An Emperor of the People and For the People

Hadrian was a complex man who inherited a complex empire. Upon becoming emperor in 117, he faced a series of both short-term and long-term challenges to successful rule. In the shorter term, memories of the civil wars that arose after the death of Nero (r. 54–68) were still fresh in his subject's minds, and there was still considerable antipathy felt by the upper orders at what they had perceived to be their domination by the victors in those wars—the Flavian dynasty, consisting of emperors Vespasian (r. 69–79), Titus (r. 79–81) and Domitian (r. 89–96). As a result, after Domitian's death, the Senate hastily named one of its own number, the elderly Nerva (r. 96–98), as a corrective to the military rule of the Flavians. Nerva, perhaps forced by his own Praetorian Guard, soon named the general Trajan (r. 98–117) as his successor. Trajan recognized the tension between the Senate and the army and, after consolidating his power on the German frontier, he set out to win the hearts of the Senate while expanding the empire's borders in the East. For this, the Senate named him the optimus princeps (“best prince”). Hadrian's prospects for a successful reign therefore depended upon his ability to rule with authority, yet without alienating the Roman upper classes as the Flavians had done. A long-term challenge faced him as well, concerning the peculiar way imperial power itself had been structured and exercised for over a century prior to his reign. It was Octavian Augustus (r. 27 BCE–14 CE) who created Rome's system of rule after the collapse of the Roman Republic and his imposition of what we today call the Roman Empire. Governing the empire required retaining power over four basic institutions of Roman society and politics: the army; the magistrates in general and above all the Senate; the people as a whole and, more specifically, the tribunes who represented their interests; and various powerbrokers of provinces. No emperor after Augustus had been quite as successful in dominating these four constituencies and thereby retaining the political right to be Rome's princeps (“first citizen”) and imperator (emperor) as he had been.