# The Parthian campaign is a late expansion that could not be held, as later Dio prints it

Date: 116

## The fact

Dio as LacusCurtius prints [Trajan](/people/trajan)’s eastern war, Ctesiphon, and the failure to hold the new provinces. The dated carrier is that later history. Overstretch is a fiscal-and-security path of medium confidence on unique sums, high on the received collapse after his death.

It is one event.

## Context

Hadrian’s later abandonment is another person’s row. This stores the printed overstretch as Trajanic heading.

Trajan Shared work with other named actors remains in the record.

Trajan’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Conventional reign is 98–117 CE. Dated public instruments here are later inscriptions as published, Pliny as Loeb/Perseus, Dio as LacusCurtius, and museum or UNESCO pages.

Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers are the surviving public file.

## Evidence and sources

LacusCurtius — Cassius Dio, Roman History and Cambridge studies on the age of Trajan independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: LacusCurtius — Cassius Dio, Roman History (https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/home.html; University of Chicago / LacusCurtius).

## Significance

Printed Parthian overstretch is not a 116 CE treasury spreadsheet.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Trajan.

They are not a public rating.

Driver `fiscal-policy-sustainability` is attached because the Significance sentence names a mechanism from The Parthian campaign is a late expansion that could not be held, as later Dio prints it at 0116-01-01, not because a standing driver list needed coverage. Official page: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/home.html. Independent page: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-the-age-of-trajan/.

## People

- Trajan: https://factrail.ai/people/trajan

## Drivers

- Fiscal-Policy Sustainability: https://factrail.ai/drivers/fiscal-policy-sustainability

## Sources

- https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-the-age-of-trajan/
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/home.html

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/trj-parthian-overstretch