238
HADBIAN⅛ TRAVELS.
favour of the subjects themselves or of the publicani, I can-
not say.3 Hadrian conferred great blessings on every part of
the empire, and travelled through all the provinces, from the
cataracts of the Nile to the frontiers of Scotland. There was pro-
bably not one province of his empire which he did not visit.
In Britain, he erected the great bulwark against the Caledo-
nians, from the Solway to the river Tyne: and the province of
Britain now began to become Eomanised, though the Gaelic
and Cymric elements still continued to maintain themselves by
the side of the Romans.
But it was more especially upon Athens and Greece in general
that Hadrian bestowed his favours and benevolence ; for he had
an enthusiastic partiality for everything Greek. The number
and the splendour of the buildings which he erected at Athens,
reminded the people of the days of Pericles. He completed the
Olympieum; built theatres and temples: and, in short, quite a
new town, the town of Hadrian, rose by the side of Athens.
He further shewed his tender attachment to that city by
assuming the dignity of archon eponymus.
In this manner, the greater part of his reign passed away in
a scries of benevolent acts. During the latter years of his life,
however, his health began to decline ; and he sank into a state
of melancholy, in which he endeavoured to obtain aid and sup-
port, by choosing a successor on the one hand, while on the
other he allowed himself to be hurried, by fits of anger and
mistrust, into acts of cruelty which disgrace his memory. If we
consider what the Roman senators were at that time, and what
claims and pretensions they made, we can hardly wonder that
any prince, and even a very good and able one, should feel a
strong hatred towards them. They were immensely rich, arro-
gant, and disagreeable; and their dignity had already become
hereditary in their families. A young man, L-AeliusVerus,
was now adopted by Hadrian, and destined to be his successor.
Enormous sums were given on that occasion to the soldiers as
a conyiarium. Hadrian was unaccountably deceived in regard
to the character of Verus, who, however, died before the em-
peror. Hadrian then adopted in his stead T. Antoninus Pius,
3 The history of the financial affairs of Rome under the empire is not yet
written: but it is a fine subject; and a person who would undertake to write
upon it might arrive at very satisfactory results. What Savigny has written on
the land-tax (in his Essayu Ueber die Romische Steuerverfassungn printed in the
Abhandl. der Berlin. Akadcmie of the years 1822 and 23) is most excellent.—N∙
Jueispbudence and liteeatuee.
239
a thoroughly spotless man, a grandson of Arrius Antoninus,
the friend of the emperor Nerva.
It is one of the remarkable phenomena of the reign of Hadrian,
that in it Roman jurisprudence received its first development as
a science, and assumed the form in which we afterwards find it.
A collection of laws was made under the title of “ Edictum
Perpetuum," by which the Roman legislation became confined
to the edicts of the emperor; and the responsa, which had for-
merly been considered only as the opinions of the sapientes,
now became real authorities in matters of law, when they were
given in the name of the emperor. This “ Edictum Perpetuum"
forms an aera in the history of Roman jurisprudence. Some
emperors before Hadrian, and even Augustus himself, had had
a sort of state council ; but it had always borne the character of
something arbitrary, until Hadrian gave to the Consistorium
principis a stability and a regular organisation, of which it had
formerly been destitute.4 The praefectus praetorio, who hitherto
had always been a military person, was now obliged to be a
jurist, and was the princeps of this state council. This regula-
tion, which, singularly enough, is completely oriental, was
unquestionably made as early as the time of Hadrian. Hence-
forth, men like Ulpian, Papinian, and Paullus, may be looked
upon as real ministers of justice.
The downward tendency of literature assumed under Hadrian
a still more decided character than it had before exhibited. If
we examine the inscriptions which were made in his time; for
instance those on the tombs along the Appian road, we find in
some extremely barbarous Latin; the grammatical forms are
neglected, and the use of the cases is in utter confusion. I have
seen one which is written in a true lingua rustica? Such in-
scriptions occur, indeed, only here and there; and the books
written during this period were composed in a correct language ;
but they shew, nevertheless the condition into which Rome had
sunk by the decrease of its free population, the place of which
was occupied by myriads of slaves and freedmen who spoke a
lingua vulgaris or rustica, just as is the case with the language
4 Spartian. Hadrian, 18; Dion Cass. Ixix. 7.
s The phenomenon is analogous to that which we sec, for example, in letters
written by our common people, who are not only ignorant of orthography, but
use vulgar and provincial expressions. In hke manner, there are inscriptions
in Egypt which are called Greek, but are entirely barbarous.—N.