His government became cruel, arbitrary, tyrannical. Many executions, not a few of them striking the highest in rank and authority, disfigured the closing years of the Emperor. The Christian sect, which lately, as we have explained already, had become in a specific manner feared and dreaded by the State, largely suffered during these sad closing years of his reign, and the dread persecution to which it was subjected during the reigns of his successors began in good earnest.
One dominant thought seems to have haunted Hadrian—the longing for death. Those who were nearest to his person, under the influence of the wise prince his adopted successor, generally known as Antoninus Pius, restrained him on several occasions from laying violent hands on himself; but it was no avail, and Hadrian died at Baiæ, A.D. 138, the death no doubt hastened, if not absolutely caused, by his own act.
The following little table will explain the succession of the Antonines to the Empire:
Hadrian first adopted Ælius Verus—a patrician, but a voluptuous
and carelessly living man; he died, however, in the lifetime
of Hadrian, leaving a son Verus, afterwards associated in the
Empire with Marcus, whom, however, he predeceased by
many years.
Hadrian subsequently adopted as his successor Aurelius Antoninus,
known in history as Antoninus Pius.
Antoninus Pius belonging to a Gallic family of Nîmes, had filled
the highest offices in the State, and later became a trusted counsellor of the Emperor Hadrian, and his devoted friend. He was a patrician of the highest character. When Hadrian adopted him he required him to secure the imperial succession by adopting Verus the son of Ælius Verus, whom he had originally adopted but who had died, and also Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, his young kinsman, a nephew of his (Hadrian's) wife.
Antoninus Pius became Emperor in A.D. 138. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus succeeded him in A.D. 161.
