Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome (56 page)

“Turdetania … is marvelously blessed”
Ibid., 324.

The Aelii were friendly with the Ulpii
For this paragraph and the next, see Syme Tac, p. 603.

four hundred active senatorial families
CAH, p. 222.

“should be not younger than twenty”
Gyn 2 19.

Paulina appointed a woman called Germana
See CIL 14 3721 for an inscription about her.

“Should I express wonder at gilded beams”
Stat Silv 13 35–37.

“they grow up lying around in litters” and “broad daylight of a respectable school”
Quint 127–9.

Now thirty-two
Eutropius 852 reports that Trajan died in his sixty-third year. It follows that he was born in
A.D
. 53. Other literary sources suggest different years of death, but most modern scholars follow Eutropius.

Tall and well made
For Trajan’s appearance, see statues and Pliny Pan 47.

“setting foot on rocky crags”
Pliny Pan 81 1.

liked having sex with young men
Although biographers such as Bennett write of Trajan’s bisexuality, the emperor may have been exclusively homosexual, although most Romans appear not to have specialized.

Main literary sources—
Historia Augusta;
Xenophon and Arrian on hunting

the celebrated Quintus Terentius Scaurus
HA Ver 25 identifies Scaurus as “Hadrian’s
grammaticus.”
It has been argued that this simply means a
“grammaticus
of the age of Hadrian,” but the context implies that a personal teacher is meant.

obiter
Char 13 271.

“he preserved my chastity”
Hor Ser 16 82–84. Although Horace wrote in the first century
B.C
., there is no reason at all to believe that children’s safety improved under the empire.

“require that he take”
Juv 7 237–41.

manum subducere ferulae
Op. cit. 1 15.

“that genius”
Sen Contr 1 Praef 11.

“An orator, son Marcus”
Sen Contr 1 Praef 9.

“happiest days of my life”
Pliny Ep 2 18 1. This citation from Pliny and the one that follows date from the early second century, but there need be little doubt that they are equally relevant to educational attitudes in Hadrian’s youth.

the slightest hint
In HA Hadr after the sentence recording Hadrian’s father’s death, we read
“imbutusque impensius Graecis studiis”
—“and he steeped himself rather enthusiastically in …” The
que
, or “and,” could imply a connection.

his guardian’s new wife, Plotina, encouraged him
A persuasive speculation in Galimberti, pp. 21–22.

“When Greece was taken”
Hor Ep 21 156–57.

“Like Indians under the British Raj”
Green, p. 316.

“from this day, from this moment”
Sherk 168, p. 217.

casting an emperor’s horoscope was high treason
Ulpian,
De Officio Proconsulis
7.

“moribus antiquis
” Ennius 467.

singling out for bravery
Pliny NH 8 11.

celebrated his fifteenth birthday
Hadrian’s coming of age is an assumption that convincingly explains his visit later in the year to the family estates in Spain, a natural step for their new owner to take.

Hadrian had visited Baetica once before
It is argued in Birley 19 that “returned,”
rediit
, HA Hadr 21, is probably a way of saying “went back to the old plantation” without meaning that Hadrian had been there before. Possibly so; but there is no reason not to take the word literally.

a
collegium
in the province of Africa
See inscription in
L’année epigraphique
, Paris 1888ff., 1958.

We can safely assume
The following section on hunting makes use of Xenophon’s and Arrian’s monographs,
Hunting with Dogs
.

“Surely everyone is liable to make mistakes”
Pliny Ep 9 12 1.

“these Graeculi”
Ibid., 10 40 2.

Main literary source—Quintilian,
Institutio Oratoria

“The man who can really play his part”
Quint 1 p. 10.

one likely candidate is Lucius Licinius Sura
A helpful speculation in Birley, p. 27.

“The (person) who has the stars”
Greek Horo pp. 79–80.

“your antiquated vocabulary”
Martial 7 47 2.

“gave orders respectfully”
Sherk 173 A.

Tombstones from the early empire
Sherk 173 B to Z.

“has a lovely family”
Sen Ep 41 7.

“all the flower of the colonies”
FIRA I 43 Col II lines 2–4.

perhaps 17 percent of its six hundred members
Lambert, p. 26.

“Robbers of the world”
Tac Agric 30 4–5.

Chief literary sources—Suetonius on Nero, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian; Josephus and the Talmud

“There were people”
Suet Nero 57 1.

“Even now everyone wishes [Nero] to be alive”
Dio Chrys 21
On Beauty
10.

“The Greeks alone are worthy”
Ibid., 22 3.

“Other leaders,” he said
Sherk 71.

the decree earned Nero reincarnation
Plut Mor
Delays of God’s Vengeance
567F.

of an empire of about 60 million souls
For population estimates see CAH, pp. 813—14.

Tacitus exemplifies the general opinion
The account that follows draws on Tac His 52–8.

“hid the circumcision”
Jos AJ 12 5 1.

“Cursed be the man”
Mishnah Sota 49B.

“The great Jewish revolts”
Johnson, pp. 112, 133.

a population perhaps of 100,000
Levine, p. 342.

a snowcapped mountain peak
Jos BJ 56 223. The description of the city and Temple draws on Jos BJ 5 136–8 247.

“In this stood nothing at all”
Jos BJ 6 282.

A military incident
Jos BJ 3 31 289–306.

“What an artist”
Suet Nero 49 1.

between thirty thousand and forty thousand men
Goldsworthy, p. 337.

a silver shekel
Naor, p. 55.

“Following the directions and plans”
Sherk 83 (ILS 264).

“Why was the First Temple destroyed?”
Yoma 9b.

Chief literary sources—Suetonius, Dio Cassius, and Pliny the Younger

pecunia non olet
See Dio 65 14 5.

“This is what it means”
Epict 1 1 31–32.

verbatim notes
These are
The Discourses of Epictetus
, written by Arrian.

in the expected high Roman fashion
See Shakespeare, A & C 4 15 92. 49
Paete, non dolet
Pliny Ep 3 166.

“It is in your power”
Epict 12 19–21.

“Dear me, I seem to be becoming a god!”
Suet Vesp 23 4.

“An emperor ought to die on his feet.”
For the two versions of the story, see Suet Vesp 24 and Dio
66
17 1–3.

Vespasian had in fact been poisoned
Dio
66
17 1.

“people did not know”
Dio
66
23 5.

“the whole world was dying with me”
Pliny Ep 6 20 17.

“At the beginning of his reign”
Suet Dom 31.

“shaking the thunderbolt of purity”
Stat Silv 52 102.

the senior Vestal, Cornelia
For Cornelia’s trial and execution see Pliny Ep 4 11
passim
.

unfazed by the contrast
There is no good reason to resist the unanimity of the sources on this topic.

“he was not only physically lazy”
Dio 67 6 3.

“bed-wrestling”
Ep de Caes 11 7.

“shrewd in his understanding of warfare”
Dio 67 61.

“dreaming of battle”
Juv 4 111–12.

subsidy of about 8 million sesterces
See Jones, p. 74.

the emperor agreed to provide military engineers
Dio 67 4.

exhibits displayed as campaign spoils
Dio 67 72.

“Rulers find themselves”
Suet Dom 21.

Trajan received the culminating reward
In the ensuing brief discussion about Trajan’s career, I follow Bennett, pp. 43–45.

Chief literary sources—Suetonius, Dio Cassius, Pliny, and Epictetus

“young patrician who had had his tunic torn off”
Pliny Ep 4 16.

behest of one of the consuls for 94
A plausible speculation in Birley, p. 30, regarding the consul C. Antius A. Julius Quadratus.

“We want bears!”
Hor Ep 21 182–213.

The emperor Caligula
Suet Cal 36, 55, 57.

Nero acted as one himself
Suet Nero 16, 26.

an eccentric old noblewoman
Pliny Ep 7 24.

Apuleius, in his picaresque novel
Apul Met 10 29–35, for the following paragraphs.

a similar spectacle actually occurred
Mart Lib de Spect 6 (5).

Appuleius Diocles
For Diocles’ detailed and boastful funerary inscription, see Sherk 167 (CIL 6 1000 48; ILS 5287).

Eutyches
Sherk 168 (CIL II 4314; ILS 5299).

“standing down there below them”
Dio 62 17 4.

Cicero found the whole business vulgar
Cic Fam 713.

An ingenious recent calculation
Col pp. 91–94.

one dud arm
Juv 6 106–10.

one beast, beaten for failing to learn a trick
Pliny NH 86.

death of a pregnant wild sow
Mart Lib de Spect 14.

“Time was when their plebiscite”
Juv 10 78–81.

the complete gallery of horrors
According to the HA Hadr 19 8, Hadrian was a frequent spectator at gladiatorial shows when emperor. He presumably acquired the taste when young.