I. The original home of the family of the Emperor Hadrian was Picenum, the later,
Spain; for Hadrian himself relates in his autobiography that his forefathers came from
Hadria, but settled in Italica in the time of the Scipios. The father of Hadrian was
Aelius Hadrianus, surnamed Afer, a cousin of the Emperor Trajan; his mother was Domitia
Paulina, a native of Cadiz; his sister was Paulina, the wife of Servianus, his wife was
Sabina, and his great-grandfather's grandfather was Marullinus, the first of his family to
be a Roman senator.
Hadrian was born on the ninth day before the Kalends of February in the seventh
consulship of Vespasian and the fifth of Titus. Bereft of his father at the age of ten, he
became the ward of Ulpius Trajanus, his cousin, then of praetorian rank, but afterwards
emperor, and of Caelius Attianus, a knight. He then grew rather deeply devoted to Greek
studies, to which his natural tastes inclined so much that some called him
"Greekling."
II. He returned to his native city in his fifteenth year and at once entered military
service, but was so fond of hunting that he incurred criticism for it, and for this reason
Trajan recalled him from Italica. Thenceforth he was treated by Trajan as his own son, and
not long afterwards was made one of the ten judges of the inheritance-court, and, later,
tribune of the Second Legion, the Adjutrix. After this, when Domitian's principate was
drawing to a close, he was transferred to the province of Lower Moesia. There, it is said,
he heard from an astrologer the same prediction of his future power which had been made,
as he already knew, by his great-uncle, Aelius Hadrianus, a master of astrology. When
Trajan was adopted by Nerva, Hadrian was sent to convey to him the army's congratulations
and was at once transferred to Upper Germany. When Nerva died, he wished to be the first
to bring the news to Trajan, but as he was hastening to meet him he was detained by his
brother-in-law, Servianus, the same man who had revealed Hadrian's extravagance and
indebtedness and thus stirred Trajan's anger against him. He was further delayed by the
fact that his travelling-carriage had been designedly broken, but he nevertheless
proceeded on foot and anticipated Servianus' personal messenger. And now he became a
favourite of Trajan's, and yet, owing to the activity of the guardians of certain boys
whom Trajan loved ardently, he was not free from . . . which Gallus fostered. Indeed, at
this time he was even anxious about the Emperor's attitude towards him, and consulted the
Vergilian oracle. This was the lot given out:
But who is yonder man, by olive
wreath / Distinguished, who the sacred vessel bears? / I see a hoary head and beard.
Behold / The Roman King whose laws shall establish Rome / Anew, from tiny Cures' humble
land / Called to a mighty realm. Then shall arise ...
Others, however, declare that this prophecy came to him from the Sybilline Verses.
Moreover, he received a further intimation of his subsequent power, in a response which
issued from the temple of Jupiter at Nicephorium and has been quoted by Apollonius of
Syria, the Platonist. Finally, through the good offices of Sura, he was instantly restored
to a friendship with Trajan that was closer than ever, and he took to wife the daughter of
the Emperor's sister -- a marriage advocated by Plotina, but, according to Marius Maximus,
little desired by Trajan himself.
III. He held the quaestorship in the fourth consulship of Trajan and in the first of
Articuleius, and while holding this office he read a speech of the Emperor's to the senate
and provoked a laugh by his somewhat provincial accent. He thereupon gave attention to the
study of Latin until he attained the utmost proficiency and fluency. After his
quaestorship he served as curator of the acts of the senate, and later accompanied Trajan
in the Dacian war on terms of considerable intimacy, seeing, indeed, that falling in with
Trajan's habits, as he says himself, he partook freely of wine, and for this was very
richly rewarded by the Emperor. He was made tribune of the plebs in the second consulship
of Candidus and Quadratus, and he claimed that he received an omen of continuous
tribunician power during this magistracy, because he lost the heavy cloak which is worn by
the tribunes of the plebs in rainy weather, but never by the emperors. And down to this
day the emperors do not wear cloaks when they appear in public before civilians. In the
second Dacian war, Trajan appointed him to the command of the First Legion, the Minervia,
and took him with him to the war; and in this campaign his many remarkable deeds won great
renown. Because of this he was presented with a diamond which Trajan himself had received
from Nerva, and by this gift he was encouraged in his hopes of succeeding to the throne.
He held the praetorship in the second consulship of Suburanus and Servianus, and again
received from Trajan two million sesterces with which to give games. Next he was sent as
praetorian legate to Lower Pannonia, where he held the Samartians in check, maintained
discipline among the soldiers, and restrained the procurators, who were overstepping too
freely the bounds of their power. In return for these services he was made consul. While
he was holding this office he learned from Sura that he was to be adopted by Trajan, and
thereupon he ceased to be an object of contempt and neglect to Trajan's friends. Indeed,
after Sura's death Trajan's friendship for him increased, principally on account of the
speeches which he composed for the Emperor.
IV. He enjoyed, too, the favour of Plotina, and it was due to her interest that later,
at the time of the campaign against Parthia, he was appointed legate to the Emperor. At
this same time he enjoyed, besides, the friendship of Sosius Papus and Platorius Nepos,
both of the senatorial order, and also of Attianus, his former guardian, of Livianus, and
of Turbo, all of equestrian rank. And when Palma and Celsus, always his enemies, on whom
he later took vengeance, fell under suspicion of aspiring to the throne, his adoption
seemed assured; and it was taken wholly for granted when, through Plotina's favour, he was
appointed consul for the second time. That he was bribing Trajan's freedmen and courting
his favourites all the while that he was in close attendance at court, was told and
generally believed.
On the fifth day before the Ides of August, while he was governor of Syria, he learned
of his adoption by Trajan, and he later gave orders to celebrate this day as the
anniversary of his adoption. On the third day before the Ides of August he received the
news of Trajan's death, and this day he appointed as the anniversary of his accession.
There was, to be sure, a widely prevailing belief that Trajan, with the approval of
many of his friends, had planned to appoint as his successor not Hadrian but Neratius
Priscus, even to the extent of once saying to Priscus: "I entrust the provinces to
your care in case anything happens to me." And, indeed, many aver that Trajan had
purposed to follow the example of Alexander of Macedonia and die without naming a
successor. Again, many others declare that he had meant to send an address to the senate,
requesting this body, in case aught befell him, to appoint a ruler for the Roman Empire,
and merely appending the names of some from among whom the senate might choose the best.
And the statement has even been made that it was not until Trajan's death that Hadrian was
declared adopted, and then only by means of a trick of Plotina's; for she smuggled in
someone who impersonated the Emperor and spoke in a feeble voice.
V. On taking possession of the imperial power Hadrian at once resumed the policy of the
early emperors, and devoted his attention to maintaining peace throughout the world. For
the nations which Trajan had conquered began to revolt; the Moors, moreover, began to make
attacks, and the Sarmatians to wage war, the Britons could not be kept under Roman sway,
Egypt was thrown into disorder by riots, and finally Libya and Palestine showed the spirit
of rebellion. Whereupon he relinquished all the conquests east of the Euphrates and the
Tigris, following, as he used to say, the example of Cato, who urged that the Macedonians,
because they could not be held as subjects, should be declared free and independent. And
Parthamasiris, appointed king of the Parthians by Trajan, he assigned as ruler to the
neighbouring tribes, because he saw that the man was held in little esteem by the
Parthians.
Moreover, he showed at the outset such a wish to be lenient, that although Attianus
advised him by letter in the first few days of his rule to put to death Baebius Macer, the
prefect of the city, in case he opposed his elevation to power, also Laberius Maximus,
then in exile on an island under suspicion of designs on the throne, and likewise Crassus
Frugi, he nevertheless refused to harm them. Later on, however, his procurator, though
without an order from Hadrian, had Crassus killed when he tried to leave the island, on
the ground that he was planning a revolt. He gave a double donative to the soldiers in
order to ensure a favourable beginning to his principate. He deprived Lusius Quietus of
the command of the Moorish tribesmen, who were serving under him, and then dismissed him
from the army, because he had fallen under the suspicion of having designs on the throne;
and he appointed Marcius Turbo, after his reduction of Judaea, to quell the insurrection
in Mauretania.
After taking these measures he set out from Antioch to view the remains of Trajan,
which were being escorted by Attianus, Plotina, and Matidia. He received them formally and
sent them on to Rome by ship, and at once returned to Antioch; he then appointed Catilius
Severus governor of Syria, and proceeded to Rome by way of Illyricum.
VI. Despatching to the senate a carefully worded letter, he asked for divine honours
for Trajan. This request he obtained by a unanimous vote; indeed, the senate voluntarily
voted Trajan many more honours than Hadrian had requested. In this letter to the senate he
apologized because he had not left it the right to decide regarding his accession,
explaining that the unseemly haste of the troops in acclaiming him emperor was due to the
belief that the state could not be left without an emperor. Later, when the senate offered
him the triumph which was to have been Trajan's, he refused it for himself, and caused the
effigy of the dead Emperor to be carried in a triumphal chariot, in order that the best of
emperors might not lose even after death the honour of a triumph. Also he refused for the
present the title of Father of his Country, offered to him at the time of his accession
and again later on, giving as his reason the fact that Augustus had not won it until late
in life. Of the crown-money for his triumph he remitted Italy's contribution, and lessened
that of the provinces, all the while setting forth grandiloquently and in great detail the
straits of the public treasury.
Then, on hearing of the incursions of the Sarmatians and Roxolani, he sent the troops
ahead and set out for Moesia. He conferred the insignia of a prefect on Marcius Turbo
after his Mauretanian campaign and appointed him to the temporary command of Pannonia and
Dacia. When the king of the Roxolani complained of the diminution of his subsidy, he
investigated his case and made peace with him.
VII. A plot to murder him while sacrificing was made by Nigrinus, with Lusius and a
number of others as accomplices, even though Hadrian had destined Nigrinus for the
succession; but Hadrian successfully evaded this plot. Because of this conspiracy Palma
was put to death at Tarracina, Celsus at Baiae, Nigrinus at Faventia, and Lusius on his
journey homeward, all by order of the senate, but contrary to the wish of Hadrian, as he
says himself in his autobiography. Whereupon Hadrian entrusted the command in Dacia to
Turbo, whom he dignified, in order to increase his authority, with a rank analagous to
that of the prefect of Egypt. He then hastened to Rome in order to win over public
opinion, which was hostile to him because of the belief that on one single occasion he had
suffered four men of consular rank to be put to death. In order to check the rumours about
himself, he gave in person a double largess to the people, although in his absence three
aurei had already been given to each of the citizens. In the senate, too, he cleared
himself of blame for what had happened, and pledged himself never to inflict punishment on
a senator until after a vote of the senate. He established a regular imperial post, in
order to relieve the local officials of such a burden. Moreover, he used every means of
gaining popularity. He remitted to private debtors in Rome and in Italy immense sums of
money owed to the privy-purse, and in the provinces he remitted large amounts of arrears;
and he ordered the promissory notes to be burned in the Forum of the Deified Trajan, in
order that the general sense of security might thereby be increased. He gave orders that
the property of condemned persons should not accrue to the privy-purse, and in each case
deposited the whole amount in the public treasury. He made additional appropriations for
the children to whom Trajan had allotted grants of money. He supplemented the property of
senators impoverished through no fault of their own, making the allowance in each case
proportionate to the number of children, so that it might be enough for a senatorial
career; to many, indeed, he paid punctually on the date the amount allotted for their
living. Sums of money sufficient to enable men to hold office he bestowed, not on his
friends alone, but also on many far and wide, and by his donations he helped a number of
women to sustain life. He gave gladiatorial combats for six days in succession, and on his
birthday he put into the arena a thousand wild beasts.
VIII. The foremost members of the senate he admitted to close intimacy with the
emperor's majesty. All circus-games decreed in his honour he refused, except those held to
celebrate his birthday. Both in meetings of the people and in the senate he used to say
that he would so administer the commonwealth that men would know that it was not his own
but the people's. Having himself been consul three times, he reappointed many to the
consulship for the third time and men without number to a second term; his own third
consulship he held for only four months, and during his term he often administered
justice. He always attended regular meetings of the senate if he was present in Rome or
even in the neighbourhood. In the appointment of senators he showed the utmost caution and
thereby greatly increased the dignity of the senate, and when he removed Attianus from the
post of prefect of the guard and created him a senator with consular honours, he made it
clear that he had no greater honour which he could bestow upon him. Nor did he allow
knights to try cases involving senators whether he was present at the trial or not. For at
that time it was customary for the emperor, when he tried cases, to call to his council
both senators and knights and give a verdict based on their joint decision. Finally, he
denounced those emperors who had not shown this deference to the senators. On his
brother-in-law Servianus, to whom he showed such respect that he would advance to meet him
as he came from his chamber, he bestowed a third consulship, and that without any request
or entreaty on Servianus' part; but nevertheless he did not appoint him as his own
colleague, since Servianus had been consul twice before Hadrian, and the Emperor did not
wish to have second place.
IX. And yet, at the same time, Hadrian abandoned many provinces won by Trajan, and also
destroyed, contrary to the entreaties of all, the theatre which Trajan had built in the
Campus Martius. These measures, unpopular enough in themselves, were still more
displeasing to the public because of his pretence that all acts which he thought would be
offensive had been secretly enjoined upon him by Trajan. Unable to endure the power of
Attianus, his prefect and formerly his guardian, he was eager to murder him. He was
restrained, however, by the knowledge that he already laboured under the odium of
murdering four men of consular rank, although, as a matter of fact, he always attributed
their execution to the designs of Attianus. And as he could not appoint a successor for
Attianus except at the latter's request, he contrived to make him request it, and at once
transferred the power to Turbo; at the same time Similis also, the other prefect, received
a successor, namely Septicius Clarus.
After Hadrian had removed from the prefecture the very men to whom he owed the imperial
power, he departed for Campania, where he aided all the towns of the region by gifts and
benefactions and attached all the foremost men to his train of friends. But when at Rome,
he frequently attended the official functions of the praetors and consuls, appeared at the
banquets of his friends, visited them twice or thrice a day when they were sick, even
those who were merely knights and freedmen, cheered them by words of comfort, encouraged
them by words of advice, and very often invited them to his own banquets. In short,
everything that he did was in the manner of a private citizen. On his mother-in-law he
bestowed especial honour by means of gladiatorial games and other ceremonies.
X. After this he travelled to the provinces of Gaul, and came to the relief of all the
communities with various acts of generosity; and from there he went over into Germany.
Though more desirous of peace than of war, he kept the soldiers in training just as if war
were imminent, inspired them by proofs of his own powers of endurance, actually led a
soldier's life among the maniples, and, after the example of Scipio Aemilianus, Metellus,
and his own adoptive father Trajan, cheerfully ate out of doors such camp-fare as bacon,
cheese and vinegar. And that the troops might submit more willingly to the increased
harshness of his orders, he bestowed gifts on many and honours on a few. For he
re-established the discipline of the camp, which since the time of Octavian had been
growing slack through the laxity of his predecessors. He regulated, too, both the duties
and the expenses of the soldiers, and now no one could get a leave of absence from camp by
unfair means, for it was not popularity with the troops but just deserts that recommended
a man for appointment as tribune. He incited others by the example of his own soldierly
spirit; he would walk as much as twenty miles fully armed; he cleared the camp of
banqueting-rooms, porticoes, grottos, and bowers, generally wore the commonest clothing,
would have no gold ornaments on his sword-belt or jewels on the clasp, would scarcely
consent to have his sword furnished with an ivory hilt, visited the sick soldiers in their
quarters, selected the sites for camps, conferred the centurion's wand on those only who
were hardy and of good repute, appointed as tribunes only men with full beards or of an
age to give to the authority of the tribuneship the full measure of prudence and maturity,
permitted no tribune to accept a present from a soldier, banished luxuries on every hand,
and, lastly, improved the soldiers' arms and equipment. Furthermore, with regard to length
of military service he issued an order that no one should violate ancient usage by being
in the service at an earlier age than his strength warranted, or at a more advanced one
than common humanity permitted. He made it a point to be acquainted with the soldiers and
to know their numbers.
XI. Besides this, he strove to have an accurate knowledge of the military stores, and
the receipts from the provinces he examined with care in order to make good any deficit
that might occur in any particular instance. But more than any other emperor he made it a
point not to purchase or maintain anything that was not serviceable.
And so, having reformed the army quite in the manner of a monarch, he set out for
Britain, and there he corrected many abuses and was the first to construct a wall, eighty
miles in length, which was to separate the barbarians from the Romans.
He removed from office Septicius Clarus, the prefect of the guard, and Suetonius
Tranquillus, the imperial secretary, and many others besides, because without his consent
they had been conducting themselves toward his wife, Sabina, in a more informal fashion
than the etiquette of the court demanded. And, as he was himself wont to say, he would
have sent away his wife too, on the ground of ill-temper and irritability, had he been
merely a private citizen. Moreover, his vigilance was not confined to his own household
but extended to those of his friends, and by means of his private agents he even pried
into all their secrets, and so skilfully that they were never aware that the Emperor was
acquainted with their private lives until he revealed it himself. In this connection, the
insertion of an incident will not be unwelcome, showing that he found out much about his
friends. The wife of a certain man wrote to her husband, complaining that he was so
preoccupied by pleasures and baths that he would not return home to her, and Hadrian found
this out through his private agents. And so, when the husband asked for a furlough,
Hadrian reproached him with his fondness for his baths and his pleasures. Whereupon the
man exclaimed: "What, did my wife write you just what she wrote to me?" And,
indeed, as for this habit of Hadrian's, men regard it as a most grievous fault, and add to
their criticism the statements which are current regarding the passion for males and the
adulteries with married women to which he is said to have been addicted, adding also the
charges that he did not even keep faith with his friends.
XII. After arranging matters in Britain he crossed over to Gaul, for he was rendered
anxious by the news of a riot in Alexandria, which arose on account of Apis; for Apis had
been discovered again after an interval of many years, and was causing great dissension
among the communities, each one earnestly asserting its claim as the place best fitted to
be the seat of his worship. During this same time he reared a basilica of marvellous
workmanship at Nimes in honour of Plotina. After this he travelled to Spain and spent the
winter at Tarragona, and here he restored at his own expense the temple of Augustus. To
this place, too, he called all the inhabitants of Spain for a general meeting, and when
they refused to submit to a levy, the Italian settlers jestingly, to use the very words of
Marius Maximus, and the others very vigorously, he took measures characterized by skill
and discretion. At this same time he incurred grave danger and won great glory; for while
he was walking about in a garden at Tarragona one of the slaves of the household rushed at
him madly with a sword. But he merely laid hold on the man, and when the servants ran to
the rescue handed him over to them. Afterwards, when it was found that the man was mad, he
turned him over to the physicians for treatment, and all this time showed not the
slightest sign of alarm.
During this period and on many other occasions also, in many regions where the
barbarians are held back not by rivers but by artificial barriers, Hadrian shut them off
by means of high stakes planted deep in the ground and fastened together in the manner of
a palisade. He appointed a king for the Germans, suppressed revolts among the Moors, and
won from the senate the usual ceremonies of thanksgiving. The war with the Parthians had
not at that time advanced beyond the preparatory stage, and Hadrian checked it by a
personal conference.
XIII. After this Hadrian travelled by way of Asia and the islands to Greece, and,
following the example of Hercules and Philip, had himself initiated into the Eleusinian
mysteries. He bestowed many favours on the Athenians and sat as president of the public
games. And during this stay in Greece care was taken, they say, that when Hadrian was
present, none should come to a sacrifice armed, whereas, as a rule, many carried knives.
Afterwards he sailed to Sicily, and there he climbed Mount Aetna to see the sunrise, which
is many-hued, they say, like a rainbow. Thence he returned to Rome, and from there he
crossed over to Africa, where he showed many acts of kindness to the provinces. Hardly any
emperor ever travelled with such speed over so much territory.
Finally, after his return to Rome from Africa, he immediately set out for the East,
journeying by way of Athens. Here he dedicated the public works which he had begun in the
city of the Athenians, such as the temple to Olympian Jupiter and an altar to himself; and
in the same way, while travelling through Asia, he consecrated the temples called by his
name. Next, he received slaves from the Cappadocians for service in the camps. To petty
rulers and kings he made offers of friendship, and even to Osdroes, king of the Parthians.
To him he also restored his daughter, who had been captured by Trajan, and promised to
return the throne captured at the same time. And when some of the kings came to him, he
treated them in such a way that those who had refused to come regretted it. He took this
course especially on account of Pharasmanes, who had haughtily scorned his invitation.
Furthermore, as he went about the provinces he punished procurators and governors as their
actions demanded, and indeed with such severity that it was believed that he incited those
who brought the accusations.
XIV. In the course of these travels he conceived such a hatred for the people of
Antioch that he wished to separate Syria from Phoenicia, in order that Antioch might not
be called the chief city of so many communities. At this time also the Jews began war,
because they were forbidden to practise circumcision. As he was sacrificing on Mount
Casius, which he had ascended by night in order to see the sunrise, a storm arose, and a
flash of lightning descended and struck both the victim and the attendant. He then
travelled through Arabia and finally came to Pelusium, where he rebuilt Pompey's tomb on a
more magnificent scale. During a journey on the Nile he lost Antinous, his favourite, and
for this youth he wept like a woman. Concerning this incident there are varying rumours;
for some claim that he had devoted himself to death for Hadrian, and others -- what both
his beauty and Hadrian's sensuality suggest. But however this may be, the Greeks deified
him at Hadrian's request, and declared that oracles were given through his agency, but
these, it is commonly asserted, were composed by Hadrian himself.
In poetry and in letters Hadrian was greatly interested. In arithmetic, geometry, and
painting he was very expert. Of his knowledge of flute-playing and singing he even boasted
openly. He ran to excess in the gratification of his desires, and wrote much verse about
the subjects of his passion. He composed love-poems too. He was also a connoisseur of
arms, had a thorough knowledge of warfare, and knew how to use gladiatorial weapons. He
was, in the same person, austere and genial, dignified and playful, dilatory and quick to
act, niggardly and generous, deceitful and straightforward, cruel and merciful, and always
in all things changeable.
XV. His friends he enriched greatly, even though they did not ask it, while to those
who did ask, he refused nothing. And yet he was always ready to listen to whispers about
his friends, and in the end he treated almost all of them as enemies, even the closest and
even those whom he had raised to the highest of honours, such as Attianus and Nepos and
Septicius Clarus. Eudaemon, for example, who had been his accomplice in obtaining the
imperial power, he reduced to poverty; Polaenus and Marcellus he drove to suicide;
Heliodorus he assailed in a most slanderous pamphlet; Titianus he allowed to be accused as
an accomplice in an attempt to seize the empire and even to be outlawed; Ummidius
Quadratus, Catilius Severus, and Turbo he persecuted vigorously; and in order to prevent
Servianus, his brother-in-law, from surviving him, he compelled him to commit suicide,
although the man was then in his ninetieth year. And he even took vengeance on freedmen
and sometimes on soldiers. And although he was very deft at prose and at verse and very
accomplished in all the arts, yet he used to subject the teachers of these arts, as though
more learned than they, to ridicule, scorn, and humiliation. With these very professors
and philosophers he often debated by means of pamphlets or poems issued by both sides in
turn. And once Favorinus, when he had yielded to Hadrian's criticism of a word which he
had used, raised a merry laugh among his friends. For when they reproached him for having
done wrong in yielding to Hadrian in the matter of a word used by reputable authors, he
replied: "You are urging a wrong course, my friends, when you do not suffer me to
regard as the most learned of men the one who has thirty legions."
XVI. So desirous of a wide-spread reputation was Hadrian that he even wrote his own
biography; this he gave to his educated freedmen, with instructions to publish it under
their own names. For indeed, Phlegon's writings, it is said, are Hadrian's in reality. He
wrote Catachannae, a very obscure work in imitation of Antimachus. And when the poet
Florus wrote to him:
I don't want to be a Caesar,
Stroll about among the Britons,
Lurk about among the . . . .
And endure the Scythian winters,
he wrote back:
I don't want to be a Florus,
Stroll about among the taverns,
Lurk about among the cook-shops,
And endure the round fat insects.
Furthermore, he loved the archaic style of writing, and he used to take part in
debates. He preferred Cato to Cicero, Ennius to Vergil, Caelius to Sallust; and with the
same self-assurance he expressed opinions about Homer and Plato. In astrology he
considered himself so proficient that on the Kalends of January he would actually write
down all that might happen to him in the whole ensuing year, and in the year in which he
died, indeed, he wrote down everything that he was going to do, down to the very hour of
his death.
However ready Hadrian might have been to criticize musicians, tragedians, comedians,
grammarians, and rhetoricians, he nevertheless bestowed both honours and riches upon all
who professed these arts, though he always tormented them with his questions. And although
he was himself responsible for the fact that many of them left his presence with their
feelings hurt, to see anyone with hurt feelings, he used to say, he could hardly endure.
He treated with the greatest friendship the philosophers Epictetus and Heliodorus, and
various grammarians, rhetoricians, musicians, geometricians -- not to mention all by name
-- painters and astrologers; and among them Favorinus, many claim, was conspicuous above
all the rest. Teachers who seemed unfit for their profession he presented with riches and
honours and then dismissed from the practice of their profession.
XVII. Many whom he had regarded as enemies when a private citizen, when emperor he
merely ignored; for example, on becoming emperor, he said to one man whom he had regarded
as a mortal foe, "You have escaped." When he himself called any to military
service, he always supplied them with horses, mules, clothing, cost of maintenance, and
indeed their whole equipment. At the Saturnalia and Sigillaria he often surprised his
friends with presents, and he gladly received gifts from them and again gave others in
return. In order to detect dishonesty in his caterers, when he gave banquets with several
tables he gave orders that platters from the other tables, even the lowest, should be set
before himself. He surpassed all monarchs in his gifts. He often bathed in the public
baths, even with the common crowd. And a jest of his made in the bath became famous. For
on a certain occasion, seeing a veteran, whom he had known in the service, rubbing his
back and the rest of his body against the wall, he asked him why he had the marble rub
him, and when the man replied that it was because he did not own a slave, he presented him
with some slaves and the cost of their maintenance. But another time, when he saw a number
of old men rubbing themselves against the wall for the purpose of arousing the generosity
of the Emperor, he ordered them to be called out and then to rub one another in turn. His
love for the common people he loudly expressed. So fond was he of travel, that he wished
to inform himself in person about all that he had read concerning all parts of the world.
Cold and bad weather he could bear with such endurance that he never covered his head. He
showed a multitude of favours to many kings, but from a number he even purchased peace,
and by some he was treated with scorn; to many he gave huge gifts, but none greater than
to the king of the Hiberi, for to him he gave an elephant and a band of fifty men, in
addition to magnificent presents. And having himself received huge gifts from Pharasmanes,
including some cloaks embroidered with gold, he sent into the arena three hundred
condemned criminals dressed in gold-embroidered cloaks for the purpose of ridiculing the
gifts of the king.
XVIII. When he tried cases, he had in his council not only his friends and the members
of his staff, but also jurists, in particular Juventius Celsus, Salvius Julianus, Neratius
Priscus, and others, only those, however, whom the senate had in every instance approved.
Among other decisions he ruled that in no community should any house be demolished for the
purpose of transporting any building-materials to another city. To the child of an
outlawed person he granted a twelfth of the property. Accusations for lese majeste he
did not admit. Legacies from persons unknown to him he refused, and even those left to him
by acquaintances he would not accept if they had any children. In regard to
treasure-trove, he ruled that if anyone made a find on his own property he might keep it,
if on another's land, he should turn over half to the proprietor thereof, if on the
state's, he should share the find equally with the privy-purse. He forbade masters to kill
their slaves, and ordered that any who deserved it should be sentenced by the courts. He
forbade anyone to sell a slave or a maid-servant to a procurer or trainer of gladiators
without giving a reason therefor. He ordered that those who had wasted their property, if
legally responsible, should be flogged in the amphitheatre and then let go. Houses of hard
labour for slaves and free he abolished. He provided separate baths for the sexes. He
issued an order that, if a slave-owner were murdered in his house, no slaves should be
examined save those who were near enough to have had a knowledge of the murder.
XIX. In Etruria he held a praetorship while emperor. In the Latin towns he was dictator
and aedile and duumvir, in Naples demarch, in his native city duumvir with the powers of
censor. This office he held at Hadria, too, his second native city, as it were, and at
Athens he was archon.
In almost every city he built some building and gave public games. At Athens he
exhibited in the stadium a hunt of a thousand wild beasts, but he never called away from
Rome a single wild-beast-hunter or actor. In Rome, in addition to popular entertainments
of unbounded extravagance, he gave spices to the people in honour of his mother-in-law,
and in honour of Trajan he caused essences of balsam and saffron to be poured over the
seats of the theatre. And in the theatre he presented plays of all kinds in the ancient
manner and had the court-players appear before the public. In the Circus he had many wild
beasts killed and often a whole hundred of lions. He often gave the people exhibitions of
military Pyrrhic dances, and he frequently attended gladiatorial shows. He built public
buildings in all places and without number, but he inscribed his own name on none of them
except the temple of his father Trajan. At Rome he restored the Pantheon, the
Voting-enclosure, the Basilica of Neptune, very many temples, the Forum of Augustus, the
Baths of Agrippa, and dedicated all of them in the names of their original builders. Also
he constructed the bridge named after himself, a tomb on the bank of the Tiber, and the
temple of the Bona Dea. With the aid of the architect Decrianus he raised the Colossus
and, keeping it in an upright position, moved it away from the place in which the Temple
of Rome is now, though its weight was so vast that he had to furnish for the work as many
as twenty-four elephants. This statue he then consecrated to the Sun, after removing the
features of Nero, to whom it had previously been dedicated, and he also planned, with the
assistance of the architect Apollodorus, to make a similar one for the Moon.
XX. Most democratic in his conversations, even with the very humble, he denounced all
who, in the belief that they were thereby maintaining the imperial dignity, begrudged him
the pleasure of such friendliness. In the Museum at Alexandria he propounded many
questions to the teachers and answered himself what he had propounded. Marius Maximus says
that he was naturally cruel and performed so many kindnesses only because he feared that
he might meet the fate which had befallen Domitian.
Though he cared nothing for inscriptions on his public works, he gave the name of
Hadrianopolis to many cities, as, for example, even to Carthage and a section of Athens;
and he also gave his name to aqueducts without number. He was the first to appoint a
pleader for the privy-purse.
Hadrian's memory was vast and his ability was unlimited; for instance, he personally
dictated his speeches and gave opinions on all questions. He was also very witty, and of
his jests many still survive. The following one has even become famous: When he had
refused a request to a certain grey-haired man, and the man repeated the request but this
time with dyed hair, Hadrian replied, "I have already refused this to your
father." Even without the aid of a nomenclator he could call by name a great many
people, whose names he had heard but once and then all in a crowd; indeed, he could
correct the nomenclators when they made mistakes, as they not infrequently did, and he
even knew the names of the veterans whom he had discharged at various times. He could
repeat from memory, after a rapid reading, books which to most men were not known at all.
He wrote, dictated, listened, and, incredible as it seems, conversed with his friends, all
at one and the same time. He had as complete a knowledge of the state-budget in all its
details as any careful householder has of his own household. His horses and dogs he loved
so much that he provided burial-places for them, and in one locality he founded a town
called Hadrianotherae, because once he had hunted successfully there and killed a bear.
XXI. He always inquired into the actions of all his judges, and persisted in his
inquiries until he satisfied himself of the truth about them. He would not allow his
freedmen to be prominent in public affairs or to have any influence over himself, and he
declared that all his predecessors were to blame for the faults of their freedmen; he also
punished all his freedmen who boasted of their influence over him. With regard to his
treatment of his slaves, the following incident, stern but almost humorous, is still
related. Once when he saw one of his slaves walk away from his presence between two
senators, he sent someone to give him a box on the ear and say to him: "Do not walk
between those whose slave you may some day be." As an article of food he was
singularly fond of tetrapharmacum, which consisted of pheasant, sow's udders, ham, and
pastry.
During his reign there were famines, pestilence, and earthquakes. The distress caused
by all these calamities he relieved to the best of his ability, and also he aided many
communities which had been devastated by them. There was also an overflow of the Tiber. To
many communities he gave Latin citizenship, and to many others he remitted their tribute.
There were no campaigns of importance during his reign, and the wars that he did wage
were brought to a close almost without arousing comment. The soldiers loved him much on
account of his very great interest in the army and for his great liberality to them
besides. The Parthians always regarded him as a friend because he took away the king whom
Trajan had set over them. The Armenians were permitted to have their own king, whereas
under Trajan they had had a governor, and the Mesopotamians were relieved of the tribute
which Trajan had imposed. The Albanians and Hiberians he made his friends by lavishing
gifts upon their kings, even though they had scorned to come to him. The kings of the
Bactrians sent envoys to him to beg humbly for his friendship.
XXII. He very often assigned guardians. Discipline in civil life he maintained as
rigorously as he did in military. He ordered senators and knights to wear the toga
whenever they appeared in public except when they were returning from a banquet, and he
himself, when in Italy, always appeared thus clad. At banquets, when senators came, he
received them standing, and he always reclined at table dressed either in a Greek cloak or
in a toga. The cost of a banquet he determined on each occasion, all with the utmost care,
and he reduced the sums that might be expended to the amounts prescribed by the ancient
laws. He forbade entry into Rome of heavily laden waggons, and he did not permit riding on
horseback in cities. None but invalids were allowed to bathe in the public baths before
the eighth hour of the day. He was the first to put knights in charge of the imperial
correspondence and of the petitions addressed to the emperor. Those men whom he saw to be
poor and innocent he enriched of his own accord, but those who had become rich through
sharp practice he actually regarded with hatred. He despised foreign cults, but native
Roman ones he observed most scrupulously; moreover, he always performed the duties of
pontifex maximus. He tried a great number of lawsuits himself both in Rome and in the
provinces, and to his council he called consuls and praetors and the foremost of the
senators. He drained the Fucine Lake. He appointed four men of consular rank as judges for
all Italy. When he went to Africa it rained on his arrival for the first time in the space
of five years, and for this he was beloved by the Africans.
XXIII. After traversing, as he did, all parts of the world with bare head and often in
severe storms and frosts, he contracted an illness which confined him to his bed. And
becoming anxious about a successor he thought first of Servianus. Afterwards, however, as
I have said, he forced him to commit suicide; and Fuscus, too, he put to death on the
ground that, being spurred on by prophecies and omens, he was hoping for the imperial
power. Carried away by suspicion, he held in the greatest abhorrence Platorius Nepos, whom
he had formerly so loved that, once, when he went to see him while ill and was refused
admission, he nevertheless let him go unpunished. Also he hated Terentius Gentianus, but
even more vehemently, because he saw that he was then beloved by the senate. At last, he
came to hate all those of whom he had thought in connection with the imperial power, as
though they were really about to be emperors. However, he controlled all the force of his
innate cruelty down to the time when in his Tiburtine Villa he almost met his death
through a hemorrhage. Then he threw aside all restraint and compelled Servianus to kill
himself, on the ground that he aspired to the empire, merely because he gave a feast to
the royal slaves, sat in a royal chair placed close to his bed, and, though an old man of
ninety, used to arise and go forward to meet the guard of soldiers. He put many others to
death, either openly or by treachery, and indeed, when his wife Sabina died, the rumour
arose that the Emperor had given her poison.
Hadrian then determined to adopt Ceionius Commodus, son-in-law of Nigrinus, the former
conspirator, and this in spite of the fact that his sole recommendation was his beauty.
Accordingly, despite the opposition of all, he adopted Ceionius Commodus Verus and called
him Aelius Verus Caesar. On the occasion of the adoption he gave games in the Circus and
bestowed largess upon the populace and the soldiers. He dignified Commodus with the office
of praetor and immediately placed him in command of the Pannonian provinces, and also
conferred on him the consulship together with money enough to meet the expenses of the
office. He also appointed Commodus to a second consulship. And when he saw that the man
was diseased, he used often to say: "We have leaned against a tottering wall and have
wasted the four hundred million sesterces which we gave to the populace and the soldiers
on the adoption of Commodus." Moreover, because of his ill-health, Commodus could not
even make a speech in the senate thanking Hadrian for his adoption. Finally, too large a
quantity of medicine was administered to him, and thereupon his illness increased, and he
died in his sleep on the very Kalends of January. Because of the date Hadrian forbade
public mourning for him, in order that the vows for the state might be assumed as usual.
XXIV. After the death of Aelius Verus Caesar, Hadrian was attacked by a very severe
illness, and thereupon he adopted Arrius Antoninus (who was afterwards called Pius),
imposing on him the condition that he adopt two sons, Annius Verus and Marcus Antoninus.
These were the two who afterwards ruled the empire together, the first joint Augusti. And
as for Antoninus, he was called Pius, it is said, because he used to give his arm to his
father-in-law when weakened by old age. However, others assert that this surname was given
to him because, as Hadrian grew more cruel, he rescued many senators from the Emperor;
others, again, that it was because he bestowed great honours upon Hadrian after his death.
The adoption of Antoninus was lamented by many at that time, particularly by Catilius
Severus, the prefect of the city, who was making plans to secure the throne for himself.
When this fact became known, a successor was appointed for him and he was deprived of his
office.
But Hadrian was now seized with the utmost disgust of life and ordered a servant to
stab him with a sword. When this was disclosed and reached the ears of Antoninus, he came
to the Emperor, together with the prefects, and begged him to endure with fortitude the
hard necessity of illness, declaring furthermore that he himself would be no better than a
parricide, were he, an adopted son, to permit Hadrian to be killed. The Emperor then
became angry and ordered the betrayer of the secret to be put to death; however, the man
was saved by Antoninus. Then Hadrian immediately drew up his will, though he did not lay
aside the administration of the empire. Once more, however, after making his will, he
attempted to kill himself, but the dagger was taken from him. He then became more violent,
and he even demanded poison from his physician, who thereupon killed himself in order that
he might not have to administer it.
XXV. About this time there came a certain woman, who said that she had been warned in a
dream to coax Hadrian to refrain from killing himself, for he was destined to recover
entirely, but that she had failed to do this and had become blind; she had nevertheless
been ordered a second time to give the same message to Hadrian and to kiss his knees, and
was assured of the recovery of her sight if she did so. The woman then carried out the
command of the dream, and reeived her sight after she had bathed her eyes with the water
in the temple from which she had come. Also a blind old man from Pannonia came to Hadrian
when he was ill with fever, and touched him; whereupon the man received his sight, and the
fever left Hadrian. All these things, however, Marius Maximus declares were done as a
hoax.
After this Hadrian departed for Baiae, leaving Antoninus at Rome to carry on the
government. But he received no benefit there, and he thereupon sent for Antoninus, and in
his presence he died there at Baiae on the sixth day before the Ides of July. Hated by
all, he was buried at Puteoli on an estate that had belonged to Cicero.
Just before his death, he compelled Servianus, then ninety years old, to kill himself,
as has been said before, in order that Servianus might not outlive him, and, as he
thought, become emperor. He likewise gave orders that very many others who were guilty of
slight offences should be put to death; these, however, were spared by Antoninus. And he
is said, as he lay dying, to have composed the following lines:
O blithe little soul, thou, flitting away,
Guest and comrade of this my clay,
Whither now goest thou, to what place
Bare and ghastly and without grace?
Nor, as thy wont was, joke and play.
Such verses as these did he compose, and not many that were better, and also some in
Greek.
He lived 62 years, 5 months, 17 days. He ruled 20 years, 11 months.
XXVI. He was tall of stature and elegant in appearance; his hair was curled on a comb,
and he wore a full beard to cover up the natural blemishes on his face; and he was very
strongly built. He rode and walked a great deal and always kept himself in training by the
use of arms and the javelin. He also hunted, and he used often to kill a lion with his own
hand, but once in a hunt he broke his collar-bone and a rib; these hunts of his he always
shared with his friends. At his banquets he always furnished, according to the occasion,
tragedies, comedies, Atellan farces, players on the sambuca, readers, or poets. His villa
at Tibur was marvellously constructed, and he actually gave to parts of it the names of
provinces and places of the greatest renown, calling them, for instance, Lyceum, Academia,
Prytaneum, Canopus, Poecile and Tempe. And in order not to omit anything, he even made a
Hades.
The premonitions of his death were as follows: On his last birthday, when he was
commending Antoninus to the gods, his bordered toga fell down without apparent cause and
bared his head. His ring, on which his portrait was carved, slipped of its own accord from
his finger. On the day before his birthday some one came into the senate wailing; by his
presence Hadrian was as disturbed as if he were speaking about his own death, for no one
could understand what he was saying. Again, in the senate, when he meant to say,
"after my son's death," he said, "after mine." Besides, he dreamed
that he had asked his father for a soporific; he also dreamed that he had been overcome by
a lion.
XXVII. Much was said against him after his death, and by many persons. The senate
wished to annul his acts, and would have refrained from naming him "the Deified"
had not Antoninus requested it. Antoninus, moreover, finally built a temple for him at
Puteoli to take the place of a tomb, and he also established a quinquennial contest and
flamens and sodales and many other institutions which appertain to the honour of
one regarded as a god. It is for this reason, as has been said before, that many think
that Antoninus received the surname Pius.
