Early Antonines

"Antonine" Dynasty (96-192)

• Five successions through adoption
• Often said to be intentional
  • "pick best man possible as successor"
• No: lack of male heir
  • Succession by (unsatisfactory) son as soon as possible
• Hey day of Principate
• Change in literary taste means loss of works of later sec. century
  • Some literature survives from reign of Trajan
    • Deals with Flavians

Nerva

• Chosen as successor by assassins of Domitian
  • Leanred lesson from assassination of Gaius
  • Had successor selected ahead of time
• Aged senator
• Family gained consulship in Triumviral period
• Has no personal prestige (military or otherwise)
• Praetorian guard soon out of hand
  • Demand execution of assassins
• Soons adopts Trajan as sucessor
  • Exact reason unclear
    • Trajan shows no affection for Nerva after his death
  • Gov. of Upper Germany
  • Decision precludes civil war
• Obligingly dies

Trajan (98-118)

• From senatorial of Spanish origin
  • Romans settling in Spain for past 300 years
• Self-confident general
  • Most militarily aggressive emperor of Principate
  • Abandons Augustus' advice not to expand Empire
  • Has good relations with senate
• Wars of Conquest against Decebalus, king of Dacians
  • Dacians major troublemakers under Domitian
  • Trajan decides on military solution
    • No tribute to buy peace
    • Two campaigns: 101-102, 105-106
  • Annexation in 106
  • Victory celebrated on "Trajan's Column"
  • New province bad idea from strategic perspective
    • Exposed position across Danube
      • Open to invasion by land on three sides
    • Greatly expands border to be defended
    • Only province voluntarily abandoned
      • Early 270s
• Campaigns of conquest in East
  • 114-117
    • Exact chronology hazy
      • No full narrative survives
  • Armenia first annexed
    • Long-standing bone of contention with Parthians
    • Trajan again decides on decisive military solution
  • Annexation of northern Mesopotamia, maybe also "Babylonia"
  • Roman resources stretched to limit
  • Jewish Revolt
    • 116-117
    • Not in Judaea
    • Messianic revolt among Diaspora communities
      • Egypt, Cyprus
      • Long-standing hostility between local Greek communities and Jews
    • Bloody event, poorly attested
  • Native revolts in Mesopotamia
  • Trajan falls ill campaigning
    • Dies on way back to Rome

Hadrian

• Trajan's closest male relative
  • Not terribly close
  • Married to Trajan's closest female relation (niece's daughter)
• Never marked out as heir
  • Said to be favored by Trajan's wife
    • Rumors of chicanery at time of Trajan's death
    • But no real alternative
• Abandons Trajan's conquests in East
  • Reverts to passive Augustan strategy
  • Wishes to abandon Dacia too
    • Deterred by large number of Roman settlers
  • Builds wall across Britain
    • Exact purpose disputed
• Executes four of Trajan's generals
• Idiosyncratic man
  • Not very popular
  • No tyrant
  • Has no desire for prestige (military or civil)
    • But does nothing to offend sensibilities of soldiery
  • Amateur architect
  • Spends years away from Rome touring provinces
  • Has drowned boyfriend deified
    • Antinous
    • Popular cult in East
  • Philhellene
• Provokes Third Jewish Revolt (133-135)
  • Bans circumcision, plans to build (pagan) colony on site of Jerusalem
    • Decisions perhaps based on Hellenic hostility towards Jews
    • Very un-Roman to disregard others' sensibilities
  • Revolt suppressed without much difficulty
  • Virtually ends Jewish presence in Judaea
• Tries to deal with succession in late 130s
  • First adopted heir soon dies
  • Wants to adopt young M. Aurelius
  • Opts for M. Aurelius' uncle in interim
  • No one mourns his death
• Bad relations with senate