Trajan, however, was not yet able to make up his mind what to do. He then set about the conquest of Arabia. From inscriptions and coins, and from the things there which had not existed until his time, we may conclude that he made Arabia Petræa on the eastern coast of the Red Sea down to the Gulf of Acaba—even as far as Medina, if Medina were not included—a Roman province, and received the homage of the Arab tribes between the Euphrates and Syria. He had in the treaty of peace caused the Parthians to give up to him the supremacy over Osroëne, Mesopotamia, and Kurdistan: Edessa likewise was incorporated into the empire. Thus he reserved for himself the groundwork for a future war, just as Napoleon did: he undoubtedly meant, should he live long enough, to extend the frontier as far as to India; or at least, to leave the conquest for his successor. Nubia, between Egypt and the upper cataract, was likewise subjected in the reign of Trajan to the Roman sway, under which it remained for a hundred and fifty years. Moreover Fezzan between Tripoli and the town of Bornu on the Niger were Roman; which is proved by the inscriptions at Gharma. Whilst Trajan could not make up his mind to leave the East, he also stayed for a considerable period in Cilicia; and there he fell sick at Selinus, which was afterwards called Trajanopolis, and died in the sixty-first, or sixty-fourth year of his life, A. D. 117. His ashes were brought to Rome, and enshrined there in a golden urn beneath the triumphal pillar. In the last months of his life, he had adopted Hadrian; or Plotina had spread a report of his having done so. This was undoubtedly a happy thing for Rome: for although Hadrian in his after life was guilty of sad misdeeds, it was owing to his ill state of health; so that he was hardly accountable for them. He was a near kinsman of Trajan and a most able man. ART AND LITERATURE UNDER TRAJAN.