Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome
Page 42
BMC III p. 281 no. 332.
“most immense delights”
HA Hadr 19 5.
The Arvals recorded their generous
Smallwood II 74–9 (p. 23).
We have his own words
Ibid., 114 4 (p. 56).
“All hopes for the arts”
Juv 71–4, 17, 20–21.
“a charming coastal retreat”
Juv 34.
“at Tibur perched on its hillside”
Ibid., 3 191.
“But here we inhabit a city”
Ibid., 192–97.
“Insomnia causes most deaths here”
Ibid., 232, 236–38.
“however flown with wine”
Ibid., 282–88.
“as a special favor”
Ibid., 301.
“the whores pimped out”
Ibid., 64–65.
“When every building”
Ibid., 302–5.
commissioning masterworks of architecture
This section is indebted to Opper, pp. 110–25.
“the most blest of plains”
Strabo 543.
the celebrated occasion when his predecessor
Tac Ann 4 57 and 58.
His aim … was to “aid all the towns”
HA Hadr 96.
Inscriptions have been discovered at various towns
CIL X 4574, 6652, and ILS 843.
“a restful vacation”
Strabo 547.
demarch
HA Hadr 19 1.
According to Petronius … she lived in a cave
Petr 48.
XVI. THE TRAVELER
Chief literary sources—Dio Cassius and
Historia Augusta
dispensed “with imperial trappings”
Dio 69 10 1.
“went to the relief of all the communities”
HA Hadr 10 1.
restitutor
,
or “restorer,” of the province
BMC III p. 350f, 521f.
the generals of the Republic
HA Hadr 10 2 refers to Hadrian’s debt to Scipio Aemilianus and Metellus. The information must have come from Hadrian’s lost autobiography via Marius Maximus. Hadrian would have first heard about these generals in his youth.
“A glorious moment”
App Pun 132.
“There will come a day”
Homer
Iliad 6
448–449.
“[The soldiers’] food”
App Iberica 85.
“Stranger, you will do well to linger here”
Sen Ep 21 10.
“A painful inability to urinate”
Dio Laer Epicurus 10 22.
“You know very well, sir, [the interest I] have”
Oliver, pp. 174ff.; Smallwood 442.
“We have what we were so eager to obtain”
Smallwood 442.
“the best of all fellow-sectarians”
Ibid.
“inattention of previous supreme commanders”
HA Hadr 10 3.
a manual of military regulations
Veg 18.
“with a view to beauty, speed, the inspiring of terror”
Arr Tact 32 3.
“such camp fare as bacon, cheese, and vinegar”
HA Hadr 10 2.
“He generally wore the commonest clothing”
Ibid., 10 5.
“He personally viewed and investigated”
Dio 69 92.
“demolished dining rooms in the camps”
HA Hadr 10 4.
older men “with full beards”
Ibid., 10 6.
the death penalty should be used
See Digest 49 16 6–7, and 48 3 12.
“put a more humane interpretation”
Smallwood 333.
“during this period [his first provincial tour]”
HA Hadr 12 6.
“An encamped army”
Ael Arist Rom 82.
XVII. EDGE OF EMPIRE
Chief literary sources—Dio Cassius and
Historia Augusta
. Also Birley and Bowman on Vindolanda.
a still-persisting trick of the weather
Birley Vind p. 50.
Britunculi
See Bowman p. 103, TVII 164.
“I shall expect you, sister”
Bowman, p. 135.
“furnish me with very many friends”
Ibid., p. 129.
a couple of tablets reveal the efforts
See Birley Vind p. 76.
“Many hellos”
Bowman, pp. 141–42.
Archaeologists have discovered and explored
See Birley Vind p. 76.
Certificates were issued
Smallwood 347.
His reply survives
Justin Apol App.
“I will not allow them simply to beg”
Ibid.
“And this, by Hercules”
Ibid.
A document of May 18
TVII 154 (see Bowman, pp. 101–2).
“corrected many abuses”
HA Hadr 11 2.
“To the discipline of the emperor”
Birley Vind p. 97.
“ripped up their cuirasses”
Fronto Ad L Ver 19.
“I implore Your Clemency”
TVII 344 (see Bowman, pp. 146–47, but NB variant translation). It is just possible that the letter was for the provincial governor, but the use of the term “Majesty” (not quoted here) suggests that Hadrian was the addressee.
there was an amusing sequel
For this anecdote, HA Hadr 11 6–7.
“replaced Septicius Clarus, Praetorian prefect”
HA Hadr 11 3. “Without his consent” translates
iniussu eius
, but some prefer a modern emendation
in usu eius
, or “in their association with her.” I prefer the former, the latter being somewhat repetitive of
apud
, “in the presence (or company) of.”
because of his monstrous personality
Epit de Caes 14 8. 222
“the first to construct a wall”
HA Hadr 11 2.
“necessity of keeping intact”
Sherk 141. Hadrian was consul in 118 and 119.
XVIII. LAST GOOD-BYES
Chief literary sources—
Historia Augusta
and Dio Cassius. Also Xenophon on reaching the sea.
“I couldn’t bear to be Caesar”
HA Hadr 16 3–4. This and the following quatrain is a free rendering
of ego nolo Caesar esse / ambulare per Britannos / [latitare per Germanos] / Scythicas pati pruinas
and
ego nolo Florus esse / ambulare per tabernas / latitare per popinas, / culices pati rotundos
. A line has dropped out of the first squib, but it can be reconstructed by reference to the emperor’s reply and his itinerary since accession.
“Every woman’s breast”
MLP Florus 3. The Latin runs:
Mulier intra pectus omnis celat virus pestilens; / dulce de labris loquuntur, corde vivunt noxio
.
“the woman through whom he had secured”
Dio 69 10 3.
“honored her exceedingly”
Ibid.
“Although she asked much of me”
Ibid., 3
2
.
he famously brought down a huge boar
Ibid.
he broke his collarbone
Ibid., 69 10 2.
“Borysthenes the barbarian”
MLP Hadr 4.
Borysthenes Alanus, / Caesareus veredus, / per aequor et paludes / et tumulos Etruscos / volare qui solebat / … die sua peremptus / hic situs est in agro
. The Alani were Iranian nomads who reared Borysthenes.
Also the next quotation.
he loved his horses and dogs
HA Hadr 20 13.
“There you will slaughter”
Mart 1 49 23–30.
a certain Publius Rufius Flavus
Sherk 180, CIL II 4332.
“one of the slaves of the household”
HA Hadr 12 5.
he failed to revisit his hometown of Italica
Dio 69 10 1.
Suetonius’ successor as
ab epistulis
We know that Vestinus became Hadrian’s
ab epistulis
, but it is not certain that he followed immediately on Suetonius.
Hadrian scattered cultural largesse
Birley, p. 153. Malalas 278f.
“very elegant” temple
See Birley p. 153, Suda sv Jovianus.
“War with the Parthians”
HA Hadr 12 8.
expeditio Augusti
BMC III p. 425 no. 1259ff., pp. 434–35 no. 1312ff.
Janus began to appear on the coinage
Ibid., p. 254 no. 100, p. 437 no. 1335.
“doorkeeper of heaven and hell”
Macr 19 13.
“However, when the shouting got louder”
Xen Anab 4 7.
memorial cairns built by the Greek soldiers
Diod 14 29 4.
“although [it] has been erected”
Arrian Peri 1 3–4.
“long street of great beauty”
Pliny Ep 10 98 1.
“disgusting eyesore”
Ibid.
An earthquake had struck the province
Syncellus Chron p. 659 7–8.
XIX. THE BITHYNIAN BOY
Chief literary sources—Plato, Plutarch, and others on love. Polemon on a possible assassination attempt.
“building, or rather excavating”
Pliny Ep 39 5–6.
his birthday … November 27
Smallwood 165, line 5.
a cheerful, chubby-faced teenager
Bust, Munich Glyptothek, Inv. No. GL286; head, British Museum, Inv. No. 1900. Juvenile portraits may or may not have been posthumously carved or copies of earlier ones, but, even if posthumous, are an indication of contemporaries’ understanding of Antinous’ age when first noticed.
In about 130 we see Antinous in a carved relief
Tondo, Arch of Constantine, Rome.
a woman called Antinoe
Paus 8 8 4–5. Also, after Antinous’ death, a divine cult in his honor was established at Mantinea; so the connection was credited, even if mistakenly.
A late reference to Antinous as Hadrian’s “slave”
Jer de vir ill 22.
“no one keeps you from coming here”
Plaut Curc 33–38.
The Cretans engaged in a procedure
Strabo 10 4 21.
“Lovers of their own sex”
Plato Symp 181 D.
“the true genuine love”
Plut Mor 751a.
no one falls in love with an
ugly
youngster?
Cic Tusc 4 33 70.
“Lesbia of the Lesbians”
Mart 7 70.
Mousa Paidike
This is Book 12, Anth Pal.
“who used to fancy himself”
Juv 9 46–47.
a procurer of every luxury
Aur Vic 14 7.
agmen comitantium
Ep de Caes 14 4 5.
“cohorts … every kind of specialist”
Ibid.
the imperial Paedogogium in Rome
I accept here the traditional location on the Palatine Hill, although another address places the Paedogogium on the Caelian Hill. Perhaps there were two similar or related establishments. In this section, I am indebted to Clarence A. Forbes, “Supplementary Paper: The Education and Training of Slaves in Antiquity,”
American Philological Association
86 (1955), 321–60; also to Lambert, pp. 61–63.
the gravestone of one of its directors
ILS 1831. The widow of the “paedogogus of the slave boys of our Caesar” was called Ulpia Helpis, which suggests that she won her freedom from Trajan. So Ganymedes would have died not before Trajan’s reign and very possibly in Hadrian’s.
“colleges for the most contemptible vices”
Colum 1 praef. 5.
Juvenal grumpily complained
Juv 5 121–22.
some two hundred graffiti
The Paedogogium had a long life, and the dating of these graffiti ranges from the first to the third century.
tomb of the Greek warrior Ajax
Philo Her 1 2; the reference at Paus 1 35 3 must refer to Hadrian’s visit, unless it is to be supposed that the tomb needed restoration twice in the same period.
Hadrianutherae, or Hadrian’s Hunt
HA Hadr 20 13.
“select and genuinely Hellenic”
Philo v. Soph 1 25 3.
his Greek text
A book called Polemon’s
Physiognomica
.
“Once I accompanied the greatest king”
Pol Physio (ed. G. Hoffmann, in R. Forster,
Scriptores Physiognomici
I, pp. 138ff.); also the succeeding quotations. See Birley, pp. 164–66.
The prosperous city of Stratonicea
Oliver, pp. 201–4.
a woman stepped forward
Dio 69 6 3.
“the emperor Hadrian”
Galen,
The Diseases of the Mind
, 4.
“accomplish what kings could only attempt”
Pliny Ep 10 41 5. 249
“In general,” observed Dio
Dio 70 4 2.
“young men of the city”
Smallwood 72b.
a late and not altogether dependable source
Malalas, p. 279.
“Julianus himself”
Digest, Constitution “Tanta …” 18.
recast their constitution
Jer Chron 280–81.
XX. THE ISLES OF GREECE
Chief literary source—Pausanias on Greece. Also Burkert on Eleusis.
The piglet squealed
For my account of the Mysteries I am mainly indebted to Burkert, especially pp. 285–90. There are many theories of what took place during the rites, but I try to take a conservative line. The first section concerns what were called the Lesser Mysteries, where initiates were purified; these usually took place in March, but could be held at other times. Special arrangements were surely put in place for an emperor. It appears that Hadrian was not initiated during his previous visit to Athens.
for more than one thousand years
Legend has it that the Mysteries started in 1500 B.C. Their popularity was long sustained. Peter Levi writes: “As late as 1801 Demeter was still worshipped at Eleusis; when her last cult image, a two-ton kistophorus from the inner porch, was stolen by Professor E. D. Clarke of Cambridge, the visitors were terrified. An ox ran up, butted the statue repeatedly and fled bellowing. The people prophesied the shipwreck of Clarke’s ship: it occurred off Beachy Head, but the statue is now in Cambridge.” Paus vol. 1, book 1, note 231.
“We have learned from them the beginnings of life”
Cic Leg 2 14 36.
weapons were banned
HA Hadr 13 2.
“uncovered her shame”
Clem 2 176–77.
a new bridge over the river Kephisos
Jer Chron 280–81.
“ruler of the wide, unharvested earth”
Smallwood 71a.
“Hadrian, god and Panhellene”
IG 2
22958
.
When he was at Eleusis
It is a reasonable assumption that the
princeps
noticed the distorted market in fish during his visit to Eleusis, but it
is
only an assumption.
“I want the vendors to have been stopped”
Oliver, pp. 193–95.
a tour of the Peloponnese
See Birley, pp. 177–182.
“a peacock in gold”
Paus 2 17 6.
“founder, lawgiver, benefactor”
IG VII 70–72, 3491.
“not even the emperor”
Paus 1363.
buried at the roadside
Ibid., 8 11 7–8.
an annual celebration
Xen Anab 5 3 9–10.
“He wore local dress”
Dio 69 16 1.
“Do not detract from anyone’s dignity”
Pliny Ep 8 24.
“Those who introduce the emperor’s opinion”
Plut Mor 814—15.
“hundred columns, walls and colonnades”
Paus 1 18 9.
a complicated dispute
CIG 1713.
“very magnificent and splendid”
Plut Mor 748—49.
“be gracious, kindly receive”
IG 7 1828.
“the soul from the world”
Plut Mor 764—65.
XXI. HOME AND ABROAD
Chief literary source—
Historia Augusta
. Also the guidebook, and MacDonald and Pinto, on Hadrian’s villa; and the speech at Lambaesis.
“many-colored, it is said, like a rainbow”
HA Hadr 13 3.
entire crest had been blown off
M. Coltelli, P. Del Carlo, and L. Vezzoli, “Discovery of a Plinian basaltic eruption of Roman age at Etna Volcano, Italy,”
Geology 26
(1998), 1095–98.
“the Aelian villa with the colorful walls”
CIL 14 3911.
rus in urbe
Mart 12 57 21.
“built his villa at Tibur”
HA Hadr 26 5.
his “house at Tibur”
Oliver, p. 74 bis.
Some scholars suggest … a cult theater
MacDonald, pp. 162ff.
“devoted to music and flute players”
Fronto de fer Als 4.
His most astonishing architectural innovation
It is possible that Hadrian was influenced by the palace of Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse, which was isolated by a canal, and the Herodion, Herod the Great’s circular palace-fortress.
He had been born in or about 113
Dio has Pedanius Fuscus about six years younger. An ancient horoscope places his birth in 113, and because of its broad contemporaneity (it would have been published not long after his death when he was still “news”) is more likely to be accurate.
an odd little congratulatory poem
ILS 5173. It survives in an inscription. See the inspired interpretation by Edward Champlin in
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik