Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/93

 ADRIAN. 57 niccffllvely prxtor, governor of Pannonia, and ronfu]. After the fiege o( Atra in Arabia w;is rai'ed, Trajan, who l,.,<i al- ready given him the government of ^yria, 1, ft him the com- mand of the army; and at length, when he found death ap- proaching, it i- laid he adopted him The reality of this adop- tion is by Tome difputed, and is thought to have been a con- trivance of Plotina ; hut however this may he, Adrian, who was then in Antiochi i, as foon as he received the news thereof, and of Trajan's death, declared himfelf emperor, on the iith of Au-uft, 117. No foone f had he arrived at the imperial dignity, than he made peace with the Perfians, to whom he yielded up great part of the coi qMenS of his predecefion? [A]; and from generality, or policy, he remitted the dt bis or the Roman people, which, according to the calculation cf thofe who have reduced them to modern money, amounted to s ' twenty two millions tive hundred thoufand golden crowns ; and he cauf:-d to he burin all the bonds and obligations relating to thofe debts, that the people might be under no apprehenlion of being called to an account for them afterwards. He went M - d? y ""* to vifit all the provinces, and did not return to Rome till the',. ' year 118, when the fenate decreed him a triumph, and ho- torn. II. P. noured him with the title of Father of his country ; but. be re- 4 >', fufed both, and deiired that Trajan's image might triumph. 3, The following year he went to Maefia, tooppofe the Sannatae. Notes on the In his abfence feverai pei fons of gieat worth were put to death ; H and though he protefted he had given no orders for that pur-g ' t j q pofe, yet the odium thereof fell chiefly upon him. N prince A^i-no. travelled more than Adrian; there being hardly on? province ! ' '- b - 6 9- in the empire which he did not vifit. Jn 120, he went into Gaul, and from thence to Britain, where he took care to ha- /' a wall or rampart built, as a defence againft thofe who would not fubmit to the Roman government [B]. in 121, here- turned (A) F.utropt>s is of opinion, thifthe *' ever as far as Yo;k, vvhe-t b e yieldir g up of thefe cnnquefls, proceeded < from Adrian's envying T-ajan's gWy, lib. viii. p. 90. Bu Spartian fuppofes that the impoflibility or difficulty of keeping tiie conqueicd provinces deter- rnined Adrian tu refign them. Jn Auti- [B] " In the mean time," f.>ys Mr. Rapin, " the Calrdonians continuing " faUed to go over in perlon, and fub- " due thrfe fierce and trouMelome peo- diverted from his inn conquift by the oefcription fume o! t lok'.icrs c found there, who had fervt-d under .^gricola, gave him or th: coun-rv. In hop^s, the'f fcrf, of keeping lli-.n quiet by en arging their houmJs, ne delivered up to the C ilrdnnia-s all the lands l-.iae betw-'en il.e :v I rithi and the Ty. e j and at the IJILC ., to fecore the Porr-an p r ovi ,cr I, 1.1 their incu-finn 11 , threw up a ran put of earth, covered wiih c gri-en t r>, " pi-. Upon his arrival, they retired " ftom the mouth of tie T yne ro bi I- ' towards the north : he advanced how. C! wayfi:b, eighty milv3 in length, a-d quilt
 * ' their inroads, the empt-ror Adrian re-