springs of action. C. Suetonius Tranquillus was a diligent collector of anecdotes; his work contains no original thoughts or sentiments. M. Fabius Quintilianus, a Spaniard, a teacher of rhetoric, has left a valuable work on his art. The Natural History of C. Plinius Secundus is a vast repository of nearly all that was known on that subject at the time. The Letters of his nephew, the younger Pliny, exhibit a highly-cultivated mind and a most amiable disposition. CHAPTER III.* NERVA. TRAJAN. HADRIAN. AURELIUS. ANTONINUS. A. U. 849-933. A. D. 96-180. NERVA. - WAR. CASSIUS.-DEATH M. Cocceius Nerva. A. U. 849-851. A. D. 96-98. THE death of Domitian filled the senate with joy; the people appeared indifferent; the soldiers were anxious to avenge him. They were, however, without leaders, and they were finally induced by their prefects to acquiesce in the choice of the senate. The person on whom this choice fell was M. Cocceius Nerva, a senator of a consular family, and who had himself * Authorities: Dion Cassius, the Augustan History, and the Epitomators. borne the principal offices in the state. He was now in the sixty-fourth year of his age; he was a man of the most amiable temper, yet not devoid of energy and activity, but mild and clement even to a fault. To reverse the acts of his predecessor was the first care of Nerva. The banished were recalled, and their properties restored to them; accusations of treason were quashed; severe laws were enacted against delators; slaves and freedmen, who had accused their masters, were put to death. Nerva reduced the taxes, and made so many other beneficent regulations, that men expected a golden age under his mild domination. It was not long, however, before a conspiracy was formed to deprive the empire of this excellent prince, (97.) The head of it was a nobleman named Calpurnius Crassus, who, by lavish promises, solicited the soldiers to revolt. Nerva imitated the conduct of Titus on a similar occasion. He put the swords of the gladiators into the hands of the conspirators, as they sat with him at a public spectacle; and he contented himself with banishing Crassus to Tarentum. The prætorians, who longed to avenge Domitian, soon, however, found a leader in their commander, Ælianus Casperius; and they besieged the emperor in his palace, demanding the lives of those who had slain his predecessor. Nerva, it is said, showed outward marks of fear; but he acted with spirit, and refused to give them up, stretching out his neck for the soldiers to strike off his head, if they wished. But all availed not; he was forced to abandon them to their fate; and Petronius and Parthenius were slain, the latter with circumstances of great barbarity. Casperius even forced the emperor to thank the soldiers, in presence of the people, for having put to death the worst of men. This insolence of the prætorians proved advantageous to the state. Nerva saw the necessity of a more vigorous hand to hold the reins of empire. More solicitous for the welfare of his country than the elevation of his family, he passed over his relations, and fixed on M. Ulpius Trajanus, the commander of the army of Lower Germany, to be his adopted son and successor. On the occasion of a victory being gained over the Alemans, in Pannonia, he ascended the Capitol, to deposit there the laurel which had been sent him according to usage, and he then, in presence of the people, declared his adoption of Trajan, to whom he shortly after gave the titles of Cæsar and Germanicus, and then that of emperor, with the tribunitian power, thus making him his colleague. The good emperor did not long survive this disinterested act. He died in the beginning of the following year, (98,) regretted by both senate and people; and his ashes were deposited in the monument of Augustus. M. Ulpius Trajanus was born at a town named Italica, near Seville, in Spain. He early devoted himself to a military life, and served as a tribune under his father, as it would appear. He was afterwards prætor and consul; after his consulate, he retired to his native country, whence he was summoned by Domitian, to take the command in Lower Germany. Trajan had all the qualities of mind and body that form the perfect soldier. He was rigid in discipline, but affable in manner; hence he possessed both the love and the respect of his men, and the tidings of his adoption to the empire were received with joy by all the armies. He received at Cologne the account of the death of his adoptive father; but, instead of proceeding to Rome, he remained till the following year, regulating the affairs of the German frontier, and enforcing discipline in the army. During this time, he summoned to his presence Casperius and the mutinous prætorians, and punished them for their insolence to the late emperor. At length, (99,) he set out for Rome, where he was received with unbounded joy. He made his entry on foot, and ascended the Capitol, and then proceeded to the palace. His wife, Plotina, who was with him, turned round as she was going up the steps, and said aloud to the people, "I enter here such as I wish to go out of it." She kept her word; for her influence was exerted only for good as long as she lived. Trajan remained for nearly two years at Rome, occupied in the arts of peace. His only object seems to have been the promotion of the happiness of those over whom he ruled. The senate enjoyed the highest consideration; the prince, like Vespasian and Titus, lived on terms of the most cordial intimacy with its members; and the best men of the times were ranked as his friends. Justice was administered with impartiality; the vile brood of delators was finally crushed; oppressive taxes were reduced or abolished; the greatest care was taken to secure a regular supply of food to the people. But the military genius of the emperor could not long brook inactivity, and he seized an early occasion of engaging in war with the Dacians. He observed that the power of this people was on the increase; he disdained to pay the tribute conceded by Domitian; and Decebalus had, it is further said, entered into relations with the Parthians. Trajan, therefore, crossed the Danube (101) at the head of a large army; the Dacians gave him battle, but were defeated with great slaughter; the Romans also suffered so severely, that the emperor had to tear up his own garments to make bandages for the wounded. Decebalus sent his nobles in vain to solicit peace; the emperor and his generals pushed on their successes; height after height was won; the Dacian capital, named Zermizegethusa, was taken, and Decebalus was at length obliged to consent to receive peace on the terms usual in the days of the republic; namely, the surrender of arms, artillery, and deserters, the dismantling of fortresses, the abandonment of conquests, and an offensive and defensive alliance with Rome. Trajan, having left garrisons in the capital and some other strong places, returned to Italy, and triumphed, taking the title of Dacicus. Decebalus, though he submitted for the present, was preparing for future war; he collected arms, received deserters, and repaired his fortresses. He invited his neighbors to aid him, showing that if they suffered him to be destroyed, their own subjection would inevitably follow. He thus induced many to join him; and he made war on some of those who refused. War being therefore again declared against the Dacian prince, (104,) Trajan put himself at the head of his army, and fixed his head-quarters in Mosia. Here he occupied himself in raising one of his most magnificent works, a bridge of stone over the Danube. It consisted of twentyone arches, each one hundred and seventy feet in span, the piers being one hundred and fifty feet in height, and sixty in breadth. A castle was built at either end, to defend it; and, when it was completed, Trajan passed over the river, (105.) No great action seems to have ensued; but the troops of Decebalus were routed in detail, and his fortresses *The site of this bridge, which was destroyed by Hadrian, is unknown. It is supposed to have been between Visninac and Widin. captured one after another. Seeing all hope gone, the brave but unfortunate prince put an end to himself. Dacia was then reduced to the form of a province, and numerous Roman colonies were established in it. On his return to Rome, (106,) where he found numerous embassies, even one from India, awaiting him, Trajan celebrated his second triumph; after which he gave games that lasted one hundred and twenty-three days, in which 11,000 animals were slaughtered, and 10,000 gladiators fought. The warlike spirit of Trajan could not remain at rest; and he soon undertook an expedition to the East. The pretext was, that the king of Armenia had received his diadem from the Parthian monarch instead of the Roman emperor; the real cause was Trajan's lust of military glory. The condition of the Parthian empire at this time was favorable to his views; it was verging fast to its decline, and was torn by intestine convulsions, the sure forerunners of national dissolution. The Armenian king at this time was named Exedares, probably a son or grandson of Tiridates. Chosroës, the Parthian king, however, deposed him, and gave the kingdom to Parthamasiris, his own nephew, when he found that Trajan was on his way to the East, and despatched an embassy, (which met the emperor at Athens,) bearing presents, and praying that he would send the diadem to the new prince. Trajan was not, however, to be diverted from his purpose; he merely replied that friendship was to be shown by deeds rather than by words, and continued his march for Syria. He reached Antioch in the first week of January, (107;) and, having made all the necessary preparations, he led his troops into Armenia. The various princes and chieftains of the country met him with presents; resistance was nowhere offered; and, at a place named Elegeia, Parthamasiris himself entered the Roman camp, and laid his diadem at the feet of the emperor. Perceiving that he was not desired to resume it, and being terrified by the shouts of the soldiers, who saluted Trajan Imperator, he craved a private audience; but, finding that Trajan had no intention of acceding to his request, he sprang out of the tent, and was quitting the camp in a rage, when Trajan had him recalled, and, from the tribunal, told him that Armenia belonged to the Romans, and should have a Roman governor, but that he was at liberty to go whither he pleased. His Armenian attendants were then detained as Roman subjects, and him |