A Forbidden History.The Hadrian enigma

by George Gardiner

  Some Athenian youths walked similarly with male friends, possibly indicating an amorous liaison or at least an eromenos/erastes relationship, but this was so at Bithynia too.

  Foreign visitors to Athens register their arrival with their national proxenos to record the purpose of their journey for the civil authorities. The current proxenos for Bithynia was Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes, known to all as Herodes Atticus. Besides being Athens' richest man, he was a major customer of Bithynian produce at Achaea.

  However the actual welcoming officer was Herodes Atticus's eldest son, an Athenian whose name was Lucius but who too was known as Herodes Atticus.

  Herodes the Younger was a striking looking and well-dressed Athenian in his mid-twenties. The group of three saw how he noted the arriving party with inordinate interest. Lysias told me some time later he sensed Herodes' eyes sizing him up intently, and he wondered at the time at his motive.

  At the proxenos' office they recognized Senator Arrian with a retinue of clients, stewards, and guards. Arrian strode briskly to them as their details were being recorded by the younger Herodes.

  'Welcome to Athens, masters Antinous and Lysias. On behalf of Imperator Caesar Hadrian — and myself too, of course — I extend greetings to you. We ourselves have been at Athens for the past week," he said. "The springtime festivities here are very lively.'

  The boys bowed respectfully in acknowledgement and saluted. Arrian continued.

  'And besides his personal welcome, Caesar has extended an invitation to you. You are to attend Caesar's entourage at the opening ceremony of the Festival of the Great Dionysia tomorrow, the tenth day of the month of Elaphebolion. Tomorrow's event honors seven hundred years of Athenian drama.

  The day's itinerary includes a ceremonial procession of citizens through the city to the Temple of Dionysus on the slope of the Acropolis. After a rite of sacrifice before the image of the god, a performance of a play from the classic repertoire is to be sung at the nearby Theater of Dionysus. Thousands of the city's citizens will attend.

  This will be followed in the evening by a public banquet and masked revel for all Athenians, at Caesar's expense. Each of these events is to include you both,' Arrian said with some pleasure at watching the youths' faces light up at such an attractive invitation.

  'It will be our great honor to attend, my lord,' Antinous offered cheerily.

  'Good. Then I will take my leave now,' Arrian continued, 'but I also wish you to join me again for private discussion this very afternoon. You are available, yes?'

  This extra invitation was extended with a faintly conspiratorial air. It sounded more like a command than a invitation, the boys told me later.

  'I have matters to discuss with you of some sensitivity. I bathe daily in Athens at Hadrian's New Baths erected beside the construction site of the Temple of Olympian Zeus,' Arrian said. 'I retire to the Baths each afternoon for cleansing, exercise, and reflection. Occasionally Hadrian and I do so together. It's a necessary luxury in the summer climate here. Join me today at three hours after high sun to clean up after your long journey. Mention my name at the entrance hall and you'll be guided to my private tepidarium so we can talk in peace.

  Before the lads had time to bow or salute Arrian had swept away followed by his retinue.

  'We will attend you there at three, sir!' Antinous called after the disappearing figure.

  Thais took razor-sharp shears from the kitchen stores to hack-chop the boys' tousled heads of hair into manes of a more fashionable length. The two wished to have a similar style to the local ephebes they had seen in the streets of Athens, yet still retain a length which indicated their meirakion young adult status.

  Antinous and Lysias saw how the color had returned to Thais's complexion after the sea journey, indicating she was feeling much improved in health. The rolling, swaying, lurching sea journey had taken its toll on the Cyrene's usual affability. Antinous's attentions to her during her five indisposed days had made her sea nausea bearable. But now that she was on steady land again she had returned to her usual good temper.

  Once settled into their hired villa in the upper-class ward of Melite close by the Acropolis slope, the two asked Thais to trim their hair prior to the bath-house appointment with Arrian. Thais has a definite gift for anything to do with fashion, so the youngsters felt quite up-to-date and cosmopolitan by the time she had shag-cut their coiling manes into a more-controlled Athenian style. Gone were the rustic locks of provincial youths. Both boys squeaked with delight when they checked their reflection on the stilled surface of the villa's courtyard fish pond.

  It was then time to find their way through the city's narrow lanes around the eastern edge of the Acropolis slopes to locate Hadrian's Baths in the new Roman quarter of the city. An opportunity to bathe at a proper bath-house, sweat in a hot room, receive a strigil's oiled cleansing, take a massage, dunk in further pools, and become thoroughly refreshed was indeed a civilized comfort. At the same time the enigma of Arrian's summons might become evident."

  Geta rested for a few moments to take a sip of wine. His audience of investigators was growing impatient.

  "What is the importance of all this in identifying enemies of Antinous, Dacian?" Clarus interjected. "Do we need to know the minutiae of their daily toilet too?"

  "Allow me to reveal what I know, gentlemen. It comes from diverse sources of value," Geta explained. "It will interest you, I am sure." He continued his testimony.

  "The older man of the three slung another dipper of water across his head and shoulders. Its splashes sprayed across all three figures seated around the marbled well of the bathhouse sodatorium.

  'Welcome, gentlemen, to your engagement in life,' Arrian declared to his two young companions. He was attired in naught but his single senator's ring on one finger.

  Senator Lucius Flavius Arrianus Xenophon, as he is known at Rome, leaned languidly on the water-splashed marbles to relax in the chamber's muggy heat. The gloom of the bath-house cavern was sliced by a thin shaft of sunlight streaking through the simmering haze from a high window's grille. A fug of steam infused with the odors of woody oils and fiery coals perfumed the air. In his private chamber at the best appointed baths in all the East, the Bithynian noble's pores sweated copiously. So too did that of his companions.

  Seated on three sides of stepped slabs of porphyry, the naked men exuded rivulets of moisture across their bodies. Both boys acknowledged to themselves how this nobleman is an appealing figure of a fellow, despite his thinning head of hair and deepening facial creases. For a man in his early forties whose career is regarded as being as much a practicing historian, a major trading entrepreneur, and civic councilor, as well as a commander of the military and a senator of Rome, his muscle tone was in fine shape.

  Arrian looked over the two naked youths beside him in the manner of an athlete before a wrestling match or perhaps a gladiator confronting an untested combatant.

  'You realize, Antinous, your being here is no accident? You have been on a path to this city and this present company for many months before you yourself knew of its possibility.'

  Antinous and Lysias listened in attentive silence. They sweated profusely and splashed themselves with ladles of extra water while wondering where this bath-house conversation was likely to lead.

  'You, my young friend, have been carefully selected from a variety of candidates to enter the life of our Caesar. Ultimately of course it was he, Caesar, who made the final choice, but there were many forces at work to direct his attentions to someone like you. Hadrian has been studiously assessing people across his Empire, and of course he has surveyed the possibilities at Rome itself.

  Your journey to this place and your association with the Imperial Household began several years ago, well before we even knew of your existence. It began with perceptions which friends of Caesar from the Greek East decided may be crucial to the survival of Roman Asia as an entity under Rome's beneficence,' Arrian offered.

  'Roman Asia and G
reece are the homelands of the peoples we know as Hellenes. Greece is not just a blood line, it is a state of mind shared across the wider Middle Sea by all peoples under the influence of Hellenic culture.

  Since his accession nine years ago as Princeps, Caesar Hadrian has stabilized the Empire's boundaries, withdrawn from military adventures outside those boundaries, and laid the groundwork for the husbanding of wealth within the Empire. Some of this wealth will pay for the Legions who protect all the peoples of the Empire against invasion by barbarians, the remainder will be invested in Empire infrastructure and services.

  Nevertheless, my Bithynian friends, I and many other nobles of Roman Asia are deeply concerned about the future of our eastern provinces. To the north and east of the Black Sea there are vast tribes of nomads of varying races who are shifting westwards from the Caucuses to our very borders.

  They are tribes such as the Sarmatae, the Vandali, the Alans, or the Scythians, who repeatedly test our defenses and our patience. They may very soon threaten our security. These are not merely groups of herders wandering in search of seasonal pasture or thieving booty, they are migrations of whole races onto the fringe of our world.

  The Senate at Rome does not yet fully perceives the extent of this threat. They do not engage in strategies to prepare for an inevitable response. But I have seen the invaders with my own eyes. That is why we are here today, we three.'

  The two young men sat motionless, enthralled by this soldier's analysis of threats unknown to their experience. Arrian continued.

  'We, the leading citizens of Roman Asia, pursue two things to secure our safety and our future in this dangerous, shifting world,' he propounded. 'We need sturdier defenses across our eastern frontiers to stop the barbarians, and we need sufficient fighters in place to annihilate them if they breach our borders. This will be a huge cost to Rome which our taxes and wealth can barely accommodate.'

  Arrian paused to splash another dipper over his frame.

  'To achieve these goals we need Caesar's and his Senate's continuing regard for our Hellene culture and our ways. It will require wealth, arms, manpower, and the will.

  At this time Rome's surplus wealth is channeled to protect the north of the Empire at Germania. Also, much wealth is frittered away in providing frivolous pleasures to the city of Rome itself with its many unemployed plebs. This ratio must shift.

  My project on behalf of our homeland, young sirs, is to foster eastern values in the mind of Rome's rulers. This includes using influences such as you, gentlemen, to promote Roman Asia's welfare in an intimately personal way to the highest echelons of the Imperium. Hadrian is the uttermost echelon, and he has shown his personal interest in you, Antinous.

  Your forthcoming role, Antinous, as eromenos to Hadrian means our Caesar can be repeatedly made aware of the necessity for defensive protections at the Eastern frontier. He has the influence and power to persuade his senators, but he himself needs to be regularly persuaded too. This, Antinous, is the role your countrymen now expect of you. You are our frontline defense.

  Secondly, the East needs at least two additional Legions to reinforce the existing two Legions based in Cappadocia to protect our borders. This initiative will be a costly investment in coin and manpower at a time when Roman armies no longer siphon wealth from newly conquered enemies to justify its conquests.

  For five hundred years Rome has been annexing the land, wealth, and manpower of its neighbors piece-by-piece, but this expansion program is no longer tenable. The cost of the defense and supply-lines exceeds the value of the booty seized. It teaches us how even brute power has its limits.

  But where do you, Antinous, fit into these matters, you ask? To be brief, my boy, you are shortly to become Caesar's personal connection to Roman Asia. Your proximity to him will repeatedly remind him of the importance of the culture he already greatly admires. This is your destiny, Antinous, and even yours too Lysias.'

  Arrian paused to toss dippers of cooling water across his frame. He continued.

  'Your selection, young man, followed wide enquiries among the landed classes to identify a freeborn candidate of a suitable quality, status, and ability for Caesar's interest.

  For example you already know of Glaucon the Syri? He was the silver-voiced fellow who sang love songs at the celebration of your hunting kill at Nicomedia last October. Glaucon only lasted a month in Caesar's company despite his porcelain beauty and our every discreet encouragement to appeal to Caesar's tastes. But he was soon returned to his Damascus family crest-fallen and bitter, but also far wealthier than even his wildest dreams could imagine. Gold has its appeal for some, too. Not all contenders prize honor.'

  Arrian paused to measure his effect upon his companions. Antinous and Lysias looked to each other questioningly. Arrian seemed satisfied and continued.

  'Our conversation here, my friends, is to be confidential between us. It is not seditious or irregular, but it is sensitive and must be respected,' he said softly. 'It was our community's desire to provide great Caesar with an eromenos of a superior standard suited to his status. After scouring all the Aegean for a suitably mature meirakion and then discreetly wheeling these prospects into Caesar's company, only a single candidate of our collection met with his favor.

  Caesar is a fickle aesthete, yet one with an educated eye and very perceptive insight. He knows good horseflesh when he sees it, but he also knows a good heart.

  The choice proved to be you, Antinous, after he saw you and Lysias wrestling fiercely at the youth's games of Claudiopolis five months ago, plus subsequent events. Despite a dozen other eligible fellows on display naked in the dust that day, and despite one or two others being feathered later into the boar hunt at Nicomedia, it was you Antinous who eventually became the chosen one,' Arrian divulged with a faint smile. 'The rest you know.'

  Antinous at last spoke. He had been digesting this information carefully.

  'You say, my lord, that this is my life's destiny. If so, what am I supposed to do about it? I am here in Athens for my final education and continued training in weapons. Letters have passed between my father and various agents of the Imperial Household, yet I have no idea how to go about the project you have outlined?' he said. 'How am I to achieve such a unique goal?'

  'Arrangements are already taking place which will take care of this issue,' Arrian replied enigmatically.

  'But this does not answer my query, my lord," Antinous interjected. "Under what terms am I to be received by great Caesar? What steps should I take? I'm at a loss to know how to respond or what to do. I am no coquette or teasing courtesan with practiced wiles.'

  'Do not worry, lad. As I said, certain matters are being prepared in readiness. Tomorrow you and Lysias should keep your eyes open and stay within Caesar's sight throughout the day's events. Especially, you should watch for anything odd or suspicious which appears in your field of vision,' the noble offered with puzzling vagueness, 'and respond appropriately. There have been rumors circulating, so be prepared for any surprise.'

  Antinous and Lysias slopped further dippers of water over their heads. Arrian continued.

  'But you should also realize, Antinous, how our Caesar currently has another young fellow gracing his company at Athens. To some degree you have competition.'

  Both of the boys sat up briskly amid the lethargic heat, their energy restored.

  'Competition? What do you mean by 'competition', sir?' Antinous asked with a hint of alarm. Arrian considered his words carefully.

  'Well, my boy, for the past few weeks Caesar has been enjoying the company of his friend at Rome of recent years named Senator Lucius Ceionius Commodus. This senator is residing with Caesar at Athens not very far from your own villa.'

  'Oh,' said Antinous, as he wondered at the import of this. 'Who is this man Commodus? Is he a Roman noble too?'

  'Ah yes, he most certainly is. Commodus is descended from an ancient Etruscan family of the senatorial class. He is definitely a patrician. They are extremely wealthy a
nd they are of the best blood. As a result Commodus has been raised with not just a silver spoon in his mouth but perhaps an entire golden service. He has very good political prospects. Yet from what I have seen of him he is quite spoiled and temperamental and given to extravagance. However I must admit he is also very good looking.'

  'Was he an eromenos to Hadrian? I am told on good authority Caesar had not taken an eromenos previously.'

  'No, Antinous. Hadrian did not display his friend as a formal partner. Commodus has simply hovered discreetly in the background or been out of sight altogether.

  Antinous sat in stony silence for a few moments to digest this information. I suspect he began to wonder if Caesar was really a man of his word or not.

  'Sir, is there not a law forbidding Romans to accost freeborn maidens or youths?'

  'Yes, Antinous,' Arrian conceded, 'the ancient law known as the lex Scantinia with its objection to the offence of stuprum. It still remains respected among older Romans. However there have been no prosecutions for it for at least a hundred years. What people do between themselves in private, or what a Caesar may deign to venture in his majesty as Princeps, is another matter entirely.

  People say Commodus might be adopted by Hadrian into his gens as his lawful son and prospective successor, just as Julius Caesar did with Gaius Octavius long ago. Octavius eventually assumed the title of Caesar Augustus. Nerva did likewise with Trajan. Yet though Commodus possesses the necessary bloodlines to be eligible, he doesn't possess the military experience or political influence, I'd say. The Legions barely know or respect him. They will count.

  Yet we from the East suspect this prospect is being manipulated by forces at Rome who wish the succession to be securely finalized now Hadrian has entered mid-life and its inevitable health risks. An unresolved succession is a proven recipe for civil war when an emperor dies. A bloodbath can result, with totally unpredictable outcomes.