Trajan

Born 18 September 53 in Italica, a Roman settlement in southern Spain, Marcus Ulpius Traianus came from Umbrian stock; his father was a distinguished senator and general. He rose under Domitian, commanding a legion in Spain and backing the emperor against a Rhine revolt in 89, then governing Germania and Pannonia. When the childless Nerva took power in 96 and faced a Praetorian mutiny, he adopted the popular general as heir. Trajan ruled from 98 to 117, building his forum, expanding welfare programs like the alimenta, and conducting the conquests that defined him: he annexed Nabataea and Dacia, then warred east against Parthia, bringing Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria into the empire. In August 117, sailing back to Rome, he suffered a stroke at Selinus and died. The Senate deified him; his ashes went beneath the column that still carries his name.