Hadrian - The Restless Emperor #14 Roman History Documentary Series

adrian the restless emperor or less flatteringly the absent emperor considered to be one of the best roman emperors hadrian was in many ways the complete opposite to his predecessor whereas trajan shared augustus's perception that an aggressive foreign policy cemented consent for the autocracy at home hadrian on the other hand proved to be more conservative and adopted a defensive policy for the imperial frontiers but they were similar in the way that they were both committed to the good governance of the empire publius alias hadrianus apha simply referred to as hadrian was born on the 24th of january 76 a.d in rome but his hometown was italica in southern spain a roman colony founded after the second punic war against the merchant city-state of carthage around 200 bc the colony consisted of military veterans from the war they were to settle the newly occupied territories hadrian's family had ever since that day called italica their home and they would come to be one of the leading families in the region growing their wealth and influence to enter the senatorial class in rome his father was in fact a senator in rome which forced him to live close to the capital when adrian was only 10 years old in 85 or 86 a.d his father died this unexpected and probably devastating event would come to steer his life in a new direction a direction that would eventually lead to the imperial throne itself hadrian didn't have any brothers so his father's inheritance would fall on young hadrian's shoulders alone his family decided he needed masculine guidance during his upbringing to ensure he managed the family estates and fortune well two guardians were selected for this purpose both from italica publius achillea cetanus a man of equestrian rank and the second man was trajan the future emperor now only in his thirties but was quickly proving to be a very able soldier already their primary task seems to have been to look after his inheritance until he was old enough himself but trajan who didn't have any children of his own may have played the part of a substitute parent for young adrian trajan was in fact distantly related to the boy he was hadrian's maternal great uncle the following years hadrian was educated by a grammaticus in rome and he would develop a love for all things greek earning him the nickname grecolus the greek boy it's likely that trajan's wife platina encouraged him she was something of a phil helen herself although well-educated roman spoke greek and could sight the iliad and odyssey out of memory adrian took his love of greece too far according to his contemporaries his nickname was certainly a form of mild mockery for his obsession toga verulis on the 24th of january 1980 adrian celebrated his 15th birthday and he robbed himself in the toga virulence the toga of manhood and claimed his family inheritance he set off for italica to inspect his estates and holdings but it seems that hadrian spent much of his time in italica hunting an activity that seems to have been very popular among the youth of italica whereas the roman upper class sneered at hunting as an amusement for slaves only fit for spectacle in the amphitheaters his guardian trajan thought that he was wasting his time frivolously so hadrian was once again ordered back to rome perhaps trajan who was commanding a legion in northern spain at the time personally traveled to italica to accompany hadrian to rome trajan was said to be consoled the following year the highest office second only to the emperor himself and a rare honor not least because the ordinary consulship was granted to very few non-members of the imperial family under the flavians tribunus laticlavius during the following years in the early 90s emperor domitian was campaigning along the danube and trajan accompanied the emperor trajan was very likely governor of pannonia during this period whereas hadrian entered the cursus onorum by being a military tribune tribunus latiklavius in the second legion at ukstrix stationed on the danube frontier during 95-96 a.d the second adiutrix was a relatively newly formed legion it was formed during the year of four emperors in 69 a.d from marines in the ravenna fleet after the civil wars it was later sent to britain and accompanied agricola in his campaign into scotland and some of the same men would have been present at the battle of mons grappius in 83 a.d in his role as tribune hadrian was expected to learn from the legate or legion commander and professional officers mostly men risen from the ranks with humble backgrounds adrian was later known for willingness to share the soldier's simple diet and his astonishing capacity for remembering the names of soldiers and veterans in fact we know of one soldier who hadrian befriended during this time a man named marcius turbo who would later end up as prefect of hadrian's praetorian guard after his commission in the second at utrics was up hadrian transferred to another legion on the danube for a second tour of duty as military tribune he had barely arrived at his new posting when news arrived from rome that emperor domitian had been assassinated marcus kosias nerva was selected by the senate to be his successor nerva was old in poor health and didn't have any children to inherit the throne or create a new dynasty domitian was disliked in the senate and the upper class in rome because he had been very mistrustful of them but the soldiers and the praetorian guard had liked the now dead emperor so many feared another civil war would follow the collapse of the flavian dynasty just as it did with the fall of the julio claudian dynasty in 69 a.d optimus princess to appease the armies and avoid a civil war never decided to adopt a man respected by the armies and one of flavian's most trusted supporters trajan hadrian's guardian and surrogate father was now set to become emperor of rome the emperor to be trajan didn't have any children of his own so hadrian suddenly became a very important young man adrian once again transferred to another military posting this time on the rhine frontier at upper germania to be close to trajan who was governor in lower germania at the time upper germania was governed by hadrian's brother-in-law savianus and it seems like they didn't get along very well at all cevianus wrote letters to trajan complaining that his ward was spending money and getting into debt the news would have angered trajan who remembered hadrian's carefree attitude in italica in early february of 98 a courier arrived at magontiakum with news that emperor nerva had died from a fever this meant that trajan was now the emperor of rome eager to win his guardian's approval hadrian was determined to be the first person to give trade in the news so he set off from maguntyakum to travel the 190 kilometers north to colonia agrippinensis adrian didn't get far before his carriage broke down and this was no accident the carriage had been sabotaged by servianus who wanted his own messenger to be the first to inform the new princeps adrian walked for a while before he was able to get a fresh horse and made it to trajan before servianas's messenger and just as hadrian had hoped his exploit delighted trajan before going to rome trajan inspected the long frontiers along the rhine and the danube hadrian doubtlessly accompanied the new emperor inspecting the armies securing loyalty and assessing the tribes across the danube the dacians and sarmatians had caused repeated problems for rome in the past decade adrian returned to rome in the imperial entourage in 99 a.d shortly thereafter hadrian had some sort of problem with trajan's court attendance while our sources are incomplete when it comes to this incident it's easy to speculate that hadrian may have gotten too close to some of the page boys in trajan's court boys that trajan very greatly loved either way this incident was patched up by one of trajan's best friends lycinius sura in december the following year in 180 hadrian entered the senate as questo and he also married trajan's grand niece sabina probably with the backing of the emperor's platina this tied hadrian even closer to the new princeps and the imperial family as questo hadrian had the task to read out the emperor's speeches and his absence in the historia augusta it is recorded that the then 24 year old hadrian was laughed at for his rustic accent by the roman elite but considering hadrian spent most of his youth in different schools in rome it's hard to believe he had any spanish accent but perhaps his previous couple of years in the army affected his dictation the historia augusta is not a very reliable source so it might very well be a fabrication however on the 25th of march 101 a.d only a few months into his quest or ship adrian left rome to accompany trajan in his first war against decibelus at desir again our sources are incomplete about hadrian's involvement in the war the historia augusta simply states he followed trajan to the dacian war in a position of fairly close intimacy at this time indeed hadrian states that he indulged in wine too so as to fall in with trajan's habits and that he was very richly rewarded for this by trajan adrian didn't hold any imperium the right to command troops during the war he accompanied trajan as a comet augusti a companion to the emperor check out our previous video on emperor trajan where we cover the dacian wars in more detail during the winter of 101 a.d adrian returned to rome as this quest or ship was about to elapse the public in rome was waiting nervously for any news from the war in previous wars the dacians had proven to be a hard nut to crack for the roman legions adrian brought trajan's dispatches to the senate an account of the campaign which he read aloud in the senate all though the war was not over it had proven to be a successful first campaigning season for trajan even if it came at a high cost which is evident because we know that the governor of britannia even sent a small detachment from his personal bodyguard to reinforce trajan's army after the battle at tapai the following year hadrian was appointed to office of tribune of the people whether he had something to do is unknown the power of the tribunate had diminished significantly since the end of the republic when a tribune could halt the entire roman state by vetoing even the highest magistrates adrian would have stayed in rome waiting for news from the emperor who launched a new campaign into dacia adrian committed to his artistic pursuits like poetry and writing news soon arrived the trajan proved to be successful in subduing decibus and undoing the humiliating peace treaty signed by domitian a few years earlier trajan entered the capital in triumph and lavish festivities and games were held in celebration hadrian was a rising star in rome and in 104 a.d he secured the election as praetor for the following year the main duties for a prey tour concerned the administration of justice in both civil and criminal law but his new office was cut short after five months into his prey to ship trajan once again declared war on deceptis in dacia de sebolos had been infringing on the terms imposed on him in 102. a new campaign was prepared and trajan set off for the danube frontier on june 4th and hadrian accompanied him this time hadrian was appointed legate of legio one minerva a legion founded by domitian probably in 82 a.d for the campaign against the chatty tribe given a name that honored domitian's favorite deity adrian's role in the war is described only briefly in the historia augusta at this time certainly his many outstanding deeds became renowned there's also an inscription in athens that details various military decorations he received during the war but what he actually did in order to earn said decorations is unknown before the end of the war the pannonian province was divided into two superior and inferior adrian was appointed governor of the latter province after having served 12 months as legate adrian was commissioned to restrain the samatians pannonia inferior faced the lasiges tribe on the hungarian plain though they had helped rome during the first war it seems that they needed to be restrained by hadrian perhaps from grabbing land from dacia during the second dacian war the province had one legion stationed in it legio2 adiotrics the same legion he served as military tribune a few years before it seems that he acquitted himself well he preserved military discipline and checked the procurators who were overstepping the mark we don't know much more than that but it's safe to say that a governorship was a great way for hadrian to win friends in rome hadrian would have received a number of letters of recommendations from fellow senators putting forth their own candidate perhaps a member or a protege to the various postings in the legion and the civic offices in the province appointment to an imperial province would almost guarantee you a consulship and after only two years adrian was granted a suffix consulship probably in the year 108 a suffix console ship was not as prestigious as the two ordinary consoles who launched the year in january and gave their names to that year officially years were referred to as during the consul ship of consul so and so whereas the suffolk consoles were replacements for the ordinary probably towards the middle and end of that year following his consulship hadrian did not hold any public offices for some years exactly why trajan showed no interest in sharing the workload of empire is unknown but it's been theorized that because trajan's closest friend and advisor lycenia sura passed away during hadrian's consulship hadrian lost his greatest supporters in trajan's closest circle of advisors other promising young romans suffered a similar stagnation in their careers about the same time adrian did not set idol during the apparent lack of further postings instead he decided to visit athens in 112. the city-states in greece and especially athens had always held a certain allure to upper-class romans they considered it to be the birthplace of civilization art literature and philosophy for hadrian who was already a phil helen this must have been a very special occasion though athens had long lost all its political importance the athenians quickly granted hadrian citizenship and appointed him arkhan the highest magistrate of the city athens was still a cultural center with a thriving intellectual life and in his role as archon hadrian ensured the pan-athenic games of 112 a.d were a success to further show his greekness and honor athens who showed him such a warm welcome adrian grew a bit upper-class romans had for centuries the custom to be clean-shaven whereas greek adult males wore trimmed beards as a matter of course a leading philosopher of the day was epictetus whom hadrian greatly admired wrote this on the subject so we ought to preserve the signs which god has given we ought not to throw them away we ought to not so far as we can confuse the sexes which have been distinguished in this way the parthian expedition after years of peace in the empire and good governance of trajan war was once again looming in the distance this time against jerome's rival in the east the parthian empire the pretext for the war seems to have been the disputed succession of armenia a state that neighboured both powers and both considered to be part of their separate sphere of influence an arrangement had been struck decades earlier where parthia would nominate a candidate to the throne of armenia but the romans confirmed the choice and conducted the coronation in rome parthia had failed to confirm their nomination with trajan which meant a loss of face for rome despite the parthians desperately trying to make concessions trajan wanted war and public opinion was enthusiastically behind their emperor trajan's true motives for the war can only be speculated about but he was a great admirer of alexander the great who had centuries earlier led his great campaign into the same lands now occupied by the parthians this would be trajan's emulation of the macedonian kings conquests adrian was appointed to legate by the emperor in preparation for the campaign in reality we know very little of hadrian's role in the campaign during the parthian expedition it's recorded that he shared daily life with trajan he was assigned to syria a province that shares a frontier with parthia so he traveled on from athens sometime during early 113 towards antioch to prepare the troops for trajan's arrival and the ensuing campaign trajan arrived towards the end of 113 and his campaign was forced to wait for the winter snow to melt in spring of 114 before he could launch his expedition into the mountains of armenia and then into parthia proper in 115 due to internal civil strife parthia was unable to put up any coordinated effort to resist the invader and trajan was able to march to the partying capital of stacifan without resistance trajan seemingly planned to reduce the conquered territory into direct roman provinces but the land proved to be hard to control and trajan had overextended his reach small insurgency sprung up all over his newly conquered territory and when another major jewish revolt broke out in the eastern part of the empire that threatened roman supply lines trajan was forced to withdraw to antioch for the winter although it seems like trajan had plans to continue pacifying the parthian territories in the following campaigning season but due to his failing health he was persuaded to sail back to rome to celebrate his triumph over parthia more bad news soon arrived this time from the danube frontier serious disorder had broken out troops had been borrowed from that region for the parthian campaign the governor of syria at the time gaius julius quadratus basis was tasked with dealing with the situation along the danube he fought with trajan in the dacian wars so presumably knew the area well hadrian was given basis his previous post as governor of syria and was promised the consulship of 118 a.d while the sick emperor sailed the southern coast of anatolia towards the italian peninsula his health kept deteriorating and his entourage was forced to dock in salinas hoping the elderly emperor would get better but trajan would never recover but his death seems to have been kept a secret for some time to ensure a smooth succession of imperial power the new emperor many rumors surrounded trajan's death one suggests trajan intended to send a letter to the senate and let them decide the next princeps from a list he would provide them another rumor claims that platina trajan's wife and good friend to hadrian had an impostor stand in for the then already dead emperor to adopt hadrian as his son and successor whether or not trajan approved of the adoption is unknown but letters were quickly sent to rome announcing the adoption the imperial mint in rome was instructed to issue coins celebrating the adoption hadrian was in antioch when he received the letter of adoption on august 9 117 a.d a few days later on the 11th the official announcement of trajan's end reached him the then 41 year old hadrian had finally attained the purple and become the emperor of the roman world with a substantial part of the roman army still in the east and in syria adrian was quickly to present himself to the legion stationed in the east who quickly proclaimed him emperor despite adrian's apparent position of strength he was worried that other governors with armies under their command would be tempted to put in their own bid for the throne so he sent bonuses to the troops and a carefully worded letter to the senate apologizing for not letting them proclaim him emperor before the troops hadrian reasoned that the unseemly haste of the troops in acclaiming the emperor was due to the belief that the state could not be without an emperor the senate seems to have appreciated this gesture and they offered him various honors like one of the highest titles of peter patricia father of the country along with the right to carry out trajan's triumph over parthia but hadrian declined both honours but only reluctantly relented and let the triumph be carried out but he would not take the role of the conquering general instead an effigy was placed in the triumphal chariot it was trajan entertainers who had been trusted to look after hadrian after his father's death in 86 though attenus is often overshadowed by trajan he was one of the two prefects of the praetorian guard during trajan's reign and wrote from selling a swarming hadrian of enemies who would do their best to undermine his brief reign an advised hadrian to put to death a number of high-ranking officials and some men already in exile adrian decided against his guardian's advice this was not the time to start killing prominent citizens instead he swore an oath that no senators would be put to death during his rule atanus and trajan's wife platina boarded a ship from salinas with trajan's body and set sail to antioch where adrian came to meet them and inspected the remains these were cremated and brought to rome and placed beneath his column just a few years earlier the empire had been stronger than ever but trajan's parthian expedition and sudden death proved to be too much for the empire to manage in the historia augusta it's recorded the nations that trajan had conquered began to revolt the moors two were on the attack and the samatians were waging war the britons were running out of roman control egypt was hard-pressed by riots and finally libya and palestine were showing the spirit of rebellion in other words the situation was tenuous for the roman empire its long frontiers required a massive standing army the cost for maintaining that army was the state's largest expense so the empire had the smallest military they considered safe for the maintenance of the borders naturally when troops had to be relocated for an impending war that left holes in the defenses aggressive wars proved to be dangerous for imperial stability even when successful most of the land bordering roman territory did not pass the cost-benefit analysis apart from parthia and asia a contemporary historian appian wrote this on the subject the romans have aimed to preserve their empire by the exercise of prudence rather than extend their dominion indefinitely over poverty-stricken and profitless tribes of barbarians adrian was now responsible for the unenviable task of saving the empire that was cracking at the seams he started by abandoning trajan's new provinces in armenia assyria and mesopotamia and all troops to regroup on the euphrates rome's traditional border he also considered withdrawing from dacia but ultimately decided against it hadrian's new policy of consolidation rather than expansion was deeply despised by his contemporaries who saw it as defeatism what it actually showed is hadrian's clear sightedness and his willingness to take rational measures to secure a critical situation despite going against rome's conventional view the four x consoles early on in hadrian's reign in 118 some sort of conspiracy seems to have occurred that would forever taint his relationship with the senatorial class forex consoles negrinus palmer celsus and lucius quietus were the leaders of this supposed conspiracy all had grounds for resentment and they all had been close to trajan negrinus had been removed from his post as governor of desire celsus and palmer had been involved in some sort of caught intrigue and had fallen from grace at the end of trajan's reign and were sent into exile lucius quietus had been close to trojan throughout his reign but had been dismissed by hadrian from his posting in judea so he presumably harboured resentment towards the new emperor they were accused of planning an attempt on the emperor's life while he conducted a sacrifice the attempt was never made and only negrinus was in the emperor's entourage at the time of this supposed assassination the scheme was discovered only later on when the greenness had been dismissed the conspirators correspondence was perhaps intercepted by the emperor's frumentari the frumentari were agents in charge of organizing army supplies their role was expanded under hadrian's rule to act as a rudimentary secret service they were to gather information about activities of the roman officials in the provinces the execution of these four senators was a political disaster for hadrian he had just recently ascended to the throne and promised not to kill any senators that hadrian almost immediately had four of them executed didn't bode well for the rest of his reign many feared that the dark days of domitian's last years on the throne would come again it seems the detainers the praetorian prefect and hadrian's one-time guardian was the man who actually ordered the executions for these ex-consuls leaving hadrian with plausible deniability the victims had all four been enemies of hadrian and had the potential of challenging his reign perhaps attainers took matters into his own hands to safeguard hadrian's ascendance but i find it likely that hadrian knew of if not ordered their deaths on july 9 118 a.d adrian entered rome for the first time as emperor his first task was clear to him he must repair the trust with the senate and establish a reign with their consent and establish a reputation as a man of peace and legality though his reign had started with violence he did not intend to stay on that path while in the senate hadrian swore that he had not ordered the deaths of the four eggs consoles hadrian wanted to put the blame on attainus but did not want to fire him from his post as praetorian prefect that might upset the guard he was instead persuaded to resign his post as prefect and given the honor of ornamenta consolaria the ornaments of the consulship without holding the office to further gain popularity hadrian had all the public debts cancelled all citizens who owed the treasury money greeted the news with jubilation he also introduced a salary for senators who had fallen on hard times one of our main sources for the roman emperors up until domitian was suetonius this suetonius was the official secretary to hadrian he controlled the emperor's correspondence and as such was a very influential figure in hadrian's court and would have had access to state archives from where he could find sources for his biographies hadrian's buildings hadrian was a great admirer of rome's first emperor augustus and closely modelled his own reign after his idol he had refused excessive honors from the senate at the beginning of his reign just like augustus to make the connection to augustus even more evident hadrian decided to restore many temples constructed by a gripper augustus's closest friend most prominent of these projects is the pantheon agrippa's original temple was damaged by a fire in 80 a.d hadrian's remodeling would become one of the most evocative examples of roman engineering prowess it remains the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world to this day despite this enormous feat of engineering adrian refrained from putting his own name on the building instead leaving the old inscription honoring its original founder a gripper hadrian's modesty was calculated but nonetheless an honorable thing to do early on in hadrian's reign work began on his famous villa outside rome the size of this project meant that construction was ongoing for most of his reign though it's called a villa it was intended to be a center of government close enough for senators who were forced to live close to rome to attend official meetings and public affairs another great work was that of the temple of venus between the forum romanum and the flavian amphitheatre this was one of the largest temples in rome rivaling the temple of jupiter optimus maximus on the capitoline hill adrian the traveller in 119 a.d adrian left rome to tour campagna a region just south of rome perhaps he was missing athens for this was a thoroughly greek region despite being part of the roman state for centuries they still followed their own customs and spoke greek hadrian visited many of the prominent towns in the area various gifts and honours were granted this journey in campania probably gave hadrian the idea for a longer trip where he planned to visit all the provinces of the empire again modeling himself after his idol augustus who himself wanted to inspect problems for himself it was only when augustus was older and could delegate friends and family to look after imperial affairs in his stead upon returning to the capital hadrian felt secure in his position as the emperor and no immediate threats to the empire from within or without requiring his attention so he set out from rome in 121 a.d and removed as cassius dio writes all imperial trappings but he never used these outside rome historia augusta claims he generally wore the communist clothing refusing gold ornamentation on his sword belt fastening his cloak with an undulled clasp and only reluctantly allowing himself an ivory hilt to his sword he set sail for macelia in southern gaul and made his way up the rhone river to lug dunham while he was probably greeted by all the pomp necessary for an imperial arrival coins held him as restorer of gaul his destination was the rhine frontier where he wanted to implement his new strategy of defensive imperialism adrian was not a fresh-faced boy anymore he was a soldier first having served for many years on the frontiers of the empire and participated in many of trajan's wars when he arrived at the garrisons on the frontier he introduced the highest standards of discipline keeping the soldiers on frequent exercises hadrian led by example and shared the everyday life of the ordinary soldiers hadrian was naturally inquisitive he inspected all aspects of the garrisons from weapons to the palisades and made sure everything was up to the highest standard cassius dio writes he personally viewed and inspected absolutely everything to further solidify hadrian's defensive policies he had the legions constructing massive wooden palisade that would fill a gap in the roman border between the rhine and danube rivers its exact purpose has long been speculated about for the tribes on the other side of the lines posed no threat of invasion it's likely a statement piece a part of hadrian's propaganda these palisades were not built for a particular threat it was to be a permanent fixture on the border of an empire and a statement of imperial wide policy to britannia his next destination on his great tour of the empire was britannia a province that had just recovered after a few years of unrest when arriving in britain in the summer of 122 a.d adrian brought with him legio six victrix perhaps to replace legio9 hispania that might have been destroyed during the recent unrest during his britain expedition hadrian received news that suetonius his secretary and famous biographer had acted in an offensive manner to the emperor's wife sabina they had behaved at that time toward his wife sabina in a more informal manner than respect for the imperial family required while the marriage between sabina and hadrian seems to have been a loveless relationship they never had any children and sabine is said to have publicly called hadrian's personality monstrous court etiquette would still have to be maintained we don't know what offense suetonius is guilty of but one of the praetorian prefects was also dismissed during this incident so some sort of offense seems to have taken place that called for the dismissal of two key figures in his court one of the most evocative of roman monuments in britain is vellum aliam hadrian's wall it's scarcely mentioned by our written sources of the day the historia augusta simply states the first to construct a wall 80 miles long which was to separate the barbarians from the romans inscriptions on the walls suggest that construction began before hadrian got to britain probably sometime in 118. just as his buildings in rome made a political point so too we have to read the subtext for the construction of this massive wall this was a restating of his point of rome's new defensive stance to the east in the winter of 122 a.d adrian continued his travels back to gaul and on towards spain and to the capital of the province of hispania tarakonesis adrian had received news of a rebellion in mauritania and renewed riots in alexandria both called for his attention we know very little of hadrian's travels in north africa however both problems seemed to have been resolved before the emperor had to intervene in person perhaps the fact that hadrian was on his way may have dissuaded further disturbance a bigger problem was looming in the east parthia was once again causing disturbances in the east adrian had to put his tour of north africa on hold for now and set sail for syria where he arrived in june 123. the historia augusta simply claims that the war with the parthians had not at that time passed beyond the preparatory stage and hadrian checked it by a personal conference parthia was in no shape to conduct a large-scale military invasion into roman territory they had not fully recovered from civil strife and the devastation of trajan's campaign six years earlier they were probably seeking the return of some hostages and perhaps even some monetary reparations whatever the deal war was averted again modeling after his idol augustus who also negotiated with the parthians instead of waging war after having dealt with the parthian problem hadrian's entourage continued north touring the border against armenia they were headed towards trapezius a greek colony on the black sea coast made famous by xenophon in his epic tale of the ten thousand mercenary hoplites who got stranded in persian territory after their employer died in a failed attempt to wrestle the throne from his brother the ten thousand were continually harassed and attacked on their march back to greek territory trapezius was the first greek city they reached after their gruelling march where they sacrificed to zeus and heracles hadrian it seems followed this example and a similar sacrifice took place during his stay in the city hadrian continued his travels westward along the coast of the province of pontus bithynia probably stopping in harbors such as amisus sinopi and heraklia pontica the imperial entourage wintered in nicomedia in late 123. imperial coinage hailed hadrian as restorer of nicomedia the city had just been ravaged by an earthquake shortly before his arrival wherever hadrian went he invested in urban infrastructure he commissioned aqueducts and canals new roads and he paid generously for the construction of temples and other public buildings perhaps hadrian met antinus for the first time during his stay in the region antinus was born in claudiopolis he was a young boy who hadrian would take great interest in he would become something of a favorite and lover of the emperor it's perhaps too early to infer that they were lovers at this early stage but somehow anthonus was taken along with the imperial entourage perhaps he was hired in some capacity in the imperial staff and hadrian took an interest only later on either way in the spring of 124 adrian and his entourage sailed across the sea of mamara to thrace before setting out for the province of asia adrian again showed his interest in the past by visiting the site at the battle of granicus where alexander the great defeated the persian forces for the first time in 334 bc a curious incident occurred when hadrian visited pergamon galen records that hadrian struck one of his attendants in the eye with a pen when he realized that the slave had become blind in one eye as a result of this stroke he called him to him and offered to let him ask him for any gift to make up for what he had suffered when the victim remained silent adrian again asked him to make a request of whatever he wanted he declined to accept anything else but asked for his eye back for what gift could provide compensation for the loss of an eye a clear indication that though he saw himself as something of an intellectual well-versed in classic philosophy he was prone to outbursts of rage hadrian seems to have been a cocksure man with above average intelligence with the best education you could get in rome at the time and he did not suffer fools gladly apparently another quite telling anecdote is when hadrian was on one of his journeys a woman stepped forward as the emperor passed by and made a request i haven't got the time adrian said with considerable presence of mind she replied well stop being emperor then this struck home the emperor relented and gave her the hearing it's remarkable how approachable the emperor seems to have been if anyone can just walk up to him on the street and request a hearing cry from later centuries when emperors carried themselves as demigods too far removed for approach while in ephesus the young men of the city sang a hymn in the theater for the emperor who listened to it in a gracious and friendly manner from there he sailed to rhodes where he would have seen the remains of the colossus of rhodes a huge statue of helios erected in the early 3rd century bc a 6th century writer john malalas claims that hadrian restored the colossus but this claim has been challenged by modern historians though it would have been a typical hadrian thing to do no other sources corroborate the restoration after his visit to rhodes adrian sailed towards athens the city that had welcomed him so warmly many years earlier there he took part in the esoteric ellucinian mysteries an inscription has been found in elusive that refers to the emperor hadrian god and panhellen while in athens hadrian noticed that merchants were marking up their prices during the busy period of the mysteries when many travelers would come to the city to take part in the rituals and hadrian warned the merchants i want the vendors to have been stopped from their profiteering or else a charge to be brought against them then hadrian set off for a tour of the peloponnesus visiting megara where a temple was built by the emperor he visited corinth and the site of the famous battle just outside mantinha bought between thebes and a spartan-led army composed of many city-states the brilliant eperminidas led his thebians to victory but was fatally wounded in the fighting and a pillar with the shield was erected on the site if antoneus accompanied adrian at this time they would have very likely visited the city of mountaineer as well mountaineer was the supposed origins of the greek settlers of claudiopolis and denus's birthplace hadrian was back in athens by march of 125 to enjoy the great theatre festival of dionysia athens saw the most construction out of almost any other city during hadrian's reign libraries a pantheon an aqueduct and a massive temple dedicated to olympian zeus and much much more in the spring of 125 hadrian set off northward toward dyrachum the emperor was finally headed back to italia on his march in central and western greece he would have visited delphi and as usual he resolved local disagreements and started many building projects and of course hadrian could not resist hunting in this mythical land it is said that he downed a bear and dedicated it to eros and wrote a short poem be gracious kindly receive the best parts of this bear from hadrian the one he killed with a blow from horseback you of your own accord in recompense let grace be breathed soberly on him by aphrodite urania back to rome before heading to rome adrian's party sailed into the harbour of syracuse adrian ascended the massive volcano aetna in the middle of the night because he wanted to see the sunrise at the summit the active volcano had just a few years earlier devastated the local area with a massive eruption after a quick tour of western sicily adrian was heading for rome in rome hadrian inspected the newly restored pantheon and his new villain near taibo though it was probably not complete but it was habitable the villa was both a palace for public business and a private resort for hadrian less than one and a half years elapsed before the restless adrian left the outskirts of rome for a tour of northern italy on his return he ordered the peninsula to be reorganized into four administrative regions governed by ex-consuls previously italy had been ruled by local authorities with some supervision from the senate in rome this new division would put italy on the same level as any other province of the empire and the reform proved very unpopular it was repealed shortly after his reign on the 11th of august 122 adrian was back in rome to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his ascendance to the imperial throne ten days of festivities and games were held to mark the occasion it seems that adrian fell ill during or just before these games because they were held to promote the emperor's health the emperor recovered and finally accepted the title of peter patriai father of his people a title he was awarded upon his ascendants 10 years earlier but had at that time deemed himself unfit for the title modeling himself after augustus who had also modestly refused the title initially africa hadrian ever the restless was eager to resume his travels and in his previous tour his visit to northern africa had been cut short due to the parthian incident south africa made for a natural first destination augustus had made plans to visit the region during his reign but was prevented due to a storm adrian was the first reigning emperor to ever visit the provinces in north africa the historia augusta records that it rained on his arrival for the first time in the space of five years and for this he was extremely popular with the africans as usual hadrian inspected every aspect of the province he introduced tax breaks for impoverished farmers new building projects were started but he was particularly interested in border security another massive wall was under construction before hadrian went to the region the wall shares many similarities with the more famous wall in britannia but built out of local material primarily mudbricks the main purpose of these walls seems to have enabled the legions to better manage relations with the tribes bordering roman territory those relations were primarily friendly and trade orientated only sometimes hostile most of the tribes had treaties with rome and benefited from having good relations the wall was built not to exclude but to control in june he reached the province of numidia where legio3 augusta was stationed its legate had trained the troops hard for the coming inspection they knew hadrian would only be satisfied by the best an inscription has been found in the area that records some speeches hadrian made to the troops after they had performed an exercise in front of him he said military exercises in a manner of speaking have their own rules and if anything is added to or subtracted from them the exercise becomes too insignificant or too difficult the more difficulties that are added the less pleasing is the result of all difficult exercises the most difficult is the one you performed throwing the javelin in full battle dress i approve of your eagerness the commander also received praise i commend catalinas my legate because he directed you to this exercise which took on the appearance of a real battle and which has trained you in such a way that i can also praise you your prefect cornelianas also has performed his duties very well however the cavalry skirmish did not please me the legion received praise when hadrian thought it applicable and scorn when something displeased him he spent much of his life in military camps and on campaign he knew what he was talking about so his feedback was valid next on hadrian's itinerary was greece and athens once again he wanted to take part in the elusivian mysteries but before setting out for greece he sailed back to rome for a couple of weeks to deal with some crucial business a new district in athens was named after the emperor adrianopolis and a massive arch divided the new city quarter from the old the inscription on the arch reads this is the city of hadrian not a fetus theseus of course was the legendary founder of athens this very brazen proclamation might not have been appreciated by the athenians and just like pericles who was responsible for athenian hegemony in the 5th century bc hadrian wanted to enact a sort of panhellenic league a sort of congress that all greek cities could send their delegates the center of this pan-hellion was of course athens pericles's idea for the panhellenian was to better combat the threat of persia exactly what hadrian wanted to achieve is unknown athens clearly meant a lot to hadrian it appears almost as an obsession with its glorious past after about six months in greece the imperial entourage sailed across the aegean sea to ephesus and a tour of anatolia and syria where he met with foreign kings and dignitaries though many disapproved of rome's purchasing peace with subsidies not adrian he boasted that he won more by doing nothing than waging war jerusalem had been devastated by titus in 70 a.d the high priestly families disappeared the temple was in ruins and most of the jews in judea were localized into villages hadrian deemed it was time to reoccupy jerusalem it was to be renamed isla capitalina after his family and the temple was to be rebuilt but this time in honour of jupiter hadrian himself plowed parts of the line around the city boundary jerusalem was dead and isla capital liner was to be a new roman colony on route to egypt hadrian stopped by in pelusium where naius pompei julius caesar's one-time friend turned rival was stabbed to death by the egyptians hoping to curry favor with caesar pompey's body was burned on the shore and a small monument erected above it adrian located the grave and wrote this how pitiful a tomb for one so rich in temples hadrian planned to sail up the nile but he had to wait until fall when the annual flood would subside so he traveled to alexandria the second largest city in the empire for a long time the city had suffered from occasional bouts of riots because the jewish and greek population did not get along hadrian restored damaged buildings and enjoyed the intellectual life in the city presumably with antonus a poem survives from this time that describes hadrian and antinos out on a hunt together first hadrian with his brass fitted spear wounded the beast but did not kill him for he purposely missed the mark wishing to test to the fall the sureness of aim of his beloved auntis son of the argus slayer death on the nile when the nile flood had subsided the imperial barge sailed up the long river hadrian would have visited all the famous landmarks they visited memphis the original capital of the old kingdom and the pyramids and the sphinx towards the end of october of 130 a.d antonos's lifeless body was recovered from the riverbanks dio cassius writes that antonus had been a favorite of the emperor and had died in egypt either by falling into the nile as hadrian writes or as the truth is by being offered in sacrifice the hadrian as i have stated was always very curious and employed divinations and incantations of all kinds the historia augusta writes disapprovingly that he wept for the youth like a woman it's been suggested that hadrian was suffering from some sort of illness and that antinou sacrificed himself in order for the emperor to recover but what exactly happened on that river so long ago has long been debated but it's clear that hadrian was devastated by his loss antonus was deified by the emperor and a city was built on the location of his death antinopolis his cult spread quickly throughout the empire local elites eager to curry favor with the princeps built temples to honour the dead youth antares came to be associated with osiris in egypt mercury in italy and dionysius in athens this tragic death did not stop the imperial barge and the emperor continued his tour of the nile after which he spent some months in alexandria before setting off for syria in spring of 131 a.d and then asia before heading back to athens where news reached the emperor but the jewish population had once again revolted the ba revolt the jews were furious that their holy city had been desecrated the immediate call seems to have been the collapse of king solomon's tomb in jerusalem during the construction of hadrian's new city diocasius writes at first the romans took no account of the rebels soon however all judea had been stirred up and the jews everywhere were showing signs of disturbance we're gathering together and giving evidence of great hostility to the romans partly by secret and partly by overt acts many outside nations too were joining them through eagerness for gain and the whole earth one might almost say was being stirred up over the matter the situation was extremely precarious the romans stationed in judea had been overwhelmed and the reinforcements sent from syria and egypt have been crushed adrian sent for his best general sextus julius severus who was a governor of britain at the time so he would have to travel across the whole empire to reach the theater of war the leader of the revolt was a man called bar kokba a ruthless man who styled himself the messiah he butchered the christian population in judea because they were not willing to help him against the romans and demanded that they deny jesus as the messiah adrian's response seems to have been massive best guesses suggest some 13 legions took part in the war a disproportionately huge deployment but adrian left nothing up to chance bar kokpa and his revolt must be utterly crushed the legions moved methodically just like vespasian had done capturing every strong point and forts one after another and at the end of 135 a.d three years after the revolt broke out it was crushed judea was almost completely depopulated of jews either by death or enslavement judaism was to be rooted out a statue of hadrian was erected on the site of the holy of holi and pagan shrines were built over jewish places of worship hadrian seems to have accomplished his task this was the last major jewish revolt against rome henceforth the ancestral capital of the jews would be called elia capitalina and jews were forbidden to enter the city succession in spring of 134 a.d adrian returned to rome the emperor was sick and realized that his days were numbered and without any children to inherit the throne adrian needed to adopt someone who was fit for the throne and who would honour the defensive policies hadrian had enacted hadrian's brother-in-law servianas had been one of trajan's closest advisors generals and was even considered to be a strong contender for the throne upon trajan's death sevianus was about 90 years old at the time so he was clearly too old besides sevianus and hadrian did not get along well savianus had been a critic of hadrian throughout his life but servianus had a grandson pedanius fuchsius who was in his late teens at the time was the closest male family member hadrian had in 136 the emperor unexpectedly announced the adoption lucius ceonius commodus we don't know much about his suitability for the imperial throne the historia augusta simply claims that his sole recommendation was his beauty disregarding his suitability ceonius commodus was in very poor health and would die before hadrian hadrian was beginning to act erratic towards the end of his life long-time friends and supporters like owlas platorius nepas and quintus marcius turbo were both removed from hadrian's court and held in the greatest abhorrence marquis turbo had been a centurion in hadrian's first posting as military tribune in legio ii and utrics and had ever since been very close to hadrian marquis turbo had acted as praetorian prefect since 125 a.d pettanius fuchsias had probably considered himself the next princeps until the adoption of ceonius commodus which would have disappointed the young man who it seems was plotting to stage a coup the plot failed and pedanius was put to death in addition all members of his family because of him were done away with in a lowly manner pedanius's grandfather and long-time critic of hadrian cevianus was also put to death or instructed to commit suicide sabina hadrian's wife also died about the same time the couple seemed to have loathed each other so perhaps sabina was somehow linked to the britannia's conspiracy sabina was only in her late 40s or early 50s at the time but her death might have been a mere coincidence adrian had found a new interesting boy who seems to have been the apple of the emperor's eye the future emperor marcus aurelius marcus was 15 years old in 136 a.d when he was instructed to betroth one of ceonius commodus's daughters this might give us a clue as to why hadrian adopted ceonius commodus in the first place hoping he could keep the throne warm only long enough for marcus and commodus's own son the future emperor lucius verus to come of age with sionia's commodus dead hadrian adopted titus aurelius fluvius barinus arius antoninus now commonly referred to as antoninus pius antoninus was instructed to adopt marcus aurelius and lucius varys as his sons and potential successes antoninus was a traditionalist and a distinguished senator of the old school he was a good public speaker and held a consulship with the dignity of a bygone age he was an assurance that hadrian's policies would continue hadrian was very sick and it seems that he tried to commit suicide on a number of occasions because he was suffering each day from his illness adrian almost succeeded by ending his own life by having one of his servants help him do cassius reports partly by threatening him and partly by making promises he forced the man to promise to kill him he drew a colored line about a spot beneath the nipple that had been shown him by homogeneous his physician in order that he might be struck a fatal blow there and die without pain antininus pius was informed of the suicide attempt and begged hadrian to endure his sickness a fragment of hadrian's autobiography has survived and it reads almost as an apology to antoninus he writes i want you to know that i am being released from my life neither before my time nor unreasonably nor piteously nor unexpectedly nor with faculties impaired even though i shall almost seem as if i have found to do injury to you who are by my side whenever i am in need of attendance consoling and encouraging me to rest in the summer of 138 a.d hadrian left rome for the last time to an imperial villa on the seaside resort of bai where he abandoned all medical treatment and aiden drank whatever he wanted on the 10th of july adrian cried out many doctors killed a king and passed away shortly after he was 62 years old and had ruled the empire for 21 years his remains were eventually placed in the new mausoleum built outside rome he was deified as divas antoninus was proclaimed emperor of rome he had been the de facto ruler for months anyway legacy hadrian's legacy is somewhat mixed objectively he was a conscientious ruler that left the roman state stronger than he found it and he left many impressive monuments behind that still echo the greatness of rome to this very day but his contemporaries did not give him such praise his own wife sabina is reported saying in public that because of his monstrous personality she had taken pains not to become pregnant by him for it would be to the destruction of the human race and his inauguration was tainted by the killing of forex consuls an act adrian was never truly forgiven for his increasingly erratic behavior towards the end also tainted his legacy and there seemed to have been objections to hadrian's personality a hard-working but cocksure man a combination often irritating to his colleagues thank you for watching the video don't forget to subscribe to the channel and like the video you can find the sources used in this video in the description below next video in this series will be on antonine aspires

Channel: The SPQR Historian

Views: 253,002

Keywords: Emperor Hadrian, Hadrian, Hadrian Emperor, Roman Emperor Hadrian, ancient history, Hadrian Rome, ancient rome, roman history, The SPQR Historian, hadrian documentary, Hadrians wall, hadrians life

Id: s5u_Xz-AGDQ

Length: 63min 56sec (3836 seconds)

Published: Tue May 18 2021