Chapter 25
The death of Domitian in 96 marked the end of the Flavian dynasty, but the stability established by the Flavians endured. No destructive period of crisis and civil war followed, as had happened upon the death of Nero. The successful conspiracy against Domitian had originated not among provincial armies but within the imperial family and senatorial leadership at Rome. The senators elevated Marcus Cocceius Nerva, one of their own, but apparently not a conspirator, to be Domitian’s successor. Sixty years old, childless, and long past his prime, he posed no threat of establishing another dynasty. Generous donatives, paid or promised, kept both the Praetorian Guard and the provincial armies temporarily satisfied and acquiescent. Thus, a peaceful transition was affected, and a new phase of the Principate was introduced.
The emperors Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, from 96 to 180 c.e., are often called the “five good emperors.” These five, compared with Domitian before them and Commodus after, conformed to the model established by those considered to be the best of the previous emperors: Augustus, Vespasian, and Titus. Like them, these five came to power as mature and experienced men who understood the problems that the princeps faced. For the most part, they realized that to retain power and govern effectively in a Roman context, they needed to maintain the goodwill of the senatorial elite and other propertied classes, secure the loyalty of the soldiers, and promote the basic welfare of the people whom they ruled.
They also enjoyed a considerable amount of good luck. Historians, particularly upper-class pagan ones, looking back from less happy times saw their reigns as a golden age of peace and prosperity. The influential eighteenth-century author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon, called it the period when the human race was most happy. Indeed, until the reign of Marcus Aurelius, there were no widespread natural disasters or massive military problems that would have stressed the Empire beyond its normal capacities to cope.
Sources
Only two sources, neither of first rank, provide connected accounts for all or most of this period. One is Cassius Dio. Books 67 to 72 of his history of Rome covered the reigns involved. They are preserved in only abbreviated form by two later Byzantine epitomes: a lengthy one now missing the reign of Antoninus Pius and the early years of Marcus Aurelius, and a shorter one based on the first. Biographies covering the years from 117 to 180 appear in a controversial collection known as the Historia Augusta and written probably about 395 c.e. It is generally agreed that the lives of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Lucius Verus are based on a fairly good source and are trustworthy for the main historical outline. The lives of Lucius Aelius and Avidius Cassius are far less reliable and probably contain much sensationalistic fiction. Minor historical summaries and biographies can be found in several fourth-century epitomes (p. 632).
For the reigns of Nerva and Trajan, the contemporary letters of Pliny the Younger and his Panegyric (on Trajan) are very useful. The panegyric To Rome and the Sacred Teachings of the Greek rhetorician Aelius Aristides are useful for the period under Antoninus Pius. The Letters (Epistulae) of Marcus Aurelius’ tutor Marcus Cornelius Fronto are a contemporary window into the period from Hadrian to Aurelius. Of course, Aurelius’ own Meditations provide direct access to his interesting personality. Other literary and technical works and numerous Christian writings are also valuable for reconstructing the social, economic, and cultural milieu of the period, as are Jewish works like the Mishna, Midrash, and Talmud.
Monuments, such as the triumphal arch of Trajan at Beneventum and the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, present valuable historical information, as do numerous extant coins, inscriptions, and Egyptian papyri from this era. These latter three sources, along with archaeological excavations throughout the Empire, yield interesting data on the provinces. Finally, laws preserved in the Corpus Iuris Civilis (Body of Civil Law) shed light on the social and administrative developments under the “good” emperors.
Nerva (96 to 98 c.e.)
Although Nerva’s family contained several distinguished jurists, it was not an old one and had gained social acceptance only because his maternal uncle had married a woman of Julio-Claudian birth. Nerva himself had not won much distinction as a jurist or as a public speaker and had never governed a province or commanded an army. Being a safe and innocuous man willing to cooperate with any regime, he had been awarded two statues under Nero and had won two consulships, one under Vespasian and one under Domitian.
The senate regarded Nerva highly for many reasons during his short reign: his deference, his vow never to put to death a senator who was not condemned by a senatorial court, his restoration of the senate’s administration of the grain dole, his suspension of the hated law of treason (maiestas), his recall of senatorial exiles, and his suppression of informers. On the other hand, when members of the Praetorian Guard besieged the palace and clamored for vengeance against Domitian’s killers, Nerva meekly allowed them to kill their former prefect and several other conspirators. Furthermore, it became apparent early on that the unmartial Nerva needed strong military backing to check ambitious provincial commanders once they had a chance to reflect on the sudden turn of events with Domitian’s assassination.
Therefore, the most important act of Nerva’s brief rule was his adoption of Marcus Ulpius Traianus (Trajan) as son, heir, and co-regent. The very able and respected military governor of Upper Germany, Trajan was an excellent choice. A year after the adoption, Nerva died before his new son had even come to Rome. Thanks to Nerva’s action, however, Trajan succeeded without incident.
Trajan (98 to 117 c.e.)
Trajan, the first emperor of provincial origin, was born in Spain at Italica near Hispalis (Seville) in the rich province of Baetica. Vespasian had admitted his father into the senate and made him a patrician. In swift succession, his father had achieved the consulship, the Syrian command, the proconsulship of Asia, and numerous triumphal honors.
Trajan himself had enjoyed a long and distinguished military career under Vespasian and Domitian on the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates; in Syria; and in Spain. As governor of Upper Germany during Nerva’s reign, he had won the proud title of Germanicus. Under his own auspices, he would win still others: Dacicus and Parthicus (conqueror of the Dacians and the Parthians). After Nerva’s death, two years spent in inspecting and strengthening defenses along the Rhine and the Danube preceded Trajan’s long-awaited arrival in Rome.
A model emperor
At first, the senators had only grudgingly accepted Trajan, but his tact and respectfulness soon won them over. His was the attitude of the “Best Prince” (Optimus Princeps), a title bestowed as early as 100, stamped on the coinage in 105, but not officially assumed until 115. Centuries later, the Christian historian Eusebius recounted that the senate bestowed on every new emperor the supreme compliment: “Luckier than Augustus, better than Trajan” (Felicior Augusto, melior Traiano).
With a change in the composition of the senate, Trajan’s provincial origin also helped him. As inscriptions and papyri show, the senate of Claudius and even Vespasian contained only a few members of provincial origin. Under Trajan, provincial senators came to make up slightly over 40 percent of the total, more and more of whom now came from the eastern provinces. Enjoying the support and affection of the senate, the people, the armies, and the provinces, Trajan was a successful and energetic emperor. He tried to give the Empire the best possible government, pursued many enlightened social and economic programs, and inaugurated many beneficial public works.
The alimenta: public assistance for children
The alimenta constituted a relief program to bolster the population of Italy by supporting children. Nerva may have instituted it. Trajan strongly promoted it. In the late first century c.e., viticulture and pottery manufacturing in central Italy were declining because of increased western provincial competition. The subsequent impoverishment of small farmers and craftsmen had a serious effect on their ability to raise children. One result was a decline of population in the affected parts of Italy that adversely affected recruitment for the army and for colonies, both of which helped to Romanize the provinces and promote imperial unity. Some wealthy individuals like Pliny the Younger had already set up private endowments to provide local relief. Following their lead, Nerva or Trajan created the publicly funded alimenta to subsidize the care and education of freeborn boys and girls deemed worthy, whether from poor or better-off families.
Under this plan, landowners in a given locality could each pledge so much land as collateral for a loan equal to about one-eighth of its value. They would agree to pay, apparently in perpetuity, about 5 percent interest a year on the amount of money received. The interest paid was put into a fund administered by imperial officials, who then distributed it. The loans themselves were of little use to smallholders, who did not have the collateral to obtain a meaningful amount of money. A large landowner, however, could pledge only part of his holdings and obtain a usable sum of money with only a small charge against future income.
Generosity to provinces and municipalities
The measures that Trajan took to improve conditions in the provinces were equally impressive. Roads, bridges, harbors, and aqueducts were built everywhere. Unfortunately, he also had to bail out the finances of many cities in Italy and the eastern provinces. They had overextended themselves by competing in the splendor of their buildings and public amenities or by borrowing to pay imperial taxes. Trajan, therefore, sent out men like Pliny the Younger as imperial agents or inspectors (curatores or correctores) to help municipalities solve their financial problems.
Trajan’s wars
The treaty that Domitian had concluded with Decebalus in 89 had been expedient, but galling to Roman imperial pride. In 101, Trajan set out on an invasion of Dacia against King Decebalus but suffered a severe defeat. After several successful battles in 102, he finally occupied the capital city of Sarmizegetusa, where he stationed a permanent garrison. Decebalus surrendered unconditionally and agreed to become a Roman client once more. In 105, Decebalus broke the peace agreement. Trajan recruited two new legions, which raised Rome’s total to thirty. He hastened to the lower Danube with thirteen and broke Dacian resistance in 106. After the suicide of Decebalus, Trajan annexed Dacia as a province and made Sarmizegethusa a colony (Ulpia Traiana). He settled numerous veterans and colonists from all over the Empire, ancestors of the present-day Romanians. Sadly for the Dacians, 50,000 war prisoners ended their days as slaves or gladiators.
The Parthian wars and provincial crises, 113 to 117 c.e.
After seven years of peace, Chosroes, the new Parthian king, provoked Trajan by deposing the king of Armenia without Rome’s consent. Trajan’s reaction was swift: he set sail for the East in the fall of 113. Within two years, he had captured one Parthian capital, Ctesiphon, and extended Rome’s dominion from the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. Trade routes to the Far East were now within his grasp, and passage to India might have been his next move.
Trajan had extended the Empire to the farthest limits yet attained, but he had not adequately secured newly conquered territory behind him. Simultaneous revolts arose in Mesopotamia, Assyria, and even Armenia. Powerful Parthian armies reoccupied lost territory. Tribes along the northern frontiers took advantage of Trajan’s preoccupation in the East: the Sarmatians and Roxolani along the Danube were again on the move; in Britain, Roman garrisons retreated from the borders of Scotland. The Jewish populations in Cyrenaica, Mesopotamia, Adiabene (northern Assyria around Arbela), Cyprus, and Egypt rose up in a rebellion that expressed their frustration with treatment by the Greek-speaking majority in many eastern cities.
FIGURE 25.1 Remains of the Temple of Trajan at Pergamum.
Trajan acted with resolution and promptness. Still, without help from his able marshal and comrade in arms Lusius Quietus the Moor, he would have failed to restore the rapidly deteriorating situation. Trajan himself pacified southern Mesopotamia by his capture and ruthless destruction of Seleucia on the Tigris, across from Ctesiphon. Quietus reconquered northern Mesopotamia. Later, as governor of Judea, he stamped out all Jewish riots in Palestine. Trajan’s other marshals were less successful in suppressing the revolts in Cyrenaica, Cyprus, and Egypt. Nor was Trajan himself able to hold all of his Parthian conquests: in 116, he surrendered the province of southern Mesopotamia to a Parthian prince, nominally a Roman client, and lost the entire province of Assyria along with part of Greater Armenia.
The death of Trajan, 117 c.e.
Three years of hard campaigning in the desert and the strain of recent months had overtaxed Trajan’s strength. He was then past sixty and a heavy drinker. On the road back from Ctesiphon in 116, he became ill. During the winter at Antioch, where he was busily preparing for another campaign in Mesopotamia in the following spring, he grew steadily worse. Reluctantly, he abandoned his preparations. He set out for Rome and left Publius Aelius Hadrianus (Hadrian), governor of Syria, in command of the Near East at Antioch. At Selinus in Cilicia, he suffered a stroke and died a few days later (ca. August 8, 117).
The Empress Plotina
At this point, Trajan’s wife, Pompeia Plotina, achieved a goal for which she had long worked. She had married Trajan when she was about fifteen but had not yet produced an heir when, about a decade later, Hadrian became ward of Trajan, his father’s cousin and closest male relative. Plotina took a great interest in Hadrian and promoted his career. She was instrumental in obtaining his marriage to Trajan’s grandniece Vibia Sabina. Plotina also secured his designation as one of the principal consuls for 118. As Trajan was dying (some said after he was dead) she arranged for his formal adoption of Hadrian as his successor.
The effects of Trajan’s wars
Under Trajan, the Roman Empire reached the high tide of territorial expansion and prosperity. Nevertheless, the costs of Trajan’s imperial expansion were high. He paid the price in health; the Empire, in manpower and resources. Moreover, Trajan had expanded the Empire beyond defensible limits. In the process, he had wholly or partially denied Rome the benefit of three strong buffer states: Dacia, Parthia, and Nabataean Arabia. Rome itself would later have to absorb and repel the mass invasions of the Goths and other Germans, the Alans, and Iranians. Impelled by the relentless pressure of the Huns from central Asia, they would break and burst through the brittle, overextended defenses of the Roman Empire on the Rhine, Danube, and Euphrates. Undermining the defensive powers of the Dacians, Nabataeans, and Parthians spelled disaster for the Roman Empire of the future.
Hadrian (117 to 138 c.e.)
No sooner had news of Trajan’s death reached Hadrian at Antioch than the armies of Syria acclaimed him as Rome’s new emperor. Shortly thereafter, the senate officially confirmed the acclamation. The rumor that Hadrian owed his throne to a forged instrument of adoption carried little weight against acclamation by the army and the senate’s ratification.
According to the Historia Augusta, Hadrian was born at Rome in 76. His mother was from Gades, Spain, and his father was a senator from Italica, the same Spanish town where Trajan was born. As Trajan’s ward, he received an excellent education. Plotina, who was an admirer of Greek philosophy, may have encouraged his strong love of Greek art and philosophy. To that love, he owed his half-contemptuous nickname of Graeculus (Greekling). He became a man of refined artistic tastes, an intellectual with a keen, penetrating intelligence.
He had also pursued a long military and public career, and he had married Trajan’s grandniece, Vibia Sabina, a strikingly beautiful but progressively frustrated woman, whom he probably would have divorced had it not been for his ambition. Hadrian was more at home hunting or on campaign with the army or touring the provinces than he was at Rome. Conventional home life did not satisfy him. He seems to have had his share of mistresses in his early years, but the great passion of his life was a handsome young Bithynian Greek named Antinous, whom he met on an eastern tour in 123. Such a relationship satisfied his innermost nature and was reinforced both by his love of Greek art and philosophy, which were heavily imbued with the homoeroticism of aristocratic Greek culture, and by his almost continuous service on active duty in the all-male society of the army.
The early years of Hadrian’s Principate
Hadrian inherited a difficult task that was not rendered easier by inevitable comparison with his illustrious predecessor, from whom he had, ironically, also inherited a legacy of revolts. The man who helped him quell those revolts was his trusted friend, Marcius Turbo, who replaced Lusius Quietus, Trajan’s great Moorish marshal from Mauretania. Faced with revolts and needing to solidify his support back in Rome, Hadrian seems to have made a virtue out of necessity. He played the role of cautious Augustus to Trajan’s conquering Caesar.1 He abandoned all recent conquests east of the Euphrates, allowed Greater Armenia to revert to the status of a client kingdom, and made peace with Parthia. False rumors that he also planned to abandon Dacia showed that the new “Pax Augusta” did not please everyone—especially not Lusius Quietus and three former marshals. They had all admired Trajan’s expansionism and disapproved of Hadrian’s new frontier policy. The four were executed without Hadrian’s sanction or knowledge, or so he averred. Revolt then broke out in Mauretania and had to be suppressed by Turbo.
Early in July of 118, Hadrian met with the senate. He promised the assembled dignitaries that henceforth no senator would be put to death without prior condemnation by a senatorial court. Hadrian tried to win favor on all sides with a magnificent triumph for Parthia’s defeat, a large distribution of gifts, and a vast remission of debts and tax arrears. His success was limited, however. To the senate and people of Rome, he always remained something of an outsider. He spent much of his time looking after the provinces. Then, at the end of his reign, maneuverings to become his successor provoked a serious breach between him and many important senators.
Hadrian’s travels
The year 121 found Hadrian in Gaul and the Rhineland. The next year, he went to Britain. There he inspected plans for the construction of his famous wall (see Box 25.1) from Solway Firth to the Tyne to keep marauding tribesmen of the North from raiding farmlands south of the Scottish border. On the way back from Britain, he passed through Gaul and spent the winter in Spain. In the spring of 123, he led a punitive expedition in North Africa against the Moors, who had been raiding Roman towns in Mauretania. There he received news that the Parthians had again broken the peace, and he set sail for Ephesus. His dramatic arrival in the Near East, backed by impressive troop concentrations, inspired Chosroes, the Parthian king, to negotiate rather than fight. The war over, Hadrian stayed on to hear petitions and complaints. He punished misgovernment of the provinces and arranged for many new construction projects.
25.1 Life along Hadrian’s Wall
Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, excavations at a Roman military fort at Vindolanda, along Hadrian’s Wall in northern England, have yielded well over 1000 writing tablets dated to 90–120 c.e. The tablets, mostly made of wood with a layer of wax for writing on, were used for daily correspondence, notes, and the like, and they offer an unparalleled glimpse into the daily lives of the people who lived at the fort: officers with their wives, children, and slaves, as well as the rank-and-file soldiers, brought together from Gaul, Germany, Spain, and the Balkans. The texts are an assortment of literary snippets, notes, personal correspondence, children’s school exercises, soldiers’ requests for leave, and military reports. They show us a community not only concerned with the business of the fort, such as work assignments, supply records, and assessments of the strength of the fort’s forces, but also with birthday parties, care packages from home, and making sure there was good food to be had (“100 apples, if you can find nice ones”).
In 128, Hadrian again visited North Africa. There he inspected the imperial estates and studied ways and means for more efficient economic exploitation. He spent the following winter in Athens, where he presided at games and festivals and codified laws. He also completed and dedicated a huge temple to Olympian Zeus, the Olympieion, which the Athenian tyrant Peisistratus had begun seven centuries before. In the suburbs of Athens, he built a new city, named Hadrianopolis. In it, he erected a pantheon, a stoa, a gymnasium, a library, and another great temple, the Panhellenion. He romantically dedicated the latter to an ancient ideal—Greek unity. In the spring of 129, he toured Asia Minor once more. Towns, temples, libraries, baths, and aqueducts sprang up wherever he went.
Unfortunately, in the next year, Hadrian displayed a singular lack of understanding at Jerusalem. There, he insisted on founding a Roman colony called Aelia Capitolina, and he erected a shrine to Jupiter Capitolinus on the site of the Jewish Temple. About the same time, he banned the Jewish ritual of circumcision. Thus, Hadrian eventually provoked one of the bloodiest Jewish rebellions in history.
Meanwhile, heedless of what he had done, Hadrian went to Egypt to reorganize its economic life and visit the monuments of its glorious past. While he was in Egypt, he was bereft of his beloved Antinous, who drowned in the Nile. In his honor, Hadrian founded a beautiful new city, Antinoopolis, on the east bank of the Nile near where the youth had drowned. After Antinous’ death, Hadrian worshiped him as divine, built shrines and temples to him, struck coins bearing his likeness, and set up busts of him all over the Empire.
The Jewish revolt
Hadrian returned to Rome to learn that in the fall of 132 the Jews of Judea had now rebelled and were waging a guerrilla war against the Roman army. Led by a famous guerrilla strategist, Simon Bar Kokhba (Shim’on Ben [Bar] Cosiba in the Dead Sea Scrolls), the Jews captured Jerusalem, slaughtered an entire Roman legion, and, for a time, seemed about to drive the Romans out of Palestine. Hadrian hastened back to Syria, assembled reinforcements from the other provinces, and summoned the able Julius Severus from Britain to take command. Severus began systematically isolating strongholds and inhabited places in order to starve out the defenders. The Romans may have slaughtered as many as half a million people and enslaved as many more until the revolt was finally quelled in 135.
The surviving Jewish population of Jerusalem was forcibly removed, and Jews were forbidden to enter the city except on one officially designated day each year. The name of the city was formally changed to Aelia Capitolina and remained so until the days of Constantine (324–337). The name of Judea was changed to Syria Palestina. Jews there and throughout the Empire were still allowed to practice their ancestral religion and maintain their traditional schools and synagogues. Nevertheless, the vestiges of the national state that had been the focus of their aspirations for centuries were obliterated for 1800 years.
New directions under Hadrian
A man of ceaseless curiosity and innovative spirit, Hadrian instituted major changes in all aspects of Roman government and policy. His passion for perfection and efficiency is manifest in everything that he did. In many ways, the Roman Empire as an organized state came of age under his leadership.
Frontier defense
Hadrian’s renunciation of Trajan’s aggressive foreign wars and his surrender of some recent conquests did not constitute a neglect of frontier defense. He was the first emperor to erect large-scale fixed frontier defenses such as Hadrian’s Wall in Britain. He extended fortifications for 345 miles in south Germany behind continuous lines of ditches and oakwood palisades nine feet high. These fortifications, with their garrisoned forts and watchtowers, not only protected the frontier from enemy raids and even mass attacks but also marked the frontier and served as checkpoints for the control of trade between the Roman and non-Roman worlds.
Reform of the army
Hadrian’s reforms regarding discipline, recruitment, and tactics were of lasting importance to the army. To ensure discipline, Hadrian personally inspected army posts all over the Empire; watched soldiers drill, march, and maneuver; inspected equipment, dress, baggage, and mess kitchens; and ordered fatigue marches. Dressed as a common soldier, he marched along with the men, and carried his own knapsack. To no emperor were the armies more devoted, and under none were they more disciplined and efficient.
One of Hadrian’s most important military reforms was the progressive removal of distinctions between the legions and the auxiliary corps (auxilia) with respect to training, equipment, and composition. For the first time, both consisted of Roman citizens and noncitizens recruited more and more in the frontier regions in which they were to serve. Many of the new recruits were soldiers’ sons born near the permanent camps, and to them, Hadrian granted the right, hitherto withheld, of inheriting their fathers’ property.
The traditional auxilia, which garrisoned the permanent forts strung out along the frontiers, were armed and organized like Roman legions. Especially in the German and Danubian provinces, in Britain, and in Mauretania, Hadrian began to levy many auxiliary units of a new type called numeri. They were small mobile corps, some of them light infantry, some cavalry, some mixed. Others consisted of mounted scouts known as exploratores. Although often commanded by Roman ex-centurions, the numeri retained their native languages, arms, and methods of fighting. They were used for patrolling, reconnaissance, and skirmishing.
Hadrian’s greatest reform in battle tactics was the introduction of an improved form of the old Macedonian phalanx. In offensive operations, the auxilia would launch the initial attack, whereas the phalanx of the legions advanced later to deliver the final blow. If the enemy attacked first, the auxilia would take the brunt of the initial assault. The legions held in reserve in camps behind the frontier forts would then advance to destroy the exhausted forces of the enemy. Hadrian’s tactics were to remain standard Roman practice, except for minor modifications, for over two centuries.
The provinces
Extensive travels and detailed reports from procurators and other agents afforded Hadrian an intimate knowledge of conditions in the provinces. No detail of provincial administration seemed too small for his personal attention, especially when it involved the defense of the weak against the strong, the poor against the rich (humiliores vs. honestiores; tenuiores vs. potentiores). Also, the urbanization of the Empire reached its peak under Hadrian, and the extension of Roman citizenship kept step with the diffusion of culture and civilization.
Hadrian even created the right of Greater Latinity (Latium Maius), which conferred citizenship on all decurions (decuriones, members of local town councils or senates), as well as local magistrates. This right was a device to reward local elites for loyalty and service to Rome and bind them and, therefore, their communities more tightly to the emperor who granted it. It also opened up careers in the imperial administration to new talent.
The reorganization of the Imperial administration
The growing administrative needs of the Empire, as well as Hadrian’s passion for efficiency, led to further expansion and reorganization of the imperial administration. Gradually, operations were becoming more professional and bureaucratized. Hadrian insisted that holders of public office be able, well trained, and competent, as well as loyal to the emperor and devoted to the state. He paid them well and gave rewards for hard work, initiative, and efficiency.
Vespasian had reversed the policy of Claudius by employing equites more than freedmen in high administrative positions. Hadrian followed Vespasian’s lead and appointed equestrians as directors of the four executive departments created by Claudius: imperial correspondence (ab epistulis), justice (a libellis), treasury (a rationibus), and the research and library service (a studiis). To enhance their prestige, he bestowed upon the holders of these offices such resounding titles as vir egregius (outstanding man), vir perfectissimus (most perfect man), and vir eminentissimus (most eminent man), which was held by the prefect of the Praetorian Guard. Gradations of salary also differentiated the various executive offices. Procurators, for example, received 60,000, 100,000, 200,000, or 300,000 sesterces per year, according to their rank. Four equestrian prefects commanded even higher salaries.
To the four governmental departments, Hadrian added two new ones of cabinet rank, both pointing not only to increased centralization but also to wider equestrian participation in public service. One of the new departments resulted from Hadrian’s reform of the vitally important system of the imperial post and communications (cursus publicus). Formerly, it was a financial and administrative burden laid upon municipalities in Italy and the provinces. Hadrian lightened this burden by reorganizing the system as a state institution controlled by a central bureau in Rome and headed by an equestrian prefect of vehicles (praefectus vehiculorum).
The other new department resulted from overhauling the tax-collecting system, especially the collection of the 5 percent inheritance tax (vicesima hereditatum). Hadrian, in line with policies set by Caesar, Augustus, and Tiberius, transferred it from tax-farming companies to a state agency presided over by an equestrian procurator. The procurator, assisted by numerous agents throughout the Empire, collected these and many other taxes, direct and indirect.
In creating a more professional, bureaucratic system, Hadrian departed from the policy of Augustus by separating the civil and military careers of equestrian officials and by appointing equites without prior military experience to civilian posts. Now, equites seeking high administrative positions had to begin their civilian careers by accepting such minor jobs as agents or attorneys of the treasury (advocati fisci), a newly created class of officials sent all over the Empire to prosecute cases of tax evasion and delinquency.
Hadrian’s separation of civil and military careers was not completely beneficial. It deprived high government officials of military experience and control over the army. They were left helpless when confronted, as they would be in the third century, by a formidable group of army commanders. Those commanders often alienated the civilian elite, whose cooperation was necessary for maintaining control. In this instance, Hadrian’s yearning for administrative efficiency proved injurious to the future stability of the state.
The growth of the Consilium Principis
Hadrian began the conversion of the Consilium Principis, an informal conclave (as opposed to the more formal concilium) of palace friends and advisors, such as Augustus and his successors had consulted, into a more permanent Imperial Council. It probably consisted of the heads of the various departments of the government, the chief prefects, and several distinguished jurists. Besides serving as the chief policy-making body of the Empire, it also acted as a supreme court. Its function was to hear cases involving senators and high-ranking officials and to advise and assist the emperor in the creation and interpretation of civil and criminal law.
Legal reforms
Of all the administrative reforms of Hadrian, the greatest and most enduring were in the field of law. One such reform gave the unanimous opinions (responsa) of distinguished jurists the force of law binding on judges trying similar cases. Only when the opinions conflicted could judges reach their own decisions. These responses later entered into the literature of Roman law and became enshrined at last in the Digest and Code of Justinian I (p. 675).
More important still was the editing and codification of the Praetorian Perpetual Edict. Ever since early republican times, each incoming urban praetor (praetor urbanus) had drawn up and posted edicts setting forth the laws and court procedure that he intended to follow during his year of office. The praetor for foreigners (praetor peregrinus) as well as the provincial governors had followed suit. The praetors normally retained the laws and procedures of their predecessors while adding new ones as need arose. Therefore, the edicts tended to perpetuate many obsolete rules, contradictions, and obscurities. Hadrian commissioned Salvius Julianus to draw up a permanent edict (edictum perpetuum) binding all present and future praetors without alteration or addition unless authorized by the emperor or by decree of the senate.
The statutes of the emperors (constitutiones principum) thereafter became increasingly important as sources of law. They consisted of each emperor’s edicts (edicta), or proclamations issued by virtue of his imperium; his judicial decrees (decreta), or decisions; his re-scripts (rescripta), or responses to written inquiries on specific points of law; and his mandates (mandata), or administrative directives issued to officials subject to his orders.
To ease the crowded calendar of the praetors’ courts in Rome and expedite the administration of justice in Italy, Hadrian divided the peninsula into four judicial districts, each presided over by a circuit judge of consular rank (iuridicus consularis) who tried cases of inheritance, trust, and guardianship and probably heard appeals from the municipal courts. The innovation was both salutary and necessary and not intended simply to reduce Italy to the status of a province, as many senators feared. At their insistence, Hadrian’s successor, Antoninus Pius, unwisely abolished it. Marcus Aurelius had to revive it later.
Social policies
In accordance with prevailing Stoic philosophical principles, Hadrian made it illegal for a master to kill, torture, or castrate slaves; to sell them as gladiators; or to use them for any lewd or immoral purposes. He also deprived the paterfamilias of the power of life and death over his children and safeguarded the right of minors to inherit and own property. Continuing Nerva and Trajan’s policy of using state funds for supporting the children of families in Italy, he appointed a superintendent of child welfare (praefectus alimentorum) to administer the distribution of alimentary funds. In education, he provided funds for secondary-school education in many municipalities of the Empire; endowed advanced rhetorical, philosophical, technical, and medical schools in both Rome and the provinces; and gave pensions to retired teachers.
The last years of Hadrian
During the Jewish War, Hadrian returned to Rome never to leave Italy again. He spent much time during his last years at his beautiful villa at Tibur (Tivoli) on the Anio River eighteen miles east of Rome. Still, he could not enjoy himself. The man who had traveled, seen, and done so much had lost all zest for life. Loneliness and despair plagued his mind; a progressive disease (coronary atherosclerosis) racked his body. As his illness grew worse and death seemed at hand, he turned his attention to the problem of choosing a successor. His first choice was his friend, Lucius Ceionius Commodus. Despite the opposition of many senators, Hadrian spent large sums of money to win the support of the soldiers and the people for adopting him as Lucius Aelius Caesar. The money was wasted, for Lucius died on the first day of 138. Hadrian next adopted a rich and virtuous senator, Titus Aurelius Antoninus. Then he required Antoninus to adopt two sons: the like-named seven-year-old son of the late Lucius Ceionius Commodus and Marcus Annius Verus, the seventeen-year-old nephew of Antoninus’ wife, Annia Galeria Faustina. The younger boy took the name Lucius Aurelius Commodus. The older became Marcus Aurelius Verus. Marcus was already betrothed to the late Lucius’ daughter and later became Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Many senators believed themselves to be more qualified as princeps than Antoninus and resented Hadrian’s attempt to determine the succession for the next generation as well. After doing just that, Hadrian’s last and only wish was to die in peace.
Death came, but not soon enough for him. Maddened by pain, he longed to take his life. He begged his doctor to give him a dose of poison; the doctor took one himself. He ordered a slave to stab him in the heart; the slave ran away. Finally, at Baiae near Naples on July 10, 138, nature granted his wish. His adopted son and heir, Antoninus, eventually had his body placed in a special mausoleum (now the Castel Sant’ Angelo) at Rome. Against the opposition of the senate, he even secured Hadrian’s deification. Another god now joined the Roman pantheon, and Antoninus won for himself the new surname of Pius.
Antoninus Pius (138 to 161 c.e.)
Antoninus Pius ushered in the dynasty of Antonine emperors (Antoninus through Commodus [130–192]). He was born and raised at Lanuvium, a famous old Latin town, but his grandfather had come from what was probably Plotina’s home town, Nemausus (Nîmes), in southern Gaul. The grandfather had helped Vespasian become emperor and held the consulship under both Vespasian and Domitian. Now, as rich aristocrats, Antoninus’ family owned numerous estates in Italy and valuable brickyards near Rome. Of all the estates, the one at Lorium, about ten miles west of Rome on the border of Etruria, pleased Antoninus most. Rome and its palaces and Hadrian’s villa held little attraction for him.
Antoninus held all the offices of an unexceptional senatorial career. After his consulship in 120, he intended to retire to his country estates and enjoy himself. Instead, Hadrian made him a district judge of Italy and, in 135 and 136, proconsul of Asia, where he distinguished himself as an administrator. His expert knowledge of law and his skill in administration led to further appointments, none of which he solicited. Neither did they give him any experience as an imperial commander or familiarity with many provinces. Still, Hadrian made him a member of the Imperial Council and finally his successor and colleague.
Faustina the Elder
Antoninus also owed much of his good fortune to his wife, Annia Galeria Faustina. Her mother, Rupilia Faustina, was the daughter of a consul and possibly half-sister of Hadrian’s wife, Sabina. As did Trajan and Hadrian, Faustina’s father, M. Annius Verus, belonged to an illustrious family from Spain. He was consul (once) under Nerva and both consul (twice) and Prefect of the City under Hadrian. Faustina’s brother also held a consulship under Hadrian.
The senate honored Faustina with the title Augusta and authorized her portrait on coins as soon as Antoninus ascended the throne. She was particularly active in promoting the cult of Cybele and was deified immediately after her death (ca. 140). She received a major temple in the Forum and numerous gold and silver statues. When Antoninus created an endowment to benefit poor girls, the recipients were called “Faustina’s girls.” Of her four children, two boys and one girl died young. Her name lived on, however, with her daughter Faustina the Younger, whom she persuaded Marcus Aurelius to marry despite their betrothals to others (p. 468).
Maintaining the status quo
Although Hadrian was a restless innovator, Antoninus Pius was a man who had always played it safe. He saw no need to tinker with Hadrian’s smoothly running imperial machine. Maintenance was his specialty, and he was content to let the system run on its considerable inertia.
Antoninus and the senate
At the beginning of his reign, Antoninus frustrated the attempt of a number of senators to annul the edicts and acts (acta) of Hadrian, whose non-expansionistic, philhellenic, and cosmopolitan policies they had always disliked. In return, Antoninus agreed to abolish the four hated judgeships of Italy and to spare the lives of opposition senators proscribed by the dying Hadrian. Antoninus further improved his relations with the senate by his deferential attitude, by his attendance at meetings, by seeking its advice on policy, and by rendering financial assistance to insolvent senatorial families.
Public benefactions
Antoninus allotted Italy a generous share of the money earmarked for public works and social welfare. Nor did he entirely neglect the provinces. Under his reign of peace, the upper and middle classes prospered, although slaves and the poor continued to be exploited everywhere. Antoninus gave ready ear to the desires and petitions of the ruling classes of the cities of Greece and Asia Minor and some Aegean islands. He frequently reduced their taxes or canceled their debts and came to their aid when they were stricken by earthquake, fire, or flood. Furthermore, he spared them the heavy burden of the imperial retinue by staying at home.
Sound fiscal management
Before his death, despite his huge expenditures on charity and public works in Rome, Italy, and the provinces, Antoninus had succeeded, through sound fiscal management and personal frugality, in leaving behind in the treasury a surplus of 2 billion sesterces, the largest surplus since the death of Tiberius.
Contribution to Roman law
An even prouder achievement was his contribution to Roman law. Never had a Roman emperor surrounded himself with such an array of legal talent. Five jurists were members of the Imperial Council. Antoninus himself had an intimate knowledge of both the minutiae and the spirit of the law. He clarified the laws dealing with inheritance, the protection of the legal interests of minors, and the manumission of slaves. He increased penalties against masters who killed or mistreated their slaves, and he imposed a severe punishment on kidnapping, a frightful scourge in Italy and the provinces. Conversely, he reduced penalties for army deserters and released captives after ten years of hard labor in the mines; he permitted Jews the right of circumcision and restricted the persecution of Christians. Of more general interest was his ruling that a man must be considered innocent until proven guilty and that in cases where the opinions of the judges were evenly divided, the prisoner must receive the benefit of the doubt.
Foreign policy
Founded on the accomplishments of Trajan and Hadrian, Antoninus’ prestige and influence as Emperor of Rome transcended the imperial frontiers. Embassies came to him from Bactria and India. He was known in central Asia and China. Eastern kings sought his advice, and a letter to the king of Parthia dissuaded an invasion of Armenia. He awarded thrones to some, enlarged the territories of others. Even the Quadi of Bohemia accepted his nominee as king.
Despite that, Rome’s power was actually waning. The perception of Roman might rested solely on Trajan’s military exploits and on Hadrian’s indefatigable efforts to make the Roman army an efficient, battle-ready guardian of the frontiers. Antoninus, in his efforts to save money, allowed this military force to stagnate, although the nations beyond the frontiers—Germans, Huns, Iranians, and Arabs—were gradually acquiring better military capability by copying Roman arms and tactics. The superior equipment and training that had once made one Roman legionary a match for several Germans or Parthians was now no longer a Roman monopoly.
In the only two frontier zones—Britain and Germany—where Antoninus did exhibit energy or initiative, he was simply following Hadrian’s policy. In Scotland, he pushed the frontier about seventy-five miles to the north and had a wall of turf and clay constructed between the firths of Forth and Clyde, a distance of some thirty-seven miles, about half the length of Hadrian’s Wall between the Solway and the Tyne. In southwest Germany, he shortened the defensive frontier (limes) by pushing it forward from twenty to thirty miles and strengthened it with new stone forts and watchtowers.
The legacy of Antoninus
The defenses that Antoninus erected in Britain and Germany stood firm to the end of his reign, but not long after. The policy of relatively static defense and the failure to keep the army in top form had left the Empire poorly equipped to roll back the wave of massive assaults that broke after his death. Perhaps he dimly realized his mistake as he lay dying at Lorium in March 161. In his delirium, he talked fretfully about the Empire and all the lying kings who had betrayed him.
Marcus Aurelius (161 to 180 c.e.)
As Hadrian had planned, Marcus Aurelius smoothly succeeded Antoninus Pius. He now took the name M. Aurelius Antoninus. He had been born in Rome in 121 of rich and illustrious Spanish parentage. He enjoyed all the educational advantages money, rank, and high favor could bestow. After his adoption by Antoninus Pius in 138, his betrothal to the daughter of the elder Lucius Ceionius Commodus was eventually broken so that he could marry Antoninus’ daughter Faustina, his own first cousin, who had originally been betrothed to Lucius’ son.2 Faustina bore him at least fourteen children in thirty years of marriage, but only one son and five daughters reached adulthood.
His education and Stoicism
Marcus had been taught by the finest tutors whom Antoninus could find. He studied rhetoric under Cornelius Fronto (ca. 100–ca. 166), a famous rhetorician and advocate from Africa. The illustrious legal authority, L. Volusius Maecianus was his instructor in law. Herodes Atticus (ca. 101–177), a Greek sophist and rhetorician of incredible wealth, came from Athens to teach him Greek oratory. Marcus’ favorite was the rhetorician Fronto, with whom he corresponded for many years. Fronto always urged Marcus to make rhetoric the primary focus of his studies. According to Fronto, training in rhetoric should produce a person not only learned in literature and effective in speech but also of high moral character. As a result, to Fronto’s chagrin, Marcus developed a strong preference for studying philosophy, particularly the Stoicism of Epictetus (p. 489).
FIGURE 25.2 Faustina the Younger, wife of Marcus Aurelius.
Written in Greek, one of the most well-known expressions of Stoicism is the Meditations (literally, ta eis heauton—“Things to Himself”) of Marcus Aurelius. While encamped along the Danube during the Marcomannic wars (168–175, 178–180), Marcus spent his nights writing down his reflections—scattered, disjointed, and unaffected soliloquies or dialogues between himself and what is called the Universal Power. In the Meditations, he strongly reaffirmed the traditional Stoic virtues as the basis of morality, from which the spirit is propelled into both direct communion with the divine and unapprehensive resignation to its will.
Attitude toward Christians
Marcus Aurelius did not pursue a policy of persecuting Christians, but he did not prevent local officials from doing so. Like most pious pagan Romans of his time, however, he regarded the Christians as a depraved and superstitious sect and even an illicit and subversive organization dedicated to the overthrow of the Roman way of life. Otherwise, the willful and obstinate refusal of Christians to obey a magistrate’s order to sacrifice to the gods of the state seemed incomprehensible. Indeed, it was contrary to the efforts of the emperors to restore ancient Roman culture and religion as a means of strengthening the Empire against the non-Romans from without and disintegration from within. The common people accused the Christians of atheism, incest, and even cannibalism and made them the scapegoats for the calamities that began to befall the Empire during Aurelius’ reign. When angry mobs demanded vengeance, the officials were often sympathetic. For example, Justin Martyr (who adapted Platonic and Stoic philosophy to Jewish and Christian theology) died in Rome along with six companions in 165; twelve Christians died at Scyllium in Numidia in 180; and at Lugdunum and Vienna (Vienne) in Transalpine Gaul, numerous Christians were tortured to death in 177.
Marcus Aurelius as emperor and soldier
Marcus Aurelius was an able administrator and commander of armies. The first two years of his reign were filled with crises: a serious Tiber flood, an earthquake in Cyzicus, a famine in Galatia, a revolt in Britain, a German crossing of the Rhine, and an invasion of Armenia and Syria by the young Parthian king, Vologeses III. To help him meet these crises, Marcus had insisted at the start on appointing Lucius Aurelius Commodus, his adoptive brother (p. 465), as his colleague with the new name Lucius Aurelius Verus. Many senators were opposed. They regarded Verus as a frivolous young man addicted to pleasure and self-indulgence. Aurelius prevailed, and Verus became his equal in honor, titulature, and power. Verus then went to the East to deal with the Parthian threat while Aurelius handled pressing problems in the West. In 164, the partnership was even more closely cemented by the marriage of Marcus’ daughter Lucilla (Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla) to Verus. This division of responsibility between two equal colleagues at the start of a reign, not merely to indicate a successor near the end of a reign, would become an increasingly attractive solution to bearing the increasing burdens of imperial defense and administration. Eventually, this practice would become formalized, and the Empire would split in two.
The Parthian War and a plague, 161 to 165 c.e.
In the East, Verus cleverly combined pleasure with a thorough reorganization of the undisciplined and demoralized army of Syria and Cappadocia. He had as his subordinates two able generals. One was Statius Priscus. He invaded Armenia and captured and burned down its capital of Artaxata. The other was the Syrian-born Avidius Cassius. He whipped the Syrian army into shape, crossed the Euphrates, and invaded Mesopotamia. He rapidly captured several major centers, including Seleucia, which he burned to the ground.
Then two disasters suddenly struck. Soldiers returning from the ruins of Seleucia brought back a frightful plague. It forced the retreat of the victorious armies of the East and then infected Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece, and Italy. It destroyed as much as a third of the population in some places and finally decimated the armies guarding the frontiers along the Rhine and Danube. The defenses along the Danube had already been weakened by extensive troop withdrawals for service in the East. Now, hosts of Germans—the Marcomanni, the Quadi, and many others—sought to escape the slow but relentless pressure that had been building up against them from the steppes of Eurasia for centuries. They tried to breach the sparsely guarded frontiers in 167 and threatened the Danubian provinces of Raetia, Noricum, and Pannonia.
War along the Danube, 168 to 175 c.e.
Marcus Aurelius prepared to reinforce the Danubian frontier, but an outbreak of plague in Rome prevented him and Verus from launching their expedition before the spring of 168. After strengthening the frontier, they suffered an outbreak of plague in their winter quarters and had to return to Rome in early 169. On the way, Verus suffered a sudden stroke and died. Aurelius, now sole princeps, had to contend with several troubles. The main enemy—the Quadi, the Marcomanni, and the Sarmatian Iazyges—remained unsubdued and menacing. The Parthian king again invaded Armenia. In 169, the Chatti invaded the frontier regions of the upper Rhine, while the Chauci attacked the Belgic province.
In the fall of 169, Aurelius returned to the Danubian front after he had sold the gold vessels and artistic treasures of the imperial palace to finance his efforts. He was determined to destroy the Marcomanni, the Quadi, and the Iazyges one by one, finally annex their lands, and bring to pass the grand plan of Julius Caesar, which Augustus and Tiberius had been unable to complete. In 170, however, the Marcomanni and the Quadi defeated Aurelius, swept into Italy, and besieged Aquileia at the head of the Adriatic. Never since the Cimbric and Teutonic invasions in the days of Marius was Italy in greater danger from outside attack. Desperately, Marcus drafted slaves, gladiators, and brigands into the army; hired German and Scythian tribes to harass the enemy’s rear; and blocked the Alpine passes and fortified the towns in the danger zone. His generals drove the invaders back to the Danube, where the booty-laden Marcomanni were defeated as they tried to cross.
In the meantime, the Moors attacked the shores of Mauretania and invaded the Spanish province of Baetica across the Straits of Gibraltar. The Costoboci of eastern Galicia joined forces with the Sarmatians, crossed the lower Danube, broke into Moesia, overran the Balkans, and invaded Greece as far south as Attica. While the other generals met those emergencies, Aurelius obtained temporary relief on the Danube by granting peace to the Marcomanni and the Quadi. They agreed to settle depopulated land within the Empire and serve in Roman armies.
Once the other emergencies had been met, Marcus Aurelius found pretexts to resume his campaigns against the Marcomanni, the Quadi, and the Iazyges. In 172, he crossed the Danube, attacked the Marcomanni first, then the Quadi, and finally the Iazyges. In 175, however, a revolt in the East forced him to grant terms before he could completely conquer their homelands. He concluded a peace with the proviso that they return all the Roman prisoners whom they had taken, make reparations for the damages that they had inflicted on the provinces, and evacuate a strip of territory ten miles wide running along the north bank of the Danube.
The usurpation of Avidius Cassius, 175 c.e.
A rumor that Aurelius had died may have prompted Faustina to look to Avidius Cassius, now governor of Syria, as a stand-in who could protect her young son, Commodus, until he could ascend the throne. In any case, Cassius proclaimed himself emperor and would not relent when he found out that Aurelius was alive. Marcus summoned Faustina and Commodus, to Sirmium (Mitrovica, Serbia) and prepared to set out with them to the East. Before his departure, a legionary showed up bearing the head of Cassius. The death of Cassius would seem to have removed the need for Marcus to leave, but he went anyway. Perhaps he desired to make a display of Roman power, receive expressions of loyalty, and remove disloyal officials from their posts. On his way through Asia Minor, he suffered the loss of Faustina, the wife whom he had loved for thirty years despite malicious rumors of her infidelity and any mistaken encouragement of Avidius Cassius.
After traversing Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, greeted everywhere by acclamations of loyalty, Marcus arrived in Rome in 176. He was a sad and lonely man, bereft of his wife and one of his best generals. He resolved never again to make a man governor of the province of his birth. To forestall any other potential usurpers, he at once recognized Commodus as his heir and successor. Then, Marcus celebrated his German and Sarmatian (over the Iazyges) triumphs. In the course of the celebration, he unveiled the famous equestrian statue of himself that now stands on the Roman Capitol (p. 498). Also, he laid the foundation stone of his column depicting the Second Marcomannic War, which still stands in the Piazza Colonna in Rome (p. 499).
Return to the Danube, 178 to 180 c.e.
Rumors of fresh troubles along the Danube caused the emperor to hasten north in 178. Leading his men himself, he crossed the Danube. After a long and strenuous campaign known as the Third Marcomannic War, he crushed the resistance of the Quadi and the Marcomanni. He established a new legionary camp on the Danube at Castra Regina (Regensburg in Bavaria) and proceeded to create two new provinces—Marcomannia and Sarmatia—by annexing a vast territory extending as far north as the Erzgebirge (a range of mountains on the border between the Czech Republic and Germany) and as far east as the Carpathian Mountains (eastern Romania). Thus, he hoped to shorten and strengthen the northern frontiers against future assaults. While engaged in this mighty task, Marcus Aurelius suddenly suffered a dangerous illness, possibly the plague. Rumors that he was poisoned are baseless. He died in camp on March 17, 180.
The most important result of the Danubian campaigns lay not in Aurelius’ victories over Germanic and Sarmatian tribes, nor in his new provinces, which did not survive his death. It was the transplantation and settlement of thousands of Germans in the war-torn and plague-devastated provinces of Dacia, Moesia, Raetia, Pannonia, Dalmatia, Gaul, and even Italy. This measure not only temporarily relieved the pressure on the frontiers along the Rhine and the Danube, but significantly altered the ethnic composition of the Roman Empire.
The question of succession
Those who have admired Marcus Aurelius’ many fine qualities have often criticized him for designating his only living son, Commodus, as his successor and for abandoning the practice of adoption that had produced a series of remarkably able, dedicated, and well-regarded rulers from Trajan to Aurelius himself. Such critics are prejudiced by extremely hostile accounts of Commodus’ reign. They forget that the practice of adoption was used by the first princeps. It was not any kind of theoretical alternative to dynastic succession. It was not a system based on the Stoic principle of choosing the most worthy individual regardless of birth. The practice of adoption was a reaffirmation of the dynastic principle.
Roman aristocrats had always resorted to adoption to maintain their families’ existence in the absence of a natural heir. For various reasons, Nerva and his successors until Marcus Aurelius had lacked sons to succeed them. The dynastic principle, moreover, was so strongly favored by the soldiers and common people that Aurelius’ four predecessors had felt it necessary to create sons where none existed. When it turned out that Aurelius had a natural heir, he had no choice but to proclaim him as his successor. Had he not, thousands would have supported Commodus, the first emperor “born in the purple” (i.e., during his father’s reign), as having a superior claim to the throne. A disastrous civil war probably would have resulted. There is no reliable evidence, only later hostile rhetoric, that Aurelius had any doubts about Commodus’ moral fitness to be emperor. He made Commodus his co-emperor in 177 to make sure that there would be no doubt about the succession. It became apparent only later that Commodus, a remarkably handsome youth, was totally different from his father in character and ideals.
Problems for the future
Under the five “good” emperors, the second century c.e. appears to many as the golden age of the Roman Empire. So it was. Beneath the surface, however, were problems and trends that had negative implications for the third century and beyond.
Defense
Trajan’s inability to hold on to his conquests in Mesopotamia and Hadrian’s decision to adopt a more static defense indicate that the Empire had reached the limits of its power and that its resources were becoming stretched too thin for the defensive burdens that it had to bear. That point is driven home by the great difficulty that Marcus Aurelius had in trying to defend the frontiers simultaneously in the East and the West. The accident of plague certainly complicated his task, but the extreme measures that he had to take in mounting his last expeditions against the Germanic tribes indicate that the Empire had very little margin of safety when confronted with a major challenge on its frontiers.
Centralization of political power
The centralization of power in the hands of the emperor and his increasingly bureaucratized servants accelerated as the problems of governance and defense became more complex. The very benevolence of the emperors naturally increased their power at the expense of the senate and magistrates at Rome and of the local councils (curiae) and officials of the provincial municipalities. Everyone came to rely on the emperor to solve all problems. In the third century, this situation ossified the imperial system and made it less responsive in times of crisis. Local regions came to feel remote from the central government and were willing to put regional interests above imperial interests, which undermined the unity of the Empire.
Increasing militarization
Despite their success as civilian administrators, it was chiefly as military men on the frontiers that Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius made their marks. The civilian side of life was becoming subordinate to the military. The civilian senate more and more became just another municipal council. To be sure, it was more prestigious than the others but in reality not more powerful. After the reign of Aurelius’ son, the Roman senate had little impact on affairs outside of Rome and Italy in the third and subsequent centuries. It still formally ratified the accession of a new emperor, but the real choice increasingly lay in the hands of the provincial armies vital for the defense of a frequently besieged Empire. He who could control the soldiers could control the state; he who could not control them soon perished as the Empire of the third and early fourth centuries was transformed into an absolute, regimented military monarchy.
NOTES
1 He did not, however, adopt the magic legend of HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS on his coins until the year 123, which happened to be the 150th anniversary of the senate’s conferral of the name Augustus upon Octavian.
2 Marriage between first cousins was usually frowned upon in Roman society, but it was not illegal. In this case, strong dynastic considerations obviously prevailed.
Suggested reading
Grainger , J. D. Nerva and the Roman Succession Crisis of AD 96–99. London: Routledge, 2003.
Kulikowski , M. The Triumph of Empire: The Roman World from Hadrian to Constantine. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016.
Levick , B. M. Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age. Women in Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.