and deeply
imbued with the same principles and tastes. He was a soldier born and
bred. No better representative of the true old hardy Roman type,
little softened either by luxury or education, had come to the head
of affairs since the days of Marius. The date of his birth was
probably 53 A.D. His training was almost exclusively military, but his
experience as an officer gave him an acquaintance with almost every
important province of the empire, which was of priceless value to him
when he came to the throne. For ten years he held a commission as
military tribune, which took him to many lands far asunder; then he
filled important posts in Syria and Spain. How much actual warfare
Trajan saw in those days we can hardly tell; he certainly went through
some severe service under his father's command against the Parthians.
By the year 89 he had achieved a considerable reputation. At that time
L. Antonius Saturninus headed a rebellion in Germany, which threatened
seriously to bring Domitian's rule to an end. Trajan was ordered in
hot haste from Farther Spain to the Rhine. Although he carried his
troops over that long and arduous march with almost unexampled
rapidity, he only arrived after the insurrection had been put down.
But his promptitude raised him higher in the favor of Domitian, and he
was advanced to the consulship in 91. Of the next five years of his
life we know nothing positively. It is not unlikely that they were
spent at Rome or in Italy in the fulfilment of some official duties.

When the revolution of 96 came, and Nerva replaced the murdered
Domitian, Trajan had conferred upon him one of the most important
posts in the Empire, that of consular legate of Upper Germany. An
officer whose nature, as the event showed, was interpenetrated with
the spirit of legality, was a fitting servant of a revolution whose
aim it was to substitute legality for personal caprice, as the
dominant principle of affairs. The short reign of Nerva really did
start the Empire on a new career, which lasted more than
three-quarters of a century. But it also demonstrated how impossible
it was for any one to govern at all who had no claim, either personal
or inherited, to the respect of the legions. Nerva saw that if he
could not find an Augustus to control the army, the army would find
another Domitian to trample the Senate under foot. In his difficulties
he took counsel with L. Licinius Sura, a lifelong friend of Trajan,
and in October, 97