[Sidenote:--3--] Nerva ruled so well that he once remarked: "I have done nothing that could prevent me from laying down the imperial office and returning to private life in safety." When Crassus Calpurnius, a grandson of the famous Crassi, formed a plot with some others against him, he made them sit beside him at a spectacle--they were still ignorant of the fact that they had been informed upon--and gave them some swords, nominally to look at and see if they were sharp (as was often done), but really by way of showing that he did not care if he died that moment where he was. Aelianus Casperius, who was governor under him as he had been under Domitian, and had become one of the Pretorians, incited the soldiers to mutiny against him; his plan was to have them demand some persons for execution. Nerva resisted them stoutly, even to the point of baring his collar-bone and offering them his throat: but he accomplished nothing and those whom Aelianus wished were put out of the way. Wherefore Nerva, subjected to such profound humiliation because of his old age, ascended the Capitol and cried aloud: "To the good fortune of the Roman people and senate and myself I adopt Marcus Ulpius Nerva Trajan." Subsequently in the senate he designated him Caesar and sent a message to him, written with his own hand (Trajan was governor of Germany): "The Danaans by thy weapons shall requite my tears." [Footnote: From Homer's Iliad, Book One, verse 42.] [Sidenote:--4--] Thus did Trajan become Caesar and afterwards emperor, although there were relatives of Nerva. But the man did not esteem family relationship above the safety of the State, nor was he less inclined to adopt Trajan because the latter was a Spaniard instead of an Italian or Italiot, [Footnote: Dio means by _Italian_ one born in Italy, by _Italiot_ one who settles in Italy.] or because no foreigner had previously held the Roman sovereignty. It was a person's virtue and not his country that he thought needed examination. [Sidenote: A.D. 98 (a.u. 851)] Soon after this act he passed away, having ruled during the period of one year, four months and nine days. His life prior to that time [Footnote: Reading [Greek: proebebiochei] (Boissevain).] had comprised sixty-five years, ten months, and ten days. [Sidenote:--5--] Trajan, before he became emperor, had had a dream of the following nature. He thought that an old man in purple robe and vesture, moreover adorned with a crown, as the senate is represented in pictures, impressed a seal upon him with a finger ring, first on the left side of his throat and then on the right. When he had been made emperor, he sent a despatch to the senate written with his own hand, which stated, among other things, that he would not slay nor dishonor any man of worth. This he confirmed by oaths not merely at that time but also later.