Articles

All in the family: the appointment of emperors designate in the second century AD

CommodusAll in the family: the appointment of emperors designate in the second century AD

Olivier Hekster

Policies in the Roman Empire: (Impact of Empire, 1) (pp. 35-49). Amsterdam: Gieben. (2001)

Abstract

The monstrous vices of the son have cast a shade on the purity of the father’s virtues. It has been objected to Marcus, that he sacrificed the happiness of millions to a fond partiality for aworthless boy; and that he chose a successor in his own family, rather than in the republic.



Gibbon famously described the period of the so-called adoptive emperors as the happiest for the human race. He ascribed this bliss to a number of just rulers, whom he assumed had cometo power through a conscious system of adoption, with childless emperors being free tochoose anyone they deemed worthy as their successors. That perception keeps lingering on. Michael Rostovtzeff’s adoptive emperors were exempla of virtuousness, putting the welfare of the state over their paternal love: ‘In his family life the emperor had to disregard his love for his own children; he had to look for the best man among his peers and raise him to the throne by adoption’. Likewise, Pierre Grimal, argued that it was Marcus’ own emphasis on family and human warmth that led him to appoint his son Commodus as his successor, thus implying a positive choice, rather than an unavoidable act.

Click here to read this article from Policies in the Roman Empire

Sponsored Content