s, and added the province of Armenia Minor to
the empire. It was not, however, an absolute or a final victory. The
little desert stronghold of Atrae, or Hatra, in Mesopotamia, remained
uncaptured; and, instead of incorporating the Parthians in the empire,
he thought it wiser to leave them to be governed by a native prince
under the suzerainty of Rome. His conquests were surrendered by Hadrian,
and henceforth the tide of victory began to ebb. He died on his way back
to Rome, at Selinus, in Cilicia, in August, 117.

Trajan's "moderation was known unto all men." Pliny, in his
_Panegyricus_ (xxii.), describes his first entry into Rome. He might
have assumed the state of a monarch or popular hero, but he walked
afoot, conspicuous, pre-eminent, a head and shoulders above the crowd--a
triumphal entry; but it was imperial arrogance, not civil liberty, over
which he triumphed. "You were our king," he says, "and we your subjects;
but we obeyed you as the embodiment of our laws." Martial (_Epig._, x.
72) hails him not as a tyrant, but an emperor--yea, more than an
emperor--as the most righteous of lawgivers and senators, who had
brought back plain Truth to the light of day; and Claudian (viii. 318)
maintains that his glory will live, not because the Parthians had been
annexed, but because he was "mitis patriae." The divine honours which he
caused to be paid to his adopted father, Nerva, he refused for himself.
"For just reasons," says Pliny, "did the Senate and people of Rome
assign thee the name and title of Optimus." Another honour awaited him:
"Il est seul Empereur," writes M. De La Berge, "dont les restes aient
repose dans l'enceinte de la ville Eternelle." (See Pliny's
_Panegyricus, passim;_ and _Essai sur le regne de Trajan_, Bibliotheque
de L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris, 1877.)]

[490] {412} [The archaeologists of Byron's day were unable to fix the
exact site of the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline.
"On which side," asks Hobhouse (_Hist. Illust._, p. 224), "stood the
citadel, on what the great temple of the Capitol; and did the temple
stand in the citadel?" Excavations which were carried on in 1876-7 by
Professors Jordan and Lanciani enabled them to identify with "tolerable
certainty" the site of the central temple and its adjacent wings, with
the site of the Palazzo Caffarelli and its dependencies which occupy the
south-east section of the Mons Capitolinus. There are still, however,
rival Tarpeian Ro