The only survived speech of emperor to soldiers

There is only one speech of the emperor to the soldiers which survived to our times (so-called adlocutio). Its author is the emperor Hadrian, who gave it in the summer of 128 CE in Lambaesis, in present-day Algeria.

At that time he was in the legio III Augusta camp, where he gave various speeches to subsequent Roman troops. One of them he directed to the horsemen unit – ala I Pannoniorum – complimenting the soldiers:

You did everything according to the book. You filled the training ground with your wheelings, you threw spears not ungracefully, though with short and stiff spears. Several of you hurled spears with skill. Your jumping onto the horses here was lively and yesterday swift.

The speech was carved in stone (on the corner pillars of the viewing platform) and placed in the middle of the training and parade field – two kilometers west from the main fort.