.

We now enter upon the most pleasing period in the history of the Roman
Empire. During the next eighty years a general prosperity prevailed. The
emperors were all men worthy to command, and capable of giving
tranquillity to their vast dominions. Several of them were of the purest
morals, of high mental cultivation, and are still looked upon as
ornaments of the human race; and while they could not check the decline
of their people, these virtuous emperors prevented, for a time, the fall
of the Roman Empire.

Nerva, in order to elevate the condition of his people, purchased lands,
which he distributed among them, and he sought to make them feel the
necessity of labor and of self-dependence. But it was too late to reform
the manners of the indolent, licentious plebs, corrupted by the
indulgence of their tyrants. Nerva died of a fever, January 27, A.D.
98.

M. ULPIUS TRAJANUS, A.D. 98-117

Trajan, the first emperor who was not a native of Italy, was born at
Italica, in Spain, and was about forty years of age at the death of
Nerva. His memory was so much revered among the Romans, that, two
hundred and fifty years later, the Senate hailed the accession of the
new emperor with the prayer that he might be happier than Augustus,
better than Trajan. He was free from every vice except an occasional
indulgence in wine. His mind was naturally strong, his manners pleasing,
his appearance noble and imposing. He desired only to restore the simple
manners and virtuous habits of an earlier age.

Trajan, after his adoption by Nerva, entered upon his high office at
Cologne, and then traveled toward Rome. In A.D. 99 he entered that city
on foot, followed by a small retinue, and was received with general good
will. He abolished the trials for high treason, _judicia majestatis_,
which had made Rome so often a scene of terror, restored freedom of
speech to the Senate, revived the _Comitia_ for the election of
magistrates, and bound himself by oath to observe the laws. He punished
the principal informers, banishing many of them to the barren islands
around Italy, while he at once, by severe measures, reduced the
turbulent Praetorians to obedience. His wife Plotina, who was a woman of
excellent character, with her sister Marcina, revived by their virtues
the dignity of the Roman matron. The society of the city was purified,
and the family of the emperor offered an example of propriety that
produced an excellent effect upon the manners