Pausanias Analysis

Next our narrative requires us to speak about Pallantium, telling whatever memorial is preserved there, and the particular reason for which the emperor Antoninus the elder elevated Pallantium from a village to the rank of a city, and granted its inhabitants freedom and exemption from taxation.

They say that among the Arcadians there was a man named Evander, who was foremost in intellect and skill for warfare. He was said to be a son of Hermes and a nymph, a daughter of Ladon. Sent out to establish a colony, leading a force of Arcadians from Pallantium, he founded a city beside the river Tiber. Thus, that part of Rome now inhabited, which Evander and the Arcadians who accompanied him settled, received the name Pallantium, in memory of the original city in Arcadia. Later, with the passing of time, the name changed due to the dropping of the letters lambda and nu. Because of these events, the emperor granted privileges to the Pallantians.

Antoninus, who also granted benefactions to the people of Pallantium, never willingly brought war upon the Romans, yet he drove back the Mauri, who had initiated hostilities and constituted the largest portion of the autonomous Libyans. These nomadic tribes, even more troublesome in warfare than the Scythian race—for they and their women raided not from chariots but upon horseback—he expelled from all their territory and compelled to flee to the furthest boundaries of Libya, toward Mount Atlas and the communities dwelling around it.

He also took away much of the territory of the Brigantes in Britain, because they too had initiated an armed incursion into the region of Genounia, which was subject to the Romans. As for the cities of the Lycians and the Carians, as well as Kos and Rhodes, these had been overturned by a violent earthquake that suddenly fell upon them; Emperor Antoninus restored these also through exceptional expenditure and eager dedication to their rebuilding. As for the monetary contributions which he granted both to Greek cities and to those among the barbarians who asked him, as well as the public works he constructed in Greece, in Ionia, around Carthage, and on Syrian soil, these other authors have already recorded in full detail.

This emperor also left behind another memorable example. Among his subjects who possessed Roman citizenship, if their sons were part of the Greek community, it was customary either to have their property given to unrelated persons or to enlarge the imperial wealth according to a certain law. Antoninus, however, allowed these citizens to bequeath their estates to their children as well, thus choosing to appear merciful rather than to keep a financially advantageous law. The Romans called this emperor "the Pious," for he seemed especially devoted to honoring the divine.

In my opinion, even Cyrus the Elder would deserve the title given to him: "Father of Men." And he too left behind a son of the same name to inherit his throne. This second Antoninus undertook punitive campaigns against both the Germans, the fiercest and most numerous of the barbarian tribes in Europe, and the Sarmatian nation, who had been the instigators of war and injustice.