Nerva
Nerva ruled Rome for sixteen months and established the succession principle that produced the best century of the empire. Born around AD 30 into a distinguished senatorial family of jurists, he held no military command and made his career entirely at court. He was close to Nero, who awarded him triumphal honours for his part in exposing the Pisonian conspiracy of AD 65 — a service that involved informing on senators. He was consul under Vespasian and again under Domitian, which indicates a considerable talent for surviving regimes that killed people like him. When Domitian was assassinated in September AD 96 by members of his own household, the conspirators had a successor ready. Nerva was elderly, childless, respectable and had no army behind him, which made him acceptable to the Senate and harmless to everybody. He released those imprisoned for treason, recalled exiles, returned confiscated property, swore not to execute senators, and prohibited prosecutions for maiestas. He also introduced a land distribution for the poor and the alimenta, a scheme lending money to farmers at low interest and using the return to feed poor children in Italy. His weakness was the army, which had been loyal to Domitian. In AD 97 the praetorian guard mutinied, besieged him in the palace, and forced him to hand over Domitian's killers and to thank them publicly for it. His response was the decisive act of his reign. He adopted Trajan, the popular commander of the armies of Upper Germany, as his son and heir — choosing on merit rather than blood. He died in January AD 98.
- Lived: 30 CE – 98 CE
- Nationality: Roman
- Roles: head_of_state
