Helius

It is my intention, Diocletian Augustus, greatest of so many princes, to set before the knowledge of your divinity not only those who held the place of princes in this station which you govern—as I have done down to the deified Hadrian—but also those who were called by the name of Caesars yet were not princes or Augusti, or who in any other manner came either into the fame or into the hope of the principate. Of these especially must we speak of Aelius Verus, who was the first to receive only the name of Caesar, taken by the adoption of Hadrian into the family of the princes. And since very few things are to be said, and the prologue ought not to be more unwieldy than the tale, I shall now speak of the man himself.

Ceionius Commodus, who was also called Aelius Verus, whom Hadrian—his age now growing heavy, pressed by graver diseases, the world already traversed—adopted for himself, has nothing memorable in his life except that he was the first to be called only Caesar, not by will, as before was the custom, nor in that manner in which Trajan was adopted, but in nearly that kind by which in our times, by your clemency, Maximian and Constantius were called Caesars, as it were certain true sons of princes and designated heirs of the august majesty. And since concerning the name of the Caesars something must be disputed especially in the life of this man, who obtained this name alone—the most learned and most erudite men think that he who was first called so was named Caesar either from an elephant (which in the tongue of the Moors is called "caesai") slain in battle, or because, his mother being dead and her womb cut open, he was born, or because he was poured forth from his parent's womb with much hair, or because he was gray-eyed (caesius) and flourished beyond human custom. Certainly, whatever that was, it was a happy necessity, from which there blossomed a name so illustrious and destined to endure with the eternity of the world. This man, then, of whom the discourse is, was first called Lucius Aurelius Verus, but, taken by Hadrian into the family of the Aelii—that is, of Hadrian—was transcribed and called Caesar. His father was Ceionius Commodus, whom some have recorded as Verus, others as Lucius Aurelius, many as Annius. All his ancestors were most noble, whose origin was mostly from Etruria or from Faventia. And concerning his family we shall discourse more fully in the life of Lucius Aurelius Ceionius Commodus Verus Antoninus, the son of this man, whom Antoninus was ordered to adopt for himself. For that book ought to contain all that pertains to the genealogy of the family, which has a prince of whom more is to be said.

Aelius Verus, then, was adopted by Hadrian at that time when, as we said above, he was now in failing health and was necessarily thinking of a successor; and at once he was made praetor and set over the Pannonians as leader and governor, soon created consul, and, because he was destined for the empire, was designated consul a second time. A largess too was given to the people on account of his adoption, and three hundred million sesterces were bestowed on the soldiers; games of the circus were held, nor was anything omitted which could grace the public rejoicing. And he had such power with the prince Hadrian that, besides the affection of adoption by which he seemed joined to him, he alone obtained everything that he desired, even by letter. Nor indeed was he wanting to the province over which he was set; for, affairs being well—or rather happily—managed, he obtained the reputation, if not of the highest, yet of a middling, leader. This man, however, was of such wretched health that Hadrian at once repented of the adoption, and could have removed him from the imperial family, since he often thought of others, if perchance he had lived. Finally it is reported by those who have more carefully recorded the life of Hadrian, that Hadrian knew the nativity of Verus, and that he adopted him—whom he had not much approved for governing the state—for this reason only: that he might satisfy his own pleasure and, as some say, an oath, which was said to have passed between him and Verus on secret terms. For that Hadrian was skilled in astrology, Marius Maximus so far demonstrates as to say that he knew everything about himself, so that he wrote out beforehand his future acts for all his days, even up to the

hour of his death. It is established, moreover, that he often said of Verus: "The fates shall but show him to the earth, and shall not suffer him to be longer." Which verses, when he was once chanting them as he walked in a little garden, and one of the men of letters was present—in whose distinguished company Hadrian rejoiced—and wished to add, "Too mighty seemed to you the Roman stock, O gods above, had these gifts been lasting," Hadrian is reported to have said, "The life of Verus does not admit these verses," adding this: "Give lilies with full hands; let me scatter the purple flowers and heap up at least with these gifts the soul of my grandson, and perform an empty office." When indeed he is also said to have said, with a laugh, this: "I have adopted for myself a god, not a son." When, however, one of the men of letters who was present consoled him and said, "What if the constellation of him whom we believe will live has not been rightly reckoned?" Hadrian is reported to have said, "You say that easily, you who seek an heir of your patrimony, not of the state." Whence it appears that he had in mind to choose another and to remove this man from the state in the last time of his own life. But the outcome aided his counsels; for when Aelius had returned from his province and had prepared a most beautiful speech, which is read even today—whether by himself or through the secretaries or the masters of speaking—by which on the Kalends of January he was to give thanks to Hadrian his father, having taken a draught by which he thought himself helped, on the very Kalends of January he died. And he was ordered by Hadrian not to be mourned, because the vows were coming on.

This man was of a most cheerful life, learned in letters, more acceptable to Hadrian—as the malevolent say—for his form than for his character; he was not long at court; in his private life, even if less worthy of approval, yet less to be reproached, and mindful of his family; trim, comely, of royal beauty, of venerable countenance, of rather lofty eloquence, easy at verse, and even not useless in the state. His pleasures are reported by those who wrote his life to have been many, and indeed not infamous but to some extent dissolute. For the four-medicine dish—or rather the five-medicine dish—which Hadrian afterward always used, he himself is said to have invented: that is, sow's udder, pheasant, peacock, ham in pastry, and wild boar. Concerning which kind of food Marius Maximus reports otherwise, calling it not the five-medicine but the four-medicine dish, as we ourselves too have followed in his life. There is reported also another kind of pleasure which Verus had devised; for he had made a bed with four high head-rests, enclosed on every side with a fine net, and he filled it with rose-leaves from which the white had been removed, and, lying with his concubines, he covered himself with a coverlet made of lilies, anointed with Persian perfumes. Now those things are repeated by some, that he made his couches and tables of roses and lilies, and indeed of cleaned ones—which, even if not seemly, are yet not prompt to public ruin. And likewise the recipes of Caelius Apicius; likewise that he always had on his bed the books of Ovid's Amores; likewise that he called Martial, the epigrammatic poet, his own Virgil. Now those things are lighter, that he frequently fixed wings on his couriers after the example of the Cupids and often called them by the names of the winds, calling one Boreas, another Notus, and likewise Aquilo or Circius and by the other names, and made them run about untiringly and inhumanly. Likewise to his wife, complaining of his outside pleasures, he is reported to have said: "Suffer me to exercise my desires upon others; for 'wife' is a name of dignity, not of pleasure." His son is Antoninus Verus, who was adopted by Marcus, or at least together with Marcus, and held the empire equally with him; for they are the ones who were the first to be called the two Augusti, and whose names are so prefixed in the consular records that they are called not the two Antonines but the two Augusti. And so much did the novelty and the dignity of this thing prevail that some consular records took the order of the consuls from these.

For his adoption Hadrian gave boundless money to the people and the soldiers; but when, being a man somewhat sharper, he saw him of most wretched health, so that he could not throw a rather solid shield, he is reported to have said: "We have lost three hundred million, which we have paid out to the army and the people; for indeed we have leaned upon a tottering wall, and one which can scarcely sustain not the state itself but ourselves." And these things indeed Hadrian said to his prefect. When the prefect had divulged them, and on this account Aelius Caesar was day by day more and more burdened with anxiety, as a man given up for lost, Hadrian gave to his prefect, who had betrayed the matter, a successor, wishing it to seem that he had softened his gloomy words. But it profited nothing; for, as we said, Lucius Ceionius Commodus Verus Aelius Caesar (for by all these names he was called) died and was buried with an imperial funeral, nor did he have anything of royal dignity except that of death. Hadrian therefore grieved at his death as a good father, not as a good prince; for when his anxious friends asked who could be adopted, Hadrian is reported to have said to them: "I had decided even while Verus was still alive." By which he showed either his own judgment or his knowledge of the future. After this man, finally, Hadrian, long doubtful what to do, adopted Antoninus, called by the surname of Pius, to whom he added the condition that he himself should adopt for himself Marcus and Verus, and should give his daughter to Verus, not to Marcus. Nor did he live longer, burdened with weakness and various kinds of diseases, often saying that a prince ought to die sound, not feeble.

He ordered indeed colossal statues to be set up to Aelius Verus throughout the whole world, and temples too to be made in several cities. Finally, for that man's sake, he gave his son Verus—as being his own grandson, who, when Aelius perished, had remained in the family of Hadrian himself—to be adopted by Antoninus Pius along with Marcus, as we have already said, often saying: "Let the state have whatever there is of Verus"—which indeed is contrary to those things which have been made known by very many authors concerning his repentance of the adoption, since the later Verus had nothing worthy in his character except clemency, which might bring luster to the imperial family. These are the things which had to be committed to writing concerning Verus Caesar, about whom I have for this reason not kept silent: because it was my purpose to set forth in separate books all who, after Caesar the dictator—that is, the deified Julius—were called either Caesars or Augusti or princes, and who came into adoption, or who as sons of emperors or as parents were consecrated with the name of Caesars, satisfying my own conscience, even though for many there be no necessity of inquiring into such things.