Justice of Trajan

The Justice of Trajan is a legendary episode in the life of Roman Emperor Trajan, based upon Dio Cassius' account (Epitome of Book LXVIII, chapter 10): "He did not, however, as might have been expected of a warlike man, pay any less attention to the civil administration nor did he dispense justice any the less; on the contrary, he conducted trials, now in the Forum of Augustus, now in the Portico of Livia, as it was called, and often elsewhere on a tribunal."

According to the story, Trajan, busy with preparations for the Dacian Wars, was petitioned for justice by the mother of a murdered man.

The legend, though indirectly, was popularized by Dante in The Divine Comedy, alluded to in the Paradise, and recounted in Purgatory, X, 73-94: The wretch appear'd amid all these to say: "Grant vengeance, sire!

So justice wills; and pity bids me stay.The origin of the legend and its vicissitudes since antiquity have been the subject of several studies, including the detailed "Leggende" by G. Boni, published in 1906.

Some depictions, like that carved on the facade of the Doge's Palace, Venice, are restricted to those figures, but often there is a great crowd of the emperor's army and courtiers.