Hadrian and Italica

Author(s): Ronald Syme

Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 54, Parts 1 and 2 (1964), pp. 142-149
Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
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HADRIAN AND ITALICA
By RONALD SYME
I. Hadrian's early years. II. A senator and his 'patria'.
III. An incident at Tarraco (HA, Hadr. I2, 4). IV. Legionary recruiting.
V. HA, Marcus ii,
7.
I
Italica in the province of Baetica is the ' patria ' of the Aelii. Hadrian duly bears the
tribe of that municipium, the ' Sergia'. However, the place of a man's birth is not always
the same as the legal ' origo' of his family. A child may see the light of day somewhere
else, according to the rank and occupation of his parent. The consular historian, probably
Narbonensian by his ' patria', might have been born at Augusta Treverorum or Colonia
Claudia: a Cornelius Tacitus is on record as imperial procurator in Belgica and the
Germanies.1 Or, for that matter, Claudius Caesar. That infant was born at Lugdunum,
a Roman colonia. Seneca, by a double denigration, labels him a ' Gallus germanus '.2
Traversed by Seneca for fun, or ignored by sundry authors ancient and modern, the
elementary distinction between ' patria ' and birthplace must be scrupulously observed.
Otherwise, only confusion or dangerous error.
P. Aelius Hadrianus was born at Rome on 24th January of the year 76. That is the
statement of the Historia Augusta (Hadr. I, 3). The next entry registers the death of his
father (a senator who had reached the praetorship). At that time Hadrian was '
decimo
aetatis anno ' (Hadr. I, 4). Which was the year, is the reckoning cardinal or ordinal ? Here
as in some other authors a doubt might subsist. But several passages in the HA suggest
that the ' tenth year
'
is to be understood, not ' when ten years old '.3 Therefore 85 rather
than 86.
His father dying, the boy was consigned to two guardians, both originating from
Italica: M. Ulpius Traianus (a cousin of Hadrian's father) and the knight P. Acilius
Attianus. Of the latter, nothing stands on record until he emerges as Prefect of the Guard
at the end of Trajan's reign. As for Trajan, the HA designates him as
'
praetorium tunc '.
That particular in itself is not decisive for either
85
or 86. The date of Trajan's praetorship
evades precision. There are discrepancies about the year of his birth in the ancient sources.
Was it 53 or 55 ?
4
The former year tends to get the preference. One estimate, of generally
recognized competence, puts Trajan's praetorship in
85
at the latest.5 It may be noted in
passing that there might be a question about the text of the HA. What if one were to read
'praetorem tunc
'
instead of ' praetorium tunc ' ? 6
It can be supposed that Trajan was at Rome when Hadrian's father died. And let
85
be assumed the year. Hadrian, on the showing of the HA, was born at Rome. No other
evidence is good enough to impugn it. For example, if Gellius has the statement
' Itali-
censibus, unde ipse ortus fuit ', no problem arises. Gellius means the
'
patria
' and '
origio'.
Thus Tacitus, in comment on the municipal extraction of M. Vinicius (cOs. 30)
-' Calibus
ortus '.8 The author is not implying that the illustrious consular was born at Cales. Again,
if an epitomator like Eutropius has
'
natus et ipse Italicae in Hispania ',9 he merely exhibits
an inadvertence common enough among the unscholarly.
Pliny, NH VII, 76.
2
Seneca, Apocol. 6, i.
3
Thus the data about Marcus, born on 26th April,
I2i and Commodus, born on 3Ist August, i6i.
Marcus was betrothed to the daughter of L. Ceionius
Commodus ' quinto decimo aetatis anno ' (Marcus 4,
5): that is, I35/6. He was adopted by Pius ' octo
decimo aetatis anno (5, 6): that is, in I38, subsequent
to 26th April. For the data in Commodus i, io and
2, 9, see PIR2, A I482.
4
For the testimonia, PIR1, V 575. Eutropius
(VIII, 5, 2) and Victor (Epit. I3, I4) indicate 53. But
Dio's statement about the age of Trajan at his
accession (LXVIII 6, 3) points to
55-if
not
56.
5
L. Holzapfel, Klio xvii (I920), 92.
6 That is how the item is represented by Stein in
PIR2, A I84. Perhaps by inadvertence. He gives
no sign that he is proposing or adopting an emenda-
tion in the text of the HA.
Gellius xvi, I3, 4.
Ann. vi, I5, I.
9
Eutropius viii, 6, i.
HADRIAN AND ITALICA
I43
None the less, some are disposed to hold the HA erroneous, for all its ostensible
precision of place and date. They prefer to have Hadrian born at Italica (and various
motives are in play).10 Support comes from an apparent contradiction in the narrative.
After mentioning young Hadrian's addiction to Greek studies the HA proceeds, ' quinto
decimo anno ad patriam redit' (Hadr. 2, I). The verb 'redit' looks decisive. It is taken to
prove that Hadrian was now at Italica again, for the second time: i.e. he was born there,
but must have left Italica during infancy or boyhood. A different interpretation may be
permissible - that Hadrian ' duly went to the ancestral town ', the word ' patria ' entailing
redeo ' for the verb rather than ' eo '.11
If that interpretation is valid, Hadrian saw his ' patria ' for the first time in the year
go,
'quinto decimo anno '. That is, after assuming the ' toga virilis ' (for which the completed
fifteenth year was perhaps more customary). It was appropriate that a senator's son should
then pay a visit to the place of his fathers. He might not have the chance to see his ' patria '
again for long years - or ever in the sequel. It will not be necessary to import the notion
that Italica was more salubrious than Rome, there being a pestilence at this time.12
At Italica Hadrian joined the local collegium iuvenum and was subjected to a kind of
pre-military discipline. He also went in for hunting. His sojourn cannot have been long,
at the most two or three years, perhaps much less. Curiosity might ask whether he was still
there when Baebius Massa was proconsul (that person was prosecuted and condemned in
93),13 whether it was now that he made the acquaintance of Bruttius Praesens, quaestor
of Baetica about 92 or 93.14
Hadrian departed, 'a Traiano abductus a patria et pro filio habitus' (Hadr. 2, 2).
Trajan was consul ordinarius in 9I, and his young ward would soon be ready for his first
post in the official career, the vigintivirate
-
which happens to be specified in the biography.
Hadrian's inscription at Athens furnishes two further posts.15 That he was one of the
Seviri at the annual parade of Roman knights calls for no comment. But praefectus urbi on
the occasion of the Feriae Latinae, that was a signal honour, not verifiable previously for
anybody except princes of the dynasty or descendants of patrician families. It is a measure
of the influence that had accrued to Trajan and Trajan's friends, loyal adherents of the
Flavian emperors.
Then came the military tribunate, which for Hadrian took an unusual turn: three
legions in succession.16 That lacks parallel, save for L. Minicius Natalis, c. I I5-8.17 The
first legion was II Adiutrix, province not stated, but probably Moesia Superior. Hadrian
passed at once to the lower Moesia -' post haec in inferiorem Moesiam translatus
'
(Hadr. 2, 3). One notices the position of the adjective.18 The legion in this province was
v Macedonica. Finally, he was transferred to Germania Superior, having been sent there
to convey the congratulations of his army to Trajan (who had been adopted by Nerva
towards the end of October, 97): the legion was xxii Primigenia.
Hadrian took up the second appointment 'extremis iam Domitiani temporibus'
(Hadr. 2, 3). That is, presumably, in 96. The first should therefore fall in 95. The tribunus
laticlavius often serves in a province governed by a kinsman. It would be worth knowing,
for example, who was legate of Moesia Superior in the period 94-6.19 No consular command
happens to be on record for Trajan before he accedes to Germania Superior in 97, and none
for Julius Servianus either, until he takes Trajan's place there in the winter of 97-8:
10
Thus E. Kornemann, Kaiser Hadrian und der
letzte grosse Historiker von Rom (1905), 72 ff. ;
W. Weber, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Kaisers
Hadrianus (I907), 14. Their arguments have been
influential; and Stein in his registering of the ancient
testimonia seems to incline that way (PIR2, A I84).
11 Otherwise, for all that one could know, Hadrian,
born at Rome in 76, might have been taken to Italica
in infancy, coming back to Rome before 85. The
biographer curtails and omits.
12 Deduced from Dio LXVII, ii, 6 (under 90 or 9I).
For deaths of senators in the years 90-93 see Tacitus
(I958), 69.
13
Pliny, Epp, VII, 33, 4 f.
14 Hiscareer is revealed by AE 1950, 66 (Mactar);
IRT 545 (Lepcis). Another quaestor about this time
was T. Julius Maximus (ILS ioi6), a close coeval of
Bruttius Praesens.
15
ILS 308.
16
Hadr. 2, 2 ff., supplemented by ILS 308.
17
ILS io6i, cf. I029.
18
cf. JRS XVIII (I928), 47 f. It must be repeated
that there is no direct and positive evidence about the
province to which ii Adiutrix belonged at this time.
19 That is, the successor of Cn. Pompeius Longinus
(suff. 90), attested for Moesia Superior in 93, for
Pannonia early in 98 (CIL XVI, 39; 42). For Moesia
Inferior the diploma of January, 97 (4i), has ' sub
Iulio Mar['. That is, L. Julius Marinus, presumed
suffectus in 93. Predecessor not known.
I44 RONALD SYME
Servianus
(suff. go)
was married to Hadrian's sister. Speculation is baffled, but must keep
on the alert.
So far the life and career of Hadrian previous to his quaestorship (in ioi) twenty-
five years. If his sole acquaintance with Spain and the ' patria' of the Aelii was confined
to a short season, the consequences are far from negligible. They concern his education,
tastes and character. Also larger questions involving the whole class of new families from
the provinces of the Roman West: in what ways was origin and extraction a determinant
factor ?
Like the Ulpii, the Aelii belong to the old emigration from Italy, ' Hispanienses ' not
'Hispani ', and Italian rather than Roman. Hadrian in his autobiography alleged that the
family derived from Hadria in Picenum and took up residence at Italica ' Scipionum
temporibus' (Hadr. i, i). Whatever be made of those assertions, the Aelii had been there
for long ages. Extravagant claims about the influence of race, soil and climate have been
put out in the recent time.20 Those fancies are firmly to be repulsed. The young Hadrian
owed his education to Rome of the Flavian emperors, highly Hellenized and continuous
with the Neronian epoch. Hadrian did not become a ' Graeculus
'
at Italica.
II
A more modest approach may yield some kind of answer. What was Hadrian's
comportment towards his country and his '
patria'
? An inscription of the year
I35
commemorates the benefactions which the Emperor had conferred on the province Baetica
from the first day of his rule (August ii, I I7).21 The inscription was set up at Tibur
notorious and verifiable as a resort of senators from Spain.22
For Italica that Emperor did great things, so the historian Cassius Dio briefly reports23.
The magnitude of his action is staggering. Italica, founded by Scipio in 2o6 B.C. and given
the status of a municipium by Caesar, was a small place. Hadrian rebuilt Italica in the
dimensions of an imperial city, comparable to the capital of a whole province. In the
Spains, only Corduba, Tarraco and Emerita surpass Italica, and it is more than twice as
large as Barcino.24
Italica was duly equipped with public buildings-baths, theatre, amphitheatre. The
whole plan was lavish, the main avenue being nearly 50 feet wide. Other streets, of half
that width, were flanked by footpaths of I2 feet. The drainage was superb, and the houses
were like palaces.
Yet Italica probably had a restricted territorium. The site lies only six miles northwest
from Hispalis across the river Baetis. To the northeast was Ilipa, to the south Osset, which
according to Pliny the Elder faced Hispalis.25 One asks for whose residence were designed
the sumptuous dwellings at Italica. The city may, among other things, have served as a
summer resort for magnates from opulent Hispalis. Seated upon a hill, Italica enjoys fresh
air and a markedly lower temperature than stifling sun-baked Hispalis beside the river.
A small territorium normally connotes few senatorial families. One compares the dearth
of senators from Lugdunum, an administrative centre-and, in sharp contrast thereto,
Vienna and Nemausus which began as the capitals of large peoples, with an aristocracy of
landed proprietors, hence a whole crop of senators.26 From Italica only the Ulpii and the
Aelii are certifiable-unless there be admitted P. Coelius Balbinus (cos. I37).27
A small town, be it repeated. The Ulpii and Aelii were ambitious-and very lucky.
Perhaps they needed to derive potency from extraneous support.28 First, connections of
blood or marriage elsewhere in Baetica. Hadrian's mother was Gaditane; there was a link
20
W. Weber, CAHXI (I936), 325: 'the ocean, the
plain, now luxuriant, now sunstricken, and the
sluggish river of the south-western edge of the empire
left their mark on his family and his childhood.'
21
ILS 3I8.
22
Tacitus (I958), 602.
23
Dio LXIX, I0, I. He accepted an honorary
magistracy there-as in so many cities throughout
the world (Hadr. I9, I).
24 For these and other details see the model work of
A. Garcia y Bellido, Colonia Aelia Augusta Italica
(I960), 77 if-
25
Pliny, NH iII,
i i.
26
Tacitus (I958), 620.
27
As suggested by Groag, PIR2, C I24I. But there
is a chance that his ' patria' is Dalmatian, cf.
Gnomon xxxi (I959), 5I3. Observe also Hadrian's
friend A. Platorius Nepos (suff. ii9), who has the
tribe
'
Sergia' (ILS I052). Perhaps from Italica or
Corduba, cf. Tacitus (1958), 785.
28 Tacitus (1958), 603
ff.
HADRIAN AND ITALICA
145
with the Annii of Ucubi, perhaps also with the Dasumii of Corduba. Second, but not to be
established before the reign of Trajan, alliance with families from Tarraconensis. Third,
the Narbonensian connection, conveyed in the first instance by Pompeia Plotina, the wife
of Trajan. Many of these ties (it will not need to be said) were contracted at Rome, not
in Spain. Their effects become manifest in the emergence of the Hispano-Narbonensian
dynasty-otherwise the ' Antonines'.
Hadrian's Italica stood as a memorial of gratitude towards ' patria parentesque '. Its
splendour was a blow in the eye for commercial Hispalis. More than that, a challenge to
historic cities of the old world. Yet the Emperor refrained from visiting his home town.29
They may have been expecting him towards the end of I22, when, after Britain, he passed
through Gaul and came to Tarraco.
A suspicion arises. Perhaps Hadrian felt not altogether at ease with the Italicenses.30
In his brief sojourn there he may have failed to win the affection of his coevals in the
collegium iuvenum or the approbation of older men who had not been able to escape from a
municipal existence and enjoy the wider world. The small community does not always
forgive, as Martial discovered when he went back to Bilbilis.31
It was Hadrian's pertinacious habit to parade and enforce superior knowledge-
'professores omnium artium semper ut doctior risit contempsit obtrivit' (Hadr. 15, IO).
On one occasion the Italicenses themselves were his victims.32
They asked that Italica be elevated to the rank of a colonia. Hadrian in an oration
before the Senate pointed out that they did not know the facts of history. The status of
mrunicipium, he asserted, is in reality superior and preferable-' cum suis moribus legibusque
uti possent'. The expert adduced parallels from the past (Utica and Praeneste); he
argued ' peritissime ; and he professed to be surprised at Italica's petition.
That was not said to reject the petition. Italica duly required the title
'
colonia Aelia'.
Rather, Hadrian was eager (as often) to go against conventional assumptions. In this
instance and at this late date perhaps a little perversely-and with an especial edge against
his fellow townsmen.
III
Another specimen of Hadrian's attitude can be discovered. There is a passage in the
HA (Hadr. I2, 4) which tends to be evoked when legionary recruiting is under discussion.
(It is generally linked to Marcus II, 7, on which see below.) The item is peculiar indeed.
Though often cited with confidence, it has never been satisfactorily eludicated. In the
latest text the passage is presented as follows :-33
Omnibus Hispanis Tarraconem in conventum vocatis dilectumque ioculariter, ut verba ipsa
ponit Marius Maximus, retractantibus Italicis, vehementissime ceteris prudenter caute
<que>
consuluit.
The scene is at Tarraco, a meeting of the provincial concilium in the winter of I22-3.
The delegates take the opportunity to object to the military levy. They pitched their com-
plaints, so it appears, on a low key (that was sensible), in humorous language-' ioculariter '.
Hadrian's reaction was not of one piece. Two classes of person are clearly distinguished,
the ' Italici ' and the ' ceteri '. Who then are the Italici ? To take two renderings. For one
scholar they are the Roman citizens of Italian stock contrasted with Spaniards in possession
of Latin rights.34 For another, they are persons having 'the rights of Roman or Italian
citizenship '.
35
Neither helps. It is at once evident that loose language has been employed in each
case. First,
' Roman citizens of Italian stock'. Between Roman citizens of Italian and of
29
Dio LXIX, I0, I.
30
W. Weber, Untersuchungen, etc. (I907), I I6:
'aus Abneigung gegen die spiessbhirgerlichen Lands-
leute.'
31 Martial xii, praef: ' accedit his municipalium
robigo dentium et iudici loco livor, et unus et alter
mali: in pusillo loco multi.'
32 Gellius XVI, 13, 4.
33
E. Hohl (Teubner, I927). The only change from
H. Peter's text (I884) was to print ' prudenter caute
<que> ' instead of ' prudenter <et> caute '. D. Magie
(Loeb, I930), retained Peter's reading.
34 Ch. L6crivain, Melanges Boissier (I903), 334:
'Hadrien donna pleine satisfaction aux Italici (c'est
a dire aux citoyens d'origine italienne) et pourvut
prudemment et soigneusement aux interets des autres
(des Espagnols de droit latin).'
35
Rostovtzeff, SEHR2 (I957), 574. cf. 59i and 694.
I46 RONALD SYME
non-Italian origin, there obtains no juridical distinction, there could be none. The contrary
notion has bedevilled more than once the understanding of another transaction, obscuring
the point at issue when Claudius Caesar admitted Gallic ' principes ' into the Roman
Senate. Of alien extraction, but unimpaired and unimpeachable in their status of ' cives
Romani'. Second, the phrase ' Roman or Italian citizenship'. To quote it is enough.
What is 'Italian citizenship ' ?
Let there be a new approach. Two sorts of person are in cause, differently treated by
the Emperor. The solution is to suppose that by ' Italici ' the HA meant ' Italicenses '.36
The word may have stood in the source of the HA, but it is not imperative to replace it in
a text of HA. That would be an undeserved compliment to the compiler.
That is not enough. The text is patently corrupt. First, with a comma after ' Italicis ',
it is not intelligible. Second, there is no verb to govern ' Italicis ' and stand in the requisite
antithesis to ' ceteris . . . consuluit'. Those defects should have been pounced upon long
ago. Emendation is the necessary recourse. Let the passage be improved as follows:
Omnibus Hispanis ... retractantibus, Italicis vehementissime <suscensuit>, ceteris prudenter
caute <que> consuluit.
Thus is provided the antithesis. Hadrian was ' exceedingly wroth ' with the Italicenses,
his fellow-townsmen, and with them alone. The verb here submitted by conjecture is
appropriate to the comportment of one who holds authority. Two examples from Cicero
are instructive.37 First, Caesar's attitude towards Deiotarus-' non enim iam metuo ne illi
tu suscenseas '. Second, the proconsul Philippus and the dynast Antipater of Derbe-' ei te
vehementer suscensuisse audivi '.
This verb happens to be eschewed in the narrative style of the historian Tacitus. He
has it once only, in an oration. The Emperor asseverates his righteous anger at the excessive
zeal of Germanicus' friends-' quorum ego nimiis studiis iure suscenseo .38
IV
So far the HA in relation to Hadrian's '
patria '. Other questions obtrude. The passage
gets cited in support of sundry notions about legionary recruiting. Perhaps that was
premature. The facts must first be inspected and assessed. Statistics can be adduced,
though scanty and subject to a variety of hazards.39
First, recruitment in Spain. Of soldiers enrolled under the Flavians and under Trajan,
sixteen can be established as coming from Spain, three of whom from Baetica; under
Hadrian and onwards seventeen, one of them from Baetica.40 That soldier, an anomalous
person of the Severan age, happens to derive from Italica.4'
From the beginning, Italica cannot have furnished many legionaries. In the provinces
of the West and in Italia Transpadana the government tends to draw upon civitates with
large territoria-which is indicative of the social state of the average recruit. One piece of
evidence is of special value. The legion IV Macedonica, taken from Spain to Germania
Superior by Caligula or by Claudius, did not survive after 68. It has left at or near
Moguntiacum about twenty-eight gravestones with indication of the soldiers' domicilia.
Five come from Nertobriga-clearly products of the levy.42
From the early years of Vespasian, only one legion was in garrison in Spain, vii Gemina.
Of its recruits enlisted under Hadrian, and later, seventeen out of twenty-one come from
Spain.43 A valid conclusion emerges. Spain is normally called upon to aliment that legion
only. Not an excessive burden for the Peninsula: perhaps on average about three hundred
36
There is perhaps a hint of this notion in W.
Weber, Untersuchungen, etc. (1907), 115:
'
die Rolle,
welche die " Italici " spielen, ist nicht frei erfunden.
Sie entspricht der Gesinnung Hadrians gegen seine
Geburtsstadt.' See also Tacitus (I958), 247, where the
passage is described as corrupt.
3
Pro Deiotaro 35 ; Adfam. XIII, 73, 2.
38 Ann. iII, 12, 4. Compare Claudius threatening to
exhibit 6pyhv 8IKaiav (P. Lond. I912, Col. 4, 79 ff.).
39
G. Forni, II Reclutamento delle Legioni da
Augusto a Diocleziano (I953).
40
G. Forni, o.c. I79 f.; i88 f. The figures cited in
the present paper admit only legionaries certified by
domicilium. That is not the whole picture.
41 ILS 3469 (Tarraco.)
42
CIL xiiI, 6853 f.; 6858; 6865 ; 7506. It is not
certain whether this Nertobriga is the town near
Bilbilis in Tarraconensis or its homonym in the back
country of Baetica towards the Lusitanian border.
43
G. Fomi, o.c. 226 f.
HADRIAN AND ITALICA
I47
recruits a year, allowing for wastage. On this showing the complaints of the delegates at
Tarraco appear frivolous indeed. And Italica more than most cities deserved a rebuke.
The date, I22, may be relevant and even decisive. Britain had been vexed by warfare
in the first years of Hadrian's reign. One consequence was the transfer of the legion vi
Victrix from Germania Inferior. With it went the tribunus laticlavius Pontius Laelianus
(suff.?
I44).44 The legion was conducted (it might be conjectured) by P. Tullius Varro
(SUff.
I27), who before that had commanded another legion, xii Fulminata, in Cappadocia.45
VI Victrix (it has been a common assumption) was sent to Britain to fill a gap, ix Hispana
having been destroyed or disbanded. At least, that legion has left no trace in Britain that
can be dated after I22.46
The transference of the legion vi Victrix might plausibly be assigned to I2I or I22.
That fits neatly the careers of laticlavius and legate. A slightly earlier reinforcement may be
surmised, perhaps in i
i9:
vexillationes of VII Gemina (from Spain), viii Augusta and xxii
Primigenia (from Germania Superior). This corps was under the command of a primipilaris,
T. Pontius Sabinus, ' expeditione Britannica '.47
There may have been more emergencies than one in the period II7-I22. And, as
concerning the detachments of three legions taken to Britain, two items deserve brief
comment in passing-the transference of a laticlavius from one legion to another. L. Neratius
Proculus (suff. ? c. I42) is in succession tribune in vii Gemina and in viii Augusta.48
Again, L. Aemilius Carus
(suff. I43 or I44) passes from VIII Augusta to IX Hispana.49
Let it suffice in this place to have registered these anomalies, with no essay of precise
explanation.
Whatever the course and outcome of the fighting in Britain, the Spanish legion VII
Gemina had given up a thousand men for service in the island. When a vexillatio departed,
it might be away for a space of years, returning in sorry depletion or else (and more likely)
filled up by drafts from sister regiments at the seat of war or by levies from other lands.
Two lists of soldiers in the African legion III Augusta in the late years of Hadrian or early in
the reign of Pius are instructive. The one has a mass of men from the eastern lands, the
other no fewer than nineteen with the domicilium Napoca, in Dacia.
50
In the meantime, however, to keep up the strength of VII Gemina a reason or pretext
offered for the Emperor to ordain a special levy in Spain. Hence also an excuse for the
delegates at Tarraco to voice dissatisfaction, albeit in humorous deprecation-' ioculariter',
in the peculiar phrase of Marius Maximus, a source of the HA.51
V
The enigmatic and corrupt passage in the HA can therefore be made to disclose a
meaning-and even to reflect an intelligible situation in the winter of I22-3. But it tells
nothing about any normal imperial policy touching the recruitment of the legions.
The other passage (Marcus I I, 7) has so far been segregated, for convenience and clarity.
Inspection cannot be deferred any longer. It runs:
Hispanis exhaustis Italica allectione contra
t Tra<ia>nique praecepta verecunde consuluit.
First of all, the text. It is clearly mutilated. It carries a reference to injunctions of two
earlier rulers. Perhaps
' Nervae Traianique ; perhaps rather
'
Traiani Hadrianique '.52
That need not matter much-the corruption may be deeper.
441
ILS II 00 (cf. 1094).
41
ILS 1057. Iteration in the legionary command
is not normal.
46 For a longer survival of ix Hispana, however,
observe the vigorous arguments of E. Ritterling,
P-W xii, i668 f ; E. Birley, Roman Britain and the
Roman Army (I953), 20 ff. The latter scholar suggests
that there was severe fighting in Britain c. 130.
47
ILS 2726.
48 ILS 1076. It is here supposed that Neratius'
command 'ad d[e]ducendas vex[i]llationes in Syriam
ob/[b]ellurn [Par]thicumn' falls at the beginning of
Pius' reign, not near the end. The latter date was
assumed by Ritterling, P-W xiI, 1296; 1766.
49 ILS I064.
50 CIL VIII, I8084 f., cf. Rev. et. anc. xxxviii (I936),
I85.
51 The citations of Marius Maximus in the HA are
generally trivial and anecdotal-and do not lend
support to the view that he was the main source of
the earlier Vitae.
52 Unger: ' <Nervae> Tra <ia >nique' * Baehrens:
'Tra<iani Hadria>nique'.
148 RONALD SYME
What of the interpretation ? The measure of Marcus was an alleviation for Spain. The
words are held to refer to legionary recruiting.53 Marcus (so scholars assume) relieved Spain
by imposing the levy on Italy, which was contrary to the practice of certain earlier emperors.
Hence support for the notion that Italy had been spared the levy-and further, that earlier
emperors, not merely Trajan but even Vespasian, had expressly forbidden the recruitment
of Italians.54 That is a large item, commonly misconceived.
This piece of ostensibly precise testimony demands cautious and delicate treatment,
proceeding by stages. In the first place, the belief that a country might be drained and
exhausted by levies for the army is in no way alien to Roman ways of thinking. It crops
up in the rumour that Caesar the Dictator had a mind to transfer the capital of the Empire
to a new Troy in the vicinity of the Hellespont-' migraturum Ilium vel Alexandream,
translatis simul opibus imperii, exhaustaque Italia dilectibus '.5 Again, in a general and
indirect fashion: the historian Tacitus refers to the way in which a tired empire was
strengthened by the association of natives in the veteran colonies-' specie deductarum per
orbem terrae legionum fesso imperio subventum est '.56
And facts might be added-Italian recruiting in the reign of Marcus. Under the threat
of the Marcomannic War the government enrolled two new legions in I65. The evidence
is clear. It comes from two inscriptions. M. Claudius Fronto
(suff.
? I65) was active in this
task, also an equestrian subordinate of the consular Cn. Julius Verus.57
Facts, but in this instance not relevant. When new legions are called for, they are
raised in Italy. That was the convention and practice-perhaps a surprise, but abundantly
confirmed. 58
The context of the passage must be scrutinized. It has nothing to do with troops or
war or military policy. The preceding sentence registers the appointment of iuridici in
Italy; and what follows goes on to discuss civilian matters such as the vicesima hereditatium
and tutela, and so on. And further, precisely the vital phrase ' Italica allectione '. It is
interpreted to mean the recruitment of soldiers.59 That cannot be.60 Where is ' adlectio
to be found in that sense ?
The word ought to have been investigated. That was not done. The results of brief
enquiry are not a little disconcerting.
' Adlectio ', it should seem, has a clear meaning.
Men were taken into the Senate and given a definite rank. For example ' adlectus inter
praetorios'. Hence a technical term, 'adlectio'. It is familiar in modern manuals, and
unexceptionable. What is its attestation ? It might have been expected to occur somewhere
in Tacitus, Pliny or Suetonius. It is not there. The only other instance in the literary
sources for the Empire is also in the HA-' eos qui praeturas non gessissent sed allectione
accepissent
'
(Pertinax 6, IO).61
However it be,
' adlectio '
ought to have something to do with senators, not with
recruiting. The notion that a region might be weakened by the loss of ' boni viri et locu-
pletes
'
who were taken away to be senators is not in itself silly. The thing happened. The
energetic escaped from their municipia as soon as they could. Aelii and Ulpii, Annii and
Dasumii did not revert to Baetica. Yet the phenomenon seems nowhere to be registered
or deprecated in the ancient sources, still less is there any hint of measures to
counteract it.
This passage (Marcus II, 7) is best thrown over and abandoned.62 A modest and useful
conclusion emerges. No written source avails to supply evidence about the recruiting of
53
Supported by the same verb, 'consuluit ', as in
Hadr. 12, 4.
5
Rostovtzeff, SEHR2 (i957), 89.
55
Suetonius, Divus Julius 79, 3.
56 Ann. XI, 24, 3.
5
7ILS Io98 ; AE 1956, 123.
58 J. G. Mann, Hermes xci (i963), 483 ff.
59
Rostovtzeff, SEHR 2
(1957), 591: 'I must how-
ever insist that " Italica adlectio " means compulsory
enlistment of those who had the status of " Italians
"
not only in North Italy but especially in Gaul and
Spain.' cf. also 694.
60
Ritterling, P-W xiI, 1300. Followed by G. Forni
Oc. 56.
61 There is another, and peculiar, meaning of
'adlectio ' in the Late Empire, namely exemption
from holding the praetorship. See J. Schmidt,
P-W I, 368; A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman
Empire 284-6o2 (I964), 541.
62 Thus G. Forni, condemning also Hadr. 12, 4,
says ' mi pare che nessun senso si possa ricavare
dagli oscuri e mal compendiati passi della Hist. Aug. '
(o.c. 55 f.). He goes on to register the names of a
number of scholars who were not so prudent.
HADRIAN AND ITALICA
I49
the Roman legions in the time of the Antonine Caesars. Nor is any one emperor's supposed
decree, decision or policy admissible. A process can be traced, and normal practices
established. One must use the statistics, however meagre and deficient. Also general
conceptions about regions and towns and civilization which, depending on facts, are not
wholly fallacious.
For amicable and helpful discussion about the HA passages I am grateful to A. Alf6ldi
and
J.
F. Gilliam. There is also the 'colloque' on 'Les empereurs romains d'Espagne'
organized at Madrid in April, I964, by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
To that body and to the participants the present paper owes not a little of its inspiration.
Brasenose College, Oxford.