The Emperor Hadrian: a picture of the Graeco-Roman world in his time. ... Translated by Mary E. Robinson

Front matter

A Picture os the Graeco-Roman World in his Time By Ferdinand Gregorovius Translated by Mary E. Robinson London Macmillan and Co., Limited New York : The Macmillan Company 1898 All rights reserved GLASGOW I PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE, THIS translation of Gregorovius' Life of Hadrian has been written in the hope that it may prove useful to the students of this period of Roman history. In publishing it I have to express my obligations to Professor Pelham for his valuable introduction ; to Mr. Herbert Fisher, Fellow of New College, Oxford, who kindly looked through my manuscript, and to whose encouragement the work is due ; and to Mr. Martin Trietschel, who has rendered me great assistance, especially with the notes and index. MARY E. ROBINSON. holmfield, Aigburth, Liverpool, November, 1898. AUTHOR'S

Preface

My first studies in the field of history were devoted to the age of the emperor Hadrian. Encouraged by the celebrated historian Drumann, I collected and published these studies in a book which appeared in Konigsberg in the year 185 I, under the rather ambitious title of History of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and his Time. This work soon became my guide to Rome, where I arrived in 1852. There, how ever, I was enthralled, not by the ancient, but by the mediaeval genius of the Eternal City, and I gave the best work and the best years of my life to the study of the history of Rome in the Middle Ages. A generation has since then passed away — the most eventful period of our century — and I am not a little grati fied to have found leisure to perform an act of piety toward the first-fruits of my youth by presenting my work in a new form.

This undertaking was, in the first instance, suggested by my travels in Greece and in the East, where I frequently followed the footsteps of the great world-traveller Hadrian. Another reason was, that since the appearance of my mono graph, this remarkable ruler has not found another biographer either in Germany or abroad. But the ceaseless researches of science have produced new documentary evidence, and the Preface fresh light thus thrown on this epoch of Roman history has tended to fill the gaps in the hitherto very fragmentary accounts of the life of Hadrian. With the help of this evidence, especially of the inscrip tions, I have rewritten my first work, so thoroughly indeed that little more than the plan has been preserved. I now call these studies A Picture of the Graeco-Roman World in the Time of Hadrian, although I am afraid that this title is still too ambitious.

In view of the scanty notice which, generally speaking, the history of the emperors subsequent to the twelve Caesars still receives — and this is not sur prising — I venture to think that every serious attempt at its elucidation will meet with the sympathy of all lovers of history. THE AUTHOR. Munich, November, 1883. CONTENTS FJRST BOOK— POLITICAL HISTORY

Introduction

. THOSE who are familiar with the late Ferdinand Gregor ovius' essay on Hadrian, will not think any apology necessary for this translation into English of an eminently readable, and, on the whole, adequate account of one of the most interesting personages in ancient history. Gregorovius, though not a historian of the first order, was an accomplished man of letters, and a genuine lover of Rome and of things Roman. Moreover, his book still possesses the claim to attention urged by the author him self in his preface to the edition of 1883. Hadrian has not yet " found another biographer either in Germany or abroad," and even to the educated public he is a far less familiar figure than many men of infinitely less importance in history. Gregorovius would have been the last to claim for his essay that it said the final word on Hadrian, and it must be confessed that his work is not all equally good.

He is at his best in the chapters which describe the general culture, the literary, philosophic, and artistic movements of the day. He is weakest when dealing with the political history, and with the many technicalities of Roman administration. Here his grasp of the situation is less sure, and his use of technical terms not always correct. But I am writing a brief introduction, not a review, and I will content myself with one more criticism, which indeed applies to other accounts of Hadrian besides that which is now in question. Gregorovius reproduces with much skill and fidelity the most familiar aspects of the emperor, as the restless traveller, the indefatigable con noisseur and collector, the patron of learning and the Introduction XVI arts. We are allowed to see, too, that he was an admini strator of ubiquitous activity, with whose name a number of changes in the machinery and methods of government are associated.

What we miss is some account of the master-idea which shaped Hadrian's policy, and gave unity to a career and a character full of apparent inconsistencies. The omission is due partly to the nature of our evidence. Until comparatively recent times students of Hadrian were forced to rely mainly on the rather meagre literary tradition preserved in the biography of Spartianus, in the excerpts from Dion Cassius, and in Aurelius Victor. It is only within the last twenty or thirty years that the u ceaseless researches of science " have not merely produced new evidence, but in doing so have rendered intelligible much that was before difficult to understand. One result has been to place in our hands the clue to Hadrian's policy as ruler of the empire, and to enable us to gauge more correctly the direction of his aims and the importance of his achievements.

Hadrian has unquestionably suffered in general reputa tion by the fate which placed him betweeen two such commanding figures as Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. By the side of the former, Hadrian appeared timid and common place. As Trajan became the ideal Roman soldier, Hadrian was represented as the peace-loving scholar who, in tastes and pursuits, was more Greek than Roman. Yet Hadrian was every inch a soldier, deeply versed in both the theory and the practice of the art of war ; ana if he was a lover of Greeks and Greek civilization, he was also an admirer of old Roman writers and fashions. On the other hand, Marcus Aurelius justly ranks above him as a man, and holds a place in literature, and in the history of human thought, to which Hadrian has no claim. But viewed as a statesman, as the ruler of a greempire, Hadrian stands higher than either Trajan or Marcus.

He is more truly representative of his time, and he left a deeper mark upon it. Above all, it was he and not they who shaped the policy of the empire, and shaped it in accordance with ideas which, if not new, were first clearly conceived and effectively carried out by him. Introduction XVII For Hadrian's policy was not the result of a scholar's love of peace, or of cosmopolitan tastes, or even of mere restlessness. It was directed by one dominant idea, the influence of which is everywhere traceable. This master idea was, to use a modern expression, the imperial idea (Reichsidee) — -the conception of the empire, as a single well-compacted state, internally homogeneous, and standing out in clear relief against surrounding barbarism. The realization of this conception was the object for which Hadrian laboured.

If he refused to follow Trajan in his forward policy, it was not from timidity, or, as Gregorovius seems to think, from a scholarly love of peace and quiet. Indeed, as I have hinted, the contrast so often drawn between Trajan the man of war and Hadrian the man of peace, the Romums and Numa of the second century, is somewhat misleading. Hadrian was anxious for peace, not in order to secure leisure for peaceful pursuits, but because the empire needed itt and he abandoned a policy of con quest, in the conviction that the empire had reached its natural limits, and required not expansion but consolidation. In this belief he set himself to give the empire, what it had only imperfectly possessed before, definite and well marked frontiers. The lines of demarcation which thus " separated the barbarians " from Roman territory he pro tected by a system of frontier defences, which was no doubt developed by his successors, but the idea and plan of which were unquestionably his; and to hold these defences he maim .ned a frontier force, the efficiency of which was his constant care.

We are too apt, in thinking of Hadrian's travels, to picture them only as the restless wanderings of a connoisseur from one famous site to another in the peacefu* provinces of the interior, and to forget how large a portio . of his time was spent, not in Athens or Smyrna, but in reviewing the troops and inspecting the stations along the whole line of the imperial frontier. This frontier policy of precise delimitation and vigilant defence, he supplemented within the empire by a policy of consolidation. When Hadrian assumed the command, the old theory of the empire as a federation of distinct com munities in alliances with, and under the protectorate of Introduction XVIII Rome, was rapidly losing ground. The differences in race and language, in habits of life, and modes of thought, which had formerly justified and even necessitated it, were fast disappearing.

The titles and distinctions which had once implied not only a desire for political independence, but a partial possession of it were becoming mere phrases. Even the " freedom " of a free community could be ridiculed with impunity by a popular orator, and the native state, with its native ruler, was, except in a few outlying corners of the empire, a thing of the past. The idea of a single Roman state was in the air, and Hadrian gave effect to it with singular skill and perseverance. His cosmopolitanism was in reality imperialism, and sprung from his desire to stamp everything with the imperial mark, and to utilize everything for the benefit of the empire. He was a Phil-Hellenist, not merely from sentiment, but from the conviction that Latins, Greeks, and even barbarians had all something to contribute to the common service.

The man who appointed the Greek Arrian to the command of Roman legions, and of a Roman frontier province, was noted equally for his careful study of old Roman tactics and for his liberal adoption of barbarian movements. In other departments of his administration the influence of this dominant idea of imperial unity are as plainly seen. He was liberal in granting the Roman franchise. He encouraged the diffusion over the empire of municipalities modelled on the Roman pattern. The imperial civil service was developed and enlarged, and the old distinction, once so earnestly maintained between the public service of the state and the private service of Caesar, is scarcely heard of after the reign of Hadrian. Between the time of Augustus and that of Diocletian there was no emperor who so correctly appreciated the needs of the empire, or who carried into practice with equal consistency a deliberate and comprehensive policy. HENRY PELHAM. FIRST BOOK POLITICAL HISTORY

Chapter I

An Ancient Portrait of Hadrian A ROMAN historian of the second half of the fourth century has drawn the following picture of the Emperor Hadrian : "Aelius Hadrianus was of Italian origin. His father, who bore the same name, was a cousin of Trajan, and was born at Adria in Picenum, the place which gave its name to the Adriatic Sea. He reigned twenty-two years. He was so thoroughly familiar with Greek literature that he was called ' the little Greek.' He had completely adopted the studies, the manner of life, the language, and the whole culture of the Athenians. He was a singer and musician, a physician, a geometrician, a painter, and a sculptor in bronze and marble, almost a second Polycletus and Euphranor. He was accom plished in all these arts. A bel esprit of so brilliant a character has not often been seen among men.

His memory was prodigious. Places, actions, soldiers, absentees even, he knew them all by name. His endurance was superhuman. He travelled on foot through all the provinces, outstripping his attendants. He restored the cities in the empire and increased their importance. Smiths, carpenters, masons, architects, and all kinds of workmen, he divided into cohorts like legions, for the purpose of building fortresses and beauti fying the cities. He was never the same : a many-sided man, a born ruler in vice as well as in virtue. He ruled his inclinations by a certain ingenuity. He artfully con cealed the envy, ill-humour, extravagance, and audacious egotism of his nature, and feigned moderation, affability A and benignity, while hiding the thirst for fame with which he was consumed. No one was so ready to challenge or to answer others, either in jest or earnest.

He instantly capped verse with verse, witty sallies with others as witty, as if he had prepared them beforehand. He obtained peace from many kings by secret favours, and openly boasted that, by his inactivity, he had gained more than others by war. " He gave the offices of the state and of the court, and even of the army, the form which still obtains at the present day, with the slight exception of the changes introduced by Constantine. He lived 62 years. His end was dis tressing. Racked by terrible pains in all his limbs, he often besought his most faithful servants to put him to death. He was sedulously watched by those dearest to him, in order that he might not commit suicide." I have placed this portrait at the beginning like a copper-plate engraving. It is ascribed to Aurelius Victor.

It is clumsy and inadequate, but not without life, and it is at all events the only condensed portrait of the emperor which has come down to us from ancient times.1 On the whole this sketch conveys the average verdict of Roman posterity on Hadrian, and but shortly after his death the most opposite opinions of him prevailed. His biographer Spartianus, who wrote in the time of Diocletian, has knit together both views without expressing his own opinion. His Life of Hadrian is the main authority for the history of this emperor, together with the extracts which the Byzantine monk Xiphilinus made in the eleventh century from the historical works of Dion Cassius. There are traits in the emperor's character concerning which there is no doubt : his Greek culture, his versa tility, his Proteus-like nature, his thirst for knowledge, his enthusiasm for art ; then come his restless love of travelling, and his wisdom in the administration of the empire.

The modern view of history is, that the reign of Hadrian was the beginning of an age which has been named after 1 Aurelius Victor, Epitome 14. I have omitted but little, and nothing that is essential to Hadrian. This part of the epitome is not original, but probably borrowed from Marius Maximus. — Teuffel, Geschichte der rom. Liter. 5th ed., p. 967 sq. (§ 414). His Portrait CHAP, i] 3 the Antonines, whom he had chosen to be his successors. It has been extolled as the happiest period of the Roman empire, if not of the world. It shines more brightly from the union of Greek and Roman culture, which it diffused throughout the peaceful empire, than from the contrast it presents to the dark shadows that surround it. As we look back we see the dark shadow of the excessive tyranny of the Caesars of the first century, — as we look at the succeeding age, we see the shadow of the barbarians by whom Rome is to be destroyed.

After the time of Nerva, despots had disappeared from the throne of the Caesars. Their mad outbreaks had shaken the foundations of Roman society and the structure of the state, but Roman virtus is re-established by the help of Stoic philosophy, and the Roman empire attains an overwhelming force, whose brilliancy conceals the chronic internal disease from which it dies a lingering death. After the death of Trajan, thirty legions, stationed on the borders of the empire, secure the peace of the world. The provinces have become accustomed to the dominion of Rome. Their cities are once more flourishing, and are adorned with the beauty of Greek art. The sciences awake in a renaissance of Hellenism, and the Christian religion comes more prominently forward. A spirit of humanity is diffused throughout the world that was changing so rapidly.

Civil legislation becomes more philo sophic and more humane. The privileges of the aristocracy disappear. The people, the slaves, and the poor, become objects for the care of the government. The barriers of the old theory of life fall before the morality of the Stoic. The conception of the nation widens in the Roman empire into the conception of humanity. The provinces in which Octavianus had erected the altar of the genius of Rome as symbol of their subjection, demand their equal rights with this terrible Rome, which had conquered and enslaved them by force of arms. The Roman empire is a confederation of peoples whose culture is fostered by the majestic flow of the two languages of the world. Like the nations, the ancient systems of thought and religion are fused in one cosmopolitan union.

But a union of this kind is the cause of a restless uncertainty in many minds, making them more of a prey than ever to the delusions of mystery and the gloom of superstition. So glaring are the contradictions in this world wide civilization of the empire, that this period between Antiquity and Christianity may be called a Roman-Hellenic middle age. Hadrian in himself also unites two natures. He is both Roman and Greek. His artistic soul delights in the ideals of beauty of the ancient world. He wishes to restore them as far as it is possible for art to do so. At the same time, as a Roman, he reforms the institutions of the monarchy, — the government, the army, and the law. He lays the foundations of a state that will suit an altered society. The empire under him reaches the zenith of its greatness, and he revels, as a comprehensive mind would, in the fulness of its culture- Conquests he does not seek.

He gives the provinces acquired by Trajan back to the Parthians. Wars he does not wage. Mars rests unconcerned amid his preparations, and yet he never appeared more formidable to the enemies of Rome.1 Hadrian's task is to keep the Roman empire together as a powerful monarchy, and to adorn it with knowledge, humanity, and beauty. On his coins are the words, "Golden age" and " Enricher of the world," — flatteries of the senate not destitute of truth. He himself is the mirror of his time in good and evil, in virtue and vice. His enigmatic person ality is of more human interest and is more attractive as a study, than that of the philosophic Antonines. He directed the current of his time, and impressed it less with his powerful will, than with his genial, though often eccentric and theatrical, temperament.

Hadrian was the first to bring both halves of the ancient world, Greece and Rome, into closer intellectual contact- Their fusion was impossible, but their universal connection in the second century was a factor of vital importance in the growth of the Christian idea. Antiquity made room for this idea, while it had itself become ripe for death. But it cast a halo of departing glory under this gifted sophist on the throne of the Caesars. Hadrian it was who restored Athens, and finished the temple of the Olympian Zeus, which' had 1 Dion Cassius, lxix. : rt)v re yap TtapauKevriv airrov bpLovres — oiSip iveb-xpioirav . His Portrait CHAP. I] 5 been begun by Pisistratus. He it was who made Greek oratory blossom afresh, and who called upon the arts to adorn the world with their richest beauty. When the artistic fire, which he had kindled on the altar of the genius of Hellas, was extinguished, the world became flat and insipid. It was first Stoic, then Christian. Hadrian, however, accomplished the apotheosis of antiquity.

Chapter II

Circumstances in the Life of Hadrian until the Accession of Trajan The ancestors of Publius Aelius Hadrianus are said to have left Hadria to settle at Italica in Spain, in the time of the Scipios. Scipio had founded this city of the province of Baetica in the second Punic war, and Augustus first made it into a municipium. It flourished greatly, and became an important place. It gave two famous men to the empire, Trajan and Hadrian. Its ruins are still to be seen at Santiponce, a short distance from Seville. Hadrian's ancestors lived there in comfortable circumstances. They belonged to the Roman tribe Sergia.1 Hadrian was born on the 24th January, 76 A.D., in Rome, when Vespasian was emperor. His father was P. Aelius Hadrianus Afer, a distinguished man of senatorial rank, and a cousin of Trajan.

His mother, Domitia Paulina, came from Gades, the modern Cadiz. Of his brothers and sisters, none are known by name except Paulina, who married L. Julius Ursus Servianus. In his tenth year Hadrian lost his father, and became a ward of the knight Caelius Attianus, and of the ex praetor Trajan. In this way, the fact of relationship and guardianship brought him into close connection with the fortunes of a suture emperor. The boy was educated in the schools of Rome. His brilliantly gifted mind was 1 Inscriptions of the Aelii, Corp. Inscr. Latin, ii., 1 1 30, 1 138, 1 139. The famous inscription on the base of the statue of Hadrian in the theatre of Athens records him as belonging to the Tribus Sergia. Henzen, Annali dels Inst., 1862, p. 139. C.I.L. iii., part I., 550. To the Accession of Trajan BK.

I. CH. Il] 7 Trajanus. Avus Imp. Traj. M. Ulpius Trajanus. Ulpia = Aelius Hadrianus Marillenus. Pater Imp. Traj. Avus Imp. Hadr. M. Ulpius Trajanus. Marciana P. Aelius Hadrianus Afer. Imp. = C. Matidius Patrutnus. Pater Imp. Hadr. = Pompeia Plotina. =Domitia Paulina. Matidia I. = C. Vibius Sabinus. Matidia II. Sabina = P. Aelius Hadrianus. Paulina Imp. = L. Julius Ursus Servianus. [book i 8 especially attracted by Greek literature, and, in its favour, he neglected the Latin tongue. The nickname of " Little Grecian " was given to him. Whether he studied in Athens as well, is uncertain and improbable ; for in his fifteenth year he went home to Spain, where he took service in the army.1 His guardian, Trajan, soon recalled him to Rome, not only because he had given himself up immoder ately to the pleasures of the chase, but chiefly, no doubt, on account of his extravagance and dissipation.

The chase was one of his greatest passions. As a vigorous pedestrian, as well as a hunter, he found few to equal him. Even when emperor, he would kill lions from the saddle. He had an accident while hunting, and broke his collar-bone and one of his ribs.2 The passions of youth did not destroy Hadrian's ardent thirst for knowledge. This he could gratify in Rome, the home of all learning. Here he studied among learned men and poets ; here he painted and carved in the studios of artists. With no branch of knowledge did he remain unacquainted.3 A young man glowing with life, a well-informed companion, he must have been much sought after in the best circles of Rome, and must especially have won the favour of the highly cultivated ladies of Trajan's house, — Marciana, Plotina, and Matidia. But the happy times of the Flavian Emperors, Vespasian and Titus, passed by, and the appearance of a brutal despot, Domitian, once more cast a gloom over the Roman world.

It was then that Hadrian learned to abhor tyranny, as under this oppression he began his career of office, every step of which he painfully mounted. He first became judge in the year 93 A.D., over a court for private cases, and he subsequently filled some other offices of small importance ; then he became tribune of the Ilnd legion Adjutrix, which had been raised by Vespasian, and which was probably stationed in Britain at the time.4 1 Spart. Vita, c. 2. *- Spart. c. 26. 3 Dion Cassius, lxix. 3: rat yap e-nXatrire Kal typatfie Kal obSiv & ti ovk elpijviK&v Kal Tro\ep.iKov Kal j3atri\iKbv Kal ibiioriKbv eidtvai g\eyev. 4 Henzen, Annali dell' Inst., 1862, p. 145. To the Accession of Trajan CHAP. Il] 9 Domitian perished on the 18th September 96 A.D. by the daggers of conspirators, who raised the noble senator, Cocceius Nerva to the throne.

A new age began for man kind. Imperial lawsuits were stopped, prisons were opened, and exiles were recalled. Things once irreconcileable, sovereignty and freedom, were, in the opinion of Tacitus, blended by Nerva.1 A god then inspired this emperor, who was oppressed both by the Praetorians and the populace of Rome, to perform the only great act of his reign : he adopted Trajan. At the same time the lucky star of Hadrian became visible above the horizon. He was then military tribune in the Vth legion Macedonica in Lower Moesia. From there he was sent (97 A.D.) to con vey the congratulations of the army of the Danube to Trajan, who was governing Upper Germany as consular legate. Trajan kept him near his own person as tribune to the XXI Ind legion. The emperordesignate seems to have assumed the government of the whole of Germany, while Servianus, Hadrian's brother-in-law, became legate in Upper Germany in his place.2 Meanwhile Nerva died on the 27th January 98 A.D., and the first provincial was now to mount the throne of the empire.

He was a citizen of that Spanish Italica, which was Hadrian's birthplace. Hadrian hurried to Cologne, where Trajan was at the time, in order to be the first to bring him the great news. But his brother-in-law did his best to detain him on his journey, taking secret means to make his carriage break down ; whereupon Hadrian, who was a good runner, quickly resolved to continue his journey on foot to Cologne, and overtook the messengers sent by his brother-in-law. Servianus was a serious man, to whom the versatility of his brother-in law was not congenial. He immediately laid before the new emperor the not inconsiderable list of debts of the young spendthrift.3 He was probably ambitious and envious of the 1 Tacitus, Agricola, c. 3. 2 Henzen, Antzali dell' Inst., 1862, p. 147; Joh. Dierauer, Beitraege zu einer krit.

Gesch. Trajan's, vol. i., p. 29; Pliny {Ep. viii. 23) calls Servianus " exactissimus vir." 3 Qui et sumptibus et aere alieno ejus prodito Traiani odium in eum movit — Spart. c. 2. [BK I, CH. II 10 favour shown by Trajan to Hadrian. But one day in old age, he was to atone for his ambition by death. Hadrian only gained Trajan's goodwill slowly, and was indebted chiefly for it to the empress, who had at that time been calumniated in a scandalous manner. Apart even from the formal praise of her in Pliny's Panegyricus, there is everything to show that Pompeia Plotina was a woman of true nobility. When she first entered the palace of the Caesars as empress, she turned round on the steps, and, addressing the populace, said : " May I be the same when I leave this palace, as I am to-day when I enter it."

As empress she deserved no reproach.1 The strength of her character can be seen to-day in busts, which show a face of earnest and almost unapproachable gravity. The new emperor remained for some time at his important post in Germany, and, only in the second half of the year 99 A.D., did he come to Rome, accompanied probably by his cousin. It soon became clear that Hadrian knew how to overcome his adversaries, and to gain the confidence of Trajan. For, about the year 100 A.D., persuaded by Plotina and her friend Sura, Trajan gave him to wife Sabina, grand child of his sister Marciana, whose daughter Matidia had married L. Vibius Sabinus. In this way Hadrian became doubly related to Trajan.2 We are not told that Sabina ever shared her husband's intellectual tastes, and he appears not to have been fond of her.

She must at the time of her marriage have been very young.3 1 Dion Cassius, lxviii. 5. Yet elsewhere (lxix. 1 and 10) he speaks in a scandalous manner of the favours shown by Plotina to Hadrian, ff ipioTiKTi% 4>i\ias. — Pliny, Paneg., c. 83. 2 See the genealogical table in Dierauer and in J. Centerwall, Spart. vita Hadriaizi comment, illustrata in Upsala Universitets-Arsskrift, Ups. 1869, vol. i., p. 27. 3 Mommsen (Abhandl. der Bert. Akadem., 1863. Grabrede des Kaiser's Hadrian aus die dltere 'Matidia, p. 483) remarks, in the genealogical table on Sabina, that she was born at the latest in 88 A.D.

Chapter III

Circumstances in the Life of Hadrian during the Reign of Trajan In Rome Hadrian had now every opportunity of satisfying his thirst for knowledge. A new life had begun since Nerva had removed the load of despotism from the empire. Tacitus greeted the change with joy.1 The letters of the younger Pliny to his friends tell us of the number of culti vated men in Rome, and of the energy which was displayed in every department of knowledge. Among Hadrian's per sonal friends were the last famous authors of Latin literature, who were giving up the field to the Greeks, Juvenal and Martial, Statius and Silius Italicus, the last, it appears, being a fellow-citizen from Italica. The great Tacitus, after the death of his step-father Agricola in 93 A.D., was again living in Rome, busy with the completion of his literary works, and it was here that he wrote his Germania in the year 98 A.D. He probably survived Hadrian's ascent of the throne, and it is natural to suppose that Hadrian would early seek the friendship of such a man.2 Whenever Hadrian was in Rome he frequented the society of the foremost men of intellect, such as Caninius Rufus, Augurinus, Spurinna, Calpurnius Piso, Sossius Senecio, and Arrius Antoninus.