A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1168 NERVA. NERVA.
gated with his wife to Tarentum, and that the the defeat of the Illyrian army, and the capture of
senate blamed the emperor for his leniency; but Gentius, and the conquest of Illyricum. In B. c,
Nerva had sworn at the commencement of his 167, he was one of the six praetors, with the proreign that he would put no senator to death, and he vince of Hispania Ulterior. Drumann concludes
kept his word. that he did not go to his province, because at the
The feebleness of the emperor was shown by a close of B. c. 167 he was one of the commissioners
mutiny of the Praetorian soldiers, who were either appointed to carry back the Thracian hostages,
urged on by their Praefectus, Aelianus Casperius, which reason is not quite conclusive. (Liv. xlv.
or had bribed him to support them. The soldiers 3, 16, 42.)
demanded the punishment of the assassins of 2. A. LICINIUS NERVA is called the brother of
Domitian, which the emperor refused. Though Caius by Drumann, which is possible, but no proof
his body was feeble, his will was strong, and he is alleged. He was a tribunus plebis, B. c. 178,
offered them his own neck, and declared his readi- and be proposed that the consul, A. Manlius Vulso,
ness to die. However, it appears that the soldiers should not hold his command among the Istri beeffected their purpose, and Nerva was obliged to yond a certain day, the object of the tribune being
put Petronius Secundus and Parthenius to death, to bring Manlius to trial for misconducting the
or to permit them to be massacred by the soldiers war. (Liv. xli. 10.) In B. c. 171 Nerva was one
(Plin. Panegyr. c. 6; Aur. Vict. Epit. 12; Dion of three commissioners sent to Crete to get archers
Cass. lviii. 3). Casperius, it is said, carried his for the army of the consul P. Licinius Crassus, and
insolence so far as to compel the emperor to thank in B.C. 169 he was sent with others into Macethe soldiers for what they had done. donia to examine and report on the state of the
Nerva felt his weakness, but he showed his Roman -army there, and the resources of king Pernoble character and his good sense by appointing seus. In B. c. 166, he was a praetor, with one of
as his successor a man who possessed both vigour the Hispaniae as his province. (Liv. xlii. 35, xliv.
and ability to direct public affairs. He adopted as 18, xlv. 44.)
his son and successor, without any regard to his 3. A. LICINIcs NERVA, probably the son of the
own kin, M. Ulpius Trajanus, who was then at praetor of B. C. 166. According to Dramann he
the head of an army in Germany, and probably on was praetor in B. C. 143, and in B. c. 142 governor
the Lower Rhine. It was about this time that of Macedonia, when his quaestor, L. Tremellius,
news arrived of a victory in Pannonia, which is defeated a Pseudoperseus, or a Pseudophilippus,
commemorated by a medal, and it was apparently for there seems some uncertainty about the name,
on this occasion that Nerva assumed the title of and a body of 16,000 men in arms. Nerva reGermanicus. He conferred on Trajan the title of ceived on this occasion the title of imperator. (Liv.
Caesar and Germanicus, and the tribunitian power. Epit. 53; Eutrop. iv. 15.)
Trajan was thus associated with Nerva in the 4. C. LICINIUS NERVA. His precise relationgovernment, and tranquillity was restored at Rome. ship to the preceding is unknown. He is menIn the year A. D. 98, Nerva and Trajan were con- tioned by Cicero (Brut. 34), and contrasted with
suls. The emperor died suddenly on the 27th of L. Bestia, whence Meyer concludes that he nmay
January, in the sixty-third year of his age, ac- have been Bestia's colleague in the tribuneship.
cording to Victor; but according to Dion, at the Cicero calls him a bad man, but not without some
age of sixty-five years, ten months and ten days. eloquence.
Eutropius incorrectly states that he was seventy- 5. LICINIus NERVA, is known only from the
one. Victor records an eclipse of the sun on the day coins as a quaestor of Decimus Brutus, in the war
of Nerva's death, but the eclipse happened on the before Mutina. (Drumann, Geschicte Romss, vol.
21st of March, A. D. 98. iv. p. 19, No. 85.)
The body of Nerva was carried to the pile on 6. P. LICINIus NERVA, in B. C. 103, was prothe shoulders of the senators, as that of Augustus praetor in Sicily at the time when the second Serhad been, and his remains were placed in the vile War broke out. The senate had made a desepulchre of Augustus. Nerva received the honour cree that no free person of those nations which had
of deification. (The authorities for the reign of alliance and friendship with Rome should be enNerva are contained in Tillemont, Histoire des Em- slaved, and it was alleged that the Publicani had
pereurs, vol. ii., who has made some use of the seized and sold many as slaves, probably because
doubtful authority of the Life of Apollonius by Phi- they did not pay the taxes. Nerva published an
lostratus; Dion Cass. lib. lxviii. with the notes of edict that all persons in Sicily who were entitled
Reimarus; Aurelius Victor. ed. Arntzeniss; and to the benefit of the decree should come to Syracuse
C. Plilius, Panegyricus, ed. Schaefer.) [G. L.] to make out their case. Above eight hundred
persons thus recovered their freedom, but those
who held persons in slavery, fearing that the mat-.
ter would go further, prevailed on Nerva not to
-Z e m l4Bl_ t128i $allow any further claims of freedom to be made, to
i* which he assented, and a rising of the slaves was.^^^ aathe consequence. This war lasted four years, and
was ended by the proconsul Aquillius. The lhistory of this rising is told circumstantially by Diodorus (xxxvi.; Excerpts by Photius, Cod. 244).
COIN OF THE EMIPEROR NERVA. The praetor by treachery gained some advantage
over the slaves, and the Roman troops after this
NERVA, LICI'NIUS. 1. C. LicINIUS NERVA, success retired to their quarters. But the disturba son of C. Licinius Nerva, of whom nothing is ance soon broke out, and it assumed the form of a
known. Nerva the son was one of the legati regular war under Athenion. L. Licinius Lucullus,
who, in B. C. 168, brought the news to Rome of the- father of Lucullus, the vanquisher of Mithri