The New Emperor's New Welfare Programme

Nerva wanted to ease the heavy tax burden domisian had saddled the empire with, while simultaneously expanding social welfare programmes. His quest for popularity led the empire into shaky financial territory that would only really be resolved by the sound policies of trajan. For the rest of his short reign, nerva would barely even try to exert influence over the legions and his relationship with the army could never be described as anything better than strained.