1) Thread: Does this intriguing Roman epitaph reveal a succession conspiracy playing out during this week in 117 AD? Marcus Ulpius Phaedimus, 28 year-old freedman and main attendant of the Roman emperor Trajan, died on 12 August 117....

2) Phaedimus was clearly a trusted servant of the Emperor, acting as Trajan's butler of sorts “tricliniarcha”, responsible for his food table and wine-service, and as secretary managing his imperial grants and benefits. Phaedimus was his closest attendant “Lictor Proximus”...

3) Mysteriously, Phaedimus died at Selinus (Gazipaşa, Turkey) on 12 August 117 AD, just four days after his master, the Emperor Trajan died there on 8 August supposedly of a stroke. Oddly, his epitaph breaks with tradition...

4) ..giving a curious amount of precision on his date of his death: He died on the “day before the Ides of August (Pridie Idus) in the consulship of Niger and Apronianus” (117 AD). The epitaph seems eager to clarify Phaedimus died just after his master, the beloved Emperor...

5) He specifies “he died at Selinus” and the verb given for his death “abscedo” is also a curious one, not often seen on gravestones. While it could mean he “departed” it could also be translated as to “disappear” or “withdraw” or in a military context, “retreat from combat”..

6) His death comes just one day after Hadrian, who was stationed in Syrian Antioch, apparently received news on 9 August that he had been adopted by Trajan. Even more strangely, Phaedimus' epitaph states his remains could not be returned to Rome from Selinus for over 12 years...

7) Phaedimus' remains were not interred at Rome until 130 AD when they were brought back from Selinus by his own own former slave, Valens Phaedimianus - who was also Trajan's or Hadrian's wardrobe-keeper "a veste".

8) As an interesting aside: here we see Trajan shown with his chief lictor (behind him, holding fasces) during the Dacian Wars. Due to Pheadimus’ age, this likely represents one of his predecessors in the job but it does show the proximity to power the role granted..

9) The epitaph has added intrigue to the already suspicious circumstances of Trajan’s death and accession of Hadrian. Sources disagree on whether Trajan did in fact adopt Trajan on his death-bed and some have proposed that adoption letters were forged by Trajan’s wife, Plotina..

10) Why did Trajan's servant Phaedimus follow him to the afterlife just 4 days later? Did he die of the same infection that killed his master or maybe he committed suicide due to grief? Or had he seen things he shouldn't .. perhaps silenced by a scheming Plotina and Hadrian?

The epitaph of Trajan's servant Phaedimus is held at the Vatican Museums and can be viewed here: http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/galleria-lapidaria/sezione-iii--istituzioni-di-governo-a-roma-e-nellimpero/epitaffio-di-un-littore.html #Roman #Conspiracy #History #Latin