Ten Caesars

by Barry Strauss

  Trajan’s coins recognized him as “the best prince”: e.g. RIC II Trajan 128, http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.2.tr.128.

  “who were called deaconesses”: Pliny the Younger, Letters, 10.96.8.

  “depraved and immoderate superstition”: Ibid.

  “by worshipping our gods”: Ibid., 10.97.2.

  “not in the spirit of our era”: Ibid.

  The sources refer to King Decebalus: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 67.6.1.

  In the course of the campaign, he himself performed many deeds: Ibid., 68.14.1.

  A sculpted relief shows the emperor: panel depicting the emperor in battle on horseback, one of reliefs of the Great Trajanic Frieze removed from an earlier monument in order to adorn the central archway of the Arch of Constantine, Rome.

  “From Berzobim, we then proceeded to Azi”: Priscian, Institutiones Grammaticae 6.13.

  “a creeper that grows on walls”: Constantine, Pseudo-Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus, 41.13.

  War spoils from Dacia financed the new forum: Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, 13.25.

  demolished part of the Quirinal Hill: Domitian began the demolition of the Quirinal, but Trajan designed and carried out the rest of the project.

  because he wanted glory: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 68.17.1.

  “I should certainly have crossed over to the Indi”: Ibid., 68.29.1.

  “the enemy, seeing his majestic gray head”: Ibid., 68.31.2.

  “If a man were called upon to fix that period in the history of the world”: Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1, 103.

  the empire’s gross domestic product: For these estimates and for Rome’s market economy more generally, see Peter Temin, The Roman Market Economy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013).

  Roman Climate Optimum: Kyle Harper, The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease and the End of an Empire (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017), 14–15, 39–55.

  Nonetheless, all was not rosy: See the discussion in Frank McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: A Life (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2009), 2–13.

  bronze bust that some identify as Trajan: Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, Turkey, Inventory Number 10345; but for skepticism about the identification, see Stephen Mitchell, “The Trajanic Tondo from Roman Ankara: In Search of the Identity of a Roman Masterpiece,” Journal of Ankara Studies 2.1 (2014): 1–10.

  he is reported to have suffered a stroke: See Cassius Dio, Roman History, 75.32–33.

  “coast is narrow”: H. L. Jones, trans., The Geography of Strabo, vol. 6, Loeb Classical Library 223 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1929), 327.

  CHAPTER 6: HADRIAN, THE GREEK

  Plotina signed Trajan’s letters to the Senate naming Hadrian: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 69.1.2–4.

  Plotina smuggled in an actor to impersonate Trajan: “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 4.10.

  a young freedman: ILS 1792.

  “full of light and bright”: Polemon, see Simon Swain, “Polemon’s Physiognomy,” in Seeing the Face, Seeing the Soul: Polemon’s Physiognomy from Classical Antiquity to Medieval Islam, ed. Simon Swain and G. R. Boys-Stones (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 167–68.

  large number of images of him that survive—more than of any other emperor: Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, and Dominic Rathbone, eds., The Cambridge Ancient History, 2nd ed. v. 11. The high empire, A.D. 70–192 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 975.

  visiting more places: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 69.5.3.

  “alike amid German snows”: Ibid., 69.9.4; compare Historia Augusta, 17.9, 23.1.

  killing a boar with a single blow: Cassius Dio, Roman History 69.10.32.

  “He was, in the same person, austere and genial”: “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 14.11, Loeb Classical Library translation modified.

  Hadria: modern Adria, located in the Po River Delta, between Ravenna and Venice.

  It all earned him the nickname of Graeculus: “the little Greek”: “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 1.5.

  “little Greeks are fond of their gymnasia”: Pliny the Younger, Letters, 10.40.2.

  “Live unknown”: Plutarch, “Is ‘Live Unknown’ a Wise Precept?,” Moralia 1128B–1130D.

  “conquered Greece took captive”: Horace, Epistles, 2.1.156–57.

  various busts and full-length statues of Sabina: for example, portrait bust in the Prado, Madrid, inv. E00210.

  Rumor said the couple disliked each other: “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 11.3; Pseudo-Aurelius-Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus, 14.8.

  Hadrian came to share Trajan’s hard-drinking: “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 3.2.

  diamond: Ibid., 3.7.

  the emperor was going to adopt him: Ibid., 3.10.

  reports that Plotina used her influence to get Hadrian a position: Ibid., 4.1.

  Rumor said that Hadrian was bribing: Ibid., 4.5.

  a rumor that Trajan planned to name another man his heir: Ibid., 4.3–5, 8–10.

  “He was by turns an excellent prince”: Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1, 100.

  “within my own time the emperor Hadrian”: Pausanias notes one exception to Hadrian’s abjuring of war, the suppression of the Jewish revolt. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.5.5, trans. Loeb Classical Library—modified, Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W. H. S. Jones, LittD, and H. A. Ormerod, MA, in 4 Volumes. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1918).

  Apollodorus: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 69.4.1–5, compare Birley, loc. 6316.

  one of eight places in the empire called “Hadrian City”: Numerous other places added “Hadrian” to their name, and there was also “Hadrian’s Hunt,” named after a spot where the emperor had gone hunting.

  “the most frequently contested spot on the globe”: John Keegan, A History of Warfare (London: Hutchinson, 1993), 70.

  “pumpkins”: The scornful characterization by Trajan’s architect Apollodorus (Cassius Dio, Roman History, 69.4.2).

  An old woman once: Ibid., 69.6.3.

  “Though more desirous of peace than of war”: “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 10.1, Loeb translation.

  “The outstanding manhood of that noble man”: Michael Speidel, Emperor Hadrian’s Speeches to the African Army: A New Text (Mainz, Ger.: Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums, 2006), 15, translation modified.

  Hadrian’s Horse Guards swam across the Danube: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 69.9.6.

  “I give you a warm invitation to make sure that you come”: Vindolanda Tablet, 291, Vindolanda Inventory 85.057, translated, http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/4DLink2/4DACTION/WebRequestTablet?thisLeafNum=1&searchTerm=Families,%20pleasures%20and%20ceremonies&searchType=browse&searchField=highlights&thisListPosition=3&displayImage=1&displayLatin=1&displayEnglish=1.

  Hadrian was of half a mind to divorce Sabina: “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 11.3.

  I don’t want to be a Caesar: Ibid., 16.3.

  “Plotina, Augusta of the Divine Trajan”: for example, RIC II Hadrian 29, http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.2.hdn.29.

  “deified mother”: So Plotina was honored on a gold coin, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, MK 8622, 134–38.

  Hadrian gave him a proper tomb with a gravestone and inscription, Cassius Dio, Roman History, 69.10.2; compare “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 20.12.

  A later and admittedly hostile source: Epiphanius, On Weights and Measures, 14.

  “Who could contradict the lord of thirty legions?”: “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 15.13.

  official art and poetry: For the details, see Anthony Birley, Hadrian: The Restless Emperor (New York: Routledge, 1997), 240–43.

  Records survive of the strain on Egyptian towns: For the details, see ibid.

  Hadrian wrote, perhaps in his lost autobiography: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 69.11.2.

  Antinous fell into the Nile: Ibid.

  Other ancient writers disagre
ed. Ibid., 69.11.2–3; “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 14.6; Aurelius Victor, de Caesaribus, 14.7–9.

  Sabina Augusta, wife of the Emperor Caesar: Patricia Rosenmeyer, “Greek Verse Inscriptions in Roman Egypt: Julia Balbilla’s Sapphic Voice,” Classical Antiquity 27.2 (2008): 337.

  more images of Antinous have been identified: C. Vout, “Antinous, Archaeology and History,” Journal of Roman Studies 95 (2005): 82.

  Some Romans ridiculed: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 69.11.4; “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 14.7.

  “cried like a woman”: “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 13.5.

  580,000 Jews were killed: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 69.14.1.

  “sanctification of God’s name”: Bavli Berachot, 20a; Midrash Tehillim.

  “May his bones rot!”: for example, Deuteronomy Rabbah, 3:13; Pesikta Rabbati, 21.

  the emperor continued to take care of the empire’s business: Dio, Roman History, 69.20.1.

  universal opposition: “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 23.10.

  Predictably, gossip says that Hadrian poisoned her: “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 23.9; Pseudo-Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus, 14.8.

  Sabina’s ascent to heaven: For the coin evidence, see, for example, RIC II Hadrian 1051A, http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.2.hdn.1051A; H. A. Mattingly and E. A. Sydenham, eds., Roman Imperial Coinage, vol. 2 (London: Spink & Son, 1926), 386 and 399. For the sculpture, see W. Helbig, Die vatikanische Skulpturensammlung. Die kapitolinischen und das lateranische Museum, vol. 1, Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertümer in Rom (Leipzig, Ger.: Teubner, 1891), 357; G. M. Koeppel, “Die historischen Reliefs der römischen Kaiserzeit IV,” Bonner Jahrbücher des Rheinischen Landesmuseums in Bonn und des Vereins von Altertumsfreunden im Rheinlande 186 (1986), 1–90.

  “guest and comrade”: Ibid., 25.9, trans. A. O’Brien-Moore.

  physician refused: Ibid., 24.13, says the physician killed himself instead, but that sounds like a rumor, perhaps planted by Hadrian’s enemies.

  “his old age”: Aurelius Victor, de Caesaribus, 14.12, with an echo of Virgil, The Aeneid, 6.304.

  Servianus’s curse: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 69.17.1–3.

  O blithe little soul: “Hadrian,” in Historia Augusta, 25.9, trans. A. O’Brien-Moore.

  the people hated him: Ibid., 27.1; Cassius Dio, Roman History, 69. 23.2.

  “For, inasmuch as he wished to surpass everybody in everything”: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 69.5.1–3. Dio’s father, Apronianus, was no admirer of Hadrian: Ibid., 69.1.12.

  CHAPTER 7: MARCUS AURELIUS, THE PHILOSOPHER

  another ancient portrait: the gold bust of Marcus Aurelius found at Aventicum (today’s Avenches, Switzerland). Römermuseum Avenches inv. no. 39/134, P. Schazmann, “Buste en or représentant l’empereur Marc-Aurèle trouvé à Avenches en 1939,” Zeitschrift für schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 2 (1940): 69–93.

  “think of the universe as one living being”: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.40, in Marcus Aurelius, and Charles Reginald Haines. The Communings with Himself of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Emperor of Rome: Together with His Speeches and Sayings: a Revised Text and a Translation into English (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953), 91.

  With one later exception: The emperor Julian, who reigned from 361 to 363.

  “the fear of God, and generosity”: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 1.3, trans. Haines, Communings with Himself, 3.

  Marcus has much more to say about his mother: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 1.3.

  He takes part in the grape harvest: Marcus Cornelius Fronto, The Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto: with Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Lucius Verus, Antoninus Pius, and Various Friends. Edited by Marcus Aurelius, Antoninus Pius, Lucius Aurelius Verus, and Charles Reginald Haines (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1919), letter 2.12.

  They said constantly how much they loved each other: Marcus Aurelius in Love. Edited by Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Cornelius Fronto, and Amy Richlin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), 5–9.

  an end to the pursuit of boys: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 1.16.2.

  “the rare happiness of times”: Tacitus, Histories, 1.1. Tacitus was referring to Nerva and Trajan, but the verdict suits Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius as well.

  Instead he thanked Fronto for helping him learn about tyranny: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 1.11.

  A wit once said to Antoninus after seeing Marcus’s mother: “Marcus Aurelius,” in Historia Augusta, 6.8–9.

  “Foolish woman”: “Antoninus Pius,” in Historia Augusta, 4.8, trans LCL.

  “You conduct public business throughout the whole civilized world exactly as if it were one city-state”: http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/hst205/readings/RomanOration.html.

  “The entire earth,” he stated, “has been made beautiful like a garden”: http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/hst205/readings/RomanOration.html.

  Marcus praised Antoninus in the Meditations: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 1.16, 17.3, 4.33, 6.30, 8.25, 9.21, 10.27.

  Supposedly his last word was equanimity: “Antoninus Pius,” in Historia Augusta, 12.6.

  Marcus is said to have spent only two nights away from Antoninus: “Marcus Aurelius,” in Historia Augusta, 7.3.

  “first among physicians”: Galen, On Prognosis, 11.8, 129.

  Marcus was thoughtful but not, he wrote, quick witted: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.5.

  he made gladiators use blunt swords: Cassius Dio, History of Rome, 71.29.4.

  He said he would rather live in exile on a bleak island with her: Fronto, Ad Pium 2 (Haines, Correspondence of Fronto 1.128; AD 143). Some think that the “Faustina” referred to here is Faustina the Elder, Antoninus’s wife.

  the palace’s propaganda machine featured it prominently on coins: For example, RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1635, http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.1635.

  high infant mortality rates: Recent research shows that Roman infant mortality rates tended to range between 20 percent and 35 percent. See Nathan Pilkington, “Growing Up Roman: Infant Mortality and Reproductive Development,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 44, no. 1 (Summer 2013): 1–35.

  as her portrait busts show: For example, Rome, Capitoline Museum inv. 449; Louvre Museum, Ma 1176.

  Coin images associated her with Venus: For example, RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1681, http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.1681.

  “If we send our wife away, we must also return her dowry”: “Marcus Aurelius,” in Historia Augusta, 19.8–9.

  as obedient, affectionate, and straightforward: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 1.17.7.

  “a cloudless sky”: trans. Richlin, Marcus Aurelius in Love, letter 44, 143.

  several references in his book to the pain of losing a child: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.49, 9.40, 10.34, 11.34. Compare McLynn, Marcus Aurelius, 93.

  Galen left for his home in Asia Minor: Galen, On His Own Books, 19.15.

  inscribed a verse above their doorways: Lucian, Alexander, 36.

  A survivor of the disease remembered the sound: Aelius Aristides, Oration, 43.38–44.

  Galen joined them: Galen, On Prognosis to Posthumus, 9.

  both Lucilla and her mother, Faustina, opposed it: “Marcus Aurelius,” in Historia Augusta, 20.7.

  the Romans experienced two miracles, which they displayed prominently in propaganda: Ibid., 24.2; Cassius Dio, Roman History, 74.8–10; RIC III Marcus Aurelius, 264–66, http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.264, http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.265, http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.266.

  Pagans and Christians immediately engaged in a polemic about whose prayers had won the favor of heaven: Xiphilinus in Cassius Dio, Roman History, 72.9.

  a pair of female skeletons: see Adrienne Mayor, The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014), 81–82.

  “Every mom
ent, think steadily”: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.5, trans. George Long, Internet Classics Archive, http://classics.mit.edu//Antoninus/meditations.html, modified.

  “A spider is proud when it has caught a fly”: Ibid., 10.10, trans. Long, modified.

  Mother of the Camp (Mater Castrorum): “Marcus Aurelius,” in Historia Augusta, 26.8; Cassius Dio, Roman History, 71.10.5.

  “You are crazy!”: Philostratus, Lives of the Sophists, 2.1.13.

  The sources suggest: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 72.29.

  private praise of Faustina: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 1.14.

  coins struck stating that she was now among the stars: For example, RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1717, http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.1717.

  “May it never happen,” he wrote to the senators: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 72.30.

  the honors in Rome that the Senate voted in her memory: Ibid., 72.31.1–2.

  prohibited anyone from serving as governor of his native province: Ibid., 72.31.1.

  worse than the barbarians on the Danube frontier: Ammianus Marcellinus, History of Rome, 22.5.

  Marcus gave an audience to Rabbi Judah I: For the sources, see Maria Laura Atarista, Avidio Cassio (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura: 1983), 119–23.

  Marcus possessed such wisdom, gentleness, integrity: Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus 16.9–10, in Sextus Aurelius Victor, Liber de Caesaribus of Sextus Aurelius Victor, trans. H. W. Bird, Translated Texts for Historians, v. 17 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1994), 19.

  “My poor, unhappy soul”: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 78.16.6.

  “Be like a headland of rock on which the waves break incessantly”: Meditations 4.49, Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations, trans. Long.

  If you work at that which is before you: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.12, Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations, trans. Long, modified.

  “But my nature is rational and social”: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.44, Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations, trans. Long.

  One source claims: Cassius Dio, History of Rome, 72.33.

  “a beautiful death for the commonwealth”: Ammianus Marcellinus, History of Rome, 31.5.14.

  “He showed himself to be of all virtues”: Pseudo-Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus, 16.2, trans. Thomas M. Banchich, www.roman-emperors.org/epitome.htm.