BOOK XVIII.

SECT. I.

NERVA proclaimed and acknowledged emperor. Mildness

of his character and government, p. 3. He abolishes the law

relating to high treason, recals the exiles, and punishes in-

formers, 5. Pliny courted by Regulus, 6. He attacks Pub-

licius Certus, the base oppressor of Helvidius, 7. Nerva de-

prives Certus of the consulship which was designed him.

Nerva's extreme facility. Saying of Mauricus, 10. Auother

of Fronto. Nerva confirms by an edict all the gifts of his

predecessor, 11. Instances of his wisdom and goodness, 12.

He recals the pantomimes, 13. Virginius's third consulship

and death, 14. Sedition of the pretorians, who force Nerva

to give them up the murderers of Domitian, 16. Trajan's

adoption, 17. Nerva's death, 19.

Dis-

SECT. II. Trajan the best and greatest prince the Ro-

mans ever had. Divine honours decreed Nerva. Trajan's

letter to the senate, 29. The barbarians kept in awe.

cipline restored, 50. Trajan refuses the consulship. He

returns to Rome. His modesty on that occasion, 31. He

accepts the title of Father of his Country. His entry into

Rome, 32. He distributes a largess among the people, and

reckons his children as part of them, 33. He procures plenty

in Rome by the mildness of his government. Trajan's care

to remedy several calamities, 35. He clears Rome of the in-

famous tribe of informers. His care to prevent all abuses of

the revenues of the exchequer, 36. He moderates the tax of

the twentieth penny. His frugality makes him rich. Merit

esteemed and honoured by Trajan, 38. Noble speech of Tra-

jan to his pretorian prefect. His sentiments, when but a

private man, were the rule of his conduct when emperor,

39. He had friends, because he knew the value of friend-

ship. His confidence in Sura, 58. His friendship was

disinterested, 41. He was easy of access. An easy free-

dom reigned at his table, 42. Trajan fond of hunting,

43. Effects of the prince's good example, 44. The peo-

ple desire the expulsion of the pantomimes. Gymnastic

4

combats

War

combats suppressed at Vienne, 45. Trajan protects the arts

and sciences. His moderation with respect to the possessions

of private men, 46. He sells, or gives away, several of the

imperial palaces. Instead of building for himself, he re-

serves his magnificence for public structures, 47. Plain and

strong demonstrations of the public regard and veneration

for Trajan. He prefers them to all extraordinary honours,

48. The surname of BEST given him. Acclamations of the

senate and people full of tenderness and affection, and well

deserved by a thousand instances of wisdom and goodness, 51.

The affair of Marius Priscus, 57. The affair of Classicus.

Pliny's consulship and panegyric, 58. Largius Macado,

an ancient pretor, murdered by his slaves, 59. Beginning

of Adrian's elevation, by his marriage with Sabina, the

daughter of Trajan's nephew, 60. Trajan's fourth consul-

ship, 61 Adrian appointed questor to the emperor.

with the Dacians, 62. Their king sues for peace and ob-

tains it, but on very hard terms, 63. Trajan's triumph.

Combats of gladiators. The pantomimes reinstated, 64. Two

years of peace. Trajan applies himself to the cares of go-

vernment. The death of Frontinus. His character and

works, 65. Pliny succeeds him in the dignity of augur, 66.

The custom of choosing magistrates by ballot, introduced by

the senate, 67. Bribery checked. Candidates for offices

obliged to have landed estates in Italy. Revival of the an-

cient ordinances by which advocates were forbidden to receive

any thing from their clients, 69. Sundry affairs judged by

Trajan with great equity and penetration, 71. Trajan's

modesty, and engaging affability at table, 73. The port of

Centum Cella. Port of Ancona. Pliny sets out for his go-

vernment of Pontus and Bithynia, 74. Pliny's letter to

Trajan concerning the Christians, 75. Trajan's answer,

78. Persecution of the church under Trajan. Pliny's death.

His character, taken from his own letters, by M. Rollin, 79.

Remarkable instance of Pliny's probity, 80. Friendship

between Pliny and Tacitus. Tacitus seems to have outlived

Pliny. The order of his works, 83. His birth and life, so

far as we know of them, 84. Death of Silius Italicus. 4

short sketch of his life, 85. Death of Martial. Juvenal

wrote most of his satires in Trajan's reign, 86. Death of

the informer Regulus. Instances of his audaciousness and

villany, 87. A child of thirteen years of age wins the prize

for poetry, 91.

SECT. III. Trajan's second war against the Dacians.

Causes of the rupture, 92. Decebalus, alarmed at Trajan's

preparatives,