Hadrian was not with Trajan when the latter died. For whatever reasons Trajan had not marked anyone out as favoured successor. Perhaps this was a political gesture, showing that he had faith in the Senate to choose the best candidate, or it may have been more personal, from a man who struggled to come to terms with age and did not wish to think about his own death. His widow, Plotina, immediately announced that on his deathbed, her husband had adopted Hadrian and thus named him as the next princeps.

Hadrian acted quickly, and already had a number of significant supporters, unless these men simply sniffed the wind and guessed that it was best to win his favour. Lusius Quietus, the dashing Moor who had won Trajan’s favour in Dacia and the eastern campaigns, was swiftly dismissed from the governorship of Judaea. There were several other arrests, and Quietus was among the handful of men who died in the months to come. Whether Hadrian gave the orders or supporters acted on their own initiative is impossible to say, but the executions left a bitter taste with most senators. Some later criticised Hadrian for abandoning some of Trajan’s conquests and not adding more territory to the empire, but it was these deaths, combined with his unfortunate manner, that meant that he was not remembered as a popular or good emperor by Rome’s elite. First and foremost, our literary sources judge every Roman emperor on how they treated the senatorial class.

GLOSSARY

Agoranomos: official in many Greek cities whose task was to supervise business and maintain order in the Agora or marketplace. This included assigning space to temporary stalls, inspecting the weights, scales and measures used by traders.

ala: a regiment of auxiliary cavalry, roughly the same size as a cohort of infantry. There were two types: ala quingenaria consisting of 512 men divided into 16 turmae; and ala milliaria consisting of 768 men divided into 24 turmae.

Armenia: ancient kingdom, which had briefly dominated the wider region in the first century BC, but subsequently found itself between the Roman and Parthian empires. Its kings came from the Parthian royal family, but also had ties to the Romans and constantly had to struggle to control a fractious aristocracy able to take refuge in strongholds in this rugged land. A number of the conflicts between Rome and Parthia began in a dispute over succession to the throne of Armenia.

Arsacids: taking their name from their founder, Arsaces, the dynasty that ruled Parthia – and Armenia – was known as the Arsacids. Since kings were polygamous and sometimes chose successors from the offspring of their harem, there were usually a lot of princes with a claim to the throne at any one time. This led to frequent power struggles and civil wars. There appear to have been three rival Parthian kings at the time of our story.

auxilia/auxiliaries: over half of the Roman army was recruited from non-citizens from all over (and even outside) the empire. These served as both infantry and cavalry and gained citizenship at the end of their twenty-five years of service.