Nerva

/nerr"veuh/, n.

Marcus Cocceius /kok see"yeuhs/, A.D. 32?-98, emperor of Rome 96-98.

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I

in full Nerva Caesar Augustus orig. Marcus Cocceius Nerva

born с AD 35

died Jan. 28, 98

Roman emperor (96–98), first of the Five Good Emperors.

A member of a distinguished senatorial family, Nerva served twice as consul (71, 90). After an undistinguished career, he was chosen to succeed Domitian because of his age, dignity, and lack of children who would succeed him. He rejected Domitian's autocratic tyranny but completed Domitian's building projects and instituted his administrative and financial reforms. He adopted Trajan as his heir.

II

(as used in expressions)

Marcus Cocceius Nerva

Nerva Caesar Augustus

Caesar Nerva Traianus Germanicus

Caesar Divi Nervae Filius Nerva Traianus Optimus Augustus

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▪ Roman emperor

in full  Nerva Caesar Augustus , original name  Marcus Cocceius Nerva 

born AD 30

died end of January 98

      Roman emperor from Sept. 18, 96, to January 98, the first of a succession of rulers traditionally known as the Five Good Emperors.

      A member of a distinguished senatorial family, Nerva was distantly related by marriage to the Julio-Claudian house and had been twice consul (AD 71 and 90) when, on the assassination of the emperor Domitian, he became emperor. A number of elder statesmen emerged from retirement to help him govern the empire. The keynote of Nerva's regime was a skillfully propagandized renunciation of the terrorist means by which Domitian had imposed his tyranny. An agrarian reform measure and the last lex populi in Roman history were implemented in Italy. The one imaginative innovation commonly attributed to Nerva's government, the system of alimenta, or trusts for the maintenance of poor children in Italy, may have been the work of Trajan. In order to secure the succession, Nerva in 97 adopted and took as his colleague Marcus Ulpius Trajanus (Trajan), governor of one of the German provinces, who became emperor on Nerva's death.

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