| |
| 2. Conquest and Consolidation |
| |
| The conspirators, together with the praetorian prefects and certain senators, had arranged for M. Cocceius Nerva, an elderly senator from an old Roman noble family, to become emperor. Since Nerva and his three successors had no sons of their own, the principle of adoption prevailed in the succession, and what the senatorial tradition called the reign of the five good emperors—Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius—began. | 1 |
| |
| 96–98 |
| |
| Marcus Cocceius NERVA (b. 35) became emperor. Although favorable to the senate, Nerva had no military experience. The liability became apparent in 97 when the praetorian guard forced Nerva to execute Domitian's assassins. Nerva avoided a crisis by adopting the legate of upper Germany, Trajan, as his co-ruler and successor. Trajan remained in Germany until the death of Nerva on Jan. 27, 98. | 2 |
| |
| 98–117 |
| |
| Marcus Ulpius TRAIANUS (Trajan, b. 53), the descendant of an old Roman colonial family in Spain, was the first emperor born in the provinces. Trajan cultivated good relations with the senate but ruled independently of it. Continuing a policy of Nerva's, Trajan instituted a government program (alimenta) to support orphans in Italy. | 3 |
| |
| 101–107 |
| |
| In two hard-fought Dacian Wars (101–102 and 105–107), Trajan defeated Decebalus and annexed Dacia as a Roman province. Dacian gold financed building programs in Rome, including Trajan's Forum, with its sculptured column commemorating the war. | 4 |
| |
| 110, 111? |
| |
| Pliny the Younger went as a legate to reorganize the finances of the province of Bithynia. Curatores (overseers) were sent to supervise the troubled finances of various cities around the Empire. In Italy, the imperial fiscus advanced loans to municipalities to provide grain or money to poor children (alimentarii). | 5 |
| |
| 113–117 |
| |
| Parthian War. Trajan declared war on Parthia. Victories enabled Trajan to create the provinces of Armenia (114), Mesopotamia (116), and Assyria (117). He was, however, recalled from the Persian Gulf by a widespread revolt of the Jews and of the newly conquered areas. Both revolts were suppressed with great severity. In 117 Trajan was repulsed from the desert town of Hatra. He died at Selinus in Cilicia (June 22 or July 9) after having adopted on his deathbed (some suspected his wife Plotina of having invented the adoption) his ward and cousin, Hadrian, at the time legate of Syria. Trajan's conquests, though spectacular, were of no permanent value. | 6 |
| |
| 117–138 |
| |
| Publius Aelius HADRIANUS (b. 75), emperor. He was recognized as emperor by the senate on Aug. 11. Almost immediately he abandoned the new provinces across the Euphrates. Under him the appointment of equestrians rather than freedmen to the important posts in the imperial secretariat became regular. He spent most of his reign (121–126, 128–134) traveling through the provinces, where he erected many buildings. He especially favored the Greek cities, notably Athens. In Britain he built (122–127) 80 miles of road, ditches, and stone-wall from the Tyne to the Solway. In Numidia he completed the extensive permanent camp of the Third Augustan Legion at Lambaesis. | 7 |
| In the collection of taxes, the companies of publicani had given way to individual collectors (conductores) under municipal supervision. Like his predecessors, Hadrian lightened or remitted certain taxes. | 8 |
| |
| 131 |
| |
| The Praetor's Edict was definitively codified by the jurist Salvius Julianus under Hadrian's orders. Since no praetor could thereafter alter it, the extension of legal procedure by praetorian formulae ended. Senatorial decrees became only a confirmation of the imperial speech (oratio principis) that initiated them. The only source of law was now the edicts of the emperor. | 9 |
| |
| 132–135 |
| |
| The Jews of Judaea revolted upon the founding of a Roman colony (Aelia Capitolina) in Jerusalem and the dedication of a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus on the site of their temple. Their leaders were the rabbi Akiba and Simon Bar Kozebah. The suppression of the revolt all but depopulated Judaea and thereafter Jews could enter Jerusalem but once a year. This furthered the dispersion, or Diaspora, of Jews to other regions. Centers of Jewish learning continued in Babylon, where the great edition of the Talmud was prepared in the late 5th century. | 10 |
| |
| 138 |
| |
| Upon the death of his first choice for successor, L. Ceionius Commodus, Hadrian adopted (Feb. 25) the competent Titus Aurelius Fulvius Boionius Arrius Antoninus, who received the imperial powers and took the name Imperator Titus Aelius Caesar Antoninus. He, in his turn, had to adopt the young son of Commodus, L. Aelius Aurelius Commodus (later Lucius Aurelius Verus) and M. Annius Verus, henceforth called Marcus Aurelius Verus Antoninus. Hadrian died on July 10. | 11 |
| |
| 138–161 |
| |
| Titus Aurelius ANTONINUS PIUS (b. 86), who spent his reign in Rome, became emperor. For his filial piety in securing the deification of Hadrian from a hostile senate, he received the title Pius. | 12 |
| |
| 139–143 |
| |
| Quintus Lollius Urbicus, legate of Britain, suppressed a revolt of the Brigantes in Yorkshire and, along the temporary line of forts built by Agricola from the Forth to the Clyde, constructed a turf wall north of Hadrian's. This, however, was soon abandoned. | 13 |
| |
| |
