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June 10, 2007
Hadrian is best known in Australia through Hadrian's wall in England which separated the Romans from the Celts of Scotland. Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus was the emperor of Rome between 117 and 138 AD. The emperors had been constantly changing the unwritten Roman Constitution in such a way to increase their power; by 138 AD there was no doubt that the emperor was sovereign.
The democratic component of the Roman Constitution had been in decay for quite a while. Apparently by the end of the first century AD, the assemblies were no longer being convened in order to pass law. Senatorial decrees were filling that function, even though the Roman Constitution had the Senate as a customary body who had no statutorial power.
It seems by Hadrianic times, the Senatorial decrees had the force of law. Colin Wells' writes:
... but some modern scholars credit him [Hadrian] with the initiative in giving senatorial decrees force of law. The first such decree which we know to have directly altered the civil law is in fact Hadrianic, but there may have been earlier ones, and the distinction is perhaps important only to the specialist in legal history.
The emperor rather than a vehicle for policy, and having the other components of the Roman Constitution complete the legal basis for those policies, was now undoubtedly sovereign. Hadrian's edicts and enactments had the full force of law as well.
In the Middle Republic the Roman Constitution was richer in its magistracy and assemblic bodies. There were the Consuls who acted as military and executive power, the oligarchic body of the Senate, the three assemblies, and the Tribunes who represented popular will through enacting law and the veto.
The magistracies were elected and the democratic bodies were composed of tribal, militaristic and popular forms.
With Hadrian's reign, the assemblies are no longer convened, he was appointed through dynastic means, and he held Tribune power for life. The Consuls still exist, but the legislative power is now in the Senate, an appointed body who has tenure for life unless removed by a Censor - a position which the emperors had also adopted.
This is a big change in where the sovereignty lies in the Constitution over the space of a century. Cicero would still recognise the structures, but would be aghast at where the real power in the constitution now was.
The Early Roman Republic, while adopting the forms that were present in Regal Rome, appeared to have a genuine fear of tyranny. Vetoes were absolute, and only was was required to scuttle any legislation.
The Roman Constitution was unwritten, and did change, most often through emergency. For instance the position of Tribune was established in response to a civil emergency.
This is the weakness in the unwritten constitution; emergencies tend to have a negative effect, and in the case of the late republic, the body the constitution relied on to enforce and remember custom, were wiped out in the civil emergencies and wars of the Caesars.
Tacitus commented in The Histories that by Nero's time, there was no-one left in the Senate who knew what a republic was like.
Of the twenty-six great patrician genus or clans that dominated the Senate when Augustus ascended to imperatur, only six of them remained with Senate appointments in Hadrian's reign.
The Senate had served as an genus based oligarchic memory of Roman constitutional custom and convention. It was a pretty closed shop, Cicero, as a 'new man' was an exception even in the Late Republic.
Between the proscriptions and series of Civil Wars that constitutional memory was lost, the desire for civil order at the end of civil emergency meant that the constitution expanded again, this time with the tribunicia potestus or tribune for life. This was to become the basis of an emperor's executive, legislative and constitutional power.
The noble description of the killing of Julius Caesar in the Senate is that his claiming dictator for life was an affront to the custom and convention of the Roman Constitution. Previously dictators were temporary positions of emergency, lasting no more than six months.
A less noble reading of the murder of Caesar is that his dictator potestus or dictator for life was a direct threat to the executive, judicial and policy making power of the Senate.
This was true, Augustus found a different means to become the dominant political power - imperium maius. By Hadrian's time as emperor the assemblies were not used, Tribunes were not elected, and the Consuls were not powerful outside of military command.
In fact, the pro-consuls often had more power in the Roman Empire as the legions in the provinces could lead to them becoming the next emperor. A-la Vespasian.
x-posted
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