[He had sworn not to commit bloodshed and he confirmed his promise by his actions in spite of plots.  He was by nature not at all given to duplicity or guile or harshness.  He loved and greeted and honored the good, and the rest he neglected.  His age made him still more inclined to mildness.] When Licinius Sura died, he bestowed upon him a public funeral and a statue.  This man had attained such a degree of wealth and pride that he built a gymnasium for the Romans.  So great was the friendship and confidence [which Sura showed toward Trajan and Trajan toward him that although the man was often slandered,—­as naturally happens in the case of all those who possess any influence with the emperors,—­Trajan never felt a moment’s suspicion or hatred.  On the contrary, when those who envied him became insistent, Trajan] went [uninvited to his house] to dinner.  And having dismissed his whole body-guard he first called Sura’s physician and had him anoint his eyes and then his barber shave his chin.  Anciently the emperors themselves as well as all other people used to do this.  It was Hadrian who first set the fashion of wearing a beard.  When he had done this, he next took a bath and had dinner.  So the next day he said to his friends who were always in the habit of making statements detrimental to Sura:  “If Sura had wanted to kill me, he would have killed me yesterday.” [Sidenote:—­16—­] Now he did a great thing in running this risk in the case of a man who had been calumniated, but a still greater thing in believing that he would never be harmed by him.

So it was that the confidence of his mind was strengthened by his own knowledge of his dealings with Sura instead of being influenced by the fancies of others.

Indeed, when he first handed to him [Footnote:  Saburanus. (?)] who was to be prefect of the Pretorians the sword which the latter required to wear by his side, he bared the blade, holding it up said:  “Take this sword, to the end that if I rule well, you may use it for me, but if ill, against me.”

He also set up images of Sosia and Palma and Celsus, [Footnote:  L.  Publilius Celsus.]—­so greatly did he esteem them above others.  Those, however, who conspired against him (among whom was Crassus) he brought before the senate and caused to be punished.

[Sidenote:  A.D. 114 (a.u. 867)] Again he gathered collections of books.  And he set up in the Forum an enormous column, to serve at once as a sepulchral monument to himself and as a reminder of his work in the Forum.  The whole region there was hilly and he dug it down for a distance equaling the height of the column, thus making the Forum level.