The Roman Emperor's Reluctance to Execute the Assassins

Nerva spent his life behind the scenes, helping to find problems and running small meetings. He allowed the senate to run a muck prompting one member to observe that the tyranny of domitian was perhaps superior to the anarchy of nerva. The emperor simply did not have a firm executive mind set. For the pretorians who had been ticked off since nerva refused to properly punish domitian's assassins, the situation was fast becoming untenable. So in october 97, led by their new prefect, caspirius alianus, the pretorians laid siege to the imperial palace,. They breached the meagre non pretorian defences, took the emperor a hostage