Then, on the way back, the trouble started. Before the end of the year a serious rising in the north had to be crushed, and the Parthians were threatening a counter-attack. Trajan decided to abandon lower Mesopotamia, installed the young prince Partha maspates as king in Ctesiphon, and withdrew, not without trouble on the way. Meanwhile the Jews all over the East had risen and massacred everyone they could find, Greeks and Romans alike. Trajan, alarmed by this and other signs of trouble all over the empire, set out for Rome. He died on the way, at Selinus in Cilicia, on Aug. 8, 117. His reign closes ominously; while he had been in the East trouble had started in Africa, Egypt, Libya, Palestine, Sarmatia, Britain. He was deified, of course, and his triumph was celebrated after his death. Trajan's reign takes one more long step towards complete despotism, which we shall see when we consider the provinces. For Italy Trajan did much. His new forum was the glory of Rome, there are columns and triumphal arches to commemorate his victories, he reclaimed the Campagna, built new harbours at Ostia, Centumcellae and Ancona, built roads and aqueducts, and tried to arrest the decline of Italy in agriculture and man-power, by extending the alimenta system of Nerva, forbidding emigration, encouraging settlements on the imperial lands, making senators invest in real estate in Italy, and so on.
His provincial administration is a little less easy to summarise. In intention it was excellent, but his long absence in the East led to difficulties. Numerous prosecutions for extortion show the ex
tent of the evil and the emperor's efforts to stop it. This reign sees also a new phenomenon, the breakdown of local government on the financial side. Various municipalities have to receive cur ators, and the province of Bithynia and the "free cities" of Achaea had their financial administration taken over by imperial correctores. Pliny was sent to Bithynia, and his letters to Trajan and the replies are preserved. In the enormous mass of detail referred to the emperor we can see foreshadowed the complete centralisation that was to come under Diocletian. Mention must also be made of the view (Rostovtzeff, see inf.) that Trajan's wars were completely disastrous to the empire, overstraining its man-power and economic strength irrevocably.