The Antonine Dynasty: Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius - Prof. John A. Lobur, Slides of European History

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Lecture 13: Hadrian, the

Antonines.

• (^) Hadrian succeeds Trajan by adoption: principle that the best should be chosen.
• (^) Born Jan, 24, 76 AD. No one knows quite where, except that he was Spanish, like Trajan. - (^) Family came to Spain after the 2nd Punic war.
• (^) Military tribune of 3 different legions, until he becomes suffect consul at age 32.
• (^) Trajan was his father’s cousin. Trajan and Plotina were also his foster parents on his father’s death.
• (^) Ascends the throne Aug. 7, 117 AD.
  • (^) Syrian legios hail him emperor before the Senate has a say.
  • (^) Returns to Rome some 11 months later.
• (^) His return is anticipated by the execution of 4 consulars by the senate. Could have been instigated by the praetorian prefect Attianus.

Relief depicting burning the debt records.

• (^) Hadrian had to be on the move, and he visited practically everywhere in the empire, inspecting everything. - (^) According to the historian Cassius Dio, whose history exists in excerpt form for this period: Hadrian travelled through one province after another, visiting the various regions and cities and inspecting all the garrisons and forts. Some of these he removed to more desirable places, some he abolished, and he also established some new ones. He personally viewed and investigated absolutely everything, not merely the usual appurtenances of camps, such as weapons, engines, trenches, ramparts and palisades, but also the private affairs of every one, both of the men serving in the ranks and of the officers themselves, - their lives, their quarters and their habits, - and he reformed and corrected in many cases practices and arrangements for living that had become too luxurious. He drilled the men for every kind of battle, honouring some and reproving others, and he taught them all what should be done. And in order that they should be benefited by observing him, he everywhere led a rigorous life and either walked or rode on horseback on all occasions, never once at this period setting foot in either a chariot or a four-wheeled vehicle.

• (^) Reign peaceful, but marred by revolts in

Mauretania, Britian and Dacia. Also,

recrudescence of Jewish revolt when he

decides to build a temple of Juppiter on the

site of the second temple.

• (^) Otherwise, his goal was to est. fixed

boundaries for the empire, to consolidate

what the empire had.

• (^) Abandons Armenia, Mesopotamia and

Assyria

• (^) His wanderings contrast strongly with

Trajan, who liked to stay put in Rome.

• (^) Completed Trajan’s forum by adding a

temple to the deified Trajan and Plotina.

• (^) Also built an enormous temple of Venus

and Rome facing the coliseum.

• (^) Also built a mausoleum for himself larger

than Augustus’.

• (^) Also built a stupendous villa for himself at

Tibur (modern Tivoli) some 20 miles N.E. of

Rome.

• (^) Covered 700 acres, with 100 buildings.

• (^) In Athens, he finished the Temple of Zeus,

which had been unfinished and started by

the Peisistratids some 7 centuries before.