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143-415: After the final conquest and destruction of Carthage in 146 BC, northwestern Africa went under Roman rule and, shortly thereafter, the coastal area of what is now western Libya was established as a province under the name of Tripolitania with Leptis Magna capital and the major trading port in the region. In 96 BC, Rome peacefully obtained Cyrenaica (left as bequeathing by the king Ptolemy Apion ) with

286-617: A hero and composing an epigraph for the tomb. As Pompey was universally acknowledged as responsible for establishing Rome's power in the east, this restoration was probably linked to a need to reaffirm Roman Eastern hegemony following social unrest there during Trajan's late reign. Hadrian and Antinous held a lion hunt in the Libyan desert; a poem on the subject by the Greek Pankrates is the earliest evidence that they travelled together. While Hadrian and his entourage were sailing on

429-520: A capacity for both great personal generosity and extreme cruelty and driven by insatiable curiosity, conceit, and ambition. Publius Aelius Hadrianus was born on 24 January 76, in Italica (modern Santiponce , near Seville ), a Roman town founded by Italic settlers in the province of Hispania Baetica during the Second Punic War at the initiative of Scipio Africanus ; Hadrian's branch of

572-623: A city within Mysia, Hadrianutherae , after a successful boar hunt. At about this time, plans to complete the Temple of Zeus in Cyzicus , begun by the kings of Pergamon , were put into practice. The temple received a colossal statue of Hadrian. Cyzicus, Pergamon , Smyrna , Ephesus and Sardes were promoted as regional centres for the imperial cult ( neocoros ). Hadrian arrived in Greece during

715-418: A commonwealth of civilised peoples and a common Hellenic culture under Roman supervision. He supported the creation of provincial towns ( municipia ), semi-autonomous urban communities with their own customs and laws, rather than the imposition of new Roman colonies with Roman constitutions. A cosmopolitan, ecumenical intent is evident in coin issues of Hadrian's later reign, showing the emperor "raising up"

858-496: A cosmopolitan state whose citizens shared a common language, legal system, and Roman identity. Roman ruins, like those of Leptis Magna and Sabratha in present-day Libya, attest to the vitality of the region, where populous cities and even smaller towns enjoyed the amenities of urban life – forum, markets, public entertainments, and baths – found in every corner of the Roman Empire. Merchants and artisans from many parts of

1001-584: A distinguished Roman senatorial family based in Gades ( Cádiz ). His only sibling was an elder sister, Aelia Domitia Paulina . His wet nurse was the slave Germana, probably of Germanic origin, to whom he was devoted throughout his life. She was later freed by him and ultimately outlived him, as shown by her funerary inscription, which was found at Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli . Hadrian's great-nephew, Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator , from Barcino (Barcelona) would become Hadrian's colleague as co-consul in 118. As

1144-403: A grand league of all Greek cities. Successful applications for membership involved mythologised or fabricated claims to Greek origins, and affirmations of loyalty to imperial Rome, to satisfy Hadrian's personal, idealised notions of Hellenism. Hadrian saw himself as protector of Greek culture and the "liberties" of Greece – in this case, urban self-government. It allowed Hadrian to appear as

1287-463: A large army commanded by Hasdrubal and, the treaty notwithstanding, counterattacked the Numidians. The campaign ended in disaster and the army surrendered; a large number of Carthaginians were subsequently massacred by the Numidians. Hasdrubal escaped to Carthage, where in an attempt to placate Rome he was condemned to death. Carthage had paid off its indemnity and was prospering economically, but

1430-515: A large number of smaller ships since sacrificing their original fleet two years before. Once the channel was complete this sailed out, taking the Romans by surprise. A few days were necessary to trim the new-built ships and to train the new crews who had not been to sea for over two years and were out of the habit of operating together, and by the time the Carthaginians felt ready to give battle

1573-425: A legitimate heir may have come too late to dissuade other potential claimants. Hadrian's greatest rivals were Trajan's closest friends, the most experienced and senior members of the imperial council; any of them might have been a legitimate competitor for the imperial office ( capaces imperii ); and any of them might have supported Trajan's expansionist policies, which Hadrian intended to change. One of their number

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1716-597: A local dispute between producers of olive oil and the Athenian Assembly and Council , who had imposed production quotas on oil producers; yet he granted an imperial subsidy for the Athenian grain supply. Hadrian created two foundations to fund Athens' public games, festivals and competitions if no citizen proved wealthy or willing enough to sponsor them as a Gymnasiarch or Agonothetes . Generally Hadrian preferred that Greek notables, including priests of

1859-507: A lower cost than a massed border army, and controlled cross-border trade and immigration. A shrine was erected in York to Britannia as the divine personification of Britain ; coins were struck, bearing her image, identified as Britannia. By the end of 122, Hadrian had concluded his visit to Britannia. He never saw the finished wall that bears his name . Hadrian appears to have continued through southern Gaul. At Nemausus , he may have overseen

2002-563: A major source of grain and other foodstuffs. Numerous large Punic cities, such as those in Mauretania , were taken over by the Romans, although they were permitted to retain their Punic system of government. A century later, the site of Carthage was rebuilt as a Roman city by Julius Caesar , and would become one of the main cities of Roman Africa by the time of the Empire . The Punic language continued to be spoken in north Africa until

2145-468: A middle-ranking officer, distinguishing himself several times. A new Roman commander took over in 148 BC, and fared equally badly. At the annual election of Roman magistrates in early 147 BC, the public support for Scipio was so great that the usual age restrictions were lifted to allow him to be appointed commander in Africa. Scipio's term commenced with two Carthaginian successes, but he tightened

2288-546: A pretext to remove him from office. Hadrian spent the winter of 122/123 at Tarraco , in Spain, where he restored the Temple of Augustus . In 123, Hadrian crossed the Mediterranean to Mauretania , where he personally led a minor campaign against local rebels. The visit was cut short by reports of war preparations by Parthia; Hadrian quickly headed eastwards. At some point, he visited Cyrene , where he personally funded

2431-485: A senator, Hadrian's father would have spent much of his time in Rome. In terms of his later career, Hadrian's most significant family connection was to Trajan , his father's first cousin , who was also of senatorial stock and a native of Italica. Although they were considered to be, in the words of Aurelius Victor , advenae ("aliens", people "from the outside"), both Trajan and Hadrian were of Italic lineage and belonged to

2574-454: A senatorial career. He then served as a military tribune , first with the Legio   II Adiutrix in 95, then with the Legio V Macedonica . During Hadrian's second stint as tribune, the frail and aged reigning emperor Nerva adopted Trajan as his heir; Hadrian was dispatched to give Trajan the news – or most probably was one of many emissaries charged with this same commission. Then Hadrian

2717-503: A state visit and was given the civic name Hadriana Palmyra. Hadrian also bestowed honours on various Palmyrene magnates, among them one Soados, who had done much to protect Palmyrene trade between the Roman Empire and Parthia. Hadrian had spent the winter of 131–32 in Athens, where he dedicated the now-completed Temple of Olympian Zeus , At some time in 132, he headed East, to Judaea. In Roman Judaea , Hadrian visited Jerusalem , which

2860-631: A strong and enthusiastic force to garrison the city from their citizenry and by freeing all slaves willing to fight. They also formed a 30,000 strong field army, which was placed under Hasdrubal, freshly released from his condemned cell. This army was based at Nepheris  [ fr ] , 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of the city. Appian gives the strength of the Roman army which landed in Africa as 84,000 soldiers; modern historians estimate it at 40,000–50,000 men, of whom 4,000 were cavalry . The Roman army moved to Carthage and twice attempted to scale

3003-427: A succession of competing claimants – a civil war. Too early a nomination could be seen as an abdication and reduce the chance for an orderly transmission of power. As Trajan lay dying, nursed by his wife, Plotina, and closely watched by Prefect Attianus, he could have lawfully adopted Hadrian as heir by means of a simple deathbed wish, expressed before witnesses; but when an adoption document was eventually presented, it

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3146-484: A successor, on condition that Antoninus adopt Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as his own heirs. Hadrian died the same year at Baiae , and Antoninus had him deified, despite opposition from the Senate. Later historians counted him as one of Rome's so-called " Five Good Emperors ", and as a " benevolent dictator ". His own Senate found him remote and authoritarian. He has been described as enigmatic and contradictory, with

3289-558: A weak point in Carthage's main wall. A gate was seized and 4,000 Romans pushed into the city. Panicked in the dark, the Carthaginian defenders, after an initial fierce resistance, fled. However, Scipio decided that his position would be indefensible once the Carthaginians reorganised themselves in daylight, and so withdrew. Hasdrubal, horrified at the way the Carthaginian defences had collapsed, had Roman prisoners tortured to death on

3432-417: A young Roman aristocrat . Hadrian's enthusiasm for Greek literature and culture earned him the nickname Graeculus ("Greekling"), intended as a form of "mild mockery". Hadrian's first official post in Rome was as a member of the decemviri stlitibus judicandis , one among many vigintivirate offices at the lowest level of the cursus honorum ("course of honours") that could lead to higher office and

3575-409: A youth of 13 or 14. It is also possible that Antinous was sent to Rome to be trained as a page to serve the emperor and only gradually rose to the status of imperial favourite. The actual historical detail of their relationship is mostly unknown. With or without Antinous, Hadrian travelled through Anatolia . Various traditions suggest his presence at particular locations and allege his foundation of

3718-454: Is to accept it largely at face value, and the details of the war in modern sources are largely based on interpretations of Polybius's account. The modern historian Andrew Curry sees Polybius as being "fairly reliable"; while Craige Champion describes him as "a remarkably well-informed, industrious, and insightful historian". Other, later, ancient histories of the war exist, although often in fragmentary or summary form. Appian 's account of

3861-537: The Amphictyonic League based in Delphi, but by now he had decided on something far grander. His new Panhellenion was going to be a council that would bring Greek cities together. Having set in motion the preparations – deciding whose claim to be a Greek city was genuine would take time – Hadrian set off for Ephesus. From Greece, Hadrian proceeded by way of Asia to Egypt, probably conveyed across

4004-470: The Berber tribes would be finally broken by the talented general John Troglita . The last Latin epic poem of Antiquity , the de Bellis Libycis of Flavius Cresconius Corippus , was written about this struggle. Successively the province entered an era of relative stability and prosperity, and was organized as a separate exarchate in 584 AD. Eventually, under Heraclius , Libia and Africa would come to

4147-665: The Fayyum at the beginning of December. Hadrian's movements after his journey down the Nile are uncertain. Whether or not he returned to Rome, he travelled in the East during 130–131, to organise and inaugurate his new Panhellenion , which was to be focused on the Athenian Temple to Olympian Zeus . As local conflicts had led to the failure of the previous scheme for a Hellenic association centered on Delphi, Hadrian decided instead for

4290-533: The First Temple had been after the Babylonian exile . A massive anti-Hellenistic and anti-Roman Jewish uprising broke out, led by Simon bar Kokhba . Given the fragmentary nature of the existing evidence, it is impossible to ascertain an exact date for the beginning of the uprising. It probably began between summer and fall of 132. The Roman governor Tineius (Tynius) Rufus asked for an army to crush

4433-550: The Historia Augusta suggests that the revolt was spurred by Hadrian's abolition of circumcision ( brit milah ); which as a Hellenist he viewed as mutilation . The scholar Peter Schäfer maintains that there is no evidence for this claim, given the notoriously problematical nature of the Historia Augusta as a source, the "tomfoolery" shown by the writer in the relevant passage, and the fact that contemporary Roman legislation on "genital mutilation" seems to address

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4576-587: The Nile , Antinous drowned. The exact circumstances surrounding his death are unknown, and accident, suicide, murder and religious sacrifice have all been postulated. Historia Augusta offers the following account: During a journey on the Nile he lost Antinous, his favourite, and for this youth he wept like a woman. Concerning this incident there are varying rumours; for some claim that he had devoted himself to death for Hadrian, and others – what both his beauty and Hadrian's sensuality suggest. But however this may be,

4719-645: The Peloponnese . His exact route is uncertain, but it took in Epidaurus ; Pausanias describes temples built there by Hadrian, and his statue – in heroic nudity  – erected by its citizens in thanks to their "restorer". Antinous and Hadrian may have already been lovers at this time; Hadrian showed particular generosity to Mantinea , which shared ancient, mythic, politically useful links with Antinous' home at Bithynia. He restored Mantinea's Temple of Poseidon Hippios , and according to Pausanias, restored

4862-596: The Roman Senate the famous: "I prevented Nasamoni to exist". Instead more serious was the Jewish revolt striking mainly the Pentapolis in the time of Trajan (in 115–116 AD). In Cyrenaica, the rebels were led by one Lukuas or Andreas, who called himself "King" (according to Eusebius of Caesarea ). His group destroyed many temples, including those to Hecate , Jupiter , Apollo , Artemis , and Isis , as well as

5005-582: The Sarmatians ". Between 107 and 108, Hadrian defeated an invasion of Roman-controlled Banat and Oltenia by the Iazyges . The exact terms of the peace treaty are not known. It is believed the Romans kept Oltenia in exchange for some form of concession, likely involving a one-time tribute payment. The Iazyges also took possession of Banat around this time, which may have been part of the treaty. Now in his mid-thirties, Hadrian travelled to Greece; he

5148-443: The trireme Olympias . Carthage and Rome fought the 17-year long Second Punic War between 218 and 201 BC, which ended with a Roman victory. The peace treaty imposed on the Carthaginians stripped them of all of their overseas territories, and some of their African ones. An indemnity of 10,000 silver talents was to be paid over 50 years. Hostages were taken. Carthage was forbidden to possess war elephants and its fleet

5291-704: The 7th century. Rome still exists as the capital of Italy; the ruins of Carthage lie 16 kilometres (10 mi) east of Tunis on the North African coast. A formal peace treaty was signed by Ugo Vetere and Chedli Klibi , the mayors of Rome and the modern city of Carthage, respectively, on 5 February 1985; 2,131 years after the war ended. 36°51′11″N 10°19′23″E  /  36.8531°N 10.3231°E  / 36.8531; 10.3231 Hadrian Hadrian ( / ˈ h eɪ d r i ən / HAY -dree-ən ; Latin : Publius Aelius Hadrianus [(h)adriˈjaːnus] ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138)

5434-693: The Aegean with his entourage by an Ephesian merchant, Lucius Erastus. Hadrian later sent a letter to the Council of Ephesus, supporting Erastus as a worthy candidate for town councillor and offering to pay the requisite fee. Hadrian arrived in Egypt before the Egyptian New Year on 29 August 130. He opened his stay in Egypt by restoring Pompey the Great 's tomb at Pelusium , offering sacrifice to him as

5577-409: The Carthaginians did so. Great convoys took enormous stocks of equipment from Carthage to Utica. Surviving records state that these included 200,000 sets of armour and 2,000 catapults . Their warships all sailed to Utica and were burnt in the harbour. Once Carthage was disarmed, the consuls made the further demand that the Carthaginians abandon their city and relocate 16 kilometres (10 mi) away from

5720-563: The Carthaginians with 800 cavalry. Carthage allied with Andriscus , a pretender to the Macedonian throne, who invaded Roman Macedonia, defeated a Roman army, had himself crowned King Philip VI, and sparked the Fourth Macedonian War . Scipio intended to stand in the 147 BC elections for the post of aedile ; this was a natural progression for him and at age 36 or 37 he was too young to stand as consul, for which

5863-610: The Empire, and indulged a preference for direct intervention in imperial and provincial affairs, especially building projects. He is particularly known for building Hadrian's Wall , which marked the northern limit of Britannia . In Rome itself, he rebuilt the Pantheon and constructed the vast Temple of Venus and Roma . In Egypt, he may have rebuilt the Serapeum of Alexandria . As an ardent admirer of Greek culture, he promoted Athens as

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6006-631: The Greeks deified him at Hadrian's request, and declared that oracles were given through his agency, but these, it is commonly asserted, were composed by Hadrian himself. Hadrian founded the city of Antinoöpolis in Antinous' honour on 30 October 130. He then continued down the Nile to Thebes , where his visit to the Colossi of Memnon on 20 and 21 November was commemorated by four epigrams inscribed by Julia Balbilla . After that, he headed north, reaching

6149-604: The Roman army during both the 66 and 132 rebellions. It has been speculated that Hadrian intended to assimilate the Jewish Temple to the traditional Roman civic-religious imperial cult ; such assimilations had long been commonplace practice in Greece and in other provinces, and on the whole, had been successful. The neighbouring Samaritans had already integrated their religious rites with Hellenistic ones. Strict Jewish monotheism proved more resistant to imperial cajoling, and then to imperial demands. A tradition based on

6292-742: The Roman defences, then set off westwards, along the Black Sea coast. He probably wintered in Nicomedia , the main city of Bithynia . Nicomedia had been hit by an earthquake only shortly before his stay; Hadrian provided funds for its rebuilding and was acclaimed as restorer of the province. It is possible that Hadrian visited Claudiopolis and saw the beautiful Antinous , a young man of humble birth who became Hadrian's lover. Literary and epigraphic sources say nothing of when or where they met; depictions of Antinous show him aged 20 or so, shortly before his death in 130. In 123 he would most likely have been

6435-473: The Roman world established themselves in coastal Libya. Former soldiers were settled in the "Centenaria" area of Tripolitania, and the arid land was developed. Dams and cisterns were built in the Wadi Ghirza (then not dry like today) to regulate the flash floods. These structures are still visible As a consequence the area south of Leptis Magna became an important exporter of olive oil and cereals to Rome and

6578-450: The Romans eventually gained control of the quay and constructed a brick wall as high as the city wall. This took months to complete, but once in place it enabled 4,000 Romans to shoot onto the Carthaginian ramparts from short range. Scipio's position as the Roman commander in Africa was extended for a year in 146 BC, and in the spring he launched the final assault. It came from the harbour area and Hasdrubal, expecting it, set fire to

6721-439: The Romans had concentrated their own naval forces. In the engagement which followed , the Carthaginians held their own, with their lighter craft proving difficult for the Roman ships to deal with. Breaking off the engagement, the Carthaginian triremes were covering the withdrawal of their lighter vessels when a collision blocked the new channel. With the Carthaginian ships pinned against the city's sea wall with no room to manoeuvre,

6864-496: The Romans sank or captured many of them before the blockage was cleared and the Carthaginian survivors were able to escape back into harbour. The Romans now attempted to advance against the Carthaginian defences in the harbour area. Carthaginians swam across the harbour at night and set fire to several siege engines and many legionaries panicked and fled. Scipio intercepted them in the dark; when they disregarded his orders to halt he had his mounted bodyguard attack them. Nevertheless,

7007-463: The Romans systematically worked their way through the residential part of the city, killing everyone they encountered and firing the buildings behind them. At times, the Romans progressed from rooftop to rooftop, to prevent missiles being hurled down on them. It took six more days to clear the city of resistance, and on the last day Scipio agreed to accept prisoners. The last holdouts, including 900 Roman deserters in Carthaginian service, fought on from

7150-741: The Senate, alongside the Athenian grandee Herodes Atticus the Elder . The two aristocrats would be the first from "Old Greece" to enter the Roman Senate, as representatives of Sparta and Athens, traditional rivals and "great powers" of the Classical Age. This was an important step in overcoming Greek notables' reluctance to take part in Roman political life. In March 125, Hadrian presided at the Athenian festival of Dionysia , wearing Athenian dress. The Temple of Olympian Zeus had been under construction for more than five centuries; Hadrian committed

7293-443: The Temple of Eshmoun and burnt it down around themselves when all hope was gone. At this point, Hasdrubal surrendered to Scipio on the promise of his life and freedom. Hasdrubal's wife, watching from a rampart, then blessed Scipio, cursed her husband, and walked into the temple with her children, to burn to death. There were 50,000 Carthaginian prisoners, a small proportion of the pre-war population, who were sold into slavery. After

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7436-707: The Third Punic War is especially valuable. Modern historians usually also take into account the writings of various Roman annalists , some contemporary; the Sicilian Greek Diodorus Siculus ; the later Roman historians Livy (who relied heavily on Polybius ), Plutarch and Dio Cassius . The classicist Adrian Goldsworthy states "Polybius' account is usually to be preferred when it differs with any of our other accounts". Other sources include coins, inscriptions, archaeological evidence and empirical evidence from reconstructions such as

7579-473: The Younger and (briefly) Governor of Dacia at the start of Hadrian's reign. He was probably Hadrian's chief rival for the throne; a senator of the highest rank, breeding, and connections; according to the Historia Augusta , Hadrian had considered making Nigrinus his heir apparent before deciding to get rid of him. Soon after, in 125, Hadrian appointed Quintus Marcius Turbo as his Praetorian Prefect. Turbo

7722-403: The actions of Scipio Aemilianus, who was serving with the 4th Legion as a tribune  – a middle-ranking military position. Rather than join the attack as ordered, Scipio held back and spaced his men along the partially demolished wall, and so was able to beat off the pursuing Carthaginians when the Romans in front of him fled back through the ranks of his unit. Censorinus's camp

7865-554: The area except Oea . As part of his reorganization of the empire in 296 AD, the Emperor Diocletian separated the administration of Crete from Cyrenaica and in the latter formed the new provinces of "Upper Libya" and "Lower Libya", using the term Libya for the first time in history as an administrative designation. Indeed, the Tetrarchy reforms of Diocletian changed the administrative structure: In April 534 AD,

8008-549: The autumn of 124 and participated in the Eleusinian Mysteries . He had a particular commitment to Athens, which had previously granted him citizenship and an archonate ; at the Athenians' request, he revised their constitution – among other things, he added a new phyle (tribe), which was named after him. Hadrian combined active, hands-on interventions with cautious restraint. He refused to intervene in

8151-414: The building of a basilica dedicated to his patroness Plotina, who had recently died in Rome and had been deified at Hadrian's request. At around this time, Hadrian dismissed his secretary ab epistulis , the biographer Suetonius , for "excessive familiarity" towards the empress. Marcius Turbo's colleague as praetorian prefect, Gaius Septicius Clarus , was dismissed for the same alleged reason, perhaps

8294-464: The city wall. In the spring of 146 BC, the Romans launched their final assault and over seven days systematically destroyed the city and killed its inhabitants; only on the last day did they take prisoners – 50,000, who were sold into slavery. The formerly Carthaginian territories became the Roman province of Africa , with Utica as its capital. It was a century before the site of Carthage

8437-474: The city walls, from the sea and the landward sides, being repulsed both times, before settling down for a siege. Hasdrubal moved up his army and harassed the Roman supply lines and foraging parties. The Romans built two very large battering rams and partially broke down a section of the wall. They stormed the breach but fell into disorder while clambering through and were thrown back by the waiting Carthaginians. The Romans would have been in difficulty except for

8580-663: The city", since he was related to him by marriage. Hadrian is said to have placed the city's main Forum at the junction of the main Cardo and Decumanus Maximus , now the location for the (smaller) Muristan . After the suppression of the Jewish revolt, Hadrian provided the Samaritans with a temple dedicated to Zeus Hypsistos ("Highest Zeus") on Mount Gerizim . The bloody repression of the revolt ended Jewish political independence from

8723-746: The city's original, classical name. It had been renamed Antigoneia since Hellenistic times, after the Macedonian King Antigonus III Doson . Hadrian also rebuilt the ancient shrines of Abae and Megara , and the Heraion of Argos . During his tour of the Peloponnese, Hadrian persuaded the Spartan grandee Eurycles Herculanus – leader of the Euryclid family that had ruled Sparta since Augustus' day – to enter

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8866-475: The civil structures that were symbols of Rome, including the Caesareum , the basilica , and the thermae (Imperial public baths). The Greek and Roman populations were massacred: the 4th-century Christian historian Paulus Orosius records that the violence so depopulated the province of Cyrenaica that new colonies had to be established by Hadrian: The Jews ... waged war on the inhabitants throughout Libya in

9009-453: The construction of a wall "to separate Romans from barbarians". The idea that the wall was built in order to deal with an actual threat or its resurgence, however, is probable but nevertheless conjectural. A general desire to cease the Empire's extension may have been the determining motive. Reduction of defence costs may also have played a role, as the Wall deterred attacks on Roman territory at

9152-572: The cultural capital of the Empire. His intense relationship with Greek youth Antinous and the latter's untimely death led Hadrian to establish a widespread, popular cult. Late in Hadrian's reign, he suppressed the Bar Kokhba revolt ; he saw this rebellion as a failure of his panhellenic ideal. Hadrian's last years were marred by chronic illness. His marriage had been both unhappy and childless. In 138 he adopted Antoninus Pius and nominated him as

9295-540: The desert against the cities of the province for at least the first two centuries. We know that at the time of Emperor Domitian , the Nasamones (a Libyan tribe living south of Leptis Magna ) rebelled, bringing destruction and defeating the Legatus legionis of Augusta III Cneo Suelli Flacco, who had gone to meet them. But when he later returned with reinforcements, he crushed them all, so that Domitian could say before

9438-608: The east for a while, suppressing the Jewish revolt that had broken out under Trajan . He relieved Judea's governor, the outstanding Moorish general Lusius Quietus , of his personal guard of Moorish auxiliaries; then he moved on to quell disturbances along the Danube frontier. In Rome, Hadrian's former guardian and current praetorian prefect , Attianus, claimed to have uncovered a conspiracy involving Lusius Quietus and three other leading senators, Lucius Publilius Celsus, Aulus Cornelius Palma Frontonianus and Gaius Avidius Nigrinus. There

9581-493: The eastern provinces, and to some extent in the west, Nero had enjoyed popular support; claims of his imminent return or rebirth emerged almost immediately after his death. Hadrian may have consciously exploited these positive, popular connections during his own travels. In the Historia Augusta , Hadrian is described as "a little too much Greek", too cosmopolitan for a Roman emperor. Prior to Hadrian's arrival in Britannia ,

9724-602: The fictive heir to Pericles , who supposedly had convened a previous Panhellenic Congress – such a Congress is mentioned only in Pericles' biography by Plutarch , who respected Rome's imperial order. Epigraphical evidence suggests that the prospect of applying to the Panhellenion held little attraction to the wealthier, Hellenised cities of Asia Minor, which were jealous of Athenian and European Greek preeminence within Hadrian's scheme. Hadrian's notion of Hellenism

9867-428: The final week of fighting, Scipio gave the city over to the soldiers to plunder. After this, a commission of ten senators arrived, ordering Scipio to destroy whatever remained of Carthage and decreed nobody was allowed to settle there or rebuild; however, it was not forbidden to go upon the ground nor was the land cursed , the notion that Roman forces then sowed the city with salt is a 19th-century invention. Many of

10010-510: The former Roman provincial system along with the full apparatus of Roman administration was restored, under a praetorian prefect . During the following years, under the smart general Solomon, who combined the offices of both magister militum and praetorian prefect of Africa, Roman rule in Libya was strengthened ( Theodorias was refounded ), but the fighting continued against the Berber tribes on

10153-421: The general issue of castration of slaves by their masters. Other issues could have contributed to the outbreak: a heavy-handed, culturally insensitive Roman administration; tensions between the landless poor and incoming Roman colonists privileged with land-grants; and a strong undercurrent of messianism, predicated on Jeremiah 's prophecy that the Temple would be rebuilt seventy years after its destruction, as

10296-585: The gens Aelia came from Hadria (modern Atri ), an ancient town in the Picenum region of Italia, the source of the name Hadrianus . One Roman biographer claims instead that Hadrian was born in Rome , but this view is held by a minority of scholars. Hadrian's father was Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer , a senator of praetorian rank, born and raised in Italica. Hadrian's mother was Domitia Paulina , daughter of

10439-655: The heresy Arianism , came from Ptolemais . Some centuries later in Cyrenaica, Monophysite adherents of the Coptic Church welcomed the Muslim Arabs as liberators from Byzantine oppression. The best period of Roman Libya was under emperor Septimius Severus , born in Leptis Magna . He favored his hometown above all other provincial cities, and the buildings and wealth he lavished on it made Leptis Magna

10582-468: The hinterland. Solomon achieved significant successes against them, but his work was interrupted by a widespread military mutiny in 536. The mutiny was eventually subdued by Germanus, a cousin of Justinian , and Solomon returned in 539. He fell, however, in the Battle of Cillium in 544 against the united berber tribes, and Roman Libya was again in jeopardy. It would not be until 548 AD that the resistance of

10725-546: The idea of the Roman Empire as a commonwealth with an underlying Hellenic culture. If Hadrian were to be appointed Trajan's successor, Plotina and her extended family could retain their social profile and political influence after Trajan's death. Hadrian could also count on the support of his mother-in-law, Salonia Matidia , who was the daughter of Trajan's beloved sister Ulpia Marciana . When Ulpia Marciana died in 112, Trajan had her deified , and made Salonia Matidia an Augusta . Hadrian's personal relationship with Trajan

10868-648: The imperial cult, focus on more essential and durable provisions, especially munera such as aqueducts and public fountains ( nymphaea ). Athens was given two nymphaea ; one brought water from Mount Parnes to the Athenia Agora via a complex, challenging and ambitious system of aqueduct tunnels and reservoirs, to be constructed over several years. Several were given to Argos, to remedy a water-shortage so severe and so long-standing that "thirsty Argos" featured in Homeric epic. During that winter, Hadrian toured

11011-783: The imperial retinue, when he joined Trajan's expedition against Parthia as a legate. When the governor of Syria was sent to deal with renewed troubles in Dacia, Hadrian was appointed his replacement, with independent command. Trajan became seriously ill, and took ship for Rome, while Hadrian remained in Syria, de facto general commander of the Eastern Roman army. Trajan got as far as the coastal city of Selinus , in Cilicia , and died there on 8 August 117; he would be regarded as one of Rome's most admired, popular and best emperors. Around

11154-487: The legitimacy of Hadrian's adoption: Cassius Dio saw it as bogus and the Historia Augusta writer as genuine. An aureus minted early in Hadrian's reign represents the official position; it presents Hadrian as Trajan's " Caesar " (Trajan's heir designate). According to the Historia Augusta , Hadrian informed the Senate of his accession in a letter as a fait accompli , explaining that "the unseemly haste of

11297-516: The minimum age requirement was 42. But the public demand to appoint him as consul, and so allow him to take charge of the African war, was so strong that the Senate put aside the age requirements for all posts for the year. There was considerable political manoeuvring behind the scenes, much of which is opaque in the sources, and it is not known to what extent, if any, Scipio helped orchestrate this outcome. In any event, he secured sole command in Africa,

11440-439: The most part, relied on the reports of their imperial representatives around the Empire, Hadrian wished to see things for himself. Previous emperors had often left Rome for long periods, but mostly to go to war, returning once the conflict was settled. Hadrian's near-incessant travels may represent a calculated break with traditions and attitudes in which the empire was a purely Roman hegemony. Hadrian sought to include provincials in

11583-593: The most powerful ruler among the Numidians , the dominant indigenous people in North Africa west of Egypt. Over the following 50 years, he repeatedly took advantage of Carthage's inability to protect its possessions. Whenever Carthage petitioned Rome for redress, or permission to take military action, Rome backed its ally, Masinissa, and refused. Masinissa's seizures of and raids into Carthaginian territory became increasingly flagrant. In 151 BC, Carthage raised

11726-593: The most savage fashion, and to such an extent was the country wasted that, its cultivators having been slain, its land would have remained utterly depopulated, had not the Emperor Hadrian gathered settlers from other places and sent them thither, for the inhabitants had been wiped out. After Hadrian , Christianity started to be the most important religion in Roman Libya until the arrival of the Arabs. During

11869-552: The nearby warehouses. Despite this, a Roman advance party broke through to the military harbour and captured it. The main assault force reached the city's main square, where the legions camped overnight. The next morning Scipio led 4,000 men to link up with the group at the military harbour; this group was delayed when they diverted to strip the gold from the Temple of Apollo. Scipio and his officers were helpless to prevent them and furious. The Carthaginians did not take advantage, having withdrawn to defensive positions. Having regrouped,

12012-451: The nearly-three-year siege of the Carthaginian capital, Carthage (a little north east of Tunis ). In 149 BC, a large Roman army landed at Utica in North Africa. The Carthaginians hoped to appease the Romans, but despite the Carthaginians surrendering all of their weapons, the Romans pressed on to besiege the city of Carthage . The Roman campaign suffered repeated setbacks through 149 BC, only alleviated by Scipio Aemilianus ,

12155-714: The new Umayyad dynasty under Mu'awiya ushered in a new era of Muslim expansion. An official campaign to conquer North Africa began in 663, and the Arabs soon controlled most major cities in Libya. Tripoli fell again in 666 AD, and this time the Muslims ensured their control of their new lands by not immediately retreating to Egypt after the conquest. In 670 AD all Libya was in the hands of the Arabs: Roman rule since BC 2nd century finally ended. Only in Benito Mussolini 's time, more than one thousand years later, Libya

12298-439: The personifications of various provinces. Aelius Aristides would later write that Hadrian "extended over his subjects a protecting hand, raising them as one helps fallen men on their feet". All this did not go well with Roman traditionalists. The self-indulgent emperor Nero had enjoyed a prolonged and peaceful tour of Greece and had been criticised by the Roman elite for abandoning his fundamental responsibilities as emperor. In

12441-509: The population was enslaved. The extent of punitive measures against the Jewish population remains a matter of debate. Hadrian renamed Judea province Syria Palaestina . He renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina after himself and Jupiter Capitolinus and had the city rebuilt in Greek style. According to Epiphanius, Hadrian appointed Aquila from Sinope in Pontus as "overseer of the work of building

12584-469: The province from the raids of nomadic tribes. He fulfilled his task quickly and successfully. As a consequence the Roman city of Ghirza , situated away from the coast and south of Leptis Magna, developed quickly in a rich agricultural area. Ghirza became a "boom town" after 200 AD, when Septimius Severus had better organized the Limes Tripolitanus. In late 202, Severus launched a campaign in

12727-465: The province had suffered a major rebellion from 119 to 121. Inscriptions tell of an expeditio Britannica that involved major troop movements, including the dispatch of a detachment ( vexillatio ), comprising some 3,000 soldiers. Fronto writes about military losses in Britannia at the time. Coin legends of 119–120 attest that Quintus Pompeius Falco was sent to restore order. In 122 Hadrian initiated

12870-481: The province of Africa. Anicius Faustus had been fighting against the Garamantes along the Limes Tripolitanus for five years, capturing several settlements from the enemy such as Cydamus , Gholaia, Garbia, and their capital Garama - over 600 km south of Leptis Magna . By 203 the entire southern frontier of Roman Africa had been dramatically expanded and re-fortified. Desert nomads could no longer safely raid

13013-530: The province was greatly " romanized ", according to Theodore Mommsen . The level of this romanization can be deducted even from the survival of the African Romance : the 12th-century Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi wrote that the people of the area of Gafsa (the Roman "Capsa", near northwestern Tripolitania) used a language that he called al-latini al-afriqi ("the Latin of Africa"). Tripolitania

13156-468: The province were organized into the Conventus civium Romanorum. The territory of Tripolitania was characterized by the presence of a strong punic influence in the three main cities (Tripolitania means "land of three cities") of Oea (actual Tripoli), Sabratha and Leptis Magna , but by the end of Augustus time the coastal area was nearly fully Romanised . Few were the raids of nomadic tribes of

13299-472: The region's interior and escape back into the Sahara . For another century the legacy of Septimius Severus gave peace and prosperity to Roman Libya. As a Roman province , Libya was prosperous, and reached a golden age in the 2nd century AD, when the city of Leptis Magna rivalled Carthage and Alexandria in prominence. For more than 400 years, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were wealthy Roman provinces and part of

13442-638: The reign of Emperor Septimius Severus (born in Leptis Magna) there was sitting on the "Chair of Peter" Pope Victor I (181–191), also from Libyan Leptis Magna and probably its bishop. Until Victor's time, Rome celebrated the Mass in Greek : Pope Victor I changed the language to Latin , which was used in his native Roman Libya. According to Jerome , he was the first Christian author to write about theology in Latin. Furthermore, Arius , creator around 310 AD of

13585-408: The religious items and cult-statues which Carthage had pillaged from Sicilian cities and temples over the centuries were returned with great ceremony. Scipio was awarded the agnomen "Africanus", as his adoptive grandfather had been. The formerly Carthaginian territories were annexed by Rome and reconstituted to become the Roman province of Africa with Utica as its capital. The province became

13728-604: The rescue of the Empire itself, deposing the tyrant Phocas and beating back the Sassanids and the Avars . But that was the last Roman achievement: in 642 AD Moslem Arabs started to conquer Libya. The Arabs succeeded in temporarily driving the Byzantines out of Tripoli in 645 AD, but they did not follow that conquest with the establishment of a permanent Arab presence in the city. No further raids were conducted until 661, when

13871-612: The resistance; bar Kokhba punished any Jew who refused to join his ranks. According to Justin Martyr and Eusebius , that had to do mostly with Christian converts, who opposed bar Kokhba's messianic claims. The Romans were overwhelmed by the organised ferocity of the uprising. Hadrian called his general Sextus Julius Severus from Britain and brought troops in from as far as the Danube. Roman losses were heavy; an entire legion or its numeric equivalent of around 4,000. Hadrian's report on

14014-408: The sea; Carthage would then be destroyed. The Carthaginians abandoned negotiations and prepared to defend their city. The city of Carthage itself was an unusually large city for the time, with a population estimated at 700,000. It was strongly fortified with walls of more than 35 kilometres (20 mi) circumference. Defending the main approach from the land were three lines of defences, of which

14157-589: The security of his reign; this earned him the senate's lifelong enmity. He earned further disapproval by abandoning Trajan's expansionist policies and territorial gains in Mesopotamia , Assyria , Armenia , and parts of Dacia . Hadrian preferred to invest in the development of stable, defensible borders and the unification of the empire's disparate peoples as subjects of a panhellenic empire , led by Rome. Hadrian energetically pursued his own Imperial ideals and personal interests. He visited almost every province of

14300-399: The senatorial nobility, but no particular distinction befitting an heir designate. Had Trajan wished it, he could have promoted his protege to patrician rank and its privileges, which included opportunities for a fast track to consulship without prior experience as tribune; he chose not to. While Hadrian seems to have been granted the office of tribune of the plebs a year or so younger than

14443-524: The shrine of Cupra in Cupra Maritima and improved the drainage of the Fucine lake . Less welcome than such largesse was his decision in 127 to divide Italy into four regions under imperial legates with consular rank, acting as governors. They were given jurisdiction over all of Italy, excluding Rome itself, therefore shifting Italian cases from the courts of Rome. Having Italy effectively reduced to

14586-403: The siege and commenced a construction of a large mole to prevent supplies from getting into Carthage via blockade runners . The Carthaginians had partially rebuilt their fleet and it sortied , to the Romans' surprise; after an indecisive engagement the Carthaginians mismanaged their withdrawal and lost many ships. The Romans then built a large brick structure in the harbour area, which dominated

14729-543: The so-called sovereign pentapolis , formed by the cities of Cyrene (near the modern village of Shahat), its port of Apollonia , Arsinoe (Tocra), Berenice (near modern Benghazi) and Barce ( Marj ), that will be transformed into a Roman province a couple of decades later in 74 BC. The Roman advance southward, however, was stopped by the Garamantes . Cyrenaica had become part of the Roman Egypt already from

14872-442: The status of a group of mere provinces did not go down well with the Roman Senate, and the innovation did not long outlive Hadrian's reign. Hadrian fell ill around this time; whatever the nature of his illness, it did not stop him from setting off in the spring of 128 to visit Africa. His arrival coincided with the good omen of rain, which ended a drought. Along with his usual role as benefactor and restorer, he found time to inspect

15015-423: The strongest was a brick-built wall 9 metres (30 ft) wide and 15–20 metres (50–70 ft) high with a 20-metre -wide (70 ft) ditch in front of it. Built into this wall was a barracks capable of holding over 24,000 soldiers. The city had few reliable sources of ground water, but possessed a complex system to catch and channel rainwater and a large number of cisterns to store it. The Carthaginians raised

15158-422: The third-most important city in Africa, rivaling Carthage and Alexandria . In 205, he and the imperial family visited the city and received great honors. Among the changes that Severus introduced to this city were to create a magnificent new forum and to rebuild the docks. He enriched all Libya, but mainly Tripolitania, defending it with an enlarged Limes Tripolitanus against the Garamantes : this powerful tribe

15301-410: The time of Ptolemy I Soter , despite frequent revolts and usurpations. In 74 BC, the new province was established, governed by a legate of praetorian rank ( Legatus pro praetor ) and accompanied by a quaestor ( quaestor pro praetor ), but in 20 BC Cyrenaica was united to the island of Crete in the new province of Creta et Cyrenaica , because of the common Greek heritage. The territory of Cyrenaica

15444-464: The time of his quaestorship, in 100 or 101, Hadrian had married Trajan's seventeen- or eighteen-year-old grandniece, Vibia Sabina . Trajan himself seems to have been less than enthusiastic about the marriage, and with good reason, as the couple's relationship would prove to be scandalously poor. The marriage might have been arranged by Trajan's empress, Plotina. This highly cultured, influential woman shared many of Hadrian's values and interests, including

15587-554: The training of young men from well-bred families for the Roman military. Cyrene had benefited earlier in Hadrian's reign (in 119) from his restoration of public buildings destroyed during the earlier, Trajanic Jewish revolt. Birley describes this kind of investment as "characteristic of Hadrian". When Hadrian arrived on the Euphrates , he personally negotiated a settlement with the Parthian King Osroes I , inspected

15730-426: The troops in acclaiming him emperor was due to the belief that the state could not be without an emperor". The new emperor rewarded the legions' loyalty with the customary bonus , and the Senate endorsed the acclamation. Various public ceremonies were organised on Hadrian's behalf, celebrating his "divine election" by all the gods, whose community now included Trajan, deified at Hadrian's request. Hadrian remained in

15873-444: The troops; his speech to them survives. Hadrian returned to Italy in the summer of 128, but his stay was brief, as he set off on another tour that would last three years. In September 128, Hadrian attended the Eleusinian Mysteries again. This time his visit to Greece seems to have concentrated on Athens and Sparta – the two ancient rivals for dominance of Greece. Hadrian had played with the idea of focusing his Greek revival around

16016-453: The upper class of Roman society. One author has proposed to consider them part of the " Ulpio - Aelian dynasty". Hadrian's parents died in 86 when he was ten years old. He and his sister became wards of Trajan and Publius Acilius Attianus (who later became Trajan's Praetorian prefect ). Hadrian was physically active and enjoyed hunting; when he was 14, Trajan called him to Rome and arranged his further education in subjects appropriate to

16159-558: The usual right to conscript enough men to make up the numbers of the forces there, and the unusual entitlement to enroll volunteers. Meanwhile, early in 147 BC Mancinius seized an unexpected opportunity to capture a sally port and forced 3,500 men into the city, 3,000 of whom were lightly-armed and armoured sailors. Mancinius sent messages asking for reinforcements. Sources have Scipio arriving at Utica that evening to take up his post. He sailed overnight for Carthage and arrived just in time to evacuate Mancinius's hard-pressed force as it

16302-510: The vast resources at his command to ensure that the job would be finished. On his return to Italy, Hadrian made a detour to Sicily . Coins celebrate him as the restorer of the island. Back in Rome, he saw the rebuilt Pantheon and his completed villa at nearby Tibur , among the Sabine Hills . In early March 127 Hadrian set off on a tour of Italy; his route has been reconstructed through the evidence of his gifts and donations. He restored

16445-412: The walls, in view of the Roman army. He was reinforcing the will to resist in the Carthaginian citizens; from this point there could be no possibility of negotiation or even surrender. Some members of the city council denounced his actions and Hasdrubal had them too put to death and took full control of the city. The renewed close siege cut off landward entry to the city, but a tight seaward interdiction

16588-525: The war to the Roman Senate omitted the customary salutation, "If you and your children are in health, it is well; I and the legions are in health." The rebellion was quashed by 135. According to Cassius Dio . Beitar , a fortified city 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southwest of Jerusalem, fell after a three-and-a-half-year siege. Roman war operations in Judea left some 580,000 Jews dead and 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed. An unknown proportion of

16731-401: Was Aulus Cornelius Palma who as a former conqueror of Arabia Nabatea would have retained a stake in the East. The Historia Augusta describes Palma and a third executed senator, Lucius Publilius Celsus (consul for the second time in 113), as Hadrian's personal enemies, who had spoken in public against him. The fourth was Gaius Avidius Nigrinus , an ex-consul, intellectual, friend of Pliny

16874-900: Was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica , close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica ; his branch of the Aelia gens , the Aeli Hadriani , came from the town of Hadria in eastern Italy. He was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty . Early in his political career, Hadrian married Vibia Sabina , grandniece of the ruling emperor, Trajan . The marriage and Hadrian's later succession as emperor were probably promoted by Trajan's wife Pompeia Plotina . Soon after his own succession, Hadrian had four leading senators unlawfully put to death, probably because they seemed to threaten

17017-500: Was rebuilt as a Roman city . The main source for almost every aspect of the Third Punic War is the historian Polybius ( c.  200 – c.  118 BC ), a Greek sent to Rome in 167 BC as a hostage. His works include a now-lost manual on military tactics , but he is now known for The Histories , written sometime after 146 BC. Polybius's work is considered broadly objective and largely neutral as between Carthaginian and Roman points of view. Polybius

17160-618: Was a client state of the Roman Empire, but as nomads they always endangered the fertile area of coastal Tripolitania. Indeed, the limes was expanded under emperors Hadrian and Septimius Severus, in particular under the legatus Quintus Anicius Faustus in 197-201 AD. Anicius Faustus was appointed legatus of the Legio III Augusta and built several defensive forts of the Limes Tripolitanus in Tripolitania, among which Garbia and Golaia (actual Bu Ngem) in order to protect

17303-575: Was a major exporter of agricultural products, as well as a centre for the gold and slaves conveyed to the coast by the Garamentes, while Cyrenaica remained an important source of wines, drugs, and horses. After Septimius Severus Roman Libya slowly declined for the next century of so, before being destroyed by the tsunami of 365 AD . A recovery faltered, and well before the Arab invasion in the mid-7th century, Greco-Roman civilization had been collapsing in

17446-436: Was all but impossible with the naval technology of the time. Frustrated at the amount of food being shipped into the city, Scipio started to build an immense mole to cut off access to the harbour. As work on this progressed, the Carthaginians responded by cutting a new channel from their harbour to the sea. They had built a new fleet of 50 triremes  – medium-sized, manoeuvrable, oared warships – and

17589-408: Was an analytical historian and wherever possible personally interviewed participants, from both sides, in the events he wrote about. He accompanied the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus during his campaign in North Africa which resulted in the storming of Carthage and Roman victory in the war. The accuracy of Polybius's account has been much debated over the past 150 years, but the modern consensus

17732-700: Was as ab actis senatus , keeping the Senate's records. During the First Dacian War , Hadrian took the field as a member of Trajan's personal entourage, but was excused from his military post to take office in Rome as tribune of the plebs , in 105. After the war, he was probably elected praetor . During the Second Dacian War , Hadrian was in Trajan's personal service again. He was released to serve as legate of Legio I Minervia , then as governor of Lower Pannonia in 107, tasked with "holding back

17875-469: Was back in Rome; he was elected quaestor , then quaestor imperatoris Traiani , liaison officer between Emperor and the assembled Senate, to whom he read the Emperor's communiqués and speeches – which he possibly composed on the emperor's behalf. In his role as imperial ghostwriter , Hadrian took the place of the recently deceased Licinius Sura, Trajan's all-powerful friend and kingmaker. His next post

18018-540: Was badly situated and by early summer was so pestiferous that it was moved to a healthier location. This, however, was not as defensible, and the Carthaginians inflicted losses on the Roman fleet with fireships . Separately, a night attack was launched against Manilius's camp; a dangerous outcome for the Romans was again averted by Scipio's prompt action. The Romans made repetitions of these attacks more difficult by building additional field fortifications. The Romans elected two new consuls in 148 BC, but only one of them

18161-534: Was characterized by the contrast between the coastal towns of the Pentapolis, inhabited by Greeks, and the territories inhabited by Libyans. The first had preserved their own institutions and were joined in an association, while their independence was recognized by the Ptolemaic Constitution of 248 BC. In some of these cities there was a huge minority of the population made of Hebrews , who were organized with their own rules. The few Roman citizens in

18304-422: Was complex and may have been difficult. Hadrian seems to have sought influence over Trajan, or Trajan's decisions, through cultivation of the latter's boy favourites; this gave rise to some unexplained quarrel, around the time of Hadrian's marriage to Sabina. Late in Trajan's reign, Hadrian failed to achieve a senior consulship, being only suffect consul for 108; this gave him parity of status with other members of

18447-487: Was customary, he had to leave Dacia, and Trajan, to take up the appointment; Trajan might simply have wanted him out of the way. The Historia Augusta describes Trajan's gift to Hadrian of a diamond ring that Trajan himself had received from Nerva , which "encouraged [Hadrian's] hopes of succeeding to the throne". While Trajan actively promoted Hadrian's advancement, he did so with caution. Failure to nominate an heir could invite chaotic, destructive wresting of power by

18590-403: Was expelled by a Carthaginian counterattack. Scipio moved the Roman main camp back to near Carthage, closely observed by a Carthaginian detachment of 8,000. He made a speech demanding tighter discipline and dismissed those soldiers he considered ill-disciplined or poorly motivated. He then led a night march with a strong force that culminated in an assault against what the Romans considered to be

18733-459: Was granted Athenian citizenship and was appointed eponymous archon of Athens for a brief time (in 112). The Athenians awarded him a statue with an inscription in the Theatre of Dionysus ( IG II2 3286) offering a detailed account of his cursus honorum thus far. Thereafter, no more is heard of him until Trajan's Parthian campaign . It is possible that he remained in Greece until his recall to

18876-461: Was his close friend, a leading figure of the equestrian order, a senior court judge and a procurator . As Hadrian also forbade equestrians to try cases against senators, the Senate retained full legal authority over its members; it also remained the highest court of appeal, and formal appeals to the emperor regarding its decisions were forbidden. If this was an attempt to repair the damage done by Attianus, with or without Hadrian's full knowledge, it

19019-501: Was narrow and deliberately archaising; he defined "Greekness" in terms of classical roots, rather than a broader, Hellenistic culture. Some cities with a dubious claim to Greekness, however – such as Side – were acknowledged as fully Hellenic. The German sociologist Georg Simmel remarked that the Panhellenion was based on "games, commemorations, preservation of an ideal, an entirely non-political Hellenism". Hadrian bestowed honorific titles on many regional centres. Palmyra received

19162-477: Was no military threat to Rome. Nevertheless, elements in the Roman Senate had long wished to destroy Carthage, and, using the illicit Carthaginian military action as a pretext, began preparing a punitive expedition. Carthaginian embassies attempted to negotiate with Rome, but when the large North African port city of Utica went over to Rome in 149 BC the Senate and the People's Assembly declared war. It

19305-468: Was no public trial for the four – they were tried in absentia , hunted down and killed. Hadrian claimed that Attianus had acted on his own initiative, and rewarded him with senatorial status and consular rank; then pensioned him off, no later than 120. Hadrian assured the senate that henceforth their ancient right to prosecute and judge their own would be respected. The reasons for these four executions remain obscure. Official recognition of Hadrian as

19448-424: Was not enough; Hadrian's reputation and relationship with his Senate were irredeemably soured, for the rest of his reign. Some sources describe Hadrian's occasional recourse to a network of informers, the frumentarii , to discreetly investigate persons of high social standing, including senators and his close friends. Hadrian was to spend more than half his reign outside Italy. Whereas previous emperors had, for

19591-525: Was recreated as a political entity in 1934 (with a name borrowed from the Diocletian reforms). Life in Roman Libya was concentrated around a few coastal cities, mostly founded by Greeks and Phoenicians : Destruction of Carthage 450,000–750,000 killed The siege of Carthage was the main engagement of the Third Punic War fought between Carthage and Rome . It consisted of

19734-414: Was restricted to 10 warships. It was prohibited from waging war outside Africa, and in Africa only with Rome's express permission. Many senior Carthaginians wanted to reject it, but Hannibal spoke strongly in its favour and it was accepted in spring 201 BC. Henceforth, it was clear that Carthage was politically subordinate to Rome. At the end of the war, the Roman ally Masinissa emerged as by far

19877-416: Was sent to Africa: Calpurnius Piso ; Lucius Mancinus commanded the navy as his subordinate. He pulled back the close siege of Carthage to a looser blockade and attempted to mop up the other Carthaginian-supporting cities in the area but failed. Meanwhile, Hasdrubal, commander of the Carthaginian field army, overthrew the civilian leadership of Carthage and took command himself. A Numidian chief came over to

20020-460: Was signed not by Trajan but by Plotina. That Hadrian was still in Syria was a further irregularity, as Roman adoption law required the presence of both parties at the adoption ceremony. Rumours, doubts, and speculation attended Hadrian's adoption and succession. It has been suggested that Trajan's young manservant Phaedimus, who died very soon after Trajan, was killed (or killed himself) rather than face awkward questions. Ancient sources are divided on

20163-556: Was still in ruins after the First Roman–Jewish War of 66–73. He may have planned to rebuild Jerusalem as a Roman colony  – as Vespasian had done with Caesarea Maritima  – with various honorific and fiscal privileges. The non-Roman population would have no obligation to participate in Roman religious rituals but were expected to support the Roman imperial order; this is attested in Caesarea, where some Jews served in

20306-420: Was the long-standing Roman procedure to elect two men each year, known as consuls , to each lead an army. A large Roman army landed at Utica in 149 BC under both consuls for the year, Manius Manilius commanding the army and Lucius Censorius the fleet. The Carthaginians continued to attempt to appease Rome, and sent an embassy to Utica. The consuls demanded that they hand over all weaponry, and reluctantly

20449-477: Was transferred to Legio XXII Primigenia and a third tribunate. Hadrian's three tribunates gave him some career advantage. Most scions of the older senatorial families might serve one, or at most two, military tribunates as a prerequisite to higher office. When Nerva died in 98, Hadrian is said to have hastened to Trajan, to inform him ahead of the official envoy sent by the governor, Hadrian's brother-in-law and rival Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus. In 101, Hadrian

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