Understanding Power and Post-Truth Politics in the Age of Nerva and Trajan

因此，我的论文的重点将是研究并建立一幅准确的政治图景，描绘出公元90年代多米提安皇帝（Emperor Domitian）的统治瓦解、涅尔瓦（Nerva）夺取政权、图拉真（Trajan）成为继承人的政治局势。通过理解其中的权力动态（谁掌管大权，控制多少人，他们对谁构成威胁，他们对谁构成威胁），我希望展示图拉真是如何将自己确立为涅尔瓦的继承人，开启“收养皇帝”时代的。这将通过仔细分析铭文和文凭证据来实现，随着新来源的发表，这些证据将继续扩大我们的理解，以及最近在两项研究中重新整理的涅尔瓦和图拉真的钱币证据，但尚未与叙事学术相结合。

The key focus of my thesis would therefore be to examine and establish as accurate a picture of the political situation through the 90s AD as Emperor Domitian's rule unravelled, Nerva seized power and Trajan emerged as the heir. By understanding the power dynamics at play (who held commands, over how many men, did they constitute a threat, to whom were they a threat) I hope to demonstrate how Trajan was able to establish himself as the heir to Nerva, ushering in the era of the "adoptive emperors". This will be achieved through careful analysis of epigraphic and diploma evidence, which continue to broaden our understanding as new sources are published, and the numismatic evidence for Nerva and Trajan which has recently been re-collated in two studies but not yet combined with the narrative scholarship.