Early life
Hadrian’s Roman forebears left Picenum in
Italy
for southern Spain about 250 years before his birth. His father was from Italica, Baetica (modern
Andalusia
), and his mother from Gades (
Cadiz
). Hadrian’s birthplace remains a matter of dispute, some sources locating it in his father’s hometown of Italica and others claiming that he was born in Rome.
His father died in 85, and Hadrian was entrusted to the care of two men: one, a cousin of his father, later became the emperor
Trajan
, and the other,
Acilius Attianus, later served as
prefect
of the emperor’s
Praetorian Guard
early in Hadrian’s own reign. In 90 Hadrian visited
Italica
, where he remained for several years. There he received some kind of military training and also developed a fondness for hunting that he kept for the rest of his life.
Rise to power
When Trajan was
consul
in 91, Hadrian began to follow the traditional career of a
Roman senator
, advancing through a
conventional
series of posts. He was military
tribune
with three Roman
legions
. In about 95 he served with the Legion II Adjutrix in the
province
of Upper Moesia, on the
Danube River
, whence he transferred in the next year to Lower Moesia (with the Fifth Macedonica). Toward the end of 97, Hadrian was chosen to go west to
Gaul
to convey congratulations to Trajan, whom the aged emperor
Nerva
had just adopted and thereby designated his successor. Trajan’s ward now belonged to the governing circles of the empire. Inevitably, hostility and envy awaited him. In 98 Julius
Servianus, his brother-in-law, attempted unsuccessfully to prevent him from being the first to inform Trajan of Nerva’s death. Thereafter, the two men were probably never on
cordial
terms, for Servianus posed a constant threat to Hadrian’s position.
Britannica Quiz
The Roman Empire
The greatest single political figure behind the emperor Trajan was the man who had masterminded his elevation,
Lucius Licinius Sura. Hadrian enjoyed Sura’s favour, and, as long as he was alive, Hadrian prospered. Trajan’s wife,
Plotina
, seems also to have been close to Sura and a partisan of Hadrian. For a time Servianus could do no harm. Through Plotina’s favour, Hadrian married Trajan’s grand-niece, Vibia Sabina, in 100. In 101 Hadrian was
quaestor
and in 102 served as Trajan’s companion in the emperor’s first war in
Dacia
on the Danube. In 105 Hadrian became tribune of the
plebs
and, exceptionally, advanced to the
praetorship
in 106. No less exceptional than the speed of promotion was Hadrian’s service as
praetor
while in the field with the emperor during his second war in Dacia. In 107 he was briefly governor of Lower Pannonia. Then, in 108, Hadrian reached the coveted
pinnacle
of a senator’s career, the consulate. In 107
Licinius
Sura had held that office for the third time, an honour vouchsafed to very few. It was a cruel blow when Sura died at an unknown date immediately following Hadrian’s consulate.
Hadrian’s career apparently stopped for nearly 10 years. Other promising young Romans suffered a similar retardation at about the same time. It would appear that a new political influence, opposed to Sura, Plotina, and Hadrian, dominated Trajan’s court after Sura’s death. Perhaps Servianus played some role. One fact
illuminates
this otherwise obscure period of Hadrian’s life: he was
archon
at
Athens
in 112, and a surviving inscription
commemorating
this office was set up in the
Theatre of Dionysus
. Hadrian’s
tenure
is a portent of the
philhellenism
that characterized his reign, and it suggests that in a time of political inactivity Hadrian devoted himself to the nation and
culture
of his beloved Greeks. Somehow, however, Hadrian’s star rose again, and he returned to favour before the emperor died.
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One source says that Hadrian was an officer under Trajan during the
Parthian
wars at the end of his reign. In 117, when Trajan began his journey westward, Hadrian was left in charge of the crucial army in
Syria
. Friends of Hadrian, whose careers had been held up, can also be discovered in sensitive commands at the same time, probably because Plotina and her associates had regained Trajan’s confidence. On August 9 Hadrian learned that Trajan had adopted him, the sign of succession. On the 11th, it was reported that Trajan had died on the way to Rome, whereupon the army proclaimed Hadrian emperor. The sequence of events has always provoked suspicion of a
conspiracy
on Plotina’s part, but the truth will never be known. Certainly, it was Trajan who had taken the fateful step of entrusting the army of Syria to Hadrian.