The exact construction date of the Puente de Alconétar is unknown because of missing literary and epigraphic sources. Its segmental arches suggest that it was built in the early 2nd century AD, more specifically during the reign of the emperors Trajan (98–117 AD) or Hadrian (117–138 AD), as the use of this arch form was typical of that era. Both rulers were born in the southern Spanish province of Baetica and Trajan is known to have ordered the restoration of the "Iter ab Emerita Caesaraugustam" when he came to power. Segmental arches were often employed by Trajan's court architect Apollodorus of Damascus, such as in Trajan's Forum and most notably in the greatest civil engineering achievement of its time, Trajan's Bridge, which rested on twenty huge concrete piers and was used during the Dacian Wars for moving troops across the more than wide Danube.