OPINION
What, exactly, did a Roman emperor do all day? Growing up on a steady diet of Italian sword’n’sandal epics and BBC toga productions, it’s easy to imagine that it was all endless rounds of orgies and gladiatorial games. Oh, and wars, of course.
An emperor was, above all, a politician. Like any politician, a large part of their time was spent tending to their civic duties. We might imagine something of a hybrid of the late Queen and a prime minister.
In fact, a recent archaeological discovery suggests something very much like that wouldn’t be too far from the truth.
Hadrian, thanks to his eponymous wall, is one of the better-known Roman emperors. Hadrian, who ruled for two decades, is also numbered among Rome’s “Five Good Emperors”. Much of his reputation stems from his various travels during his reign, and the numerous civil and military construction projects planned under his rule.
A new discovery from Ostia Antica, an archaeological park near Rome, sheds some light on the minutiae of his civic life.
Archaeologists excavating the site just uncovered two inscribed marble fragments of what is known as fasti ostienses, an official sort of calendar that provided details on the daily events of emperors and other Roman officials.
The inscriptions on these slabs were written by the pontifex Volcani, who at the time was the highest local religious authority.
The fragments are dated back to 128 AD, during Hadrian’s reign.
Inscriptions on the fragment itself refer to events that occurred that year, including Hadrian receiving the title pater patriae, “father of his country,” that January.
The inscription continues to say that Hadrian celebrated the occasion by offering a congiar dedit, or donation of money, to the Roman people.
It wasn’t all accolades and pork-barreling, though. Like any modern leader, Hadrian had something of a travel schedule to keep up with.
Another inscription, dated April 11 of the same year, chronicles Hadrian’s trip to Africa between July and August, just before he returned to Rome.
And, of course, opening things.
Yet another inscription references Hadrian’s consecration of a building in Rome, which experts believe could refer to either the Pantheon or the Temple of Venus and Roma, around August of that year.
Some experts hypothesized that the consecration of whichever structure this may have been would have marked the 11th anniversary of Hadrian’s accession to the throne in 117 CE
Ostia Antica was once an important satellite town to Rome itself: the city’s major port and commercial centre at the mouth of the Tiber river. Legend claims it was built in the seventh century BC by Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome. It was supposedly founded to access the Tiber’s salt pans, though there’s little archaeological evidence to support this.
But, as discoveries from the 1940s on have shown, it’s a treasure trove of archaeological relics.
Ostia Antica itself lay in ruins for hundreds of years, despite being less than 19 miles from Rome. It wasn’t until the 19th century that archaeologists began to explore its various structures, which included a theater and the remains of baths, schools, temples, and a synagogue […]
Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano said that the excavations at the Archaeological Park of Ostia have provided “treasures of inestimable value and very precious documentary sources to understand the activities of the great emperor Hadrian.”
In addition to the marble slabs, archaeologists at Ostia have uncovered “various decorations” and “extensive portions” of an intricate mosaic floor, which Sangiuliano said will soon be open to the public.
The newly recovered fragments add to what is already an ever-growing collection of records discovered within the past century.
All That’s Interesting
Discovering that even emperors like Hadrian were glad-handing, ribbon-cutting politicians only lends further credence to Douglas Adams’ observation that the past really is a foreign country: they do things exactly the same there.