English: A marble bust of the Roman Emperor Traianus Decius from the Capitoline Museum in Italy. He ruled Rome for 2 short years between 249 to 251 AD before he was killed in a campaign against the invading Goths--who had ravaged the Roman province of Thrace--in the swamps of Dobrudja in eastern Romania/Bulgaria. Unlike some of his immediate predecessors such as Maximinus or Philip the Arab, Decius had been a distinguished Roman senator and had served in office as a governor of several Roman provinces as well as the urban prefect of Rome during the early reign of Philip the Arab. This portrait "conveys an impression of anxiety and weariness, as of a man shouldering heavy [state] responsibilities." (source: Chris Scarre, Chronicle of the Roman Emperors, Thames & Hudson, 1995. pp.168-169.)