Dio's Rome Volume V Part 12

Iuventius Celsus (II), Marcellus. (A.D. 129 = a.u. 882 = Thirteenth of Hadrian).

Q. Fabius Catullinus, M. Flavius Aper. (A.D. 130 = a.u. 883 = Fourteenth of Hadrian).

Ser. Octav. Laenas Pontia.n.u.s, M. Antonius Rufinus. (A.D. 131 = a.u. 884 = Fifteenth of Hadrian).

Augurinus, Severia.n.u.s (or, according to others, Sergia.n.u.s). (A.D. 132 = a.u. 885 = Sixteenth of Hadrian).

Hiberus, Iunius Sila.n.u.s Sisenna. (A.D. 133 = a.u. 886 = Seventeenth of Hadrian).

Servia.n.u.s (III), Vibius Varus. (A.D. 134 = a.u. 887 = Eighteenth of Hadrian).

Pontia.n.u.s, Atilia.n.u.s. (A.D. 135 = a.u. 888 = Nineteenth of Hadrian).

L. Ceionius Commodus Verus, s.e.x. Vetulenus Civica Pompeia.n.u.s. (A.D. 136 = a.u. 889 = Twentieth of Hadrian).

L. Aelius Verus Caesar, P. Caelius Balbinus Vibullius. (A.D. 137 = a.u.

890 = Twenty-first of Hadrian).

Camerinus, Niger. (A.D. 138 = a.u. 891 = Twenty-second of Hadrian, to July 10th).

[Sidenote: A.D. 117 (a.u. 870)] [Sidenote:--1--] Hadrian had not been adopted by Trajan. He was merely a fellow-citizen of the latter, had enjoyed Trajan's services as guardian, was of near kin to him, and had married his niece. In fine, he was a companion of his, sharing his daily life, and had been a.s.signed to Syria for the Parthian War. However, he had received no distinguis.h.i.+ng mark of favor from Trajan and had not been one of the first to be appointed consul. His position as Caesar and emperor was due to the fact that, when Trajan died without an heir, Attia.n.u.s, a fellow-citizen and former guardian, together with Plotina, who was in love with him, secured him the appointment,--their efforts being facilitated by his proximity and his having a large force under his command. My father Ap.r.o.nia.n.u.s, who was governor of Cilicia, had ascertained accurately the whole story about him. He used to relate the different incidents, and said in particular that the death of Trajan was concealed for several days to the end that the adoption might be announced. This was shown also by his letters to the senate, the signature upon which was not his, but Plotina's. She had not done this in any previous instance.

[Sidenote:--2--] At the time that he was declared emperor, Hadrian was in Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, of which he was governor. In a dream just before that day he seemed to see fire descend from heaven in the midst of clear sky and wholly fair weather and fall first upon the left of his throat and then upon the right also, though it neither frightened nor injured him. And Hadrian wrote to the senate, asking that his sovereignty be confirmed also by that body, and forbidding any measure to be voted (as was so often done) either then or thereafter that contained any special honor for him, unless he should first himself approve it.

The bones of Trajan were deposited in his column, and the so-called Parthian games continued for a number of years. At a later date even this observance, like many others, was abolished.

Hadrian's rule was in general most humane. [In a letter he expresses himself with the greatest degree of consideration for others and swears that he will neither do anything contrary to the public advantage nor put to death any senator, calling down destruction upon himself, if he shall transgress these principles in any way. But] Still he was spoken against on account of some murders of excellent men that he had sanctioned in the beginning of his reign and near the end of his life. And for this reason he came near not being enrolled among the heroes. Those murdered at the beginning were Palma and Celsus, Nigrinus and Lusius, the first two for the alleged reason that they had conspired against him during a hunt, and the others on certain other complaints, because they had great influence, or were in a strong position as regards wealth and fame. Hadrian felt so keenly the talk that was made about them that he defended himself and declared upon oath that he had not ordered their deaths. Those that perished at the end of the reign were Servia.n.u.s and his grandson Fuscus.

Hadrian was a pleasant man to meet and his presence shed a kind of grace.

[Sidenote:--3--] As for Hadrian's family, he was a son of [a man of senatorial rank, an ex-praetor] Hadria.n.u.s, [for thus he was named]. In regard to his disposition, he was fond of literature in both languages and has left behind all kinds of prose pieces as well as compositions in verse. His ambition was insatiable, and as a result he practiced all conceivable pursuits, even the most trivial. He modeled and painted and declared that there was nothing in peace or in war, in imperial or in private life, of which he was not cognizant. [And this, of course, did people no harm; but his jealousy of those who excelled in any branch was terrible and] ruined many besides utterly destroying quite a few. [For,]

since he desired to surpa.s.s everybody in everything, [he hated those who attained eminence in any direction.] This feeling it was which led him to undertake the overthrow of two sophists, Favorinus the Gaul and Dionysius the Milesian, [by various methods, chiefly] by stirring up their antagonists [who were of little or no worth at all]. Dionysius is said to have remarked at this time to Avidius [Footnote: Boissevain's reading.]

Heliodorus, who managed his correspondence: "Caesar can give you money and honor, but he can't make you an orator." Favorinus was about to bring a case before the emperor in regard to exemption from taxes, a privilege which he desired to secure in his native city. Suspecting, however, that he should be unsuccessful and be insulted in addition he entered the courtroom, to be sure, but made no other statement save: "My teacher stood this night in a dream by my side and bade me do service for my country, since I have been born in it."

[Sidenote:--4--] Now Hadrian spared these men, although he was displeased with them, for he could find no satisfactory pretext to use against them that might compa.s.s their destruction. But he first banished and later actually put to death Apollodorus the architect, who had planned the various creations of Trajan in Rome,--the forum, the odeum, and the gymnasium. The excuse given was that he had been guilty of some misdemeanor, but the true reason was that, when Trajan was consulting him on some point about the works, he had said to Hadrian, who broke in with some remark: "Be off and draw gourds. You don't understand any of these matters." It happened that Hadrian at the time was pluming himself upon some such drawing. When he became emperor, therefore, he remembered the slight and would not endure the man's freedom of speech. He sent him his own plan of the temple of Venus and Roma by way of showing him that a great work could be accomplished without his aid, and he asked Apollodorus whether the structure was a good one. The latter in his reply said about the temple that it ought to have been made to tower aloft in the air and have been scooped out beneath. Then, as a result of being higher, it would have stood out more conspicuously on the Sacred Way, and might have received [Sidenote: A.D. 117 (a.u. 870)] within its expanse the engines, so that they could be built un.o.bserved and could be brought into the theatre without any one's being aware of it beforehand. In regard to the statues, he said that they had been made too tall for the height adopted in the princ.i.p.al room. "If the G.o.ddesses," he said, "wish to get up and go out, they will be unable to do so." When he wrote this so bluntly to Hadrian, the latter was both vexed and exceedingly pained because he had fallen into a mistake that could not be set right. He restrained neither his anger nor his grief, but murdered the man. [By nature] the emperor was such a person [that he was jealous not only of the living, but also of the dead. For instance,] he abolished Homer and introduced in his stead Antimachus, whose name many persons had not previously known.

[Sidenote:--5--] These acts were charged against him as offences, and so were also his great exactness, his superfluous labors, and his divided interests. But he healed the wounds made and recovered favor by his general care, his foresight, his grandeur and his skill. Again, he did not stir up any war and ended those already in progress. He deprived no one of money unjustly, and upon many peoples and private citizens and senators and knights he bestowed large sums. He did not wait to be asked, but was certain to act each time according to each man's needs. The military he trained with great precision, so that its strength rendered it neither disobedient nor insolent. Allied and subject cities he aided most munificently. He had seen many that no other emperor had even set eyes upon, and he a.s.sisted practically all of them, giving to some water, to others harbors, or food, or public works, or money, and to still others various honors.

[Sidenote:--6--] As a leader of the Roman people he was distinguished for force rather than for flattery. Once, at a gladiatorial contest, when the crowd was urging its pet.i.tion strongly, he not only would not grant its wish, but further ordered this command of Domitian's to be proclaimed: "Be silent." The words were not uttered, though. The herald raised his hand and by that very gesture quieted the people as he had been accustomed to do. (They are never silenced by proclamation). Then, when they had become quiet, he said: "This is what he wishes." Hadrian was not in the least angry with the herald; on the contrary, he honored him for not publis.h.i.+ng the rudeness of the order. He could endure such things and was not displeased if he was aided in any unexpected way and by chance comers. It must be admitted that once, when a woman pa.s.sed him on some road and preferred a request, he at first said to her: "I haven't time."

Afterwards, when she cried out loudly, saying: "Don't be emperor, then", he turned about and granted her a hearing.

[Sidenote:--7--] He transacted through the senate all serious and most urgent business and he held court with the a.s.sistance of prominent men now in the palace or again in the Forum, the Pantheon, and in many other places, always on a platform, so that what was done was open to public inspection. Sometimes he would join the consuls when _they_ were trying cases, and he showed them honor at the horse-races. When he returned home he was accustomed to be carried in a litter, in order not to trouble any one to accompany him. On days neither sacred nor public he remained at home, and admitted no one even long enough to greet him, unless it were some urgent matter; this was to relieve the courtiers of needless annoyance. Both in Rome and abroad he always kept the n.o.blest men about him; and he used to join them at banquets, which led to his being often carried in their litters as one of a party of four. As frequently as possible he went hunting, and he breakfasted without wine; in fact, most of his food was served without any accompanying beverage; and often in the midst of a meal he would turn his attention to a case at law: later he would drive in the company of all the foremost and best men, and their eating together was the occasion for all kind of discussions. When his friends were very ill, he would go to see them, and he used to attend their festivals, besides evincing pleasure at visiting their country seats and houses. As might have been expected, then, he set up in his forum images for many who were dead and many still alive. No one of his a.s.sociates, moreover, displayed insolence nor sold aught that he should p.r.o.nounce or perform, as the Caesarians and other attendants in the suite of emperors have made it their custom to do.

[Sidenote:--8--] This is a kind of preface, of a summary nature, I have been giving in regard to his character. I shall also touch upon all the details that require mention.

The Alexandrians had been rioting and nothing would make them stop until they received a letter from Hadrian rebuking them. So true it is that an emperor's word has more power than force of arms.

[Sidenote: A.D. 118 (a.u. 871)] On coming to Rome he canceled debts owing to the imperial treasury and to the public treasury of the Romans, setting a limit of sixteen years, from which and as far back as which this provision was to be observed. On his own birthday he gave a spectacle to the people free of charge, and slaughtered numbers of wild beasts,--one hundred lions and a like number of lionesses biting the dust on this one occasion. Gifts, likewise, he brought about by means of b.a.l.l.s both in the theatres and in the hippodrome, one lot for the men and one lot for the women. Indeed, he had also commanded them to battle separately.

This, then, was what happened that year. Euphrates the philosopher also died a death of his own choosing; and Hadrian a.s.sented to his drinking hemlock in consideration of his extreme age and sickliness.

[Sidenote:--9--] Hadrian went from one province to another, visiting the districts and cities and observing all the garrisons and fortifications.

Some of these he removed to more desirable locations, some he abolished, and he founded some new ones. He personally oversaw and investigated absolutely everything, not merely the usual appurtenances of camps,--I mean weapons and engines and ditches and enclosures and palisades,--but also the private affairs of each one, and the lives, the dwellings and the characters both of the men serving in the organization, and of the commanders themselves. Many cases of too delicate living and equipment he harmonized with military needs and reformed in various ways. He exercised the men in every variety of battle, honoring some and reproving others. He taught all of them what they ought to do. And to make sure that they should obtain benefit from observing _him_, he led everywhere a severe existence and walked or rode horseback on all occasions. Never at this period did he enter either a chariot or a four-wheeled vehicle. He covered his head neither in heat nor in cold, but alike in Celtic snows and under scorching Egyptian suns he went about with it bare. [Sidenote: A.D. 119 (a.u. 872)] In fine, so thoroughly by action and exhortations did he train and discipline the whole military force throughout the whole empire that even now the methods then introduced by him are the soldiers'

law of campaigning. This best explains why he lived for the most part at peace with foreign nations. As they saw what support he had and were victims of no injustice, but instead received money, they made no uprising. So excellently had his soldiery been trained, that the cavalry of the so-called Batavians swam the Ister with their heavy armor on.

Seeing this the barbarians stood in terror of the Romans, and turning their attention to their own affairs [Footnote: Reading [Greek: epi]

(Dindorf) instead of [Greek: peri]] they employed Hadrian as an arbitrator of their differences.

[Sidenote:--10--] He also constructed theatres and held games as he traveled about from city to city, dispensing, however, with the imperial paraphernalia. This he never used outside of Rome. His own country, though he did her great honor and bestowed many proud possessions on her, he nevertheless did not set eyes upon.

He is said to have been enthusiastic over hunting. Indeed, he broke his collar-bone in this pursuit and came near losing a leg. And to a city that he founded in Mysia he gave the name of Adrianotherae. [Sidenote: A.D. 121 (a.u. 874)] However, he did not, while so occupied, leave undone any of the duties pertaining to his office. Of his enthusiasm for hunting his horse Borysthenes, which was his favorite steed for the chase, gives us an indication. When the animal died, he prepared a tomb for him, set up a slab, and placed an inscription upon it. Hence it is scarcely surprising that when Plotina died, the woman through whom he had secured the imperial office, and who was pa.s.sionately in love with him, he honored her to the extent of wearing mourning garments for nine days, building a temple to her, and composing several hymns to her memory.

When Plotina was dead, Hadrian praised her and said: "Though she asked much of me, she was never refused aught." By this he surely meant to say: "Her requests were of such a character that they neither burdened me nor afforded me any justification for saying no."

He was so skillful in hunting that once he brought down a huge boar with a single blow.

[Sidenote:--11--] On reaching Greece he became a spectator at the Mysteries.

[Sidenote: A.D. 122 (a.u. 875)] After this he pa.s.sed through Judaea into Egypt and offered sacrifice to Pompey, about whom, he is said to have uttered this verse:

Strange lack of tomb for one with shrines o'erwhelmed! [Footnote: Compare Appian, Civil Wars, Book Two, chapter 86 (also Spartia.n.u.s, 14, 4).]

And he restored his monument, which had fallen to ruin. In Egypt also he restored the so-called City of Antinous. Antinous was from Bithynium, a city of Bithynia which we also call Claudioupolis; he had been a favorite of the emperor and had died in Egypt, either by falling into the Nile, as Hadrian writes, or, as is more probably the truth, by being offered in sacrifice. For Hadrian, as I have stated, was in general a great dabbler in superst.i.tions and employed divinations and incantations of all kinds.

Accordingly, he honored Antinous either because of his love for him or because he had voluntarily submitted to death (it being necessary that a life be surrendered voluntarily for the accomplishment of the ends he had in view), by building a city on the spot where he had suffered this fate and naming it after him: and he further set up likenesses, or rather sacred statues of him, practically all over the world. Finally, he declared that he had seen a star which he a.s.sumed to belong to Antinous, and gladly lent an ear to the fict.i.tious tales woven by his a.s.sociates to the effect that the star had really come into being from the spirit of Antinous and had then appeared for the first time. [Sidenote: A.D. 133 (a.u. 886)] On this account he became the object of some ridicule [as also because the death of his sister Paulina he had not immediately paid her any honor. [Lacuna]]

[Sidenote: A.D. 133 (a.u. 886)] [Sidenote:--12--] In Jerusalem he founded a city in place of the one razed to the ground, naming it Aelia Capitolina, and on the site of the temple of the G.o.d he raised a new temple to Jupiter. This brought on a war that was not slight nor of brief duration, for the Jews deemed it intolerable that foreign races should be settled in their city and foreign religious rites be planted there. While Hadrian was close by in Egypt and again in Syria, they remained quiet, save in so far as they purposely made the weapons they were called upon to furnish of poorer quality, to the end that the Romans might reject them and they have the use of them. But when he went farther away, they openly revolted. To be sure, they did not dare try conclusions with the Romans in the open field, but they occupied advantageous positions in the country and strengthened them with mines and walls, in order that they might have places of refuge whenever they should be hard pressed, and meet together un.o.bserved under ground; and in these subterranean pa.s.sages they sunk shafts from above to let in air and light. [Sidenote:--13--] At first the Romans made no account of them. Soon, however, all Judaea had been up-heaved, and the Jews all over the world were showing signs of disturbance, were gathering together, and giving evidence of great hostility to the Romans, partly by secret and partly by open acts; many other outside nations, too, were joining them through eagerness for gain, and the whole earth, almost, was becoming convulsed over the matter. Then, indeed, did Hadrian send against them his best generals, of who Julius Severus was the first to be despatched, from Britain, of which he was governor, against the Jews. He did not venture to attack his opponents at any one point, seeing their numbers and their desperation, but by taking them in separate groups by means of the number of his soldiers and his under-officers and by depriving them of food and shutting them up he was able, rather slowly, to be sure, but with comparatively little danger, to crush and exhaust and exterminate them. Very few of them survived.

[Sidenote:--14--] Fifty of their most important garrisons and nine hundred and eighty-five of their most renowned towns were blotted out. Fifty-eight myriads of men were slaughtered in the course of the invasions and battles, and the number of those that perished by famine and disease and fire was past all investigating. Thus nearly the whole of Judaea was made desolate, an event of which the people had had indications even before the war. The tomb of Solomon, which these men regarded as one of their sacred objects, fell to pieces of itself and collapsed and many wolves and hyenas rushed howling into their cities.

Many Romans, moreover, perished in the war. Wherefore Hadrian in writing to the senate did not employ the opening phrase commonly affected by the emperors: "If you and your children are in health, it shall be well: I and the armies are in health."

[Sidenote: A.D. 134(?)] Severus [Footnote: Not the same person as is mentioned in the previous chapter.] he sent into Bithynia, which needed no force of arms but a governor and presiding officer who was just and prudent and had a reputation. All these qualifications Severus possessed.

And he managed and administered both their private and their public affairs in such a way that we [Footnote: i.e., "we natives of Bithynia"

(Dio's country).] are still, even to-day wont to remember him. [Pamphylia in place of Bithynia was given into the jurisdiction of the senate and the lot.]

[Sidenote:--15--] This, then, was the ending that the war with the Jews took. A second war was started among the Alani (they are Ma.s.sagetae) by Pharasmanes. On Albanis and Media he inflicted severe injury and then laid hold on Armenia and Cappadocia, after which, as the Alani were on the one hand persuaded by gifts from Vologaesus and on the other stood in dread of Flavius Arria.n.u.s, the governor of Cappadocia, he stopped. [Envoys were sent from Vologaesus and from the Iazygae; the former made some charges against Pharasmanes and the latter wanted to confirm the peace. [?]

[Footnote: It is impossible to determine, from the date of this fragment, whether the subject should be Hadrian or Antoninus Pius.] introduced them to the senate and was empowered by that body to return appropriate answers; and accordingly he prepared and read to them his responses.]

[Sidenote:--16--] Hadrian completed the Olympieum in Athens, in which his own statue also stands, and consecrated there a serpent, which was brought from India. He also presided at the Dionysia, the greatest office within the gift of the people, and arrayed in the local costume carried it through brilliantly. He allowed the Greeks, too, to build his sepulchre (called the Panellenium), and inst.i.tuted a series of games to be connected with it; and he granted to the Athenians large sums of money, annual corn distribution, and the whole of Cephallenia.--Among various laws that he enacted was one to the effect that no senator, either personally or through the medium of another, should have any tax farmed out to him.

[Sidenote: A.D. 135 (a.u. 888)] After he had come to Rome, the crowd at a spectacle shouted their request for the emanc.i.p.ation of a certain charioteer: but he replied by means of a writing on a board: "It is not right for you either to ask me to free another's slave or to force his master to do so."

[Sidenote:--17--] He now began to be sick, having suffered even before this from blood gus.h.i.+ng from his nostrils: this flow now grew very much more copious, so that he despaired of his life. Consequently, he appointed as Caesar for the Romans Lucius Commodus, although this man frequently vomited blood. [Sidenote: A.D. 136 (a.u. 889)] Servia.n.u.s and his grandson Fuscus, the former a nonagenarian and the latter eighteen years of age, were put to death on the ground that they were displeased at this action.

Servia.n.u.s before being executed asked for fire, and as he offered incense he exclaimed: "That I am guilty of no wrong, ye; O G.o.ds, are well aware: and as for Hadrian I pray only this, that he may desire to die and not be able." And, indeed, Hadrian did come to his end only after often praying that he might expire and often feeling a desire to kill himself. There is in existence also a letter of his which lays stress on this very matter, showing what a dreadful thing it is for a man to desire to die and not be able. This Servia.n.u.s had been by Hadrian deemed capable of filling the imperial office. He had once at a banquet told his friends to name for him ten men who were competent to be sole rulers, and then after a moment's pause, had added: "I want to know _nine_: I have one already, Servia.n.u.s."

[Sidenote:--18--] Other excellent men, also, had come to light during that period, of whom the most distinguished were Turbo and Similis, who, indeed, were honored with statues.

Turbo was a man of great qualities as a general, who had become prefect (or commander of the Pretorians). He committed no act of luxury or haughtiness, but lived like one of the mult.i.tude: the entire day he spent in proximity to the palace and often he would go there even shortly before midnight, when some of the others were beginning to sleep. A characteristic anecdote is that which brings in the name of Cornelius Fronto, at this time reputed to be the foremost Roman advocate in lawsuits. One evening very late he was returning home from dinner and ascertained from a man whose counsel he had promised to be that Turbo was holding court. Accordingly, just as he was, in his dress for dinner, he went into his courtroom and greeted him not with the morning salutation, _I wish you joy_, but with that belonging to the evening, _I trust your health continues good_.

Turbo was never seen at home in the daytime even when he was sick; and to Hadrian, who advised him to remain quiet, he replied: "The prefect ought to die on his feet."

[Sidenote:--19--] Similis, who was of greater age and more advanced rank, in character was second to none of the great men, I think. Very slight things may serve us as evidence. When he was centurion, Trajan had summoned him to enter his presence before the prefects, whereupon he said: "It is a shame for you, Caesar, to be talking with a centurion, while the prefects stand outside." And he took unwillingly at that time the command of the Pretorians, and after taking it resigned it. Having with difficulty secured his release he spent the rest of his life, seven years, quietly in the country, and upon his tomb he had this inscription placed: "Similis lies here, who existed so-and-so many years, but lived for seven."