Emperor Trajan
Born near Seville in Spain, Trajan was historically significant for being the first Roman emperor to come from where?
What are the provinces (outside the Italian peninsula)
Unlike Trajan’s military focus on territorial expansion, Hadrian’s strategy focused on doing this to Rome’s existing borders.
What is consolidation
Antoninus was awarded the honorary title "Pius" because of his reputation as an emperor who was dutiful, faithful, calm, and this.
Answer: What is even-tempered?
Marcus Aurelius was a devoted follower of this Greco-Roman philosophy that emphasized duty, discipline, self-control, and virtue.
Answer: What is Stoicism?
Breaking out in 165 AD, this catastrophic epidemic killed up to 25% of the Mediterranean population and severely weakened the Roman military and economy.
Answer: What is the Antonine Plague?
This major European river running from the Alps to the Black Sea formed the dangerous frontier where Trajan launched his invasion of Dacia.
Danube
What is Mesopotamia
Antoninus Pius served as a "bridge" emperor between Hadrian and this designated young successor.
Answer: Who is Marcus Aurelius?
While commanding troops on the Danube frontier, Marcus Aurelius composed this private philosophical work on duty and self-discipline.
Answer: What is Meditations?
Marcus Aurelius spent much of his reign leading military campaigns along the Danube frontier against these Germanic tribes.
Answer: Who are the Marcomanni (or the Marcomannic Wars)?
This last king of Dacia repeatedly challenged Roman authority along the Danube and committed suicide after his defeat in 106 AD.
King Decebalus
Signaling his deep admiration for Greek culture and philosophy, Hadrian broke traditional Roman clean-shaven norms by growing one of these.
What is a beard
Unlike many emperors, Antoninus Pius managed imperial finances so carefully that he left the Roman treasury with this upon his death.
Answer: What is a financial surplus?
Marcus Aurelius shared joint imperial rule from 161 to 169 AD with this adoptive brother, who lived a reckless, pleasure-seeking life.
Answer: Who is Lucius Verus?
The system where an emperor chose a highly capable leader based on merit rather than bloodlines was known as this.
Answer: What is adoptive succession (or merit-based adoption)?
Trajan served in the army in Spain and Germania, earning citizenship that granted full political rights including eligibility for this supreme command power.
Imperium
At the beginning and end of his reign, Hadrian ordered violent purges against members of this political body whom he suspected of betrayal.
Answer: What is the Roman Senate (or senators)?
To temporarily prevent northern border conflicts, Antoninus paid this to Germanic tribes, which eventually made Rome look weak.
Answer: What is tribute?
Marcus Aurelius’s daily routine during the Marcomannic Wars was famously divided between warfare by day and this activity by night.
Answer: What is writing/studying philosophy?
Marcus Aurelius broke the 80-year tradition of merit-based adoption by naming this vain, biological son as his heir.
Answer: Who is Commodus?
This Syrian-born master engineer built Trajan’s massive bridge over the Danube River and designed his famous Forum in Rome.
Apollodorus of Damascus
This 70-mile-long stone barrier in northern Britain marked the boundary between Roman territory and Caledonia.
Answer: What is Hadrian’s Wall?
Antoninus ordered the construction of a second wall in Britain north of Hadrian's Wall, which was named this and abandoned shortly after his death.
Answer: What is the Antonine Wall?
In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius noted that he learned self-government and cheerfulness under illness from this influential teacher.
Answer: Who is Maximus?
This ancient Roman name referred to modern-day Scotland, inhabited by Pictish and Celtic tribes living north of Hadrian’s Wall.
Answer: What is Caledonia?