Damascus, hitherto a dependency, and the last
remaining fragment of the Jewish kingdom, were incorporated with
Syria; Bostra and Petra were permanently occupied, and a great portion
of the Nabathaean kingdom was constituted the Roman province of Arabia.
Rome thus obtained mastery of the most important positions lying on
the great trade-routes from East to West. These changes could not but
affect the relations of the Roman with the Parthian empire, and the
affairs of Armenia became, in 114, the occasion of war. Trajan's
campaigns in the East ended in complete though brilliant failure.
In the retreat from Ctesiphon (117), the old emperor tasted for almost
the first time the bitterness of defeat in the field. He attacked the
desert city of Hatra, westward of the Tigris, whose importance is
still attested by grand ruins. The want of water made it impossible to
maintain a large force near the city, and the brave Arabs routed the
Roman cavalry. Trajan, who narrowly escaped being killed, was forced
to withdraw.

A more alarming difficulty lay before him. Taking advantage of the
absence of the emperor in the far East, and possibly by an
understanding with the leaders of the rising in Armenia and the
annexed portions of Parthia, the Jews all over the East had taken up
arms at the same moment, and at a given signal. The massacres they
committed were portentous. In Cyprus 240,000 men are said to have been
put to death, and at Cyrene 220,000. At Alexandria, on the other hand,
many Jews were killed. The Romans punished massacre by massacre, and
the complete suppression of the insurrection was long delayed, but the
Jews made no great stand against disciplined troops. Trajan still
thought of returning to Mesopotamia, and of avenging his defeat at
Hatra, but he was stricken with sickness and compelled to take ship
for Italy. His illness increasing, he landed in Cilicia, and died at
Selinus in that country about the end of July, 117.

Trajan, who had no children, had continually delayed to settle the
succession to the throne, though Pliny, in the "Panegyric" had
pointedly drawn his attention to the matter, and it must have caused
the Senate much anxiety. Whether Hadrian, the cousin of Trajan, was
actually adopted by him or not, is impossible to determine; certainly
Hadrian had not been advanced to any great honors by Trajan. Even his
military service had not been distinguished. Plotina asserted the
adoption, and it was readily and mo