Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Detail: the face of Venus

Sandro Botticelli 

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

 

 

Sandro Botticelli: The Birth of Venus (c. 1486). Tempera on canvas. 172.5 cm × 278.9 cm (67.9 in × 109.6 in). Uffizi, Florence

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Fresco from Pompei, Casa di Venus, 1st century AD. Dug out in 1960. It is supposed that this fresco could be the Roman copy of famous portrait of Campaspe, mistress of Alexander the Great

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Bronze figurine of Venus, Lyon(Roman Lugdunum)

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

 

 

Venus Callipyge Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)
Artist	Anonymous
Year	1st or 2nd century BC[1]
Type	White marble
Location	National Archaeological Museum, Naples

 

Venus (/ˈviːnəs/, Classical Latin: /ˈwɛnʊs/) is the Roman goddess whose functions encompassed love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the mother of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals, and was revered in Roman religion under numerous cult titles.

The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart Aphrodite for Roman artand Latin literature. In the later classical traditionof the West, Venus becomes one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality.

Name and attributes

Religion in ancient Rome Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)
Marcus Aurelius (head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Practices and beliefs
libation sacrifice votum temples festivals ludi funerals Imperial cult mystery religions
Priesthoods
Pontifices Augures Vestales Flamines Fetiales Epulones Fratres Arvales
Deities
List of Roman deities Twelve major gods Capitoline Triad Aventine Triad underworld gods indigitamenta Deified emperors Divus Julius Divus Augustus
Related topics
Glossary of ancient Roman religion Roman mythology Ancient Greek religion Etruscan religion Gallo-Roman religion Interpretatio graeca Decline of Greco-Roman polytheism
v t e

Venus embodies sex, love, beauty, enticement, seduction, and persuasive female charm among the community of immortal gods; in Latin orthography, her name is indistinguishable from the Latin noun venus (« sexual love » and « sexual desire« ), from which it derives.^[1][2] It has connections to venerari (« to honour, to try to please ») and venia (« grace, favour ») through a possible common root in an Indo-European *wenes- or *u̯enis (« friend »). Their common Proto-Indo-European root is assumed as *wen- or *u̯en-« to strive for, wish for, desire, love »).^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Bronze figurine of Venus, Lyon (Roman Lugdunum)

Venus has been described as perhaps « the most original creation of the Roman pantheon »,^[8] and « an ill-defined and assimilative » native goddess, combined « with a strange and exotic Aphrodite ».^[9] Her cults may represent the religiously legitimate charm and seduction of the divine by mortals, in contrast to the formal, contractual relations between most members of Rome’s official pantheon and the state, and the unofficial, illicit manipulation of divine forces through magic.^[10][11] The ambivalence of her persuasive functions has been perceived in the relationship of the root *venes- with Latin venenum (poison), in the sense of « a charm, magic philtre« .^[12]

In myth, Venus-Aphrodite was born of sea-foam. Roman theology presents Venus as the yielding, watery female principle, essential to the generation and balance of life. Her male counterparts in the Roman pantheon, Vulcan and Mars, are active and fiery. Venus absorbs and tempers the male essence, uniting the opposites of male and female in mutual affection. She is essentially assimilative and benign, and embraces several otherwise quite disparate functions. She can give military victory, sexual success, good fortune and prosperity. In one context, she is a goddess of prostitutes; in another, she turns the hearts of men and women from sexual vice to virtue.^[13]

Images of Venus have been found in domestic murals, mosaics and household shrines (lararia). Petronius, in his Satyricon, places an image of Venus among the Lares (household gods) of the freedman Trimalchio‘s lararium.^[14] Prospective brides offered Venus a gift « before the wedding »; the nature of the gift, and its timing, are unknown. Some Roman sources say that girls who come of age offer their toys to Venus; it is unclear where the offering is made, and others say this gift is to the Lares.^[15] In dice-games, a popular pastime among Romans of all classes, the luckiest, best possible roll was known as « Venus« .

Signs and symbols

Venus’ signs were for the most part the same as Aphrodite’s. They include roses, which were offered in Venus’ Porta Collina rites,^[16] and above all, myrtle (Latin murtos), which was cultivated for its white, sweetly scented flowers, aromatic, evergreen leaves and its various medical-magical properties. Venus’ statues, and her worshipers, wore myrtle crowns at her festivals.^[17] Before its adoption into Venus’ cults, myrtle was used in the purification rites of Cloacina, the Etruscan-Roman goddess of Rome’s main sewer; later, Cloacina’s association with Venus’ sacred plant made her Venus Cloacina. Likewise, Roman folk-etymology transformed the ancient, obscure goddess Murciainto « Venus of the Myrtles, whom we now call Murcia ».^[18]

Myrtle was thought a particularly potent aphrodisiac. The female pudendum, particularly the clitoris, was known as murtos (myrtle). As goddess of love and sex, Venus played an essential role at Roman prenuptial rites and wedding nights, so myrtle and roses were used in bridal bouquets. Marriage itself was not a seduction but a lawful condition, under Juno‘s authority; so myrtle was excluded from the bridal crown. Venus was also a patron of the ordinary, everyday wine drunk by most Roman men and women; the seductive powers of wine were well known. In the rites to Bona Dea, a goddess of female chastity,^[19] Venus, myrtle and anything male were not only excluded, but unmentionable. The rites allowed women to drink the strongest, sacrificial wine, otherwise reserved for the Roman gods and Roman men; the women euphemistically referred to it as « honey ». Under these special circumstances, they could get virtuously, religiously drunk on strong wine, safe from Venus’ temptations. Outside of this context, ordinary wine (that is, Venus’ wine) tinctured with myrtle oil was thought particularly suitable for women.^[20]

Roman generals given an ovation, a lesser form of Roman triumph, wore a myrtle crown, perhaps to purify themselves and their armies of blood-guilt. The ovation ceremony was assimilated to Venus Victrix (« Victorious Venus »), who was held to have granted and purified its relatively « easy » victory.^[21][22]

Cult history and temples

The first known temple to Venus was vowed to Venus Obsequens (« Indulgent Venus »^[23]) by Q. Fabius Gurges in the heat of a battle against the Samnites. It was dedicated in 295 BC, at a site near the Aventine Hill, and was supposedly funded by fines imposed on Roman women for sexual misdemeanours. Its rites and character were probably influenced by or based on Greek Aphrodite‘s cults, which were already diffused in various forms throughout Italian Magna Graeca. Its dedication date connects Venus Obsequens to the Vinalia rustica festival.^[24][25]

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Remains of the Temple of Venus Genetrix in the Forum of Caesar, Rome.

In 217 BC, in the early stages of the Second Punic War with Carthage, Rome suffered a disastrous defeat at the battle of Lake Trasimene. The Sibylline oracle suggested that if the Venus Erycina (« Venus of Eryx« ), patron goddess of Carthage’s Sicillian allies, could be persuaded to change her allegiance, Carthage might be defeated. Rome laid siege to Eryx, offered its goddess a magnificent temple as reward for her defection, captured her image and brought it to Rome. It was installed in a temple on the Capitoline Hill, as one of Rome’s twelve Dii consentes. Shorn of her more overtly Carthaginian characteristics,^[26] this « foreign Venus » became Rome’s Venus Genetrix (« Venus the Mother »),^[27][27][28] As far as the Romans were concerned, this was the homecoming of an ancestral goddess to her people. Roman tradition made Venus the mother and protector of the Trojan prince Aeneas, ancestor of the Roman people. Soon after, Rome’s defeat of Carthage confirmed Venus’s goodwill to Rome, her links to its mythical Trojan past, and her support of its political and military hegemony.^[29]

The Capitoline cult to Venus seems to have been reserved to higher status Romans. A separate cult to Venus Erycina as a fertility deity,^[30] was established in 181 BC, in a traditionally plebeian district just outside Rome’s sacred boundary, near the Colline Gate. The temple, cult and goddess probably retained much of the original’s character and rites.^[30][31][31] Likewise, a shrine to Venus Verticordia (« Venus the changer of hearts »), established in 114 BC but with links to an ancient cult of Venus-Fortuna, was « bound to the peculiar milieu of the Aventine and the Circus Maximus » – a strongly plebeian context for Venus’s cult, in contrast to her aristocratic cultivation as a Stoicand Epicurian « all-goddess ».^[32]

Towards the end of the Roman Republic, some leading Romans laid personal claims to Venus’ favour. The general and dictator Sulla adopted Felix (« Lucky ») as a surname, acknowledging his debt to heaven-sent good fortune and his particular debt to Venus Felix, for his extraordinarily fortunate political and military career.^[33] His protégé Pompey competed for Venus’ support, dedicating (in 55 BC) a large temple to Venus Victrix as part of his lavishly appointed new theatre, and celebrating his triumph of 54 BC with coins that showed her crowned with triumphal laurels.^[34]

Pompey’s erstwhile friend, ally, and later opponent Julius Caesar went still further. He claimed the favours of Venus Victrix in his military success and Venus Genetrix as a personal, divine ancestress – apparently a long-standing family tradition among the Julii. When Caesar was assassinated, his heir, Augustus, adopted both claims as evidence of his inherent fitness for office, and divine approval of his rule.^[35]Augustus’ new temple to Mars Ultor, divine father of Rome’s legendary founder Romulus, would have underlined the point, with the image of avenging Mars « almost certainly » accompanied by that of his divine consort Venus, and possibly a statue of the deceased and deified Caesar.^[36]

Vitruvius recommends that any new temple to Venus be sited according to rules laid down by the Etruscan haruspices, and built « near to the gate » of the city, where it would be less likely to contaminate « the matrons and youth with the influence of lust ». He finds the Corinthian style, slender, elegant, enriched with ornamental leaves and surmounted by volutes, appropriate to Venus’ character and disposition.^[37] Vitruvius recommends the widest possible spacing between the temple columns, producing a light and airy space, and he offers Venus’s temple in Caesar’s forum as an example of how not to do it; the densely spaced, thickset columns darken the interior, hide the temple doors and crowd the walkways, so that matrons who wish to honour the goddess must enter her temple in single file, rather than arm-in arm.^[38]

In 135 AD the Emperor Hadrian inaugurated a temple to Venus and Roma Aeterna (Eternal Rome) on Rome’s Velian Hill, underlining the Imperial unity of Rome and its provinces, and making Venus the protective genetrix of the entire Roman state, its people and fortunes. It was the largest temple in Ancient Rome.^[39]

Festivals

Roman festivals

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Fresco with a seated Venus, restored as a personification of Rome in the so-called ”Dea Barberini” (“Barberini goddess”); Roman artwork, dated first half of the 4th century AD, from a room near the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Laterano

Venus was offered official (state-sponsored) cult in certain festivals of the Roman calendar. Her sacred month was April (Latin Mensis Aprilis) which Roman etymologists understood to derive from aperire, « to open, » with reference to the springtime blossoming of trees and flowers.^[40]

Veneralia (April 1) was held in honour of Venus Verticordia (« Venus the Changer of Hearts »), and Fortuna Virilis (Virile or strong Good Fortune), whose cult was probably by far the older of the two. Venus Verticordia was invented in 220 BC, in response to advice from a Sibylline oracle during Rome’s Punic Wars,^[41] when a series of prodigieswas taken to signify divine displeasure at sexual offenses among Romans of every category and class, including several men and three Vestal Virgins.^[42] Her statue was dedicated by a young woman, chosen as the most pudica (sexually pure) in Rome by a committee of Roman matrons. At first, this statue was probably housed in the temple of Fortuna Virilis, perhaps as divine reinforcement against the perceived moral and religious failings of its cult. In 114 BC Venus Verticordia was given her own temple.^[43] She was meant to persuade Romans of both sexes and every class, whether married or unmarried, to cherish the traditional sexual proprieties and morality known to please the gods and benefit the State. During her rites, her image was taken from her temple to the men’s baths, where it was undressed and washed in warm water by her female attendants, then garlanded with myrtle. Women and men asked Venus Verticordia’s help in affairs of the heart, sex, betrothal and marriage. For Ovid, Venus’s acceptance of the epithet and its attendant responsibilities represented a change of heart in the goddess herself.^[44]

Vinalia urbana (April 23), a wine festival shared by Venus and Jupiter, king of the gods. Venus was patron of « profane » wine, for everyday human use. Jupiter was patron of the strongest, purest, sacrificial grade wine, and controlled the weather on which the autumn grape-harvest would depend. At this festival, men and women alike drank the new vintage of ordinary, non-sacral wine in honour of Venus, whose powers had provided humankind with this gift. Upper-class women gathered at Venus’s Capitoline temple, where a libation of the previous year’s vintage, sacred to Jupiter, was poured into a nearby ditch.^[45]Common girls (vulgares puellae) and prostitutes gathered at Venus’ temple just outside the Colline gate, where they offered her myrtle, mint, and rushes concealed in rose-bunches and asked her for « beauty and popular favour », and to be made « charming and witty ».^[46]

Vinalia Rustica (August 19), originally a rustic Latin festival of wine, vegetable growth and fertility. This was almost certainly Venus’ oldest festival and was associated with her earliest known form, Venus Obsequens. Kitchen gardens and market-gardens, and presumably vineyards were dedicated to her.^[47] Roman opinions differed on whose festival it was. Varro insists that the day was sacred to Jupiter, whose control of the weather governed the ripening of the grapes; but the sacrificial victim, a female lamb (agna), may be evidence that it once belonged to Venus alone.^[48][49]

A festival of Venus Genetrix (September 26) was held under state auspices from 46 BC at her Temple in the Forum of Caesar, in fulfillment of a vow by Julius Caesar, who claimed her personal favour as his divine patron, and ancestral goddess of the Julian clan. Caesar dedicated the temple during his unprecedented and extraordinarily lavish quadruple triumph. At the same time, he was pontifex maximus and Rome’s senior magistrate; the festival is thought to mark the unprecedented promotion of a personal, family cult to one of the Roman state. Caesar’s heir, Augustus, made much of these personal and family associations with Venus as an Imperial deity.^[50] The festival’s rites are not known.

Epithets

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Imperial image of Venus suggesting influence from Syria or Palestine, or from the cult of Isis^[51]

Like other major Roman deities, Venus was given a number of epithets that referred to her different cult aspects, roles, and her functional similarities to other deities. Her « original powers seem to have been extended largely by the fondness of the Romans for folk-etymology, and by the prevalence of the religious idea nomen-omenwhich sanctioned any identifications made in this way. »^[52]

Venus Acidalia, in Virgil‘s Aeneid (1.715-722, as mater acidalia). Servius speculates this as reference to a « Fountain of Acidalia » (fons acidalia) where the Graces (Venus’ daughters) were said to bathe; but he also connects it to the Greek word for « arrow », whence « love’s arrows » and love’s « cares and pangs ». Ovid uses acidaliaonly in the latter sense. It is likely a literary conceit, not a cultic epithet.^[53]

Venus Caelestis (Celestial or Heavenly Venus), used from the 2nd century AD for Venus as an aspect of a syncretised supreme goddess. Venus Caelestis is the earliest known Roman recipient of a taurobolium (a form of bull sacrifice), performed at her shrine in Pozzuoli on 5 October 134. This form of the goddess, and the taurobolium, are associated with the « Syrian Goddess », understood as a late equivalent to Astarte, or the Roman Magna Mater, the latter being another supposedly Trojan « Mother of the Romans »^[54]

Venus Calva (« Venus the bald one »), a legendary form of Venus, attested only by post-Classical Roman writings which offer several traditions to explain this appearance and epithet. In one, it commemorates the virtuous offer by Roman matrons of their own hair to make bowstrings during a siege of Rome. In another, king Ancus Marcius‘ wife and other Roman women lost their hair during an epidemic; in hope of its restoration, unafflicted women sacrificed their own hair to Venus.^[55]

Venus Cloacina (« Venus the Purifier »); a fusion of Venus with the Etruscan water goddess Cloacina, who had an ancient shrine above the outfall of the Cloaca Maxima, originally a stream, later covered over to function as Rome’s main sewer. The shrine contained a statue of Venus, whose rites were probably meant to purify the culvert’s polluted waters and noxious airs.^[56] Pliny the Elder, remarking Venus as a goddess of union and reconciliation, identifies the shrine with a legendary episode in Rome’s earliest history, when the warring Romans and Sabines, carrying branches of myrtle, met there to make peace.^[57]

Venus Erycina (« Venus of Eryx« ), captured from Sicily and worshiped in Romanised form by the elite, and respectable matrons, at a temple on the Capitoline Hill. A later temple, outside the Porta Collina and Rome’s sacred boundary, may have preserved some Erycinian features of her cult. It was considered suitable for « common girls » and prostitutes.^[58][59]

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Venus being seduced by Mars, fresco from Pompeii, 1st century AD

Venus Frutishonoured by all the Latins with a federal cult at the temple named Frutinal in Lavinium.^[60] Inscriptions found at Lavinium attest the presence of federal cults, without giving precise details.^[61]

Venus Felix (« Lucky Venus »), probably a traditional epithet, later adopted by the dictator Sulla. It was Venus’s cult title at Hadrian‘s temple to Venus Felix et Roma Aeterna on the Via Sacra. This epithet is also used for a specific sculpture at the Vatican Museums.

Venus Genetrix (« Venus the Mother »), as a goddess of motherhood and domesticity, with a festival on September 26, a personal ancestress of the Julian lineage and, more broadly, the divine ancestress of the Roman people. Julius Caesardedicated a Temple of Venus Genetrix in 46 BC. This name has attached to an iconological type of statue of Aphrodite/Venus.

Venus Heliopolitana (« Venus of Heliopolis Syriaca« ), worshipped at Baalbek. A form of Ashtart who formed a third of the Heliopolitan Triad, in which she was the consort of Jupiter(Baʿal) and mother of Mercury(Adon).^{[citation needed]}

Venus Kallipygos (« Venus with the beautiful buttocks »), worshiped at Syracuse.

Venus Libertina (« Venus the Freedwoman« ), probably arising through the semantic similarity and cultural inks between libertina (as « a free woman ») and lubentina (possibly meaning « pleasurable » or « passionate »). Further titles or variants acquired by Venus through the same process, or through orthographic variance, include Libentia, Lubentina, and Lubentini. Venus Libitina links Venus to a patron-goddess of funerals and undertakers, Libitina; a temple was dedicated to Venus Libitina in Libitina’s grove on the Esquiline Hill, « hardly later than 300 BC. »^[62]

Julius Caesar, with Venus holding Victoria on reverse, from February or March 44 BC

Crispina, wife of Commodus, with enthroned Venus Felix holding Victory on reverse

Venus Murcia(« Venus of the Myrtle »), merging Venus with the little-known deity Murcia (or Murcus, or Murtia). Murcia was associated with Rome’s Mons Murcia (the Aventine’s lesser height), and had a shrine in the Circus Maximus. Some sources associate her with the myrtle-tree. Christian writers described her as a goddess of sloth and laziness.^[63]

Venus Obsequens (« Indulgent Venus »^[23]), Venus’ first attested Roman epithet. It was used in the dedication of her first Roman temple, on August 19 in 295 BC during the Third Samnite War by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges. It was sited somewhere near the Aventine Hill and Circus Maximus, and played a central role in the Vinalia Rustica. It was supposedly funded by fines imposed on women found guilty of adultery.^[64]

Venus Physica: Venus as a universal, natural creative force that informs the physical world. She is addressed as « Alma Venus » (« Mother Venus ») by Lucretius in the introductory lines of his vivid, poetic exposition of Epicurean physics and philosophy, De Rerum Natura. She seems to have been a favourite of Lucretius’ patron, Memmius.^[65] Pompeii’s protective goddess was Venus Physica Pompeiana, who had a distinctive, local form as a goddess of the sea, and trade. When Sulla captured Pompeii from the Samnites, he resettled it with his veterans and renamed it for his own family and divine protector Venus, as Colonia Veneria Cornelia (for Sulla’s claims of Venus’ favour, see Venus Felix above).^[66]

Venus Urania (« Heavenly Venus »), used as the title of a book by Basilius von Ramdohr, a relief by Pompeo Marchesi, and a painting by Christian Griepenkerl. (cf. Aphrodite Urania.)

Venus Verticordia (« Venus the Changer of Hearts »). See Veneralia in this article and main article, Veneralia.

Venus Victrix (« Venus the Victorious »), a Romanised aspect of the armed Aphrodite that Greeks had inherited from the East, where the goddess Ishtar « remained a goddess of war, and Venus could bring victory to a Sulla or a Caesar. »^[67] Pompey, Sulla’s protégé, vied with his patron and with Caesar for public recognition as her protégé. In 55 BC he dedicated a temple to her at the top of his theater in the Campus Martius. She had a shrine on the Capitoline Hill, and festivals on August 12 and October 9. A sacrifice was annually dedicated to her on the latter date. In neo-classical art, her epithet as Victrix is often used in the sense of ‘Venus Victorious over men’s hearts’ or in the context of the Judgement of Paris (e.g. Canova‘s Venus Victrix, a half-nude reclining portrait of Pauline Bonaparte).

Mythology and literature

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

A Venus-Aphrodite velificansholding an infant, probably Aeneas,^[68]as Anchises and Luna–Selene look on (Roman-era relief from Aphrodisias)

Aphrodite

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Venus and Mars, with Cupid attending, in a wall painting from Pompeii

As with most major gods and goddesses in Roman mythology, the literary concept of Venus is mantled in whole-cloth borrowings from the literary Greek mythology of her counterpart, Aphrodite. In some Latin mythology Cupid was the son of Venus and Mars, the god of war. At other times, or in parallel myths and theologies, Venus was understood to be the consort of Vulcan. Virgil, in compliment to his patron Augustus and the gens Julia, embellished an existing connection between Venus, whom Julius Caesar had adopted as his protectress, and Aeneas. Vergil’s Aeneas is guided to Latium by Venus in her heavenly form, the morning star, shining brightly before him in the daylight sky; much later, she lifts Caesar’s soul to heaven.^[69] In Ovid‘s Fasti Venus came to Rome because she « preferred to be worshipped in the city of her own offspring ».^[70] In Vergil’s poetic account of Octavian‘s victory at the sea-battle of Actium, the future emperor is allied with Venus, Neptune and Minerva. Octavian’s opponents, Antony, Cleopatraand the Egyptians, assisted by bizarre and unhelpful Egyptian deities such as « barking » Anubis, lose the battle.^[71]

In the interpretatio romana of the Germanic pantheon during the early centuries AD, Venus became identified with the Germanic goddess Frijjo, giving rise to the loan translation « Friday » for dies Veneris.

Classical art

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Venus riding a quadriga of elephants, fresco from Pompeii, 1st century AD

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Statue of nude Venus of the Capitoline type, Roman, 2nd century AD, from Campo Iemini, housed in the British Museum

Roman and Hellenistic art produced many variations on the goddess, often based on the Praxitlean type Aphrodite of Cnidus. Many female nudes from this period of sculpture whose subjects are unknown are in modern art history conventionally called ‘Venus’es, even if they originally may have portrayed a mortal woman rather than operated as a cult statue of the goddess.

Examples include:

• Venus de Milo (130 BC)
• Venus de’ Medici
• Capitoline Venus
• Esquiline Venus
• Venus Felix
• Venus of Arles
• Venus Anadyomene (also here)
• Venus, Pan and Eros
• Venus Genetrix
• Venus of Capua
• Venus Kallipygos
• Venus Pudica

Medieval art

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Medieval representation of Venus, sitting on a rainbow, with her devotees who offer their hearts to her, 15th century.

Venus, setting fire to the castle where the Rose is imprisoned, in the medieval French romance Roman de la Rose. In this story Venus is portrayed as the mother of Cupid

Art in the classical tradition

Venus became a popular subject of painting and sculpture during the Renaissance period in Europe. As a « classical » figure for whom nuditywas her natural state, it was socially acceptable to depict her unclothed. As the goddess of sexuality, a degree of erotic beauty in her presentation was justified, which appealed to many artists and their patrons. Over time, venus came to refer to any artistic depiction in post-classical art of a nude woman, even when there was no indication that the subject was the goddess.

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

The Birth of Venus, by Sandro Botticelli c. 1485–1486.

Giacobbe Giusti, Venus (mythology)

Venus, Mars, and Vulcan, by Tintoretto

• The Birth of Venus (Botticelli) (c. 1485)
• Sleeping Venus (c. 1501)
• Venus of Urbino (1538)
• Venus with a Mirror (c. 1555)
• Rokeby Venus
• Olympia (1863)
• The Birth of Venus (Cabanel) (1863)
• The Birth of Venus (Bouguereau) (1879)
• Venus of Cherchell, Gsell museum in Algeria
• Venus Victrix, and Venus Italica by Antonio Canova

In the field of prehistoric art, since the discovery in 1908 of the so-called « Venus of Willendorf » small Neolithic sculptures of rounded female forms have been conventionally referred to as Venus figurines. Although the name of the actual deity is not known, the knowing contrast between the obese and fertile cult figures and the classical conception of Venus has raised resistance to the terminology.

Gallery

• 

  Venus Anadyomene (ca. 1525) by Titian

• 

  Venus with a Mirror (ca. 1555) by Titian

• 

  Venus by Frans Floris, Hallwyl Museum

• 

  Venus looking in the mirror, with Cupid attending, painting ca. 1650 – 1700, by Peter Paul Rubens

• 

  Mars Being Disarmed by Venus (1822–25) by Jacques-Louis David

• 

  Birth of Venus (1863) by Alexandre Cabanel

• 

  Tannhäuser in the Venusberg (1901) by John Collier

• 

  Russian Venus (1926) by Boris Kustodiev

Medieval and modern music

In Wagner‘s opera Tannhäuser, which draws on the medieval German legend of the knight and poet Tannhäuser, Venus lives beneath the Venusberg mountain. Tannhäuser breaks his knightly vows by spending a year there with Venus, under her enchantment. When he emerges, he has to seek penance for his sins.

The Dutch band Shocking Blue had a number one hit on the Billboard Top Ten in 1970 with the song titled « Venus« , which was also a hit when covered by Bananarama in 1986. The song « Venus » by the band Television from the 1978 album Marquee Moon references the Venus de Milo. There is also a song named « Venus » written, produced and sung by Lady Gaga, as well as a song named « Birth of Venus Illegitima » by the Swedish symphonic metal Therion, on the album Vovin, and the song « Venus as a Boy » by the Icelandic artist Björk. Another reference to Venus is from Billy Idol’s album « Cyberpunk » , in track # 16 titled « Venus ».

• Aphroditus
• Hermaphroditus
• Love goddess
• Lucifer
• Hottentot Venus
• Sailor Venus (Fictional Character based on myth from series Sailor Moon)
• The Golden Bough (myth of Aeneas, son of Venus)
• Venus (planet)
• Venus symbol

References

1. Jump up^ Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, 1879, « Venus », (B, Transf., at perseus.org.
2. Jump up^ Walde & Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed. 1938, vol. 2, p. 752-753.
3. Jump up^ J. Pokorny, Indo-European Etymological Dictionary, p. 1146-1146.
4. Jump up^ « The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 ». Retrieved 2016-11-13.
5. Jump up^ Etymonline link (Harper).
6. Jump up^ See also William W.Skeat Etymological Dictionary of the English Language New York, 2011 (first ed. 1882) s. v. venerable, venereal, venial.
7. Jump up^ Mallory, J. P., and Adams, D. Q. (Editors), Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Taylor & Francis, 1997, p. 158. ISBN 1-884964-98-2
8. Jump up^ Schilling, R., p. 146.
9. Jump up^ Eden, p. 458ff. Eden is discussing possible associations between the Venus of Eryx and the brassica species Eruca sativa (known in Europe as Rocket), which the Romans considered an aphrodisiac.
10. Jump up^ R. Schilling La religion romaine de Venus depuis les origines jusqu’au temps d’ AugusteParis, 1954, pp. 13–64
11. Jump up^ R. Schilling « La relation Venus venia », Latomus, 21, 1962, pp. 3–7
12. Jump up^ Linked through an adjectival form *venes-no-: William W. Skeat ibid. s.v. « venom »
13. Jump up^ Staples, Ariadne, From Good Goddess to vestal virgins: sex and category in Roman religion, Routledge, 1998, pp. 12, 15-16, 24 – 26, 149 – 150: Varro‘s theology identifies Venus with water as an aspect of the female principle. To generate life, the watery matrix of the womb requires the virile warmth of fire. To sustain life, water and fire must be balanced; excess of either one, or their mutual antagonism, are unproductive or destructive.
14. Jump up^ Kaufmann-Heinimann, in Rüpke (ed), 197–8.
15. Jump up^ Hersch, Karen K., The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity, Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp. 66 – 67.
16. Jump up^ Eden, P.T., Venus and the Cabbage, Hermes, 91, (1963), p. 456, citing Ovid, Fasti 4, 869-870 cf. I35-I38; Ovid describes the rites observed in the early Imperial era, when the temple environs were part of the Gardens of Sallust.
17. Jump up^ Versnel, H. S., Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion, Vol. 2, Transition and reversal in myth and ritual, Brill, 1994, p. 262 [1]
18. Jump up^ Eden, pp. 457 – 8, citing Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 15, 119 – 121. Murcia had a shrine at the Circus Maximus.
19. Jump up^ « Bona Dea » means « The Good Goddess ». She was also a « Women’s goddess ».
20. Jump up^ Versnel, H. S., Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion, Vol. 2, Transition and reversal in myth and ritual, Brill, 1994, p. 262; see also Versnel, H.S., « The Festival for Bona Dea and the Thesmophoria », Greece & Rome, Second Series, 39, 1, (Apr., 1992), p. 44, citing Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 20. For the total exclusion of myrtle (and therefore Venus) at Bona Dea’s rites, see Bona Dea article.
21. Jump up^ In the Triumph, the general was drawn in a four-horse chariot before his troops. He wore Jupiter’s laurel crown, and was applauded as Jupiter’s embodiment for the day – or a king, by any other name. See Mary Beard, The Roman Triumph, The Belknap Press, 2007.
22. Jump up^ Brouwer, Henrik H. J., Bona Dea, The Sources and a Description of the Cult, Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l’Empire romain, 110, Brill, 1989: citing Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 23, 152 – 158, and Book 15, 125.
23. ^ Jump up to:^a b « The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome », v. 1, p. 167
24. Jump up^ Eden, P.T., « Venus and the Cabbage » Hermes, 91, (1963) p. 456.
25. Jump up^ Schilling, R. La Religion romaine de Venus, BEFAR, Paris, 1954, p.87, suggests that Venus began as an abstraction of personal qualities, later assuming Aphrodite’s attributes.
26. Jump up^ Her Sicillian form probably combined elements of Aphrodite and a more warlike Carthaginian-Phoenician Astarte
27. ^ Jump up to:^a b Beard et al, Vol 1., pp. 80, 83: see also Livy Ab Urbe Condita 23.31.
28. Jump up^ Orlin, Eric (2007), in Rüpke, J, ed. A Companion to Roman Religion, Blackwell publishing, p. 62.
29. Jump up^ Venus’ links with Troy can be traced to the epic, mythic history of the Trojan War, and the Judgement of Paris, in which the Trojan prince Paris chose Aphrodite over Hera and Athena, setting off a train of events that led to war between the Greeks and Trojans, and eventually to Troy’s destruction. In Rome’s foundation myth, Venus was the divine mother of the Trojan prince Aeneas, and thus a divine ancestor of the Roman people as a whole. Mary Beard, The Roman Triumph, The Belknap Press, 2007, p. 23. The Punic Wars saw many similar introductions of foreign cult, including the Phrygian cult to Magna Mater, who also had mythical links to Troy. See also Beard et al., Vol. 1, p. 80.
30. ^ Jump up to:^a b Lipka, Michael, Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach, Brill, 2009, pp. 72-73: Lipka gives a foundation date of 181 BC for Venus’ Colline temple.
31. ^ Jump up to:^a b Orlin, Eric M., « Foreign Cults in Republican Rome: Rethinking the Pomerial Rule », Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. 47 (2002), pp. 4, 8, 14.
32. Jump up^ Mario Torelli, Typology and Structure of Roman Historical Reliefs, University of Michigan Press, 1992, pp. 8 – 9: the aristocratic ideology of an increasingly Hellenised Venus is « summarized by the famous invocation to Venus Physica in Lucretius‘ poem. »
33. Jump up^ Plutarch’s original Greek translates this adopted surname, Felix, as Epaphroditus (Aphrodite’s beloved); see Plutarch, Sulla 19.9.
34. Jump up^ Beard, 2007, pp. 22 – 23.
35. Jump up^ Orlin, in Rüpke (ed), pp. 67 – 69: « At the battle of Pharsalus, Caesar also vowed a temple, in best republican fashion, to Venus Victrix, almost as if he were summoning Pompey’s protectress to his side in the manner of an evocatio. Three years after Pompey’s defeat at the battle of Actium, Caesar dedicated his new Roman Forum, complete with a temple to his ancestor Venus Genetrix, « apparently in fulfillment of the vow ». The goddess helped provide a divine aura for her descendant, preparing the way for Caesar’s own cult as a divus and the formal institution of the Roman Imperial cult.
36. Jump up^ Beard et al., Vol 1, pp. 199 – 200.
37. Jump up^ Immediately after these remarks, Vitruvius prescribes the best positioning for temples to Venus’ two divine consorts, Vulcan and Mars. Vulcan’s should be outside the city, to reduce the dangers of fire, which is his element; Mars’ too should be outside the city, so that « no armed frays may disturb the peace of the citizens, and that this divinity may, moreover, be ready to preserve them from their enemies and the perils of war. » Book 1, 7,1.
38. Jump up^ The widely spaced, open style preferred by Vitruvius is eustylos. The densely pillared style he criticises is pycnostylos. Book 3, 1, 5.
39. Jump up^ See James Grout, Encyclopedia Romana, « Temple of Venus and Rome, » online. See also Beard et al., Vol. 1, pp. 257 – 8, 260.
40. Jump up^ The origin is unknown, but it might derive from Apru, an Etruscan form of Greek Aphrodite’s name.[2]
41. Jump up^ Either the Sibylline Books (Valerius Maximus, 8. 15. 12) or the Cumaean Sibyl (Ovid, Fasti, 4. 155 – 62).
42. Jump up^ See Staples, Ariadne, From Good Goddess to vestal virgins: sex and category in Roman religion, Routledge, 1998, pp. 105 – 9.
43. Jump up^ Carter, Jesse Benedict, « The Cognomina of the Goddess ‘Fortuna,' » Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 31, 1900, p. 66. [3]
44. Jump up^ Langlands, p. 59, citing Ovid, Fasti, 4. 155 – 62. Romans considered personal ethics or mentality to be functions of the heart.
45. Jump up^ Olivier de Cazanove, « Jupiter, Liber et le vin latin », Revue de l’histoire des religions, 1988, Vol. 205, Issue 205-3, pp. 245-265 persee
46. Jump up^ Staples, p. 122, citing Ovid, Fasti, 4,863 – 872.
47. Jump up^ Vegetable-growers may have been involved in the dedications as a corporate guild: see Eden, P.T., « Venus and the Cabbage » Hermes, 91, (1963) p. 451.
48. Jump up^ For associations of kind between Roman deities and their sacrificial victims, see Victima.
49. Jump up^ Lipka, Michael, Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach, Brill, 2009, p. 42; citing Varro, Lingua Latina, 6. 16; Varro’s explicit denial that the festival belongs to Venus implies his awareness of opposite scholarly and commonplace opinion. Lipka offers this apparent contradiction as an example of two Roman cults that offer « complementary functional foci ».
50. Jump up^ Sulla may have set some form of precedent, but there is no evidence that he built her a Temple. Caesar’s associations with Venus as both a personal and state goddess may also have been propagated in the Roman provinces. See James Rives, « Venus Genetrix outside Rome », Phoenix, Vol. 48, No. 4 (Winter, 1994), pp. 294-306.
51. Jump up^ Description from Walters Art Museum
52. Jump up^ See Eden, p. 457. For further exposition of nomen-omen (or nomen est omen) see Del Bello, Davide, Forgotten paths: etymology and the allegorical mindset, The Catholic University of America Press, 2007, p.52 ff. [4]
53. Jump up^ O’Hara, J ames J., « The Significance of Vergil’s Acidalia Mater, and Venus Erycina in Catullus and Ovid », Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 93, 1990, pp. 335-342
54. Jump up^ Turcan, p. 141 – 143.
55. Jump up^ R. Schilling La religion romaine de Venus depuis les origines jusqu’au temps d’AugustParis, 1954, pp. 83–89: « L’origine probable du cult de Venus ». Ashby (1929) finds the existence of a temple to Venus Calva « very doubtful »; see Samuel Ball Platner (completed and revised by Thomas Ashby), A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London, Oxford University Press, 1929, p551.[5]
56. Jump up^ Eden, p. 457, citing Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 15, 119 – 121.
57. Jump up^ Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 15, 119, cited in Wagenvoort, p. 180.
58. Jump up^ Beard et al., Vol 1., pp. 80, 83: see also Livy Ab Urbe Condita 23.31.
59. Jump up^ Thomas A. J. McGinn, Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome, Oxford University Press, 1998, p.25.
60. Jump up^ Paulus-Festus s. v. p. 80 L: Frutinal templum Veneris Fruti. Strabo V 3, 5: « At the midway between Ostia and Antium lies Lavinium that has a sanctuary of Aphrodite common to all Latin nations, but which is under the care of the Ardeans, who have entrusted the task to intendents ».
61. Jump up^ CIL X 797: « Sp. Turrianus Proculus Gellianus… pater patratus…Lavinium sacrorum principiorum p(opuli) R(omani) Quirt(ium) nominisque Latini qui apud Laurentis coluntur« . Cited in B. Liou-Gilles « Naissance de la ligue latine. Mythe et culte de fondation » in Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire 74 1996 1 p.85.
62. Jump up^ See Eden, p. 457. Varro rationalises the connections as « lubendo libido, libidinosus ac Venus Libentina et Libitina » (Lingua Latina, 6, 47).
63. Jump up^ Augustine, De civitate Dei, IV. 16; Arnobius, Adversus Nationes, IV. 9. 16; Murcus in Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 1, 33, 5 – cf murcidus = « slothful ».
64. Jump up^ Staples, Ariadne, From Good Goddess to vestal virgins: sex and category in Roman religion, Routledge, 1998, p. 89.
65. Jump up^ Elisabeth Asmis, « Lucretius’ Venus and Stoic Zeus », Hermes, 110, (1982), p. 458 ff.
66. Jump up^ A. Lill, « Myths of Pompeii: reality and legacy », Baltic Journal of Art History, 2011, p. 141, online (accessed 19 August 2013)
67. Jump up^ Thus Walter Burkert, in Homo Necans (1972) 1983:80, noting C. Koch on « Venus Victrix » in Realencyclopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, 8 A860-64.
68. Jump up^ Sometimes interpreted as Eros-Cupid, as a symbol of the sexual union between the goddess and Anchises, but perhaps alluding also to the scene in the Aeneid when Dido holds Cupid disguised as Ascanius in her lap as she falls in love with Aeneas.
69. Jump up^ Venus as a guide and protector of Aeneas and his descendants is frequent motif in the Aeneid. See discussion throughout M. F. Williams, The Sidus Iulium, the divinity of men, and the Golden Age in Virgil‟ s Aeneid, Leeds International Classical Studies, 2003 « Archived copy »(PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-06-11. Retrieved 2014-03-23.
70. Jump up^ Orlin, Eric M., « Foreign Cults in Republican Rome: Rethinking the Pomerial Rule », Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. 47 (2002) University of Michigan Press, p. 4, note 14, citing Ovid, Fasti, 4.876.
71. Jump up^ Vergil, Aeneid, 8.696-700.

Sources

• Beard, M., Price, S., North, J., Religions of Rome: Volume 1, a History, illustrated,Cambridge University Press, 1998.
• Champeaux, J. (1987). Fortuna. Recherches sur le culte de la Fortuna à Rome et dans le monde romain des origines à la mort de César. II. Les Transformations de Fortuna sous le République. Rome: Ecole Française de Rome, pp. 378–395.
• Eden, P.T., « Venus and the Cabbage, » Hermes, 91, (1963), pp. 448–459.
• Hammond, N.G.L. and Scullard, H.H. (eds.) (1970). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (p. 113)
• Langlands, Rebecca (2006). Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85943-1. [6]
• Lloyd-Morgan, G. (1986). « Roman Venus: public worship and private rites. » In M. Henig and A. King (eds.), Pagan Gods and Shrines of the Roman Empire (pp. 179–188). Oxford: Oxford Committee for Archaeology Monograph 8.
• Nash, E. (1962). Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome Volume 1. London: A. Zwemmer Ltd. (pp. 272–263, 424)
• Richardson, L. (1992). A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. (pp. 92, 165–167, 408–409, 411) ISBN 0-8018-4300-6
• Room, A. (1983). Room’s Classical Dictionary. London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (pp. 319–322)
• Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), A Companion to Roman Religion, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4051-2943-5
• Schilling, R. (1982) (2nd ed.). La Religion Romaine de Vénus depuis les origines jusqu’au temps d’Auguste. Paris: Editions E. de Boccard.
• Schilling, R., in Bonnefoy, Y., and Doniger, W. (Editors), Roman and European Mythologies, (English translation), University of Chicago Press, 1991. pp. 146. [7]
• Scullard, H.H. (1981). Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic. London: Thames and Hudson. (pp. 97, 107)
• Simon, E. (1990). Die Götter der Römer. Munich: Hirmer Verlag. (pp. 213–228).
• Staples, Ariadne (1998). From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415132339.
• Turcan, Robert (2001). The Cults of the Roman Empire. Blackwell. ISBN 0631200460.
• Wagenvoort, Hendrik, « The Origins of the goddess Venus » (first published as « De deae Veneris origine », Mnemnosyne, Series IV, 17, 1964, pp. 47 – 77) in Pietas: selected studies in Roman religion, Brill, 1980.
• Weinstock, S. (1971). Divus Julius. Oxford; Clarendon Press. (pp. 80–90)
• Gerd Scherm, Brigitte Tast Astarte und Venus. Eine foto-lyrische Annäherung (1996), ISBN 3-88842-603-0

•  Venus (dea)

: Venus (mythology)

• Britannica Online Encyclopedia
• The Roman goddess Venus – highlights at The British Museum
• Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (ca 2,300 images of Venus)
• ‘Venus Chiding Cupid for Learning to Cast Accounts’ by Sir Joshua Reynolds at the Lady Lever Art Gallery

[hide] v t e Ancient Roman religion and mythology
Deities	Apollo Bellona Bona Dea Castor and Pollux Ceres Cupid Diana Dīs Pater Egeria Fauna Faunus Flora Genius Hercules Janus Juno Jupiter Lares Liber Libertas Lucina Mars Mercury Minerva Orcus Neptune Penates Pluto Pomona Priapus Proserpina Quirinus Saturn Silvanus Sol Venus Vesta Vulcan Abstract deities Abundantia Aequitas Concordia Fides Fortuna Pietas Roma Salus Securitas Spes Victoria Terra
Legendary figures	Aeneas Rhea Silvia Romulus and Remus Numa Pompilius Tullus Hostilius Servius Tullius Ancus Marcius Lucius Tarquinius Priscus Lucius Tarquinius Superbus
Texts	Virgil Aeneid Ovid Metamorphoses Fasti Propertius Apuleius The Golden Ass Varro
Concepts and practices	Religion in ancient Rome Festivals Interpretatio graeca Imperial cult Temples
See also	Glossary of ancient Roman religion Greek mythology Myth and ritual Classical mythology Conversion to Christianity Decline of Greco-Roman polytheism

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 30332680 LCCN: no2014047547 GND: 11876800X SUDOC: 027548708 BNF: cb11956554n (data) NDL: 00956904

Categories:

• Venus (mythology)
• Love and lust goddesses
• Fertility goddesses
• Roman goddesses
• Deities in the Aeneid
• Sexuality in ancient Rome
• Mother goddesses

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(mythology)

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Porphyry statue of Hadrian discovered in Caesarea, Israel

Red Granite Statue of Caesar Hadrian from Caesarea. dated to ca. 130

Statua in porfido ritraente Adriano rinvenuta a Cesarea marittima.

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Hadrian’s Wall (Vallum Hadriani), a fortification in Northern England (viewed from Vercovicium).

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Ehrenbogen Arco die Adriano.

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Vestiges du temple d’Hadrien, Rome.

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Hadrian and Antinous – busts in the British Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Pantheon di Roma, costruito da Agrippa, fu restaurato da Adriano

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Castel Sant’Angelo, the ancient Hadrian Mausoleum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Villa Adriana.

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Temple of Zeus in Athens

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Canopo di Villa Adriana.

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Statua romana di Adriano (imperatore dal 117 al 138), conservata all’Ermitage di San Pietroburgo. II secolo d.C.

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Bust of Antinoüs (117–138 CE) known as the Antinoüs of Ecouen. Marble, 18th century copy from an original coming from the villa Adriana, now in the Prado Museum

Ritratto di Antinoo scoperto a Villa Adriana a Tivoli e conservato al museo del Louvre.

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Antinous as Osiris, wearing the nemes and the uraeus; the nose, mouth, left part of the face and major part of the bust are modern restorations. From the villa of Hadrian in Tivoli.

• File:Antinous Osiris Louvre 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Statue of Hadrian as pontifex maximus, dated 130–140 AD, from Rome, Palazzo Nuovo, Capitoline Museums

 

 Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Statue of Antinous (Delphi), polychrome Parian marble, made during the reign of Hadrian

 The Delphi Antinous is a cult statue of Antinous, sculpted in Parian marble during the reign of Hadrian (117-138 CE). H. 1.8 m (5 ft. 10 ¾ in.). Found in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, 1893. It can bee seen at the Archaeological Museum of Delphi.

Hadrian

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian
Marble bust of Hadrian at the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Capitoline Museums.
14th Emperor of the Roman Empire
Reign	10 August 117 – 10 July 138
Predecessor	Trajan
Successor	Antoninus Pius
Born	24 January 76 Italica, Hispania (uncertain)
Died	10 July 138 (aged 62) Baiae
Burial	Puteoli Gardens of Domitia Hadrian’s Mausoleum(Rome)
Spouse	Vibia Sabina
Issue	Lucius Aelius (adoptive) Antoninus Pius (adoptive)
Full name Publius Aelius Hadrianus (from birth to adoption and accession) Caesar Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus (as emperor)
Dynasty	Nervan-Antonine
Father	Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer Trajan (adoptive)
Mother	Domitia Paulina

Roman imperial dynasties
Nervo-Trajanic Dynasty

Nerva Children    Natural – (none)    Adoptive – Trajan Trajan Children    Natural – (none)    Adoptive – Hadrian Hadrian Children    Natural – (none)    Adoptive – Lucius Aelius    Adoptive – Antoninus Pius

Hadrian (/ˈheɪdriən/; Latin: Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus;^{[note 1][note 2]} 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He is known for building Hadrian’s Wall, which marked the northern limit of Britannia. He also rebuilt the Pantheon, constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma, and may have rebuilt the Serapeum of Alexandria. Philhellene in most of his tastes, he is considered by some to have been a humanist.

Hadrian was born Publius Aelius Hadrianus into a Hispano-Romanfamily. Although Italica near Santiponce(in modern-day Spain) is often considered his birthplace, ^[1] his actual place of birth remains uncertain. It is generally accepted that he came from a family with centuries-old roots in Hispania.^[2] His predecessor, Trajan, was a maternal cousin of Hadrian’s father.^[3] Trajan did not officially designate an heir during his lifetime, but his friend and adviser Licinius Surawas well disposed towards Hadrian; Trajan’s wife, Pompeia Plotina, claimed that her husband nominated Hadrian as emperor immediately before his death.^[4] Soon after his succession, four leading senators who had opposed Hadrian were unlawfully put to death. The senate never forgave Hadrian for this.

On his accession to the throne, Hadrian withdrew from Trajan’s conquests in Mesopotamia, Assyriaand Armenia, and may have considered abandoning Dacia. During his reign, Hadrian travelled to nearly every province of the Empire. An ardent admirer of Greece, he sought to make Athens the cultural capital of the Empire and ordered the construction of many opulent temples in the city. He used his relationship with his Greek lover Antinous to underline his philhellenism, and this led to the establishment of one of the most popular cults of ancient times. Hadrian spent a great deal of time with the military; he usually wore military attire and even dined and slept among the soldiers. He ordered rigorous military training and drilling and made use of false reports of attacks to keep the army on alert. Late in his reign he suppressed the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judaea, and renamed the province Syria Palaestina.

Hadrian’s last years were marred by illness, his disappointment in his failed Imperial panhellenic ideal, and his further executions of leading senators suspected of plotting against him. In 138 he adopted Antoninus Pius on the condition that Antoninus adopt Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as his own heirs. They would eventually succeed Antoninus as co-emperors. Hadrian died the same year at Baiae.^[5] Antoninus had him deified, despite opposition from the Senate.

Early life

Hadrian was born Publius Aelius Hadrianus in either Italica (near modern Seville) in the province of Hispania Baetica^[6] or Rome,^[7] to a well-established Roman family with centuries-old roots in Italica. His biography in the Historia Augusta states that he was born in Rome on 24 January 76 to an ethnically Hispanic family with vague paternal links to Italy, though this may be a complimentary fiction coined to make Hadrian appear a natural-born Roman instead of a provincial whose parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were born and raised in Hispania.^[8] It was general knowledge that Hadrian and his predecessor Trajan were – in the words of Aurelius Victor – « aliens », people « from the outside » (advenae).^[9]

Hadrian’s father was Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer, who as a senator of praetorianrank would have spent much of his time in Rome.^[10] Hadrian’s known paternal ancestry can be partly linked to a family from Hadria (modern Atri), an ancient town in Picenum, Italy. This family had settled in Italica soon after its founding by Scipio Africanus several centuries before Hadrian’s birth. Hadrian’s father, Afer, and his paternal cousin, the Emperor Trajan, were both born and raised in Hispania. Hadrian’s mother was Domitia Paulina, daughter of a distinguished Hispano-Roman senatorial family from Gades (Cádiz).^[11]

Hadrian’s elder sister and only sibling was Aelia Domitia Paulina, married to Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus, who was consul three times. Hadrian also had a niece, Julia Serviana Paulina, and a great-nephew, Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator, from Barcino (Barcelona). In 86, when Hadrian was ten years old, his parents died, and he became a ward of both Trajan and Publius Acilius Attianus (who was later Trajan’s Praetorian prefect).^[11] Hadrian was schooled in subjects appropriate to young Roman aristocrats; he was so fond of Greek literature that he was nicknamed Graeculus (« Greekling »). When Hadrian was 14, Trajan recalled him and looked after his development. Hadrian never returned to Italica, but it was later made a colonia in his honour.^[12]

Public service

Hadrian’s first official post was as a judge at Rome’s Inheritance court, one among many vigintivirate offices at the lowest level of the cursus honorum (« course of honours ») that could lead to higher office and a senatorial career. He then served as a military tribune, first with the Legio II Adiutrix in 95, then with the Legio V Macedonica. During Hadrian’s second stint as tribune, the frail and aged reigning emperor Nerva adopted Trajan as his heir; Hadrian was dispatched to give Trajan the news— or most probably was one of many emissaries charged with this same commission.^[13] Then he was transferred to Legio XXII Primigenia and a third tribunate.^[14] Hadrian’s three tribunates gave him some career advantage. Most scions of the older senatorial families might serve one, or at most two military tribunates as a prerequisite to higher office.^[15][16] When Nerva died in 98, Hadrian is said to have hastened to Trajan, to inform him ahead of the official envoy sent by the governor, Hadrian’s brother-in-law and rival Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus.^[17]

In 101, Hadrian was back in Rome, and stood for higher public office; he was elected quaestor, then quaestor imperatoris Traiani, liaison officer between Emperor and the assembled Senate, to whom he read the Emperor’s communiqués and speeches – which he possibly composed on the emperor’s behalf. In his role as imperial ghostwriter, Hadrian took the place of the recently deceased Licinius Sura, Trajan’s all-powerful friend and kingmaker.^[18] His next post was as ab actis senatus, keeping the Senate’s records.^[19] During the First Dacian War, Hadrian took the field as a member of Trajan’s personal entourage, but was excused from his military post to take office in Rome as Tribune of the Plebs, in 105. After the war, he was probably elected praetor.^[20] During the Second Dacian War, Hadrian was in Trajan’s personal service again, but was released to serve as legate of Legio I Minervia, then as governor of Lower Pannonia in 107, tasked with « holding back the Sarmatians« .^[21][22]

Now in his mid-thirties, Hadrian travelled to Greece; he was granted Athenian citizenship and was appointed eponymous archon of Athens for a brief time (in 112).^[23] The Athenians awarded him a statue with an inscription in the Theater of Dionysus ( IG II2 3286) offering a detailed account of his cursus honorum thus far.^[24][25] Thereafter no more is heard of him until Trajan’s Parthian War. It is possible that he remained in Greece until his recall to the imperial retinue.^[21]

Hadrian joined Trajan’s expedition against Parthia as a legate.^[26] He seems to have achieved nothing of note in the post but when the governor of Syria was sent to deal with renewed troubles in Dacia, Hadrian was appointed his replacement, with independent command.^[27] Trajan became seriously ill, and took ship for Rome, while Hadrian remained in Syria, de facto general commander of the Eastern Roman army.^[28] Trajan got as far as the coastal city of Selinus, in Cilicia; he was too ill to travel any further. He died there, on 8 August, and was later deified; he would be regarded as one of Rome’s most admired, popular and best emperors.

Relationship with Trajan and his family

Hadrian’s connections to Trajan’s female relatives offered him advantage as a potential successor to Trajan. Around the time of his quaestorship, he had married Trajan’s grandniece, Vibia Sabina, perhaps at the suggestion of the empress Plotina. Plotina’s investment in Hadrian’s future career might have been motivated by her wish to avoid the political oblivion that befell her older contemporary, former empress Domitia Longina.^[29] Plotina was a highly cultured woman with philosophical leanings; she and Hadrian shared political and intellectual interests, including the idea of the Roman Empire as a commonwealth with an underlying Hellenic culture.^[30] If Hadrian was appointed successor, Trajan’s extended family would retain a degree of power and influence; Hadrian also counted on the support of his mother in law, Trajan’s niece Salonina Matidia, ^[31] the daughter of Trajan’s sister Ulpia Marciana.^[32] When Ulpia Marciana died, in 112, Trajan had her deified, and her daughter Salonina Matidia made an Augusta.^[33] Even so, Trajan himself seems to have been less than enthusiastic about marrying his grandniece to Hadrian; with good reason, as it turned out. The couple’s relationship would prove itself scandalously poor, even for a marriage of convenience.^[34]

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

A relief scene on Trajan’s Column in Rome, 2nd-century monument attributed to Apollodorus of Damascus (monochrome graphics by Conrad Cichorius), showing a Roman legion storming a Dacian fortress during Trajan’s Dacian Wars

Hadrian had tried to curry favor with Trajan by all means available, which included sharing in Trajan’s bouts of heavy drinking.^[35]Nevertheless, sometime around his marriage to Sabina, he was involved in some unexplained quarrel over his relationships with Trajan’s boy favourites,^[36]whom he had supposedly tried to groom.^[37] All these circumstances might explain an apparent downturn in Hadrian’s fortunes late in Trajan’s reign; he failed to achieve a senior consulship, being only suffect consul for 108.^[38] Hadrian thus achieved parity of status with other members of the senatorial nobility – but not much else;^[39] he held no particular distinction befitting an heir designate.^[40] Had Trajan wished it, he could have promoted his protege to patricianrank and its privileges, which included opportunities for a fast track to consulship without for prior experience as tribune; but he chose not to.^[41] Although Hadrian was made Tribune of the Plebs a year earlier than was customary, and was promoted to praetorian rank, he was consistently excluded from Trajan’s innermost circle of advisers.^[42] The Historia Augusta describes Trajan’s gift to Hadrian of a diamond ring that Trajan himself had received from Nerva, « and by this gift he [Hadrian] was encouraged in his hopes of succeeding to the throne ».^[43][44] While Trajan actively promoted Hadrian’s advancement, he did so with caution.^[45]

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Bust of Emperor Trajan wearing the civic crown and the aegis, symbol of divine power and world domination, Glyptothek, Munich

Succession

While Trajan lived, Hadrian’s status as emperor-in-waiting would have been far from certain. Trajan might have deferred any clear nomination of a successor because there were so many potential claimants. On the one hand, failure to nominate an heir could invite chaotic, destructive wresting of power by a succession of competing claimants – a civil war. On the other hand, the definite choice of an heir could be seen as an abdication, and reduce the chance for an orderly transmission of power.^[46] As Trajan lay dying, nursed by his wife, Plotina, and closely watched by Prefect Attianus, he could have lawfully adopted Hadrian as heir, by means of a simple deathbed wish, expressed before witnesses;^[47] but when an adoption document was eventually presented, it was signed not by Trajan but by Plotina, and was dated the day after Trajan’s death.^[48] Hadrian was still in Syria; this represented a further irregularity, as Roman adoption law required the presence of both parties at the adoption ceremony. Rumours, doubts, and speculation attended Hadrian’s adoption and succession. It has been suggested that Trajan’s young manservant Phaedimus, who died very soon after Trajan, was killed (or killed himself) rather than face awkward questions.^[49] Ancient sources are divided on the legitimacy of Hadrian’s adoption: Dio Cassius saw it as bogus and the Historia Augusta writer as genuine.^[50] An aureus minted early in Hadrian’s reign represents the official position; it presents Hadrian as a « Caesar » (meaning an heir designate).^[51]

Emperor (117)

Securing power

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

The Roman Empire in 125, under the rule of Hadrian

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Castel Sant’Angelo, the ancient Hadrian Mausoleum

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

This famous statue of Hadrian in Greek dress was revealed in 2008 to have been forged in the Victorian era by cobbling together a head of Hadrian and an unknown body. For years, the statue had been used by historians as proof of Hadrian’s love of Hellenic culture.^[52]

Official recognition of Hadrian as legitimate heir came too late to dissuade other potential claimants.^[53] Hadrian’s greatest rivals were Trajan’s closest friends, the most experienced and senior members of the imperial council, compared to whom Hadrian was an equestrian upstart.^[54] According to the Historia Augusta, Hadrian informed the Senate of his accession in a letter as a fait accompli, claiming that « the unseemly haste of the troops in acclaiming him emperor was due to the belief that the state could not be without an emperor ».^[55] The Senate endorsed the acclamation. Various public ceremonies were organized on Hadrian’s behalf, celebrating his « divine election » by all the gods, whose community included the now deified Trajan.^[56]

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Statue of Hadrian unearthed at Tel Shalem commemorating Roman military victory over Bar Kochba, displayed at the Israel Museum

Hadrian remained in the east for a while, suppressing the Jewish revolt that had broken out under Trajan. He sheared Judea’s governor, the outstanding Moorish general and potential rival Lusius Quietus, of his personal guard of Moorish auxiliaries;^[57][58] then he moved on to quell disturbances along the Danubefrontier. In Rome, Attianus, Hadrian’s former guardian, took charge on Hadrian’s behalf. He claimed to have uncovered a conspiracy involving four leading senators, including Lusius Quietus; he demanded their deaths.^[59]There was no public trial – they were hunted down and killed out of hand.^[59]The executions of such high ranking senators without due process of law soured Hadrian’s relations with the Senate for his entire reign.^[60]

A denarius of Hadrian issued in 119 AD for his third consulship

Modern sources point out that those executed may have been seen as « Trajan’s men »;^[59] any one of whom might be a prospective candidate for the imperial office (capaces imperii);^[61] or they may have been leading figures of a senatorial faction committed to Trajan’s expansionist policies, which Hadrian intended to change;^[62] one of their number was Aulus Cornelius Palma who as a former conqueror of Arabia Nabatea would have retained a stake in Trajan’s expansionist Eastern policy.^[63] Hadrian’s consistent refusal to expand Rome’s frontiers was to remain a bone of contention between him and the Senate throughout his reign.^[64] The Historia Augusta describes Palma and a third executed senator, Lucius Publilius Celsus (consul for the second time in 113), as Hadrian’s personal enemies, who had spoken in public against him.^[65] The fourth was Gaius Avidius Nigrinus, an ex-consul, intellectual, friend of Pliny the Younger and (briefly) Governor of Dacia at the start of Hadrian’s reign.^[66] Hadrian claimed that Attianus had acted on his own initiative, then rewarded him with senatorial status and consular rank; but later discarded him, finding his ambition suspect.^[67]

In 125, Hadrian appointed his close friend Marcius Turbo as his Praetorian Prefect. Whenever Hadrian was away from the city of Rome, Turbo represented by his interests there.^[68] Turbo was a leading figure of the equestrian order, a senior court judge and a procurator.^[69][70] Hadrian forbade equestrians to try cases against senators,^[71] so the Senate retained full legal authority over its members, and remained the highest court of appeal. Formal appeals to the emperor regarding its decisions were forbidden.^[72] Some sources describe Hadrian’s occasional recourse to a secret police force, the frumentarii^[73] to discretely investigate persons of high social standing, including senators and his close friends.^[74]

Travels

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Statue of Hadrian in military garb, wearing the civic crown and muscle cuirass, from Antalya, Turkey

Hadrian was to spend more than half his reign outside Italy. Whereas previous emperors had, for the most part, relied on the reports of their imperial representatives around the Empire, Hadrian wished to see things for himself. Previous emperors had often left Rome for long periods, but mostly to go to war, returning once the conflict was settled. Hadrian’s near-incessant travels may represent a calculated break with traditions and attitudes in which the empire was a purely Roman hegemony. Hadrian sought to include provincials in a commonwealth of civilized peoples and a common Hellenic culture under Roman supervision.^[75] He supported the creation of provincial towns (municipia), semi-autonomous urban communities with their own customs and laws, rather than the imposition of new Roman colonies with Roman constitutions.^[76]

The cosmopolitan, ecumenical intent of Hadrian’s travels is evident in coin issues of his later reign, showing the emperor « raising up » the personifications of various provinces.^[77] The Greek rhetorician Aelius Aristides later wrote that Hadrian « extended over his subjects a protecting hand, raising them as one helps fallen men on their feet ».^[78]. All this did not go well with Roman traditionalists. The self-indulgent emperor Nero had enjoyed a prolonged and peaceful tour of Greece, and had been criticised by the Roman elite for abandoning his fundamental responsibilities as emperor. In the Historia Augusta, Hadrian is described as « a little too much Greek », too cosmopolitan for a Roman emperor.^[79] In the eastern provinces, and to some extent in the west, Nero had enjoyed popular support; claims of his imminent return or rebirth emerged almost immediately after his death. Hadrian may have consciously exploited these positive, popular connections during his own travels.^[80]

Britannia and the West (122)

Hadrian’s Wall (Vallum Hadriani), a fortification in Northern England (viewed from Vercovicium).

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Hadrian’s Gate, in Antalya, southern Turkey was built to honour Hadrian who visited the city in 130.

Prior to Hadrian’s arrival in Britannia, the province had suffered a major rebellion, from 119 to 121.^[81] Inscriptions tell of an expeditio Britannica that involved major troop movements, including the dispatch of a detachment (vexillatio), comprising some 3,000 soldiers. Fronto writes about military losses in Britannia at the time.^[82] Coin legends of 119-120 attest that Pompeius Falco was sent to restore order. In 122 Hadrian initiated the construction of a wall, « to separate Romans from barbarians ».^[83]This deterred attacks on Roman territory at a lower cost than a massed border army,^[84]and controlled cross-border trade and immigration.^[85] A shrine was erected in York to Brittania as the divine personification of Britain; Coins were struck, bearing her image, identified as BRITANNIA.^[86] By the end of 122, Hadrian had concluded his visit to Britannia. He never saw the finished wall that bears his name.

Hadrian appears to have continued through southern Gaul. At Nemausus, he may have overseen the building of a basilica dedicated to his patroness Plotina, who had recently died in Rome and had been deified at Hadrian’s request.^[87] At around this time, Hadrian dismissed his secretary ab epistulis,^[88] the historian Suetonius, for « excessive familiarity » towards the empress.^[89] Marcius Turbo’s colleague as Praetorian Prefect, Gaius Septicius Claruswas dismissed for the same alleged reason, perhaps a pretext to remove him from office.^[90] Hadrian spent the winter of 122/123 at Tarraco, in Spain, where he restored the Temple of Augustus.^[91]

Africa, Parthia and Anatolia; Antinous (123–124)

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Statue of Antinous (Delphi), polychrome Parian marble, made during the reign of Hadrian

In 123, Hadrian crossed the Mediterranean to Mauretania, where he personally led a minor campaign against local rebels.^[92] The visit was cut short by reports of war preparations by Parthia; Hadrian quickly headed eastwards. At some point, he visited Cyrene, where he personally funded the training of young men from well-bred families for the Roman military. Cyrene had benefited earlier (in 119) from his restoration of public buildings destroyed during the earlier Jewish revolt.^[93][94]

When Hadrian arrived on the Euphrates, he personally negotiated a settlement with the Parthian King Osroes I, inspected the Roman defences, then set off westwards, along the Black Sea coast.^[95] He probably wintered in Nicomedia, the main city of Bithynia. Nicomedia had been hit by an earthquake only shortly before his stay; Hadrian provided funds for its rebuilding, and was acclaimed as restorer of the province.^[96]

It is possible that Hadrian visited Claudiopolis and saw the beautiful Antinous, a young man of humble birth who became Hadrian’s beloved. Literary and epigraphic sources say nothing on when or where they met; depictions of Antinous show him aged 20 or so, shortly before his death in 130. In 123 he would most likely have been a youth of 13 or 14.^[96] It is also possible that Antinous was sent to Rome to be trained as a page to serve the emperor and only gradually rose to the status of imperial favourite.^[97] The actual history of their relationship is mostly unknown.^[98]

With or without Antinous, Hadrian travelled through Anatolia. His route is unknown. Various traditions suggest his presence at particular locations; he is said to have founded a city within Mysia, Hadrianutherae, after a successful boar hunt, but this is debated. At about this time, plans to complete the Temple of Zeus in Cyzicus, begun by the kings of Pergamon, were put into practice. The temple received a colossal statue of Hadrian, and Cyzicus was made a regional centre for the Imperial cult(neocoros), sharing it with Pergamon, Smyrna, Ephesus and Sardes^[99] – something that offered the benefits of Imperial sponsorship of sacred games, attracting tourism, and stimulating private expenditure, as well as channelling intercity rivalry into a common acceptance of Roman rule.^[100]

Greece (124–125)

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Temple of Zeus in Athens

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

The Pantheon in Rome was rebuilt by Hadrian.

Hadrian arrived in Greece during the autumn of 124, and participated in the Eleusinian Mysteries. He had a particular commitment to Athens, which had previously granted him citizenship and an archonate; at the Athenians’ request, he revised their constitution – among other things, he added a new phyle (tribe), which was named after him.^[101] Hadrian combined active, hands-on interventions with cautious restraint. He refused to intervene in a local dispute between producers of olive oil and the Athenian Assembly and Council, who had imposed production quotas on oil producers;^[102] yet he granted an imperial subsidy for the Athenian grain supply.^[103] Hadrian created two foundations, to fund Athens’ public games, festivals and competitions if no citizen proved wealthy or willing enough to sponsor them as a Gymnasiarch or Agonothetes.^[104] Generally Hadrian preferred that Greek notables, including priests of the Imperial cult, focus on more durable provisions, such as aqueducts and public fountains (nymphaea).^[105] Athens was given two such fountains; another was given to Argos.^[106]

During the winter he toured the Peloponnese. His exact route is uncertain, but Pausanias describes temples built by Hadrian, and his statue – in heroic nudity – erected by the grateful citizens of Epidaurus^[107] in thanks to their « restorer ». He was especially generous to Mantinea, where he restored the Temple of Poseidon Hippios; this supports the theory that Antinous was in fact already Hadrian’s lover because of the strong link between Mantinea and Antinous’s home in Bithynia.^[108] As this kinship between Mantinea and Bythinia was itself a mythological fiction of the kind used at the time for encouraging political alliances between polities, a more serious reason might exist for Hadrian’s particular generosity.^[109] Hadrian’s buildings in Greece were no mere whims, as they followed a pattern of favoring old religious centers. Besides the temple at Mantinea, Hadrian restored other ancient shrines in Abae, Argos – where he restored the Heraion – and Megara.^[110] This was a way of gathering legitimacy to Roman imperial rule by associating it with the glories of classical Greece – something well in line with contemporary antiquarian taste in cultural matters.^[111] Pausanias credits Hadrian with restoring to Mantinea its ancient, classical name. It had been named Antigoneia since Hellenistic times, in honour of the Macedonian King Antigonus III Doson.^[112]

This same idea of resurrecting the classical past under Roman overlordship was behind the possibility that, during his tour of the Peloponnese, Hadrian persuaded the Spartan grandee Eurycles Herculanus – the contemporary leader of the Euryclidfamily that had ruled Sparta since Augustus’ day – to enter the Senate, alongside the Athenian grandee Herodes Atticus the Elder. The two aristocrats would be the first Greeks from Old Greece to enter the Roman Senate, as « representatives » of the two « great powers » of the Classical Age.^[113] This was an important step in overcoming Greek notables’ reluctance to take part in Roman political life.^[114] In March 125, Hadrian presided at the Athenian festival of Dionysia, wearing Athenian dress. He initiated a substantial public building program in and around Athens. The Temple of Olympian Zeus had been under construction for more than five centuries; Hadrian committed the vast resources at his command to ensure that the job would be finished. He also organised the planning and construction of a particularly challenging and ambitious aqueduct to bring water to the Athenian agora.^[115]

Return to Italy and trip to Africa (126–128)

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Hadrian in armour, wearing the gorgoneion; marble, Roman artwork, c. 127–128 AD, from Heraklion, Crete, now in the Louvre, Paris

On his return to Italy, Hadrian made a detour to Sicily. Coins celebrate him as the restorer of the island.^[116] Back in Rome, he saw the rebuilt Pantheon, and his completed villa at nearby Tibur, among the Sabine Hills. In early March 127 Hadrian set off on a tour of Italy; his route has been reconstructed through the evidence of his gifts and donations.^[116] He restored the shrine of Cupra in Cupra Maritima, and improved the drainage of the Fucine lake. Less welcome than such largesse was his decision in 127 to divide Italy into four regions under imperial legates with consular rank, acting as governors. They were given jurisdiction over all of Italy, excluding Rome itself, therefore shifting cases from the courts of Rome.^[117]Having Italy effectively reduced to the status of a group of mere provinces did not go down well with the Roman Senate;^[118] and the innovation did not long outlive Hadrian’s reign.^[116]

Hadrian fell ill around this time; whatever the nature of his illness, it did not stop him from setting off in the spring of 128 to visit Africa. His arrival began with the good omen of rain ending a drought. Along with his usual role as benefactor and restorer, he found time to inspect the troops; his speech to them survives.^[119] Hadrian returned to Italy in the summer of 128 but his stay was brief, as he set off on another tour that would last three years.^[120]

Greece, Asia, and Egypt (128–130); Antinous’s death

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Hadrian and Antinous – busts in the British Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Ruins of the Arch of Hadrian in Athens, Greece, near the Athenian Acropolis

In September 128, Hadrian attended the Eleusinian mysteries again. This time his visit to Greece seems to have concentrated on Athens and Sparta – the two ancient rivals for dominance of Greece. Hadrian had played with the idea of focusing his Greek revival around the Amphictyonic Leaguebased in Delphi, but by now he had decided on something far grander. His new Panhellenion was going to be a council that would bring Greek cities together. Having set in motion the preparations – deciding whose claim to be a Greek city was genuine would take time – Hadrian set off for Ephesus.^[121]From Greece, Hadrian proceeded by way of Asia to Egypt. It is known from an inscription that he was probably conveyed across the Aegean with his entourage by an Ephesian merchant, Lucius Erastus. Hadrian later sent a letter on Erastus’ behalf to the Council of Ephesus, supporting his request to become a town councillor. Hadrian offered to pay the requisite fee for Erastus’ council membership, as long as the Ephesians considered him worthy (as a merchant, he may well have been thought unworthy).^[122]

In Egypt, Hadrian opened his stay by restoring Pompey the Great‘s tomb at Pelusium.^[123] Hadrian also offered sacrifice to Pompey as a hero and composed an epigraph for the tomb. As Pompey was universally acknowledged as the conqueror of the Roman East, this restoration was probably linked to a need to reaffirm Roman Eastern hegemony after the recent disturbances there during Trajan’s late reign.^[124]Also in Egypt, a poem about a lion hunt in the Libyan desert by the Greek Pankrates witnesses for the first time that Antinous travelled alongside Hadrian.^[125]

In October 130, while Hadrian and his entourage were sailing on the Nile, Antinous drowned. The exact circumstances surrounding his death are unknown, and accident, suicide, murder and religious sacrifice have all been postulated. Historia Augusta offers the following account:

During a journey on the Nile he lost Antinous, his favourite, and for this youth he wept like a woman. Concerning this incident there are varying rumours; for some claim that he had devoted himself to death for Hadrian, and others – what both his beauty and Hadrian’s sensuality suggest. But however this may be, the Greeks deified him at Hadrian’s request, and declared that oracles were given through his agency, but these, it is commonly asserted, were composed by Hadrian himself.^[126]

Hadrian had Antinous deified as Osiris-Antinous by an Egyptian priest at the ancient Temple of Ramesses II, very near the place of his death. Hadrian dedicated a new temple-city complex there, built in a Graeco-Roman style, and named it Antinopolis.^[127] It was a proper Greek polis; it was granted an Imperially subsidised alimentary scheme similar to Trajan’s alimenta,^[128] and its citizens were allowed intermarriage with members of the native population, without loss of citizen-status. Hadrian thus identified an existing native cult (to Osiris) with Roman rule.^[129]

Greece and the East (130–132)

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Statue of Hadrian as pontifex maximus, dated 130–140 AD, from Rome, Palazzo Nuovo, Capitoline Museums

Hadrian’s movements after the founding of Antinopolis on 30 October 130 are uncertain. Whether or not he returned to Rome, he travelled in the East during 130/131, to organise and inaugurate his new Panhellenion, which was to be focussed on the Athenian Temple to Olympian Zeus. Successful applications for membership involved mythologised or fabricated claims to Greek origins, and affirmations of loyalty to Imperial Rome, to satisfy Hadrian’s personal, idealised notions of Hellenism.^[130][131]Hadrian saw himself as protector of Greek culture and the « liberties » of Greece – in this case, urban self-government. It allowed Hadrian to appear as the fictive heir to Pericles, who supposedly had convened a previous Panhellenic Congress – such a Congress is mentioned only in Pericles’ biography by Plutarch, whose sympathies to the Imperial order are well-known.^[132]

Epigraphical evidence suggests that the prospect of applying to the Panhellenion held little attraction to the wealthier, Hellenised cities of Asia Minor, which were jealous of Athenian and European Greek preeminence within Hadrian’s scheme.^[133]Hadrian’s notion of Hellenism was narrow and deliberately archaising; he defined « Greekness » in terms of classical roots, rather than a broader, Hellenistic culture.^[134]The German sociologist Georg Simmel remarked that the Panhellenion was based on « games, commemorations, preservation of an ideal, an entirely non-political Hellenism ».^[135]

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Colossal portrait bust of the emperor Hadrian with a wreath of oak leaves (AD 117–138); pentelic marble, found in Athens, National Archaeological Museum, Athens

This third and last trip to the Greek East produced much religious enthusiasm in the region centred around Hadrian, who received a personal cult as a deity and many monuments and civic homages, according to the religious syncretism at the time.^[136]Around the same time, Hadrian bestowed honorific titles on many regional centres.^[137]Palmyra received a state visit and was given the civic name Hadriana Palmyra.^[138]Hadrian also bestowed honours on various Palmyrene magnates, among them one Soados, who had done much to protect Palmyrene trade between the Roman Empire and Parthia.^[139]

Hadrian and spent the winter of 131–32 in Athens, where he dedicated the now-completed Temple of Olympian Zeus,^[140] At some time in 132, he headed East, to Judaea.

Second Roman–Jewish War (132–136)

Main article: Bar Kokhba revolt

Coinage minted to mark Hadrian’s visit to Judea

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Porphyry statue of Hadrian discovered in Caesarea, Israel

In Roman Judaea Hadrian visited Jerusalem, which was still ruinous after the First Roman–Jewish War of 66–73. He may have planned to rebuild Jerusalem as a Roman colony – as Vespasian had done with Caesarea Maritima – with various honorific and fiscal privileges. The non-Roman population would have no obligation to participate in Roman religious rituals, but were expected to support the Roman imperial order; this is attested in Caesarea, where some Jews served in the Roman army during both the 66 and 132 rebellions.^[141] It has been speculated that Hadrian intended to assimilate the Jewish Temple to the traditional Roman civic-religious Imperial cult; such assimilations had long been commonplace practise in Greece and in other provinces, and on the whole, had been successful.^[142][143] The neighbouring Samaritans had already integrated their religious rites with Hellenistic ones.^[144] Strict Jewish monotheismn proved more resistant to Imperial cajoling, and then to Imperial demands.^[145] A massive anti-Hellenistic and anti-Roman Jewish uprising broke out, led by Simon bar Kokhba. The Roman governor Tineius (Tynius) Rufus asked for an army to crush the resistance; bar Kokhba punished any Jew who refused to join his ranks.^[146] According to Justin Martyr and Eusebius, that had to do mostly with Christian converts, who opposed bar Kokhba’s messianic claims.^[147]

A tradition based on the Historia Augusta suggests that the revolt was spurred by Hadrian’s abolition of circumcision (brit milah);^[148] which as a Hellenist he viewed as mutilation.^[149] The scholar Peter Schäfer maintains that there is no evidence for this claim, given the notoriously problematical nature of the Historia Augusta as a source, the « tomfoolery » shown by the writer in the relevant passage, and the fact that contemporary Roman legislation on « genital mutilation » seems to address the general issue of castration of slaves by their masters.^{[150][151][152]} Other issues could have contributed to the outbreak; a heavy-handed, culturally insensitive Roman administration; tensions between the landless poor and incoming Roman colonists privileged with land-grants; and a strong undercurrent of messianism, predicated on Jeremiah’s prophecy that the Temple would be rebuilt seventy years after its destruction, as the First Temple had been after the Babylonian exile.^[153]

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Relief from an honorary monument of Hadrian (detail), showing the emperor being greeted by the goddess Roma and the Genii of the Senate and the Roman People; marble, Roman artwork, 2nd century AD, Capitoline Museums, Vatican City

The Romans were overwhelmed by the organised ferocity of the uprising.^[154]Hadrian called his general Sextus Julius Severus from Britain, and brought troops in from as far as the Danube. Roman losses were heavy; an entire legion or its numeric equivalent of around 4,000.^[155] Hadrian’s report on the war to the Roman Senateomitted the customary salutation, « If you and your children are in health, it is well; I and the legions are in health. »^[156] The rebellion was quashed by 135. According to Cassius Dio, Roman war operations in Judea left some 580,000 Jews dead, and 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed. An unknown proportion of the population was enslaved. Beitar, a fortified city 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southwest of Jerusalem, fell after a three and a half year siege. The extent of punitive measures against the Jewish population remains a matter of debate.^[157]

Hadrian erased the province’s name from the Roman map, renaming it Syria Palaestina. He renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina after himself and Jupiter Capitolinus, and had it rebuilt in Greek style. According to Epiphanius, Hadrian appointed Aquila from Sinope in Pontus as « overseer of the work of building the city », since he was related to him by marriage.^[158] Hadrian is said to have placed the city’s main Forum at the junction of the main Cardo and Decumanus Maximus, now the location for the (smaller) Muristan. After the suppression of the Jewish revolt, Hadrian provided the Samaritans with a temple, dedicated to Zeus Hypsistos (« Highest Zeus »)^[159] on Mount Gerizim.^[160] The bloody repression of the revolt ended Jewish political independence from the Roman Imperial order.^[161]

Inscriptions make it clear that in 133 Hadrian took to the field with his armies, against the rebels. He then returned to Rome, probably in that year and almost certainly – judging from inscriptions – via Illyricum.^[162]

Final years

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Bronze head of Hadrian found in the River Thames in London. Now in the British Museum.

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Imperial group as Mars and Venus; the male figure is a portrait of Hadrian, the female figure was reworked into a portrait of Annia Lucilla (?); marble, Roman artwork, c. 120–140 AD, reworked c. 170–175 AD.

Hadrian spent the final years of his life at Rome. In 134, he took an Imperial salutationfor the end of the Second Jewish War (which was not actually concluded until the following year). Commemorations and achievement awards were kept to a minimum, as Hadrian came to see the war « as a cruel and sudden disappointment to his aspirations » towards a cosmopolitan empire.^[163] In 136, he dedicated a new Temple of Venus and Roma on the former site of Nero’s Golden House. The temple was the largest in Rome, and was built in an Hellenising style, more Greek than Roman. The temple’s dedication and statuary associated the worship of the traditional Roman goddess Venus, divine ancestress and protector of the Roman people, with the worship of the goddess Roma – herself a Greek invention, hitherto worshiped only in the provinces – to emphasise the universal nature of the empire.^[164]

The Empress Sabina died probably in 136, after an unhappy marriage with which Hadrian had coped as a political necessity. The Historia Augusta biography states that Hadrian himself declared that his wife’s « ill-temper and irritability » would be reason enough for a divorce, were he a private citizen.^[165] That gave credence, after Sabina’s death, to the common belief that Hadrian had her poisoned.^[166] As befitted Hadrian’s dynastic legitimacy, Sabina – who had been made an Augusta sometime around 128^[167] – was deified not long after her death.^[168]

Arranging the succession

Hadrian’s marriage to Sabina had been childless. Suffering from poor health, Hadrian turned to the problem of the succession. In 136 he adopted one of the ordinary consuls of that year, Lucius Ceionius Commodus, who as an emperor-in waiting took the name Lucius Aelius Caesar. He was the son-in-law of Gaius Avidius Nigrinus, one of the « four consulars » executed in 118, but was himself in delicate health, apparently with a reputation more « of a voluptuous, well educated great lord than that of a leader ».^[169] Various modern attempts have been made to explain Hadrian’s choice: Jerome Carcopino proposes that Aelius was Hadrian’s natural son.^[170] It has also been speculated that his adoption was Hadrian’s belated attempt to reconcile with one of the most important of the four senatorial families whose leading members had been executed soon after Hadrian’s succession.^[78] Aelius’ father-in-law Avidius Nigrinus had been Hadrian’s chief rival for the throne; a senator of highest rank, breeding, and connections; according to the Historia Augusta, Hadrian had considered making Nigrinus his heir apparent, before deciding to get rid of him.^[171] Aelius acquitted himself honourably as joint governor of Pannonia Superior and Pannonia Inferior;^[172] he held a further consulship in 137, but died on 1 January 138.^[173]

Hadrian next adopted Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus (the future emperor Antoninus Pius), who had served Hadrian as one of the five imperial legates of Italy, and as proconsul of Asia. In the interests of dynastic stability, Hadrian required that Antoninus adopt both Lucius Ceionius Commodus (son of the deceased Aelius Caesar) and Marcus Annius Verus (grandson of an influential senator of the same name who had been Hadrian’s close friend; Annius was already betrothed to Aelius Caesar’s daughter Ceionia Fabia;^[174][175] It may not have been Hadrian, but rather Antoninus Pius – Annius Verus’s uncle – who supported Annius Verus’ advancement; the latter’s divorce of Ceionia Fabia and subsequent marriage to Antoninus’ daughter Annia Faustina points in the same direction. When he eventually became Emperor, Marcus Aurelius would co-opt Ceionius Commodus as his co-Emperor, under the name of Lucius Verus, on his own initiative.^[174]

Hadrian’s last few years were marked by conflict and unhappiness. His adoption of Aelius Caesar proved unpopular, not least with Hadrian’s brother-in-law Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus and Servianus’s grandson Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator. Servianus, though now far too old, had stood in the line of succession at the beginning of Hadrian’s reign; Fuscus is said to have had designs on the imperial power for himself. In 137 he may have attempted a coup in which his grandfather was implicated; Hadrian ordered that both be put to death.^[176] Servianus is reported to have prayed before his execution that Hadrian would « long for death but be unable to die ».^[177] During his final, protracted illness, Hadrian was prevented from suicide on several occasions.^[178]

Death

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Posthumous portrait of Hadrian; bronze, Roman artwork, c. 140 AD, perhaps from Roman Egypt, Louvre, Paris

Hadrian died in the year 138 on the 10th of July, in his villa at Baiae at the age of 62. The cause of death is believed to have been heart failure. Dio Cassius and the Historia Augusta record details of his failing health. He had reigned for 21 years, the longest since Tiberius, and the fourth longest in the Principate, after Augustus, Hadrian’s successor Antoninus Pius, and Tiberius.

He was buried first at Puteoli, near Baiae, on an estate that had once belonged to Cicero. Soon after, his remains were transferred to Rome and buried in the Gardens of Domitia, close by the almost-complete mausoleum. Upon completion of the Tomb of Hadrian in Rome in 139 by his successor Antoninus Pius, his body was cremated, and his ashes were placed there together with those of his wife Vibia Sabina and his first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who also died in 138. After threatening the Senate – which toyed with refusing Hadrian’s divine honours – by refusing to assume power himself,^[179] Antoninus eventually succeeded in having his predecessor deified^[180] in 139 and given a temple on the Campus Martius, ornamented with reliefs representing the provinces.^[181] The Senate awarded Antoninus the title of « Pius », in recognition of his filial piety in pressing for the deification of his adoptive father.^[179] At the same time, perhaps in reflection of the senate’s ill will towards Hadrian, commemorative coinage honouring his consecrationwas kept to a minimum.^[182]

Military

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

Bust of Emperor Hadrian. Roman 117–138 CE. Probably from Rome, Italy. Formerly in the Townley Collection. Now housed in the British Museum, London

Most of Hadrian’s military activities were consistent with his ideology of Empire as a community of mutual interest and support. He focussed on protection from external and internal threats; on « raising up » existing provinces, rather than the aggressive acquisition of wealth and territory through subjugation of « foreign » peoples that had characterised the early Empire.^[183] While the empire as a whole benefited from this, military careerists resented the loss of opportunities.

Hadrian sought to surround the empire with stable, sustainable borders, and employed a variety of means to deal with potential and actual threats to the Empire’s integrity. The 4th-century historian Aurelius Victor charged him with jealous belittlement of Trajan’s achievements (Traiani gloriae invidens), abandoning the latter’s conquests in Mesopotamia.^[184] More likely, an expansionist policy was no longer realistic; the Empire had lost two legions, the Legio XXII Deiotariana and the « lost legion » IX Hispania, possibly destroyed in a late Trajanic uprising by the Brigantes in Britain.^[185] Trajan himself may have thought his gains in Mesopotamian indefensible, and abandoned them shortly before his death.^[186]. Hadrian granted parts of Dacia to the Roxolani Sarmatians; their king Rasparaganus received Roman citizenship, client king status, and possibly an increased subsidy.^[187] Hadrian’s presence on the Dacian front at this time is mere conjecture; but Dacia was included in his coin series with allegories of the provinces.^[188] A controlled, partial withdrawal from the Dacian plains would have been less costly than maintaining several Roman several cavalry units and a supporting network of fortifications.^[189]

Hadrian retained control over Osroene through the client king Parthamaspates, who had once served as Trajan’s client king of Parthia;^[190] and around 121, Hadrian negotiated a peace treaty with the now-independent Parthia. Late in his reign (135), the Alani attacked Roman Cappadocia with the covert support of Pharasmanes, king of Caucasian Iberia. The attack was repulsed by Hadrian’s governor, the historian Arrian,^[191] who subsequently installed a Roman « adviser » in Iberia.^[192] Arrian kept Hadrian well-informed On all questions related to the Black Sea and the Caucasus. Between 131 and 132 he sent Hadrian a lengthy letter (Periplus of the Euxine) on a maritime trip around the Black Sea, intended to offer relevant information in case a Roman intervention was needed.^[193]

Hadrian also developed permanent fortifications and military posts along the empire’s borders (limites, sl.limes) to support his policy of stability, peace and preparedness. This helped keep the military usefully occupied in times of peace; his Wall across Britania was built by ordinary troops. A series of mostly wooden fortifications, forts, outposts and watchtowers strengthened the Danube and Rhine borders. Troops practised intensive, regular drill routines. Although his coins showed military images almost as often as peaceful ones, Hadrian’s policy was peace through strength, even threat,^[194] with an emphasis on disciplina (discipline), which was the subject of two monetary series. Cassius Dio praised Hadrian’s emphasis on « spit and polish » as cause for the generally peaceful character of his reign.^[195] Fronto expressed other opinions on the subject. In his view, Hadrian preferred war games to actual war, and enjoyed « giving eloquent speeches to the armies » – like the inscribed series of addresses he made while on an inspection tour, during 128, at the new headquarters of Legio III Augusta in Lambaesis^[196]

Faced with a shortage of legionary recruits from Italy and other Romanised provinces, Hadrian systematised the use of less costly numeri – ethnic non-citizen troops with special weapons, such as Eastern mounted archers – in low-intensity, mobile defensive tasks such as dealing with border infiltrators and skirmishers.^[197][198] Hadrian is also credited with introducing units of heavy cavalry (cataphracts) into the Roman army.^[199] Fronto later blamed Hadrian for declining standards in the Roman army of his own time.^[200]

Legal and social

Hadrian enacted, through the jurist Salvius Julianus, the first attempt to codify Roman law. This was the Perpetual Edict, according to which the legal actions of praetorsbecame fixed statutes, and as such could no longer be subjected to personal interpretation or change by any magistrate other than the Emperor.^[201][202] At the same time, following a procedure initiated by Domitian, Hadrian made the Emperor’s legal advisory board, the consilia principis (« council of the princeps« ) into a permanent body, staffed by salaried legal aides.^[203] Its members were mostly drawn from the equestrian class, replacing the earlier freedmen of the Imperial household.^[204][205] This innovation marked the superseding of surviving Republican institutions by an openly autocratic political system.^[206] The reformed bureaucracy was supposed to exercise administrative functions independently of traditional magistracies; objectively it did not detract from the Senate’s position. The new civil servants were free men and as such supposed to act on behalf of the interests of the « Crown », not of the Emperor as an individual.^[204] However, the Senate never accepted the loss of its prestige caused by the emergence of a new aristocracy alongside it, placing more strain on the already troubled relationship between the Senate and the Emperor.^[207]

Hadrian codified the customary legal privileges of the wealthiest, most influential or highest status citizens (described as splendidiores personae or honestiores), who held a traditional right to pay fines when found guilty of relatively minor, non-treasonous offences. Low ranking persons – alii (« the others »), including low-ranking citizens – were humiliores who for the same offences could be subject to extreme physical punishments, including forced labour in the mines or in public works, as a form of fixed-term servitude. While Republican citizenship had carried at least notional equality under law, and the right to justice, offences in Imperial courts were judged and punished according to the relative prestige, rank, reputation and moral worth of both parties; senatorial courts were apt to be lenient when trying one of their peers, and to deal very harshly with offences committed against one of their number by low ranking citizens or non-citizens. For treason (maiestas) beheading was the worst punishment that the law could inflict on honestiores; the humiliores might suffer crucifixion, burning, or condemnation to the beasts in the arena.^[208]

A great number of Roman citizens maintained a precarious social and economic advantage at the lower end of the hierarchy. Hadrian found it necessary to clarify that decurions, the usually middle-class, elected local officials responsible for running the ordinary, everyday official business of the provinces, counted as honestiores; so did soldiers, veterans and their families, as far as civil law was concerned; by implication, all others, including freedmen and slaves, counted as humliores. Like most Romans, Hadrian seems to have accepted slavery as morally correct, an expression of the same natural order that rewarded « the best men » with wealth, power and respect. When confronted by a crowd demanding the freeing of a popular slave charioteer, Hadrian replied that he could not free a slave belonging to another person.^[209]However, he limited the punishments that slaves could suffer; they could be lawfully tortured to provide evidence, but they could not be lawfully killed unless guilty of a capital offence.^[210] Masters were also forbidden to sell slaves to a gladiator trainer (lanista) or to a procurer, except as legally justified punishment.^[211] Hadrian also forbade torture of free defendants and witnesses.^[212][213] He abolished ergastula, private prisons for slaves in which kidnapped free men had sometimes been illegally detained.^[214]

Hadrian issued a general rescript, imposing a ban on castration, performed on freeman or slave, voluntarily or not, on pain of death for both the performer and the patient.^[215] Under the Lex Cornelia de Sicaris et Veneficis, castration was place on a par with conspiracy to murder, and punished accordingly.^[216] Notwithstanding his philhellenism, Hadrian was also a traditionalist. He enforced dress-standards among the honestiores; senators and knights were expected to wear the toga when in public. He imposed strict separation between the sexes in theaters and public baths; to discourage idleness, the latter were not allowed to open until 2.00 in the afternoon, « except for medical reasons ».^[217]

Religious

Imperial cult

One of Hadrian’s immediate duties on accession was to seek senatorial consent for the apotheosis of his predecessor, Trajan, and any members of Trajan’s family to whom he owed a debt of gratitude. During his return from Brittania, Hadrian may have stopped at Nemausus, to oversee the completion of foundation of a basilicadedicated to his patroness Plotina, who had recently died in Rome and had been deified at Hadrian’s request.^[218] Shortly before her death, Hadrian had granted Plotina’s wish that the leadership of the Epicurean School in Athens be granted to a non-Roman candidate.^[219] Matidia Augusta, Hadrian’s mother-in-law, had died earlier, in December 119, and had also been deified.^[220]

As Emperor, Hadrian was also Rome’s pontifex maximus, responsible for all religious affairs and the proper functioning of official religious institutions throughout the empire. His Hispano-Roman origins and marked pro-Hellenism shifted the focus of the official imperial cult, from Rome to the Provinces. While his standard coin issues still identified him with the traditional genius populi Romani, other issues stressed his personal identification with Hercules Gaditanus (Hercules of Gades), and Rome’s imperial protection of Greek civilisation.^[221] He promoted Sagalassos in Greek Pisidia as the Empire’s leading Imperial cult centre and in 131–2 AD he sponsored the exclusively Greek Panhellenion, which extolled Athens as the spiritual centre of Greek culture.^[222]

Antinous

Hadrian was criticized for the intensity of his grief at Antinous’s death, particularly as he had delayed the apotheosis of his own sister Paulina after her death.^[223] But his attempt at turning the deceased youth into a cult-figure found little opposition.^[224]The cult of Antinous was to become very popular in the Greek-speaking world, and also found support in the West. In Hadrian’s villa, statues of the Tyrannicides, with a bearded Aristogeiton and a clean-shaven Harmodios, linked the imperial favourite to the classical tradition of Greek love^[225] Antinous was also compared to the Celtic sun-god Belenos.^[226]

Medals were struck with Antinous’s effigy, and statues erected to him in all parts of the empire, in all kinds of garb, including Egyptian dress.^[227] Temples were built for his worship in Bithynia and Mantineia in Arcadia. In Athens, festivals were celebrated in his honour and oracles delivered in his name. Antinous was not part of the state-sponsored, official Roman imperial cult, but provided a common focus for the emperor and his subjects, emphasizing their sense of community.^[228] As an « international » cult figure, Antinous had an enduring fame, far outlasting Hadrian’s reign.^[229] Local coins with his effigy were still being struck during Caracalla’s reign, and he was invoked in a poem to celebrate the accession of Diocletian.^[230]

Christians[edit]

Hadrian continued Trajan’s policy on Christians; they should not be sought out, and should only be prosecuted for specific offences, such as refusal to swear oaths.^[231]In a rescript addressed to the proconsul of Asia Minutius Fundanus and preserved by Justin Martyr, Hadrian laid down that accusers of Christians had to bear the burden of proof for their denunciations^[232] or be punished for calumnia (defamation).^[233]

Personal and cultural interests

Giacobbe Giusti, Hadrian

 

Hadrian on the obverse of an aureus (123). The reverse bears a personification of Aequitas Augusti or Juno Moneta

Hadrian liked to demonstrate his knowledge of all intellectual and artistic fields. Above all, he patronized the arts: Hadrian’s Villa at Tibur (Tivoli) was the greatest Roman example of an Alexandrian garden, recreating a sacred landscape.^[234]) In Rome, the Pantheon, originally built by Agrippa and destroyed by fire in 80, was completed under Hadrian in the domed form it retains to this day. It was highly influential to many of the great architects of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods.

From well before his reign, Hadrian displayed a keen interest in architecture and public works, but it seems that his eagerness was not always well received. For example, Apollodorus of Damascus, famed architect of the Forum of Trajan, dismissed his designs. When Hadrian’s predecessor, Trajan, consulted Apollodorus about an architectural problem, Hadrian interrupted to give advice, to which Apollodorus replied, « Go away and draw your pumpkins. You know nothing about these problems. » « Pumpkins » refers to Hadrian’s drawings of domes like the Serapeum in his villa. The historian Cassius Dio wrote that, once Hadrian succeeded Trajan and became emperor, he had Apollodorus exiled and later put to death. The story is problematic; brickstamps with consular dates show that the Pantheon’s dome was late in Trajan’s reign (115), probably under Apollodorus’s supervision.^[235]

Hadrian wrote poetry in both Latin and Greek; one of the few surviving examples is a Latin poem he reportedly composed on his deathbed (see below). Some of his Greek productions found their way into the Palatine Anthology.^[236][237] He also wrote an autobiography, which Historia Augusta says was published under the name of Hadrian’s freedman Phlegon of Tralles. It was not, apparently, a work of great length or revelation, but designed to scotch various rumours or explain Hadrian’s most controversial actions.^[238] It is possible that this autobiography had the form of a series of open letters to Antoninus Pius.^[239]

According to one source, Hadrian was a passionate hunter from a young age.^[240] In northwest Asia, he founded and dedicated a city to commemorate a she-bear he killed.^[241] It is documented that in Egypt he and his beloved Antinous killed a lion.^[241] In Rome, eight reliefs featuring Hadrian in different stages of hunting decorate a building that began as a monument celebrating a kill.^[241]

Hadrian’s philhellenism may have been one reason for his adoption, like Nero before him, of the beard as suited to Roman imperial dignity; Dio of Prusa had equated the growth of the beard with the Hellenic ethos.^[242]. Hadrian’s beard may also have served to conceal his natural facial blemishes.^[243] Most emperors before him had been clean-shaven; most who came after him were bearded, at least until Constantine the Great.^{[citation needed]}

Hadrian was familiar with the Stoic philosophers Epictetus, and Favorinus, and with their works. During his first stay in Greece, before he became emperor, he attended lectures by Epictetus at Nicopolis.^[244]

During Hadrian’s time as Tribune of the Plebs, omens and portents supposedly announced his future imperial condition.^[245] According to the Historia Augusta, Hadrian had a great interest in astrology and divination and had been told of his future accession to the Empire by a grand-uncle who was himself a skilled astrologer.^[246]

Poem by Hadrian

According to the Historia Augusta, Hadrian composed the following poem shortly before his death:^[247]

Animula, vagula, blandula

Hospes comesque corporis

Quae nunc abibis in loca

Pallidula, rigida, nudula,

Nec, ut soles, dabis iocos…

P. Aelius Hadrianus Imp.

Roving amiable little soul,

Body’s companion and guest,

Now descending for parts

Colourless, unbending, and bare

Your usual distractions no more shall be there…

The poem has enjoyed remarkable popularity,^[248][249] but uneven critical acclaim.^[250] According to Aelius Spartianus, the alleged author of Hadrian’s biography in the Historia Augusta, Hadrian « wrote also similar poems in Greek, not much better than this one ».^[251]T. S. Eliot‘s poem « Animula » may have been inspired by Hadrian’s, though the relationship is not unambiguous.^[252]

Appraisals

Hadrian has been described as the most versatile of all Roman emperors.^[253]Schiller called Hadrian « the Empire’s first servant ». Edward Gibbon admired his « vast and active genius » and his « equity and moderation ». In 1776, he stated that Hadrian’s era was part of the « happiest era of human history ». In his Meditations, written during his reign as emperor, Marcus Aurelius lists those to whom he owes a debt of gratitude; Hadrian is conspicuously absent.^[254] Hadrian’s tense, authoritarian relationship with his senate was acknowledged a generation after his death by Fronto, himself a senator, who wrote in one of his letters to Marcus Aurelius that « I praised the deified Hadrian, your grandfather, in the senate on a number of occasions with great enthusiasm, and I did this willingly, too […] But, if it can be said – respectfully acknowledging your devotion towards your grandfather – I wanted to appease and assuage Hadrian as I would Mars Gradivus or Dis Pater, rather than to love him. »^[255] Fronto adds, in another letter, that he kept some friendships, during Hadrian’s reign, « under the risk of my life » (cum periculo capitis).^[256] The veiled antagonism between Hadrian and the Senate never grew to overt confrontation as had happened during the reigns of overtly « bad » emperors, because Hadrian knew how to remain aloof and avoid an open clash.^[257]

The Senate’s political role was effaced behind Hadrian’s personal rule (in Ronald Syme’s view. Hadrian « was a Führer, a Duce, a Caudillo« ).^[258] The fact that Hadrian spent half of his reign away from Rome in constant travel undoubtedly helped the management of this strained relationship.^[259] Hadrian underscored the autocratic character of his reign by counting his dies imperii from the day of his acclamation by the armies, rather than the senate, and legislating by frequent use of imperial decrees to bypass the Senate’s approval.^[260] According to Syme, Tacitus‘ description of the rise and accession of Tiberius is a disguised account of Hadrian’s authoritarian Principate.^[261] According, again, to Syme, Tacitus’ Annals would be a work of contemporary history, written « during Hadrian’s reign and hating it ».^[262]

Sources and historiography

In Hadrian’s time, there was already a well established convention that one could not write a contemporary Roman imperial history for fear of contradicting what the emperors wanted to say, read or hear about themselves.^[263][264] Political histories of Hadrian’s reign come mostly from later sources, some of them written centuries after the reign itself. Book 69 of the early 3rd-century Roman History by Cassius Dio gives a general account of Hadrian’s reign, but the original is lost; what survives is a brief, Byzantine-era abridgment by the 11th-century monk Xiphilinius, focussed on Hadrian’s religious interests and the Bar Kokhba war, and little else. Hadrian’s is the first in the series of probably late 4th-century imperial biographies known as Historia Augusta. The collection as a whole is notorious for its unreliability (« a mish mash of actual fact, cloak and dagger, sword and sandal, with a sprinkling of Ubu Roi« ),^[265]but most modern historians consider its account of Hadrian to be relatively free of outright fictions, and probably based on sound historical sources.^[266] Its principal source is generally assumed, on the basis of indirect evidence, to be one of a lost series of imperial biographies by the prominent 3rd-century senator Marius Maximus, covering the reigns of Nerva through to Elagabalus.^[267] Greek authors such as Philostratus and Pausanias, who wrote shortly after Hadrian’s reign, confined their scope to the general historical framework that shaped Hadrian’s decisions, especially those relating to Greece. Fronto left Latin correspondence and works attesting to Hadrian’s character and his reign’s internal politics.^[268]

In modern scholarship, these accounts are supplemented by epigraphical, numismatic, archaeological, and other non-literary sources, without which no detailed, chronological account would be possible; the first modern historian to attempt such an account was the German 19th-century medievalist Ferdinand Gregorovius.^[269][270]

German historian Wilhelm Weber produced a 1907 biography of Hadrian.^[269] Weber was an extreme German nationalist and later a Nazi Party supporter. In keeping with his general view on Roman history, his views on Hadrian, and especially the Bar Kokhba war, are ideologically loaded.^[271][272] The 1923 Hadrian English biography by B.W. Henderson is more readable in the way of a summing-up and interpretation of the written sources, but Henderson’s anti-German bias made him completely ignore Weber’s study of the non-literary sources.^[269]

Only after the development of epigraphical studies in the post-war period could an alternate historiography of Hadrian develop, that leaned less on the ancient literary tradition. The ancient tradition had as its leitmotif a comparison between Hadrian and Trajan- mostly to the former’s disadvantage. On the other hand, modern historiography on Hadrian sought to explore the meaning (as in the title of a recent summing-up work by the German historian Susanne Mortensen)^[273] attached by Hadrian to his policies on various fields, as well as the particular aspects of these policies. According to historians such as the Italian M.A. Levi, a summing-up of Hadrian’s policies should stress the ecumenical character of the Empire, his development of an alternate bureaucracy disconnected from the Senate and adapted to the needs of an « enlightened » autocracy, as well as his overall defensive grand strategy. According to Levi, that would be enough to allow us to consider Hadrian as a grand Roman political reformer, the creator of an absolute monarchy in the place of a senatorial republic – even a sham one.^[274] British historian Robin Lane Fox, in his book about the Classical World, credits Hadrian with the creation of a unified Greco-Roman cultural tradition, but at the same time he considers Hadrian to be the end of this same tradition, as Hadrian’s « restoration » of the Classical Age into the framework of an undemocratic Empire simply emptied it of substantive meaning, or, in Fox’s words, « kill[ed] it with kindness ».^[275] The latest (1997) English biography by Anthony Birley sums up and reflect these developments in Hadrian historiography.

Nerva–Antonine family tree

[hide] v t e Nerva–Antonine family tree
Q. Marcius Barea Soranus Q. Marcius Barea Sura Antonia Furnilla M. Cocceius Nerva Sergia Plautilla P. Aelius Hadrianus Titus (r. 79–81) Marcia Furnilla Marcia Trajanus Pater Nerva (r. 96–98) Ulpia[i] Aelius Hadrianus Marullinus Julia Flavia[ii] Marciana[iii] C. Salonius Matidius[iv] Trajan (r. 98–117) Plotina P. Acilius Attianus P. Aelius Afer[v] Paulina Major[vi] Lucius Mindius (2) Libo Rupilius Frugi (3) Matidia[vii] L. Vibius Sabinus (1)[viii] Paulina Minor[vi] L. Julius Ursus Servianus[ix] Matidia Minor[vii] Suetonius?[x] Sabina[iii] Hadrian[v][xi][vi](r. 117–138) Antinous[xii] Julia Balbilla?[xiii] C. Fuscus Salinator I Julia Serviana Paulina M. Annius Verus[xiv] Rupilia Faustina[xv] Boionia Procilla Cn. Arrius Antoninus L. Ceionius Commodus Appia Severa C. Fuscus Salinator II L. Caesennius Paetus Arria Antonina Arria Fadilla[xvi] T. Aurelius Fulvus L. Caesennius Antoninus L. Commodus Fundania Plautia ignota[xvii] C. Avidius Nigrinus M. Annius Verus[xv] Domitia Lucilla[xviii] Fundania[xix] M. Annius Libo[xv] FAUSTINA[xvi] Antoninus Pius (r. 138–161)[xvi] L. Aelius Caesar[xvii] Avidia Plautia[xvii] Cornificia[xv] MARCUSAURELIUS (r. 161–180)[xx] FAUSTINAMinor[xx] C. Avidius Cassius[xxi] Aurelia Fadilla[xvi] LUCIUSVERUS (r. 161–169)[xvii] (1) Ceionia Fabia[xvii] Plautius Quintillus[xxii] Q. Servilius Pudens Ceionia Plautia[xvii] Cornificia Minor[xxiii] M. Petronius Sura COMMODUS (r. 177–192)[xx] Fadilla[xxiii] M. Annius Verus Caesar[xx] Ti. Claudius Pompeianus (2) Lucilla[xx] M. Plautius Quintillus[xvii] Junius Licinius Balbus Servilia Ceionia Petronius Antoninus L. Aurelius Agaclytus (2) Aurelia Sabina[xxiii] L. Antistius Burrus (1) Plautius Quintillus Plautia Servilla C. Furius Sabinus Timesitheus Antonia Gordiana Junius Licinius Balbus? Furia Sabina Tranquillina GORDIAN III (r. 238–244)
(1) = 1st spouse (2) = 2nd spouse (3) = 3rd spouse   Reddish purple indicates emperor of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty   lighter purple indicates designated imperial heir of said dynasty who never reigned   grey indicates unsuccessful imperial aspirants   bluish purple indicates emperors of other dynasties dashed lines indicate adoption; dotted lines indicate love affairs/unmarried relationships small caps = posthumously deified (Augusti, Augustae, or other)
Notes:Except where otherwise noted, the notes below indicate that an individual’s parentage is as shown in the above family tree. Jump up^ Sister of Trajan’s father: Giacosa (1977), p. 7. Jump up^ Giacosa (1977), p. 8. ^ Jump up to:a b Levick (2014), p. 161. Jump up^ Husband of Ulpia Marciana: Levick (2014), p. 161. ^ Jump up to:a b Giacosa (1977), p. 7. ^ Jump up to:a b c DIR contributor (Herbert W. Benario, 2000), « Hadrian ». ^ Jump up to:a b Giacosa (1977), p. 9. Jump up^ Husband of Salonia Matidia: Levick (2014), p. 161. Jump up^ Smith (1870), « Julius Servianus ».[dead link] Jump up^ Suetonius a possible lover of Sabina: One interpretation of HAHadrianus 11:3 Jump up^ Smith (1870), « Hadrian », pp. 319–322.[dead link] Jump up^ Lover of Hadrian: Lambert (1984), p. 99 and passim; deification: Lamber (1984), pp. 2-5, etc. Jump up^ Julia Balbilla a possible lover of Sabina: A. R. Birley (1997), Hadrian, the Restless Emperor, p. 251, cited in Levick (2014), p. 30, who is sceptical of this suggestion. Jump up^ Husband of Rupilia Faustina: Levick (2014), p. 163. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Levick (2014), p. 163. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Levick (2014), p. 162. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g Levick (2014), p. 164. Jump up^ Wife of M. Annius Verus: Giacosa (1977), p. 10. Jump up^ Wife of M. Annius Libo: Levick (2014), p. 163. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Giacosa (1977), p. 10. Jump up^ The epitomator of Cassius Dio (72.22) gives the story that Faustina the Elder promised to marry Avidius Cassius. This is also echoed in HA « Marcus Aurelius » 24. Jump up^ Husband of Ceionia Fabia: Levick (2014), p. 164. ^ Jump up to:a b c Levick (2014), p. 117.
References: DIR contributors (2000). « De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and Their Families ». Retrieved 2015-04-14. Giacosa, Giorgio (1977). Women of the Caesars: Their Lives and Portraits on Coins. Translated by R. Ross Holloway. Milan: Edizioni Arte e Moneta. ISBN 0-8390-0193-2. Lambert, Royston (1984). Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-15708-2. Levick, Barbara (2014). Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537941-9. William Smith, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

Notes

1. Jump up^ In Classical Latin, Hadrian’s name would be inscribed as PVBLIVS AELIVS HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS.
2. Jump up^ As emperor his name was Imperator Caesar Divi Traiani filius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus.

Citations[edit]

1. Jump up^ Alicia M. Canto, Itálica, sedes natalis de Adriano. 31 textos históricos y argumentos para una secular polémica, Athenaeum XCII/2, 2004, 367-408.
2. Jump up^ Mary T. Boatwright (2008). « From Domitian to Hadrian ». In Barrett, Anthony. Lives of the Caesars. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-4051-2755-4.
3. Jump up^ Eutr. VIII. 6: « … nam eum (Hadrianum) Traianus, quamquam consobrinae suae filium … » and SHA, Vita Hadr. I, 2: …pater Aelius Hadrianus cognomento Afer fuit, consobrinus Traiani imperatoris.
4. Jump up^ After A. M. Canto, in La dinastía Ulpio-Aelia (98-192 dC): Ni tan «Buenos», ni tan «Adoptivos», ni tan «Antoninos», Gerión 21/1, 2003, 305-347, specifically pp. 322, 328, 341 and footnote 124, where she stands out SHA, Vita Hadr. 1.2: pro filio habitus(years 93); 3.2: ad bellum Dacicum Traianum familiarius prosecutus est (year 101) or, principally, 3.7: quare adamante gemma quam Traianus a Nerva acceperat donatus ad spem successionis erectus est (year 107).
5. Jump up^ Royston Lambert, 1984, p. 175
6. Jump up^ Alicia M. Canto, « Itálica, patria y ciudad natal de Adriano (31 textos históricos y argumentos contra Vita Hadr). His father died in AD 86 when Hadrian was at the age of 10. 1, 3″, Athenaeum vol. 92.2, 2004, pp. 367–408 UNIPV.it Archived 15 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
7. Jump up^ Ronald Syme, in his paper « Hadrian and Italica » (Journal of Roman Studies, LIV, 1964; pp. 142–149) supported the position that Rome was Hadrian’s birthplace. Canto, however, argues that only one extant ancient source gives Hadrian’s birthplace as Rome (SHA, Vita Hadr 2,4, probably interpolated), as opposed to 25 other sources affirming that he was born in Italica. Among these alternative sources is Hadrian’s own imperial horoscope, included in the surviving fragments of an astrological compendium attributed to Antigonus of Nicaea, written during the late 2nd century:cf. Stephan Heiler, « The Emperor Hadrian in the Horoscopes of Antigonus of Nicaea », in Günther Oestmann, H. Darrel Rutkin, Kocku von Stuckrad, eds.,Horoscopes and Public Spheres: Essays on the History of Astrology. Berlim: Walter de Gruyter, 2005, ISBN 978-3-11-018545-4, page 49. This horoscope was well studied by prominent authors such as F. H. Cramer, Astrology in Roman Law and Politics, Mem.Amer.Philos.Soc. nr. 37, Philadelphia, 1954 (repr. 1996), see for Hadrian pp. 162–178, fn. 121b and 122, etc.: « … Hadrian – whose horoscope is absolutely certain – surely was born in southern Spain … (in) SHA, Hadrian, 2, 4, the birth was erroneously assigned to Rome instead of Italica, the actual birthplace of Hadrian… », or O. Neugebauer and H. B. Van Hoesen in their magisterial compilation Greek Horoscopes, Mem.Amer.Philos.Soc. nr. 48, Philadelphia, 1959, nr. L76, see now here, ed. 1987 pp. 80, 90–1, and his footnote 19. They came also to the conclusion that the astronomic parallel of the Hadrian’s birth is situated in the Baetica, today Andalusia: « …L40 agrees exactly with the geographical latitude of southern Spain, the place of origin of Hadrian and his family…« .. « since Hadrian was born in Italica (southern Spain, near Seville, latitude about 37° 30)… ».
8. Jump up^ Historia Augusta, ‘Hadrian’, I-II, here explicitly citing the autobiography. This is one of the passages in the Historia Augusta where there is no reason to suspect invention. But see now the Canto’s 31 contrary arguments in the op.cit. supra; among them, in the same Historia Augusta and, from the same author, Aelius Spartianus, Vita Sev. 21: Falsus est etiam ipse Traianus in suo municipe ac nepote diligendo, see also es:Adriano#cite note-nacimiento-0, and, characterizing him as a man of provinces (Canto, ibid.): Vita Hadr. 1,3: Quaesturam gessit Traiano quater et Articuleio consulibus, in qua cum orationem imperatoris in senatu agrestius pronuntians risus esset, usque ad summam peritiam et facundiam Latinis operam dedit
9. Jump up^ Alicia M. Canto, « La dinastía Ulpio-Aelia (96–192 d.C.): ni tan Buenos, ni tan Adoptivos ni tan Antoninos ». Gerión (21.1): 263–305. 2003
10. Jump up^ On the numerous senatorial families from Spain residing at Rome and its vicinity around the time of Hadrian’s birth see R. Syme, ‘Spaniards at Tivoli’, in Roman Papers IV (Oxford, 1988), pp. 96–114. Tivoli (Tibur) was of course the site of Hadrian’s own imperial villa.
11. ^ Jump up to:^a b Royston Lambert, Beloved And God, pp. 31–32.
12. Jump up^ Aulus Gellius, Noct.Att. XVI, 13, 4, and some inscriptions in the city with C(olonia) A(elia) A(ugusta) I(talica)
13. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 37
14. Jump up^ John D. Grainger, Nerva and the Roman Succession Crisis of AD 96–99. Abingdon: Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-34958-3, p. 109
15. Jump up^ Thorsten Opper, The Emperor Hadrian. British Museum Press, 2008, p. – 39
16. Jump up^ Jörg Fündling, Kommentar zur Vita Hadriani der Historia Augusta (= Antiquitas. Reihe 4: Beiträge zur Historia-Augusta-Forschung, Serie 3: Kommentare, Bände 4.1 und 4.2). Habelt, Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-7749-3390-1, p. 351.
17. Jump up^ John D. Grainger, Nerva and the Roman Succession Crisis, p. 109; Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, Dominic Rathbone, eds. The Cambridge Ancient History – XI. Cambridge U. P.: 2000, ISBN 0-521-26335-2, p. 133.
18. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 54
19. Jump up^ Boatwright, in Barrett, p. 158
20. Jump up^ The text of Historia Augusta (Vita Hadriani, 3.8) is garbled, stating that Hadrian’s election to the praetorship was contemporary « to the second consulate of Suburanus and Servianus » – two characters that had non-simultaneous second consulships – so Hadrian’s election could be dated to 102 or 104, the later date being the most accepted
21. ^ Jump up to:^a b Bowman, p. 133
22. Jump up^ Anthony Everitt, 2013, Chapter XI: « holding back the Sarmatians » may simply have meant maintaining and patrolling the border.
23. Jump up^ The inscription in footnote 1
24. Jump up^ The Athenian inscription confirms and expands the one in Historia Augusta; see John Bodel, ed., Epigraphic Evidence: Ancient History From Inscriptions. Abingdon: Routledge, 2006, ISBN 0-415-11623-6, p. 89
25. Jump up^ His career in office up to 112/113 is attested by the Athens inscription, 112 AD: CIL III, 550 = InscrAtt 3 = IG II, 3286 = Dessau 308 = IDRE 2, 365: decemvir stlitibus iudicandis/ sevir turmae equitum Romanorum/ praefectus Urbi feriarum Latinarum/ tribunus militum legionis II Adiutricis Piae Fidelis (95, in Pannonia Inferior)/ tribunus militum legionis V Macedonicae (96, in Moesia Inferior)/ tribunus militum legionis XXII Primigeniae Piae Fidelis (97, in Germania Superior)/ quaestor (101)/ ab actis senatus/ tribunus plebis (105)/ praetor (106)/ legatus legionis I Minerviae Piae Fidelis (106, in Germania Inferior)/ legatus Augusti pro praetore Pannoniae Inferioris (107)/ consul suffectus (108)/ septemvir epulonum (before 112)/ sodalis Augustalis (before 112)/ archon Athenis (112/13). He also held office as legatus Syriae (117): see H. W. Benario in Roman-emperors.org
26. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, Hadrian the Restless Emperor, p. 68
27. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 75
28. Jump up^ Karl Strobel: Kaiser Traian. Eine Epoche der Weltgeschichte. Regensburg: 2010, p. 401.
29. Jump up^ François Chausson, « Variétés Généalogiques IV:Cohésion, Collusions, Collisions: Une Autre Dynastie Antonine », in Giorgio Bonamente, Hartwin Brandt, eds., Historiae Augustae Colloquium Bambergense. Bari: Edipuglia, 2007, ISBN 978-88-7228-492-6, p.143
30. Jump up^ Hidalgo de la Vega, Maria José: « Plotina, Sabina y Las Dos Faustinas: La Función de Las Augustas en La Politica Imperial ». Studia historica, Historia antigua, 18, 2000, pp. 191–224. Available at [1]. Retrieved January 11, 2017
31. Jump up^ Marasco, p. 375
32. Jump up^ Tracy Jennings, « A Man Among Gods: Evaluating the Signficance of Hadrian’s Acts of Deification. » Journal of Undergraduate Research: 54. Available at [2] Archived16 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine.. Accessed April 15, 2017
33. Jump up^ This made Hadrian the first senator in history to have an Augusta as his mother-in-law, something that his contemporaries could not fail to notice: see Christer Brun, « Matidia die Jüngere », IN Anne Kolb, ed., Augustae. Machtbewusste Frauen am römischen Kaiserhof?: Herrschaftsstrukturen und Herrschaftspraxis II. Akten der Tagung in Zürich 18.-20. 9. 2008. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-05-004898-7, p. 230
34. Jump up^ Robert H. Allen, The Classical Origins of Modern Homophobia, Jefferson: Mcfarland, 2006, ISBN 978-0-7864-2349-1, p. 120
35. Jump up^ Robin Lane Fox, The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian. New York: Basic Books, 2008, ISBN 978-0-465-02497-1, p. 556
36. Jump up^ Thorsten Opper, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict. Harvard University Press, 2008, p.170
37. Jump up^ David L. Balch, Carolyn Osiek, eds., Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-8028-3986-X, p. 301
38. Jump up^ Anthony R Birley, Hadrian: The Restless Emperor, p. 54
39. Jump up^ Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, Dominic Rathbone, eds., The Cambridge Ancient History, XI, p. 133
40. Jump up^ Mackay, Christopher. Ancient Rome: a Military and Political History. Cambridge U. Press: 2007, ISBN 0-521-80918-5, p. 229
41. Jump up^ Fündling, 335
42. Jump up^ Gabriele Marasco, ed., Political Autobiographies and Memoirs in Antiquity: A Brill Companion. Leiden: Brill, 2011, ISBN 978-90-04-18299-8, p. 375
43. Jump up^ Historia Augusta, Life of Hadrian, 3.7
44. Jump up^ In 23 BC Augustus handed a similar ring to his heir apparent, Agrippa: see Judith Lynn Sebesta, Larissa Bonfante, eds., The World of Roman Costume. University of Wisconsin Press, 1994, p. 78
45. Jump up^ Fündling, 351
46. Jump up^ Fündling, 384; Strobel, 401.
47. Jump up^ John Richardson, « The Roman Mind and the power of fiction » IN Lewis Ayres, Ian Gray Kidd, eds. The Passionate Intellect: Essays on the Transformation of Classical Traditions : Presented to Professor I.G. Kidd. New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1995, ISBN 1-56000-210-7, p. 128
48. Jump up^ Elizabeth Speller, p. 25
49. Jump up^ Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 80
50. Jump up^ Stephan Brassloff, « Die Rechtsfrage bei der Adoption Hadrians ». Hermes 49. Bd., H. 4 (Sep., 1914), pp. 590–601
51. Jump up^ The coin legend runs HADRIANO TRAIANO CAESARI; see Roman, Yves, Rémy, Bernard & Riccardi, Laurent: » Les intrigues de Plotine et la succession de Trajan. À propos d’un aureus au nom d’Hadrien César ». Révue des études anciennes, T. 111, 2009, no. 2, pp. 508-517
52. Jump up^ Kennedy, Maev (2008-06-09). « How Victorian restorers faked the clothes that seemed to show Hadrian’s softer side ». Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-06-09.
53. Jump up^ Opper, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, 55
54. Jump up^ John Antony Crook, Consilium Principis: Imperial Councils and Counsellors from Augustus to Diocletian. Cambridge University Press: 1955, pp. 54f
55. Jump up^ Historia Augusta, Life of Hadrian, 6.2
56. Jump up^ Egyptian papyri tell of one such ceremony between 117 and 118; see Michael Peppard, The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in Its Social and Political Context. Oxford U. Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-19-975370-3, pp. 72f
57. Jump up^ Royston Lambert, p. 34
58. Jump up^ Cizek, Eugen. L’éloge de Caius Avidius Nigrinus chez Tacite et le  » complot  » des consulaires. In: Bulletin de l’Association Guillaume Budé, no. 3, octobre 1980. pp. 276–294. Retrieved June 10, 2015. Available at [3]
59. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Elizabeth Speller.
60. Jump up^ Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 88
61. Jump up^ Marasco, p. 377
62. Jump up^ M. Christol & D. Nony, Rome et son Empire. Paris: Hachette, 2003, ISBN 2-01-145542-1, p. 158
63. Jump up^ Hadrien Bru, Le pouvoir impérial dans les provinces syriennes: Représentations et célébrations d’Auguste à Constantin. Leiden: Brill, 2011, ISBN 978-90-04-20363-1, pp. 46f
64. Jump up^ Andrew Crawford Wilson, « Image and ideology : Roman imperialism and frontier policy in the second century A.D. ». Australian National University, M.A. Thesis, 1992, available at [4]. Retrieved May 23, 2015
65. Jump up^ Carcopino Jérôme. « L’hérédité dynastique chez les Antonins ». Revue des Études Anciennes. Tome 51, 1949, no.3–4. pp. 262–321.
66. Jump up^ Nigrinus’ ambiguous relationship with Hadrian would have consequences late in Hadrian’s reign, when he had to plan his own succession; see Anthony Everitt, Hadrian and the triumph of Rome. New York: Random House, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4000-6662-9.
67. Jump up^ It is probable that Attianus was executed (or was already dead) by the end of Hadrian’s reign; see Françoise Des Boscs-Plateaux, Un parti hispanique à Rome?: ascension des élites hispaniques et pouvoir politique d’Auguste à Hadrien, 27 av. J.-C.-138 ap. J.-C. Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2005, ISBN 84-95555-80-8, p. 611
68. Jump up^ Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 91
69. Jump up^ Christol & Nony, p. 158
70. Jump up^ Richard P. Saller, Personal Patronage Under the Early Empire. Cambridge University Press: 2002, ISBN 0-521-23300-3, p. 140
71. Jump up^ Richard A. Bauman, Crime and Punishment in Ancient Rome. London: Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0-203-42858-7, p. 83
72. Jump up^ Digest, 49 2, I,2, quoted by P.E. Corbett, « The Legislation of Hadrian ». University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register, Vol. 74, No. 8 (Jun., 1926), pp. 753–766
73. Jump up^ Christopher J. Fuhrmann, Policing the Roman Empire: Soldiers, Administration, and Public Order. Oxford University Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-973784-0, p. 153
74. Jump up^ Rose Mary Sheldon, Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome: Trust in the Gods But Verify. London: Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-7146-5480-9, p. 253
75. Jump up^ Paul Veyne, Le Pain et le Cirque, Paris: Seuil, 1976, ISBN 2-02-004507-9, p. 655
76. Jump up^ András Mócsy, Pannonia and Upper Moesia (Routledge Revivals): A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire, Routledge, 2014 Hadrian
77. Jump up^ Paul Veyne,  » Humanitas: Romans and non-Romans ». In Andrea Giardina, ed., The Romans, University of Chicago Press: 1993, ISBN 0-226-29049-2, p. 364
78. ^ Jump up to:^a b Christol & Nony, p. 159
79. Jump up^ Simon Goldhill, Being Greek Under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire. Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 12 ISBN 0-521-66317-2
80. Jump up^ Larry Joseph Kreitzer, Striking New Images: Roman Imperial Coinage and the New Testament World. Sheffield: A & C Black, 1996, ISBN 1-85075-623-6, pp. 194ff
81. Jump up^ Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 123
82. Jump up^ Opper, p. 79
83. Jump up^ Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Hadrian, xi, 2
84. Jump up^ Patrick le Roux, Le haut-Empire romain en Occident d’Auguste aux Sévères. Paris: Seuil, 1998, ISBN 2-02-025932-X, p. 396
85. Jump up^ Breeze, David J., and Brian Dobson, « Hadrian’s Wall: Some Problems », Britannia, Vol. 3, (1972), pp. 182–208
86. Jump up^ « Britannia on British Coins ». Chard. Retrieved 2006-06-25.
87. Jump up^ Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 145
88. Jump up^ Potter, David S. (2014). The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180–395. Routledge. p. 77. ISBN 9781134694778.
89. Jump up^ Jason König, Katerina Oikonomopoulou, Greg Woolf, eds. Ancient Libraries. Cambridge U. Press: 2013, ISBN 978-1-107-01256-1, page 251
90. Jump up^ Anthony Everitt, Hadrian and the triumph of Rome.
91. Jump up^ William E. Mierse, Temples and Towns in Roman Iberia: The Social and Architectural Dynamics of Sanctuary Designs from the Third Century B.C. to the Third Century A.D.. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009, ISBN 0-520-20377-1, page 141
92. Jump up^ Royston Lambert, pp. 41–2
93. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, pp. 151–2
94. Jump up^ The rebuilding continued until late in Hadrian’s reign; in 138 a statue of Zeus was erected there, dedicated to Hadrian as Cyrene’s « saviour and founder ». See E. Mary Smallwood, The Jews Under Roman Rule from Pompey to Diocletian : a Study in Political Relations. Leiden, Brill, 2001, 0-391-04155-X, p. 410
95. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, pp. 153–5
96. ^ Jump up to:^a b Anthony Birley, pp. 157–8
97. Jump up^ Royston Lambert, pp. 60–1
98. Jump up^ Opper, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, p. 171
99. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 164–7
100. Jump up^ Boatwright, p. 136
101. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 175–7
102. Jump up^ Kaja Harter-Uibopuu, « Hadrian and the Athenian Oil Law », in O.M. Van Nijf – R. Alston (ed.), Feeding the Ancient Greek city. Groningen- Royal Holloway Studies on the Greek City after the Classical Age, vol. 1, Louvain 2008, pp. 127–141
103. Jump up^ Brenda Longfellow, Roman Imperialism and Civic Patronage: Form, Meaning and Ideology in Monumental Fountain Complexes. Cambridge U. Press: 2011, ISBN 978-0-521-19493-8, p. 120
104. Jump up^ Verhoogen Violette. Review of Graindor (Paul). Athènes sous Hadrien, Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire, 1935, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 926–931. Available at [5]. Retrieved June 20, 2015
105. Jump up^ Mark Golden, Greek Sport and Social Status, University of Texas Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-292-71869-2, p. 88
106. Jump up^ Cynthia Kosso, Anne Scott, eds., The Nature and Function of Water, Baths, Bathing, and Hygiene from Antiquity Through the Renaissance. Leiden: Brill, 2009, ISBN 978-90-04-17357-6, pp. 216f
107. Jump up^ Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis, Truly Beyond Wonders: Aelius Aristides and the Cult of Asklepios. OUP : 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-956190-2, p. 171
108. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 177–80
109. Jump up^ David S. Potter,The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180–395. London: Routledge, 2014, ISBN 978-0-415-84054-5, p. 44
110. Jump up^ Boatwright, p. 134
111. Jump up^ K. W. Arafat, Pausanias’ Greece: Ancient Artists and Roman Rulers. Cambridge U. Press, 2004, ISBN 0-521-55340-7, p. 162
112. Jump up^ K. W. Arafat, p. 185
113. Jump up^ Birley, « Hadrian and Greek Senators », Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik116 (1997), pp. 209–245. Retrieved July 23, 2015
114. Jump up^ Christol & Nony, p. 203
115. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 182–4
116. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 191–200
117. Jump up^ J. Declareuil, Rome the Law-Giver, London: Routledge, 2013, ISBN 0-415-15613-0, p. 72
118. Jump up^ Clifford Ando, Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-520-22067-6
119. Jump up^ Royston Lambert, pp. 71–2
120. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 213–4
121. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 215–20
122. Jump up^ Boatwright, p. 81
123. Jump up^ Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 235
124. Jump up^ Boatwright, p. 142
125. Jump up^ Opper, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, p. 173
126. Jump up^ Historia Augusta (c. 395) Hadr. 14.5–7
127. Jump up^ Cassius Dio, LIX.11; Historia Augusta, Hadrian
128. Jump up^ Tim Cornell, Dr Kathryn Lomas, eds., Bread and Circuses: Euergetism and Municipal Patronage in Roman Italy. London: Routledge, 2003, ISBN 0-415-14689-5, p. 97
129. Jump up^ Carl F. Petry, ed. The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-47137-4, p. 15
130. Jump up^ Boatwright, p. 150
131. Jump up^ Anthony Kaldellis, Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical TraditionCambridge U. Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-87688-9, p. 38
132. Jump up^ Fernando A. Marín Valdés, Plutarco y el arte de la Atenas hegemónica. Universidad de Oviedo: 2008, ISBN 978-84-8317-659-7, p. 76
133. Jump up^ A. J. S. Spawforth, Greece and the Augustan Cultural Revolution. Cambridge University Press: 2011, ISBN 978-1-107-01211-0, p. 262
134. Jump up^ Nathanael J. Andrade, Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World. Cambridge University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-1-107-01205-9, p. 176
135. Jump up^ Georg Simmel, Sociology: Inquiries into the Construction of Social Forms. Leiden: Brill, 2009, ISBN 978-90-04-17321-7, p. 288
136. Jump up^ Marcel Le Glay. « Hadrien et l’Asklépieion de Pergame ». In: Bulletin de correspondance hellénique. Volume 100, livraison 1, 1976. pp. 347–372. Available at [6]. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
137. Jump up^ Nathanael J. Andrade, Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World, Cambridge University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-1-107-01205-9, page 177
138. Jump up^ Andrew M. Smith II, Roman Palmyra: Identity, Community, and State Formation. Oxford University Press: 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-986110-1, page 25; Robert K. Sherk, The Roman Empire: Augustus to Hadrian. Cambridge University Press:1988, ISBN 0-521-33887-5, page 190
139. Jump up^ Hadrien Bru, Le pouvoir impérial dans les provinces syriennes: Représentations et célébrations d’Auguste à Constantin (31 av. J.-C.-337 ap. J.-C.). Leiden: Brill,2011, ISBN 978-90-04-20363-1, pages 104/105
140. Jump up^ Laura Salah Nasrallah, Christian Responses to Roman Art and Architecture: The Second-Century Church Amid the Spaces of Empire. Cambridge University Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-521-76652-4, page 96
141. Jump up^ Giovanni Battista Bazzana, « The Bar Kokhba Revolt and Hadrian’s religious policy », IN Marco Rizzi, ed., Hadrian and the Christians. Berlim: De Gruyter, 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-022470-2, pages 89/91
142. Jump up^ Bazzana, 98
143. Jump up^ Cf a project devised earlier by Hellenized Jewish intellectuals such as Philo: see Rizzi, Hadrian and the Christians, 4
144. Jump up^ Emmanuel Friedheim, « Some notes about the Samaritans and the Rabbinic Class at Crossroads » IN Menachem Mor, Friedrich V. Reiterer, eds., Samaritans – Past and Present: Current Studies. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-019497-5, page 197
145. Jump up^ Peter Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand. Tübingen 1981, pages 29–50.
146. Jump up^ Chronicle of Jerome, s.v. Hadrian. See: [7] See also Yigael Yadin, Bar-Kokhba, Random House New York 1971, pp. 22, 258
147. Jump up^ Alexander Zephyr, Rabbi Akiva, Bar Kokhba Revolt, and the Ten Tribes of Israel. Bloomington: iUniverse, 2013, ISBN 978-1-4917-1256-6
148. Jump up^ Schäfer, Peter (1998). Judeophobia: Attitudes Toward the Jews in the Ancient World. Harvard University Press. pp. 103–105. ISBN 978-0-674-04321-3. Retrieved 2014-02-01. […] Hadrian’s ban on circumcision, allegedly imposed sometime between 128 and 132 CE […]. The only proof for Hadrian’s ban on circumcision is the short note in the Historia Augusta: ‘At this time also the Jews began war, because they were forbidden to mutilate their genitals (quot vetabantur mutilare genitalia). […] The historical credibility of this remark is controversial […] The earliest evidence for circumcision in Roman legislation is an edict by Antoninus Pius (138–161 CE), Hadrian’s successor […] [I]t is not utterly impossible that Hadrian […] indeed considered circumcision as a ‘barbarous mutilation’ and tried to prohihit it. […] However, this proposal cannot be more than a conjecture, and, of course, it does not solve the questions of when Hadrian issued the decree (before or during/after the Bar Kokhba war) and whether it was directed solely against Jews or also against other peoples.
149. Jump up^ Mackay, Christopher. Ancient Rome a Military and Political History: 230
150. Jump up^ Peter Schäfer, The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Second Jewish Revolt Against Rome Mohr Siebeck, 2003 p. 68
151. Jump up^ Peter Schäfer, The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World: The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest. Routledge:2003, p. 146
152. Jump up^ Historia Augusta, Hadrian14.2
153. Jump up^ Shaye Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, Third Edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press,2014, ISBN 978-0-664-23904-6, pp. 25–26
154. Jump up^ Peter Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand, Tübingen 1981, pp. 29–50
155. Jump up^ Possibly the XXII Deiotariana, which according to epigraphy did not outlast Hadrian’s reign; see [http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/xxii_deiotariana.html livius.org account; however, Peter Schäfer, following Bowersock, finds no traces in the written sources of the purported annihilation of Legio XXII. A loss of such magnitude would have surely been mentioned (Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand, 14).
156. Jump up^ Cassius Dio 69, 14.3Roman History. Many Romans, moreover, perished in this war. Therefore Hadrian in writing to the Senate did not employ the opening phrase commonly affected by the emperors[…]
157. Jump up^ Daniel R. Schwartz, Zeev Weiss, eds., Was 70 CE a Watershed in Jewish History?: On Jews and Judaism before and after the Destruction of the Second Temple. Leiden: Brill, 2011, ISBN 978-90-04-21534-4, page 529, footnote 42
158. Jump up^ Epiphanius, Treatise on Weights and Measures – Syriac Version (ed. James Elmer Dean), University of Chicago Press, c1935, p. 30
159. Jump up^ Ken Dowden, Zeus. Abingdon: Routledge, 2006, ISBN 0-415-30502-0, page 58.
160. Jump up^ Anna Collar, Religious Networks in the Roman Empire. Cambridge University Press: 2013, ISBN 978-1-107-04344-2, pp. 248-249
161. Jump up^ Geza Vermes, Who’s Who in the Age of Jesus, Penguin: 2006, no ISBN given, entry « Hadrian »
162. Jump up^ Ronald Syme, « Journeys of Hadrian » (1988), pp. 164–9
163. Jump up^ Ronald Syme, « Journeys Of Hadrian ». Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 73 (1988) 159–170. Available at [8]. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
164. Jump up^ Mellor, R., « The Goddess Roma » in Haase, W., Temporini, H., (eds), Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt, de Gruyter, 1991, ISBN 3-11-010389-3, pp. 960-964
165. Jump up^ Historia Augusta, Life of Hadrian, 10.3
166. Jump up^ Historia Augusta, Life of Hadrian, 23.9
167. Jump up^ Anne Kolb, Augustae. Machtbewusste Frauen am römischen Kaiserhof?: Herrschaftsstrukturen und Herrschaftspraxis II. Akten der Tagung in Zürich 18.-20. 9. 2008. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-05-004898-7, pages 26/27
168. Jump up^ Olivier Hekster, Emperors and Ancestors: Roman Rulers and the Constraints of Tradition. Oxford U. Press: 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-873682-0, pages 140/142
169. Jump up^ Merlin Alfred. Passion et politique chez les Césars (review of Jérôme Carcopino, Passion et politique chez les Césars). In: Journal des savants. Jan.-Mar. 1958. pp. 5–18. Available at [9]. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
170. Jump up^ Albino Garzetti, From Tiberius to the Antonines : A History of the Roman Empire AD 14–192. London: Routledge, 2014, p. 699
171. Jump up^ Cizek, « L’éloge de Caius Avidius Nigrinus »
172. Jump up^ András Mócsy, Pannonia and Upper Moesia (Routledge Revivals): A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire. London: Routledge, 2014, ISBN 978-0-415-74582-6, p. 102
173. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, pp. 289–292.
174. ^ Jump up to:^a b The adoptions: Anthony Birley, pp. 294–5; T.D. Barnes, ‘Hadrian and Lucius Verus’, Journal of Roman Studies (1967), Ronald Syme, Tacitus, p. 601. Antoninus as a legate of Italy: Anthony Birley, p. 199
175. Jump up^ Annius Verus was also the step-grandson of the Prefect of Rome, Lucius Catilius Severus, one of the remnants of the all-powerful group of Spanish senators from Trajan’s reign. Hadrian would likely have shown some favor to the grandson in order to count on the grandfather’s support; for an account of the various familial and marital alliances involved, see Des Boscs-Plateaux, pp. 241, 311, 477, 577; see also Frank McLynn,Marcus Aurelius: A Life. New York: Da Capo, 2010, ISBN 978-0-306-81916-2, p. 84
176. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, pp. 291–2
177. Jump up^ Dio 69.17.2
178. Jump up^ Anthony Birley, p. 297
179. ^ Jump up to:^a b Salmon, 816
180. Jump up^ Dio 70.1.1
181. Jump up^ Samuel Ball Platner, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Cambridge University Press: 2015, ISBN 978-1-108-08324-9, page 250
182. Jump up^ Christian Bechtold, Gott und Gestirn als Präsenzformen des toten Kaisers: Apotheose und Katasterismos in der politischen Kommunikation der römischen Kaiserzeit und ihre Anknüpfungspunkte im Hellenismus.V&R unipress GmbH: 2011, ISBN 978-3-89971-685-6, p. 259
183. Jump up^ Clifford Ando, Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, ISBN 0-520-22067-6, p. 330
184. Jump up^ W. Den Boer, Some Minor Roman Historians, Leiden: Brill, 1972, ISBN 90-04-03545-1, p. 41
185. Jump up^ Yann Le Bohec, The Imperial Roman Army. London: Routledge, 2013, ISBN 0-415-22295-8, p. 55
186. Jump up^ Albino Garzetti, From Tiberius to the Antonines (Routledge Revivals): A History of the Roman Empire AD 14-192. London: Routledge, 2014, ISBN 978-1-138-01920-1, p. 381
187. Jump up^ This partial withdrawal was probably supervised by the governor of Moesia Quintus Pompeius Falco; see Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 84 & 86.
188. Jump up^ Eutropius‘ notion that Hadrian contemplated withdrawing from Dacia altogether appears to be unfounded; see Jocelyn M. C. Toynbee, The Hadrianic School: A Chapter in the History of Greek Art. CUP Archive, 1934, 79
189. Jump up^ Julian Bennett, Trajan-Optimus Priceps. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-253-21435-1, p. 165
190. Jump up^ Opper, Empire and Conflict, p. 67
191. Jump up^ N. J. E. Austin & N. B. Rankov, Exploratio: Military & Political Intelligence in the Roman World from the Second Punic War to the Battle of Adrianople. London: Routledge, 2002, p. 4
192. Jump up^ Austin & Rankov, p. 30
193. Jump up^ Fergus Millar, Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Volume 2: Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire. The University of North Carolina Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8078-2852-1, p. 183
194. Jump up^ Elizabeth Speller, p. 69
195. Jump up^ Opper, p. 85
196. Jump up^ Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 209-212
197. Jump up^ Luttvak, Edward N. The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979, ISBN 0-8018-2158-4, p. 123
198. Jump up^ Christol & Nony, p. 180
199. Jump up^ The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors– Google Knihy. Books.google.cz. December 11, 2012. ISBN 978-1-78076-060-5. Retrieved 2016-09-03.
200. Jump up^ Fronto: Selected Letters. Edited by Caillan Davenport & Jenifer Manley, London: AC & Black, 2014, ISBN 978-1-78093-442-6, pp. 184f
201. Jump up^ Laura Jansen, The Roman Paratext: Frame, Texts, Readers, Cambridge University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-107-02436-6 p. 66
202. Jump up^ Kathleen Kuiper (Editor), Ancient Rome: From Romulus and Remus to the Visigoth Invasion, New York: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-61530-207-9p. 133
203. Jump up^ A. Arthur Schiller, Roman Law: Mechanisms of Development, Walter de Gruyter: 1978, ISBN 90-279-7744-5 p. 471
204. ^ Jump up to:^a b Salmon, 812
205. Jump up^ R.V. Nind Hopkins, Life of Alexander Severus, CUP Archive, p. 110
206. Jump up^ Adolf Berger, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, Volume 43, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1968, ISBN 0-87169-435-2 p. 650
207. Jump up^ Salmon, 813
208. Jump up^ Garnsey, Peter, « Legal Privilege in the Roman Empire », Past & Present, No. 41 (Dec., 1968), pp. 9, 13 (note 35), 16, published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society, Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/650001 (accessed: 03-12-2017 21:20 UTC)
209. Jump up^ Westermann, 109
210. Jump up^ Marcel Morabito, Les realités de l’esclavage d’après Le Digeste. Paris: Presses Univ. Franche-C omté, 1981, ISBN 978-2-251-60254-7, p. 230
211. Jump up^ Donald G. Kyle, Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome. London: Routledge, 2012, ISBN 0-415-09678-2;William Linn Westermann, The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1955, p. 115
212. Jump up^ Digest 48.18.21; quoted by Q.F. Robinson, Penal Practice and Penal Policy in Ancient Rome. Abingdon: Routledge, 2007ISBN 978-0-415-41651-1, p.107
213. Jump up^ Judith Perkins, Roman Imperial Identities in the Early Christian Era. Abingdon: Routledge, 2009, ISBN 978-0-415-39744-5
214. Jump up^ Christopher J. Fuhrmann, Policing the Roman Empire: Soldiers, Administration, and Public Order. Oxford University Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-973784-0, p. 102
215. Jump up^ Digest, 48.8.4.2, quoted by Paul Du Plessis, Borkowski’s Textbook on Roman Law. Oxford University Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-957488-9, p. 95
216. Jump up^ Peter Schäfer, Judeophobia, 104.
217. Jump up^ Garzetti, p. 411
218. Jump up^ Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 145
219. Jump up^ Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 108f
220. Jump up^ Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 107
221. Jump up^ Gradel, Ittai, Emperor Worship and Roman Religion, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-19-815275-2, pp. 194-5.
222. Jump up^ Howgego, in Howgego, C., Heuchert, V., Burnett, A., (eds), Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces, Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-19-926526-8, pp. 6, 10.
223. Jump up^ Hadrian’s « Hellenic » emotionalism finds a culturally sympathetic echo in the Homeric Achilles’ mourning for his friend Patroclus: see discussion in Vout, Caroline, Power and eroticism in Imperial Rome, illustrated, Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 0-521-86739-8, pp. 52–135.
224. Jump up^ Craig A. Williams, Roman Homosexuality : Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity. Oxford University Press: 1999, ISBN 978-0-19-511300-6, pp. 60f
225. Jump up^ Elsner, pp. 176f
226. Jump up^ Williams, p. 61
227. Jump up^ Jás Elsner, Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph, Oxford History of Art, Oxford U.P., 1998, ISBN 0-19-284201-3, p. 183f.
228. Jump up^ Marco Rizzi, p. 12
229. Jump up^ see Trevor W. Thompson « Antinoos, The New God: Origen on Miracle and Belief in Third Century Egypt » for the persistence of Antinous’s cult and Christian reactions to it. Freely available. The relationship of P. Oxy. 63.4352 with Diocletian’s accession is not entirely clear.
230. Jump up^ Caroline Vout, Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome. Cambridge University Press; 2007, p. 89
231. Jump up^ Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 127 and 183.
232. Jump up^ Alessandro Galimberti, « Hadrian, Eleusis, and the beginnings of Christian apologetics » in Marco Rizzi, ed., Hadrian and the Christians. Berlim: De Gruyter, 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-022470-2, pp. 77f
233. Jump up^ Robert M. Haddad, The Case for Christianity: St. Justin Martyr’s Arguments for Religious Liberty and Judicial Justice. Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010, ISBN 978-1-58979-575-4, p. 16
234. Jump up^ It was lost in large part to despoliation by the Cardinal d’Este, who had much of the marble removed to build the Villa d’Este in the 16th century.
235. Jump up^ Ilan Vit-Suzan, Architectural Heritage Revisited: A Holistic Engagement of its Tangible and Intangible Constituents . Farnham: Ashgate, 2014, ISBN 978-1-4724-2062-6, p. 20
236. Jump up^ Juan Gil & Sofía Torallas Tovar, Hadrianus. Barcelona: CSIC, 2010, ISBN 978-84-00-09193-4, p. 100
237. Jump up^ Direct links to Hadrian’s poems in the A.P. with W.R. Paton’s translation at the Internet Archive VI 332, VII 674, IX 137, IX 387
238. Jump up^ T. J. Cornell, ed., The Fragments of the Roman Historians. Oxford University Press: 2013, p. 591
239. Jump up^ Opper, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, p. 26
240. Jump up^ Historia Augusta, Hadrian 2.1.
241. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Fox, Robin The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian Basic Books. 2006 p. 574
242. Jump up^ Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 62
243. Jump up^ The Historia Augusta however claims that « he wore a full beard to cover up the natural blemishes on his face », H.A. 26.1
244. Jump up^ Robin Lane Fox, The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian. Philadelphia: Basic Books, 2006, ISBN 978-0-465-02497-1, p. 578
245. Jump up^ For instance, a probably bogus anecdote in Historia Augusta relates that as tribune he had lost a cloak that emperors never wore: Michael Reiche, ed., Antike Autobiographien: Werke, Epochen, Gattungen. Köln: Böhlau, 2005, ISBN 3-412-10505-8, p. 225
246. Jump up^ Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, Measuring Heaven: Pythagoras and His Influence on Thought and Art in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Cornell University Press: 2007, ISBN 978-0-8014-4396-1, p. 177
247. Jump up^ Historia Augusta, Hadrian Dio 25.9; Antony Birley, p. 301
248. Jump up^ see e.g.Forty-three translations of Hadrian’s « Animula, vagula, blandula … »including translations by Henry Vaughan, A. Pope, Lord Byron.
249. Jump up^ A.A.Barb, « Animula, Vagula, Blandula », Folklore, 61, 1950 : « … since Casaubonalmost three and a half centuries of classical scholars have admired this poem »
250. Jump up^ see Note 2 in Emanuela Andreoni Fontecedro’s « Animula vagula blandula: Adriano debitore di Plutarco », Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, 1997
251. Jump up^ « tales autem nec multo meliores fecit et Graecos », Historia Augusta, ibidem
252. Jump up^ Russell E. Murphy, Critical Companion to T. S. Eliot: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, 2007. p.48
253. Jump up^ Varius multiplex multiformis in the anonymous, ancient Epitome de Caesaribus, 14.6: cf Ronald Syme, among others; see Ando, footnote 172
254. Jump up^ McLynn, 42
255. Jump up^ « Wytse Keulen, Eloquence rules: the ambiguous image of Hadrian in Fronto’s correspondence ». [10] Retrieved February 20, 2015
256. Jump up^ James Uden (2010). « The Contest of Homer and Hesiod and the ambitions of Hadrian ». Journal of Hellenic Studies, 130 (2010), pp. 121-135.[11]. Accessed October 16, 2017
257. Jump up^ Paul Veyne, L’Empire Gréco-Romain, p. 40
258. Jump up^ Apud Veyne, L’Empire Gréco-Romain, 65
259. Jump up^ Birley, Restless Emperor, p. 1
260. Jump up^ Edward Togo Salmon,A History of the Roman World from 30 B.C. to A.D. 138. London: Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-04504-5, pp. 314f
261. Jump up^ Victoria Emma Pagán, A Companion to Tacitus. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4051-9032-9, page 1
262. Jump up^ Marache, R.: R. Syme, Tacitus, 1958. In: Revue des Études Anciennes. Tome 61, 1959, n°1–2. pp. 202–206.available at [12]. Accessed April 30, 2017
263. Jump up^ Steven H. Rutledge, « Writing Imperial Politics: The Social and Political Background » IN William J. Dominik, ed;, Writing Politics in Imperial Rome Brill, 2009, ISBN 978-90-04-15671-5, p.60
264. Jump up^ Adam M. Kemezis, « Lucian, Fronto, and the absence of contemporary historiography under the Antonines ». The American Journal of Philology Vol. 131, No. 2 (Summer 2010), pp. 285–325
265. Jump up^ Paul Veyne, L’Empire Gréco-Romain. Paris: Seuil, 2005, ISBN 2-02-057798-4, p. 312. In the French original: de l’Alexandre Dumas, du péplum et un peu d’Ubu Roi.
266. Jump up^ Danèel den Hengst, Emperors and Historiography: Collected Essays on the Literature of the Roman Empire. Leiden: Brill, 2010, ISBN 978-90-04-17438-2, p. 93
267. Jump up^ Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, Dominic Rathbone, eds., The Cambridge Ancient History’, XI: the High Empire, 70–192 A.D.Cambridge University Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0521263351, p. 132
268. Jump up^ Mary Taliaferro Boatwright, Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire. Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 20/26
269. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Anthony R Birley, Hadrian: The Restless Emperor. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013, ISBN 0-415-16544-X, p. 7
270. Jump up^ Birley, Hadrian: the Restless Emperor, 7: Birley describes the results of Ernst Kornemann‘s attempt to sift the Historia Augusta biography’s facts from its fictions (through textual analysis alone) as doubtful.
271. Jump up^ Thomas E. Jenkins, Antiquity Now: The Classical World in the Contemporary American Imagination. Cambridge University Press: 2015, ISBN 978-0-521-19626-0, paget121
272. Jump up^ A’haron Oppenheimer, Between Rome and Babylon: Studies in Jewish Leadership and Society.Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005, ISBN 3-16-148514-9, page 199
273. Jump up^ Susanne Mortensen: Hadrian. Eine Deutungsgeschichte. Habelt, Bonn 2004, ISBN 3-7749-3229-8
274. Jump up^ Franco Sartori, « L’oecuménisme d’un empereur souvent méconnu : [review of] M.A. Levi, Adriano, un ventennio di cambiamento« . In: Dialogues d’histoire ancienne, vol. 21, no. 1, 1995. pp. 290–297. Available at [13]. Retrieved January 19, 2017
275. Jump up^ The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian. New York: Basic Books, 2006, ISBN 978-0-465-02497-1, page 4

References

Primary sources

• Cassius Dio or Dio Cassius Roman History. Greek Text and Translation by Earnest Cary at internet archive
• Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Augustan History. Latin Text Translated by David Magie
• Aurelius Victor, Caesares, XIV. Latin « Caesares: text – IntraText CT ». Intratext.com. 2007-05-04. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
• Anon, Excerpta of Aurelius Victor: Epitome de Caesaribus, XIII. Latin « Epitome De Caesaribus: text – IntraText CT ». Intratext.com. 2007-05-04. Retrieved 2010-03-13.

Inscriptions:

• Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History (Book IV), « Church History ». http://www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
• Smallwood, E.M, Documents Illustrating the Principates of Nerva Trajan and Hadrian, Cambridge, 1966.

Secondary sources

• Barnes, T. D. (1967). « Hadrian and Lucius Verus ». Journal of Roman Studies. 57(1/2): 65–79. doi:10.2307/299345. JSTOR 299345.
• Birley, Anthony R. (1997). Hadrian. The restless emperor. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16544-X.
• Boatwright, Mary Taliaferro. (2002). Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire. Priceton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04889-4.
• Canto, Alicia M. (2004). « Itálica, patria y ciudad natal de Adriano (31 textos históricos y argumentos contra Vita Hadr. 1, 3″. Athenaeum. 92.2: 367–408. Archived from the original on October 15, 2007.
• Dobson, Brian (2000). Hadrian’s Wall. London: Penguin.
• Gibbon, Edward, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. I, 1776. The Online Library of Liberty « Online Library of Liberty – The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1 ». Oll.libertyfund.org. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
• Lambert, Royston (1997). Beloved and God: the story of Hadrian and Antinous. London: Phoenix Giants. ISBN 1-85799-944-4.
• Speller, Elizabeth (2003). Following Hadrian: a second-century journey through the Roman Empire. London: Review. ISBN 0-7472-6662-X.
• Syme, Ronald (1997) [1958]. Tacitus. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-814327-3.
• Syme, Ronald (1964). « Hadrian and Italica ». Journal of Roman Studies. LIV: 142–9. doi:10.2307/298660.
• Syme, Ronald (1988). « Journeys of Hadrian » (PDF). Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 73: 159–170. Retrieved 2006-12-12. Reprinted in Syme, Ronald (1991). Roman Papers VI. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 346–357. ISBN 0-19-814494-6.

Further reading

• Danziger, Danny; Purcell, Nicholas (2006). Hadrian’s empire : when Rome ruled the world. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-83361-0.
• Everitt, Anthony (2009). Hadrian and the triumph of Rome. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6662-9.
• Gray, William Dodge (1919). « A Study of the life of Hadrian Prior to His Accession ». Smith College Studies in History. 4: 151–209.
• Gregorovius, Ferdinand (1898). The Emperor Hadrian: A Picture of the Greco-Roman World in His Time. Mary E. Robinson, trans. London: Macmillan.
• Henderson, Bernard W. (1923). Life and Principate of the Emperor Hadrian. London: Methuen.
• Ish-Kishor, Sulamith (1935). Magnificent Hadrian: A Biography of Hadrian, Emperor of Rome. New York: Minton, Balch and Co.
• Perowne, Stewart (1960). Hadrian. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

Hadrian.

Hadrian Nervan-Antonian dynasty Born: 24 January AD 76 Died: 10 July AD 138
Regnal titles
Preceded by Trajan	Roman Emperor 117–138	Succeeded by Antoninus Pius
Political offices
Preceded by Appius Annius Trebonius Gallus, and Marcus Appius Bradua as Ordinary consuls	Suffect consul of the Roman Empire 108 with Marcus Trebatius Priscus	Succeeded by Quintus Pompeius Falco, and Marcus Titius Lustricus Bruttianus as Suffect consuls
Preceded by ignotus, and Gnaeus Minicius Faustinus as Suffect consuls	Consul of the Roman Empire 118 with Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator Bellicius Tebanianus Gaius Ummidius Quadratus	Succeeded by Lucius Pompeius Bassus, and Titus Sabinius Barbarus as Suffect consuls
Preceded by Lucius Pompeius Bassus, and Titus Sabinius Barbarus as Suffect consuls	Consul of the Roman Empire 119 with Publius Dasumius Rusticus, followed by Aulus Platorius Nepos	Succeeded by Marcus Paccius Silvanus Quintus Coredius Gallus Gargilius Antiquus, and Quintus Vibius Gallus as Suffect consuls

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, ハドリアヌス

この記事には複数の問題があります。改善やノートページでの議論にご協力ください。 出典がまったく示されていないか不十分です。内容に関する文献や情報源が必要です。（2010年5月） 脚注による出典の参照が不十分です。脚注を追加してください。（2016年5月）

この項目では、古代ローマ皇帝について説明しています。その他の用法については「ハドリアヌス (曖昧さ回避)」をご覧ください。

ハドリアヌス Hadrianus
ローマ皇帝 Giacobbe Giusti, ハドリアヌス
ハドリアヌス胸像
在位	117年8月11日 – 138年7月10日
全名	プブリウス・アエリウス・トラヤヌス・ハドリアヌス Publius Aelius Trajanus Hadrianus
出生	紀元76年1月24日 ヒスパニア・バエティカ
死去	紀元138年7月10日（62歳没） バイアエ（ナポリ近郊）
継承者	アントニヌス・ピウス
配偶者	サビナ
子女	ルキウス・アエリウス・カエサル(養子) アントニヌス・ピウス(養子)
王朝	ネルウァ＝アントニヌス朝
父親	プブリウス・アエリウス・ハドリアヌス・アフェル
母親	ドミティア・パウリナ
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プブリウス・アエリウス・トラヤヌス・ハドリアヌス（古典ラテン語: Publius Aelius Trajanus Hadrianus （プーブリウス・アエリウス・トライヤーヌス・ハドリアーヌス）、76年1月24日 – 138年7月10日）は、第14代ローマ皇帝（在位：117年 – 138年）。ネルウァ＝アントニヌス朝の第3代目皇帝。帝国各地をあまねく視察して帝国の現状把握に努める一方、トラヤヌス帝による帝国拡大路線を放棄し、現実的判断に基づく国境安定化路線へと転換した。

目次

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• 1治世・歴史的評価
  • 1.1皇帝即位からローマ帰還まで
  • 1.2ハドリアヌスの業績
  • 1.3皇帝と元老院との関係
  • 1.4その他
• 2建築物
  • 2.1ローマ市内
  • 2.2属州地
• 3最期の詩
• 4家系図
• 5逸話
• 6伝記
• 7ハドリアヌスが登場する作品
• 8脚注
  • 8.1注釈
  • 8.2出典
• 9参考文献
• 10関連書籍

治世・歴史的評価

皇帝即位からローマ帰還まで

ハドリアヌスはローマで生まれた（原籍があるヒスパニア・バエティカのイタリカで生まれたとの説もある）。トラヤヌスの従兄弟の子である。

93年（または94年）、二十人委員の職に就き、民生関係の修行をした。ついで、パンノニア、モエシア・インフェリオル及びゲルマニア・スペリオル各属州で高級軍団将校を務める。その後101年、元首財務官に就任、トラヤヌスの秘書を務める。皇帝の演説を元老院で代読したのは、この時のことである。105年護民官に就任、ついで法務官（プラエトル）に任命された。その後、軍団司令官として第2次ダキア戦争に従軍、この戦争で実績を重ね、107年からは属州長官として下部パンノニアを治めた。この属州の長官のときの功績により、108年には数か月間、補充執政官を務めた。

114年から開始されたパルティア戦争では軍団の司令官に任命され、参謀本部内でトラヤヌスの補佐役として優れた手腕を発揮した。117年、トラヤヌスは、ハドリアヌスを属州シリアの総督に任命した。病を得たトラヤヌスは、ハドリアヌスをパルティア遠征軍の総司令官に任命し、ローマへ帰国の途につく。しかし、トラヤヌスはキリキア地方のセリヌスで不帰の人となった。死の床でトラヤヌスはハドリアヌスを養子に指名したが、これは皇后プロティナの支持があったからだといわれる。

8月9日、アンティオキア滞在中のハドリアヌスにトラヤヌスの養子となった旨の書簡が届く。その2日後、トラヤヌス逝去を報ずる書簡が届いた。このとき、ハドリアヌスは配下の軍隊から「インペラトル（皇帝）」と歓呼された。公式にはこの日が「即位の日」とされる。ハドリアヌスはセリヌスへいって弔問したあと、再びシリアへ戻る。その際、東部国境の安定化のため、属州メソポタミアとアルメニアの放棄を決定した。その処理が終わると、蛮族の侵入によって不穏な情勢にあったドナウ川流域を訪れ、属州ダキアと属州モエシアを再編成し、翌年7月、ようやくローマへ帰還した。

ハドリアヌスの帝位継承については、元老院議員の一部から異論が出るおそれがあった。そのためであろう、かつてハドリアヌスの後見人であった腹心の近衛長官アッティアヌスは予防的措置として、「元老院の命令により」、執政官を経験した有力な元老院議員4名を殺害させた（ハドリアヌスが命じたとする研究者もいる）。

ハドリアヌスの業績

先代トラヤヌス帝により、ローマ帝国の領土は最大となっていた。

ハドリアヌスの治世において特筆すべき事柄は

• 属州メソポタミアとアルメニアの放棄による東部国境の安定化ならびに防壁建造などの帝国周辺地域における防衛策の整備
• ローマ帝国全体の統合強化と平準化
• 2度にわたる長期の巡察旅行
• 官僚制度の確立と行政制度の整備
• 法制度における改革

である。

トラヤヌスは、すでにダキアを属州化していた。パルティア戦争開始後、メソポタミア、アッシリア、アルメニアを属州とし、治世末期にはローマ帝国史上最大の版図を実現していた。しかし、東方の隣国であるパルティアとの紛争を収束させていなかった。このような状況に鑑み、ハドリアヌスは外交政策を攻勢から守勢に転換し、ユーフラテス川以東のメソポタミア、アッシリア、アルメニアを放棄して、東方の国境の安定化を図った。

ハドリアヌスの長城

ハドリアヌスは帝国の統一のためには平和が欠かせないことを充分認識しており、帝国の東部以外でも帝国の防衛力を整備した。軍事的脅威を受けている地方では、防壁（リメス）の構築あるいは天然の要害によって帝国を防衛することにした。なかでも、カレドニア人との紛争が続いていたブリタンニア北部に「ハドリアヌスの長城」として知られる防壁を構築した。ゲルマン人との境界のライン川やドナウ川地域、そのほか、アフリカでも防壁が構築されている。そして、皇帝自ら軍紀の徹底を図り、巡察旅行中も現場で兵士の訓練を査察し、直接指示を出したりした。また、軍団に地元の兵士を採用することによって、軍団の徴募を安定化させ、経費の節約を図った。

パルティア問題を収拾させたあと、帝国内の諸問題に取り組む。まず属州に対する姿勢を変更した。属州の重要性を強調し、開発を推進すると同時にイタリアとの一体化に努力を傾注した。このため、ハドリアヌス自身、2度にわたって長期の巡察旅行に出かけた。この旅行の目的は、帝国防衛の再整備、帝国の行政の調整、統合の象徴としての皇帝の周知、帝国各地（とくにギリシア化していた地域）の巡察にあった。巡察旅行には建設関係者をも随伴していたといわれ、公共工事も行われた。

次に、ハドリアヌスは統治機構を整備した。彼の構築した官僚機構は以降の帝国の基礎となる。

ハドリアヌスは法制度の整備も推進する。サルウィウス・ユリアヌスに命じて、『永久告示録』と呼ばれる法典を編纂させた（完成は131年頃、6世紀まで使われた）。これは、法務官が出した従来の告示（属州総督や属州の審判人の法源）を集大成したものである。ユスティニアヌスの時代には、これらを基に『ユスティニアヌス法典』（別名『ローマ法大全』）が編纂された。

130年、エルサレム市をローマ風の都市に建設、自らの氏族名アエリウスにちなんで植民市「アエリア・カピトリーナ」と命名し、さらに132年には割礼を禁止した。そのため、ユダヤ人の大規模かつ組織的な反乱が発生した。バル・コクバの乱と呼ばれる。ハドリアヌスは他の属州からも軍団を動員し、135年にようやく反乱を鎮圧した。3年以上を要したことになる。この戦争の終結を機に、ユダヤ地方は「属州シリア・パレスティナ」と名称が変更され、この地からユダヤの名が消えた。ユダヤ人は離散（ディアスポラ）を余儀なくされ、以後、エルサレム市内への立ち入りも制限された。

皇帝と元老院との関係

ハドリアヌス統治下のローマ帝国

ハドリアヌスはその治世を通じ、国内外において目覚しい成果を挙げた。しかし、元老院にはハドリアヌスの政策をよしとしない者がいたことも事実である。

まず、治世当初の執政官経験者4名の殺害はこれを反映している。ハドリアヌスは、防衛に必要な兵力や維持費等の負担増に耐え切れないと判断して、メソポタミア、アッシリア、アルメニアから撤退するという現実路線に切り換えた。ところが、当時の元老院には実際に戦場へ赴いて領土拡大に貢献した者もおり、ハドリアヌスの対外政策には批判的な者がいた。元老院の一部には、激しく反発するものもいたのであろう。これに対してハドリアヌス擁護派は、反対派の大物4人を粛清するという強硬策に訴えた。

治世末期の後継者選びの際にも、意見の不一致から義兄弟ユリウス・ウルスス・セルウィアヌスとその孫ペダニウス・フスクスを自殺に追いこんだ。そのため治世末期、皇帝と元老院の関係は緊張していた。しかし、いくつかのグループとの関係が緊張していたにすぎないと見る向きもある。

皇帝逝去の後、元老院ではハドリアヌスを神格化し、国家神の列の加えることに反対する動きがあった。神格化されないと、ドミティアヌス帝のように記憶の抹殺が行われ、ハドリアヌスの統治に関する行為はすべて抹消されることになる。後継者のアントニヌス帝は涙を流しながら必死に元老院の説得に努め、ハドリアヌス神格化について元老院の同意を得ることができた。このため、アントニヌスはアントニヌス・ピウス（敬虔なアントニヌス）と呼ばれることになった。

ローマ皇帝の業績を称える碑が多いローマにおいて、五賢帝の一人とされるハドリアヌスの巡幸を称える碑は見つかっていない。

その他

文化面では118年、ローマ近郊のティヴォリに大規模な別荘ウィラ・ハドリアヌスの造営を開始し、同時に後世の新古典主義建築に大きな影響を与えた、ローマに今日まで残るパンテオン神殿の再建に着手した^[いつ?]。そのほか、ローマのウェヌスとローマ神殿など、ローマ、イタリア、属州各地においてきわめて多くの造営事業を行った。

私生活では、ビテュニアの美青年の愛人アンティノウス（アンティノオス）を寵愛し、属州アエギュプトゥス（エジプト）視察中にこの美青年がナイル川で事故死を遂げたあとは、彼を神格化して神殿を建設し、都市アンティノオポリスを創建したほか、帝国中にアンティノウス像を建てさせ、天空にアンティノウス座を作ったことが知られている。

もともと頑健であったが、晩年は体調不良に苦しみ、幾度か自殺を試みるも直前に家内奴隷に制止された。また、自分の後継者と決めていたルキウス・アエリウス・カエサルが138年1月に死去するという悲運もあったが、翌月にはアントニヌスを養子とし、自らの後継とした。138年7月、バイアエ(Baiae) の別荘において62歳で没した。

建築物

Giacobbe Giusti, ハドリアヌス

ハドリアヌスが自らの霊廟として建設を開始したサンタンジェロ城

ローマ市内

• トラヤヌスの記念柱
• ウェヌスとローマ神殿
• パンテオンの再建
• アグリッパ橋の再建（アエリウス橋と改名）

属州地

• ハドリアヌスの城壁（ブリタニア）
• ウィラ・ハドリアヌス (ティヴォリ)
• アテネの建築群^[1]
• レプティス・マグナの浴場^[2]

最期の詩

ハドリアヌスは死に際して、以下の詩を残したと伝えられる^{[注釈 1]}。

原文： Animula, vagula, blandula Hospes comesque corporis Quae nunc abibis in loca Pallidula, rigida, nudula, Nec, ut soles, dabis iocos…

日本語訳： さまよう、魅力的な、小さな魂 身体に宿った客よ仲間よ どこへ出発しようとしているのか 暗く、冷たく、むきだしで 冗談を言う力もないか……

家系図

マルキア

マルクス・トラヤヌス

ネルウァ

ウルピア

マルキアナ

トラヤヌス

ポンペイア

アエリウス・ハドリアヌス

大パウリナ

ルボ・ルピリウス・フルギ

マティディア

ウィビウス・サビニウス

ルピリア・アンニア

アンニウス・ウェルス

ルピリア・ファウスティナ

ウィビア・サビナ

ハドリアヌス

アンティノウス

小パウリナ

ドミティア・ルキッラ

マルクス・アンニウス・ウェルス

マルクス・アンニウス・リボ

大ファウスティナ

アントニヌス・ピウス

ルキウス・アエリウス

ユリア・パウリナ

コルニフィキア

マルクス・アウレリウス

小ファウスティナ

アウレリア・ファディラ

サリナトル

小コルニフィキア

ファディラ

コンモドゥス

ルキッラ

ルキウス・ウェルス

ケイオニア・プラウティア

クィントゥス・セルウィリウス・プデンス

アンニア・ファウスティナ

ユリア・マエサ

ユリア・ドムナ

セプティミウス・セウェルス

ユニウス・リキニウス・バルブス

セルウィリア・ケイオニア

ゴルディアヌス1世

ユリア・ソエミアス

ユリア・アウィタ

カラカラ

ゲタ

ユニウス・リキニウス・バルブス

アントニア・ゴルディアナ

ゴルディアヌス2世

アウレリア・ファウスティナ

ヘリオガバルス

アレクサンデル・セウェルス

ゴルディアヌス3世

逸話

この記事に雑多な内容を羅列した節があります。事項を箇条書きで列挙しただけの節は、本文として組み入れるか、または整理・除去する必要があります。（2016年5月）

• ハドリアヌスは、ローマ皇帝のなかで初めて髭を生やした皇帝である。
• 元首財務官時代、皇帝の演説を元老院で代読したとき、少しヒスパニア訛りがあったので揶揄されたといわれる。これはおそらく側近が地方出身者であったからであろう。そこで青年ハドリアヌスは練習を重ね、矯正したという。
• 大浴場を訪れた際、老人が石鹸のついた背中を壁面で擦り落としているのを見たハドリアヌスは、老人が自分の指揮下にいた元百人隊長であることをすぐに思い出し、体を清める専門の奴隷すら雇えない経済状況に同情してその老人に料金の負担を申し出た。後日、この噂を聞きつけたローマ中の老人がこぞって浴場の壁面に背中をこすり付けたという。
• ハドリアヌスは詩に深い造詣があった。詩人フロルスがいつも地方巡察をしているハドリアヌスに対して皮肉を込めて詩を送ると、ハドリアヌスもパロディ風に同じ統辞構造を使った詩で返答した^{[注釈 2]}。この応答に彼の詩才の一端を垣間見ることができる。
• 18世紀の歴史家エドワード・ギボンはハドリアヌスについて、「ハドリアヌスの情熱の元は『好奇心』と『虚栄心』から構成されており、対象によってハドリアヌスは優れた君主にも、滑稽なソフィストにも、また嫉妬深い暴君ともなった」と評している。
• ネロと同じく非常にギリシャへの傾倒が強く、その影響か男色家だった。当時のローマでは男色は嫌悪されることではなかったが、大っぴらにするようなものでもなかったため、公にされることはほとんどなかった。

伝記

• ステュワート・ペローン 『ローマ皇帝ハドリアヌス』 （暮田愛訳、前田耕作監修・解説、河出書房新社、2001年）
• マルグリット・ユルスナール 『ハドリアヌス帝の回想』 （多田智満子訳、白水社、新装版2008年） – 歴史小説
• レモン・シュヴァリエ（フランス語版）、レミ・ポワニョ 『ハドリアヌス帝 – 文人皇帝の生涯とその時代』 （北野徹訳、白水社〈文庫クセジュ〉、2010年）
• アントニー・エヴァリット 『ハドリアヌス – ローマの栄光と衰退』 （草皆伸子訳、白水社、2011年）

ハドリアヌスが登場する作品

• 漫画 『テルマエ・ロマエ』
  • 上記を映画化した『テルマエ・ロマエ』（2012年）、『テルマエ・ロマエⅡ』（2014年）では、市村正親がハドリアヌスを演じた。

脚注

[ヘルプ]

注釈

1. ^ 日本語訳は藤原道郎 『物語イタリアの歴史 II 皇帝ハドリアヌスから画家カラヴァッジョまで』（中央公論新社〈中公新書 1771〉、2004年11月。ISBN 978-4-12-101771-0） ^{[要ページ番号]}をもとに仮訳。
2. ^ フロルス「皇帝なんぞにはなりたくない。ブリトン人の間をうろついて、……の間に潜んで、スキュティア人の地の冬を、辛抱しなければならぬから」 ハドリアヌスの返答「フロルスなんぞにはなりたくない。安料理屋の間をうろついて、居酒屋に潜んで、丸々と太った蚊の餌食になるのを、辛抱しなければならぬから」^[3]

出典

1. ^ http://www.livius.org/ha-hd/hadrian/hadrian.html
2. ^ http://www.livius.org/ha-hd/hadrian/hadrian.html
3. ^ スパルティアヌス, pp. 51–52, ハドリアヌスの生涯16節.

参考文献

出典は列挙するだけでなく、脚注などを用いてどの記述の情報源であるかを明記してください。記事の信頼性向上にご協力をお願いいたします。（2016年5月）

• 桜井万里子、本村凌二 『世界の歴史 5 ギリシアとローマ』 中央公論社、1997年10月。ISBN 978-4-12-403405-9。
  • のち文庫化。桜井万里子、本村凌二 『世界の歴史 5 ギリシアとローマ』 中央公論新社〈中公文庫 S22-5〉、2010年5月。ISBN 978-4-12-205312-0。
• アエリウス・スパルティアヌス 『ローマ皇帝群像１』 南川高志訳、京都大学学術出版会、2004年1月。ISBN 4-87698-146-9。

関連書籍

ウィキメディア・コモンズには、ハドリアヌスに関連するカテゴリがあります。

• クリス・スカー（英語版） 『ローマ皇帝歴代誌』（創元社、1998年）
• フランソワ・トレモリエール 『図説 ラルース世界史人物百科』（樺山紘一監修、原書房、2004年）

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com