In the previous article, we tackled the period between 68 AD and 98 AD, along which seven emperors assumed power; three of which succeeded each other in one year, and the fourth took over in the same year and ruled for ten years. The Destruction of Jerusalem occurred in the days of Vespasian Caesar, Christians were harshly persecuted during the era of Domitian Caesar as a result of his misunderstanding of Christ’s kingship, for he didn’t want any other king to rule with him. Nerva Caesar followed, he was the just ruler who granted freedom of religion to Christians and brought back their expatriates. After Nerva’s death, power was transferred to Trajan Caesar.
Trajan Caesar (98 AD – 117 AD)
Trajan Caesar was born in Al-Andalus territory, he was known for his self esteem among the Roman princes, he was considered the best of them all. His military skill was witnessed by everyone. He was far away from Rome at the death of Nerva Caesar, and he was informed that the Roman Senate had selected him to be the new emperor, yet he tarried in coming back. Selecting him as a ruler was a cause to raise a dispute that expanded until it became sedition. However, his high prestige and dignity to the people of Rome prevented further escalations, and thus, he quickly became the Caesar of Rome.
Trajan Caesar entered Rome in a procession contradictory to that of his predecessors; his procession was a modest simple one, he had neither ascended a vehicle nor mounted a horse, but rather he was walking cheerful to all those he met. He was reported by a historian to say the following after being seated on the throne of Rome, “I’d like to do to all people what I liked to be done to me by Caesar of Rome… What I like for myself, I will definitely like for my people and my race” When the rule became stable, he exerted all his effort in reforming the state affairs until he managed to restore its old glories.
Trajan Caesar was a good manager of the state affairs. Out of his deep concern about the country interests, he granted the Council of Judgments authority to work according to what the country interests require. Similarly, the judges and rulers as well were given such authority- each according to his job – They occupied a great status to him. One of his achievements was suspending any sentence on an absentee until he could defend himself.
Out of his good management and awareness of the consequences, he reduced taxes, built bridges and archways, and was concerned with repairing roads, and renovating ports to revive trade. Surprisingly, he achieved all this work in one year only; which made the rich people of Rome and his people build a temple named after him as an honoring commemoration him.
In addition to this, Trajan embarked on renewing buildings and establishing a great library, he used to keep the company of authors, wise men and philosophers; One of his closest men was Gaius Plinius Cassius II, better known as Pliny the Younger; he was a lawyer, author, and magistrate known for his honesty and uprightness. He occupied many civil and military posts.
As he was striving to expand the Roman Empire, he worked to annex Al Falaq and Al Baghdan – south of Romania- to the empire, he as well conquered the Arab lands of Hejaz, one of the territories of the Arabian Peninsula, after he had known they raided the properties of the Romanian state in the east. After fierce battles against them, he defeated and annexed the Hejaz countries to Rome. Also Persia- Iran, Armenia, Arabia, the Kurds’ countries, Iraq, and Yemen were also annexed to his empire. As a result of these expansions and victories, he was respected by kings and loved by his people.
During his era, Jews returned to Jerusalem, and decided to disobey him, so he sent an army to fight them in a war that lasted for a long time. Jews fought with a large number of the Rome affiliate states, until they reached Alexandria, Egypt where they engaged in battles with Roman armies, defeated them and expelled Egypt’s ruler. Trajan sent another ruler equipped with a great army. Fighting intensified between the two sides – especially with the raised disputes and sedition between Alexandria’s Jewish and Greeks due to an old conflict between them, until Trajan dies and Hardian Caesar succeeded him.
In the days of Trajan, St. John wrote his Gospel. Trajan embarked on a harsh persecution of Christians, making his era mark the most brutal era of persecution. He is the first emperor in the world to declare Christianity an illegal religion after issuing tough legislations against Christians, considering their religious prayers and meetings to be activities of a secret group!
The Roman state kept up treating Christians using these laws issued by Trajan for a long period which exceeds two hundred years!
Trajan’s hostility against Christians manifested in his response to a letter he had received from Pliny, the ruler of Bithynia, Asia Minor, between 109 and 111 AD. Pliny had regarded Christianity as an extreme myth and not a religion, so he sent to Emperor Trajan warning him of the Christianity myth getting spread wide in Asia’s cities and villages, and that the myth had an authority over all people of various ages, posts and races, which left the heathen temples abandoned, and the trade of sacrifices offered to the idols fallen.
In order to put an end to the wide spread of Christianity, Pliny believed that many Christians should be sentenced to death and that those who enjoyed the rights of a Roman citizenship should be sent to the imperial court in Rome. In his letter, he asked the Emperor to allow more toughness regarding the treatment of Christians, to disregard the old age, and to consider being a Christian to be a mere crime!
In response to the letter and the questions raised in it, Trajan wrote, “O my friend, you have taken the right path with regard to Christians, so there would be no general rule that applies to all cases in this regard.
However, seeking after them shall not be pursued, yet if anyone complains against them and they were proved guilty, they shall be punished. Nevertheless, if one denies that he is a Christian and practically proves it by sacrificing to our gods, then he shall be forgiven for his repentance …).
On the basis of this state decision, Christians were subjected to severe violent persecutions, and many were martyred.
It is worth mentioning that Syria, Palestine and Egypt in particular had suffered a lot of persecution. Fanatic Jews accused Simon the Bishop of Jerusalem and he was sentenced to death by crucifixion in 107 AD at the age of hundred and twenty!
In this very same year, St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was sentenced to death, so he was sent to Rome, and thrown to fierce beasts. When Trajan heard about him and his zeal to spread Christianity, he called him and engaged with him in a debate about the Crucified Jesus, it ended with the emperor issuing an order to bind Ignatius, sending him to Rome in order to be a food for the fierce beasts to please the people!
The bishop came out heavily guarded by ten soldiers. Observing the people’s love and gathering around him at his departure, the soldiers deliberately abused him and treated him with all violence and cruelty. When he heard that some believers were exerting effort to save him from martyrdom, he wrote an epistle in which he said, “For I am afraid of your love, lest it should do me an injury… Pray, then, do not seek to confer any greater favor upon me than that I be sacrificed to God while the altar is still prepared… Beseech of you not to show an unseasonable good-will towards me. Suffer me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that they may become my tomb, and may leave nothing of my body; so that when I have fallen asleep [in death], I may be no trouble to anyone…”
When they arrived at Rome, the soldiers took him to a public yard and released the beasts against him, while he received them with a cheerful face! Two lions jumped upon him, leaving nothing of his body except few bones.
Trajan Caesar died during his return to Rome from one of his conquests in 117 AD. And… Stories about Egypt never end!
The General Bishop
Head of Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center
