THE ‘PEACEFUL’ HADRIAN AND HIS ENDLESS WARS
By Souren Melikian
IHT
August 22, 2008
LONDON: Few political commentators ask what lies behind the thinking
of those expressing boundless admiration for the Roman Empire in
almost every quarter of present-day Western society.
This comes across in the most sophisticated inquiries into ancient
history, as witness Thorsten Opper’s intelligent book "Hadrian: Empire
and Conflict," to which the British Museum show that he curated,
running until Oct. 26, effectively serves as an illustration.
While striving to put forward a balanced view, the historian cannot
help giving a lyrical ring to his most matter-of-fact statements:
"For almost twenty-one years, from A.D. 117 to 138, Publius Aelius
Hadrianus ruled one of the mightiest empires the world has ever seen"
is the opening sentence to Opper’s introduction, which chirpily
explains that "at the heart of the empire was Rome, the largest city
of the ancient Mediterranean, if not the globe, a pulsating capital
of one million inhabitants."
Coming to Hadrian, the author goes on: "The empire needed to gain
strength and cohesion in order to be able to face the many threats
to its prosperity and peaceful existence [my italics]. Hadrian’s
achievements in these areas were outstanding, his legacy
immense." Exactly what was peaceful about this empire bent on constant
expansion is not specified. The historian then proceeds to recount in
some detail a story of genocide and ethnic cleansing on a grand scale.
When Hadrian came to power in 117, the ancient Middle Eastern lands of
Armenia, Assyria and Mesopotamia (that is, Babylonia) in present-day
northern and southern Iraq had just been occupied and declared new
Roman provinces. Farther west, all hell had broken loose. In 116, the
Jews of Cyrenaica (in modern Libya), driven by fury against the Romans,
who had destroyed the temple in 71 and slain much of the population
in the Jerusalem area, had risen against the Western occupiers.
They had destroyed public buildings and temples, causing 220,000
casualties in the process, according to the only available detailed
source, the "Historia Augusta," written in the fourth century by
Cassius Dio. The insurgents invaded Egypt, where the Jewish communities
took up arms and crushed an entire Roman legion. Their uprising
spread to Cyprus, where, Dio writes, 240,000 were killed. Trajan’s
retaliation was extreme. Tens of thousands were slain in Egypt and
Cyrenaica and repression extended to Mesopotamia.
The situation was untenable for the Romans. As soon as he was
proclaimed emperor, Hadrian pulled back his armies from Mesopotamia,
Assyria and Greater Armenia. This did not look too good for the new
emperor, who had been belatedly adopted by Trajan. Born in Rome into
an Iberian family (from present-day Spain), Hadrian badly needed to
legitimize his rule and spent a lifetime burnishing his image as a
military hero.
The populace loved it. Statues of the emperor were erected across the
empire. A marble head from a figure that must have been 4.5 to 5 meters
high, or about 16 feet, was discovered last year in ancient Pisidia,
in what today is southwestern Turkey. Technically impeccable, it
uncannily heralds the hollow art of 20th-century totalitarian states.
Permanent aspiration to domination over unwilling populations meant
permanently perceived threats. In the westernmost "province" of the
empire (roughly corresponding to modern England and Wales), which had
been finally occupied in 43, the situation was shaky. Hadrian appears
to have waged not just one war, but two. In 122, the construction
of Hadrian’s Wall, running from east to west, was undertaken to
keep out the "Barbarians" farther north. Recovered from the Thames,
a larger-than-life-size bronze head of the emperor that was cast
around that time has an expressiveness that probably reflects the
sensitivity of native Celtic artists working in the Roman style. It
forms a striking contrast with a bland marble statue of Hadrian as
Mars, the god of war, carved in Rome.
In the Near East, trouble kept brewing. It erupted in 132 in the
form of a furious uprising in Judea, led by Simon Bar Kokhba, whose
nom de guerre means in Hebrew "The Son of the Star." Well prepared,
with arms caches and secret hideouts set aside, the resistance beat
two Roman legions and a dozen auxiliary regiments.
Reinforcements sent from Syria and Egypt were wiped out. As Jews in the
surrounding areas and the non-Jewish communities of Judea sided with
the insurgents, Bar Kokhba proclaimed himself "The Prince of Israel."
This was more than the "peaceful" Roman emperor could stomach. Hadrian
took in hand the military operations, as is implied by inscriptions
mentioning the "expeditio Judaica." Around 134, the battle-hardened
governor of Britain, Sextus Julius Severus, was called in and, to
quote Opper, "turned the war into a slow extermination campaign."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress