[Sidenote:  A.D. 100 (a.u. 853)] [Sidenote:—­6—­] After spending some time in Rome he instituted a campaign against the Dacians; for he made their deeds the object of thought and was irritated at the amount of money they were annually getting.  He likewise saw that their power and their pride were increasing.  Decebalus, learning of his advance, was frightened, since he well knew that formerly he had conquered not the Romans but Domitian, whereas now he would be fighting against both Romans and Trajan as emperor.

And Trajan had a great reputation for justice, for bravery, and for simple living.  He was strong in body (being in his forty-second year when he began to rule) [so that in every enterprise he toiled almost as much as the rest;] and his intellectual powers were at their highest, so that he had neither the recklessness of youth nor the sluggishness of old age.  He did not envy nor kill any one, but honored and exalted all without exception that were men of worth, and hence he neither feared nor hated one of them.  To slanders he paid very little heed and was no slave of anger.  He refrained equally from the money of others and from unjust murders. [Sidenote:—­7—­] He expended vast sums on wars and vast sums on works of peace; and while making very many most necessary repairs on roads and harbors and public buildings, he drained no one’s blood for these undertakings.  His nature was so noble and magnanimous that even upon the hippodrome he merely inscribed the statement that he had made it suitable for the Roman people when it had crumbled away in spots, and had rendered it larger and more beautiful.  For these deeds he was better satisfied to be loved than honored.  His meetings with the people were marked by affability and his intercourse with the senate by dignity.  He was loved by all and dreaded by none save the enemy.  He joined people in hunting and banquets, and in work and plans and jokes.  Often he would make a fourth in somebody’s litter, and sometimes he would enter persons’ houses even without a guard and make himself at home.  He lacked education in the exact sense,—­book-learning, at least,—­but he both understood and carried out its spirit, and there was no quality of his that was not excellent.  I know well enough that he was given to wine and boys, but if he had ever committed or endured any base or wicked deed as a result of this, he would have incurred censure.  As the case stood, he drank all the wine he wanted, yet remained sober, and his pursuit of pederasty harmed no one.  And even if he did delight in war, still he was satisfied with success in it,—­with overthrowing a most hostile element and bettering his own side.  Nor did the usual thing under such circumstances,—­conceit and arrogance on the part of the soldiers,—­ever manifest itself during his reign; with such a firm hand did he rule them.  For these reasons Decebalus was somewhat justified in fearing him.