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and so continue his struggles with Cicero.
Females could not be taken into a family through adrogation as the transaction involved the patria
potestas. Adoption became very popular in the Early Empire as a result of the Lex Julia et Papia Poppaea
(9 A.D.), which granted definite privileges to those citizens with children, such as the eligibility to
become praetors. Adoptions were hastily arranged, the office secured and then the adrogatus given
complete emancipation from the adoptive family. By a senatus consultum during the reign of Nero (54-
68 A.D.), this practice was curtailed. Antoninus Pius also moved to prevent premature (and potentially
disastrous emancipations, the releasing of an adopted heir) by promulgating a law that ensured the rights
of succession to the adopted. Under the adoptiominus plena by Justinian (ruled 527-565), the adopted
maintained a right of succession to the property and name of the former family, and was not subject to
the patria potestas of the adoptive father; this law had its origins in the custom of the adopted retaining
some association with his original gens, seen in the new name or gens, only the suffix ianus was added.
An example of this was Emperor Augustus who, as Octavius, was adopted by the testament of his uncle
Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., taking the full name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. Adoption by testament, of
course, was the naming of an heir through a will. However, the adopted was not the heir in the sense of
regular adoptio or adrogatio, receiving only the name and property of the deceased without all of the
other benefits or social considerations. Octavius therefore had Caesar's adoption of him by testament
made official by the curiae,
¤ ADRIANOPLE Site in southern Greece of a battle fought on July 3, 324 A. D. between
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT and co-Emperor LICINIUS. In 312 Constantine had won the battle of
MILVIAN BRIDGE, gaining absolute control over the Western Empire. In the East, Licinius vied with
MAXIMINUS DAIA for domination, and in 313 marched against this rival. Licinius triumphed; two men
now controlled the world in an unstable alliance. In 316 the Danube and Balkan provinces became their
battleground. Two collisions (at Cibalae and Mardia) resulted only in stalemate and eventually in a
treaty. By 323, Constantine marched once more, against the GOTHS. After routing the barbarians along
the Danube, he pursued them into Licinius' territory and one year later forced a showdown.
The two rulers gathered their legions, each army totaling around 130,000 men. On July 3, 324, they
engaged at Adrianople. Constantine set a large portion of his army on Licinius's flank, while he led the
main assault on the enemy's naturally weakened center. The feint on the flank worked perfectly, and
Constantine smashed Licinius' middle. His army routed, Licinius fled, leaving behind some 40,000 men.
Constantine pursued him to Byzantium.
Another battle was fought at sea on the Hellespont later in the month, and on September 18, 324, the last
confrontation took place at Chrysopolis, where Constantine was again the victor. Licinius was executed in
the following year, and Constantine was the sole ruler of the Roman world.
A second battle was fought at Adrianople on August 9, 378, between Emperor VALENS and the Goths. In
376, Valens, the Eastern emperor, received word that the Visigoths were being pushed in great
numbers beyond the natural frontier of the Danube. The HUNS had invaded their lands, and the
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