We are so dependent on our hopes and so insatiate in seizing what seems to be our advantage that not even those who possess the greatest fortunes are willing to rest satisfied with them but are always grasping after more and so risking the loss of what they have. Isocrates. On The Peace. Speech 8. Section 7.
Image: Statue of the Roman Emperor Trajan found outside the Market Gate of Miletus photographed at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany.
Although Trajan is remembered as one of the "good" emperors, his decision late in his reign to wage war against Parthia had dire consequences. Initially, Trajan may have been motivated economically after annexing Arabia. He constructed the Via Traiana Nova, a new road linking Bosra, in southern Syria, to Aila, modern day Aqaba, on the Red Sea. That meant Charax, on the Persian Gulf in modern day Iraq, was the sole remaining western terminus of the Indian trade route outside direct Roman control. Such control was important to lower import prices and limit the drain of precious metals created by the deficit in Roman trade with the Far East. Other scholars think Trajan's sole motivation was the lure of territorial annexation and prestige. Although Trajan achieved some victories, other rebellions cropped up and Roman control of the region remained tenuous. When Trajan died on his way back to Rome, his successor Hadrian abandoned what Hadrian considered "indefensible" Mesopotamia and restored Armenia and Osrhoene to Parthian hegemony.
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