It is not rare that a person adapts his speech to his audience, and the one that he was used to addressing was composed of coarse centurions.

Perhaps he had even acquired new habits of speech. Well educated as Hadrian must have been, he had forgotten to whom he was speaking – if only for a moment. Perhaps, rather, his unusually long spell in the army and association with centurions and rankers affected his diction.” Indeed, Hadrian had spent time in Germania Superior as tribune in the 22nd legion, which was likely to blame for his blunder. 46) writes that it “is hard to believe that he had picked up a ‘Spanish’ accent in his short stay at Italica a decade earlier. Birley ( Hadrian: The Restless Emperor, p. Was his accent truly that rustic? Was his oration full of errors in pronunciation? Was it, dare I say, vulgar? Though Hadrian was likely born in Italica, a Roman colony in Hispania, by the age of 14 he had already been called to Rome by Trajan.

PHOTO: VICTOR FRANS.īut what about Hadrian’s speech had so amused the senate? He must have been one of the most cultured young men in the empire.

Language was key to this.īUST OF HADRIAN, 2ND CENTURY AD, CASTEL SANT’ANGELO (THE MAUSOLEUM OF HADRIAN). Somehow, I find this very relatable! Of course, nothing is as harmful to authority as laughter, and a future emperor needed to be taken seriously. After having been laughed at by the senate while reciting a speech by the Emperor in a somewhat unpolished manner, he exerted himself in the study of Latin letters to the point of the highest proficiency and fluency.’Īs this account shows, Hadrian spent much time perfecting his Latin before daring to open his mouth in public again. ‘He was questor in the fourth consulship of Trajan and Articuleius. “Quaesturam gessit Traiano quater et Articuleio consulibus cum orationem imperatoris in senatu agrestius pronuntians risus esset, usque ad summam peritiam et facundiam Latinis operam dedit. ” - Historia Augusta, Vita Hadriani 3.1 Historia Augusta, a 4th-century compilation of the lives of the emperors, tells us what happened next: This was his public debut, his chance of making a good first impression on a mistrustful senate. Without a doubt, Hadrian had prepared well, sitting at his desk or roaming about the room reading the speech time and again. One of his duties was to convey the emperor’s decisions to the senate and recite his speeches in his absence. Learning To Be EmperorĮarly in 101 AD, the young Hadrian, a favourite of Emperor Trajan, had just been appointed quaestor. Get a print-ready PDF version of “What is Vulgar Latin?”.

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