Late September AD 117 – Hadrian receives the Senate’s response to his letter (#Hadrian1900)

After the death of Trajan on 8 August AD 117, Hadrian drafted a carefully worded letter to the Senate in Rome. In this letter, he reported his accession to the throne and requested divine honours for his adoptive father, Trajan. Hadrian also apologised for assuming the imperial title based solely on the acclamation of the army, explaining that the empire could not be left without an emperor.

The response Hadrian received by late September, while still in Antioch, was favourable. The Senate approved the deification (divanos honores) of the optimus princeps and granted other honours that went beyond Hadrian’s request.

“This request he obtained by a unanimous vote; indeed, the senate voluntarily voted Trajan many more honours than Hadrian had requested.” HA Hadr. 6.1

The new emperor was offered a Triumph (cum triumphum) to mark Trajan’s victories in the East, but declined the offer. Instead, Hadrian authorised one for his deceased adoptive father, who would be represented as an effigy carried in a triumphal chariot.

“When the senate offered him the triumph which was to have been Trajan’s, he [Hadrian] refused it for himself, and caused the effigy of the dead Emperor to be carried in a triumphal chariot, in order that the best of emperors might not lose even after death the honour of a triumph.” HA Hadr. 6.3

Trajan’s triumph and the official ceremony of his apotheosis would have to wait until after the return of Hadrian to the capital (9 July AD 118). Yet Trajan was already a god. As referred to on a papyrus dated to shortly after September AD 117 (P.Giss. 3) and previously mentioned here, the consecration of the deceased Emperor was already celebrated at Heptakomia in Egypt. This papyrus seems to be an official draft for the celebration of Hadrian’s accession and contains part of a dramatic performance between Apollo and the responding voice of the people. The god Apollo praises Trajan who has just become divine and declares (translation of J.P. Alexander, 1938): «Having just mounted aloft with Trajan’s in my chariot of white horses, I come to you, oh people, I, Phoebus [Apollo] by no means an unknown god, to proclaim the new ruler Hadrian, who all things serve on account of his virtue and the genius of his divine father». The recording of Trajan’s deification would later appear on a reverse aureus of Hadrian with the legend Divo Traiano.

The Senate also immediately offered Hadrian the title of Pater Patriae (father of the fatherland), which he initially refused. Like many of his predecessors, Hadrian waited a decent interval before accepting the title in AD 128.

“Also, he refused for the present the title of Father of his Country, offered to him at the time of his accession and again later on, giving as his reason the fact that Augustus had not won it until late in life.” HA Hadr. 6.4

Meanwhile, Plotina, the widow of Trajan, was transporting her husband’s ashes from Seleucia Pieria to Rome in a golden urn. According to W. Kierdorf, if the journey took no more than a month, Plotina would have arrived in Rome by the time Hadrian received the Senate’s response to his letter. Did Plotina immediately place the ashes in the pedestal of Trajan’s column?

Ancient sources indicate that Trajan’s ashes were buried beneath his Column in the Forum. Therefore, it has long been believed that Trajan’s Column serves as his final resting place.

“The bones of Trajan were deposited in his Column, and the Parthian Games, as they were called, continued for a number of years.” Dio 69.2.3

“The ashes of his burnt body were transferred to Rome and buried in the Forum of Trajan under his Column, and an effigy that was put on top was carried into the city on a chariot, just as is done with triumphators; the senate and the army opened the procession.” Epitome de Caesaribus 13.11

The burial of Trajan’s remains inside his Column was a very unusual choice and contrary to Roman practice since the Column stood within the pomerium (the boundary of the city proper), where burial was normally forbidden. At the time of his death, Trajan had not made funeral arrangements, so perhaps the Senate permitted it by special decree, a distinction which none of his predecessors had had. Alternatively, as proposed by Amanda Claridge, this could have been an additional honor granted by the Senate, which Hadrian did not request in his letter.

The fact that Trajan was buried beneath his column has been a topic of scholarly debate. Amanda Claridge argues that the chamber within Trajan’s Column is too small to serve as an imperial burial site. She contends that “Trajan’s tomb must have been a separate installation located in full view on the outside of the Column.”

As for Trajan’s triumph and his funeral procession, when did they actually take place? Did they occur simultaneously, or were they two separate ceremonies? A posthumous triumph had no precedent in Rome. Modern scholars have differing opinions on this matter. W. Kierdorf believes that the ceremony of consecration was combined with the posthumous triumph, which occurred in autumn AD 117, before Hadrian’s return to Rome. W. den Boer, however, argues that triumph and consecration were distinct events, separated for both political and religious reasons, and that they did not take place until after Hadrian returned in the summer of 118. Additionally, Amanda Claridge suggests that Trajan’s posthumous triumph might have been “something else,” as an effigy could not perform the ceremonial duties, including a sacrifice to Jupiter that was traditionally conducted by the living triumphator.

In any case, the posthumous triumph was commemorated on a rare aureus. On the obverse, it features the head of Trajan, accompanied by the inscription Divo Traiano Parth(ico) Aug(usto) Patri. The reverse depicts a four-horse chariot driven by the deceased Emperor, who is holding a laurel branch and a sceptre, with the inscription triumphus Parthicus.

Sources & references:

• Birley, A.R. (1997). Hadrian: The Restless Emperor, London, Roman Imperial Biographies, pp. 99-100.
• Den Boer, W. (1975). Trajan’s deification and Hadrian’s succession, Ancient Society 6, 203–12.
• Claridge, A. (2013). Hadrian’s Succession and the Monuments of Trajan in Hadrian: Art, Politics, and Economy, London: The British Museum.
• Kierdorf, W.  (1986). Apotheose und postumer Triumph Trajans, Tyche 1.
• Historia Augusta, The Life of Hadrian (link)
• Cassius Dio 69.2.3 (link)