Nervan-Antonine Dynasty
The Nervan-Antonine dynasty was a largely artificial one, chiefly built out more of adoption than blood relations, as in the Julio-Claudian or Flavian dynasties (the first Emperor of this dynasty was an elderly, childless man, from the noble Cocceii Nervae). The Nervan-Antonine dynasty produced the famous "Five Good Emperors", and the first non-Italian Roman Emperors, the Spaniards Trajan and Hadrian. The Nervan-Antonine dynasty also marks the first time that an Emperor was depicted with a beard (Emperor Hadrian), and one of the first times that a deceased Emperor was inhumed rather than cremated (Antoninus Pius). Note that the Nervan-Antonine Emperors adopted the regularised style Imperator Caesar NN. Augustus, whereas there had hitherto been considerable variation.
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