Notes

Not all of Rome’s leaders were so deeply flawed as the four men who followed Augustus. Historians have identified five emperors whose conduct, leadership, and vision expanded the empire, provided stability, and solidified Roman values and practices throughout the region. They reigned from 96 to 180 CE during which to be a Roman was to be part of the greatest culture on earth. They were Nerva (96–98), Trajan (98–117), Hadrian (117–138), Antoninus Pius (138–161), and Marcus Aurelius (161–180). We are going to concentrate on three of them, Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius.

In the nineteen years during which Trajan ruled, he expanded the empire from as far north as the border between modern day England and Scotland and as far east as Mesopotamia. Rome, seemingly, was everywhere. Marcus Ulpius Trajanus was born in Spain in 52 CE. He was the first Emperor to have been born outside of Italy. He made his way into power the way that many of Rome’s emperors did, through the army, but he is remembered for more than his many, many conquests. When his predecessor, Nerva, died in 98 CE, Trajan did not rush to Rome from Germany where he had been inspecting various legions. He finished his tasks and then took his time to return. Trajan's eventual entry into Rome in 99 CE was a triumph. Jubilant crowds rejoiced at his arrival. The new emperor entered the city on foot, he embraced each of the senators, and he even walked among the ordinary people. This was unlike any other Roman emperor and perhaps grants us a glimpse of Trajan's greatness.

Such modesty and openness easily helped the new emperor gain support during the first years of his reign. Such humility and respect for the senate as well as for the simple people were important traits. Trajan promised that he would always keep the senate informed about the affairs of government. He also declared that the emperor's right to rule had to be compatible with the freedom of the people who were ruled. The first cannot exist without the second.

As an emperor who was concerned with both good government and the public welfare, he instituted an excellent domestic policy - providing for the children of the poor, restoring the dilapidated road system, as well as building new bridges, aqueducts, public baths, and a modern port at Ostia. As a military commander, he was without equal, and his victories were etched onto a column, Trajan’s Column, that still stand in Rome today. Completed in 113 CE, the freestanding column is most famous for its spiral bas relief, which artistically describes the epic wars between the Romans and Dacians (101–102 and 105–106). Its design has inspired numerous victory columns, both ancient and modern. In the late fourth century, when the Roman Empire had dramatically changed in character from what it had been in Trajan's time, each new emperor was hailed with the prayer, “felicior Augusto, melior Traiano, "may he be luckier than Augustus and better than Trajan."

When he was only ten years old, Publius Aelius Hadrianus’s parents died, and the young boy was lucky to become the ward of the Emperor Trajan, a distant relative. Hadrian was educated by the best tutors in Rome, and being educated meant learning Greek. Greek literature, art, and music inspired him so much that some people called him Graeculus or "Greekling.” In fact, he traveled to Athens often, he built an enormous temple of Zeus there, and he even got elected as an archon in Athens as an Athenian citizen.

Hadrian married Trajan’s great niece Vibia Sabina in 100 CE, and when Trajan died in 117 CE, Hadrian was his successor. As emperor, Hadrian spent 12 of his 21 years in power on the road. He travelled through one province after another, visiting the various regions and cities and inspecting all the Roman garrisons and forts. Some of these he removed to more desirable places, some he abolished, and he also established some new ones. He personally viewed and investigated absolutely everything, not merely the usual aspects of the camps, such as weapons, engines, trenches, ramparts and palisades, but also the private affairs of the men serving in the ranks and of their officers, also. He was interested in their lives, their quarters and their habits, and he reformed (and corrected) practices and arrangements for living that had become too luxurious. He drilled the men for every kind of battle, and he served as their role model. He led a frugal and rigorous life and either walked or rode on horseback on all occasions, never once setting foot in either a chariot or a four-wheeled vehicle. He went bare-headed covered in German snows as well as the scorching Egyptian sun. Both by his example and by his designs, he trained and disciplined the whole of Rome’s army, so much so that the methods he introduced are still the soldier’s law of campaigning.

Although he was a talented and often brutal military commander, Hadrian is best known for his building campaign. The two most famous structures he built are Hadrian’s Wall in England, and the Pantheon, whose construction was started by Marcus Agrippa (yes, the man who married Augustus’s daughter, Julia).

Hadrian’s Wall runs 73 miles from the Irish Sea to the North Sea and was built to protect the Roman legions from raids by the various Pict tribes north of the wall. The 73 mile length was equivalent to 80 Roman miles. (The Roman mile was based on the distance that a legion of soldiers could march in 2,000 steps.) At every Roman mile along the Wall stood a milecastle, a fortified gateway which allowed Roman soldiers to go on patrol to the north of Hadrian’s Wall and control other people passing through the Wall. The wall was eight to ten feet wide and fifteen feet high in most places. Between the milecastles were two turrets at regular intervals from which soldiers could keep watch over the surrounding countryside. During the building of the Wall, sixteen forts were added, and each fort could house 800 soldiers and had its own prison, hospital, bakery and stables. The Romans began building the wall in 122 CE and finished about six years later. Hadrian’s Wall is largest structure ever made by the Romans. In the summertime in England, tourists often hike the entire trail; it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it even has its own app.

“Pan” means “many” and “theo” means “god” so the Pantheon was a temple where Romans could pray to all their Gods. The temple that Agrippa built burned down in 80 CE, and the structure the Emperor Domitian built was struck by lightning in 110 CE and also burned down. The structure which exists today was started during Trajan’s reign and was completed by Hadrian in 125 CE. What distinguished the Pantheon from other buildings of the time is its dome. We see domes everywhere: the US Capitol, the Kremlin, the Superdome in Louisiana, and Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The Romans, however, were master engineers, and the dome of the Pantheon is one of the marvels of the ancient world. With a diameter that measures 142 feet, the dome of the Roman Pantheon ranks as the world's largest dome made of unreinforced solid concrete.

The front of the Pantheon features Corinthian columns and other Greek architectural elements. As you move from the portico through the colonnade to the center of temple, you enter the rotunda under the dome. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 142 feet. The skilled builders of Rome applied advanced engineering to the Greek classical orders. They gave their Pantheon massive 25-foot thick walls to support a huge dome made of solid concrete. As the height of the dome rises, the concrete was mixed with lighter and lighter stone material; the top is largely pumice.

The ceiling of the Pantheon dome has five symmetrical rows of 28 coffers (sunken panels) and a round oculus (opening) at the center. Sunlight streaming through the oculus illuminates the Pantheon rotunda. The coffered ceiling and oculus were not only decorative, but lessened the weight load of the roof. The oculus is open to the elements; rainwater enters into the dome room and drains through the floor openings.

The geometry of the dome and the oculus sunlight moving throughout the interior walls have inspired authors, filmmakers, and architects. It was this domed ceiling most of all that influenced a young Thomas Jefferson, who brought the architectural idea to the new country in America.

The last of the Good Emperors was Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE) the Philosopher Emperor, who reigned from 161 to his death in 180. His early education was overseen by the Emperor Hadrian. He studied with the best possible tutors, which means that like Hadrian, he learned Greek. He became deeply interested in Stoicism, the Greek philosophy which believed in the ability of every human being, regardless of origin, background and circumstances, to live a useful and contented life. It would become his major source of inspiration and consolation. Marcus Aurelius was later adopted by the Emperor Antoninus Pius, the fourth of the Good Emperors, in 138, and he became Emperor himself in 161, initially alongside his brother Lucius Verus, and became sole Emperor in 169 when Lucius Verus died.

Continual attacks on Roman provinces meant that Marcus Aurelius spent much of his reign on the battlefield, especially in central Europe. There was also a serious famine and persistent outbreaks of plague, a type of smallpox, which took millions of lives. Somehow Marcus Aurelius managed to find time to write, in Greek, philosophical reflections on life, his famous Meditations. They were first published, in the 16th century, are were more sensibly given the title To Himself since he never planned for them to be published. In The Meditations, Marcus Aurelius mused on various aspects of human behavior and wrote as a way to reflect upon ways for him to improve himself and his relationships with other people.

Here is a small sample of what he wrote:

--Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
--You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
--Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under your observation in life.
--When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
--Our life is what our thoughts make it.
--Execute every act of your life as though it were your last.

Marcus Aurelius won glowing opinions for his intelligence, his efficiency, his skill in handling people, and his kindness. When he was struck by a last illness and knew that his end was near, he refrained from taking and food or water to hasten his death. All the wisdom that he had gained he could not pass on to his son Commodus, however, who, as the next emperor, was one of the most brutal and vicious Rome ever knew.