senators on equal terms, and enjoyed in their company every kind of
recreation. All pomp was distasteful to him, and discarded by him.
There was practically no court, and no intrigues of any kind were
possible. The approach to his house was free, and he loved to pass
through the city unattended, and to pay unexpected visits to his
friends. He thirsted for no senator's blood, and used severity against
the _delatores_ alone. There was but one insignificant conspiracy
against him during his whole reign.

Though not literary himself, Trajan conciliated the literary men, who
at all times had close relations with the Senate. His intimate, M.
Licinius, played an excellent Maecenas to his Augustus. In his efforts
to win the affections of Roman society, Trajan was excellently aided
by his wife Plotina, who was as simple as her husband, benevolent,
pure in character, and entirely unambitious. The hold which Trajan
acquired over the people was no less firm than that which he
maintained upon the army and the Senate. His largesses, his
distributions of food, his public works, and his spectacles were all
on a generous scale. The exhibitions in the arena were perhaps at
their zenith during his tenure of power. Though, for some unexplained
reason, he abolished the mimes, so beloved of the populace, at the
outset of his reign, he availed himself of the occasion of his first
triumph to restore them again. The people were delighted by the
removal of the imperial _exedra_ in the circus, whereby five thousand
additional places were provided. Taxation was in many directions
reduced, and the financial exactions of the imperial officers
controlled by the erection of a special court. Elaborate precautions
were taken to save Italy from famine; it is said that corn for seven
years' consumption at the capital was retained in the granaries.
Special encouragement was given to merchants to import articles of
food. The corporation of bakers was organized, and made more effective
for the service of the public. The internal trade of Italy was
powerfully stimulated by the careful maintenance and extension of the
different lines of road.

But the most striking evidence of Trajan's solicitude for his people's
welfare is found in his institution of the _alimenta_, whereby means
were provided for the rearing of poor and orphan children in Italy.
The method had been sketched out by Nerva, but its great development
was due to Trajan. The moneys allotted by t