Are they and welcome to Emperor of Rome, a podcast about the rulers of the ancient Roman Empire.

I'm your host Matt Smith and with me as always is Dr.

Ian and Evans a lecturer in ancient Mediterranean studies at Latrobe University and I

need to look up what episode we're up to.

This is episode XLV, in Trajan We Trust.

After being coerced by the Praetorian Guard,

Emperor Nerva makes a decision on his successor.

He looks further afield than Rome

and names the respected general Trajan

as the person who will take the title of Princeps.

Rome generally seems quite happy with this decision.

Trajan's a good general, he's got the backing of the army, he respects the Senate,

sure he's Spanish, but hey you can't be perfect.

I think that 2,000 years later we can safely look back at this time in history

and say, hey, good call Nerva. As Trajan would go on to become one of the most well-regarded

emperors, the Roman Empire, had ever seen. Here's Reardon Evans.

Trajan was born around 53 CE and he's born outside of Italy which is a big deal. He's the first emperor born outside of Italy and he's actually

born in modern Spain in a place called Italica, which means it's a provincial, a municipal town that's been founded by the Romans. It's in the part of Spain. It's quite

far south in Spain in a park called Baitika. Romans actually divided Spain into several different provinces.

So he's born in a part of the world that's been Roman for a long time, but it's not Italy itself.

His full name is Marcus Ulpius Trayanos. Those of you who listen to our

episode on pronunciation will know that perhaps that the I can sometimes turns into a

...