 Chapter 26. Section 1 and 2 of J.B. Bury's The Student's Roman Empire, Part 2. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Chris Caron. The Student's Roman Empire, Part 2. By John Bagnell Bury. Chapter 26. The Principate of Hadrian, Section 1 and 2. Section 1. The Assession of Hadrian and the Character of his Reign. Notwithstanding his advance age, Trahan had gone forth on his Great Eastern Expedition without having taken the precaution of settling the succession to the Principate by adopting a son. He had indeed made it clear enough by various marks of favor that he designed P. Mylus Hydronius, his relative to be his successor, perhaps confident that he had still many years to live. He wished to postpone as long as possible the act of adoption. Odd did not care for the notion of delegating to another any portion of the supreme power. Or perhaps he may have thought that even without the usual measure of adoption, the succession of Hadrian was sufficiently assured. And may have been willing to leave the Senate to elect as Princepts, without any apparent constraint, one who is not the son of an Augustus or a Caesar, there is certainly little reason to suppose that he had not himself decided on his successor, and that he looked forward to testing the merits of possible candidates. In the Parthian Expedition he had already shown such favor to Hadrian that to have preferred another would have inevitably led to civil war, and Trahan could not have failed to foresee the result. In any case, he found himself in the presence of death before he had formally declared miswill on this important question. Plotina, who was a warm supporter of Hadrian's interests, seemed to have induced the dying emperor to sign at the last moment a letter of adoption, or at least signify his consent, was a fiction contrived by Plotina. Whether genuine or not, the letter reached Hadrian at Antioch on August 9th, two days before the news of Trahan's death arrived, and there can be little doubt that it represented Trahan's real wishes. The family C.F. Hadrian belonged originally to Hadria, a municipality of Paesnum, but had settled in the Roman colony of Italioa. His father, Hadrianus Afrere, was a first cousin of Trahan. He entered early Uxum, the usual official career, and after the Vigintiverate became a legendary tribune. Under Trahan he was promoted to be Quaster, 101 A.D., and Tribune of the people, 105 A.D. While he impressed, Plotina showed marked favor to him and threw her influence permitted to contract a marriage with Julia Sabina, the granddaughter of Marciana, Trahan's sister, as Trahan had no children. This alliance was naturally to be significant. In the 2nd Dachian, war Hadrian commanded a legion, and in recognition of his services, the emperor presented him with a diamond ring, which he had himself received from Nerva. He became Pretor in due course of time, and in one-way A.D. was elected as a Suffolk Council, about the same time he was appointed to Legatius of Lorpe Pinania. After the death of Lichinos Sira, his influence with Trahan doubtless increased. He took part in the Eastern Expedition, and in 117 A.D. was appointed to Legatius of Syria with an extraordinary military command during the emperor's absence. And in the same year was a second-time council. On receiving the news of Trahan's death, Hadrian was proclaimed Imperactor by the soldiers having secured their allegiance by promising them a donative of double the usual amount. He then wrote a modest letter to the Senate, asking, as the adopted son of Trahan, for their recognition and excusing the unconstitutional action of the soldiers, and acknowledging him as Emperor before he had been elected by the Senate. Although there were many members of the Senate adverse to Hadrian, no opposition was organized against his claim. His respectful letter produced a favorable impression, and the various powers which belonged to the princes were duly conferred on him. Hadrian had received as a boy an education in Greek letters, perhaps at Athens, and he showed such a decided leaning to Greek life and thought that he was justingly called the Greekling. But his interest in things, not Roman, went further than Greece. He was attracted by the antiquities, the mysteries and the romance of the East, and studied Oriental philosophies and religions with curiosity. He was, in fact, a cosmopolitan and liked to place himself in touch with all the various races and creeds and institutions which had been gathered together in the complex of the Roman Empire. He was eminently susceptible of new ideas and must have been impatient of the narrow prejudices of the aristocracy of home. It may be readily imagined that such a man could not win the sympathy of the Senate, and though the nobles had to cloak their feelings during his lifetime, their antipathy expressed itself after his death in detraction and calamity. The note of his character was a certain restless curiosity. He desired to see all that was to be seen, to know all that was to be known, to do all that was to be done. He visited all the provinces of the Empire, and in each province he was as much a sightseer as an administrator. He wrote poetry, attempted painting, acquainted himself with all the symptoms of philosophy. It accorded with his character that he had an extravagant passion for the excitement of the chase. The personality of this searcher out of all curiosities is indicated in his continents as we see it in his numerous busts. The head is bent a little as if to catch every sound. The eyes and mouth suggest the quickness and liveliness of an intellect determined that nothing shall escape it. The type of face is neither Roman nor yet Greek. In the gallery of imperial busts, his is the first marked by a beard. Whether he wore it, as some said, to disguise a scar, or whether it was characteristic of the Greekling, it may be regarded as an outward sign of a new type of emperor. Hadrian had his faults and forebiles, although he took wide views as a statesman and a thinker. He was not above petty ambitions, although he was eminently tolerant. He was not superior to feeling jealousy at the merits of men who followed as their special calling pursuits in which he engaged as a diligently. He was suspicious and distrustful of those who surrounded him and naturally was not able to awaken their confidence or engage their affection. The rhetoric enfrento says that he regarded Hadrian rather as a god to be propitated than as a man to be loved. Hadrian was a statesman of great ability, but by no means of transcendent genius. Indeed, at this time there was little scope for a man of genius. What makes him so remarkable, aid his reign so unique, is the circumstance that he embodied and represented in his own person the tendency of the period and revealed and developed those tendencies in his policy. It rarely happens that the most typical man of an age is selected by destiny to be a sovereign. It happened in the case of Hadrian, and his reign derives much of its peculiar interest from this coincidence. He was not a military monarch, and here, conspicuously, he was in touch with this age. The Roman world wanted peace and rest. Men did not yearn for conquest, and the military policy of Trahan, however plausible it may have seemed from a theoretical point of view, however necessary it may have been up to a certain point, was not in harmony with the spirit of his time. In this respect, Hadrian marked his position clearly at the outset. The first important act of his reign was the surrender of the three new eastern provinces, which Trahan had annexed, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, the new emperor, thus declared that he regarded Trahan's Oriental expedition as a huge mistake that he definitely abandoned the project of extending the empire eastward, and that he recurred to the policy of Augustus. He may be questioned whether it might not have been wiser to retain Armenia, while abandoning Mesopotamia and Assyria dislike of Trahan's war policy as a whole may have carried Hadrian too far in his reaction. It is even said that have he contemplated the surrender of Dacia, but if so, he was wise enough to abandon the idea. Dacia, in which a large number of Roman colonists had taken up their abode, was in quite a different position from the annexations beyond the Euphrates, where no Roman settlements had yet been made of resigning Arabia, Trahan's other new province. There was no question. This first act of Hadrian struck the keynote of his reign and inaugurated that remarkable period of nearly half a century in which the Roman world enjoyed a measure of peace and happiness, which it had never enjoyed before and was never to enjoy again. The thought was beginning to force itself on people, more or less consciously, that men were not made for the state, but that the state was made for men. And Hadrian's policy expressed and realized this thought. Trahan's had been tempted to make the extension of the empire and military glory ends in themselves. Hadrian regarded the defense of the frontiers and the maintenance of the army merely as means to the prosperity of his subjects. He fully recognized the necessity of maintaining a strong military force and of being prepared to fight in case of need, and he devoted himself to the reform of the military service, closely connected with this view of the state. And at the same time, characteristic of his cosmopolitan temper was Hadrian's interest in the provinces. The importance of the welfare of the provinces had been recognized by Julius Caesar and had been always a political principle under the empire, but Hadrian sympathized with the provinces more thoroughly than any of his predecessors and really felt that the provinces were not made merely to serve home in Italy. In Italy, Lai was himself less at home in Rome than in any part of his empire and hardly a third part of his reign of twenty-one years was spent on Italian soil. He saw that personal acquaintance on the part of the ruler with the affairs of each province was requisite for a sound administration and his journeys through the provinces are unique and striking feature of his reign. His other great work was the creation of a civil service. He must not fail to note that in the period of peace and prosperity, which was inaugurated by Hadrian and continued by his two-neck successors, a great social and spiritual change of deep significance for the future of the empire and also for the future of the world, was being accomplished. The process was reliant and almost escapes our observation, but the results are clear. The principle of humanity, as opposed to Roman exclusiveness, was becoming widely recognized and the spirit of cosmopolitanism was taking profession of the world. The way was being repaired for the diffusion of Christianity. This new spirit was injurious to the power of Rome, but adventurous for the future development of Europe. It helped on the decline of the empire, but it was also the beginning of the transformation of the ancient into the modem world. Hadrian is the first great representative of this new spirit. The last months of the year, 117 AD, were occupied with ordering the affairs of the east. The Parthian question was settled, as has been already said, by unveiling Trahan's conquests. Abandoning the cause of Parthimates and recognizing King Krosos, in order to retain the new conquests, it would have been necessary to increase the army and the financial condition of the empire, would not have emitted such a step without an increase of taxation. Moreover, under Trahan's military reign, too little attention had been paid to eternal administration. These considerations alone were sufficient to move Hurion to adopt a totally different policy from that of his predecessor. The danger of extending the frontier may have also been brought home to him by the reports, which arrived of disturbances breaking out in remote corners of the realm. The Britons in the far north, the Samaritans on the Dany Bay, the Moors in the west were all saving signs of rebellion, while the rising of the Jews in Palestine and Libya, not yet completely arrayed, was in itself an adverse comment on Oriental expeditions. Hadrian probably visited Palestine and Egypt himself to hasten the suppression of the Jewish revolt, which was carried out by his able officer Q, Martinez Turbo, he apologized Catelius Severus to the post of Legatus of Syria, which he had occupied himself before his elevation to the Principate. He removed Lucius Quietus from the governorship of Judea and sent him to his native land, Maritania, apparently in order to quell a revolt which was breaking out among his countrymen, but Lucius, who was by no means well-disposed to the new emperor, and disliked the change of policy, showed no energy in crushing the movement, or perhaps encouraged it. At all events, Hadrian found it necessary to send Turbo, who had already suppressed the Jews, to suppress the Moors also, and we are told that he disarmed Lucius Quietus. Hadrian traveled by way of Eleutrium to Rome, which he reached early in 118 AD. He was favorably received by the Senate, to which he now renewed, in person, the respectful overtures, which he had already made by letter. The title, Pater Patrick's, was offered to him, but he refused it, on the ground that Augustus had received it at a late period of his reign, and did not accept it until 120 AD. He celebrated the Parthian triumph of Trahan, the image of the dead emperor being born in the triumphal car. Hadrian was not long at Rome before he had to hurry away to the Danubei. To meet a Samaritan invasion, and during his absence, his throne was threatened by a con piracy, in which four men of great distinctly were implicated. The leader was a consular named Avidus Nijinus, whom the empire seems to have regarded with special favor, and perhaps intended to choose as his successor in the Principate, besides another consular, Paniglis Celsus, two officers of high military reputation, Cornelius Palma, the conqueror of Erebi and Lucius Quietus, who had erred and displayed a disloyal spirit, and Maretta Ea took part in the plot. The implication of these two generals suggests that dissatisfaction was felt in military circles at the peace policy of the new emperor. The intention of the conspirators was to kill Hadrian when he was either hunting or performing a sacrifice, be it in the plot, was discovered, and the senate showed their zeal and loyalty by ordering the four conspirators to be put to death. When the news of the affair reached Hadrian, he paced the conduct of affairs on the Danubei frontier. In the hands of all his trusted officer, Marcius Turbo, had hastened back to Rome. August, he regretted the execution of the culprits. Wench was an unpopular act, and although the senate had acted without consulting him, he was blamed for it to dissipate the feelings of alarm, which the incurrence had caused, and to show that terrorism was not to be the policy of his reign. He voluntarily took an oath never to pass sentence of death on a senator, as Trahan had done before him. During the next years, Hadrian seems to have devoted himself to internal reforms in Rome and Italy. In 119 AD, he was council for the third and last time, and in the same year he undertook a journey through the southern Italy in 121 AD, having laid the foundation stone of the Temple of Rome and Venus, April 21st. He started, on his first great journey through the provinces, as he intended, to be absent for a considerable time. It was necessary to leave the control of Rome in trustworthy hands. The safety of the city lay with the commanders of the Praetorian guards. Hadrian had not full confidence in Atenius and Simulus, the two prefects who were in office at his accession. Atenius had given him support at the critical moment, when his installation as princeps was doubtful, and on that account might have proved presumptuous, while Simulus was a man of independent ideas. Accordingly, they were removed, and Q. Marcius Turbo, along with C. Septicius Clarus, appointed in their stead. Hadrian undertook two great journeys through the provinces. The first began in spring 121 AD, and ended with his return to Rome at the end of 126 AD. The second began in spring 129 AD, and ended with his return to Rome early in 134 AD. On the first occasion, he visited almost all the provinces of the empire, both western and eastern. But on the second occasion, he only visited the eastern. This was probably due to the outbreak of the Jewish rebellion, which recalled him to Judea, as he was entracing his path to the west, 131 through 132 AD, so that at this point, his second long absence from home seizes to be a provincial tour. Besides these two great journeys, he undertook in the interval between them a lesser journey to the African provinces. 128 AD, the exact route of his first journey, is not in all respects certain, but it seems to have been as follows. Having made a progress through eastern Gaul and probably visited Lagundinum, he proceeded to the province of Upper Germany and thence along the northern frontier and Resetia and Noricum into Pandonia, returning doubtless by a different route through these provinces. He reached the Rhine again, proceeded to Lower Germany and passing through the Laurel of the Batavians, crossed over to Britain, 122 AD. Having remained there for some months, he returned to Gaul and traveled through the western regions of that country to Spain, where he visited Taraco, a revolt of the Moors induced him to visit Martania. Though this perhaps was not part of his program, and thence he went on to Africa and possibly to Libya. Crossing over to Asia Minor, he first visited the cities on the coast and then traveled through the interior to the Euphrates. 123 AD, returning by the coast of the X-Wine, he traversed Pontius and Berthiana and Bethenia and crossed over to Thyrus. Once advancing through Macedonia, he received successively Epirus and Thessaly. In autumn, 125 AD, he arrived to Athens where he spent the winter and spring and made a tour in the Peloponnesus in the following summer. Once he returned to Rome, taking Sicily on the way, 126 AD. His second journey began by a second visit to Athens where he spent another winter, 129 through 130 AD, then he sailed to the south coast of Asia Minor and landing in Syria, or Lycia, traveled through Placidia and Silesia into Syria, reaching Antioch by June. In the same summer, he visited Palmyria, Judea and Arabia and proceeded in autumn to Egypt where he spent the greater part of the year. Returning to the latter part of 131 AD to Syria, once he set out for the west, Phy has been recalled by the Jewish revolt and spent two years on the scene of warfare. These imperial visits may in some cases have been burdensome and expensive to the Provenceals at the time, but there can be no doubt that they conduced to the prosperity of the subject lands. The emperor saw with his own eyes the condition and needs of each province and also the exact importance of each in relation to the rest of the empire. We cannot trace all that he did in the correction of abuses or in furthering the economical interests of the land which he visited, but we know how he tried to secure the indispensable condition of peaceful development, namely the satisfy of the emperor against invaders. Hadrian never lost sight of this end. His care in providing for it was exhibited in two ways. He introduced a number of vital reforms into the army and the military system. He developed with more consistency than any empire before him. The method of defending the frontiers by artificial means. The military reforms of Hadrian went into the minutest details and he may be considered the originator of the military system of the later empire. His changes affected both tactics and discipline. His great reform and tactics was the introduction of the phalanx. Not exactly the Macedonian phalanx, but an improved form. The necessity of superseding the old legionary battle array seems to have been proved in recent warfare. Hadrian directed all his officers to study carefully the tactics and an MS of the barbarians, Parthians and Armenians in the rest. Sarmatians beyond the Danube, Celts and Britain. He also introduced oriental armor and heavily armed cavalry. His Batavian squadrons were so well drilled that they could swim across rivers and panoply. Improvements were made in the military engines with a view to facilitating the rapid motion of the army. Hadrian found that the discipline of the camp had degenerated and he spent the greatest pains in restoring it and made it stricter than ever. He increased the number of centurions and only allowed those to be appointed, who were of strong body and good character. He admitted none to the legionary tribunate who were not of mature age. Leaves of absence were rarely granted and everything that could have an entervating effect on the soldiers was removed from the camps. But notwithstanding his strictness, he was very popular with the men and there was not a oe mutiny throughout his peaceful reign. This was due to the fact that he shared with the soldiers their exercises and privations whenever he visited the camps and required of them to undergo no hardships which he was not ready to undergo himself. His dress was severely simple. His repast consisted of the same plain food lard, cheese and sour wine as that of the legionaries themselves. On the march he used to walk or ride in full armor headed amid the snows of Caldonia or beneath the hot sun of Egypt and never made use of the vehicle. He concerned himself with every detail of military life. He used to visit the ambulances every day used to attend to the commissariat and inspect the arms, dress and baggage of the soldiers. On coins he is often represented as addressing his legions at Lombasas in Africa where he founded a new camp of which the Pristurium or General's quarters still stands. A pedestal has been found on which is ascribed a speech which he delivered to Legion III. Augusta he praises the soldiers for their performance of the most difficult exercises for executing in a single day works which would employ others for a week. For their sham battles and other achievements other no emperor was the army in more efficient condition than under Hadrian. In regard to the fleet Hadrian introduced the regulation that all the marines should possess Ius Latinum thus no Roman citizen whether Italian or Provincio could serve in the fleet. The service was only open to those who possessed Latin rights or those who possessed neither Roman nor Latin rights. The latter received Iva Latinum on entering the service. Chapter 26 Section 3 and 4 of J.B.B.Bury's The Student's Roman Empire Part 2 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Chris Caron The Student's Roman Empire Part 2 by John Bagnell Bury Chapter 26 The Principate of Hadrian Section 3 and 4 Section 3 The defense of the frontiers and the western provinces The Samaritan races which were separated from each other by the province of Dacia and Roxalani on the east and the Jayzegas on the west kept up mutual communication and formed a league against the empire after the accession of Hadrian the immediate cause of the war was used to continue the subsidy which Trahan had consented to pay to the king of the Roxalani The barbarians probably invited Dacia and Hadrian, as we have seen was obliged to leave Rome shortly after his arrival and take the field against them 118 AD Although successful in this war he consented to a compact by which he agreed to renew the subsidy claimed by the Roxalani the kind of that people received Roman citizenship and became a Roman vassal recalled to Rome by the conspiracy of Negrinus Hadrian appointed Q. Marchius Turbo to a special military command over both provinces of Pannonia and Dacia Although Turbo was only of equestrian rank and gave him the same title and dignity which the prefect of Egypt possessed with a consent with averting the present danger he sought to guard against future invasions on the one hand of Pannonia by the Jazzagus on the other hand of Meschia by the Roxalani and with this view constructed lines of fortification the new fortress of Traumas Litzia in the delta of the Danube commanded the route of invaders coming through Bessurbia and formed one of a number of polts along Yuxain coast Adesius Vama Tomi Kisthenje Trasmus Tyrus at the mouth of the Dynastir Ulbia at the mouth of the Deneper Ponticapium in the Tauric peninsula between which constant connection was kept up by the Pontic fleet Pentecapsum was at this time under the government of a Samaritan prince who professed warm friendship for Hadrian and the Empire it is said that Hadrian in order to protect the provinces south of the Danube from the chance of an invasion by way of Dacia broke down the upper part of the Great Bridge which Trahan had constructed at Ternu Severin the truth of this statement has been questioned but it may have been found that the intercourse between the northern and southern banks of the Danube was still carried on chiefly by boat and was little facilitated by the existence of one bridge and the Emperor may have determined to sacrifice it possibly he substituted a drawbridge to him perhaps were due many of the forts which protected the valleys and passes of the eastern Carpathians but though he regarded the province as outlying and insecure he did much for developing its resources and romanizing it under Hera began the settlements of veteran soldiers and a vigorous prosecution of the mining works the administration of Dacia was changed 129 AD by its division like Panonia and Molcia into two provinces upper and lower Dacia governed by Legati Hadrian busied himself equally with the defense of the middle Danube in Panonia it was here most conceptually that he put into practice investing with the municipal character the most important frontier stations and combining Sivu with military life this was easy for not only did many trades people settle close to important camps but the veterans after they discharged used for the most part to remain in the same place and thus were formed town settlements separate from the camp and known as Kanbas or the booths Trahan had tried the experiment in the case of Castra Vetra and Eulpia Noviomadius Hadrian transformed into colonies the two headquarters of the troops of lower Panonia and Ticapa which is now the capital of Hungary and Mirsa, Eszeg where the drave flows into the Danube in upper Panonia the three chief stations at Legions were Vindobona, Vienna Kanwantum, Peronell and Bridgeto, Osnozzi these he converted into Mexican cities as well as other stations of less-renowned Viximum Oy Egipotius in Upper Mesca and Augusta Vindelor Corum I.P. Patia were treated in the same way these changes were probably ingravated during Hadrian's visit to these regions in 121 AD it is also to be observed that he transferred a considerable part of the Southern Pandonia to Italy and colonized anew the Flavian foundation of Cissea on the save, thus while he was providing for the defense of the empire Hadrian was also carrying on the work of Romanization as far as Regina Castra Resenberg it was only necessary to reinforce the natural defense of the Danube by a line of forts now the idea which Hadrian endeavored to carry out systematically was to supplement natural defenses of water by artificial defenses of wall to him we may attribute with great probability the construction of the His-Man wall which protected the corner between the Rhine and the Danube and marked the lines Trans-Danube-Bianus of forts which Hadrian now connected by a wall which can still be traced from the Danube a little above Kellheim to the lines Trans-Shanuse near Weltschlium it is quite possible that part of the line of wall running southward from the main and bounding the Agri di Cumatis may be also due to him and not to the Flavian emperors the Germans seemed to have given no trouble in this reign one tribe accepted a king appointed by the emperor in his progress through lower Germany Hadrian founded Forum Hadani in an island close to the Badavian Gondinum the administration of the two provinces of Germany was charged Hederto it will be remembered their Legati were only military commanders and the civil administration was in the hands of the Legatus of Belgica hence forward upper and lower Germany have each of Legatus possessing civil powers but they are still financially connected with Bolchigia in so much as the Belgic Procurator collects the taxes in the Germanics in Britain which he reached in 122 AD there is much to be done and some cause for serious anxiety little hold could be kept on the lands beyond the Tyne which Argychola had tried to conquer and even south of the Tyne the Burgontis by no means holy subdued held out in their strong places the Romans suffered most of your losses in continuous warfare with the Britons and the sixth legion which had been in the island since the conquest of Claudius was annihilated it was replaced by fourth Victrix which had Hederto had its headquarters at Castra important Roman position in the north Hadrian took the field himself against the barbarians but the great result of his visit to Britain was the elaborate system of fortification which he devised to facilitate not only defense but also the extension of the province for he did not surrender this design of occupying the northern half of Britain as he had surrendered Trahan's annexations beyond the Euphrates he did not attend to make the Tyne and Solway the limit of the province to complete the conquest of a half conquered island was a widely different project from advancing into the heart of a vast continent it is uncertain how far we are to accept a statement of a contemporary historian that from an economical point of view Britain was quite useless to Rome but the Roman government evidently considered that the acquisition of north Britain was politically if not economically desirable Hadrian saw that this end could not be attained by a slow and methodical advance accordingly a line of fortifications on an immense scale was drawn across the island from the Tyne to the Solway and the remains of this construction constitute the most striking record of Roman dominion in Britain the Roman wall it used to be called I the Picks wall is a system of walls three earthworks, fossils and forts connected by a road on the east side it's began at Zegendinum whose modern name Jay Wall's End reminds us of the fact it's western extremity near Baunus on the Solway Firth its course was straight and its entire length about 70 miles it consisted of three parts a stone wall, a series of stations connected by the road and an earth wall the stone wall on the north was from 6 to 8 feet broad and nearly 20 feet high turrets of rectangular shape occurred in it at unequal distances on the south side of the wall there were four fortified gates generally called myocastals a façade runs along the northern side of the wall the earth wall, or valume on the south, consists of three parts itself a single mound a façade and a double mound the single mound is on the north side of the façade which is about 30 feet broad and the double mound is on the south the distance between the valume is considerably but it is on a rough average about 120 yards the road runs between the stone wall and the valume and along it are situated at unequal distances 14 large camps called peccenturf belonging to this line of camps but situated at a short distance south of the valume are three others so that we must count 17 camps as part of the system of fortification the best preserved of these camps is at Borkovicum now called house-steads and circular where the memory of the roman site is retained in the name chesters a long and continuous stretch of the stone wall may be seen at Borkovicum the work has probably begun during Hadrian's visit to Britain 122 AD and was executed under the direction of the legatus alus platoris nepos by the laborers of the three britianic legions 1st, 4th, 20th while the other military service temporarily devolved upon detachments sent from spain and upper germany the auxiliary troops also assisted and a large number of inscriptions bear witness to the part taken in the work by the various centuries and cohorts and alas Hadrian's connection with the wall is commemorated in the name of the 2nd station on the eastern side Pons Malay, Newcastle there is little doubt that some of the stronger positions which formed the sites of the camps had been previously occupied by Acacola and other commanders as detached forts this consideration will help to explain the inequality of the distances between the stations the significance of the wall cannot be appreciated if it is not observed that Burgantas were not yet the release of dude and that the continuous fortification was designed to serve as a barrier hindering effectual communication or cooperation between the enemies to the south and the enemies to the north with the wall as basis of operations the subjugation of the northern tribes could be gradually affected and this work was carried on by detached forts and camps such as that of Berminium high Rochester north of the wall the line of the wall was crossed by roads thus whaling street crosses it near Caleridum the circumstance alone indicates that Hadrian's wall is not to be regarded as a frontier barrier not intended to be passed against a foreign foe but as a short of huge, elongated camp established in a country which the Romans purposed to make their own it marked a stage but was by no means intended to mark the last stage in the conquest of the island of Hadrian's axe and gall we only know that he showed great liberality in all the provinces we have no record as to what cities he visited except Nemonsus Narnus where he erected a basilica in honor of his adopted mother, Platina crossing the Pyrenees he spent a winter 122-123 AD at Turaco where he held a meeting of representatives from the inner cities and made himself acquainted with the needs and wishes of the provinces of his visit to Sicily we only know that he ascended Mautina to see a sunrise these internal provinces the Gauls, the Spains and Sicily were prosperous and had less need of empirical care than those whose borders were exposed to invasion like Pannonia, Britain and Africa in 123 AD on the occasion of a Moorish rising which he quelled and again in 128 AD of his activity there we have many through slight traces a new road was constructed from Carthage to Thvest and having completed this work under the direction of the Legatus P. Mautilus Sicundus the legion was established in a new permanent camp in Thvestis the object of this change was at the army should be near Martania in which there was no legendary troops in founding colonies Hadrian seemed to have been as active in Africa as he had been in Pannonia Utica was raised to colonial rank Ileon colonies were founded at Thence on the coast south of Carthage at Zama Regia and Lars in Numida Tanda a new road was constructed from Certa to the coast at Roussacade Philippaville these facts among others known to us as entirely from inscriptions illustrate the universal activity of Hadrian in all parts of the empire section 4 the eastern provinces the progress of Hadrian through the Latin portion of the empire as far as we can trace it is chiefly marked by his measures 4 the defense of the frontiers in the eastern provinces he had more room for manifesting and gratifying his personal tastes there was no cause for apprehension on the oriental frontier Parthia was afraid of Rome the tranquility was threatened some years cuter Hadrian's accession but matters were smoothed by a personal meeting with the Parthian king during his second visit to the east the emperor held a friendly gathering of client kings and princes he visited Corsoce and sought to maintain a good understanding with that potentate by sending back his daughter whom Trajan had captured a difficulty arose about 134 AD when Fair Mons king of Iberia evaded Medea Vologacus the successor of Corsoce complained to Hadrian who however refused to call his vassal to account and even enlarged his kingdom was not strong enough to press the matter the efficiency of the Roman army trained under the new reforms was made evident at the same time when the Alans threatened to invade Arminia and Cappadocia Arminia was saved by the Parthian king who gave the barbarians money Cappadocia by the resolute attitude of its governor Arian a capable commander who however obtained more celebrity as a general early intention of Hadrian to the military exigencies of the empire in the east is shown by the official tour of inspection around the Eucsene Sen which Arian made by his orders and wrote an account of his purpose from which work he learned that Hadrian expected from his generals no land was so much patronized Hadrian as Greece almost every town of importance or ancient distinction was enriched by new buildings or gifts at Conrith he built an aqueduct and baths at Megara a temple of Apollo Olympia was adorned with several splendid buildings and a statue was erected there to the empire by all the Greeks he restored the horse racks which had fallen into disuse at the Nimean games at Ariania he erected a temple of Palsedon and engraved on the tomb of Epondionias an inscription composed by himself in the temple of Eurus at the Spae he dedicated the skin of a bear which he had killed with Greek verses of his own in the temple of Hera at Argos he offended the goddess's favorite bird a peacock of gold the tail brilliant with precious stones but it was Athens Hadrian showed a special predilection both by his two long visits there and by his liberality in beautifying the city he desired that Athens should once more be the capital of Greece and his patronage called forth a sort of Greek renaissance he gave the Athenians the revenues of the island of Chelyudia and the city which in the time of Augustus had been called empty by Horus soon became so flourishing that it surprised travelers by the size of its population Hadrian adopted Greek dress while he resided at Athens he presided at public games and took part in the Lucian Mysteries he permitted himself to be elected Archon and fulfilled the function of the office he spent his time in associating with the philosophers Sophists and Artists superintending the progress of the architectural works which he was constructing in the plain of the Lucius here a new Athens arose which was called Hadrianopolis it was disappeared but its limit is still marked by an arch of triumph southeast of the Acropolis on one face of which is inscribed Athens the city of Thesis on the other the city of Hadrian not of Thesis known as the Olympium which Heriae then designed on a vast scale by Penstratus and left unfinished for 700 years in inaugural address on the occasion of its dedication was pronounced by Polemum of Smyrna a Sophist famous for his eloquence 15 of the 120 columns of this building still stand but besides finishing the edifice which had waited so long for its completion Hadrian carried out an idea which the Greeks had dreamed of and striven after for centuries but had never succeeded in realizing this idea was the unity of Helus it was at length affected by the condention of a stranger when it had no longer any political meaning representatives of all the Greek cities both those which were free and those which belonged to the Eccenian province were constituted as a college of Panellus and met yearly in Athens their special charge was the worship of Zeus Panheleonos and Hadrian in a new temple called the Panthenelion which was built in Hadrianopolis and intended to serve in Greece somewhat the same purpose served at Lagundinum it was ordained that annual games should be celebrated close to the Panheleon and on this occasion an offering was made to Zeus the Deliverer at Plexia in memory of the G Greeks who fell there on the anniversary of the battle the fourth day of Aldrimon Hadrian himself received the divine title Olympian in the honor of enlarging Athens a distinguished share was born by the accomplished and wealthy Rhetor Horodus Atticus he built a bridge over the Elysus in the new town and constructed a stadium which he covered with Peltelic marble on one of the hills which overlooked it he raised a temple to fortune he also founded a library which Hadrian surrounded with splendid poracos in the Asiatic provinces there are many traces of Hadrian's progress everywhere he came to the relief of cities which had been injured by earthquakes everywhere he appeared as a restorer to Smyrna the Athens of Eastern Greece the home of his friends Hulmon the Sophist he was specially gracious at his instance a new gymnasium was erected there by subscription and we still possess the list of subscribers at Ephesus he raised a temple to it is called Kvoevik Rifik and Agus is permitted to be held at Argos to have Rivetoli in inscriptions it will represent only the subject not the free he remembered that the Koi which Greek cities Roman fortune at Syzacus a temple of imposing size was erected in his honor and the famous Rhetorican Arethesis was engaged to pronounce an oration of the day of its consecration this speech is preserved Trahaned plays Bithynia temporarily under Imperial Legatus Hadrian made this arrangement permanent and confiscated the senate by transferring Pamphylia to its control in Bithynia he pursued his favorite pastime of hunting and founded a new town called Hadrian's Chase Hethian Arethesis at a spot where he slew an enormous bear he visited the trod and beheld the places where the story of the Iliad was intacted places which might have a peculiar attraction for a Roman who placed any faith in the tales connecting Roman with Greek antiquity at Trepezus he had a fancy to look upon the sea on the same spot where Xenophon's ten thousand had cried Thalada Thalada he was little pleased with the luxurious city of Antioch and the inhabitants always known for temper of insolence seemed to have given him some offense he has said to have contemplated breaking of Syria into two provinces in order to reduce the importance of Antioch he did much for the development of the recently formed province of Arabia he visited Palmyria on the border of the desert gave it the rank of a colony and the privileges of Yus Atalicum and adorned it with new buildings both this city and Petra assumed the title of Hadrian from Arabia he passed into Egypt 130 AD which he entered at Pelsium from this place he made an expedition to Malkasios where the body of Pompey had been interred with O'Honor and erected a funeral monument to the rival of Caesar he traveled through Upper as well as Lower Egypt and visited the chief antiquities of the land one of the wonders which travelers generally want to see was the broken statue of Memnon from whose limbs the music miraculously issued at the hour of sunrise an interesting reminiscence of the visit of the imperial party survives in some Greek elegiac verses scribbled on a leg of the statue by the court poetess Balbilla who was in the train of the Empress Sabina a private misfortune befell Hadrian while he was in Egypt and Tinoa a beautiful youth to whom he was deeply attached was drowned in the Nile the story went that an oracle required either the emperor's life or the sacrifice of the object dearest to him and that Atheonus deliberately drowned himself the event excited general sympathy throughout the empire Hadrian defied his lost favorite dedicated a temple to him and built antopolis in his honor coins were struck with the head of the T. Antinius and his statues were multiplied in the cities of Asia the people of Alexandria alone scoped at the grief of the emperor although he had concerned many privileges and benefits on their city Hadrian was repelled rather than attracted by Egypt and was disgusted by its capital if we may believe in a remarkable letter which he has said to have written to Cervanus some years later and which may really represent his impressions although it can hardly have been written by him in the form in which it has come down to us the peace of Hadrian's principate was interrupted by only one really serious war another revolt of the Jews since the destruction of Jerusalem theological schools had been established in Jonobae Tiberias and Lindia to keep alive the knowledge of the law and the Orthodox Jewish religion the most famous doctor at this time was Akiba to whose name strange legions were attached he led his revival of Judaism and kept alive the hopes of his people to recover Jerusalem and establish a Jewish kingdom under the Messiah who was expected to come as long as these hopes were fostered the Jews were a dangerous element in the empire and their rising in the last year of Trahan gave Hadrian a lesson he resolved to annihilate their hopes by founding a military colony at Jerusalem from which the Jews could be entirely excluded the new city was called Ilia Capitolina pagan altars were erected there the temple of Jehovah had stood Hadrian also conceived the idea of eradicating Judaism by forbidding the right of circumcision such measures drove the Jews to despair and they rose in arms the priest El Azar and a bold and able fanatic who received the name of Barcoca a son of the war placed themselves at the head of the rebels 131 AD it seems that where the Romans were beginning the foundation of the new city was captured by the Jews and had to be retaken the governor of Judea Tinius Rufus and the governor of Syria publicus Marcellus proved unable to cope with the insurgents the criminal per himself who had just left Syria for the west returned to the scene of action and finally committed to the conduct of the war to enable commander Julius Severus who was then taken the war waged chiefly in Samaria and Edumia was protected for three years but Severus took fortress after fortress and with the fall of Bether a fortress not far from Jerusalem and the death of Barcoca the struggle was at an end no mercy was shown the old doctor Akiba who has been the life and soul of the rebellion was torn in pieces with hot pincers it was decreed that no Jew should set foot in Iliacapitalina except once a year and henceforth the province was called not Judea but Syria Palestinian Julius Severus received the triumphal exigna and it was the last occasion on which they see confirmed henceforward victorious generals were recognized by the erection of their statues in the form of Trajan Hadrian permitted the soldiers to greet him the only occasion on which he accepted that military honor end of chapter 26 section 3 and 4 recording by Chris Caron Hamley, Minnesota Chapter 26 sections 5 and 6 of J. B. Bury's The Student's Roman Empire Part 2 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Anna Simon The Student's Roman Empire Part 2 by John Bagnall Bury Chapter 26 The Principle of Hadrian Section 5 Hadrian's Administrative Reforms The reign of Hadrian marks in some important respects the beginning of a new stage in the development of the principle In the course of imperial history we have observed two great tendencies one the encroachment on the functions of the Senate and the consequent advance towards pure monarchy two the levelling of the distinctions which existed between Rome and the provinces Previous emperors promoted one or other of these tendencies by fits and starts and sometimes unconsciously The mission took a great and deliberate step in the direction of absolutism Trajan, the Spaniard made a serious advance towards equalizing Italy with the other subject lands but under Hadrian these tendencies assume a systematic form and it is to be observed that this side of his policy is largely a result of very important administrative improvements which he introduced not only his interest in the welfare of the provinces but also his creation of an administrative machinery which had hitherto been a conspicuous want promoted the tendencies which have been mentioned The equalization of Italy and the provinces was forwarded by placing Italy under the control of four judges of consular rank This institution was a step further in the cause which Trajan had inaugurated by his appointment of Curatoris Republiquet But while the curators exercised control only in the sphere of municipal administration the judges usurped important judicial functions which had hitherto belonged to the local magistrates and had often been very badly discharged by them The chief matters which came under the cognizance of the judges were the nomination of guardians cases of fide commissar and disputes connected with the curianate The districts in which these officials operated do not seem at first to have been strictly separated This institution not only affected the position of Italy by placing it more directly under imperial control but also affected the senate by excluding that body almost completely from interference in the affairs of Italy which hitherto been looked upon as especially senatorial domain There also seems to have been some attempt made to introduce the same institution in the provinces Under Hadron the provincials enjoyed great prosperity We have seen that by visiting them himself he became acquainted with their needs and spared no pains in furthering their welfare He exercised a sharp control over the governors and under his rule we hear of no cases of extortion He employed special officers to check the finances of the town communities It was his policy to increase the number of Roman cities and this policy was especially pursued in Pannonia a part of which seems to have been added to Italy It was a natural consequence of Hadron's constant and extensive travels in the provinces and also of his talent for organization that he should develop, extend and place on a new footing the curses publicus or state post which have been instituted by Augustus Trajan had done something for its improvement but Hadron made it a physical institution and thus relieved the local corporations of the expense He also seems to have introduced definite districts and prefects Perhaps the most obvious deficiency in the political machinery of Rome under the early emperors was the want of a regular civil service for carrying on the work of the central government at Rome The senate had its officials but the emperor on whom practically the whole administration had come to devolve had no recognized body of public servants at his disposal His correspondents and his finances were conducted by private dependents who had no recognized official position generally freedmen and slaves But since the time of Claudius some of these officers had been occasionally entrusted to persons of equestrian rank Hadron adopted this exceptional practice and converted it into a permanent principal Hence forward freedmen were excluded from all important administrative posts and only knights appointed By this means an official body of civil servants was organized and there was a definite career of civil service with regular grades of promotion opened to knights who were thus no longer obliged to begin with military service in order to obtain civil appointments The highest procuratorship in this career was that of the imperial fisk The increased importance which the performance of Hadron gave to the knights also a tendency which can be traced from the beginning of the empire was a further blow to the senate and it is worth remarking that the only extensive command delegated by Hadron to a subject somewhat like that which Corbulo held under Nero was given not to a senator but to a knight To cue Marcus Turbo was committed an exceptional control over the two Pannonian provinces and Asia In the same connection it must be observed that the power of the Praetorian Prefect whose necessarily not a senator is recognized under Hadron in quite a new way The influence of this officer had already made itself felt on several occasions but it was an influence which depended on the character of the Prefect and also on the character of the emperor rather than on the office itself Thus Sogenus and their Tiberius Titus and the Vespasian Tegelenus and their Nero were the most powerful persons in the empire next to the emperor But other Prefects had exercised comparatively little political power The importance of the Prefecture as such was first openly recognized under Hadron The Prefect now appears as the second man in the state and his relation to the Princips was compared with that of the master of halls to the dictator He begins now to acquire that competence in civil and criminal jurisdiction which led up to his becoming in the following century a supreme dutch of appeal Augustus had been in the habit of summoning a concilium to help him in the decision of the cases which came before him But this body was informal It had no place in the constitution and the Princips was not in any way bound to consult it Moreover, it was not defined either in point of number or by any qualification for membership It was composed of the friends of the Princips Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Domitian and Trajan had adopted this practice but none of them gave the concilium a definite organization This step was reserved for Hadron Just as he'd seized the floating idea of employing the inquestion order for the civil service and realized it as a definite system So he seized the informal habit of summoning experienced friends to give legal advice and organized a permanent institution The new council consisted of men of senatorial and equestrian rank formally appointed and in receipt of a salary They were called conciliaria Augusta The approval of the senate was necessary for their appointment a concession on the part of Hadron to the senate but one of little political importance They were obliged to hold themselves constantly in readiness to attend the emperor in the palace The council was largely composed of experienced jurists It does not seem that Hadron gave greater weight to the senatorial members but he respected the privileges of senators insofar that in trials where they were concerned as parties only those counselors who belonged to the senatorial rank sat in judgment There is no evidence to show that the council had any power to act in the absence of the emperor On the contrary, it seems, sometimes at least to have accompanied Hadron in the provinces Having thus surrounded himself with jurists Hadron exercised great influence on law He made two very important changes One, the use of respondendae or right of replying officially to queries on legal difficulties was granted to a number of skilled jurists prudentes and when their opinion was unanimous he gave it the force of law This did much to encourage legal studies Two, the perpetual edict of the pretas was reduced to a final form Silvius Julienus was entrusted with her task of editing and coordinating in a consistent form the immense body of law which had gradually grown up by the edicts of successive pretas A sanatus consultum 131 AD gave the force of law to Julienus addition of the edict which may be considered as the earliest approach to the corpus Eus Silvius Hence forward, law could not be modified by the pretas but only by the legislation of the emperor or the senate All the pretas and provincial governors were bound to act strictly in accordance with the edict But while Hadron governed as an autograt and worked towards the political inhalation of the senate, he treated that body and its individual members with the greatest deference and curtsy He followed Nerva and Trajan in admitting no charges of maestas He deigned to admit the best of the senators freely to his private society He repudiated the games of the circus voted in his honor, accepting those on his own birthday only and often declared publicly minister the republic that it should know that it belonged to the people and not to himself As he made himself consul thrice so he advanced several personages to a third consulship and the number to whom he grounded a second was very considerable His own third consulship he held for four months only and in that time sat often in judgment He always attended the regular meetings of the senate whenever he was in or near the city the dignity of the order and was cherry of admitting new members so much so that when he thus advanced Atianus who was already prefect of the Praetorians and enjoyed the triumphal ornaments he showed that there was no higher eminence to which he could exalt him He expressed his detestation of princes who paid the senate less deference than he showed himself To Cervianus, his sister's husband whom he treated with such respect as always to meet him when he issued in the morning he gave a third consulship unasked taking care that it should not coincide with his own that Cervianus might never be required to speak second in debate but notwithstanding all his endeavours he was unable to win the confidence of the Roman nobility In the history of the financial administration of the empire Hadrian's reign is very important As we have seen the financial minister was no longer a freedman but a knight and the financial bureau became a definite branch of the civil service A very large body of officers were employed in it and the administration was carefully watched by the emperor himself The old system of farming the revenue which had been gradually becoming superseded under the empire was now almost entirely abolished and all the taxes even the ficcacima hereditatum were collected directly by the imperial procreators To represent the interests of the imperial treasury in lawsuits special officers called Advocatei Fiscae were appointed At his accession Hadrian found that the enormous sum of 900 million cisterces was due to the fiscus as a rears of texas It was quite hopeless to recover this sum which covered the previous 15 years and the emperor boldly and wisely remitted it and erased the debt from the state accounts 118 AD The bonds were publicly burned in the form of Trajan To prevent the accumulation of bad debts and also in the interests of equity Hadrian ordained that arrears should be examined and the taxation revised every 15 years so that account could be taken of changes in the value of money and property and the taxes regulated accordingly Hadrian also remitted in Italy the Orm Coronarium which the subjects were expected to pay to a new emperor In the provinces he reduced its amount He always refused to accept inheritances willed to him by citizens who had children and he often remitted part or even the whole of the property of men condemned to confiscation in favor of their sons I prefer, he said, to enrich the state with men than with money He occasionally but not often spent large sums of magnificent spectacles once he exhibited gladiatorial combats for six successive days and he once celebrated his birthday by the slaughter of a thousand wild beasts The growth of humanity in the treatment of slaves has already been noticed It was a conspicuous feature in the legislation of Hadrian and marks a reaction against the policy of Trajan who in this respect was inclined to be retrogressive Hadrian revived the old law He could not kill his slave but must hand him over to the law and he punished the ill treatment of slaves He condemned to five years' punishment a matron who had cruelly treated her mates He forbade the sale of male or female slaves for immoral purposes or for employment in the arena and he forbade human sacrifices to Mithras and Baal The cruel practice of putting all the slaves to death in case of a master's murder was modified only those with the sufferer who were near enough to give their master help if they had chosen Hadrian also introduced a number of small reforms intended to improve the manners and morals of his subjects The public paths were subjected to a stricter supervision Senators and knights were compelled to wear the toga in public except when they were turning from supper and the emperor himself always wore the national dress when he was in Italy He was punctilious about etiquette in other ways too On one occasion seeing a slave of his own walking familiarly between two senators he ordered his ears to be boxed with an injunction not to walk between men whose slave he might live to become He endeavoured to repress luxury and food after the fashion of the ancient republic He facilitated traffic by forbidding great vehicles which blocked up the narrow streets to path through Rome Prior to the elementary institutions the work begun by Nerva and Trajan was carried on More money was advanced and it was definitely prescribed that boys up to the age of 18 and girls up to 14 should receive the elementary support In the number and magnificence of the buildings erected throughout the empire under his auspices no emperor surpassed Hadrian There is evidence to show that building was never more active though we cannot follow in detail his smaller works He did much in restoring and improving older buildings such as the pantheon of the gripper and the basilica neptunae in the campus and the Forum of Augustus He built, as in duty bound a temple to his father Trajan and this was the only one of his edifices on which he inscribed his name But his two great buildings were the temple of Venus and Roma and his mausoleum The temple of Venus and Roma was built on the eastern slope of the Velia just above the site of the Colosseum In order to make room for it the Colossus of Nero which still stood on the site of his demolished palace and which Vespasian had converted into a statue of the sun had to be removed to lower ground near the Colosseum The new temple was built according to an architectural design of Hadrian's own It was a double temple with its two cells, abscades placed back to back facing east and west It was the largest and most splendid of all the religious buildings of Rome Its ruins still remain The temple was in an open place surrounded by porticoes and thus resembled the Imperial Fora Moreover, the Imperial Fora were all dedicated to deities who stood in special relation to the greatness of Rome Venus, Genetrix Mars, Pax So that Hadrian's temple to Venus and Roma resembled them also in this point It may be regarded then as part of a series of buildings of a special kind stretching from the campus Marcius to the Esquiline There was indeed a great gap between Hadrian's temple and Vespasian's but this was filled up at a much later period by the Basilica of Constantine and then the series was completed This temple was dedicated in 128 AD 21st of April on which occasion Hadrian probably accepted the title of Patr Patrie and permitted Sabine to receive the title Augusta The district beyond the Tiber had been gradually losing its rural appearance and becoming an important suburb of Rome Communication between the city and the Vatican region was facilitated by a new bridge with Hadrian build across the river where it takes an easterly turn and skirts the campus Marcius on the north On the eastern extremity of the Pons Aelius as it was called he erected in the gardens of Demicia an immense mausoleum known as the Mola Sariana which played a part in modern history as the castle of San Angelo and is still an important strategic point as well as a conspicuous object in Rome Consisting of a square structure below and a massive dome crowned with the statue of Hadrian it outdid in size and splendor the bearing place of Augustus was over against it on the other side of the river the building was not finished at the emperor's death and was completed by a successor it was the bearing place of the emperors for the rest of the second century and even longer Section 6 Last Days of Hadrian When Hadrian returned to Rome at the beginning of 134 AD he did not again quit Italy his health was giving way and he spent much of his time in the villa at Tiber he is said in these last years to have been suspicious, jealous and cruel and have put to death or disgraced distinguished men who had committed no fault but that of awakening his suspicions how far these accusations are true how far they are the columnies of the senatorial party who hated him it is impossible to determine the fact remains that Hadrian conspicuously failed to conciliate the aristocracy unfortunately he was doubtless himself largely to blame as he had no children and felt that his health was precarious he made provision for the succession to the principate by adopting in 136 AD El Caionius Commodus Fierus a son-in-law of that niggrenus who had conspired against him at the beginning of his reign this choice seems to have been highly unpopular and the emperor was compelled to buy the goodwill of the soldiers for his new son by bestowing immense donatives men of approved ability like Cotilius Severus the prefect of the city or Platorius Nepos who had done good work in Britain might feel indignant at being passed over in favor of a youth who was only distinguished for his handsome figure and his luxurious life but Servianus, the emperor's brother-in-law felt the adoption of Fierus as an injury for though he was 90 years old and could not hope to become emperor himself he had a grandson named Fuscus on whom he would doubtless have wished Hadrian's choice to fall their disappointment must have betrayed them into something more decisive than mere murmurs for they were both executed it is not credible that unless there was some overt act of conspiracy Hadrian would have increased his unpopularity by killing an old man of 90 about this time the emperor Sabina died she had accompanied him on some at least of his journeys but his relations with her were never satisfactory she was suspected of infidelity and whether these reports were true or not she seems to have heartily hated him on her death rumors were spread that she had been poisoned at the emperor's instigation or that she had killed herself on account of his ill treatment in adopting Fierus Hadrian made him assume the name Caesar but did not at once raise him to the position of concert thus a new significance was given to Caesar it meant the prospect of becoming Augustus a special command in the Pannonian provinces was assigned to El Ielius Fierus Caesar as he was now called and he showed there that he was not incapable he received the tribunician power before the end of 136 AD and held the consulate for the second time in the following year we cannot tell whether Hadrian was wise or not in selecting Fierus for he fell sick and died prematurely it seems to have been a man of pleasure but like Otto he may have had a strain of vigor too curious anecdotes are told about his voluptuous life he is said to have recommended himself to the emperor by the invention of a pasty which became the favourite dish at the imperial table he was wont to take his midday rest with his concubines on an ample couch and closed the mosquito nets stuffed with rose leaves and strewn with a coverlet of woven lilies amusing himself with the perusal of its most licentious compositions he equipped his pages as cupids with wings on their shoulders and made them run on his errands with the speed which human muscles could not maintain till they dropped when his spouse complained of his infidelities he gaily bade her understand that wife is a term of honour not of pleasure when Hadrian heard that virus was sick and likely to die he was sorely disappointed and lamented aloud that he'd spent so much in donatives and lent on a rotten wall the bitter word was reported to virus and made his illness worse he died on January 1st 138 AD and was buried in Hadrian's mausoleum it was impossible to let the empire devolve immediately upon his son Lucius who was only a child of seven years accordingly Hadrian chose T. Aurelius fulvis bullionius Antoninus a man of consular rank who had reached his 52nd year and seemed in every way a safe choice Hadrian on January 24th his own birthday notified his intention to the senate and recommended Antoninus when after a month's consideration Antoninus consented to accept the honour which was proposed he was duly adopted February 25th and was at once raised to a higher position than virus had occupied receiving the proconsular imperium with the title Imperator and the tribunician power he was thus a concert in the full sense and all that still filled him was the title Augustus and probably the special privileges conferred by the Lex the Imperio the new Caesar was childless and Hadrian called upon him to adopt two sons in order to make the succession sure the imperial choice fell on M. Annius Virus a youth of 18 years and nephew of Antoninus and on the son of Lucius Virus who through his father's adoption was grandson of Hadrian by these acts of adoption Marcus received the name M. Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius that of L. Aurelius Commodus neither of them bore the name Caesar as long as Hadrian lived and their father, Titus was only a Caesar himself the appointment of Antoninus was highly displeasing to Catillius Severus who was the maternal great grandfather of Marcus the prefect of the city he aspired to the principate himself and now showed his appointment in some way which caused Hadrian to deprive him of his office the illness of Hadrian which seems to have been dropsicle induced him to seek relief and Antoninus was left at room to conduct the government but change of air proved as useless as medical advice he resorted to the aid of magicians and even besorted servants to put him out of pain by killing him the curse which his brother Servianus had called down upon him that he should pray for death but should be unable to die was literally fulfilled death at length freed him from his suffering on July 10th 138 AD in his last hours in a happy moment of inspiration he composed some verses and addressed to his soul which has become famous few principates have been more important in results than that of Hadrian which lasted nearly 21 years the creation of a regular civil service was destined to transform completely the character of the principate and work in the same direction as the idea which animated Hadrian's policy of governing the whole empire as homogeneous both these tendencies were opposed to the maintenance of the power of the senate what Hadrian did for the defense of the frontiers and the reform of the army also stams his reign as an epoch and his limitation of the name Caesar to the chosen successor was a change though only formal of some significance end of chapter 26 chapter 27 the principate of Antoninus pious sections 1 and 2 section 1 the administration of Antoninus the death of Hadrian was welcomed to the robin nobility to whom he was audios and the installation of Tim's Antoninus as princeps was attached with no difficulties the senate wished to signify their dislike of the dead emperor by condemning his memory but their malice was overcome by the influence of Antoninus and perhaps also by fear of the soldiers with whom Hadrian was extremely popular the dend Eber was duly enrolled among the gods his body was conveyed from Rays in Rome and lodged in his own mausoleum it has been supposed that the name pious Antoninus or before the end of 130 A.D was given to him on account of his piety towards his adoptive father but this is not certain and others think that he won it by the general clemency of his character the family of Antoninus belonged to Namassus in Gilea Nabonesis it is possible that the amphitheater of which the remains are still to be seen there and the aqueduct known as the Eintant du Gard were built by this emperor both his father and grandfather were consulers he had himself gone through the usual career of public honours had been appointed one of the four consulers of Italy and had been proconsul of Asia he married the sister of Aelius Verus Ania Galeria Faustina by whom he had two sons who died young and two daughters Hadrian had willed that one of these daughters who bore her mother's nine Faustina showed many Lucius Verus while Marcus Aurelius should marry the sister of Verus but as Verus was only a child Antoninus upset this arrangement and united the younger Faustina with Marcus Aurelius probably 146 A.D shortly afterwards 147 A.D he made Marcus his consort in the empire by conferring on him the proconsular imperium and the tribunexion power along with the special right of proposing five measures at one session of the senate Marcus bore the title Caesar which meant that he was presumed to have a successor and occupied theoretically the same position which Antoninus had occupied Hadrian's death but he took no active part in the administration and did not bear the title Imperator the other adopted son of Antoninus El Verus was not admitted to the dignitives which were granted to Marcus his image indeed appeared on imperial coins but he was not entitled Caesar only a gusty films it is quite clear that Antoninus did not contemplate the idea of two emperors of antiquity Marcus was to be his successor and it was for Marcus hereafter if he chose to elevate his brother Verus to the position of Caesar the universal consent of antiquity represents Antoninus as a most estimable man honorable and dignified yet affable and condensing he won golden opinions from all men his promotion to the highest position in the state did not change his temper or his manners in private life he was signorally simple and temperate but however estimable as a man Antoninus was hardly a great statesman the rest which the empire enjoyed under his auspices had been rendered possible through Hadrian's activity and was not due to his own exertions on the other hand he carried the policy of peace at any price too far and so entailed calamities on the state after his death he not only had no originality or power of initiative but he had not even the insight or boldness to work further on the new lines marked out by Hadrian the wall in north britain is the sole exception the only administrative changes in his reign were retrogressive thus he did away with the four judges of Italy this was a concession to the senate and concession to the senate was one of the notes of policy which distinguished his reign as a reaction against that of Hadrian if he had been equally estimable as a man but stronger as a ruler and less obliging to the senate a very different account of his character would have been transmitted to us he trolled himself little with the provinces except in so far as to hinder oppression in collecting the taxes and probably only left Italy once during his reign he disapproved of empirical progresses on the ground that they were a burden on the provinces but he was also doubtless influenced by the fact that Hadrian's long absence from Rome had given dissatisfaction we hear however of roads built in various provinces and of a few other public works such as at the temple of Meptune at Lombassis he adopted the reasonable principle of retaining provincial governors and other officials at their posts for long extras the financial policy of Antoninus was marched by care and economy the only unfavorable thing that has been said of him is that he was a cheese-pairer no extravagance was permitted at his court although he reduced the taxes he left in the treasury at his death a sum of 2700 million cesterces 21,600,000 in public largeses however he was excessively liberal there were no less than 9 congiaria during his reign and his games were not less magnificent than those of his predecessor in AD 147 he celebrated the ludicicularis on the 900th anniversary of the foundation of the city he built a temple to the defied Hadrian and completed the emperor's mausoleum the reign of Antoninus as has been already said he was marched by peace the result of Hadrian's able policy on the frontiers the only serious warfare was in britain there were some trifling disturbances which do not deserve to be dignified by the name of wars in other quarters the governors of the danubei provinces had to deal with the dachian revolt and greece was surprised by the invasion of a marauding band of costa books who penetrated as far as alitia in foci solbia had to be protected a strained the attacks of the schaithians of taraka and the alans had to be beaten back more than once from the american borders there were edgian some jewish disturbances in the east and some moorish disturbances in africa a revolt in egypt induced the emperor to leave italy seemingly the only occasion to meet a provincel expedition during his long reign about 154 a.d about the same time difficulties had arisen with king voliguses the fourth in reference to armenia and here perhaps antoninus was led by his love of peace into adopting a weak policy and sacrificing to temporary tranquility the interests of a more permanent resettlement peace was made in 155 a.d but the inevitable war broke out in the following reign the prestige which rome enjoyed at this time in the eyes of neighboring peoples is shown by the fact that the lazy of culcus and the kwadi asked the emperor to appoint their kings the activity which was displayed in britain is contrasted with the inactivity in other parts of the empire the higrantus rebelled and were defeated and thoroughly reduced by q lolius lolius herbicus 140 a.d the legatus under his direction a new line of fortification was constructed between the first of klota and bojotria clied in fourth at the narrowest part of the island the work was begun in 142 a.d it was not such an elaborate construction as that of hadremes but consisted of a fase about 40 feet wide and 20 feet deep on the south wall now known as graham's dike on the southern side of the fase it did not run along hills like hadremes wall but through level country for a distance of about 37 miles from caridian on the fourth to west killpatrick on the clied south of the fase ran a military road along which were ten camps surrounded with mound and ditch the north side of these camps which consides with the wall closed up the wall of antananus like the wall of hadrian was intended to be both a check on the country to the south of it and a basis of operations for further conquests to the north the roman government had not abandoned the design of subjugating the whole island this is proved by the circumstance that the camps of the wall of antananus are not the most northerly roman positions the remains of a roman camp are docked north of sterling the energetic policy pursued by antananus in britain secured for that country peace and prosperity for 60 years this fact suggests that he might have better consulted the interests of the empire and averted the troubles which benfel in the reign of his successor if he had acted with like vigor on the dany bay and on the oriental frontier it is in the field of law that the chief importance and credit of the principate of antananus lie the same temper which made him somewhat weak in his foreign policy made him strong in jurisprudence and legislation the importance of his reign in the history of roman law is not due to any single sweeping reform like the final redaction of the perpetual edict by hadrian but to the spirit which guided his measures antananus laid special stress on equity while on the one hand he was no rash innovator ready to tamper unscrupulously with the written law he entertained on the other hand no superstitions reverence for the letter he invariably consulted the dictates of equity and humanity and introduced into roman law many important new principles conceived in this spirit the view which he took of the administration of justice is thus expressed by himself although traditional forms must not be lightly altered yet when done a straightable equity demands it is necessary to intervene the activity in jurisprudence which marked the reign of antananus and prepared the way for the golden age of roman law at the beginning of the third century must be partly at least inputted to hadrian's reform on the imperial custelium described in the last chapter one of hadrian's close flurry of antananus who had codified the edict was also active under estanianus by whom he was promoted to be council and prefect of the city the chief lawyers by whom the emperor was assisted were five in number el fumus abernus valens an author of legal treatises el valusius mesquianus were chosen to conduct the legal studies of marcus arulius an author of a large work on fidaic commiswae testamentary trusts el upius marcellus a prolific writer and two others some of these lawyers belonged to the prokulian school like upius marcellus others to the sabinian like valens so that the decisions of the imperial council steered a mean way between the two opposite schools of the intention which was given the study of law at this period is shown by the appearance of the trusteurs of jaius an elementary manual for beginners probably published about 161 ad of the author we know absolutely nothing even his name is uncertain it has already been that there is a tendency under the empire to elevate the condition of slaves and this tendency was zealously promoted by antananus as the first measures to facilitate enfranchisement his decision in one case will illustrate his spirit a female slave was to have been made free by a fidaic commisume but chance circumstances caused the act of enfranchisement to be displayed in the meantime she gives birth to children and the question arises are the children to be slaves or free antananus decided unfair that they should suffer on account of the accident which retarded their mothers emancipation and criminal law antananus introduced the important principle which though now universally recognized in theory is not always respected in practice that accused persons are not to be treated as guilty before trial he also asserted the principle that the trial was to be held and the punishment inflicted in the place where the crime had been committed he magistrated the use of torture in examining slaves by certain limitations thus he prohibited the application of torture to children under 14 years though this rule had exceptions it would be as absurd to blame this humane prince for not abolishing the practice of torture altogether as it would be to blame him for not abolishing slavery he deserves great credit for what he did in meditation of both institutions but the abolition of either was quite beyond the scope of the imagination of any men of this time the universal use of torture in Christian countries until recent times illustrates the supposed necessity of its use one of the most striking features in the criminal legislation of antananus is the account taken of social rank there was always under the empire a social distinction of freemen into two classes the humalorus men of low decree and the haun's stories by high degree the criteron of this distinction was mainly wealth the haun's forests were practically the rich the humatoris the poor under antananus this unwritten distinction is recognized by law but we cannot tell whether he was the first to aive official recognition there can be little doubt that it had been influenced practice actually if not confessedly before his time but now the law becomes openly a respecter of persons there is a law becomes openly and officially a respecter of persons there is a different justice for the base and for the noble different penalties are assigned for the same offense according as it is committed by humilator or a hall sior show me the man and i will show you the law it is not merely the practice of the judge but the principle of the legislator antananus differs from his predissource in being personally a religious man and really devoted to the worship of the natural gods with augustus religion had been mainly a matter of policy trahan had been indifferent hadrian was a septic but antananus took very seriously the religious duties which devolved upon him as pawn effect maximus and member of other colleges in this respect contemporaries compared to him numa the senate erected a monument to him on account of his zeal for public religious ceremonies one can discern in the correspondence of franto the instructor of marcus in latin rhetoric that a certain spirit of piety prevailed in the circle of the imperial family closely connected with zeal for the maintenance of the national religion was the emperor's interest in the antiquities of roman history the coins issued on the occasion of the secular games represent the arrival of inius atletfium the birth of romulus and ramus the shields of numa the miracle of the agoranasveus the exploits of harascus codus and other events of the story of ancient Rome palantium the arcadian home of invander was promoted to be a city and immunity was granted to the people of ilium the city of urius new privileges were granted to levinium but devoted as he was to the pagan religion and traditions of Rome and tanninus was tolerant of other creeds he did not indeed repeal the laws which were enforced against christians but he discouraged persecution section 2 the private life of antanninus and his death the reign of antanninus lies just in the fact that it was signatory devoid of striking events hence our attention undistracted by wars or great administrative changes is naturally turned to the personality of the emperor himself and his private life and perhaps nothing will better serve to convey an impression of the tranquility of his reign that the glimpses which we get in the correspondence of fronto of the simple daily life of the family and the peaceful atmosphere in which they lived the loss of his wife fascina who died in 140 or 141 ad was a great blow to the emperor who loved her deeply as we know from his own words writing to fronto who had praised of insignum erga ceremonius publicus surum et religionium corp insker lot chapter 30 24 her in a speech in the senate he says the part of your speech which related to the honoring of my fascina by the title agasta seemed to me even more true than eloquent for it is really the case i would not prefer to live with her at garus then in the place without her fascina was a beautiful woman and scandal was hissy with her name but there is no conclusive evidence of the charges of infidelity which rumor brought against her it seems clear that all tonight us had no suspicions he heaped honors upon her memory after her death he was defied a temple was erected in her honor and prestigious instituted for her worship her image was publicly displayed at the circundan games a new alimentary endowment was made in pursuance of the policy of nirva and trahan for orphan girls who were called fascinis and tanninus did not run the risk of endangering the peace of his family by taking another wife gallery listrata a freed woman of fascina lived with him in the relation of concubinage which among the romans was a legal bond through inferior to marriage and involved certain rights for an emperor it corresponded somewhat to a more gantic marriage the two adopted sons of an tanninus lived continually with their father true affection and sympathy seemed to have bound together an tanninus and marcus this comes out in the correspondence of pranto and in the meditations of marcus at rom the imperial family lived in the house of tirbius on the north side of the palatine here the emperor kept up the same social intercourse with his friends as before his elevation he was not a lover of formality and rigorous etiquette and he often to wear the tunic at receptions instead of the official toga he was obliged however to resign himself to maintaining the immense staff of domestics which had come to be considered inspendable in the imperial palace although he was excessively simple in his dress he had several officers of the wardrobe we meet at his court a servant whose sole duty it was to announce the names of visitors nomenclator acilitarius on whom it devolved to keep silence among the slaves a pedagogos perorm who instructed the pages and many others and tanninus did not take the same personal interest in philosophy and literature which had been a characteristic feature in hadrian but he patronized men of letters and gathered them about him at his court mainly for the sake of his son by whom they were really appreciated mcornelius fronto shared the intimacy of the emperor as well as of marcus his pupil herodicus eticus the rooster of marcus in greek rhetoric was also highly favored junius rotisticus a stoic philosopher who exercised a great eluence over the mind of the young caesar who belonged to the court circle but it is in the country not in the city at his village not in the palatine that we get the most pleasing pleasure of antaninus and his family he was born and brought up in the country and we love nothing so well as rural life whenever he could he left Rome for his house at lorium on the aurelian way or for triumphs vila at amtuk salis overlooking the sea for signa in latum or for campania the vila of lorium not far from Rome seems to have been his favorite residence it was there that he died in the country his pastimes were hunting and angling letters of marcus to his beloved master describe how the days passed by in simple occupations writing, reading, talking, talking nonsense with fastina the younger whom he calls my little mama there is a delightful description of the vintage at signa the emperor and his family all dine in the wine press for the peasant a characteristic ansidote is told of antaninus and the sophist falmon when antaninus was proconsul of asia he entered the house of pulmon at smirna without being invited assuming that he would be welcome pulmon happened to be absent but he returned in the course of the night and turned the governor bag and hegag out of the house a taninus said nothing at the time he was some more hospitable inhabitant but he did not forget the insult and had afterwards opportunities of revengeing himself by witty words when he was emperor pulmon visited Rome and antaninus made him welcome give pulmon apartments, he said and see that no one turned him out of doors an actor of tragedy complained that he was expelled from a dramatic representation at which pulmon was presiding just when he was about to begin his path at what hour of the day antaninus asked do you say that he drove you from the stage at midday he drove me out of the house at midnight and I made no complaint but perhaps the liveliest idea of his personality will be gained from the picture of him which has been drawn by his adopted son in my father marcus writes in his meditations I bat an example of mildness and firmness of resolution contempt of vane glory industry and perseverance he was accessible to all who had consul to give on public matters and invariably allowed to everyone his due share at consideration he knew when to relax as well as when to labor he taught me to forbear from lisciantus indulgences to conduct myself as an equal among equals to lay on my friends no burden of servility changing them capriciously nor passionately attaching myself to any from him I learned to be self-sufficient and cheerful in every fortune to exercise foresight in public affairs and not to be above examining the smallest matters without affectation to rise superior to vulgar acclamations to worship the gods without superstition and serve mankind without ambition in all things to be sober and steadfast not let away by idle novelties to be consent with little enjoying in moderation the comforts within my reach but never repining at their absence moreover from him I learned to be no sofist, no pellet but a practical man of the world yet at the same time to give due honor to true philosophers to be polite in manner, knee in person and to attend to my health so far as to rid myself of the need of medicine and physicians again to concede without a grudge their preeminence to all who specifically excel in legal or any other knowledge to act in all things after the usage of our ancestors yet without pedantry my father was ever prudent and moderate he neither indulged in private buildings or in excessive largesies or extravagant shows to the people he looked to his duty only not to the opinion that might be formed of his actions he was temperate in the use of baths, modest in dress indifferent to the beauty of his slaves such was the whole character of his life and manners nothing excessive, nothing rude nothing ever done it might be said of him as of Socrates that he could both abstain from and enjoy the things which men in general find it hard to abstain from at all and cannot enjoy without excess the appearance of Antoninus from his busts to the written records of his character and temperament they present the features of a man who was grave yet gentle, firm yet kind robust and earnest but neither austere nor coarse he died in his villa at Lorium from the consequences of a cold of March 7th, 161 AD in the 74th year of his age in his last hours he was careful to show forth clearly his wishes as to the succession the Praetorian Prefects Fierius Fabius, Victor Nus and Sext Nus Cornelius Rep Nus were summoned to his bedside and in their presence he recommended Marcus Aurelius as a successor and made no mention of El Verus he then commanded that the golden statue of fortune which stood continually in it he, Imperial Bedchamber should be removed to that of Marcus in token of the transference of the Principate to the presumptive successor, the Tribune of the Praetorian cohort in attendance then entered and asked for the watchword equanimity replied the Emperor expressing in this his last utterance five spirit of his reign his end says the historian quadratus was most peaceful like a sweet sleep there is no descending voice in the senate when it was proponed to decree to this beloved Sovereign a public funeral and consecrate his memory an immense funeral pile in the shape of a pyramid was erected in the campus Martius crowned by the statue of the dead Emperor standing in a chariot as the pyro was being consumed an eagle was allowed to escape as a token of the apothesis of the dead and then Marcus and Lucius pronounced funeral orations in the forum a great spectacle of gladiators in the Flavian amphitheater in indispensable part of the solemnities Antoninus had erected a temple to the Divine Faustina on the sacred way close to the form 140 AD this temple was now transformed in such a way as to serve for the worship of both Antoninus and Faustina it still stands one of the best preserved ancient buildings of Rome and the inscription on the fade may still be read this video Antonio at Divis Faustin X8 see consecrate of Antoninus Ana Faustita from pedestal of the column of Antoninus Pius end of chapter 27 recording by Chris Caron Ham Lake, Minnesota