Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/367

Rh N E R N E S 353 Paneg., 36). It was thus, as Pliny magniloquently says, that Nerva united the &quot; principate &quot; with &quot;freedom.&quot; No one probably expected from Nerva a vigorous administration either at home or abroad. But he seems to have set himself honestly enough to carry through such reforms as were either suggested by his own benevolent inclinations, or imperatively demanded by the necessities of the moment. The economical condition of Italy evidently excited his alarm and sympathy. The last men tion of a &quot; lex agraria &quot; in Roman history is connected with his name, though how far the measure was strictly speaking a &quot; law &quot; is uncertain. Under the provisions of this &quot; lex,&quot; large tracts of land were bought up and allotted to poor citizens. The cost was defrayed partly from the imperial treasury, but partly also from Nerva s private resources, and the execution of the scheme was entrusted to commissioners (Dig., xlvii. 21, 3; Dio Cass., Epit., Ixviii. 2; Pliny, Ep., vii. 31; Corp. Inscr. Lat.,vi. 1548). This agrarian law was probably as shortlived in its effects as preceding ones had been, but a reform more lasting in its results was the provision of a regular maintenance at the public cost for the children of poor parents in the towns of Italy (Aur. Viet., Ep., 24), the provision being presum ably secured by imposing a yearly charge for this purpose on state and municipal lands. On coins of the year 97 Nerva is represented seated upon his curule chair and stretching out a helping right hand to a boy and a girl. The legend on the coins is &quot;tutela Italise&quot; (Eckhel, vi. 408; Marquardt, Staatsvenvaltung, ii. 138, note 6). Private individuals were also encouraged to follow the imperial example; and among those who responded was the younger Pliny, whose charitable institution in his own town of Comum seems to have followed directly on that of the emperor himself (Hermes, iii. 101 ; Pliny, Ep. ad T., 8). In the hands of Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, Nerva s example bore fruit in the institution of the &quot; alimentationes,&quot; the most genuinely charitable institution of the pagan world. These measures Nerva supplemented by others which aimed at lightening the financial burdens which already weighed heavily on the declining industry of Italy. The cost of maintaining the imperial postal system was transferred to the &quot; fiscus,&quot; from the same source apparently money was found for repairing the public roads and aqueducts, and lastly the lucrative but unpopular succession duty &quot; vicesima hereditatum,&quot; was so readjusted as to remove the grosser abuses connected with it (Pliny, Paneg., 37). At the same time Nerva did his best to reduce the overgrown expenditure of the state (Pliny, Ep., ii. 1). A commission was appointed to consider the best modes of retrenchment, and the outlay on shows and games was cut down to the lowest possible point. It was these efforts which earned for him the epithet &quot;frugalissi- mus&quot; (Pliny, Paneg., 51). Nerva seems nevertheless to have soon wearied of the uncongenial task of governing, and his anxiety to be rid of it was quickened by the dis covery that not even his blameless life and mild rule protected him against intrigue and disaffection. Early, apparently, in 97 he detected a conspiracy against his life headed by L. Calpurnius Crassus, but he contented himself with a hint to the conspirators that their designs were known, and with banishing Crassus to Tarentum. This ill-judged lenity provoked a few months later an intolerable insult to his dignity. The praetorian guards had keenly resented the murder of their patron Domitian, and now, at the instigation of one of their two prefects, Casperius ^Elianus, whom Nerva had retained in office, they imperiously demanded the execution of Domitian s murderers, the chamberlain Parthenius, and Petronius Secundus, ^Elianus s colleague. Nerva vainly strove to save, even at the risk of his own life, the men who had raised him to power, but the soldiers, disregarding his protests, brutally murdered the unfortunate men, and finally forced Nerva to propose a vote of thanks for the deed (Dio Cass., Epit., Ixviii. 4; Aur. Viet, Ep., 24). This crowning humiliation convinced Nerva of the necessity of placing the reins of government in stronger hands than his own. Following the precedent set by Augustus, Galba, and Vespasian, he resolved to adopt as his colleague and destined successor a younger and more vigorous man, and his choice fell upon M. Ulpius Trajanus, already well known as a distinguished soldier, and at the time in command of the legions on the Rhine. In October 97, in the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, Trajan was formally adopted as his son, and declared his colleague in the government of the empire (Pliny, Paneg., 8). For three months Nerva ruled jointly with Trajan (Aur. Viet., Ep., 24) ; but on January 27, 98, he died somewhat suddenly. He was buried in the sepulchre of Augustus, and divine honours were paid him by his successor. The verdict of history upon his reign is best expressed in his own words, &quot;I have done nothing which should prevent me from laying down my power, and living in safety as a private man.&quot; In the Rome of tc-day the memory of Nerva is still preserved by the ruined temple in the Via Alessandrina (il Colonacce) which marks the site of the Forum begun by Domitian, but which Nerva completed and dedicated (Suet., Dom., 5 ; Aur. Viet., 12). Authorities. Dio Cass., Epit., Ixviii. 1-4; Aurelius Victor, 12, and E2)it., 24; Zonaras, xi. 20; compare also Pliny, Epistolec and Panegyricus ; Tillemont, Histoire des Empercurs Romains ; Merivale, History of the Romans under the Empire ; H. Schiller, Gcschichte d. Kaiserzeit. (H. F. P.) NERVAL. See GERARD DE NERVAL, vol. x. p. 441. NERVOUS SYSTEM. See PHYSIOLOGY. NESSELRODE, CHARLES ROBERT (1780-1862), long foreign minister of Russia, was born at Lisbon, where his father was Russian ambassador, in December 1780. Like so many other Russian statesmen and soldiers, he was sprung from German ancestors settled in Livonia. He entered early upon a diplomatic career, and at the age of twenty-five was attached to the Russian embassy in Paris. When the alliance of Tilsit was breaking down, Nesselrode was recalled to St Petersburg, and during the events that followed Napoleon s invasion of Russia he rose high in the favour of the czar Alexander. From the time when Romanzoff, the advocate of a peace-policy, was dismissed, Nesselrode was employed in all the great diplomatic trans actions of his master. He was present, though not as a plenipotentiary, at the congress of Prague, and signed the treaty of Chaumont, in which the allies pledged themselves to continue the struggle against Napoleon, if necessary, for twenty years. In the negotiations as to the future of France, both in 1814 and 1815, he seems to have encouraged the czar in his policy of moderation. At the congress of Vienna his duties Avere shared by Capodistrias, and a certain rivalry existed then and afterwards between the two statesmen. In Capodistrias the czar found more sympathy both with his own earlier liberal tendencies and with his religious sentimentality. In the subsequent con gresses of Troppau and Laibach, when Metternich, as the champion of European conservatism, set himself to repress any sympathies that the czar might have for constitutional rule in Naples and for Greek independence, it was with Nesselrode that he allied himself ; Capodistrias, a Greek and a man of more modern ideas, was now treated as a dangerous person, and ultimately had to retire from office. Nesselrode followed the fluctuating and reactionary course of the czar s thoughts, and remained in favour till the death of Alexander in 1825. Nicholas kept him in office, and Nesselrode now promptly adapted himself to the more vigorous policy that suited his new master, especially XVII. - 45