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Hadrian and Italica
Author(s): Ronald SymeReviewed work(s):Source: The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 54, Parts 1 and 2 (1964), pp. 142-149Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/298660.
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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.
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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.
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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,
e
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
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
'
instead of
'
prudenter
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.
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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,
talicis vehementissime
,
ceteris
prudenter
caute
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,tc. (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 6pyhv8IKaiav (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.
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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:
HispanisexhaustisItalica allectionecontra
t
Tranique
praeceptaverecunde 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:
'
Tra
nique'
* Baehrens:
'Tranique'.
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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.
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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.