by fear or the voice of their own soldiers. T MARCUS COCCEIUS NERV the middle nobility. His ning of the century, fror ite as ad cy the ue præto e was proved urnius Crassus, a spared, only banish most interesting memorial of his personal appearance is preserved in the sitting marble statue of the Vatican, one of the noblest The brief reign of Nerva is but a preface to the brilliant period title for his successor, more fit to command the respect of history than if he had owed the purple to his legions. It was reserved for Tran to build upon this foundation that edifice of prosperity and empire. His chief work was to create a gy, of which Tacitus declares that "Nerva Trajanus daily aug CLEMENCY OF NERVA. mpire, while the security of the state, has acquired the confidence and t prayer is breathed with the -letters from the younger f-indulgence of his habits, preserved him from e to which Galba had fallen a victim. Hs advance of his age, which is variar "The senators hoped to guide him, r him; but his personal appearance in the charm which soonest wins of the populace, he might hope and Titus.' rva the tribunitian power the body of Dettan, or of the chan.ber le of the Flavan - thesis; his the public w.re hich the new emperor ed Romans; though in al, delivered in the Senate willingly exchange much of upon the services that the is descent from one, and probably r, of two houses, the Ulpian and the aad acquired hereditary distinction. His a native of the colony of Italica,* settled as on the Bætis, which gave birth also to the Silius Italicus. The elder Trajan distinguished sero in the Parthian and Jewish wars, and comenth legion at the storming of Joppa; services for as rewarded by Vespasian with the consulship and the nt of Asia. He appears to have survived his son's accesd to have been deified upon his death.† His greater son was ut Italica, on the 18th of September, probably in A.D. 52, so he had completed his forty-fifth year at his accession.‡ Trained arms under his father's eye, he served through the campaigns in the East; and it was probably no great loss to the future prince, that his constant presence in the camp left him little leisure to cultivate the rhetorical pursuits then in favour at Rome. "Modesty or discretion led him to conceal deficiencies rather than affect accomplishments he did not possess;" but he could both speak and write well enough for all the requirements of his station. The straightforward utterance of the soldier, as the occasion required, is described as "talking, rather than speaking;" his extant letters are effective, if not ornate; and he had a sufficient taste for literature to write memoirs of his own time, especially of the The ruins of this city stand about six miles N. W. of Seville, on the opposite side of the Guadalquivir. It flourished under the Goths by the name of Talika, till a change in the bed of the river drove its inhabitants to migrate to Seville; and this, though a far more ancient city under the name of Hispalis, recognized Italica as in some sense its parent, by applying to its remains the name of Old Seville (Sevilla la Vieja). + An extant medal bears the inscription "DIVI NERVA ET TRAJANUS PATER." There is, however, much doubt about his exact age; and Dion makes him only forty-one. games of the amphitheatre were restricted within more moderate limits of expense and bloodshed; while the popular taste was gratified by the restoration of the mimes which Domitian had proscribed. It remained to be seen how long this moderate policy could be maintained by a timid and infirm old man against the jealousy of his fellow-senators and the disaffection of the prætorians. That the former danger was not very formidable was proved by the easy suppression of the conspiracy of Calpurnius Crassus, a descendant of the triumvir, whose life Nerva spared, only banishing him to Tarentum. The temper of the prætorians raised a more formidable difficulty. They demanded the punishment of Domitian's assassins, who had been hitherto left unnoticed; and, by no authority but their own, they seized and executed some of the chief actors in the tyrannicide. Nerva had too just a sense of the imperial dignity to submit tamely to such an outrage. The offer of his own life to the soldiery had failed to appease the mutiny; and he resolved to call in a stronger arm to vindicate the majesty of the law. In writing to Trajan, he is said to have adopted the prayer which Homer puts into the mouth of Apollo's outraged priest: "Oh! may the Greeks repay my tears by thy avenging darts!" Before there was time for an answer to arrive, Nerva convened the citizens at the Capitol, and proclaimed Marcus Ulpius Nerva Trajanus his adopted son and associate in the empire (October, A.D 97). This assumption by the emperor of the right to use, in relation to the state, the adoptive power of the head of a Roman family, was acquiesced in by the Senate, and gave a precedent for the establishment of an hereditary succession. The mere knowledge that the emperor had for his colleague a resolute soldier, in command of a formidable army, though so far distant as the Rhine, sufficed to overawe the prætorians. But the power thus secured was only enjoyed by Nerva for three months. He died on the 23rd of January, A.D. 98, after a reign of just sixteen months. A most interesting memorial of his personal appearance is preserved in the sitting marble statue of the Vatican, one of the noblest remains of Roman sculpture. The brief reign of Nerva is but a preface to the brilliant period of the newly organized empire. His chief work was to create a title for his successor, more fit to command the respect of history than if he had owed the purple to his legions. It was reserved for Trajan to build upon this foundation that edifice of prosperity and glory, of which Tacitus declares that "Nerva Trajanus daily aug ments the felicity of the empire, while the security of the state, hitherto but a hope and prayer, has acquired the confidence and strength of a prayer fulfilled." That prayer is breathed with the greatest fervour in one of those interesting letters from the younger Pliny to Trajan, which prove the esteem in which the new emperor was already held by the most distinguished Romans; though in the "Panegyric" which Pliny, as consul, delivered in the Senate in the third year of Trajan, we could willingly exchange much of fulsome adulation for information upon the services that the prince had hitherto performed. The name of Trajan marks his descent from one, and probably his adoption into the other, of two houses, the Ulpian and the Traian, neither of which had acquired hereditary distinction. His father, like himself, was a native of the colony of Italica,* settled by the elder Africanus on the Bætis, which gave birth also to the contemporary poet, Silius Italicus. The elder Trajan distinguished himself under Nero in the Parthian and Jewish wars, and commanded the tenth legion at the storming of Joppa; services for which he was rewarded by Vespasian with the consulship and the government of Asia. He appears to have survived his son's accession, and to have been deified upon his death.† His greater son was born at Italica, on the 18th of September, probably in A.D. 52, so that he had completed his forty-fifth year at his accession. ‡ Trained to arms under his father's eye, he served through the campaigns in the East; and it was probably no great loss to the future prince, that his constant presence in the camp left him little leisure to cultivate the rhetorical pursuits then in favour at Rome. "Modesty or discretion led him to conceal deficiencies rather than affect accomplishments he did not possess;" but he could both speak and write well enough for all the requirements of his station. The straightforward utterance of the soldier, as the occasion required, is described as "talking, rather than speaking; " his extant letters are effective, if not ornate; and he had a sufficient taste for literature to write memoirs of his own time, especially of the The ruins of this city stand about six miles N. W. of Seville, on the opposite side of the Guadalquivir. It flourished under the Goths by the name of Talika, till a change in the bed of the river drove its inhabitants to migrate to Seville; and this, though a far more ancient city under the name of Hispalis, recognized Italica as in some sense its parent, by applying to its remains the name of Old Seville (Sevilla la Vieja). + An extant medal bears the inscription "DIVI NERVA ET TRAJANUS PATER. There is, however, much doubt about his exact age; and Dion makes him only forty-one. Dacian wars. These memoirs are lost: but we have more reason to regret the determination of Tacitus to postpone to his old age the design, which he never lived to complete, of illustrating in a full history the brief panegyric on Nerva and Trajan, which we have quoted from his "Agricola."* Trajan possessed the external advantages of a handsome countenance, a tall and noble figure, and a commanding presence, to a degree rarely surpassed by any sovereign. Like Vespasian, he retained in his social habits and pleasures something of the soldier's coarseness; but he could always rise from his sensual indulgences, bringing undiminished power to his duties in the council or the field. After his consulship in A.D. 91, he obtained commands first in Spain, and afterwards in Lower Germany, where his quiet vigilance added to his military reputation, without exciting the envy of Domitian; and it was at Cologne that he received the news of his undisputed recognition by the Senate. In accepting the empire, Trajan fully recognized its new constitutional basis, and repeated the vow of Nerva, that no senator should suffer death during his reign. The tranquillity of Rome permitted him to remain a full year upon the Rhine, perfecting the defence of the frontier, and preparing to extend, if occasion should offer, the boundary of the empire. He planted the colony of Ulpia Trajana near the site of the old station of Castra Vetera; built a bridge across the Rhine at Mayence; and founded colonies beyond the right bank, one of them (Aqua) on the site of Baden-Baden. But his greatest and last work on this frontier of the empire, which he never revisited, was the mound and ditch which he drew from the Rhine to the Danube, to enclose that angle of outlying territory, which had received, for reasons formerly explained,† the name of Agri Decumates (the Tithed Lands). The Senate had already honoured him with the favourite imperial title of Germanicus, together with the tribunitian power; but he declined the appellation of Pater Patria, till he should have earned it by a life that approved itself to his fellow-citizens. His progress to Rome was marked by abstinence from all exactions from the provincials, and he entered the city with a studied absence of all pomp (A.D. 99). "His entry into Rome was a moral triumph. Martial, in a few graphic touches, brings vividly before us the man, the place, and the people. Pliny exerts himself to describe more elaborately the extreme condescension and affability of the prince, who deigned to approach the The date of Tacitus's death is unknown, but he appears to have survived † See p. 342. Trajan. |