Trajan
Death of Emperor Trajan at Selinus
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The adoption letter reportedly reached Hadrian two days before the official news that Trajan was dead.
A Cilician port, early August 117
Seriously ill during his eastern campaign in 117, Trajan abandoned plans for another Mesopotamian expedition and set out intending to sail to Italy, leaving Hadrian with the army in Syria.
He died at Selinus in Cilicia — later renamed Traianopolis, near modern Gazipaşa in Turkey. Sources differ over the exact day, commonly giving 7, 8 or 9 August 117.
Not simply "a stroke"
Cassius Dio's surviving epitome reports that Trajan had suffered a stroke leaving part of his body paralysed, and that he also had generalized dropsy. It preserves competing ancient explanations too — Trajan himself suspected poison.
Dio gives the reign as 19 years, 6 months and 15 days.
Plotina's announcement
Trajan's wife Plotina announced that he had adopted Hadrian on his deathbed. The army recognized Hadrian immediately and the Senate followed, but ancient sources preserve suspicions that the adoption had been arranged or fabricated after Trajan's death.
The Historia Augusta reports that Hadrian received the adoption papers on 9 August and the news of the death on 11 August.
The eastern settlement was already coming apart: Parthian resistance had revived, and Parthamaspates, Rome's client king, had already been rejected.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited Date corrected
How this was checked
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Date corrected. The research places this at 117.
What the sources leave uncertain
- The year and location are secure, but sources differ over the exact day in early August, commonly giving 7, 8, or 9 August.
- “Died of a stroke” is too medically definite. Dio says Trajan had suffered a stroke but also describes dropsy and preserves reports of poisoning and another bodily disorder.
- Trajan’s birth year is usually given as 53 but has also been placed in 52, so his stated age of 63 is conventional rather than completely secure.
- The authenticity and timing of Hadrian’s adoption were questioned in antiquity; the Historia Augusta even records a story that it was staged after Trajan had died.