Hadrian’s rise to power, following Trajan’s death in 117 AD at Selinus in Cilicia, remains the subject of speculation, as it unfolded through dynamics that were never fully clarified and, in some respects, violent. To begin with, it is uncertain whether Trajan had ever formally designated Hadrian, his cousin’s son and his own protégé, as his successor, since no record exists of him presenting Hadrian as such before the Senate.

The Historia Augusta, a source to be consulted with caution, presents a scenario in which a dying Trajan, perhaps struck by a stroke, named Hadrian as his heir, likely under the influence of his wife Plotina, who favored Hadrian, and with the support of the praetorian prefect Attianus.

In reality, the figures who appeared closer to Trajan’s succession plans seemed to be others: Lusius Quietus, Gaius Nigrinus, Cornelius Palma, and Publilius Celsus, men whose careers were tied to Trajan’s military campaigns, most of them of consular rank. What distinguished Hadrian from them? Despite the conventional image, popularized by Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian, of a patron of the arts and romantic spirit, Hadrian was also trained in warfare. A skilled soldier, he could endure the hardships of military life alongside his comrades. Yet perhaps this very military awareness led him to halt further expansionist campaigns, partly due to their costly nature, as evidenced by the recent Parthian campaign, choosing instead to focus on administration, border consolidation, and a broad architectural program across the empire.

To safeguard his position, after securing Senate ratification of his nomination, already granted by the army, and presenting his Mesopotamian policy, which involved abandoning direct annexation in favor of client kingship, Hadrian moved against the aforementioned consulars. Accused of plotting a coup against the emperor, an operation that reportedly involved mobilizing loyal troops, these men were tried by Prefect Attianus and ultimately executed in summary fashion at various locations across Italy and the Roman East.

The repression was so thorough that Hadrian faced no threat of sedition for the rest of his reign. However, it earned him among senators the reputation of an authoritarian and uncompromising ruler, an image difficult to reconcile with the later Enlightenment portrayal by Gibbon of Hadrian as one of the “good emperors.”