Famous Men of Rome · Ch. XXVI · Unit 5: The first emperors

38. Trajan

Goal: Your child can tell how Trajan conquered Dacia, what Trajan's Column shows, and why the Romans wished every emperor would be "as good as Trajan."

⏱ About 25 minutes · 6 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

  • The book, open to this chapter
  • A map of Italy and the Mediterranean (a free online map or a globe)
  • Paper and colored pencils
  • A long strip of paper and a paper-towel tube (optional)

What's in the book

Chapter XXVI: cruel Domitian (who stuck flies with pins) is killed; old Nerva rules two years; Trajan becomes emperor in 98 A.D. and reigns nineteen years. He twice defeats King Decebalus of Dacia, bridges the Danube with stone piers, holds a long triumph and raises Trajan's Column. He wins Armenia and Mesopotamia, builds roads and the Trajan Forum, and great writers like Plutarch and Tacitus live in his time.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Set the scene

    Find the River Danube on the map, and the land north of it.

    SayThe book says most of Dacia was then called Hungary. In 1904 much of that land did belong to Hungary; today most of it is in Romania.

  2. Read the chapter

    Read Chapter XXVI aloud. It begins:

    On the death of Titus his brother Domitian became emperor.

  3. Tell it back

    Prompts:

    - What was Domitian's strange amusement?

    - Why did Trajan go to war with Decebalus?

    - What was special about Trajan's bridge over the Danube?

    - What is carved on Trajan's Column?

  4. Think it through

    The book says Trajan became emperor in 98 A.D. and reigned nineteen years. Ask: In what year did he die? (98 + 19 = 117 A.D.)

  5. Talk it over

    Read:

    For a long time after Trajan's death the people of Rome, whenever they got a new emperor, used to wish that he would be "as great as Augustus and as good as Trajan."

    Ask: What is the difference between being great and being good?

  6. Make a column (optional)

    Draw the story of the Dacian war as a comic strip on a long paper strip, then wind it around a paper-towel tube like the carvings on Trajan's Column.

Answers to the book's problems

Domitian caught flies and stuck them with pins. Decebalus kept raiding Roman lands and robbing and killing people. The bridge had huge stone piers and twenty-two arches, where earlier bridges were wooden. The column shows battles and other scenes from the Dacian war, from the base to the top. Great is about power and deeds; good is about how one treats people.

Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.

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