No More Learning

Historia Augusta

The Life of Hadrian
Part 2

(For the beginning of chapter 14, see Part 1. )

(14)[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 8 In poetry and in letters Hadrian was greatly interested. In arithmetic, geometry, and painting he was very expert. 9 Of his knowledge of flute-playing and singing he even boasted openly. He ran to excess in the gratification of his desires, and wrote much verse about the subjects of his passion. He composed love-poems too. 10 He was also a connoisseur of arms, had a thorough knowledge of warfare, and knew how to use gladiatorial weapons. 11 He was, in the same person, austere and genial, dignified and playful, dilatory and quick to act, niggardly and generous, deceitful and straightforward, cruel and merciful, and always in all things changeable.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 15 1 His friends he enriched greatly, even though they did not ask it, while to those who did ask, he refused nothing. 2 And yet he was always ready to listen to whispers about his friends, and in the end he treated almost all of them as enemies, even the closest and even those whom he had raised to the highest of honours, such as Attianus126 and Nepos127 and Septicius Clarus. 3 Eudaemon, for example, who had been his accomplice in obtaining the imperial power, he reduced to poverty; 4 Polaenus and Marcellus128 he drove to suicide; 5 Heliodorus129 he assailed in a most slanderous pamphlet; 6 Titianus130 he allowed to be accused as an accomplice in an attempt to seize the empire and even to be outlawed; 7 Ummidius Quadratus,131 Catilius Severus, and Turbo he persecuted p49 vigorously 8 and in order to prevent Servianus, his brother-in‑law, from surviving him, he compelled him to commit suicide, although the man was then in his ninetieth year. 9 And he even took vengeance on freedmen and sometimes on soldiers. 10 And although he was very deft at prose and at verse and very accomplished in all the arts, yet he used to subject the teachers of these arts, as though more learned than they, to ridicule, scorn, and humiliation. 11 With these very professors and philosophers he often debated by means of pamphlets or poems issued by both sides in turn. 12 And once Favorinus,132 when he had yielded to Hadrian's criticism of a word which he had used, raised a merry laugh among his friends. For when they reproached him for having done wrong in yielding to Hadrian in the matter of a word used by reputable authors, he replied: 13 "You are urging a wrong course, my friends, when you do not suffer me to regard as the most learned of men the one who has thirty legions".

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 16 1 So desirous of a wide-spread reputation was Hadrian that he even wrote his own biography; this he gave to his educated freedmen, with instructions to publish it under their own names. 133 For indeed, Phlegon's writings, it is said, are Hadrian's in reality. 2 He wrote Catachannae, a very obscure work in imitation of Antimachus. 134 3 And when the poet Florus135 wrote to him:

p51 I don't want to be a Caesar,
Stroll about among the Britons,
Lurk about among the . . . .
And endure the Scythian winters,"
4 he wrote back

I don't want to be a Florus,
Stroll about among the taverns,
Lurk about among the cook-shops
And endure the round fat insects. "
5 Furthermore, he loved the archaic style of writing, and he used to take part in debates. 6 He preferred Cato to Cicero, Ennius to Vergil, Caelius136 to Sallust; and with the same self-assurance he expressed opinions about Homer and Plato. 7 In astrology he considered himself so proficient that on the Kalends of January he would actually write down all that might happen to him in the whole ensuing year, and in the year in which he died, indeed, he wrote down everything that he was going to do, down to the very hour of his death. 137

8 However ready Hadrian might have been to criticize musicians, tragedians, comedians, grammarians, and rhetoricians, he nevertheless bestowed both honours and riches upon all who professed these arts, though he always tormented them with his questions. 9 And although he was himself responsible for the fact that many of them left his presence with their feelings hurt, to see anyone with hurt feelings, he used to say, he could hardly endure. 10 He treated with the greatest friendship the philosophers Epictetus138 and Heliodorus, and various grammarians, rhetoricians, musicians, geometricians — not to mention all by name — painters and astrologers; and among p53 them Favorinus, many claim, was conspicuous above all the rest. 11 Teachers who seemed unfit for their profession he presented with riches and honours and then dismissed from the practice of their profession.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 17 1 Many whom he had regarded as enemies when a private citizen, when emperor he merely ignored; for example, on becoming emperor, he said to one man whom he had regarded as a mortal foe, "You have escaped". 2 When he himself called any to military service, he always supplied them with horses, mules, clothing, cost of maintenance, and indeed their whole equipment. 3 At the Saturnalia and Sigillaria139 he often surprised his friends with presents, and he gladly received gifts from them and again gave others in return. 4 In order to detect dishonesty in his caterers, when he gave banquets with several tables he gave orders that platters from the other tables, even the lowest, should be set before himself. 5 He surpassed all monarchs in his gifts. He often bathed in the public baths, even with the meanest crowd. And a jest of his made in the bath became famous. 6 For on a certain occasion, seeing a veteran, whom he had known in the service, rubbing his back and the rest of his body against the wall, he asked him why he had the marble rub him, and when the man replied that it was because he did not own a slave, he presented him with some slaves and the cost of their maintenance. 7 But another time, when he saw a number of old men rubbing themselves against the wall for the purpose of arousing the generosity of the Emperor, he ordered them to be called out and then to rub one another in turn. 8 His love for the common people he loudly expressed. So fond was he of travel, that he wished to inform himself in p55 person about all that he had read concerning all parts of the world. 9 Cold and bad weather he could bear with such endurance that he never covered his head. 10 He showed a multitude of favours to many kings,140 but from a number he even purchased peace, and by some he was treated with scorn; 11 to many he gave huge gifts, but none greater than to the king of the Hiberi,141 for to him he gave an elephant and a band of fifty men, in addition to magnificent presents. 12 And having himself received huge gifts from Pharasmanes, including some cloaks embroidered with gold, he sent into the arena three hundred condemned criminals dressed in gold-embroidered cloaks for the purpose of ridiculing the gifts of the king.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 18 1 When he tried cases, he had in his council142 not only his friends and the members of his staff, but also jurists, in particular Juventius Celsus,143 Salvus Julianus,144 Neratius Priscus,145 and others, only those, however, whom the senate had in every instance approved. 2 Among other decisions he ruled that in no community should any house be demolished for the purpose of transporting any building-materials to another city. 146 3 To the child of an outlawed person he p57 granted a twelfth of the property. 147 4 Accusations for lèse-majesté he did not admit. 5 Legacies from persons unknown to him he refused, and even those left to him by acquaintances he would not accept if they had any children. 6 In regard to treasure-trove, he ruled that if anyone made a find on his own property he might keep it, if on another's land, he should turn over half to the proprietor thereof, if on the state's, he should share the find equally with the privy-purse. 148 7 He forbade masters to kill their slaves, and ordered that any who deserved it should be sentenced by the courts. 8 He forbade anyone to sell a slave or a maid-servant to a procurer or trainer of gladiators without giving a reason therefor. 9 He ordered that those who had wasted their property, if legally responsible, should be flogged in the amphitheatre and then let go. Houses of hard labour for slaves and free he abolished. 10 He provided separate baths for the sexes. 11 He issued an order that, if a slave-owner were murdered in his house, no slaves should be examined save those who were near enough to have had knowledge of the murder. 149

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 19 1 In Etruria he held a praetorship150 while emperor. p59 In the Latin towns he was dictator and aedile and duumvir,151 in Naples demarch,152 in his native city153 duumvir with the powers of censor. This office he held at Hadria, too, his second native city, as it were, and at Athens he was archon. 154

2 In almost every city he built some building and gave public games. 3 At Athens he exhibited in the stadium a hunt of a thousand wild beasts, 4 but he never called away from Rome a single wild‑beast-hunter or actor. 5 In Rome, in addition to popular entertainments of unbounded extravagance, he gave spices to the people in honour of his mother-in‑law,155 and in honour of Trajan he caused essences of balsam and saffron to be poured over the seats of the theatre. 6 And in the theatre he presented plays of all kinds in the ancient manner and had the court-players appear before the public. 7 In the Circus he had many wild beasts killed and often a whole hundred of lions. 8 He often gave the people exhibitions of military Pyrrhic dances,156 and he frequently attended gladiatorial shows. 9 He built public buildings in all places and without number, but he inscribed his own name on none of them except the temple of his father Trajan. 157 10 At Rome he restored the Pantheon,158 the Voting-enclosure,159 the Basilica of Neptune,160 very p61 many temples, the Forum of Augustus,161 the Baths of Agrippa,162 and dedicated all of them in the names of their original builders. 11 Also he constructed the bridge named after himself, a tomb on the banks of the Tiber,163 and the temple of the Bona Dea. 164 12 With the aid of the architect Decrianus he raised the Colossus165 and, keeping it in an upright position, moved it away from the place in which the Temple of Rome166 is now, though its weight was so vast that he had to furnish for the work as many as twenty-four elephants. 13 This statue he then consecrated to the Sun, after removing the features of Nero, to whom it had previously been dedicated, and he also planned, with the assistance of the architect Apollodorus, to make a similar one for the Moon.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 20 1 Most democratic in his conservations, even with the very humble, he denounced all who, in the belief that they were thereby maintaining the imperial dignity, begrudged him the pleasure of such friendliness. 2 In the Museum at Alexandria167 he propounded many questions to the teachers and answered himself what he had propounded. 3 Marius Maximus says that p63 he was naturally cruel and performed so many kindnesses only because he feared that he might meet the fate which had befallen Domitian. 168

4 Though he cared nothing for inscriptions on his public works, he gave the name of Hadrianopolis to many cities, as, for example, even to Carthage and a section of Athens;169 5 and he also gave his name to aqueducts without number. 6 He was the first to appoint a pleader for the privy-purse. 170

7 Hadrian's memory was vast and his ability was unlimited; for instance, he personally dictated his speeches and gave opinions on all questions. 8 He was also very witty, and of his jests many still survive. The following one has even become famous: When he had refused a request to a certain grey-haired man, and the man repeated the request but this time with dyed hair, Hadrian replied: "I have already refused this to your father. " 9 Even without the aid of a nomenclator he could call by name a great many people, whose names he had heard but once and then all in a crowd; indeed, he could correct the nomenclators when they made mistakes, as they not infrequently did, 10 and he even knew the names of the veterans whom he had discharged at various times. He could repeat from memory, after a rapid reading, books which to most men were not known at all. 11 He wrote, dictated, listened, and, incredible as it seems, conversed with his friends, all at one and the same time. He had as complete a knowledge of the state-budget in all its details as p65 any careful householder has of his own household. 12 His horses and dogs he loved so much that he provided burial-places for them,171 13 and in one locality he founded a town called Hadrianotherae,172 because once he had hunted successfully there and killed a bear.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 21 1 He always inquired into the actions of all his judges, and persisted in his inquiries until he satisfied himself of the truth about them. 2 He would not allow his freedmen to be prominent in public affairs or to have any influence over himself, and he declared that all his predecessors were to blame for the faults of their freedmen; he also punished all his freedmen who boasted of their influence over him. 3 With regard to his treatment of his slaves, the following incident, stern but almost humorous, is still related. Once when he saw one of his slaves walk away from his presence between two senators, he sent someone to give him a box on the ear and say to him: "Do not walk between those whose slave you may some day be". 4 As an article of food he was singularly fond of tetrapharmacum,173 which consisted of pheasant, sow's udders, ham, and pastry.

5 During his reign there were famines, pestilence, and earthquakes. The distress caused by all these calamities he relieved to the best of his ability, and also he aided many communities which had been devastated by them. 6 There was also an overflow of the Tiber. 7 To many communities he gave Latin citizenship,174 and to many others he remitted their tribute.

p67 8 There were no campaigns of importance during his reign,175 and the wars that he did wage were brought to a close almost without arousing comment. 9 The soldiers loved him much on account of his very great interest in the army176 and for his great liberality to them besides. 10 The Parthians always regarded him as a friend because he took away the king177 whom Trajan had set over them. 11 The Armenians were permitted to have their own king,178 whereas under Trajan they had had a governor, 12 and the Mesopotamians were relieved of the tribute which Trajan had imposed. 13 The Albanians179 and Hiberians he made his friends by lavishing gifts upon their kings, even though they had scorned to come to him. 14 The kings of the Bactrians sent envoys to him to beg humbly for his friendship.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 22 1 He very often assigned guardians. Discipline in civil life he maintained as rigorously as he did in military. 2 He ordered senators and knights to wear the toga whenever they appeared in public except when they were returning from a banquet, 3 and he himself, when in Italy, always appeared thus clad. 4 At banquets, when senators came, he received them standing, and he always reclined at table dressed either in a Greek cloak or in a toga. 5 The cost of a banquet he determined on each occasion, all with the utmost care, and he reduced the sums that might be expended to the amounts prescribed by p69 the ancient laws. 180 6 He forbade the entry into Rome of heavily laden waggons, and did not permit riding on horseback in cities. 7 None but invalids were allowed to bathe in the public baths before the eighth hour of the day. 8 He was the first to put knights in charge of the imperial correspondence and of the petitions addressed to the emperor. 181 9 Those men whom he saw to be poor and innocent he enriched of his own accord, but those who had become rich through sharp practice he actually regarded with hatred. He despised foreign cults, 10 but native Roman ones he observed most scrupulously; moreover, he always performed the duties of pontifex maximus. 11 He tried a great number of lawsuits himself both in Rome and in the provinces, and to his council182 he called consuls and praetors and the foremost of the senators. 12 He drained the Fucine Lake. 183 13 He appointed four men of consular rank as judges for all Italy. 14 When he went to Africa184 it rained on his arrival for the first time in the space of five years, and for this he was beloved by the Africans.

23 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] After traversing, as he did, all parts of the world with bare head and often in severe storms and p71 frosts, he contracted an illness which confined him to his bed. 2 And becoming anxious about a successor he thought first of Servianus. 3 Afterwards, however, as I have said,185 he forced him to commit suicide; and Fuscus,186 too, he put to death on the ground that, being spurred on by prophecies and omens, he was hoping for the imperial power. 4 Carried away by suspicion, he held in the greatest abhorrence Platorius Nepos,187 whom he had formerly so loved that, once, when he went to see him while ill and was refused admission, he nevertheless let him go unpunished. 5 Also he hated Terentius Gentianus,188 but even more vehemently, because he saw that he was then beloved by the senate. 6 At last, he came to hate all those of whom he had thought in connection with the imperial power, as though they were really about to be emperors. 7 However, he controlled all the force of his innate cruelty down to the time when in his Tiburtine Villa189 he almost met his death through a hemorrhage. 8 Then he threw aside all restraint and compelled Servianus to kill himself, on the ground that he aspired to the empire, merely because he gave a feast to the royal slaves, sat in a royal chair placed close to his bed, and, though an old man of ninety, used to arise and go forward to meet the guard of soldiers. 190 He put many others to death, either openly or by treachery, 9 and indeed, when his wife Sabina died, the rumour arose that the Emperor had given her poison.

10 Hadrian then determined to adopt Ceionius Commodus, son-in‑law of Nigrinus, the former conspirator, and this in spite of the fact that his sole recommendation was his beauty. 11 Accordingly, despite the opposition of all, he adopted Ceionius Commodus p73 Verus191 and called him Aelius Verus Caesar. 12 On the occasion of the adoption he gave games in the Circus and bestowed largess upon the populace and the soldiers. 192 13 He dignified Commodus with the office of praetor193 and immediately placed him in command of the Pannonian provinces, and also conferred on him the consulship together with money enough to meet the expenses of the office. He also appointed Commodus to a second consulship. 14 And when he saw that the man was diseased, he used often to say: "We have leaned against a tottering wall and have wasted the four hundred million sesterces which we gave to the populace and the soldiers on the adoption of Commodus". 194 15 Moreover, because of his ill-health, Commodus could not even make a speech in the senate thanking Hadrian for his adoption. 16 Finally, too large a quantity of medicine was administered to him, and thereupon his illness increased, and he died in his sleep on the very Kalends of January. 195 Because of the date Hadrian forbade public mourning for him, in order that the vows for the state might be assumed as usual.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 24 1 After the death of Aelius Verus Caesar, Hadrian was attacked by a very severe illness, and thereupon he adopted Arrius Antoninus196 (who was p75 afterwards called Pius), imposing upon him the condition that he adopt two sons, Annius Verus197 and Marcus Antoninus. 198 2 These were the two who afterwards ruled the empire together, the first joint Augusti. 3 And as for Antoninus, he was called Pius, it is said, because he used to give his arm to his father-in‑law when weakened by old age. 199 4 However, others assert that this surname was given to him because, as Hadrian grew more cruel, he rescued many senators from the Emperor;200 5 others, again, that it was because he bestowed great honours upon Hadrian after his death. 201 6 The adoption of Antoninus was lamented by many at that time, particularly by Catilius Severus,202 the prefect of the city, who was making plans to secure the throne for himself. 7 When this fact became known, a successor was appointed for him and he was deprived of his office.

8 But Hadrian was now seized with the utmost disgust of life and ordered a servant to stab him with a sword. 9 When this was disclosed and reached the ears of Antoninus, he came to the Emperor, together with the prefects, and begged him to endure with fortitude the hard necessity of illness, declaring furthermore that he himself would be no better than a parricide, were he, an adopted son, to permit Hadrian to be killed. 10 The Emperor then became angry and ordered the betrayer of the secret to be put to death; however, the man was saved by Antoninus. 11 Then Hadrian immediately drew up his will, though he did not lay aside the administration of the empire. 12 Once more, however, after making p77 his will, he attempted to kill himself, but the dagger was taken from him. 13 He then became more violent, and he even demanded poison from his physician, who thereupon killed himself in order that he might not have to administer it.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 25 1 About this time there came a certain woman, who said that she had been warned in a dream to coax Hadrian to refrain from killing himself, for he was destined to recover entirely, but that she had failed to do this and had become blind; she had nevertheless been ordered a second time to give the same message to Hadrian and to kiss his knees, and was assured of the recovery of her sight if she did so. 2 The woman then carried out the command of the dream, and received her sight after she had bathed her eyes with the water in the temple from which she had come. 3 Also a blind old man from Pannonia came to Hadrian when he was ill with fever, and touched him; whereupon the man received his sight, and the fever left Hadrian. 4 All these things, however, Marius Maximus declares were done as a hoax.

5 After this Hadrian departed for Baiae, leaving Antoninus at Rome to carry on the government. 6 But he received no benefit there, and he thereupon sent for Antoninus, and in his presence he died there at Baiae on the sixth day before the Ides of July. 7 Hated by all, he was buried at Puteoli on an estate that had belonged to Cicero.

8 Just before his death, he compelled Servianus, then ninety years old, to kill himself, as has been said before,203 in order that Servianus might not outlive him, and, as he thought, become emperor. He likewise gave orders that very many others who were guilty of slight offences should be put to death; these, p79 however, were spared by Antoninus. 9 And he is said, as he lay dying, to have composed the following lines:

O blithe little soul, thou, flitting away,
Guest and comrade of this my clay,
Whither now goest thou, to what place
Bare and ghastly and without grace?
Nor, as thy wont was, joke and play. "204
10 Such verses as these did he compose, and not many that were better, and also some in Greek.

11 He lived 62 years, 5 months, 17 days. He ruled 20 years, 11 months.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 26 1 He was tall of stature and elegant in appearance; his hair was curled on a comb, and he wore a full beard to cover up the natural blemishes on his face; and he was very strongly built. 2 He rode and walked a great deal and always kept himself in training by the use of arms and the javelin. 3 He also hunted, and he used often to kill a lion with his own hand, but once in a hunt he broke his collar-bone and a rib; these hunts of his he always shared with his friends. 4 At his banquets he always furnished, according to the occasion, tragedies, comedies, Atellan farces,205 players on the sambuca,a readers, or poets. 5 His villa at Tibur206 was marvellously constructed, and he actually gave to parts of it the names of provinces and places of the greatest renown, calling them, for instance, Lyceum, Academia, Prytaneum, Canopus, Poecile and Tempe. And in order not to omit anything, he even made a Hades.

6 The premonitions of his death were as follows: On p81 his last birthday, when he was commending Antoninus to the gods, his bordered toga fell down without apparent cause and bared his head. 207 7 His ring, on which his portrait was carved, slipped of its own accord from his finger. 208 8 On the day before his birthday some one came into the senate wailing; by his presence Hadrian was as disturbed as if he were speaking about his own death, for no one could understand what he was saying. 9 Again, in the senate, when he meant to say, "after my son's death," he said, "after mine". 10 Besides, he dreamed that he had asked his father for a soporific; he also dreamed that he had been overcome by a lion.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 27 1 Much was said against him after his death, and by many persons. 2 The senate wished to annul his acts, and would have refrained from naming him "the Deified" had not Antoninus requested it. 3 Antoninus, moreover, finally built a temple for him at Puteoli to take the place of a tomb, and he also established a quinquennial contest and flamens and sodales209 and many other institutions which appertain to the honour of one regarded as a god. 4 It is for this reason, as has been said before, that many think that Antoninus received the surname Pius. 210

p3 The Life of Hadriana
Part 1

1 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] The original home of the family of the Emperor Hadrian was Picenum, the later, Spain; for Hadrian himself relates in his autobiography1 that his forefathers came from Hadria,2 but settled at Italica3 in the time of the Scipios. 2 The father of Hadrian was Aelius Hadrianus, surnamed Afer, a cousin of the Emperor Trajan; his mother was Domitia Paulina, a native of Cadiz; his sister was Paulina, the wife of Servianus,4 his wife was Sabina,5 and his great-grandfather's grandfather was Marullinus, the first of his family to be a Roman senator.

3 Hadrian was born in Rome6 on the ninth day before the Kalends of February in the seventh consulship p5 of Vespasian and the fifth of Titus. 4 Bereft of his father at the age of ten, he became the ward of Ulpius Trajanus, his cousin, then of praetorian rank,7 but afterwards emperor, and of Caelius Attianus,8 a knight. 5 He then grew rather deeply devoted to Greek studies, to which his natural tastes inclined so much that some called him "Greekling. " [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 2 1 He returned to his native city in his fifteenth year and at once entered military service, but was so fond of hunting that he incurred criticism for it, and for this reason Trajan recalled him from Italica. 2 Thenceforth he was treated by Trajan as his own son, and not long afterwards he was made one of the ten judges of the inheritance-court,9 and, later, tribune of the Second Legion, the Adjutrix. 10 3 After this, when Domitian's principate was drawing to a close, he was transferred to the province of Lower Moesia. 11 4 There, it is said, he heard from an astrologer the same prediction of his future power which had been made, as he already knew, by his great-uncle, Aelius Hadrianus, a master of astrology. 5 When Trajan was adopted12 by Nerva, Hadrian was sent to convey to him the army's congratulations and was at once p7 transferred to Upper Germany. 13 6 When Nerva died, he wished to be the first to bring the news to Trajan, but as he was hastening to meet him he was detained by his brother-in‑law, Servianus, the same man who had revealed Hadrian's extravagance and indebtedness and thus stirred Trajan's anger against him. He was further delayed by the fact that his travelling-carriage had been designedly broken, but he nevertheless proceeded on foot and anticipatedº Servianus' personal messenger. 14 7 And now he became a favourite of Trajan's, and yet, owing to the activity of the guardians of certain boys whom Trajan loved ardently, he was not free from . . . which Gallus fostered. 8 Indeed, at this time he was even anxious about the Emperor's attitude towards him, and consulted the Vergilian oracle. 15 This was the lot given out:16

But who is yonder man, by olive wreath
Distinguished, who the sacred vessel bears?
I see a hoary head and beard. Behold
The Roman King whose laws shall stablish Rome
Anew, from tiny Cures' humble land
Called to a mighty realm. Then shall arise . . . b
Others, however, declare that this prophecy came to him from the Sibylline Verses. 9 Moreover, he received a further intimation of his subsequent power, in a response which issued from the temple of Jupiter at Nicephorium17 and has been quoted by Apollonius of Syria,18 the Platonist. 10 Finally, through the good offices of Sura,19 he was instantly restored to a friendship with Trajan that was closer than ever, and p9 he took to wife the daughter of the Emperor's sister20 — a marriage advocated by Plotina, but, according to Marius Maximus,21 little desired by Trajan himself.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 3 1 He held the quaestorship22 in the fourth consulship of Trajan and the first of Articuleius, and while holding this office he read a speech of the Emperor's to the senate and provoked a laugh by his somewhat provincial accent. He thereupon gave attention to the study of Latin until he attained the utmost proficiency and fluency.
b
Others, however, declare that this prophecy came to him from the Sibylline Verses. 9 Moreover, he received a further intimation of his subsequent power, in a response which issued from the temple of Jupiter at Nicephorium17 and has been quoted by Apollonius of Syria,18 the Platonist. 10 Finally, through the good offices of Sura,19 he was instantly restored to a friendship with Trajan that was closer than ever, and p9 he took to wife the daughter of the Emperor's sister20 — a marriage advocated by Plotina, but, according to Marius Maximus,21 little desired by Trajan himself.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 3 1 He held the quaestorship22 in the fourth consulship of Trajan and the first of Articuleius, and while holding this office he read a speech of the Emperor's to the senate and provoked a laugh by his somewhat provincial accent. He thereupon gave attention to the study of Latin until he attained the utmost proficiency and fluency. 2 After his quaestorship he served as curator of the acts of the senate,23 and later accompanied Trajan in the Dacian war24 on terms of considerable intimacy, 3 seeing, indeed, that falling in with Trajan's habits, as he says himself, he partook freely of wine, and for this was very richly rewarded by the Emperor. 4 He was made tribune of the plebs in the second consulship of Candidus and Quadratus, 5 and he claimed that he received an omen of continuous tribunician25 power during this magistracy, because he lost the heavy cloak which is worn by the tribunes of the plebs in rainy weather, but never by the emperors. And down to this day the emperors do not wear cloaks when they appear in public before civilians. 6 In the second Dacian war, Trajan appointed him to the command of the First Legion, the Minervia, and took him with him to the war; and in this campaign his many remarkable deeds won great renown. 7 Because of this he was presented with a diamond which p11 Trajan himself had received from Nerva, and by this gift he was encouraged in his hopes of succeeding to the throne. 26 8 He held the praetorship in the second consulship of Suburanus and Servianus,27 and again received from Trajan two million sesterces with which to give games. 9 Next he was sent as praetorian legate to Lower Pannonia,28 where he held the Sarmatians in check, maintained discipline among the soldiers, and restrained the procurators,29 who were overstepping too freely the bounds of their power. 10 In return for these services he was made consul. While he was holding this office he learned from Sura that he was to be adopted by Trajan, and thereupon he ceased to be an object of contempt and neglect to Trajan's friends. 11 Indeed, after Sura's death Trajan's friendship for him increased, principally on account of the speeches which he composed for the Emperor. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 4 1 He enjoyed, too, the favour of Plotina,30 and it was due to her interest in him that later, at the time of the campaign against Parthia, he was appointed the legate of the Emperor. 31 2 At this same time he enjoyed, besides, the friendship of Sosius Papus and Platorius Nepos,32 both of the p13 senatorial order, and also of Attianus, his former guardian, of Livianus,33 and of Turbo,34 all of equestrian rank. 3 And when Palma and Celsus,35 always his enemies, on whom he later took vengeance, fell under suspicion of aspiring to the throne, his adoption seemed assured; 4 and it was taken wholly for granted when, through Plotina's favour, he was appointed consul for the second time. 5 That he was bribing Trajan's freedmen and courting and corrupting his favourites all the while that he was in close attendance at court, was told and generally believed.

6 On the fifth day before the Ides of August, while he was governor of Syria, he learned of his adoption by Trajan, and he later gave orders to celebrate this day as the anniversary of his adoption. 7 On the third day before the Ides of August he received the news of Trajan's death, and this day he appointed as the anniversary of his accession.

8 There was, to be sure, a widely prevailing belief that Trajan, with the approval of many of his friends, had planned to appoint as his successor not Hadrian but Neratius Priscus,36 even to the extent of saying to Priscus: "I entrust the provinces to your care in case anything happens to me". 9 And, indeed, many aver that Trajan had purposed to follow the example of Alexander of Macedonia and die without naming a successor. Again, many others declare that p15 he had meant to send an address to the senate, requesting this body, in case aught befell him, to appoint a ruler for the Roman empire, and merely appending the names of some from among whom the senate might choose the best. 10 And the statement has even been made that it was not until after Trajan's death that Hadrian was declared adopted, and then only by means of a trick of Plotina's; for she smuggled in someone who impersonated the Emperor and spoke in a feeble voice.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 5 1 On taking possession of the imperial power Hadrian at once resumed the policy of the early emperors,37 and devoted his attention to maintaining peace throughout the world. 2 For the nations which Trajan had conquered began to revolt; the Moors, moreover, began to make attacks,38 and the Sarmatians to wage war,39 the Britons could not be kept under Roman sway, Egypt40 was thrown into disorder by riots, and finally Libya41 and Palestine42 showed the spirit of rebellion. 3 Whereupon he relinquished all the conquests east of the Euphrates and the Tigris, following, as he used to say, the example of Cato, who urged that the Macedonians, because they could not be held as subjects, should be declared free and independent. 43 4 And Parthamasiris,44 appointed king p17 of the Parthians by Trajan, he assigned as ruler to the neighbouring tribes, because he saw that the man was held in little esteem by the Parthians.

5 Moreover, he showed at the outset such a wish to be lenient, that although Attianus advised him by letter in the first few days of his rule45 to put to death Baebius Macer,46 the prefect of the city, in case he opposed his elevation to power, also Laberius Maximus,47 then in exile on an island under suspicion of designs on the throne, and likewise Crassus Frugi,48 he nevertheless refused to harm them. 6 Later on, however, his procurator, though without an order from Hadrian, had Crassus killed when he tried to leave the island, on the ground that he was planning a revolt. 7 He gave a double donative to the soldiers in order to ensure a favourable beginning to his principate. 8 He deprived Lusius Quietus49 of the command of the Moorish tribesmen, who were serving under him, and then dismissed him from the army, because he had fallen under the suspicion of having designs on the throne; and he appointed Marcius Turbo, after his reduction of Judaea, to quell the insurrection in Mauretania.

9 After taking these measures he set out from Antioch to view the remains of Trajan,50 which were p19 being escorted by Attianus, Plotina, and Matidia. 51 10 He received them formally and sent them on to Rome by ship and at once returned to Antioch; he then appointed Catilius Severus52 governor of Syria, and proceeded to Rome by way of Illyricum. 53

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 6 1 Despatching to the senate a carefully worded letter, he asked for divine honours for Trajan. This request he obtained by a unanimous vote; indeed, the senate voluntarily voted Trajan many more honours than Hadrian had requested. 2 In this letter to the senate he apologized because he had not left it the right to decide regarding his accession,54 explaining that the unseemly haste of the troops in acclaiming him emperor was due to the belief that the state could not be without an emperor. 3 Later, when the senate offered him the triumph which was to have been Trajan's, he refused it for himself, and caused the effigy of the dead Emperor to be carried in a triumphal chariot, in order that the best of emperors might not lose even after death the honour of a triumph. 55 4 Also he refused for the present the title of Father of his Country, offered to him at the time of his accession and again later on, giving as his reason the fact that Augustus had not won it until late in life. 56 5 Of the crown-money57 p21 for his triumph he remitted Italy's contribution, and lessened that of the provinces, all the while setting forth grandiloquently and in great detail the straits of the public treasury.

6 Then, on hearing of the incursions of the Sarmatians and Roxolani,58 he sent the troops ahead and set out for Moesia. 7 He conferred the insignia of a prefect on Marcius Turbo after his Mauretanian campaign and appointed him to the temporary command of Pannonia and Dacia. 59 8 When the king of the Roxolani complained of the diminution of his subsidy, he investigated his case and made peace with him.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 7 1 A plot to murder him while sacrificing was made by Nigrinus, with Lusius and a number of others as accomplices, even though Hadrian had destined Nigrinus60 for the succession; but Hadrian successfully evaded this plot. 2 Because of this conspiracy Palma was put to death at Tarracina, Celsus at Baiae, Nigrinus at Faventia,61 and Lusius on his journey homeward, all by order of the senate, but contrary to the wish of Hadrian, as he says himself in his autobiography. 3 Whereupon Hadrian entrusted p23 the command in Dacia to Turbo, whom he dignified, in order to increase his authority, with a rank analogous to that of the prefect of Egypt. He then hastened to Rome in order to win over public opinion, which was hostile to him because of the belief that on one single occasion he had suffered four men of consular rank to be put to death. In order to check the rumours about himself, he gave in person a double largess to the people,62 although in his absence three aurei63 had already been given to each of the citizens. 4 In the senate, too, he cleared himself of blame for what had happened, and pledged himself never to inflict punishment on a senator until after a vote of the senate. 64 5 He established a regular imperial post,65 in order to relieve the local officials of such a burden. 6 Moreover, he used every means of gaining popularity. He remitted to private debtors in Rome and in Italy immense sums of money owed to the privy-purse,66 and in the provinces he remitted large amounts of arrears; and he ordered the promissory notes to be burned in the Forum of the Deified Trajan,67 in order that the general sense of security might thereby be increased. 7 He gave orders that the property of condemned persons should not accrue to the privy-purse, p25 and in each case deposited the whole amount in the public treasury. 8 He made additional appropriations for the children to whom Trajan had allotted grants of money. 68 9 He supplemented the property of senators impoverished through no fault of their own, making the allowance in each case proportionate to the number of children, so that it might be enough for a senatorial career;69 to many, indeed, he paid punctually on the date the amount allotted for their living. 10 Sums of money sufficient to enable men to hold office he bestowed, not on his friends alone, but also on many far and wide, 11 and by his donations he helped a number of women to sustain life. 12 He gave gladiatorial combats for six days in succession, and on his birthday he put into the arena a thousand wild beasts.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 8 1 The foremost members of the senate he admitted to close intimacy with the emperor's majesty. 2 All circus-games decreed in his honour he refused, except those held to celebrate his birthday. 70 3 Both in meetings of the people and in the senate he used to say that he would so administer the commonwealth that men would know that it was not his own but the people's. 4 Having himself been consul three times, he reappointed many to the consulship for the third time and men without number to a second term; 5 his own third consulship he held for only four months, and during his term he often administered justice. p27 6 He always attended regular meetings of the senate if he was present in Rome or even in the neighbourhood. 7 In the appointment of senators he showed the utmost caution and thereby greatly increased the dignity of the senate, and when he removed Attianus from the post of prefect of the guard and created him a senator with consular honours,71 he made it clear that he had no greater honour which he could bestow upon him. 8 Nor did he allow knights to try cases involving senators72 whether he was present at the trial or not. 9 For at that time it was customary for the emperor, when he tried cases, to call to his council73 both senators and knights and give a verdict based on their joint decision. 10 Finally, he denounced those emperors who had not shown this deference to the senators. 11 On his brother-in‑law Servianus, to whom he showed such respect that he would advance to meet him as he came from his chamber, he bestowed a third consulship, and that without any request or entreaty on Servianus' part; but nevertheless he did not appoint him as his own colleague, since Servianus had been consul twice before Hadrian, and the Emperor did not wish to have second place. 74

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 9 1 And yet, at the same time, Hadrian abandoned many provinces won by Trajan,75 and also destroyed, p29 contrary to the entreaties of all, the theatre which Trajan had built in the Campus Martius. 2 These measures, unpopular enough in themselves, were still more displeasing to the public because of his pretence that all acts which he thought would be offensive had been secretly enjoined upon him by Trajan. 3 Unable to endure the power of Attianus and formerly his guardian, he was eager to murder him. He was restrained, however, by the knowledge that he already laboured under the odium of murdering four men of consular rank,76 although, as a matter of fact, he always attributed their execution to the designs of Attianus. 4 And as he could not appoint a successor for Attianus except at the latter's request, he contrived to make him request it,77 and at once transferred the power to Turbo; 5 ºat the same time Similis78 also, the other prefect,79 received a successor, namely Septicius Clarus. 80

6 After Hadrian had removed from the prefecture the very men to whom he owed the imperial power, he departed for Campania, where he aided all the towns of the region by gifts and benefactions81 and attached all the foremost men to his train of friends. 7 But when at Rome, he frequently attended the official functions of the praetors and consuls, appeared at the p31 banquets of his friends, visited them twice or thrice a day when they were sick, even those who were merely knights and freedmen, cheered them by words of comfort, encouraged them by words of advice, and very often invited them to his own banquets. 8 In short, everything that he did was in the manner of a private citizen. 9 On his mother-in‑law he bestowed especial honour by means of gladiatorial games and other ceremonies. 82

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 10 1 After this he travelled83 to the provinces of Gaul,84 and came to the relief of all the communities with various acts of generosity; 2 and from there he went over into Germany. 85 Though more desirous of peace than of war, he kept the soldiers in training just as if war were imminent, inspired them by proofs of his own powers of endurance, actually led a soldier's life among the maniples,86 and, after the example of Scipio Aemilianus,87 Metellus, and his own adoptive father Trajan, cheerfully ate out of doors such camp-fare as bacon, cheese and vinegar. And that the troops might submit more willingly to the increased harshness of his orders, he bestowed gifts on many and honours on a few. 3 For he reestablished the discipline of the camp,88 which since p33 the time of Octavian had been growing slack through the laxity of his predecessors. He regulated, too, both the duties and the expenses of the soldiers, and now no one could get a leave of absence from camp by unfair means, for it was not popularity with the troops but just deserts that recommended a man for appointment as tribune. 4 He incited others by the example of his own soldierlyº spirit; he would walk as much as twenty miles fully armed; he cleared the camp of banqueting-rooms, porticoes, grottos, and bowers, 5 generally wore the commonest clothing, would have no gold ornaments on his sword-belt or jewels on the clasp, would scarcely consent to have his sword furnished with an ivory hilt, 6 visited the sick soldiers in their quarters, selected the sites for camps, conferred the centurion's wand on those only who were hardy and of good repute, appointed as tribunes only men with full beards or of an age to give to the authority of the tribuneship the full measure of prudence and maturity, 7 permitted no tribune to accept a present from a soldier, banished luxuries on every hand, and, lastly, improved the soldiers' arms and equipment. 8 Furthermore, with regard to length of military service he issued an order that no one should violate ancient usage by being in the service at an earlier age than his strength warranted, or at a more advanced one than common humanity permitted. He made it a point to be acquainted with the soldiers and to know their numbers. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 11 1 Besides this, he strove to have an accurate knowledge of the military stores, and the receipts from the provinces he examined with care in order to make good any deficit that might occur in any particular instance. But more than any other emperor he made it a point not to purchase or maintain anything that was not serviceable.

p35 2 And so, having reformed the army quite in the manner of a monarch, he set out for Britain,89 and there he corrected many abuses and was the first to construct a wall,90 •eighty miles in length, which was to separate the barbarians from the Romans.

3 He removed from office Septicius Clarus,91 the prefect of the guard, and Suetonius Tranquillus,92 the imperial secretary, and many others besides, because without his consent they had been conducting themselves toward his wife, Sabina, in a more informal fashion than the etiquette of the court demanded. And, as he was himself wont to say, he would have sent away his wife too, on the ground of ill-temper and irritability, had he been merely a private citizen. 4 Moreover, his vigilance was not confined to his own household but extended to those of his friends, and by means of his private agents93 he even pried into all their secrets, and so skilfully that they were never aware that the Emperor was acquainted with their private lives until he revealed it himself. 5 In this connection, the insertion of an incident will not be unwelcome, showing that he found out much about his friends. 6 The wife of a certain man wrote to her husband, complaining that he was so preoccupied by p37 pleasures and baths that he would not return home to her, and Hadrian found this out through his private agents. And so, when the husband asked for a furlough, Hadrian reproached him with his fondness for his baths and his pleasures. Whereupon the man exclaimed: "What, did my wife write you just what she wrote to me? " 7 And, indeed, as for this habit of Hadrian's, men regard it as a most grievous fault, and add to their criticism the statements which are current regarding the passion for malesc and the adulteries with married women to which he is said to have been addicted, adding also the charge that he did not even keep faith with his friends.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 12 1 After arranging matters in Britain he crossed over to Gaul, for he was rendered anxious by the news of a riot in Alexandria, which arose on account of Apis;94 for Apis had been discovered again after an interval of many years, and was causing great dissension among the communities, each one earnestly asserting its claim as the place best fitted to be the seat of his worship. 2 During this same time he reared a basilica of marvellous workmanship at Nîmes in honour of Plotina. 95 3 After this he travelled to Spain96 and spent the winter at Tarragona,97 and here he restored at his own expense the temple of Augustus. 4 To this place, too, he called all the inhabitants of Spain for a general meeting, and when p39 they refused to submit to a levy, the Italian settlers98 jestingly, to use the very words of Marius Maximus, and the others very vigorously, he took measures characterized by skill and discretion. 5 At this same time he incurred grave danger and won great glory; for while he was walking about in a garden at Tarragona one of the slaves of the household rushed at him madly with a sword. But he merely laid hold on the man, and when the servants ran to the rescue handed him over to them. Afterwards, when it was found that the man was mad, he turned him over to the physicians for treatment, and all this time showed not the slightest sign of alarm.

6 During this period and on many other occasions also, in many regions where the barbarians are held back not by rivers but by artificial barriers, Hadrian shut them off by means of high stakes planted deep in the ground and fastened together in the manner of a palisade. 99 7 He appointed a king for the Germans, suppressed revolts among the Moors,100 and won from the senate the usual ceremonies of thanksgiving. 8 The war with the Parthians had not at that time advanced beyond the preparatory stage, and Hadrian checked it by a personal conference. 101

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 13 1 After this Hadrian travelled by way of Asia and the islands to Greece,102 and, following the p41 example of Hercules and Philip,103 had himself initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. 104 He bestowed many favours on the Athenians and sat as president of the public games. 105 2 And during this stay in Greece care was taken, they say, that when Hadrian was present, none should come to a sacrifice armed, whereas, as a rule, many carried knives. 3 Afterwards he sailed to Sicily,106 and there he climbed Mount Aetna to see the sunrise, which is many-hued, they say, like the rainbow. 4 Thence he returned to Rome,107 and108 from there he crossed over to Africa,109 where he showed many acts of kindness to the provinces. 5 Hardly any emperor ever travelled with such speed over so much territory.

6 Finally, after his return to Rome from Africa, he immediately set out for the East, journeying by p43 way of Athens. 110 Here he dedicated the public works which he had begun in the city of the Athenians, such as the temple to Olympian Jupiter111 and an altar to himself; and in the same way, while travelling through Asia, he consecrated the temples called by his name. 112 7 Next, he received slaves from the Cappadocians for service in the camps. 113 8 To petty rulers and kings he made offers of friendship, and even to Osdroes,114 king of the Parthians. To him he also restored his daughter, who had been captured by Trajan, and promised to return the throne captured at the same time. 115 9 And when some of the kings came to him, he treated them in such a way that those who had refused to come regretted it. He took this course especially on account of Pharasmanes,116 who had haughtily scorned his invitation. 10 Furthermore, as he went about the provinces he punished procurators and governors as their actions demanded, and indeed with such severity that it was believed that he incited those who brought the accusations. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 14 1 In the course of these travels he conceived such a hatred for the people of Antioch that he wished to separate Syria from Phoenicia, in order that Antioch might not be called the chief city of so many communities. 117 2 At this time also the p45 Jews began war, because they were forbidden to practice circumcision. 118 3 As he was sacrificing on Mount Casius,119 which he had ascended by night in order to see the sunrise, a storm arose, and a flash of lightning descended and struck both the victim and the attendant. 4 He then travelled through Arabia120 and finally came to Pelusium,121 where he rebuilt Pompey's tomb on a more magnificent scale. 122 5 During a journey on the Nile he lost Antinous,123 his favourite, and for this youth he wept like a woman. 6 Concerning this incident there are varying rumours;124 for some claim that he had devoted himself to death for Hadrian, and others — what both his beauty and Hadrian's sensuality suggest. 7 But however this may be, the Greeks deified him at Hadrian's request, and declared that oracles were given through his agency, but these, it is commonly asserted, were composed by Hadrian himself. 125

The Life of Aelius

To Diocletian Augustus, his devoted servant, Aelius Spartianus, greeting:

1 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] It is my purpose, Diocletian Augustus, greatest of a long line of rulers, to present to the knowledge of your Divine Majesty, not only those who have held as ruling emperors the high post which you maintain — I have done this as far as the Deified Hadrian — but also those who either have borne the name of Caesar, though never hailed emperors or Augusti, or have attained in some other fashion to the fame of the imperial power or the hope of gaining it. 2 Among these I must tell first and foremost of Aelius Verus, who through his adoption by Hadrian became a member of the imperial family, and was the first to receive only the name of Caesar. 1 3 Since I can tell but little of him, and the prologue should not be more extensive than the play, I shall now proceed to tell of the man himself.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 2 1 The life of Ceionius Commodus, also called Aelius p85 Verus,2 adopted by Hadrian3 after his journey through the world, when he was burdened by old age and weakened by cruel disease, contains nothing worthy of note except that he was the first to receive only the name of Caesar. 2 This was conferred, not by last will and testament, as was previously the custom,4 nor yet in the fashion in which Trajan was adopted,5 but well nigh in the same manner as in our own time your Clemency conferred the name of Caesar on Maximianus and on Constantius, as on true sons of the imperial house and heirs apparent of your August Majesty.

3 Now whereas I must needs tell something of the name of the Caesars, particularly in a life of the man who received this name alone of the imperial titles, men of the greatest learning and scholarship aver that he who first received the name of Caesar was called by this name, either because he slew in battle an elephant,6 which in the Moorish tongue is called caesai, 4 or because he was brought into the world after his mother's death and by an incision in her abdomen,7 or because he had a thick head of hair8 when he came forth from his mother's womb, or, finally, because he had bright grey eyes9 and was vigorous beyond the wont of human beings. 5 At any rate, whatever be the truth, it was a happy fate which ordained the growth of a name so illustrious, destined to last as long as the universe endures.

6 This man, then, of whom I shall write, was at first called Lucius Aurelius Verus,10 but on his adoption by Hadrian he passed into the family of the Aelii, that p87 is, into Hadrian's, and received the name of Caesar. 7 His father was Ceionius Commodus,11 whom some have called Verus, others, Lucius Aurelius, and many, Annius. 8 His ancestors, all men of the highest rank, had their origin for the most part in Etruria or Faventia. 9 Of his family, however, we will speak at greater length in the life of his son, Lucius Aurelius Ceionius Commodus Verus Antoninus,12 whom Antoninus was ordered to adopt. 10 For all that pertains to the family-tree should be included in the work which deals with a prince of whom there is more to be told.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 3 1 Aelius Verus was adopted by Hadrian at the time when, as we have previously said,13 the Emperor's health was beginning to fail and he was forced to take thought for the succession. 2 He was at once made praetor14 and appointed military and civil governor of the provinces of Pannonia; afterwards he was created consul, and then, because he had been chosen to succeed to the imperial power, he was named for a second consulship. 3 On the occasion of his adoption largess was given to the populace,15 three hundred million sesterces were distributed among the soldiers, and races were held in the Circus; in short, nothing was omitted which could signalize the public rejoicing. 4 He had, moreover, such influence with Hadrian, even apart from the affection resulting from his adoption, which seemed a firm enough tie between them, that he was the only one who obtained his every desire, even when expressed in a letter. 5 Besides, in the province to which he had been appointed he was by no means a failure; 6 for he carried on a campaign with success, or rather, with good fortune, and achieved p89 the reputation, if not of a pre-eminent, at least of an average, commander.

7 Verus had, however, such wretched health that Hadrian immediately regretted the adoption, and since he often considered others as possible successors, he might have removed him altogether from the imperial family had Verus chanced to live longer. 8 In fact, it is reported by those who have set down in writing all the details of Hadrian's life, that the Emperor was acquainted with Verus' horoscope, and that he adopted a man whom he did not really deem suitable to govern the empire merely for the purpose of gratifying his own desires, and, some even say, of complying with a sworn agreement said to have been contracted on secret terms between himself and Verus. 9 For Marius Maximus represents Hadrian as so expert in astrology, as even to assert that he knew all about his own future, and that he actually wrote down beforehand what he was destined to do on every day down to the hour of his death. 16 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 4 1 Furthermore, it is generally known that he often said about Verus:

"This hero Fate will but display to earth
Nor suffer him to stay. "17
2 And once when Hadrian was reciting these verses while strolling about in his garden, one of the literary men, in whose brilliant company he delighted,18 happened to be present and proceeded to add,

"The race of Rome,
Would seem to You, O Gods, to be too great,
Were such gifts to endure. "
3 Thereupon the Emperor remarked, it is said, "The life of Verus will not admit of these lines," and added,

p91 "Bring lilies with a bounteous hand;
And I the while will scatter rosy blooms,
Thus doing honour to our kinsman's soul
With these poor gifts — though useless be the task. "
4 At the same time, too, Hadrian, it is reported, remarked with a laugh: "I seem to have adopted, not a son, but a god". 19 5 Yet when one of these same literary men who was present tried to console him, saying: "What if a mistake has been made in casting the horoscope of this man who, as we believe, is destined to live"? Hadrian is said to have answered: "It is easy for you to say that, when you are looking for an heir to your property, not to the Empire". 6 This makes it clear that he intended to choose another heir, and at the end of his life to remove Verus from the government of the state. However, fortune aided his purpose. 7 For after Verus had returned from his province, and had finished composing, either by his own efforts or with the help of imperial secretaries or the rhetoricians, a very pretty speech, still read nowadays, wherein he intended to convey his thanks to his father Hadrian on the Kalends of January, he swallowed a potion which he believed would benefit him and died on that very day of January. 20 8 All public lamentation for him was forbidden by Hadrian because it was the time for assuming the vows for the state.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 5 1 Verus was a man of joyous life and well versed in letters, and he was endeared to Hadrian, as the malicious say, rather by his beauty21 than by his character. 2 In the palace his stay was but a short one; in his private life, though there was little to be commended, yet there was little to be blamed. p93 Furthermore, he was considerate of his family, well-dressed, elegant in appearance, a man of regal beauty, with a countenance that commanded respect, a speaker of unusual eloquence, deft at writing verse, and, moreover, not altogether a failure in public life. 3 His pleasures, many of which are recorded by his biographers, were not indeed discreditable but somewhat luxurious. 4 For it is Verus who is said to have been the inventor of the tetrapharmacum, or rather pentapharmacum, of which Hadrian was thereafter always fond, namely, a mixture of sows' udders, pheasant, peacock, ham in pastry and wild boar. 5 Of this article of food Marius Maximus gives a different account, for he calls it, not pentapharmacum, but tetrapharmacum, as we have ourselves described it in our biography of Hadrian. 22 6 There was also another kind of pleasure, it is said, of which Verus was the inventor. 7 He constructed, namely, a bed provided with four high cushions and all inclosed with a fine net; this he filled with rose-leaves, from which the white parts had been removed, and then reclined on it with his mistresses, burying himself under a coverlet made of lilies, himself anointed with perfumes from Persia. 8 Some even relate that he made couches and tables of roses and lilies, these flowers all carefully cleansed, a practice, which, if not creditable, at least did not make for the destruction of the state. 9 Furthermore, he always kept the Recipes of Caelius Apicius23 and also Ovid's Amores at his bedside, and declared that Martial,24 the writer of Epigrams, was his Vergil. 10 Still more trivial was his custom of fastening wings on many of his messengers after the p95 fashion of Cupids, and often giving them the names of the winds, calling one Boreas, another Notus, others Aquilo, or Circius, or some other like name, and forcing them to bear messages without respite or mercy. 11 And when his wife complained about his amours with others, he said to her, it is reported: "Let me indulge my desires with others; for wife is a term of honour, not of pleasure. "

12 His son was Antoninus Verus, who was adopted by Marcus,25 or rather, with Marcus,26 and received an equal share with him in the imperial power. 13 For these are the men who first received the name of Augustus conjointly, and whose names are inscribed in the lists of the consuls, not as two Antonini but as two Augusti. 14 And such was the impression created by the novelty and the dignity of this fact that in some of the lists the order of the consuls begins with the names of these emperors.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 6 1 On the occasion of the adoption of Verus, Hadrian bestowed a vast sum of money on the populace and the soldiery. 27 2 But being a rather sagacious man, when he saw that Verus was in such utterly wretched health that he could not brandish a shield of any considerable weight, he remarked, it is said:28 3 "We have lost the three hundred million sesterces which we paid out to the army and to the people, for we have indeed leaned against a tottering wall, and one which can hardly bear even our weight, much less that of the Empire". 4 This remark, indeed, Hadrian made to his prefect, 5 but the man repeated it, and as a result Aelius Caesar grew worse every day from anxiety, as a man does who had p97 lost hope. Thereupon Hadrian appointed a successor29 for the prefect who had divulged the remark, wishing to give the impression that he had qualified his harsh words. 6 But it profited him nothing, for Lucius Ceionius Commodus Verus Aelius Caesar (for he was called by all these names)30 died and was accorded an emperor's funeral, nor did he derive any benefit from his imperial position save honour at his death. 7 Hadrian, then, mourned his death as might a good father, not a good emperor. For when his friends anxiously asked who could now be adopted, Hadrian is said to have replied to them: "I decided that even when Verus was still alive," 8 thereby showing either his good judgment or his knowledge of the future. 9 After Verus' death Hadrian was in doubt for a time as to what he should do, but finally he adopted Antoninus, who had received the surname Pius. And he imposed on Antoninus the condition that he in turn should adopt Marcus and Verus, and should give his daughter31 in marriage to Verus, rather than to Marcus. 10 Nor did Hadrian live long thereafter, but succumbed to weakness and illnesses of various kinds, all the while declaring that a prince ought to die, not in an enfeebled condition, but in full vigour.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 7 1 Hadrian gave orders that colossal statues of Verus should be set up all over the world, and in some cities he even had temples built. 2 Finally, out of regard for him, Hadrian gave his son Verus (who had remained in the imperial household after his father's death) to Antoninus Pius, as I have already said,32 to be adopted as his son along with Marcus, treating the boy as if he were his own grandson; and he often remarked: "Let the Empire retain something of p99 Verus". 3 This indeed contradicts all that very many authors have written with regard to Hadrian's regret for his adoption of Verus, since, save for a kindly character, there was nothing in character of the younger Verus capable of shedding lustre on the imperial family.

4 These are the facts about Verus Caesar which have seemed worthy of being consigned to letters. 5 I was unwilling to leave him unmentioned for this reason that it is my purpose to set forth in single books the lives of all the successors of Caesar the Dictator, that is, the Deified Julius, whether they were called Caesars or Augusti or princes, and of all those who came into the family by adoption, whether it was as sons or as relatives of emperors that they were immortalized by the name of Caesar, and thereby to satisfy my own sense of justice, even if there be many who will feel no compelling need of seeking such information.

The Life of Antoninus Pius

1 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Antoninus Pius1 was descended, on his father's side, from a family which came from the country of Transalpine Gaul, more specifically, from the town of Nîmes. 2 His grandfather was Titus Aurelius Fulvus, who after various offices of honour attained to a second consulship2 and the prefecture of the city; 3 his father was Aurelius Fulvus, also consul, and a stern and upright man. 4 His mother was Arria Fadilla; her mother was Boionia Procilla and her father Arrius Antoninus, twice consul3 and a righteous man, who pitied Nerva that he assumed the imperial power. 5 Julia Fadilla was his mother's daughter, 6 his stepfather being Julius Lupus, a man of consular rank. 7 His father-in‑law was Annius Verus4 and his wife Annia Faustina,5 who bore him two sons6 and two daughters, of whom the elder7 was married to Lamia Silanus and the younger8 to Marcus Antoninus.

p103 8 Antoninus himself was born at an estate at Lanuvium on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of October in the twelfth consulship of Domitian and first of Cornelius Dolabella. He was reared at Lorium9 on the Aurelian Way, where he afterwards built the palace whose ruins stand there to‑day. 9 He passed his childhood first with his paternal grandfather, then later with his maternal; and he showed such a dutiful affection toward all his family, that he was enriched by legacies from even his cousins, his stepfather, and many still more distant kin.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 2 1 In personal appearance he was strikingly handsome, in natural talent brilliant, in temperament kindly; he was aristocratic in countenance and calm in nature, a singularly gifted speaker and an elegant scholar, conspicuously thrifty, a conscientious land-holder, gentle, generous, and mindful of others' rights. He possessed all these qualities, moreover, in the proper mean and without ostentation, 2 and, in fine, was praiseworthy in every way and, in the minds of all good men, well deserving of comparison with Numa Pompilius. 3 He was given the name of Pius by the senate,10 either because, when his father-in‑law was old and weak, he lent him a supporting hand in his attendance at the senate (which act, indeed, is not sufficient as a token of great dutifulness, since a man were rather undutiful who did not perform this service than dutiful if he did), 4 or because he spared those men whom Hadrian in his ill-health had condemned p105 to death, 5 or because after Hadrian's death he had unbounded and extraordinary honours decreed for him in spite of opposition from all, 6 or because, when Hadrian wished to make away with himself, by great care and watchfulness he prevented him from so doing,11 7 or because he was in fact very kindly by nature and did no harsh deed in his own time. 8 He also loaned money at four per cent, the lowest rate ever exacted,12 in order that he might use his fortune to aid many.

9 As quaestor13 he was generous, as praetor illustrious, and in the consulship he had as colleague Catilius Severus. 10 His life as a private citizen he passed mostly on his estates but he was well-known everywhere.