On 9 August AD 117, Trajan’s letter of adoption (litteras adoptionis) was made public when it reached Hadrian in Antioch. Hadrian was now Caesar.
As mentioned earlier (see here), there had been some uncertainty about whether Trajan had adopted Hadrian as his son and successor before his death or if Plotina staged the adoption. The ancient sources give us two different versions of this event. The ancient sources present two conflicting accounts of this event. The author of the Historia Augusta, writing long after the actual events, confirms that Hadrian was adopted. In contrast, Cassius Dio, who also wrote after the events took place, denies the adoption.
On the fifth day before the Ides of August, while he was governor of Syria, he learned of his adoption by Trajan, and he later gave orders to celebrate this day as the anniversary of his adoption. HA Hadr. 4.6-7
Hadrian had not been adopted by Trajan; he was merely a compatriot and former ward of his, was of near kin to him and had married his niece, — in short, he was a companion of his, sharing his daily life and had been assigned to Syria for the Parthian War. Dio 69.1
If the HA statement is accurate, it suggests that Trajan adopted Hadrian several days before his death, since one must allow at least two days for the letter to be delivered from Selinus to Antioch, located 400 kilometres away. Consequently, the adoption was likely not posthumous, and the rumours surrounding it were baseless. Most modern scholars have come to the same conclusion and have confidence in the authenticity of Hadrian’s adoption by Trajan.
Soon after, arrangements were made for the imperial mint in Rome to issue coinage for distribution throughout the Empire. ADOPTIO became the central theme of the earliest coins of Hadrian’s reign.
AR Denarius. Eastern (Antioch?) mint. Struck AD 117. RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 2959.
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Coin from the author’s collection.
Another coin that may have reinforced Hadrian’s legitimacy to the succession is a gold aureus inscribed with the legend “ADRIANO TRAIANO CAESARI.” Anthony R. Birley mentions it in his biography of Hadrian, noting that it was minted in late summer AD 117. The coin features a partly draped bust of Hadrian wearing a laurel wreath on one side, while the other side displays a bust of Trajan, who is also adorned with a laurel wreath.
Hadrian later ordered that August 9 be celebrated as the anniversary of his adoption.
- Birley, A.R. (1997). Hadrian The Restless Emperor, London, Roman Imperial Biographies pp. 77-80
- Burnett, A. (2008). The Early Coinage of Hadrian and the Deified Trajan at Rome and Alexandria. American Journal of Numismatics (1989-), vol. 20, 2008, pp. 459–477. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43580323.
- Historia Augusta, The Life of Hadrian (link)
- Cassius Dio 69.1 (link)
Reblogged this on Verba Volant Monumenta Manent
I have an intense wonder about what Hadrian’s antecedents would have thought of his reign–Pericles and Alexander, Scipio and Octavian . . . And what he would think about history’s generous assessment of his legacy, even rwo millenia later.