I. Nerva and Trajan, 96–117 a. d.
Nerva and the Senate. Before assassinating Domitian, the conspirators had secured a successor who would be supported by the Senate and not prove inacceptable to the pretorians. Their choice was the elderly senator Marcus Cocceius Nerva, one of a family distinguished for its juristic attainments. He took an oath never to put a senator to death, recalled the philosophers and political exiles, and permitted the prosecution of informers. But he was lacking in force and did not feel his position sufficiently secure to refuse the demands of the praetorian guard for vengeance upon the murderers of Domitian. Therefore to strengthen his authority he adopted a tried soldier, Marcus Ulpius Traianus, the legate of Upper Germany. Trajan received the tribunician authority and proconsular imperium (97 A. D.).
The alimenta. Nerva’s administration benefitted Italy in particular. Not only were the taxes and other obligations of the Italians lessened, but the so-called alimentary system was devised in the interests of poor farmers and the children of poor parents. Under this system of state charity, sums of money were lent to poor landholders at low rates of interest on the security of their land. The interest from these loans was paid over to their respective municipalities and expended by them in supporting the pauper children. The scheme was perfected and extended by the succeeding princes.
An era of internal peace. With Nerva begins a period in the history of the principate that is characterized by amicable relations between the princeps and the Senate. The basis of this concord was the agreement by the successive emperors to acknowledge the freedom of senators from the imperial jurisdiction. There was no longer any question of an active participation by the Senate as a whole in the administration, nevertheless it continued to exercise its influence [pg 245]through the official posts reserved for senators. In addition to the establishment of these harmonious relations, the peaceful succession of a number of able rulers who were designated by adoption and association in the powers of the principate has caused this epoch to be regarded as one of the happiest periods of Roman history.
Nerva died in January, 98 A. D., after a rule of less than two years, and was succeeded by Trajan, who assumed office at Cologne.
Trajan’s character and policy. Trajan was a native of the Roman colony of Italica in Spain, and the first provincial to attain the principate. His accession is evidence not only for the degree of romanization in the Spanish provinces but also for the decline of the dominance of the strictly Italian element within the empire and the transformation of the Italian into an imperial nobility of wealth and office. The new princeps was above all things a soldier, and the desire for military glory was his chief weakness. At the same time he was an energetic and conscientious administrator, and showed a personal interest in the welfare of Italy and the provinces, as we see from his correspondence with the younger Pliny, governor of Bithynia in 111–113 A. D. He respected the rights of the Senate and repeated Nerva’s oath not to condemn one of that body to death.
The conquest of Dacia, 101–106 A. D. In the third year of his rule Trajan undertook the conquest of Dacia, for Domitian’s agreement with Decebalus was regarded as a disgrace and the existence of a strong Dacian kingdom was a perpetual menace to the Danubian frontier. Decebalus was still king of the Dacians and proved himself a valiant opponent, but in two well-conducted campaigns (101–102 A. D.) Trajan forced him to sue for peace. He was obliged to give up his engines of war with the Roman engineers whom he had received from Domitian, to acknowledge Roman overlordship and render military service to Rome. Trajan built a permanent stone bridge across the Danube below the Iron Gates to secure communication with the northern bank, and returned to Rome to celebrate his victory with a triumph. But Decebalus was not content to remain as a Roman vassal and made preparations to recover his people’s independence. In 105 A. D. he opened hostilities by an invasion of Moesia. However, Trajan hurried to the scene, secured the support of the neighboring tribes, and in the following year entered Dacia. His victory was complete, the capital of Decebalus was captured, the king took his own life, and such of the Dacians as did not abandon [pg 246]their country were hunted down and exterminated. Dacia was made a Roman province, and was peopled with settlers from various parts of the empire, particularly from Asia Minor. The new province was of importance both on account of its gold mines and its position as a bulwark defending the provinces to the south of the Danube. To commemorate his Dacian wars, Trajan erected a stone column, one hundred feet high, in the new forum which bore his name. The column, which is still in place, is adorned with a spiral band of sculptured reliefs that vividly trace the course of the military operations.
On other frontiers also Trajan strengthened or extended the boundaries of the empire. In 106 he annexed the kingdom of the Nabataean Arabs to the east of Palestine and Syria. From this was formed the province of Arabia. In Africa also the Romans occupied new territory, and secured it against Berber raids by creating new fortresses at Lambaesis and Timgad.
The Parthian war, 114–116 A. D. The peaceful relations which had existed between Rome and Parthia since the time of Nero were broken in 114 A. D. when the Parthian king Chosroes drove out the Armenian ruler, who had received his crown from Trajan’s hands, and set his own son Parthamasiris in his stead. Trajan at once repaired to the East and concentrated an army for the invasion of Armenia. Parthamasiris offered to acknowledge the Roman suzerainty over Armenia, but Trajan determined to effect a definite settlement of the eastern frontier by the permanent occupation of Armenia and, for strategic reasons, of Mesopotamia also. In 114 he effected an easy conquest of Armenia, and in the next year annexed Upper Mesopotamia. He now resolved to complete his success by the overthrow of the Parthian kingdom. Accordingly, in 116 A. D., he overran Assyria and made it a province, and then pressed on to the Persian gulf, capturing Seleucia, Babylon and the Parthian capital Ctesiphon on his way. From dreams of further conquests Trajan was recalled by a serious revolt in Mesopotamia which was only subdued with great effort, and in 117 A. D. Chosroes was able to reoccupy his capital. At the same time the eastern provinces were disturbed by a rising of the Jews, which began in Cyrene in 115 A. D. and spread to Cyprus, Egypt and Mesopotamia. Horrible massacres were perpetrated both by the Jews and their enemies, and large numbers of troops had to be employed before order was restored.
News of revolts in Africa and Britain, and of troubles on the Danubian border, led Trajan to set out for Rome. On the way he fell ill and died at Selinus in Cilicia on 8 August, 117 A. D.