Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome (33 page)

By contrast, the Flavians were greedy; Vespasian held nine consulships in a ten-year reign, Titus eight, and Domitian a record-breaking seventeen. Trajan was more moderate, spreading six consulships across the reign. Hadrian followed Augustus’ example to the letter—that is, once confirmed in place, he abstained. He was consul for the third and last time in 119.

An incoming emperor faced the challenge of making his power effective throughout such a wide domain. In this respect, there was one further characteristic of Augustus’ dominance that must have attracted Hadrian’s attention. The first
princeps
believed that communications were too slow and subordinates too unreliable for governing from Rome: in his view, he could run the empire only by being on the spot. For many years he spent his time on the move in the provinces, checking, settling, supervising, solving problems. And so did his dear friend and colleague in government, Agrippa. It was only with the onset of age and the coming to maturity of trustworthy young male relatives who could fill his place that Augustus abandoned his travels.

Hadrian’s imitation of Augustus made it clear that he intended to rule in an orderly and law-abiding fashion, and his enthusiasm for great men of the past underscored his commitment to traditional
romanitas
, Romanness. It was on these foundations that he would build the achievements of his reign.

Like the first
princeps
, Hadrian looked back to paradigms of ancient virtue to guide modern governance. Augustus liked to see himself as a new Romulus, the second founder of a restored Rome; twelve vultures had flown overhead when he assumed his first consulship in his late teens, just as they had at the city’s original establishment in 753
B.C
.

Hadrian followed in his footsteps, associating himself with Romulus’ peace-loving (and legendary) successor, Numa Pompilius. He had not forgotten those lines from Virgil about Numa that had foretold his imperial future. Known for his religious piety, the king was credited with the creation of Rome’s religious institutions and, related to these, the annual calendar of sacred and profane days.

Florus, historian and friend of the emperor, wrote of Numa in his
Epitome:

This could have been Hadrian’s own political motto, with his strategies of nonaggression and competent administration.

According to Plutarch, writing in Hadrian’s lifetime, Numa was a follower of the Greek mystic and mathematician Pythagoras. This was a historical impossibility, for the former lived more than a century before the latter was born. Nevertheless, the notion that the king was influenced by Greek philosophy, especially a creed with a spiritual dimension, would have appealed to the emperor. According to Aurelius Victor, “in the fashion of the Greeks or Numa Pompilius, he began to give attention to religious ceremonies, laws, schools, and teachers to such an extent that he even established a school of fine arts called the Athenaeum.” The site of the Athenaeum has not been discovered, but the building was a theater or perhaps an amphitheater and was used for readings and training in declamation. It was seen as a token of the emperor’s interest in supporting culture.

In December 119, Hadrian was dealt a heavy personal blow. His beloved mother-in-law and Trajan’s niece, Matidia, died at the relatively early age of fifty-one. He arranged for her immediate deification and issued coinage to announce the fact: a denarius struck at Rome shows a bust of Matidia, wearing a triple diadem, and the legend
The deified Augusta Matidia;
on the reverse a veiled woman drops incense on an altar, the personification of
pietas Augusta
, or “the emperor’s sense of duty and family affection.”

The Augusta was given a splendid funeral and a formal
consecratio
as a goddess. After staging the “most immense delights,” the emperor handed out spices to the people in her honor. The Arvals recorded their generous contribution in this regard by providing two pounds of perfumed
ointment in their name and fifty pounds of frankincense as a gift of the association’s servants.

Competent but unsympathetic, Domitian was a domineering ruler.
The Senate loathed him, and he repaid the compliment, terrorizing its members. M
USEI
C
APITOLINI
.

For much of his life, Nerva was the ultimate courtier, without convictions or shame, but as emperor his signal achievement was to reconcile the imperial system and its opponents in the Senate.
PALAZZO ALLE TERME, ROME
.

Trajan as triumphant commander. This was how the Romans liked to imagine their emperor, scoring victory after victory and presiding over an
imperium
sine fine
, an empire without end. X
ANTEN
, G
ERMANY
.

Hadrian in energetic middle age, wearing a general’s military cloak. He was the first Roman emperor to grow a beard in the Greek manner, setting a new fashion that many of his successors followed. B
RITISH
M
USEUM
.

A bust of Hadrian as a young man, but sculpted toward the end of his reign. This was how he may have imagined himself, reborn after the self-sacrifice of Antinous.
F
OUND IN THE
V
ILLA AT
T
IVOLI
.

But this was how the aging Hadrian really looked in a late study—disillusioned and ill.
A
RCHAEOLOGICAL
M
USEUM OF
C
HANIA
, C
RETE
.

Antoninus Pius succeeded Hadrian and maintained his policies. Unlike his predecessor he was neither a military man nor a traveler. He governed without incident and his reign was one of the most peaceful in the history of the Roman Empire. R
EAL
A
CADEMIA DE
B
ELLAS
A
RTES DE
S
AN
F
ERNANDO
, M
ADRID
.

TRAJAN’S COLUMN
Trajan’s Column rises ninety-eight feet from the ruins of his forum. It tells the story, in the manner of a strip cartoon, of Rome’s victorious wars in Dacia.
It used to be topped by a heroically nude statue of the emperor, but a statue of Saint Peter has replaced him.