Did Nerva have failures

Nerve’s three

major weaknesses were the circumstances of his proclamation as

emperor, his desire to be a benign rule and the fact that he was

childless. His predecessor, emperor Domitian was assassinated

because he was a tyrannical ruler who instituted many treason

trials against his opponents. Yet, Rome remained deeply divided.

Despite many people hating Domitian, there were still many people

who supported him. Nerva failed to deal with this situation.

Nerva was

proclaimed emperor by the senate in haste, within hours of the news

of the assassination of Domitian to prevent a civil war. He might

have been considered a safe choice because he was old and

childless. He lacked widespread support in the empire. Despite the

fact that many senators suffered with Domitian’s many treason

trials, there still was a pro-Domitian faction in the senate.

Therefore, Nerva’s attempts to involve the senate in his government

were only partially successful, even though he stopped the treason

trials, returned the property confiscated by Domitian to its

owners, released the people who had been imprisoned and gave

amnesty to those who had been exiled.

To gain

support among the people Nerva gave a sum of money to each Roman

citizen, granted a large number of plots of land for the poor,

exempted people from the inheritance tax and made loans to the rich

conditional to paying an interest of 5% to the local council for

the support of the needy. However, the expenses that this

generosity involved got the treasury into trouble.

To appease

the Praetorian (imperial) Guard, Nerva gave them a generous

donation and sacked their head, who had been involved in Domitian’s

assassination. However, support for Domitian was still strong in

the army and the Praetorian Guard considered his measures

insufficient. They demanded the execution of the assassins, but

Nerva refused.

In his

efforts to be a benign ruler, Nerva allowed the senate to continue

to prosecute those who had been Domitian’s informers. This led to

anarchy as the senators acted in their personal interest and tried

to settle scores with personal enemies. It was said that Domitian’s

tyranny was preferable to Nerva’s anarchy. A plot against him was

discovered, but he refused to execute the conspirators. This met

the disapproval of the senate. As he had no heir, Nerva considered

adopting the governor of Syria to have him as his successor. This

was opposed by those who supported general Trajan. The Praetorian

Guard sieged his palace, took him hostage and forced him to meet

their demand to hand over the assassins of Domitian for execution.

His reputation was irreparably damaged. Nerva realised that without

the support of the senate and the army his position was untenable.

He adopted Trajan as his successor and shared power with him. Three

months later he had a stroke and died soon afterwards. His reign

lasted only just over 16 months.