[30 B.C.-96 A.D.] greater in antiquity than in our own day. We have seen what practical use the imperator made of this trenchant weapon. We have seen how the masses were pauperised; some hundreds of thousands of Roman citizens receiving bread without price. The largesses of Augustus are only comprehensible when one has fully grasped the position of the imperator as mulctor of nations. So long as all the productive nations of the world poured their earnings without equivalent into the imperial treasury, so long the citizen of Rome might live in idle luxury, taking no thought for a morrow, the needs of which were sure to be supplied by a paternal government. Not merely sustenance but amusement is supplied. Augustus sacrifices five thousand beasts in a single series of games; a band of elephants competes with an army of gladiators. Even a naval combat is arranged on an artificial lake near the city. And in the later day this phase of practical politics is developed to even larger proportions. Vespasian and Titus construct an amphitheatre-the famous Colosseum which seats eighty-five thousand spectators; and on a single occasion Titus rejoices the people with a series of combats lasting through a hundred days.

It is good to live in Imperial Rome-place of inexhaustible bounty, of unceasing entertainment. There is no need to work, for slaves by tens of thousands conduct all menial affairs. Indeed, there is no business for the free man but pleasure- the bath, the banquet, the theatre, and the gladiatorial games. Rome is a glorious city in this day. With her renovated Forum, her new Capitol, her triumphal arches, her stupendous Colosseum, she is a city of marvels. To her contemporary citizens it seems that she is on a pinnacle of power and glory from which time itself cannot shake her. Looking back from the standpoint of later knowledge it is easy to moralise, easy to understand that decay was eating out the heart of the nation, easy to realise that all this mock civilisation rested above the crater of a volcano. But we may well believe that very few contemporary citizens had the prevision to match our modern thought.

And, indeed, it must in fairness be admitted that the shield has another side. However unstable the form of government, there is something in material prosperity which up to a certain stage, makes for intellectual eminence as well. And so in this first century of the Roman Empire there was no dearth of great men. The golden age of literature was the time of Augustus; the silver age was the time of his immediate successors. The poets and philosophers have left us such names as Valerius Maximus, Asinius Pollio, Seneca, Lucan, Valerius Flaccus, Martial, Quintilian, and Statius. History and science were never more fully represented than in the day of Paterculus, Mela, Quintus Curtius, Florus, Pliny, Josephus, Suetonius, and Tacitus. A time which produced such men as these was not wholly bad. Unfortunately no future century of Roman history will be able to show us such another list.a

[96-180 A.D.]

Until philosophers are kings, and the princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, cities will never cease from ill-no, nor the human race, as I believe and then only will our state have a possibility of life, and see the light of day. The truth is, that the state in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is best and most quietly governed, and the state in which they are most willing is the worst. - PLATO.

NERVA (M. COCCEIUS NERVA), 96-98 A.D.

THE new emperor, who reigned less than two years (96-98), distinguished himself as much by his mild and clement spirit, as his predecessor had done by the opposite temper. He made it his principal task to concentrate the whole government in the hands of the senate. He could not accomplish this because it was necessary that the ruler should combine the qualities of a capable and dreaded general, and Nerva's reign shows how imperative it was for the ruler of the empire to be a soldier and leader. Nerva himself was only too soon convinced of the fact. The prætorians and the Roman populace, dissatisfied with the government of an old and serious-minded man, provoked disturbances throughout the whole of the first year; they were specially irritated because Nerva, in order to recoup the revenue, restricted the public games and sold the costly vessels and collections which Domitian's love of splendour had induced him to make.

Nerva soon saw that he was menaced with Galba's fate, that he was defied and his office held in contempt. He therefore determined, like Galba, to adopt an energetic man who stood high in public esteem as co-regent, and was far happier in his choice than Galba had been. When anarchy had reached its zenith in the capital, the emperor surprised the Roman people by naming a successor, chosen not from the senate, but from the army, and one who possessed the love of the soldiers in the highest degree. Ulpius Trajan, on whom his choice fell, was then at the head of the legions of the lower Rhine, and had not only distinguished himself by glorious deeds in war, but in Rome had once been greeted by the people almost as a god on account of his kingly form and heroic appearance. With the nomination of Trajan the disturbances promptly ceased, and the proud prætorians submitted without a murmur when the new co-regent ordered them to join him in Germany and attached them to other legions there.

Dion Cassius tells the story of Trajan's accession as follows:

[97-98 A.D.] "Nerva, seeing that he was despised on account of his advanced age, ascended to the Capitol and said in a loud voice: May the thing be fortunate and well-pleasing to the senate, and the Roman people as well as to myself! I adopt M. Ulpius Trajan.' After which he declared him Cæsar in the senate and wrote to him with his own hand (Trajan was commanding in Germany):

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May the Danubians expiate my tears under the stroke of thy darts.' "Thus Trajan became Cæsar, and afterwards emperor, though Nerva had relatives. But Nerva did not place his kindred before the good of the state; although Trajan was a Spaniard and not an Italian or even the son of an Italian, he was nevertheless adopted in spite of this, for to that day no foreigner had been emperor of the Romans; Nerva thought that it was a man's merit, and not his country which was the important question. He died after this adoption, having reigned one year, four months, and nine days; he had lived sixty-five years, ten months, and ten days.

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Trajan before attaining to the empire had had the following dream : It seemed to him that an old man clothed in the pretexta and adorned with a crown, in the fashion in which the senate is represented, marked his seal on him with a ring on the left side of the neck and then on the right. When he had become emperor he wrote to the senate with his own hand, saying amongst other things that he would not put to death nor brand as infamous any worthy man; and these promises he confirmed with an oath both at the time and subsequently. Having sent for Ælianus and the prætorian guards who had risen against Nerva, as if with the intention of making use of them, he rid himself of them. He had no sooner reached Rome than he made several regulations for the reformation of the state and in favour of worthy men, whom he treated with so much consideration that he granted funds to the cities of Italy for the education of the children whose benefactor he became. The first time that his wife Plotina entered the palace, having reached the top of the steps and turning towards the temple, she said, Such as I enter, so I would depart.' Throughout his reign she conducted herself in such a manner that no reproach could be made against her.”g

TRAJAN (M. ULPIUS TRAJANUS CRINITUS), 98-117 A.D.

By birth, as just noted, Trajan was a Spaniard, although his father had filled the office of consul in Rome. Not more than fifty years earlier it would have been intolerable to the Romans to obey a foreigner; but in Trajan's time a man's birthplace was no longer taken into consideration. So greatly had opinions and circumstances altered in consequence of the growing amalgamation of the empire into a single state.

Nerva died in the year after the appointment of his co-regent (Jan., 98). The latter, who at the time of his accession was in the prime of life, and reigned from 98-117, possessed all the qualities which the spirit of the times, the existing state of things, and the welfare of the empire required of a ruler. As a ruler he only committed a single error, he tried to extend the borders of the empire by conquest, and thus led the Romans once more along a path which they had abandoned since the time of Augustus, to the great benefit of the state. Trajan combined a lofty spirit with all the best qualities of a soldier. He had received a military training, and had spent the greater part of his previous life in camp; he was therefore lacking in conventional culture, the hardships of military service had given him health and

[98-101 A.D.]

strength, while a simple and hardy life had preserved the firmness and uprightness of his mind. By his unvarying regard for law and justice, for equality and civil virtue, for ancient custom, and for the reputation of the highest office in the state, no less than by his choice of subordinates and friends (amongst whom were two of the best writers of those days, Pliny the Younger and Tacitus) Trajan showed how little culture and learning was necessary, where such qualities existed, to enable a man worthily to take his place at the head of the empire.

His administration was exemplary, he scorned the arbitrary exercise of power, he let the law take its course, kept the departments of legislation and administration apart, and protected the provinces with a powerful hand against the oppression of officials. At his court he organised all things as they had been under Vespasian and Titus. Inspired by a ridiculous pride, Domitian had re-introduced the rigid court ceremonial of the time of Claudius and Nero; Trajan banished all ostentation and constraint from his environment and mode of life. He treated the nobles, his daily companions, as friends, returned their visits, expected them to come uninvited to his table, and granted free access to his person to every citizen who wished to present a petition.

In his interest in science and education, and in architecture, military roads, harbours, and other works of public utility, Trajan not only followed in the footsteps of Vespasian, but he did a great deal more than the latter. For instance, he opened a public library, which was called the Ulpian, after his own name, and remained the most important in the city of Rome during the whole of ancient times.

THE FIRST DACIAN WAR

Nothing in the course of Trajan's reign was of such great and far-reaching consequence as his unfortunate and erroneous idea of defending the empire by fresh conquests, and purifying morals by the revival of military ambition. From early youth he had been trained as a soldier and general; in his campaigns he had become acquainted with many lands and nations; he was equal to all the hardships of military service, and as emperor liked to share them with his soldiers; seldom mounting his horse on the march, but going on foot like his men.

Three years after his accession he began his wars of conquest, the scene of the first being Dacia on the lower Danube. As emperor he never thought of attempts on Lower Germany, although he had acted there as governor and general for ten years. The countries of the lower Danube, and after them the East, seemed to him better suited to prove to the world his capacity as a general. In Moldavia and Wallachia some immigrants of Thracian descent, amongst whom the Dacians were the most important, had leagued themselves together, some decades before, and with their combined. forces had attacked Roman Thrace. At the time when Vitellius and Vespasian were disputing the throne, they had been repulsed by the troops of the latter, on their way into upper Italy, by Thrace and Moesia, and Fonteius Agrippa, Vespasian's general and vice-gerent, had established a number of fortified camps on the Danube as a bulwark against them.

Under Domitian the tribes belonging to the Dacian league, with Decebalus at their head, again invaded the Roman Empire. They destroyed some fortresses, repulsed the Roman troops on several occasions, and wrought fearful havoc. Domitian himself twice marched to the Danube, but his

[101-103 A.D.] troops were defeated in most engagements. Suspicious as he was, he dared not entrust a capable man with the command of a considerable army, although immediately after the recall of Agricola from Britain he had a general who was in every respect qualified for such a struggle. The Dacians therefore not only remained unpunished, but continued their devastations, and Decebalus actually offered the Roman emperor terms of peace on condition that he should be paid a sum of money annually. Domitian agreed to these shameful terms, and the degenerate senate of Rome granted him the honours of a triumph as conqueror of the Dacians.

Trajan pretermitted the payment of tribute, and the Dacians again invaded Roman territory. He therefore betook himself to the Danube in person, in order to undertake the conduct of the war against them (101). He crossed the river, avenged the havoc wrought by the Dacians by far worse devastations in their own land, and defeated the troops of the enemy wherever they opposed him. In the third year of the war (103) the king of the barbarians was compelled to submit and accept the terms of peace dictated by Trajan.ƒ

Xiphilinush has preserved for us, from the works of Dion Cassius, some interesting details of this campaign, with incidental sidelights on Trajan's character. Trajan was led to undertake the campaign, he tells us, because he "bore in mind the conduct of the Dacians, was distressed at the tribute which they received every year, and perceived that their pride increased with their numbers. Decebalus was seized with terror at the news of his march; and indeed he knew well enough that it was not the Romans but Domitian whom he had previously conquered and that now he would have to fight against the Romans, and against the emperor, Trajan. For Trajan was distinguished in the highest degree by his justice, his courage, and the simplicity of his manners. He had a strong body, (he was fortytwo years old when he succeeded to the empire; so that he supported all fatigues as well as anyone,) and he had a vigorous mind, so that he was exempt both from the impetuosity of youth and from the slowness of age. Far from envying or belittling anyone he honoured all worthy men and raised them to high positions; for he neither dreaded nor hated any one of them. He gave no credit to calumnies and was in no way the slave of anger. He abstained alike from laying his hands on the property of others and from unjust murders.

"He spent much on war, much also on the works of peace; but the most numerous and necessary items of expenditure had for their object the repair of roads, harbours, and public buildings, while for none of these works did he ever shed blood. There was naturally such vastness in his conceptions and in his thoughts that having caused the Circus to be raised from its ruins and rendered finer and more magnificent than before, he set up an inscription stating that he had rebuilt it so that it might contain the Roman people.

"He desired to make himself beloved by his conduct rather than to receive honours. He brought mildness into his relations with the people and dignity into his bearing towards the senate; he was beloved by all and dreaded only by enemies. He took part in the hunts of the citizens, in their festivals, their labours and their schemes, as well as in their amusements; often he would even take the fourth seat in their litters, and he did not fear to enter their houses without a guard. Without being perfect in the science of eloquence he knew its methods and put them in practice. There was nothing in which he did not excel. If he loved war he contented himself with winning successes, crushing an implacable foe and increasing his own