Hadrian: Rome’s Greatest Builder

thanks to dollar shave club for sponsoring this video go to dollarshapeclub.com forward slash biographies and get started for just five dollars [Music] during a happy period of more than four score years the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of nerva trajan hadrian and the two antonines these are the words of 18th century historian edward gibbon exemplifying the concept of the five good emperors five roman rulers who successfully governed the empire by absolute power under the guidance of wisdom and virtue hadrian was there right in the middle he left behind the legacy of a builder as he traveled throughout the regions of his empire he founded new cities while all the existing settlements he encountered benefited from some kind of improvement whether it was a new theater a bath house or even just a donation for the future he enacted sensible policies and strengthened the position of his armies even though he had no grand military ambitions that being said hadrian was definitely no saint people quickly fell out of his favor and as you will see those who opposed or slighted him met their violent ends he also curtailed the powers of the senate and leaned more towards an autocratic rule for this reason scholars see hadrian as a mercurial character one whose outward displays of geniality and restraint could have simply been a facade hiding a devious and hedonistic mind or maybe he was just an emperor who wanted to help his people as best he could it really is hard to say and for millennia hadrian has been a puzzle that historians have struggled to solve [Music] hadrian was born cubulous alias adrianus on january the 24th 76 a.d although his place of birth is still somewhat uncertain although most sources indicate he was born in italica a settlement in the province of a spain near beitica others have said that his family may have actually been in rome at the time of his birth which would not have been so far-fetched given that his father publish alias adrianas afer was a roman senator his mother was named paulina retroactively referred to as paulina the elder to help distinguish her from hadrian's sister and his niece who both shared the same name another relative we should highlight and perhaps the most important one of all was an uncle of hadrian named marcus ulpius trajanus he is better remembered as the roman emperor trajan and he will play a major role in hadrian's life his own reign was also quite notable perhaps the best one of all and guess what we've already done a biographics video all about him if you missed it why not give it a watch right now and then come back here where we'll pick up pretty much where that one left off in 8680 hadrian lost both of his parents it was a terrible blow for the young 10 year old boy but he had a modicum of good fortune as trajan took him and his sister under his wing as his wards as did another powerful official named atianus who was a friend of his father this was still over a decade before trajan took the throne but he still had the money and influence to ensure that hadrian received a good education and then started climbing through the ranks of roman bureaucracy as was expected of him hadrian entered public service on the path to become a roman senator like his father he started out as a lowly civil servant and then served several times as a military tribune unsurprisingly when trajan became the new emperor the positions held by hadrian significantly improved but even so trajan was careful not to promote him too fast and there was even a 10-year period when hadrian did not rise through the ranks at all he served among others as quasta tribune praetor consul and legate he was also able to indulge his passion for greek culture when he traveled to athens where it was granted citizenship and named as one of the archons the officials who handled the city's affairs as with any succession worth mentioning hadrian's rise to the throne of rome was marked by intrigue violence and controversy at the time of trajan's death rome was a war with the parthian empire in western asia the conflict was not going in his favor and he also had to contend with several rebellions in other parts of his empire in 117 a.d trajan fell ill so he set sail back to rome where hadrian became the de facto commander leading the romans against parthia as the new governor of syria trajan never made it home though as he died on the journey on august the 8th now of course came the matter of who will become the new emperor trajan and his wife pompeo platina had no children of their own and he never named an heir or did he because around the time of his death some letters appeared apparently written by trajan where he named hadrian as his adopted son and heir to the throne so did trajan actually write these letters that is the question that still troubles historians many historians believe that hadrian's succession was in fact the work of platina and his other guardian atianas who both wanted hadrian to rule because one they liked him and two because it meant they would maintain their privileged positions by the emperor's side and this is not a belief of only modern scholars ancient historians like cassius dio who is one of our main references for hadrian said the same thing in his roman history written less than a hundred years later he even had a great source for his opinion his own father apranianus who served as senator and governor of cilicia cassius dio claimed that his father established with accuracy as did other senators that the succession of hadrian had been engineered by platina as it was her signature on the letters allegedly written by trajan something she had never done before he also said that platina delayed the announcement of her husband's death so that the people might first hear of hadrian's adoption surprisingly despite the suspicions hadrian's ascension to the throne went smoothly and unopposed some have argued that this was because even if trajan did not name him as his heir he probably would have been okay with hadrian becoming the next emperor after all trajan took him on as his ward he looked after his political career he arranged for hadrian to marry one of his grandnieces vibia sabina and during times of war he showed that he trusted hadrian by placing him in charge of the troops furthermore if trajan did have someone else in mind he probably would have named him by then the historia augusta mentions a rumor that trajan intended to name one of rome's leading jurists nuritius priskas as his successor but this is the only source on the matter and is generally considered to be pretty unreliable on august 10 117 a.d hadrian became the new roman emperor he was still in syria and he took his time before heading to the capitol putting down some of the rebellions that had erupted during the reign of his predecessor he did however write letters to the roman senate some was boilerplate staff asking the senate to confirm his sovereignty choosing an official title for himself pledging to serve the public interest making arrangements for trajan's funerals and deification and so on he also wanted to get on the good side of the senate so he swore an oath never to put to death any senator he then immediately proceeded to break this oath or at the very least it was broken in his name we're not sure of the precise circumstances but soon after hadrian's ascension to the throne four of rome's most powerful senators were accused and convicted of several charges including conspiracy against him they were palmer negrinas sailors and quietus none were actually in rome at the time so they were convicted in absentia without public trial and sentenced to death and then they were tracked down and killed this immediately turned to the senate against hadrian with an enmity that lasted for his entire reign even when he died the senate wanted to deny him the divine honors and pretty much had to be forced to do so by his successor for his part hadrian always denied any involvement in the deaths of the four senators his guardian natianas was almost certainly responsible but it remains a matter of pure speculation of whether hadrian knew and approved of his actions or not given the power and influence of the four slain officials it would not be out of the question for atianas to fear that they might oppose hadrian's succession but this is just conjecture the astoria augusta which again contains a lot of statements that are demonstrably false claimed that the four officials conspired in a murder plot against the new emperor these senators were not the only prominent men slain by hadrian if cassius dio is anything to go by he also accused the emperor of banishing and then putting to death apollodorus of damascus the famed architect who was responsible for most of the landmarks built under trajan including his trampful column and the bridge across the danube all of this because apolloduras had insulted hadrian once back when trajum was still emperor by mocking his plans for a new building now one may start to wonder why exactly hadrian was considered a good emperor in the first place given his propensity to eliminate those who slide at him but it was also cassius dio who came to his defense arguing that all of hadrian's faults were atoned for by his careful oversight his prudence his munificence and his skill the historian posits that throughout his lengthy 21-year reign hadrian did not seek out war but terminated the conflicts already in progress a strict and disciplined man he made sure his legions were the same and that they would never be guilty of insolence or insubordination he never deprived anyone of their wealth without cause but quite the contrary often bestowed general sums upon citizens or even entire communities and that he more than any other emperor before him assisted almost all of his allies in subject cities giving to some a water supply to others harbors 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deaths of the four senators we don't know atianus was replaced with two other men septicius clarus and marcius turbo one of hadrian's first major acts as emperor was a ballsy one he reversed trajan's policies in western asia and willingly surrendered the territories his predecessor had gained in mesopotamia it wasn't a glorious move but it was practical hadrian understood that rome might have been powerful enough to conquer the region but did not have the soldiers and resources to keep it and maintain peace if he insisted on continuing trajan's expansionist approach he would have had to deal with one rebellion after another instead what hadrian liked was to use natural borders to consolidate the empire he already had so he gave up rome's claim to everything east of the euphrates river this remained the roman approach for the following four decades until rome went to war against parthia once again in 161 a.d inside the empire hadrian was enacting multiple reforms to benefit the people of rome some which went against long-established roman traditions for example when someone was charged with the major crime it was common to confiscate their estate according to the new law if that person had children they were allowed to inherit a portion of their wealth hadrian also reclassified middle class officials soldiers veterans and their families as honestyoures this is one of two categories of roman citizens representing the high caste as opposed to humiliaries which was the low caste consisting of freed men and slaves the distinction was important because the higher caste benefited from multiple legal privileges particularly when it came to criminal law they almost always received more lenient sentences while the cruelest punishments such as being crucified or thrown to the beasts in the arena were reserved only for the lower caste so while the wealthy enjoyed preferential treatment in most societies it was actually part of roman law that they were granted these privileges and although hadrian did not get rid of such concessions he at least made them available to more groups of people some of the emperor's policies even benefited slaves as he limited the punishments that could be inflicted upon them hadrian made it illegal for citizens to kill their slaves just because they felt like it they could only do it if the slaves were found guilty of a capital offense the slaves could not be sold to gladiator schools or brothels unless again it was punishment for a crime they committed granted it's still not much in hindsight but it's more than most other emperors ever did to benefit the lowest class of people in rome [Music] hadrian's reign was characterized by one thing more so than anything else travel he traveled throughout his empire more than all the previous emperors going from region to region preferring to see things for himself rather than relying on reports from others other rulers usually stayed in rome and only left when it was time for war hadrian on the other hand spent over half his reign outside rome founding new cities and improving the ones that already existed he also gave plenty of attention to his military fortifications in order to better protect his empire from external and internal threats he ordered the construction of new forts and garrisons had others moved to more favorable positions and some he had demolished hadrian embarked on this tour of his empire in 122 a.d his first stop was britannia aka the part of great britain which was a roman province there he ordered the construction of arguably the most famous structure that bears his name hadrian's wall a 73-mile defensive fortification that traveled from the east to the west of the province when it was finished it had 80 small forts called mile castles plus 17 larger forts which were used to garrison auxiliary soldiers from all over the empire initially it was abandoned right after hadrian's death because his successor wanted to build his own wall further up north into scotland however that second wall was subsequently also abandoned as the following emperors preferred to rely on hadrian's wall which from that point on remained in use for over 300 years and large parts of the wall still do stand to this day after britannia hadrian returned to mainland europe and traveled through parts of what is today france and spain before sailing for north africa while the trips themselves were not problematic the emperor had to deal with a few issues in rome pompeo platina the widow of trajan and his former guardian had died so hadrian made arrangements to have her deified and built a temple in her honor furthermore the emperor dismissed two of his close confidants from his inner circle for allegedly behaving with great familiarity towards his wife sabine they were septicus claras one of the two praetorian prefects and the historian satonias who held the position of ab epistolus or the minister of letters who handled the imperial correspondence what happened to them after this point remains uncertain upon arriving in africa adrian had to put down a rebellion by the moors afterwards he cut his trip short when word reached him that parthia might have been preparing for war again he hurried to asia where he made sure that roman defenses were up to snarth and after discussions with the parthian king osros the first ensured that there would be peace between their empires at least for the time being while he was there hadrian visited the roman provinces in asia minor and that is where he met anthonus a bystanian youth that the emperor fell in love with he quickly became a favorite of hadrian who first sent him to rome to complete his education and afterwards made him a part of his retinue as the lovers continued their journey throughout the empire the last stop before hadrian finally returned to rome in 126 a.d was greece one of if not his favorite place in the world he spent almost a year there mostly in athens taking part in their games and rituals funding public works and festivals and even getting initiated in their elecinion mysteries one of the most secretive religious rights of ancient greece today there are still plenty of remnants left to remind the world of hadrian's voyage there is an arch of hadrian in athens there is an even more impressive one in jordan there's hadrian's gate in turkey not to mention that he dedicated resources to finish or rebuild older structures like the roman pantheon and the temple of zeus in athens after a couple of years spent in rome adrian got restless again and set out on another tour at 128 this time starting with greece he then set off for egypt since he had to cut his time in africa short during his first voyage here tragedy befell the emperor in september or october 130 his lover anthony has died apparently by falling and drowning in the river nile there were whispers that he may have been murdered as part of a conspiracy against hadrian while cassius dio claimed the young man sacrificed himself willingly so that the gods may cure hadrian of an unknown illness whatever happened the emperor was distraught over the death of the young man to honor him he founded a new city on the riverbank where he perished and named it antonopoulos even more hadrian had his lover deified and declared a god a cult of worship developed around the man and although the emperor obviously encouraged and supported it spread throughout the empire even he probably did not expect it to become as big as it did the cult lasted for over 200 years after trajan had died with over two dozen temples dedicated to worship being built throughout the empire and thousands of statues being made bearing his likeness hadrian got to enjoy a lengthy rule mostly devoid of serious military conflicts but there is a giant exception in 132 a.d the roman empire fought a rebellion in judea called the bar khokhbar revolt which dominated the last part of adrian's reign tensions had been high in that region for decades and this conflict is considered part of the larger jewish roman wars which went on for 70 years as to what factors triggered this particular uprising the most discernible motive seemed to be the construction of a new roman city called aelia capitalina over the ruins of jerusalem which included a temple dedicated to jupiter built on temple mount which was a holy site for the jewish people the rebellion was led by simon barcba hence the name of the revolt he wasn't just the military leader but he came to regard himself as a messianic figure who may have had up to 400 000 soldiers following him during the uprising at first the romans did not expect the rebellion to grow as fast or be as ferocious as it turned out to be they were completely overwhelmed and soon enough the rebels controlled the region this area in judea basically became independent for over two years with the rebels even striking their own currency eventually though hadrian called in one of his most accomplished generals sextus julius severus as well as reinforcements from other provinces the romans started winning battles and forcing the jewish rebels to withdraw until they had to fall back inside the ancient fortified tower of batar what followed was a long siege but battar also fell eventually and simon barcockbar died during that battle in 135 a.d although his numbers can only serve as a rough estimate cassius dio claimed that over a thousand villages and outposts were raised during the rebellion and roughly 580 000 men were killed in the fights plus countless more perished of feminine disease or were sold as slaves hadrian returned to rome around 134 a.d and never really strayed far outside its limits for the remainder of his life if the historia augusta is to be believed he became more paranoid and violent in his later years putting to death influential men who he thought might be conspiring against him according to rumors the emperor even poisoned his own wife sabina who died in 136 a.d as hadrian was getting older and began suffering from various ailments he had to consider his successor like trajan before him he had no children of his own so he would have to adopt someone and designate him as his heir the first name that was thrown around was servianus one of hadrian's longest serving advisors he had been treated for years as the unofficial successor but he was too elderly to become emperor he was 90 years old when he died in 136 a.d so instead the emperor thought about naming serbianus grandson foskas as his heir however hadrian soon changed his mind and went with a different man named lucius commodus not only that but he had servianas and fuscus put to death allegedly because they were displeased at his action what exactly this is supposed to mean we're not sure did they simply complain about the emperor or is this a nice way of saying that they tried to stage a coup either way before being executed servianus allegedly got on his knees and said as for hadrian this is my only prayer that he may long for death but be unable to die this became incredibly prophetic as hadrian did indeed die a slow painful death and was prevented from committing suicide several times as far as his heir was concerned he adopted the name lucius alias but this turned out to be a poor choice as successor he was actually the son-in-law of negrinus one of the four senators killed at the start of hadrian's reign because of this some see the choice from hadrian as atonement for their deaths suggesting that he may have been involved after all regardless lucius alias died in 138 a.d a few months before hadrian so the emperor had to select another heir this time he went with antonius pius who did indeed succeed him as roman emperor when hadrian finally perished on july the 10th 138 a.d age 62. so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below also please don't forget to check out our fantastic sponsor dollar 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Channel: Biographics

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Length: 22min 36sec (1356 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 07 2020