May you be more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan.
Felicior Augusto, melior Traiano.
Politicians
Trajan
13th Roman emperor (53-117), second of the Five Good Emperors. Born in the Hispanic colony of Italica, Trajan was the first emperor from a province. He expanded Rome to its greatest territorial extent through the Dacian and Parthian wars, formalized the alimenta welfare scheme for orphans, and was hailed by the Senate as Optimus Princeps. His conquests also produced mass enslavement in Dacia and the Kitos War uprising, and his successor Hadrian abandoned the eastern provinces almost immediately.
View this figure's profile
Trajan's Other Quotes
The best ruler.
They are not to be sought out. If denounced and convicted, they should be punished, but anyone who denies being a Christian and proves it in fact by praying to our gods is to be pardoned through repentance, however suspect his past.
Use this (sword) on my behalf if I rule well; if I rule badly, use it against me.
Anonymous accusations should have no place in any charge. They set the worst kind of precedent and are out of keeping with the spirit of our age.
Related Quotes
King and father of Europe.
-- Charlemagne
Cleopatra's nose: had it been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have changed.
-- Cleopatra
[Cyrus was called] 'father of his people'.
-- Cyrus the Great
I swear before you, by the God of my fathers, by my honour and by my country, that I will not rest my arm nor my soul until I have broken the chains that bind us by the will of the Spanish power.
-- Simón Bolívar
The best ruler.
-- Trajan
The deified Antoninus Pius.
-- Antoninus Pius