ABSTRACT
TECHNICALLY Trajan was already Emperor before Nerva’s death, since all of the imperial powers and prerogatives had been conferred upon him. He did not leave the Rhine and come to Rome immediately, but contented himself with writing a letter to the Senate promising that he would never execute a senator. Then he proceeded to the Danube. The details are vague, but apparently there were disturbances in Pannonia, where the Suebi had been giving trouble in Nerva’s reign, and a threat of disturbances from the Dacian King Decebalus. Trajan spent the winter of 98–99 on the Danube, and did not reach Rome until spring of the latter year. His modest entry into the city on foot is described in terms of enthusiastic exaggeration by Pliny, who witnessed it. Obviously his accession excited the liveliest expectations of the senatorial class at least. Before the reign was out all other classes in the State were also to be completely won over: Trajan re-knit the ties which Domitian had loosened.
