Looking for info on Trajan between 96-98 AD

[NK]

I am desperately seeking a resource (or even confident/educated extrapolation) to where Trajan was and what exactly he was going during Nerva's reign. Knowing any other generals and legions and their locations at that time (specifically Oct. of 97) would be a dream come true. Any help would be appreciated!

[Gunthamund Hasding]

Well at the beginning of the 97 he was named as governor of Germania superior, I think he was there in October when adopted, with his adoption he received imperium proconsulare and tribunicia potestas as well as the tittle of Caesar and the byname Germanicus, see also Panegyricus of Plinius. In 98 he was named as Consul, at 28 Jan 98 when Nerva died he was in Köln (Cologne), he got the news from Hadrian seems to. He came in Rome 2 years later. Nigrinus was in Syria at the same time.

Does this answer your main question?

would read this:
Werner Eck: An Emperor is Made. Senatorial Politics and Trajan’s Adoption by Nerva in 97. In: Gillian Clark, Tessa Rajak (Hrsg.): Philosophy and Power in the Graeco-Roman World. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002, S. 211–226.

Miriam Griffin: Trajan. In: Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey und Dominic Rathbone (Hrsg.): The Cambridge Ancient History 11. The High Empire, A. D. 70–192. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-521-26335-2, S. 96–131.

here is a translation od Dio http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Ro...o/68*.html

and some online reading

http://www.luc.edu/roman-emperors/trajan.htm

[NK]

This is why I LOVE this place. Thank you very much! Is it correct then that he would have been camped in Germania and still commanding a legion at that time? I was able to find information about the 3 days Nerva was held hostage in the palace by Prefect Aerelius to give up Domitian's conspirators but couldn't find anything to tell me how long it was between that and him adopting Trajan.
I knew Trajan didn't return to Rome for 2 years but how was he able to do that without anyone else taking power? especially Aerelius who from what I've researched so far had been planning to seize power after Nerva, which is why Nerva adopted Trajan, knowing if anything happened to him then Trajan would avenge him. Anything more you can share would be SO appreciated!

[Gunthamund Hasding]

Well Germania Superior had the biggest army close to Rome at that time, I think there were at least 3 legions
Legio VIII Augusta Argentorate (modern Strasbourg)
Legio XI Claudia Pia Fidelis Vindonissa (modern Windisch)
Legio XXII Primigenia Mogontiacum (modern Mainz)
and some auxiliaries arround (30to35k soldiers I would say)

link with legions at Lvius
http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/legions-geo.html

on Casperius Aelianus, according to Dio Cassius he was called to Mainz and executed, see Dio link above (Cassius Dio 68,5,2.)

[Nathan Ross]

For some further interpretation, try and track down Andrew Berriman and Malcolm Todd's A Very Roman Coup: The Hidden War of Imperial Succession AD 96-8, in Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 50.3 (2001). I read it a while ago, but I think the authors argue that Trajan was pretty much behind the whole thing from the start...

Also try John Grainger's Roman Succession Crisis of AD 96-99 and the Reign of Nerva, which as I recall gives a more straightforward appraisal.

Incidentally, as governor Trajan would not have needed to camp anywhere - he would have lived in the governor's palace, if there was one, or the praetorium of the legion fortress.

[Renatus]

For some further interpretation, try and track down Andrew Berriman and Malcolm Todd's A Very Roman Coup: The Hidden War of Imperial Succession AD 96-8, in Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 50.3 (2001).

It's available on JSTOR here:

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/44...5315244763

[NK]

This is all so very helpful and I deeply appreciate it. Thank you.