d since the conclusion of
this remarkable treaty, the Dacian prince had immensely strengthened
the approaches to his kingdom from the Roman side. He had also
equipped and drilled his formidable army after the Roman fashion. It
was impossible for a soldier like Trajan to endure the conditions
laid down by Domitian; but the conquest of Dacia had become one of the
most formidable tasks that had ever confronted the Empire. Trajan, no
doubt, planned a war before he left the Danube for Rome late in 99.

The arrival of the emperor had been awaited in the capital with an
impatience which is expressed by Pliny and by Martial. All that had
happened since Trajan's elevation to the throne had raised high at
Rome the hope of a prosperous and glorious reign. As he entered the
city and went on foot to the Capitol, the plaudits of the people were
unmistakably genuine. During his stay in the city he riveted more
firmly still the affections both of the Senate and of the people. The
reconciliation of the Empire with liberty, inaugurated, as Tacitus
says, by Nerva, seemed now to be securely achieved. Trajan was
absolutely open and simple, and lived with men at Rome as he had lived
with his soldiers while on service. He realized the Senate's ideal of
the citizen ruler. The assurance that no senator should suffer was
renewed by oath. All the old republican formalities were most
punctiliously observed--even those attendant on the emperor's election
to the consulate, so far as they did not involve a restoration of the
old order of voting at the comitia. The veneration for republican
tradition is curiously attested by the reproduction of many republican
types of coin struck by senatorial officers.

Trajan seized every opportunity for emphasizing his view that the
_princeps_ was merely the greatest of the magistrates, and so was not
above but under the laws. He was determined, he said, to be to his
subjects such a ruler as he had desired for himself when a subject.
There is a pretty story to the effect that he handed the commander of
the praetorians his sword, and said, "Use it for me if I do well, but
against me if I do ill." Martial, who had called Domitian his lord and
his god, now cried, "In him we have no lord, but an imperator!" Real
power and influence were accorded to the Senate, which had now, by the
incorporation of members whose origin was provincial, become in a
manner representative of the whole empire. Trajan associated with the