On August 12 AD 117, Marcus Ulpius Phaedimus, a twenty-eight-year-old freedman and personal servant of Trajan, died in Selinus, Cilicia. This occurred just a few days after Trajan’s death and only one day after Hadrian received the news of Trajan’s passing. This coincidence added to the mystery surrounding the circumstances of Hadrian’s adoption.
Phaedimus, who had presumably travelled with Trajan throughout the East, was with the imperial entourage at Selinus when they were put ashore at the harbour due to the emperor’s worsening health condition. A funerary epitaph, discovered in modern times in Rome (CIL VI 1884) and now housed in the Lapidary Gallery of the Vatican Museums, lists Phaedimus’s roles as the emperor’s chief of the table and wine cabinet, as well as a personal attendant and secretary.
Latin transcript: M(arco) Ulpio Aug(usti) lib(erto) Phaedimo / divi Traiani Aug(usti) a potione / item a laguna et tricliniarch(a) / lictori proximo et a comment(ariis) beneficiorum vixit ann(os) XXVIII / abscessit Selinunte pri(die) Idus Augus(tas) / Nigro et Aproniano co(n)s(ulibus) / reliquiae treiectae eius III Nonas Febr(uarias) ex permissu / collegii pontific(um) piaculo facto / Catullino et Apro co(n)s(ulibus) / dulcissimae memoriae eius / Valens Aug(usti) lib(ertus) Phaedimianus / a veste ben(e) mer(enti) fecit
Wall 37, position 44 – Cat. 6961 – Vatican Museums
© Governorate of Vatican City State
Translation: To [the memory of] Marcus Ulpius Phaedimus, imperial freedman, sommelier and head butler of the deified Trajan; chief lictor [official attendant of senior Roman officeholders] and secretary for grants and promotions. He lived for twenty-eight years and died at Selinus on August 12 in the consulships of Niger and Apronianus [AD 117]. His remains were removed [to Rome, where the epitaph was found] by permission of the College of Pontiffs after an atonement sacrifice had been made in the consulships of Catullinus and Aper [AD 130].
The epitaph provides crucial information about the date of Phaedimus’ death, which occurred on August 12 during the consulships of Niger and Apronianus, specifically in the year 117. The inscription also indicates that his remains were transported to Rome twelve years later, on February 130, during the consulships of Catullinus and Aper. His remains were transferred to Rome and buried by his fellow freedman, Valens Phaedimianus. His name suggests that he had been a slave of Phaedimus before becoming a ward of the emperor as a wardrobe-keeper (veste).
Numerous questions arise from the information we gather about this epitaph. Why did it take twelve years for his body to be returned to Rome? Was it merely a coincidence that Phaedimus died the day after Hadrian received the news of Trajan’s death? Did Phaedimus fall victim to the same infection that claimed the life of his master, Trajan? Were they both poisoned? Did he take his own life out of grief, or was he silenced by Hadrian’s entourage?
These details have encouraged sceptical scholars to support the doubts raised by several ancient writers regarding the authenticity of Hadrian’s adoption by Trajan. Some scholars argued that Phaedimus had learned somehow that Trajan had died without adopting Hadrian, or even that he may have been assassinated. They believe that Plotina and Attianus had Phaedimus eliminated to prevent him from revealing too much information.
A more rational explanation suggested that Phaedimus did not die from murder but instead succumbed to the same disease that Trajan contracted in the East. However, this does not clarify why his remains were not returned to Rome until AD 130.
The Vatican website indicates that there are two other known examples of the inscription.
Sources & references:
- Epitaph of a lictor – Vatican Museums Cat. 6961 (link)
- E. Mary Smallwood, Documents Illustrating the Principates of Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian, 176.
- Birley, Anthony R. (1997). Hadrian. The restless emperor (p. 80)
- Everitt, Anthony (2009). Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome (p. 166-7)
thank you