even though I am viewing this through 21st-century lenses, dead wrong is still dead wrong. How the author could seemingly excuse serial statutory rape by saying that it was not out of the norm in those days is beyond me. Yes, this is a work of history and not social commentary, but it really irked me that the author chose not to condemn the practice. The best Jackson could manage was saying that Trajan never took an unwilling sexual partner, except, of course, that children cannot consent to such treatment (again I'm using 21st-century legal principles).
Finally, I was surprised to learn that it was OK for a Roman citizen to engage in homosexual sex so long as his partner was low-born or a slave--as they were considered property and not people-but it was illegal--and sometimes punishable by death (depending on the emperor)--for a Roman citizen to have homosexual sex with another free-born Roman citizen.
October 1, 2024
Trajan was in Roman eyes one of the greatest emperors, and his achievements both domestic and foreign were remarkable, and yet because we have so few real sources close to his life, there's a real lack of modern writing about him - he's just not an attractive project for a biographer. I'm aware of one other modern book that looks at him properly, though I haven't read that yet. So I was pleased to read this.
But it is an odd book, though you don't realise its some of its oddness until you are done. Firstly, there is the inevitable reality that so much of Trajan's life is simple guesswork - that's fine for the first chapter, where the author fills out family background and guesses what kind of schooling Trajan had and so on, since it's so clearly guesswork. By the time you get towards the end and we're hearing just how lovely and friendly his home life was, it gets a bit wearing, as this frankly is just taking Trajan's own propaganda and running with it. There's a lot of guesswork in this book.
That makes it stranger still that Jackson never really discusses his sources or their reliability. Where is he getting his information? There are a few brief mentions of a historian or two, and a lot on Pliny's panegyric, delivered when he became consul, but very little on how we know what we know. And of course there is some on Pliny's famous letters, but less than you would expect. Occasionally comments betray a lack of familiarity with the sources - he thinks that Arrian's description of Trajan as 'king' ('basileus') is an error, when it's actually a perfectly regular Greek term for a Roman emperor.
In the end this is mostly narrative history, and so it doesn't mine Pliny's letters, for instance, as deeply as one would like on the changing administration of the empire.
Interestingly Jackson is an amateur historian, with a day job in something quite different. It's impressive, considering that fact...but it doesn't live up to the rigour of an academic history, and so falls short of what I'd hoped.
But it is an odd book, though you don't realise its some of its oddness until you are done. Firstly, there is the inevitable reality that so much of Trajan's life is simple guesswork - that's fine for the first chapter, where the author fills out family background and guesses what kind of schooling Trajan had and so on, since it's so clearly guesswork. By the time you get towards the end and we're hearing just how lovely and friendly his home life was, it gets a bit wearing, as this frankly is just taking Trajan's own propaganda and running with it. There's a lot of guesswork in this book.
That makes it stranger still that Jackson never really discusses his sources or their reliability. Where is he getting his information? There are a few brief mentions of a historian or two, and a lot on Pliny's panegyric, delivered when he became consul, but very little on how we know what we know. And of course there is some on Pliny's famous letters, but less than you would expect. Occasionally comments betray a lack of familiarity with the sources - he thinks that Arrian's description of Trajan as 'king' ('basileus') is an error, when it's actually a perfectly regular Greek term for a Roman emperor.
In the end this is mostly narrative history, and so it doesn't mine Pliny's letters, for instance, as deeply as one would like on the changing administration of the empire.
Interestingly Jackson is an amateur historian, with a day job in something quite different. It's impressive, considering that fact...but it doesn't live up to the rigour of an academic history, and so falls short of what I'd hoped.
August 20, 2025
Trajan by Nicholas Jackson
Summary: Trajan reigned from 98 to 117 CE and is often remembered as one of Rome's greatest emperors. He was given the title Optimus Princeps (The Best), and after reading Jackson's book I can see why.
Trajan seemed built to be an emperor. He combined a brilliant military mind with humility, an awareness of the population's needs, knowledge of policy and finance, and even an Augustan-style cooperation with the Senate. Jackson highlights each of these qualities, but leans in deeper to Trajan's military campaigns, which is fitting since under his leadership Rome reached its greatest territorial extent. You walk away with a sense that Trajan understood war at a level few in history have.
Of course, as with most ancient figures, firsthand sources are limited. However, Jackson seamlessly weaves in context from the period and makes educated suggestions to fill in the gaps. This really helped a nice flow and created a well-rounded view of Trajan's reign. Overall, I definitely recommend this read, especially if you want to learn more about one of the best emperors.
Summary: Trajan reigned from 98 to 117 CE and is often remembered as one of Rome's greatest emperors. He was given the title Optimus Princeps (The Best), and after reading Jackson's book I can see why.
Trajan seemed built to be an emperor. He combined a brilliant military mind with humility, an awareness of the population's needs, knowledge of policy and finance, and even an Augustan-style cooperation with the Senate. Jackson highlights each of these qualities, but leans in deeper to Trajan's military campaigns, which is fitting since under his leadership Rome reached its greatest territorial extent. You walk away with a sense that Trajan understood war at a level few in history have.
Of course, as with most ancient figures, firsthand sources are limited. However, Jackson seamlessly weaves in context from the period and makes educated suggestions to fill in the gaps. This really helped a nice flow and created a well-rounded view of Trajan's reign. Overall, I definitely recommend this read, especially if you want to learn more about one of the best emperors.
October 16, 2024
( Format : Audiobook )
One of Machiavelli 's five "good"emperors.
It is near impossible to write the definitive biography of a man for whom so.little contemporary primary source material remains but this well written book draws from the society and customs surrounding Trajan, from early childhood to death, to convincingly construct a most plausible picture of his life. Easy to read it also provides an interesting picture of aspects of Roman life, domestic and military.
Narration is by James Cameron Stewart, whose mellow voice is clear and well modulated. He does speak rather slowly however, so best played back slightly speeded - 1.2 was ideal for this reader - plus a background recording hiss distracted little though one part of the down load.
Overall, an enjoyable read for anyone interested in the times of the Roman Empire.
Recommended.
One of Machiavelli 's five "good"emperors.
It is near impossible to write the definitive biography of a man for whom so.little contemporary primary source material remains but this well written book draws from the society and customs surrounding Trajan, from early childhood to death, to convincingly construct a most plausible picture of his life. Easy to read it also provides an interesting picture of aspects of Roman life, domestic and military.
Narration is by James Cameron Stewart, whose mellow voice is clear and well modulated. He does speak rather slowly however, so best played back slightly speeded - 1.2 was ideal for this reader - plus a background recording hiss distracted little though one part of the down load.
Overall, an enjoyable read for anyone interested in the times of the Roman Empire.
Recommended.
November 4, 2022
Trajan Maximums Optimus Princeps
This is a very good popular biography of Rome's greatest emperor. It is well researched and based on some primary sources( it uses Pliny, Dio Cassius and Trajan's Column) along with Julian Bennett's scholarly biography of Trajan to draw a full body portrait of the emperor in the context of his times. If there is a flaw, it is that there are a lot of Trajan could have done this or Trajan may have been there. Some of this is inescapable but there is an awful lot of it. Otherwise, it is a competent and compelling work of history which I would recommend to anyone interested in Rome and its history.
This is a very good popular biography of Rome's greatest emperor. It is well researched and based on some primary sources( it uses Pliny, Dio Cassius and Trajan's Column) along with Julian Bennett's scholarly biography of Trajan to draw a full body portrait of the emperor in the context of his times. If there is a flaw, it is that there are a lot of Trajan could have done this or Trajan may have been there. Some of this is inescapable but there is an awful lot of it. Otherwise, it is a competent and compelling work of history which I would recommend to anyone interested in Rome and its history.
June 19, 2024
A good biography of the Roman emperor Trajan. With limited source material, the author skillfully recreates a portrait of Trajan’s life. With helpful and insightful background material, such as the political and economic landscape of Rome, Dacia, and Parthia at the time, I felt like I was following Trajan’s rise from his provincial childhood, distinguished military record, to his well-earned status as one of the “Five Good Emperors.”
November 19, 2022
a magnificent life
Thorough and well written book covering all of Trajan’s life. Definitely worth recommending. The final campaign in Mesopotamia does appear a little brief it still covers the major events
Thorough and well written book covering all of Trajan’s life. Definitely worth recommending. The final campaign in Mesopotamia does appear a little brief it still covers the major events
December 6, 2022
This is a solid and well written biography of Trajan. The author does a very good job of giving a sense of the empire as a whole and putting Trajan into it effectively. It does not drag or lose focus.
February 19, 2025
Just starting this book,I had already read a book on Trajan,which was good. This one takes a very close look at daily political activities,and how Trajans' early advance through the Roman heirarchy of leadership played out. I am just into chapter 1 so far.
August 13, 2025
nie že by Trajánov príbeh nebol zaujímavý, veď vládol 20 rokov a bol posledným dobyvateľom, no ak zvolíte nezáživnú formu, aj ten najlepší príbeh sa dá pokaziť. Našťastie v tomto prípade to nebolo až také zlé a v mojom hodnotení predsa len prevážili pozitíva.
December 20, 2022
A purely speculative account of the life of Trajan, more akin to fanfiction than history.
January 7, 2025
Good book about Trajan's life and the Roman period he lived through. This was my first biography about the emperor and I'd say it's a great book to learn all about him.
October 19, 2025
Well researched and a very good source on the life of Trajan. It is dry at times.
April 17, 2023
Have not finished the book, but can so far say that with confidence, Nicholas Jackson is a very clean, engaging and very erudite writer. Will definitely be returning to him in the future. Some of what he is forced to write about is conjecture, but even these long intervals are handled so well. Will definitely be keeping my eye open for him in the future.
Finishing thoughts are that overall his biography was quite good, very easy to digest and highly readable. If you were interested in learning more about Trajan I would absolutely recommend reading it before Julian Bennet's biography as this works as a full well rounded work on its own and is not nearly as turgid and dry as Bennet's.
Finishing thoughts are that overall his biography was quite good, very easy to digest and highly readable. If you were interested in learning more about Trajan I would absolutely recommend reading it before Julian Bennet's biography as this works as a full well rounded work on its own and is not nearly as turgid and dry as Bennet's.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews