Bellum Parthicum of the emperor Trajan: a contest with the ghost of Alexander?

The last and largest campaign of Emperor Trajan, his Parthian War, is fraught with many mysteries for the researcher, which is primarily explained by the state of the source base. The purpose of the war, the plans of the parties, the sequence of events that unfolded, and Trajan’s further intentions after the unexpectedly easy capture of Armenia and Mesopotamia are unclear. The purpose of this study is to clarify these issues to the extent that the available sources allow. The popular opinion is criticized that the emperor, planning and starting this war, took advantage of the plans of his predecessors and intended to repeat the eastern campaign of Alexander the Great. It is proved that the immediate goal of the war was the annexation of Armenia, the traditional “apple of discord” between Rome and Parthia. However, the exceptionally favorable situation due to the war between the pretenders to the Parthian throne allowed Trajan to transfer the fighting after the capture of Armenia to the territory of Mesopotamia. The last and largest campaign of Emperor Trajan, his Parthian War, is fraught with many mysteries for the researcher, which is primarily explained by the state of the source base. The purpose of the war, the plans of the parties, the sequence of events that unfolded, and Trajan’s further intentions after the unexpectedly easy capture of Armenia and Mesopotamia are unclear. The purpose of this study is to clarify these issues to the extent that the available sources allow. The popular opinion is criticized that the emperor, planning and starting this war, took advantage of the plans of his predecessors and intended to repeat the eastern campaign of Alexander the Great. It is proved that the immediate goal of the war was the annexation of Armenia, the traditional “apple of discord” between Rome and Parthia. The situation that developed extremely favorably due to the war between the pretenders to the Parthian throne allowed Trajan to transfer the fighting after the capture of Armenia to the territory of Mesopotamia, capture the Parthian capital Ctesiphon and reach the coast of the Persian Gulf. Considering the war already won, the emperor did not intend to continue the land campaign to the East, as there were no necessary resources for this. Instead, Trajan was going to transfer the war to the sea and make a naval expedition to India, thereby surpassing the achievements of Alexander the Great. However, further developments forced him to abandon these plans.