Making a Roman Emperor

In the early second century A.D., with the Roman emperor Trajan’s conquests of Dacia, in what is now Romania, and Parthia, in modern Iran, the Roman Empire reached its greatest extent. Trajan was born in Spain, the first emperor to have been born outside Italy. His adopted successor, Hadrian, shored up border defenses in northern Britain by constructing a 73-mile-long wall. For much of his reign, Hadrian traveled throughout the vast empire. One of the important provincial centers he visited, twice, was the city of Viminacium, in what is now eastern Serbia.

Benjamin Leonard is a senior editor at ARCHAEOLOGY.