Kindly genii, proclaiming freedom and peace, hovered over Rome, the long-suffering city. The next day, two hours after sunrise, Marcus Cocceius Nerva made his solemn entrance, amid the enthusiastic shouts of the multitude; and before the sun had sunk on the second day, he had accomplished that grand change, which altered the course of the world’s history, and secured to the Roman Empire for many years the benefits of justice and liberty. The venerable Emperor, in order not to leave his dominions a prey to fresh political convulsions in the event of his death, solemnly adopted the Hispanian, Ulpius Trajanus, as his son, before the assembled Senate,[180] and with the consent of that illustrious body, appointed him his successor on the throne of Rome.
“I know, my beloved son,” so the old Emperor addressed him, “that you will accept this gift from your venerable father, and this highest of all honors at the hands of the Roman Senate and people with a due sense of gratitude. You will not be overbearing in the possession of power, any more than you were servile when, at any moment, you might have fallen a victim to the miscarriage of a noble cause, You will not let yourself be befooled by flatterers, for you yourself have never learnt to flatter. You will acknowledge, that all your dignity and power emanate from the sovereign will of the people; that you rule only because your country bids you rule; that you are not called to be the tyrant, but the servant of the State.”
So spoke Nerva, and Trajan bowed his head with a grave conviction of duty, and accepted the responsible honor.—Trajan, that noble, moderate and just man,[181] whom the verdict of posterity has, with singular unanimity, pronounced to be the best of all the emperors of Rome.
At the same hour, when Marcus Cocceius Nerva was returning with Trajan from the heights of the Capitol to their residence in the Palatium, two men, each solitary and in the plainest dress, were turning their back on the Eternal City.
One of them, Barbillus, the priest of Isis, stole away, carefully disguised, to Antium, where he was met by an accomplice, who had in his charge all the treasure he had been able to collect in his haste. From thence he purposed to reach Alexandria by sea, and so elude the wrath of Cinna, who was now all-powerful and Cocceius Nerva’s closest friend. But the ship was wrecked, and a week later the body of the great magician was cast on shore near Messana.
The other of the two men was Eurymachus, who took the road to Ostia. Lycoris, who had given up all luxury and splendor and had had herself baptized, had anticipated all that Quintus had intended to do for him; she had bought Eurymachus from the heirs of Stephanus, had set him free and had provided him amply for a journey to Gaul. Thus, after all his trials and struggles, he set forth with renewed energies, to be the apostle of the Nazarene creed in the remotest frontiers of the Empire.
THE END.
Footnotes
[1] “Enough!” was attached to the base of a portrait bust. See Suet. Dom. 13, where it is true, the “enough” refers to the excessive quantity of triumphal arches and statues, the emperor ordered to be erected everywhere. Inscriptions similar to those quoted in our chapter were, however, by no means rare in all times.
[2] A Centurion had raised the standard of revolt on the germanic frontier. See Dio Cass. LXVII, 11: About this time Antonius, governor of Germany, rebelled against Domitian, but was defeated and slain by Lucius Maximus.