Trajan expanded the Roman Empire to its greatest territorial extent, conquered Dacia in wars that brought back enough gold to fund a building program that transformed Rome, and was remembered as the “best emperor” by the Roman Senate. But the Dacian gold was plundered wealth, the conquests overextended the empire’s defenses, and the eastern campaigns that followed were disasters his successor Hadrian immediately abandoned. Trajan’s glory was built on hubris Rome could not sustain.

This episode traces Trajan from his Spanish military origins through the Dacian Wars, the Column that celebrated them, the building program funded by stolen gold, and the eastern campaigns that exposed the limits of imperial ambition.

• Trajan’s rise as the first emperor born outside Italy and the military career that made him Nerva’s heir
• The Dacian Wars, the plundered gold, and Trajan’s Column that told the story in carved relief
• The Forum of Trajan, the Markets, and the building boom that transformed Rome
• The doomed eastern campaigns and the overextension that Hadrian had to undo immediately