General Notes

Event: Emperor of Rome Acceded BET 117 AND 138

Hadrian,

also spelled ADRIAN, Latin in full CAESAR TRAIANUS HADRIANUSAUGUSTUS, original name (until AD 117) PUBLIUS AELIUS HADRIANUS(b. Jan. 24, AD 76, Italica, Baetica? [now in Spain]--d. July10, 138, Baiae [Baia], near Naples [Italy]), Roman emperor (AD117-138), the emperor Trajan's nephew and successor, who was acultivated admirer of Greek civilization and who unified andconsolidated Rome's vast empire.

Early life.

The family of Hadrian came from southern Spain. They were not,however, of native Spanish origin but rather of settler stock.Hadrian's forebears left Picenum in Italy for Spain about 250years before his birth. Hadrian himself may have been born inRome. There is nothing particularly Spanish about Hadrian. Hebears the stamp of education in cosmopolitan Rome.

Hadrian's father died in 85, and the son was entrusted to thecare of two men: one, a cousin of his father, later became theemperor Trajan, and the other, Acilius Attianus, later servedas prefect of the emperor's Praetorian Guard early in Hadrian'sown reign. In 90, Hadrian visited Spain probably for the firsttime. At Italica he received some kind of military training andalso developed a fondness for hunting that he kept for the restof his life. Hadrian did not seem to care much for the life ofItalica. He remained there for only a few years, and, when hereturned to Spain as emperor, he avoided Italica altogether.

Rise to power.

When Trajan was consul in 91, Hadrian began to follow thetraditional career of a Roman senator, advancing through aconventional series of posts. He was military tribune with threeRoman legions. In about 95 he served with the Legion II Adjutrixin the province of Upper Moesia, on the Danube River, whence hetransferred in the next year to Lower Moesia (with the FifthMacedonica). Toward the end of 97, Hadrian was chosen to go westto Gaul to convey congratulations to Trajan, whom the agedemperor Nerva had just adopted and thereby designated hissuccessor. Trajan's ward now belonged to the governing circlesof the empire. Inevitably, hostility and envy awaited him. In 98Julius Servianus, his brother-in-law, attempted unsuccessfullyto prevent him from being the first to inform Trajan of Nerva'sdeath. Thereafter, the two men were probably never on cordialterms, for Servianus posed a constant threat to Hadrian'sposition.

The greatest single political figure behind the emperor Trajanwas the man who had masterminded his elevation, Lucius LiciniusSura. Hadrian enjoyed Sura's favour, and, as long as he wasalive, Hadrian prospered. Trajan's wife, Plotina, seems also tohave been close to Sura and a partisan of Hadrian. For a timeServianus could do no harm. Through Plotina's favour, Hadrianmarried Trajan's grand-niece, Vibia Sabina, in 100. In 101Hadrian was quaestor and in 102 served as Trajan's companion inthe Emperor's first war in Dacia on the Danube. In 105 Hadrianbecame tribune of the plebs and, exceptionally, advanced to thepraetorship in 106. No less exceptional than the speed ofpromotion was Hadrian's service as praetor while in the fieldwith the emperor during his second war in Dacia. In 107 he wasbriefly governor of Lower Pannonia. Then, in 108, Hadrianreached the coveted pinnacle of a senator's career, theconsulate. In 107 Licinius Sura had held that office for thethird time, an honour vouchsafed to very few. It was a cruelblow when Sura died at an unknown date immediately followingHadrian's consulate.

Hadrian's career apparently stopped for nearly 10 years. Otherpromising young Romans suffered a similar retardation at aboutthe same time. It would appear that a new political influence,opposed to Sura, Plotina, and Hadrian, dominated Trajan's courtafter Sura's death. Perhaps Servianus played some role. One factilluminates this otherwise obscure period of Hadrian's life: hewas archon at Athens in 112, and a surviving inscriptioncommemorating this office was set up in the Theatre of Dionysus.Hadrian's tenure is a portent of the philhellenism thatcharacterized his reign, and it suggests that in a time ofpolitical inactivity Hadrian devoted himself to the nation andculture of his beloved Greeks. Somehow, however, Hadrian's starrose again, and he returned to favour before the Emperor died.

One source says that Hadrian was an officer under Trajan duringthe Parthian wars at the end of his reign. In 117, when Trajanbegan his journey westward, Hadrian was left in charge of thecrucial army in Syria. Friends of Hadrian, whose careers hadbeen held up, can also be discovered in sensitive commands atthe same time, probably because Plotina and her associates hadregained Trajan's confidence. On August 9 Hadrian learned thatTrajan had adopted him, the sign of succession. On the 11th, itwas reported that Trajan had died on the way to Rome, whereuponthe army proclaimed Hadrian emperor. The sequence of events hasalways provoked suspicion of a conspiracy on Plotina's part, butthe truth will never be known. Certainly, it was Trajan who hadtaken the fateful step of entrusting the army of Syria toHadrian.

Policies as emperor.

Hadrian wrote to the Senate requesting honours for his adoptivefather and ratification of the army's proclamation; all this wasgranted. The new emperor began a slow return to Italy. He had tomake sure of the crucial provincial commands; it was alsoexpedient to have some dissidents rounded up at home before hisreturn and (he would be able to argue) on someone else's orders.Trajan's conquests in Armenia and Mesopotamia werequickly abandoned.

Acilius Attianus, as prefect of the Praetorian Guard, directedaffairs in Rome before Hadrian's return. He ordered the summaryexecutions of four senators of exalted, consular rank, all (itwould seem) threats to the security of Hadrian. This bloodyprelude to the new regime was unsettling, and Hadrian affirmedit was contrary to his will; he laid the blame on Attianus, justas he often blamed instructions of the dead Trajan for otherunpopular acts. When Hadrian reached Rome in the summer of 118,his position was reasonably stable. He courted popular sentimentby public largesse, gladiatorial displays, and a formalcancellation of debts to the state. Attianus, however, wasreplaced, and his colleague in the prefecture, SulpiciusSimilis, was also dismissed. Hadrian installed as prefects thedistinguished Marcius Turbo, a general to whom the new Emperorowed much, and Septicius Clarus, the patron of Suetonius thebiographer. Before many years had passed, both of these men hadfallen into disgrace. Hadrian was mercurial or possibly justshrewdly calculating in dispensing favours.

The new emperor remained at Rome for three years. In 121 he setforth on a tour of the empire, west and east, to inspect troopsand examine frontier defenses. He went to Gaul and Germany,thence to Britain in 122. From there he moved on to Spain andspent the winter in Tarraco, where he made arrangements forcoping with an uprising in Mauretania (Morocco). He next passedeastward, approaching Asia Minor (Anatolia) by the Aegean afteran overland trip through the Balkans. He quickly negotiated someproblems with the Parthians and then visited northwestern AsiaMinor. Returning to the west coast in 124, he sailed to Athensand finally reached Rome again in 125. This prolonged absencefrom the capital of the empire had its administrativejustifications. There had been disturbances in some provinces,and the Parthians had to be dealt with; there was a general needfor imperial supervision. Nevertheless, another motive impelledthe Emperor in his journeys, namely, an insatiable curiosityabout everything and everybody. The Christian writer Tertulliancalled him rightly omnium curiositatum explorator, an explorerof everything interesting. That curiosity was bred of a keenintellect and an anguished spirit. These together drove himinexorably, and by a roundabout path, to the Greek East. Afterhe left Spain early in 123, he never saw the western provincesagain. Hadrian soon came to look upon his reign as a newAugustan age. In 123 he began to style himself HadrianusAugustus, deliberately evoking the memory of his greatpredecessor; he announced a golden age on his coinage. The peacehe so much cherished was a latter-day Augustan peace, and hebequeathed to posterity a public statement of his exploits thatimitated the one left by Augustus.

Hadrian spent another three years in Rome, but in 128 he setforth again. After a visit to North Africa, he went to Athens,and from there he sailed to Asia Minor; he penetrated fareastward into Syria and Arabia. Crossing over into Egypt, heexplored the Nile; then, for the third time, he went to Athens.It is not certain whether Hadrian returned to Rome in 132 or alittle later; he was certainly there in May of 134, but by thena revolt in Judaea forced him abroad still another time. He wentto Palestine, not as a tourist but as a commander. That journeywas Hadrian's last.

The Emperor's travels show the man better than anything else andare marked by some of his most memorable achievements. Innorthern Britain he initiated the construction of thetremendous frontier wall that bears his name fromWallsend-on-Tyne to Bowness-on-Solway. At Lambaesis, inAlgeria, his rigorous inspection of the troops and his severestandards of discipline can be seen in a long inscriptionpreserving an address he made to the soldiers in 128. In Athens,the Emperor's benefactions were numerous. At the Athenians'request, he had their laws professionally redrafted, and hebrought to completion the massive temple of Olympian Zeus thatthe Peisistratid tyrants had begun more than five centuriesbefore. He created the Panhellenion, a federation of Greeks thatwas based at Athens, which gave equal representation to allGreek cities and thereafter played a conspicuous part in thehistory of Roman Greece. At the shrine of Delphi, Hadrian gavehis support to a building renaissance. The impact of all this onHadrian personally cannot be exaggerated. Like Augustus beforehim, he was initiated into the Greek mystery religion atEleusis, and, after the temple of Olympian Zeus was dedicated,he assumed the title Olympius.

The irrational element in Hadrian was important. He was an adeptin astrology, like many intelligent Romans of the time. He wasalso an aesthete who ascended Mt. Etna, in Sicily, and JabalAgra', near Syrian Antioch, simply to watch the sunrise. He hada lively sense of the past, preferring older writers to morerecent ones, favouring archaism for its own sake. Herevolutionized style in the empire by wearing a beard andsetting a precedent for generations of emperors.

In Bithynium-Claudiopolis (modern Bolu) in northwestern AsiaMinor, Hadrian encountered a languid youth, born about 110, bythe name of Antinoüs. Captivated by him, Hadrian made Antinoüshis companion. When, as they journeyed together along the Nilein 130, the boy fell into the river and drowned, Hadrian wasdesolate and wept openly. A report circulated and was widelybelieved that Antinoüs had cast himself deliberately into theriver as a part of some sacred sacrifice. Although Hadrianhimself denied this, the sober 3rd-century historian Dio Cassiusthought it was the truth. The religious character, if such therewas, of the relation between Hadrian and the boy is totallyelusive. The emotional involvement is, however, quite clear.Seeing Hadrian's grief, the Greek world strove to providesuitable consolation for the bereaved and honour for thedeceased. Cults of Antinoüs sprang up all over the East and thenspread to the West. Statues of the boy became a common sight. InEgypt the city of Antinoöpolis commemorated his death.

Artistic achievements.

The artistic temperament of Hadrian manifested itself in hispoetry, his architectural designs, his very style of life. Fourcomplete poems of his composition survive; they illustrate anexceptional technical mastery of versification, although themanner of expression is often artificial and the subjects areslight. His most famous verses are the lines addressed to hissoul and reportedly uttered as he lay dying. In architecture,the Emperor had a notorious quarrel with a leading contemporaryarchitect, Apollodorus of Damascus, whom it is evenalleged Hadrian had put to death. His ultimate artisticachievement was undoubtedly the villa he created for himself atTivoli, outside Rome. Here the Emperor surrounded himself withelegant evocations of his travels; by landscaping and superiorreproductions, he re-created the sights he most loved andthereby managed in his last years to experience thesatisfactions of travel without ever leaving the shores ofItaly.

Hadrian was not the best of patrons. Latin literature did notprogress during his reign. The greatest Hadrianic authors,Suetonius the biographer, Juvenal the satirist, and Tacitusthe historian, were all, in a sense, only survivors of theTrajanic age. They had no immediate literary heirs. Suetonius,although elevated to the important literary post of ab epistulisin the court during Hadrian's first years, was summarilydismissed about 122. Probably there had been a literary quarrel.Of two eminent orators, Dionysius of Miletus and Favorinus ofArelate (in Gaul), Hadrian openly favoured and advanced theformer; he then tried to overthrow him. Favorinus was living inexile toward the end of Hadrian's reign. The Emperor's tastesdominated the world.

In Rome itself, during his brief sojourns there, Hadrian lefthis memorial in several imposing buildings. Designs for theTemple of Rome and Venus provoked the conflict with Apollodorus.He completely rebuilt the Pantheon, which had been destroyed byfire in the reign of his predecessor. His own great tomb (themodern Castel Sant'Angelo) was inspired by an Augustanprecedent, the Julio-Claudian mausoleum, at Rome.

Last years.

When Hadrian left Rome in 134 for his final journey abroad, itwas to resolve a problem of serious proportions in Judaea.Under the leadership of Bar Kokhba (known also as Bar Koziba),the Jews were in open revolt. What had moved them is notaltogether clear. Rabbinical literature alludes to a Hadrianicpersecution that caused fear and apostasy. The probableexplanation of this kind of reference is a universal ban oncircumcision that Hadrian issued in, it seems, the early 130s.The Emperor had an abhorrence of physical mutilation and evenwent so far as to declare that castration was no less a crimethan murder. In the same spirit he denounced and forbadecircumcision, which he viewed as mutilation. There is no reasonto imagine that Hadrian intended by his measure to punish orprovoke the Jews. The uprising came swiftly and understandably.Hadrian's visit to Athens in 131-132 and his residence at Romeuntil the summer of 134 suggest a reluctance to deal personallywith the disturbance in Judaea. He first placed an able general,Sextus Julius Severus, in charge of the problem. In the yearafter Hadrian's arrival in the Near East, the revolt was over.Recent discoveries have shown that several measures connectedwith the close of the revolt and often cited as indications ofimperial severity have to be dated at least six years earlierand, very probably, well before that. Hadrian meted out nosavage punishments in 135.

In 134 Hadrian's aged rival, Julius Servianus, held the consularoffice for the third time, which was a great but empty honour,for the man was too old. Servianus and others may, however, haveseen in his young grandson, Pedanius Fuscus, a successor toHadrian. In 136 both Servianus and Fuscus were executed. TheEmperor had realized that it was time to face the issue ofsuccession, and he wanted it resolved in his own way. WithFuscus eliminated, Hadrian adopted the profligate LuciusCeionius Commodus, aged about 36. The extravagant life ofCeionius, later renamed Lucius Aelius Caesar, portended adisastrous reign. Fortunately, he died two years later, andHadrian, close to death himself, had to choose again. This timehe picked an 18-year-old boy named Annius Verus, the futureemperor Marcus Aurelius.

In 138 Hadrian arranged for the succession to pass to the youngVerus. His arrangements were clever. An estimable and maturesenator, Antoninus, was adopted by Hadrian and designated tosucceed him. The Emperor, however, required that Antoninus adoptboth the young Verus and the eight-year-old son of the recentlydeceased Ceionius. Thus, the family of his first choice wasremembered, whereas an early succession for the older boy seemedassured. No one expected that Antoninus would last very long.Hadrian's scheme of imposing a double adoption upon hisimmediate successor looks like another imitation of the firstemperor, Augustus, who had made a similar demand of Tiberius. Byan irony of fate, Hadrian's expectations about the future wereconfounded. Antoninus, like Tiberius, lived far longer thananyone would have thought possible. He did not die until 161.

When Hadrian died at the seaside resort of Baiae, death came tohim slowly and painfully. He wrote a letter in which he said howterrible it was to long for death and yet be unable to find it.His reign concluded two years after a double execution; it hadbegun with a quadruple one. The dead man was not widely mourned.He was someone to propitiate like a god, wrote a person who knewhim, but he was not one to evoke affection.

(G.W.Bo./Ed.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Ancient evidence for Hadrian and his reign may be found in hisbiography in the Historia Augusta; Dio Cassius, Roman History,bk. 69; life of Hadrian in Aurelius Victor, On the Caesars; andthe life of Hadrian in the anonymous Epitome De Caesaribus.Herbert W. Benario, A Commentary on the Vita Hadriani in theHistoria Augusta (1980), uses scholarship to elucidate Hadrian'sbiography. Bernard W. Henderson, The Life and Principate of theEmperor Hadrian, A.D. 76-138 (1923, reissued 1968); and StewartPerowne, Hadrian (1960, reprinted 1976), are not whollyreliable. The fictional evocation, Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirsof Hadrian (1954, reissued 1974; originally published in French,1951), is, however, remarkably successful.



Related Propaedia Topics

Growth of the empire under the Flavians and Antonines (AD69-192)



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