Tacitus, Annals, 15.20­-23, 33­-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a

(
Chapters 1–18 of Annals 15 cover developments in Rome’s war against
Parthia. In 15.19 (i.e. the chapter before the set text starts), Tacitus’ focus
shifts back to domestic matters. Unethical senatorial careerism comes
back onto the agenda. He records that members of Rome’s ruling élite
increasingly exploited a legal loophole to circumvent a stipulation of
the lex Papia Poppaea de maritandis ordinibus (‘Papian-Poppaean law on
marrying categories’). The law, which was part of Augustus’ legislative
initiatives concerning morals and marriage, ensured preferential treatment
of candidates for high-powered posts in the imperial administration who
had one or more children. 67 As Cassius Dio put it (53.13.2): ‘Next he [sc.
Augustus] ordained that the governors of senatorial provinces should be
annual magistrates, chosen by lot, except when a senator enjoyed a special
privilege because of the large number of his children or because of his
marriage.’ 68 To receive the legal benefits without going through the trouble
of raising children, childless careerists began to adopt young men shortly
before the appointment or election procedure, only to release them again
soon after securing the desired post. This practice of ‘fictive adoption’ (ficta
or simulata adoptio), which, as Tacitus notes in his inimitable style, enabled
the practitioners to become fathers without anxiety and childless again
without experiencing grief (sine sollicitudine parens, sine luctu orbus), caused
massive resentment among those who invested time and effort in the
raising of children. They appealed to the senate, which issued a decree that
no benefits of any kind be derived from such sham adoptions (15.19.4, the
last sentence of the chapter):
factum ex eo senatus consultum, ne simulata adoptio in ulla parte muneris
publici iuvaret ac ne usurpandis quidem hereditatibus prodesset.
[A senatorial decree was thereupon passed, ruling that a feigned adoption
should not assist in any way in gaining a public appointment, nor even be of
use in taking up an inheritance.]
67 The law was introduced by the bachelors (!) Marcus Papius Mutilus and Quintus Poppaeus
Secundus, two of the consuls of AD 9 (hence lex Papia Poppaea). This piece of legislation
was an adjustment of the more famous (and, among members of the ruling élite, highly
unpopular) lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus (‘Julian law on marrying categories’) that
Augustus passed in 18 BC. For further details (including our sources in translation) see
Cooley (2003) 353–72.
68 For Cassius Dio, we cite the translation by Earnest Cary in the Loeb Classical Library
(Cambridge, Mass. and London 1914–1927).