The « Tempio di Mercurio » at Baiae was the frigidarium swimming pool of a large bath. It is believed to be the oldest example of a large dome in history.
Baïes est située au nord du golfe de Naples, dans une anse sur la rive est du cap Misène, entre la pointe de la Lanterne au sud et la pointe de l’Épitaphe au nord. Elle est à proximité de la base navale romaine de Misène, et fait face à Pouzzoles, de l’autre côté de la baie de Pouzzoles.
Ensemble de villae de villégiature étagées sur la pente intérieure d’un ancien cratère en partie submergé par la mer, Baïes doit son succès à la douceur de son climat et à la présence de sources thermales engendrées par le volcanisme actif des Champs Phlégréens. Ces sources chaudes, sulfureuses ou salines, sont vantées comme les plus curatives et les plus abondantes d’Italie par Pline l’Ancien1, Strabon2, Florus3, Fronton4 et même Flavius Josèphe5.
Le site antique est de nos jours en partie submergé, en raison de l’affaissement du terrain causé par des phénomènes bradysismiques6.
Histoire
Selon la légende rapportée par Strabon, Baïes tirerait son nom de la présence de la sépulture de Baios, compagnon d’Ulysse. Silius Italicusconfirme cette tradition, et indique que Hannibal Barca visite ce site après la reddition de Capoue7. Tite-Live nous donne la mention la plus ancienne que nous ayons de la réputation curative des bains de la région, avec la vaine tentative de traiter la paralysie partielle du consul Cnaeus Cornelius Scipio Hispallus à Cumes en 176 av. J.-C8.
De nombreux notables romains à la fin de la République se font construire des résidences d’été, créant un climat de lieu de plaisirs qu’évoque Cicéron : « les accusateurs répètent avec affectation les mots de libertinage, d’amours, d’adultères, de Baïes, de rivages, de festins, de repas nocturnes, de chants de musique, de promenades sur l’eau9 », ou Properce10. Caius Marius, l’orateur Lucius Licinius Crassus, Pompée, Jules César, Cicéron, Varron, Hortensius11 y ont leur villa12. Le littoral est aménagé et exploité, les premiers parcs à huîtres sont construits peu avant la guerre des Marses11, puis des viviers alimentés en eau de mer. Vitruve et ultérieurement Pline l’Anciensignalent les intéressantes propriétés de la terre pulvérulente du lieu (il s’agit ici de cendres volcaniques). Mêlée à la chaux et aux moellons, elle forme un béton résistant à l’eau, et permet de construire des môles et des piscines d’eau de mer13,14. Se régaler de poisson frais et d’huîtres devient un luxe ordinaire, posséder voire apprivoiser des murènes un loisir remarqué11.
Le thermalisme se perfectionne, on capte les vapeurs chaudes qui montent du sol dans un bâtiment qui forme une étuve naturelle15. L’abondance de sources chaudes n’empêche pas le médecin d’Auguste, Antonius Musa, de préconiser des bains de mer glacés, traitements dont il dégoûta Horace16et qui ne purent sauver le neveu d’Auguste, Marcellus, mort à Baïes en 23 av. J.-C.17.
Le succès de Baïes continue sous l’Empire, et l’Art d’aimer d’Ovide fait de Baïes, de ses plages et de sa station thermale l’autre endroit après Rome où chercher des conquêtes féminines18. Auguste et ses successeurs y aménagent un vaste et luxueux palais5.
En 39, c’est dans ce palais que Hérode Antipas, tétrarque de Galiléeet de Pérée, vient solliciter Caligula, en vain car celui-ci l’exile en Gaule5. Parmi ses extravagances, Caligula réquisitionne tout ce qui flotte et jette un pont de bateaux de Baïes à Pouzzoles, sur une longueur de trois mille six cents pas, sur lequel il parade pendant plusieurs jours19. Néron réside à Baïes, tandis que Agrippine a sa villa à proximité, à Baule, où elle est assassinée en 5920. Sénèque, contemporain de cet événement, exprime le mépris du sage pour ce lieu : « Baïes est devenu le lieu de plaisance de tous les vices. Là, le plaisir se permet plus de choses qu’ailleurs ; là, comme si c’était une convenance même du lieu, il se met plus à l’aise. […] Avoir le spectacle de l’ivresse errante sur ces rivages, de l’orgie qui passe en gondoles, des concerts de voix qui résonnent sur le lac, et de tous les excès d’une débauche comme affranchie de toute loi, qui fait le mal et le fait avec ostentation, est-ce là une nécessité 21? ».
Plus plaisamment, Juvénal qui caricature les prodigues endettés, fait de Baïes le refuge où ils se régalent d’huitres loin de leurs créanciers22, huîtres dont Martialvante la qualité23. L’empereur Hadrien vient à Baïes soulager ses douleurs et y termine ses jours en 13824,25. Alexandre Sévère embellit le palais impérial de Baïes de bâtiments dédiés à ses parents et de lacs artificiels alimentés en eau de mer26. Tacite est désigné empereur par le Sénat en 275 alors qu’il séjourne dans sa villa de Baïes27.
À la fin de l’Empire, le lent affaissement des terrains causé par le bradyséisme provoque la submersion du rivage, dans un premier temps entre le iiie et le ve siècle, puis du viie au viiie siècle. Les terres les plus basses, entre la pointe Castello et la pointe Epitaffio, se sont donc trouvées immergées. Aujourd’hui, entre trois et huit mètres de fond, gisent la via Herculanea, le complexe thermal de la villa dei Pisoni, les mosaïques de la villa Protir. L’éruption du Monte Nuovo à 2 km au nord de Baïes en 1538 recouvre des sites romains d’un cône de scories de 800 mètres à la base et provoqua d’importantes variations de niveau marin (gonflement de 6 mètres suivi d’un tassement de 4 mètres observé à Pouzzoles)6.
Les parties englouties sont désormais protégés en tant que réserve marine28.
Les importants vestiges archéologiques, dégagés à partir de 1923 par Amedeo Maiuri29,12, puis lors d’une intense campagne de fouilles en 1941, ont révélé une stratification des constructions, de villas et de complexes thermaux, appartenant à une période historique allant de la fin de l’époque républicaine à l’époque d’Auguste, d’Hadrien et des Sévères. La découverte en 1969 près de la pointe de l’Épitaphe de statues de marbre représentant Ulysse et son compagnon Baios a été suivie d’une campagne de fouilles sous-marines, qui ont fait découvrir un nymphée daté de l’époque de Claude.
Le musée archéologique
Sérapis, marbre blanc, musée archéologique de Bacoli. La statue romaine a été retrouvée dans le golfe de Pouzzoles.
Sur un promontoire qui surplombe la mer se trouve le Castello Aragonese (château aragonais), construit en 1495 sur les ruines du palais impérial romain. On a découvert dans son donjon des vestiges de peinture antique en trompe-l’œil du IIe style pompéien et un sol en mosaïque au décor de lignes entrelacées, tracées en cubes blancs et insérées dans un fond de tuileau rose. Le château héberge le musée archéologique des champs Phlégréens, inauguré en 1993. En 2009, il totalise 57 salles qui sont rarement toutes ouvertes simultanément. Le musée expose des objets grecs, samnites et romains trouvés à Baïes même et sur les sites voisins30.
Objets grecs, samnites, romains
Le nymphée découvert lors des campagnes de fouilles sous-marines de 1980-1982 sous les eaux de la pointe de l’Épitaphe a été reconstitué au musée dans une grotte artificielle. Il figure l’épisode de l’Odyssée dans lequel Ulysse, aidé d’un de ses compagnons, identifié ici à Baios, apporte un récipient plein de vin au CyclopePolyphème, dont la statue n’a pas été retrouvée. Les niches sur les côtés du nymphée représentaient des statues de membres de la famille impériale à l’époque de Claude.
Paris or Perseus. Bronze c. 340-330 BC, National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Attributed to Euphranor, Atikythera shipwreck.
Giacobbe Giusti, Antikythera Ephebe or Youth
The Antikythera Youth or Ephebe
The Antikythera Ephebe, officially named in English Antikythera Youth by the museum [1], is a bronze statue of a young man of languorous grace that was found in 1900 by sponge-divers in the area of the ancient Antikythera shipwreck off the island of Antikythera, Greece. It was the first of the series of Greek bronze sculptures that the Aegean and Mediterraneanyielded up in the twentieth century which have fundamentally altered the modern view of Ancient Greek sculpture.[2] The wreck site, which is dated about 70–60 BC, also yielded the Antikythera Mechanism, an astronomical calculating device, a characterful head of a Stoicphilosopher, and a hoard of coins. The coins included a disproportionate quantity of Pergamenecistophorictetradrachms and Ephesian coins, leading scholars to surmise that it had begun its journey on the Ionian coast, perhaps at Ephesus; none of its recovered cargo has been identified as from mainland Greece.[3]
The Ephebe, which measures 1.96 meters [4], slightly over lifesize, was retrieved in numerous fragments. Its first restoration was revised in the 1950s, under the direction of Christos Karouzos, changing the focus of the eyes, the configuration of the abdomen, the connection between the torso and the right upper thigh and the position of the right arm; the re-restoration is universally considered a success.[3]
Giacobbe Giusti, Antikythera Ephebe or Youth
The Antikythera Ephebe or Youth
The Ephebe does not correspond to any familiar iconographic model, and there are no known copies of the type. He held a spherical object in his right hand,[5] and possibly may have represented Paris presenting the Apple of Discord to Aphrodite; however, since Paris is consistently depicted cloaked and with the distinctive Phrygian cap, other scholars have suggested a beardless, youthful Heracleswith the Apple of the Hesperides.[3] It has also been suggested that the youth is a depiction of Perseusholding the head of the slain Gorgon.[3] It could also be the God Apollo, a « Learned » Hermes holding a caduceus and declaiming, an athlete holding some sort of prize (a spherical lekythion), or a sphere, a wreathe, a phiale, or an apple. The statue could even be the funerary statue of a young man. [6]
The statue, dated to about 340-330 BC[7], is one of the most brilliant products of Peloponnesian bronze sculpture; the individuality and character it displays have encouraged speculation on its possible sculptor. It is, perhaps, the work of the famous sculptor Euphranor, trained in the Polyclitan tradition, who did make a sculpture of Paris, according to Pliny:
By Euphranor is an Alexander [Paris]. This work is specially admired, because the eye can detect in it at once the judge of the goddesses, the lover of Helen, and yet the slayer of Achilles.[8]
Jump up^Natural Histories, 34.77: Euphranoris Alexander Paris est in quo laudatur quod omnia simul intelliguntur, iudex dearum, amator Helenae et tamen Achillis interfector.
Bol, P. C. 1972. Die Skulpturen des Schiffsfundes von Antikythera.(Berlin: Mann).
Dafas, K. A., 2015. « The Casting Technique of the Bronze Antikythera Ephebe, » in Z. Theodoropoulou-Polychroniadis and D. Evely (eds), Aegis: Essays in Mediterranean Archaeology presented to Matti Egon by the scholars of the Greek Archaeological Committee (Oxford), 137-146, figs 1-6.
Fraser, A. D. 1928. »The Antikythera Bronze Youth and a Herm-Replica », American Journal of Archaeology32.3 (July–September 1928), pp. 298–308. A Roman therm head of similar type; bibliography of early publications.
Karouzou, S. 1968. National Archaeological Museum Collection of Sculpture: A Catalogue (Athens).
Myers, Elisabeth Susan, 1999. « The Antikythera Youth in its context » Masters thesis, Louisiana State University (On-line text; pdf format).
Stais, V., Tsountas, C., and Kourouniotis, K., 1902. « Τὰ εὑρήματα τοῦ ναυαγίου τῶν Ἀντικυθήρων, » Archaiologike Ephemeris, 145-148.
Apollon (en grec ancienἈπόλλων / Apóllôn, en latinApollo) est le dieu grec des arts, du chant, de la musique, de la beauté masculine, de la poésie et conducteur des neuf muses. Il est également le dieu des purifications et de la guérison, mais peut apporter la peste par son arc ; enfin, c’est l’un des principaux dieux capables de divination, consulté, entre autres, à Delphes, où il rendait ses oracles par la Pythie de Delphes. Il a aussi été honoré par les Romains, qui l’ont adopté très rapidement sans changer son nom. Dès le ve siècle av. J.-C., ils l’adoptèrent pour ses pouvoirs guérisseurs et lui élevèrent des temples.
Il est fréquemment représenté avec son arc et ses flèches, ou encore avec une cithare, voire une lyre : on le qualifie alors de « citharède »1. Il est également appelé « musagète » (« celui qui conduit les muses »). Le surnom de « Loxias », « l’Oblique », lui est attribué à cause de l’ambiguïté de ses oracles.
Apollon devient au Moyen Âge puis à l’époque moderne un dieu solaire, patron de la musique et des arts. Au xixe siècle, et en particulier dans La Naissance de la tragédie de Friedrich Nietzsche2, il symbolise la raison, la clarté et l’ordre, considérés comme caractéristiques de l’« esprit grec », par opposition à la démesure et à l’enthousiasme dionysiaques. Ainsi, on a pu écrire de lui qu’il est « le plus grec de tous les dieux3 » et qu’« aucun autre dieu n’a joué un rôle comparable dans le développement du mode de vie grec4 ». Il reste l’un des dieux auquel l’on a élevé le plus de temples et consacré le plus de cultes5.
La thèse d’une origine « asiatique » (c’est-à-dire anatolienne) d’Apollon et d’Artémis a été développée par des grands noms de l’hellénisme tels que Wilamowitz en 19036 ou M. P. Nilsson en 19257 avant d’être remise en cause plus récemment. Ces savants s’appuyaient sur différents éléments : le nom de Létopourrait venir du lycien, un dialecte indo-européen parlé autrefois en Anatolie, et signifierait, sous la forme Lada, « femme » (étymologie aujourd’hui contestée). L’une des épiclèses d’Apollon, Apollon Lycien, conforte cette hypothèse. Cette épiclèse est cependant plus souvent interprétée à partir du nom du « loup » (Gernet, Jeanmaire…). L’arme d’Apollon et de sa jumelle Artémis, l’arc, n’est pas grecque mais barbare (au sens grec : tous les peuples qui ne parlent pas le grec) ; il porte de plus, comme sa sœur, non pas des sandales, à l’instar des autres dieux, mais des bottines, type de chaussure considérée comme asiatique par les Anciens. En outre, il est, dans l’Iliade d’Homère, du côté des Troyens, peuple asiatique, et le rejet que subit Léto, que nulle terre grecque n’accepte, conforterait l’idée d’un dieu étranger. Cette hypothèse anatolienne n’est plus retenue par la recherche moderne8.
Un long passé grec
Inversement comme l’on fait remarquer de nombreux chercheurs[Qui ?], Apollon est paradoxalement peut-être le dieu le plus grec de tous et a une longue histoire en Grèce avant l’époque classique.
Il est aussi possible que ses origines remontent au peuple dorien du Péloponnèse, lequel honorait un dieu nommé Ἀπέλλων / Apéllôn, protecteur des troupeaux et des communautés humaines ; il semblerait que le terme vienne d’un mot dorien ἀπέλλα / apélla, signifiant « bergerie » ou « assemblée ». L’Apellon dorien serait une figure syncrétique de plusieurs divinités locales pré-grecques, de même que l’Apollon grec est la fusion de plusieurs modèles.
Lorsque son culte s’introduit en Grèce, il est déjà honoré par d’autres peuples pré-hellènes, ce que l’Hymne homérique qui lui est destiné indique en signalant que les Crétois étaient ses premiers prêtres. Son premier lieu de culte est bien sûr Délos, capitale religieuse des Ioniens ; c’est sous Périclès, au ve siècle av. J.-C., que l’île passe aux mains des Athéniens, qui confortent son caractère de sanctuaire inviolable en y faisant interdire toute naissance et toute mort. Le culte d’Apollon s’était entre-temps répandu partout dans le monde antique, de l’Asie Mineure (le sanctuaire de Didymes, près de Milet, en porte la trace flagrante : c’est l’un des plus grands temples jamais bâtis dans la zone méditerranéenne) à la Syrie, sans parler des innombrables temples qui lui sont dédiés en Grèce même. Selon Phanias, Gygès, roi de Lydie, fut le premier lui à lui consacrer des offrandes en or. Avant son règne, Apollon Pythien n’avait ni or, ni argent9.
Hypothèse d’origine gréco-celtique
Giacobbe Giusti, Apollon
Apollon de Lillebonne, bronze doré gallo-romain du iie siècle, musée du Louvre
Au rebours de la thèse traditionnelle, Bernard Sergent, spécialiste de mythologie comparée, s’attache à montrer dans Le livre des dieux. Celtes et Grecs, II (Payot, 2004) l’identité d’Apollon et du dieu celtique Lug. Pour lui, le dieu n’est pas asiatique mais gréco-celtique, et par-delà, indo-européen. Il remonte au moins à la séparation des ancêtres des Celtes et des Grecs, au IVe millénaire av. J.-C., et il est arrivé « tout d’un bloc » en Grèce : ce n’est pas une divinité composite. Il possède des homologues en domaine germanique (Wotan) ou indien (Varuna).
Apollon serait la « version divine du roi humain ». Les poèmes homériques lui donnent systématiquement l’épithète anax, qui remonte à la désignation mycénienne du roi, wanax. Or le roi indo-européen est rattaché aux trois fonctions définies par Georges Dumézil, d’où la complexité d’Apollon : il remplit toutes les fonctions que puisse avoir un dieu. La définition de Lug donnée par C.-J. Guyonvarc’h et F. Le Roux peut aussi bien s’appliquer à lui : il est « tous les dieux résumés en un seul théonyme ».
Giacobbe Giusti, Apollon
Calètes (Pays de Caux) Hémistatère « au sanglier aurige ». Date : iie et ier siècles av. J.-C.Description avers : Tête d’Apollon à droite, la chevelure ornementée en esses enchevêtrées ; la base du cou ornée et deux motifs de pomme de pin (?) devant le visage.
B. Sergent compare une à une toutes les caractéristiques connues de Lug et d’Apollon et relève de nombreux points et de nombreux attributs communs. C’est surtout à Delphes que le caractère complexe du dieu se révèle, dans son rôle d’inspirateur de la Pythie et des hommes, qu’il révèle à soi.
Le rapprochement proposé par Bernard Sergent entre Lug et Apollon n’a pas été repris par d’autres spécialistes. Pierre Sauzeau lui reproche de négliger la proximité Apollon-Rudra « reconnue explicitement » et les liens avec Artémis10. Les spécialistes actuels des études celtiques voient davantage en Lug un héritier du couple indo-européen des Dioscures, les Jumeaux divins, une des plus anciennes figures du panthéon indo-européen11.
Apollon, dieu de la nature sauvage et « loup du vent »
Dans Apollo the Wolf-god12, Daniel E. Gershenson voit en Apollon un dieu d’origine indo-européenne, dont les attributs principaux seraient rassemblés dans l’expression Apollon dieu-loup. Cet auteur s’inscrit dans la lignée des travaux de Louis Gernet (Dolon le loup) et d’Henri Jeanmaire (Couroï et Courètes).
Par là, il faut entendre non pas le culte de l’animal en lui-même, mais de son symbolisme de loup mythique, lequel n’est autre que le ventconsidéré tant par ses vertus bénéfiques que destructrices. Les vents, comme Zéphyr le vent-loup, peuvent être favorables aux semences, mais sont aussi tenus pour issus des cavernes et cette origine souterraine les mets en relation avec les Enfers. Le vent est ainsi le passage entre le chaos et le cosmos.
Ceci explique le rôle de la divinité comme tuteur des éphèbes, de jeunes guerriers qui accomplissent leur initiation d’adultes, sa fonction de protecteur du grain semé et enfin sa qualité de dieu de la prophétie qui révèle les mystères et initie les musiciens et les poètes. Le Lycée(Λύκειον / Lukeion), rendu célèbre par Aristote, est placé dans un gymnase jouxtant le temple d’Apollon Lykeios. Apollon Lykeios, le dieu-loup, serait le maître des passages, dieu qui transforme les forces chaotiques des confréries de loups-garous de l’adolescence vers l’âge adulte, qui dévoile par la prophétie ou la Pythie le monde caché vers le découvert.
Gershenson présente de nombreux témoignages dans le monde européen qui pourraient montrer que ce dieu-loup et dieu-vent remonte à une période antérieure à la séparation des peuples européens qui ont pénétré en Europe centrale et méridionale. Ses déductions sont en accord avec celles d’autres spécialistes, qui ont notamment souligné le lien d’Apollon avec les loups et son rôle joué dans les initiations. Apollon est particulièrement associé à Borée, le Vent du Nord.
Jean Haudry rejoint également les conclusions de Gershenson. Comme le dieu védique Rudra, Apollon est un dieu du vent et de la nature sauvage à l’origine: C’est en s’opposant à Dionysos qu’il a développé des caractères « civilisés ». Face à un Dionysos « feu sauvage », il est devenu, contrairement à sa nature première, dieu du foyer delphique. Au feu hivernal de Dionysos, il s’est opposé comme dieu estival et comme dieu solaire. Il s’est ainsi affirmé comme dieu de la sagesse face à la folie dionysiaque. Et si Dionysos, dieu subversif a pu être considéré comme indésirable dans la société aristocratique, Apollon est devenu le dieu civique et national par excellence13.
Un dieu solaire ?
L’identification d’Apollon avec le soleil n’apparaît dans aucune source avant le ve siècle av. J.-C. — à l’époque archaïque, ce sont Hélios ou Hypérion qui représentent le feu solaire14 ; la première mention attestée remonte à Euripide, dans un fragment de la tragédie perdue Phaéton15,14. L’assimilation s’explique par l’épithète φοῖϐος / Phoibos, littéralement « le brillant », qui est associée à Apollon chez Homère16. Elle rencontre un grand succès parmi les poètes, milieu où le nom d’« Apollon » est souvent employé, par métonymie, pour désigner le soleil, de même que « Déméter » pour le pain ou « Héphaïstos » pour le feu. On en trouve peu d’écho dans le culte d’Apollon.
Apollon Soleil tout comme Artémis Lune se sont éloignés de leur caractère primitif de dieux sauvages en rejoignant la sphère cosmique de la religion 17.
Synthèse de plusieurs mythologies
Dans l’Iliade, Apollon est décrit comme un dieu lunaire : son arc est d’argent, couleur liée à la nuit et à la lune. Ensuite, de multiples évolutions l’amèneront à devenir un dieu solaire (son épithète Phœbus, la lumière), son arc et ses flèches renvoient d’ailleurs aux rayons solaires. Toujours dans les poèmes homériques, il y est perçu comme un dieu-vengeur, menaçant, porteur de peste. Dans le chant I de l’Iliade, ses surnoms sont les suivants : toxophore, Seigneur archer, argyrotoxos, à l’arc d’argent, etc. Cette attitude vengeresse est accompagnée de traits de caractère belliqueux : Homère l’y décrit comme un dieu orgueilleux, emporté par ses sentiments et par la violence. Rappelons que les poèmes homériques (Iliade) écrits dans le ixe siècle avant Jésus-Christ narrent une histoire antérieure de près de quatre siècles (Troie a été détruite dans les années 1280 ACN). Le dieu Apollon n’a pas encore subi les influences qui l’amèneront à devenir le dieu complexe qu’il est dans la Grèce classique.
Sa naissance est contée en détail dans l’Hymne homérique à Apollon19 : sur le point d’enfanter, Léto parcourt la mer Égée, cherchant un asile pour son fils et pour fuir Héra qui la chasse par jalousie. Pleines de terreur, «car nulle d’entre elles n’eut assez de courage, si fertile qu’elle fût, pour accueillir Phoibos»20, îles et presqu’îles refusent l’une après l’autre d’accueillir Apollon. Léto gagne finalement l’île de Délos, qui refuse d’abord, de peur que le dieu ne la méprise ensuite à cause de l’âpreté de son sol. Léto jure par le Styxque son fils y bâtira son temple et l’île accepte aussitôt.
Toutes les déesses, dont Dioné, Rhéa, Thémis et Amphitrite, viennent assister Léto pendant sa délivrance. Par jalousie, Héra ne prévient pas Ilithyie, déesse des accouchements, qui reste sur l’Olympe. Après neuf jours et neuf nuits, les déesses ordonnent à Iris, messagère des dieux, de prévenir Ilithyie et de lui remettre un collier d’or pour la faire venir. Dès que celle-ci arrive à Délos, Léto étreint un palmier qui deviendra sacré et donne naissance à Apollon, en un jour qui est le septième du mois. Aussitôt, les cygnes sacrés font sept fois le tour du rivage en chantant21. Puis Thémis offre à Apollon le nectar et l’ambroisie. Dans l’Hymne homérique, Artémis ne naît pas en même temps que son frère, mais à Ortygie22 — nom qui désigne peut-être l’emplacement du temple d’Artémis à Éphèse23. Dès sa naissance, Apollon manifeste sa puissance d’immortel ; il réclame ses attributs, la lyre et l’arc, et affirme ses pouvoirs.
Giacobbe Giusti, Apollon
Tétradrachme de la région Illyro Péonienne représentant Apollon
Version de Pindare
Chez Pindare, Artémis et Apollon naissent, jumeaux, à Délos24. Délos est une île errante avant l’arrivée de Léto, métamorphose de sa sœur Astéria ; après la délivrance d’Apollon, quatre colonnes surgissent du fond de la mer et viennent l’ancrer solidement25. Chez Hygin, le serpent Python prédit sa propre mort des mains d’Apollon et poursuit Léto enceinte pour l’empêcher d’accoucher26. Parallèlement, Héra décrète qu’aucune terre sous le soleil ne pourra accueillir Léto. Zeus demande donc à Borée, le vent du Nord, d’amener Léto à Poséidon, qui installe la parturiente sur l’île d’Ortygie, qu’il recouvre sous les eaux. Python finit par abandonner ses recherches et Léto peut accoucher. Aussitôt, Poséidon fait sortir des eaux Ortygie qui prend le nom de Délos, « la visible ». On trouve chez Apollodore l’idée qu’Artémis naît la première et sert de sage-femme à Léto pour la naissance de son frère27.
Chez les Hyperboréens
Peu après la naissance d’Apollon, Zeus lui remet un char tiré par des cygnes et lui ordonne de se rendre à Delphes28. Le dieu n’obéit pas immédiatement, mais s’envole à bord de son char pour le pays des Hyperboréens qui, selon certaines versions, est la patrie de Léto29. Là vit un peuple sacré qui ne connaît ni la vieillesse, ni la maladie ; le soleil y brille en permanence30. Apollon y reste pendant un an avant de partir pour Delphes. Il y revient tous les dix-neuf ans, période au bout de laquelle les astres ont accompli une révolution complète (un cycle métonique)29. De l’équinoxe de printemps au lever des Pléiades, il y danse chaque nuit en s’accompagnant de la lyre29. Selon d’autres légendes, il y passe chaque année les mois d’hiver31, ne revenant dans son lieu de culte — Delphes ou Délos — qu’avec le printemps32.
L’arrivée à Delphes
Giacobbe Giusti, Apollon
Apollon sauroctone, représentant peut-être le meurtre du serpent Python, musée du Louvre
Les premiers exploits du dieu sont décrits dans l’Hymne homérique à Apollon pythien. À la recherche d’un lieu où fonder son oracle, Apollon s’arrête d’abord à la source Telphouse, près de l’Hélicon. Ne souhaitant pas partager le lieu avec quiconque, elle lui suggère d’aller plutôt à Crisa, près de Delphes. Là, Apollon établit son temple, après avoir tué le serpent femelle, la Δράκαινα / drákayna, enfant de Gaïa, qui garde les lieux. La dépouille du serpent reçoit le nom de Πυθώ / Puthố, « la pourrissante » (de πύθειν / púthein, « pourrir »), Apollon prend le titre de Pythien et sa prêtresse celui de Pythie. En colère contre Telphouse, Apollon rebrousse chemin et ensevelit la source sous une pluie de pierres. Il bâtit un sanctuaire à sa place et prend le nom de Telphousien. Le dieu cherche ensuite un moyen de faire venir des prêtres à son temple pythien. Il aperçoit alors un navire de Crétois voguant vers Pylos. Prenant la forme d’un dauphin (δελφίς / delphís), il les mène jusqu’à Crisa. Il se transforme ensuite en jeune homme et conduit les Crétois jusqu’au sanctuaire dont ils deviendront les desservants. Crisa prend alors le nom de Delphes (Δελφοί / Delphoí).
L’arrivée à Delphes fait l’objet de variantes. Chez Pindare, le dieu prend contrôle du lieu par la force (on ne précise pas comment), ce qui pousse Gaïa à vouloir le jeter au Tartare33. D’autres auteurs mentionnent également les répercussions du meurtre de Python : chez Plutarque, Apollon doit se purifier dans les eaux du Tempé34. Chez Euripide, Léto amène Apollon à Delphes où il tue le serpent Python. En colère, Gaïa envoie aux hommes des rêves prophétiques. Apollon se plaint de cette concurrence déloyale à Zeus, qui met fin aux rêves35. Chez Hygin, Apollon tue Python pour venger sa mère, que le serpent a poursuivie pendant sa grossesse26.
Dans d’autres traditions, la prise de Delphes est pacifique. Ainsi, chez Eschyle, Gaïa donne l’endroit à sa fille Thémis, laquelle le donne à son tour à sa sœur Phébé, qui le remet ensuite à Apollon36. Chez Aristonoos, Apollon est conduit à Delphes par Athéna et persuade Gaïa de lui donner le sanctuaire37.
La guerre de Troie
Dans la guerre de Troie, Apollon se range aux côtés des Troyens, qui lui consacrent un temple sur leur acropole38. Comme le font Poséidonet Athéna pour les Achéens, il intervient aux côtés des troupes qu’il défend pour les encourager39. Il prend les traits de mortels pour conseiller Hector ou Énée40. Il soustrait Énée aux coups de Diomède41, intervient en personne pour repousser le guerrier grec quand il se fait trop pressant42 puis sauve Énée en le remplaçant par un fantôme sur le champ de bataille43. De même, il dérobe Hector à la rage d’Achille44. Inversement, il se sert d’Agénor pour éloigner Achille et empêcher la prise de Troie45. Il intervient directement en frappant et désarmant Patrocle, laissant le héros sans défense face aux Troyens qui le tueront46. Selon les versions, il aide Pâris à abattre Achille47, ou prend la forme du prince troyen48 pour le tuer.
Défenseur des Troyens, il a pour principal adversaire sa demi-sœur Athéna49. Non content de l’affronter sur le champ de bataille par mortels interposés, il veut empêcher Diomède, le protégé d’Athéna, de remporter l’épreuve de course en chars lors des jeux funéraires de Patrocle ; la déesse intervient à son tour pour faire gagner son champion50. Néanmoins, Apollon sait se retenir face à son oncle Poséidon et lui propose de laisser les mortels régler eux-mêmes leurs querelles51.
On ignore pourquoi Apollon prend aussi activement parti pour les Troyens, ou inversement contre les Grecs. Son seul lien avec Troie remonte à sa servitude auprès de Laomédon, mais cette histoire devrait plutôt l’inciter à soutenir les Grecs, comme le fait Poséidon52.
Un dieu vengeur
Apollon est un dieu vindicatif, prompt à punir ceux qui le défient en commettant par ailleurs deux fratricides (Tityos et Amphion). Il tue le serpent Python et, aidé de sa sœur, il élimine son demi-frère Tityos, qui a tenté de s’en prendre à Léto53. Toujours avec Artémis, il massacre de ses flèches ses neveux et nièces, les fils et filles de Niobé, qui a osé se moquer de sa mère54. Il tue aussi son demi-frère Amphion qui tente de piller son temple pour venger les Niobides. Il fait périr les Aloades quand ceux-ci entreprennent d’escalader l’Olympe et de défier les dieux55. Il écorche vivant le satyreMarsyas, amateur de flûte, qui lui a lancé un défi musical56. Le roi Midas, qui avait préféré le son de la flûte à celui de la lyre, est doté d’une paire d’oreilles d’âne57.
La confrontation ne tourne pas toujours à l’avantage du dieu. Quand Héraclès s’empare du trépied de Delphes pour faire pression sur la Pythie, Apollon accourt à la rescousse de la prêtresse. Le héros se serait enfui avec le trépied si le dieu n’avait pas appelé à l’aide son père Zeus, qui intervient en envoyant un trait de foudre58.
Dans son Hymne à Apollon, Callimaque lui prête un rôle de bâtisseur, de fondateur et législateur. Il conseillait les représentants de diverses cités grecques quant à la fondation de cités nouvelles : « Ô Phébus ! sous tes auspices s’élèvent les villes ; car tu te plais à les voir se former, et toi-même en poses les fondements59. »
Platon60 reconnaît également ce rôle à Apollon et conseille à tout fondateur d’un état de se référer aux lois établies par le dieu : il s’agit des lois « qui regardent la fondation des temples, les sacrifices, et en général le culte des dieux, des démons et des héros, et aussi les tombeaux des morts et les honneurs qu’il faut leur rendre afin qu’ils nous soient propices… ».
Réputé pour sa grande beauté, Apollon est paradoxalement assez malheureux dans ses amours61,62. Celles-ci ont pour objet des nymphes, des mortels/mortelles, mais très rarement des divinités majeures63.
Il s’éprend de la nymphe Cyrène en la voyant combattre un lion qui menace les troupeaux de son père64. Il fait part de ses sentiments au centaureChiron, qui les approuve. Encouragé, Apollon se déclare à la jeune fille, qu’il emmène en Libye. Là, elle reçoit du dieu la souveraineté sur la région, la Cyrénaïque, et donne naissance à Aristée, qui enseignera aux hommes l’apiculture.
Les autres amours du dieu sont moins heureuses. Il enlève Marpessa, fille d’Événos, alors qu’elle est fiancée à l’ArgonauteIdas65. Ce dernier réclame sa promise les armes à la main, et Zeus doit séparer les deux adversaires66. Le roi des dieux demande à Marpessa de choisir entre ses deux soupirants ; la jeune fille opte pour Idas, de peur d’être abandonnée par Apollon l’âge venant66.
Il poursuit de ses ardeurs la nymphe Daphné ; pendant sa fuite, la jeune fille invoque son père, un dieu fleuve, qui lui substitue un laurier67 ou la transforme en cette plante68. Ses amours avec Coronis, fille de Phlégias, roi des Lapithes, ne finissent pas mieux : enceinte du dieu, elle le trompe avec le mortel Ischys69. Apollon, maître de la divination, perçoit la vérité, qui lui est également rapportée par un corbeau69. Il envoie alors sa sœur Artémispourfendre l’infidèle de ses flèches, mais pris de pitié pour l’enfant à naître, il arrache ce dernier du ventre de sa mère qui se consume sur le bûcher69. Il porte le jeune Asclépios chez le centaureChiron, qui l’élève et lui enseigne l’art de la médecine69. Apollon s’éprend également de la princesse troyenneCassandre, fille du roi Priam : elle promet de se donner à lui en échange du don de prophétie, mais, après avoir obtenu satisfaction, elle revient sur ses dires. Furieux, Apollon la condamne à ne jamais être prise au sérieux70.
De nombreuses autres aventures sont attribués à Apollon. Souvent, les récits se concentrent sur la progéniture divine plutôt que sur la mère, dont le nom change suivant la version : il ne s’agit pas de véritables histoires d’amour, mais d’un moyen de rattacher un personnage à Apollon. Ainsi des musiciens Linos et Orphée, du devin Philamnos, d’Ion, éponyme des Ioniens ou de Delphos, fondateur de Delphes.
Apollon est aussi le dieu qui compte le plus d’aventures avec des jeunes garçons71. Il s’éprend de Hyacinthe, fils d’un roi de Sparte. Alors qu’ils s’entraînent au lancer du disque, le hasard — ou Zéphyrjaloux — fait que le disque frappe Hyacinthe à la tempe. Désespéré, Apollon fait jaillir du sang du jeune homme une fleur, le hyakinthos, qui n’est sans doute pas la jacinthe actuelle72. L’histoire de Cyparisse, fils de Télèphe, se termine également de manière tragique. Aimé d’Apollon, il a pour compagnon un cerf apprivoisé. Il le tue un jour par mégarde ; désespéré, il demande au dieu la mort, et la grâce de pouvoir pleurer éternellement. Ainsi est-il changé en cyprès, symbole de la tristesse73. Apollon s’éprend également d’Hyménaios, fils de Magnès ; absorbé par sa passion, le dieu ne voit pas le jeune Hermès lui dérober ses troupeaux74. On ignore la fin de l’histoire75.
Figurent également parmi ses amants Hélénos, frère de Cassandre76 ; Carnos, fils de Zeus et d’Europe, qui reçoit du dieu le don de divination77 ; Leucatas qui, pour échapper au dieu, se jette du haut d’une falaise et donne son nom à l’île de Leucade78 ; Branchos, aimé d’Apollon alors qu’il garde ses troupeaux, puis fondateur de l’oracle du dieu à Didymes79.
Fonctions et culte
Giacobbe Giusti, Apollon
Statue cultuelle archaïque d’Apollon, musée archéologique du Pirée.
Apollon est un dieu jeune pour les Grecs. Seul entre tous les Olympiens, son nom n’apparaît pas sur les tablettes mycéniennes en linéaire B80. Le premier culte de Délos concerne Artémis et non son frère81. Il est possible que les Karneia, les Hyacinthies et les Daphnephoria célèbrent, à l’origine, d’autres divinités qu’Apollon. Cependant, son culte est solidement ancré dans l’ensemble du monde grec dès le viiie siècle av. J.-C., au moment où apparaissent les premières sources littéraires grecques.
Chez Homère
Apollon joue un rôle majeur dans l’Iliade : selon Homère, c’est lui qui est à l’origine de la dispute d’Agamemnon et Achille et donc de l’ensemble des événements narrés par le poème82. Animé du souffle prophétique, Xanthos, le cheval d’Achille, le nomme « le premier des dieux83 ». De fait, aucun n’est mentionné plus souvent que lui dans le poème, à l’exception de Zeus84. Chacune de ses apparitions est terrifiante. Quand il veut venger son prêtre Chrysès, bafoué par Agamemnon :
« Des cimes de l’Olympe il descendit, plein de courroux,
Portant son arc et son carquois étanche sur l’épaule.
Les traits sonnèrent sur l’épaule du dieu courroucé,
Quand il partit, et c’était comme si la nuit marchait85. »
Le son de son arc est terrible et sa voix gronde comme le tonnerre quand il arrête le guerrier Diomède dans son élan86. C’est aussi un dieu jaloux de ses prérogatives : face à Diomède, il rappelle qu’« il n’est rien de commun / entre les Immortels et ceux qui marchent sur la terre87. » Il reproche à Achille de ne pas l’avoir reconnu sous les traits du Troyen Agénor :
« Pourquoi me poursuis-tu, Achille, avec tes pieds rapides,
Mortel courant après un dieu ? N’aurais-tu pas encore
Reconnu qui je suis, que tu t’obstines dans ta rage88 ? »
Pendant les jeux funéraires de Patrocle, il ôte la victoire à l’archer Teucros, qui a omis de lui promettre une hécatombe89.
Homère présente avant tout Apollon comme un dieu archer. Là où sa sœur emploie l’arc pour la chasse, son domaine est plutôt la guerre : il donne leur arme aux deux meilleurs archers de la guerre de Troie, le Troyen Pandaros et le Grec Teucros90. Ses flèches sont porteuses de mort : elles sèment la peste dans le camp grec, tuant hommes et bêtes. Le seul remède réside alors dans la prière, la purification et le sacrifice : lui seul peut écarter la maladie qu’il apporte91.
L’hymne à Apollon pythien commence par l’apparition d’Apollon dans l’Olympe, la phorminx (lyre) à la main : « aussitôt les Immortels ne songent plus qu’à la cithare et aux chants92. » Les Muses chantent en chœur les dieux et les hommes ; les dieux de l’Olympe, Arès compris, se donnent la main pour danser et Apollon lui-même, tout en jouant, se joint à eux. La scène résume l’un des domaines majeurs d’Apollon : la μουσική / mousikē, c’est-à-dire la combinaison du chant, de la musique instrumentale et de la danse93.
En tant que tel, Apollon est le patron des musiciens : « c’est par les Muses et l’archer Apollon qu’il est des chanteurs et des citharistes », dit Hésiode94. Il inspire même la nature : à son passage « chantent les rossignols, les hirondelles et les cigales28 ». Sa musique apaise les animaux sauvages95 et meut les pierres96. Pour les Grecs, musique et danse ne sont pas seulement des divertissements : elles permettent aux hommes de supporter la misère de leur condition97.
Jacqueline Duchemin, spécialiste de poésie grecque et de mythologie comparée, a émis l’hypothèse selon laquelle les prérogatives d’Apollon dans le domaine de la musique et de la poésie se rattacheraient à sa nature de divinité pastorale, l’une des fonctions originelles du dieu étant la protection des troupeaux98. Selon l’auteur de La Houlette et la lyre, ce seraient les bergers et les pâtres qui auraient inventé l’art musical au cours de leurs longues veillées solitaires. Elle affirme ainsi : « Le poète et le berger sont bien une même personne. Et ses dieux sont à son image99. » Et aussi : « Les divinités des pâtres et des bêtes furent, au sein d’une nature pastorale, dans les temps les plus anciens, celles de la musique, de la danse et de l’inspiration poétique100. »
Dieu des oracles
Le temple d’Apollon à Delphes
Après avoir réclamé l’arc et la lyre, Apollon, dans l’hymne homérique qui lui est consacré, nomme son troisième domaine d’intervention : « je révélerai aussi dans mes oracles les desseins infaillibles de Zeus101. » Si Zeus et quelques héros, comme Trophonios, possèdent leurs oracles, Apollon est la principale divinité oraculaire des Grecs102. Il le déclare lui-même quand son frère Hermès essaie d’obtenir aussi le don de divination : « j’ai engagé ma parole, et juré par un serment redoutable que nul autre que moi, parmi les Dieux toujours vivants, ne connaîtrait la volonté de Zeus aux desseins profonds103. »
À partir de l’époque classique, tous les sites oraculaires de grande envergure appartiennent à Apollon, à l’exception de l’oracle de Zeus à Dodone et, plus tard, de celui de Zeus Ammon à Siwa104. Interrogé sur la disparition des oracles liés aux sources sacrées ou aux vapeurs émanant de la terre, Apollon répond au iie – iiie siècle ap. J.-C. :
« […] la terre elle-même s’entr’ouvrit et reprit les uns dans ses entrailles souterraines, tandis qu’une éternité infinie anéantit les autres. Mais seul Hélios [Apollon] qui brille pour les mortels possède encore dans les gorges divines de Didymes les eaux de Mykalè, et celle qui court en bordure de Pythô sous la montagne du Parnasse, et la rocailleuse Claros, bouche rocailleuse de la voix prophétique de Phoibos105. »
Le principal oracle d’Apollon est celui de Delphes, qui est probablement fondé entre 900 et 700 av. J.-C106. Dès l’époque archaïque, Apollon delphien est omniprésent dans la vie des cités : il approuve leurs lois, comme la Grande Rhêtra de Sparte ou la constitution de Clisthène à Athènes, et donne sa bénédiction aux expéditions coloniales. Il apparaît dans les mythes héroïques comme celui d’Œdipe ou de Thésée. Les Jeux pythiques, en l’honneur d’Apollon, sont le concours public le plus important après les Jeux olympiques. À l’époque hellénistique, il conseille le Sénat romain. Après une période de déclin au ier siècle av. J.-C., le sanctuaire est détruit au ive siècle par les chrétiens.
Représentations artistiques
Dans l’art antique
Cette section est vide, insuffisamment détaillée ou incomplète. Votre aide est la bienvenue ! Comment faire ?
Apollon est toujours représenté dans la fraîcheur d’une éternelle jeunesse. C’est une caractéristique typique d’un dieu vent qui ne vieillit jamais107.
Il est représenté les cheveux longs, conformément à l’une de ses épithètes homériques108. La coiffure est typique des jeunes gens ou kouroi, terme dérivé de la racine ker-, « tondre, couper » (sous-entendu : les cheveux)109. Le passe-temps typique du jeune homme étant l’athlétisme, pratiqué nu, l’offrande typique à Apollon prend la forme, à l’époque archaïque, d’un jeune homme debout, nu, les cheveux longs, type statuaire que les historiens de l’art appellent le kouros.
En 2013, on trouve une représentation à Gaza : l’Apollon de Gaza.
À l’époque moderne
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Dans le château de Versailles, le salon d’Apollon, ou salle du trône, était réservé à la réception des ambassadeurs. Le dieu des arts semblait également patronner les spectacles de danse et de musique qui s’y déroulaient.
Les jardins de Versailles offrent de nombreuses représentations du dieu solaire :
Le bassin d’Apollon est situé dans la grande perspective, à proximité du Grand Canal. Une statue monumentale d’Apollon a été réalisée par Tuby. Apollon sort de l’eau conduisant un char tiré par des chevaux.
Il est un personnage de la série de livres de Rick Riordan.
Références
↑La cithare des Grecs et des Romains est une forme de lyre, et non une cithare moderne ; les deux mots sont employés indifféremment par les poètes pour parler de l’instrument d’Apollon.
↑Première mention dans l’L’Éthiopide, citée par Gantz, p. 625. L’Énéide est la première à indiquer explicitement que Pâris tire la flèche meurtrière, qui est guidée par Apollon (VI, 56-58) ; repris ensuite par Ovide, Métamorphoses [détail des éditions] [lire en ligne [archive]], XII, 598-606. Cf. Gantz, p. 625.
↑Porphyre de Tyr F322 Smith = Eusèbe de Césarée, Préparation évangélique, V, 16. Traduction citée par Aude Busine, Paroles D’apollon: pratiques et traditions oraculaires dans l’Antiquité tardive (iie – vie siècles), Brill, 2005, p. 419.
J. Chevalier et de A. Gheerbant (s. dir.), Dictionnaire des symboles, Mythes, rêves, coutumes, gestes, formes, figures, couleurs, nombres, Robert Laffont, Aylesbury, 1990.
Georges Dumézil, Apollon sonore et autres essais. 25 esquisses de mythologie, Gallimard, Paris, 1982 et 1987.
Walter Otto (trad. Claude-Nicolas Grimbert et Armel Morgant), Les Dieux de la Grèce (Die Götter Griechenlands), Payot, coll. « Bibliothèque historique », 1993 (édition originale 1929) (ISBN2-228-88150-3), p. 79-98.
Bernard Sergent, Homosexualité et initiation chez les peuples indo-européens, Payot coll. « Histoire », Paris, 1996 (1res éditions 1984 et 1986) (ISBN2-228-89052-9), notamment p. 99-65.
Marcel Detienne, Apollon le couteau à la main, Gallimard, coll. « Bibliothèque des sciences humaines », Paris, 1998 (ISBN2070733718)
Jean Gagé, Apollon romain : Essai sur le culte d’Apollon et le développement du ritus Graecus à Rome des origines à Auguste, de Boccard, coll. « Bibliothèque des Écoles Françaises d’Athènes et de Rome » (no 182),
Jacqueline Duchemin, La Houlette et la lyre. Recherche sur les origines pastorales de la poésie : Hermès et Apollon, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1960.
Henri Grégoire, avec la collaboration de R. Goossens et de M. Mathieu, Asklépios, Apollon Smintheus et Rudra. Études sur le dieu à la taupe et le dieu au rat dans la Grèce et dans l’Inde, Bruxelles, 1950.
(en)Walter Burkert (trad. John Raffan), Greek Religion[« Griechische Religion des archaischen und klassichen Epoche »], Oxford, Blackwell, 1985 (éd. orig. 1977) (ISBN978-0-631-15624-6), p. 143-149.
(en) Daniel E. Gershenson, « Apollo the Wolf-god », dans Journal of Indo-European Studies, Monograph no 8, 1991.
(en) Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth, Johns Hopkins University Press, [détail de l’édition], p. 87-96.
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
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.
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 24January 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 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 LegioII 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]
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]
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
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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
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]
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]
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.
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]
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]
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]
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. Book69 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.
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^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.
Giacosa, Giorgio (1977). Women of the Caesars: Their Lives and Portraits on Coins. Translated by R. Ross Holloway. Milan: Edizioni Arte e Moneta. ISBN0-8390-0193-2.
Lambert, Royston (1984). Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous. New York: Viking. ISBN0-670-15708-2.
Levick, Barbara (2014). Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-537941-9.
Jump up^Mary T. Boatwright (2008). « From Domitian to Hadrian ». In Barrett, Anthony. Lives of the Caesars. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 159. ISBN978-1-4051-2755-4.
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.
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).
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.itArchived 15 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
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, ISBN978-3-11-018545-4, 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)… ».
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
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
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.
^ Jump up to:abRoyston Lambert, Beloved And God, pp.31–32.
Jump up^Aulus Gellius, Noct.Att. XVI, 13, 4, and some inscriptions in the city with C(olonia) A(elia) A(ugusta) I(talica)
Jump up^John D. Grainger, Nerva and the Roman Succession Crisis of AD 96–99. Abingdon: Routledge, 2004, ISBN0-415-34958-3, p. 109
Jump up^Thorsten Opper, The Emperor Hadrian. British Museum Press, 2008, p. – 39
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, ISBN3-7749-3390-1, p. 351.
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, ISBN0-521-26335-2, p. 133.
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
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, ISBN0-415-11623-6, p. 89
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
Jump up^Anthony Birley, Hadrian the Restless Emperor, p.68
Jump up^Karl Strobel: Kaiser Traian. Eine Epoche der Weltgeschichte. Regensburg: 2010, p. 401.
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, ISBN978-88-7228-492-6, p.143
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
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
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, ISBN978-3-05-004898-7, p.230
Jump up^Robert H. Allen, The Classical Origins of Modern Homophobia, Jefferson: Mcfarland, 2006, ISBN978-0-7864-2349-1, p.120
Jump up^Robin Lane Fox, The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian. New York: Basic Books, 2008, ISBN978-0-465-02497-1, p. 556
Jump up^Thorsten Opper, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict. Harvard University Press, 2008, p.170
Jump up^David L. Balch, Carolyn Osiek, eds., Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003, ISBN0-8028-3986-X, p.301
Jump up^Anthony R Birley, Hadrian: The Restless Emperor, p.54
Jump up^Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, Dominic Rathbone, eds., The Cambridge Ancient History, XI, p. 133
Jump up^Mackay, Christopher. Ancient Rome: a Military and Political History. Cambridge U. Press: 2007, ISBN0-521-80918-5, p.229
Jump up^Gabriele Marasco, ed., Political Autobiographies and Memoirs in Antiquity: A Brill Companion. Leiden: Brill, 2011, ISBN978-90-04-18299-8, p.375
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
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, ISBN1-56000-210-7, p. 128
Jump up^Stephan Brassloff, « Die Rechtsfrage bei der Adoption Hadrians ». Hermes 49. Bd., H. 4 (Sep., 1914), pp. 590–601
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
Jump up^John Antony Crook, Consilium Principis: Imperial Councils and Counsellors from Augustus to Diocletian. Cambridge University Press: 1955, pp. 54f
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, ISBN978-0-19-975370-3, pp. 72f
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]
Jump up^Hadrien Bru, Le pouvoir impérial dans les provinces syriennes: Représentations et célébrations d’Auguste à Constantin. Leiden: Brill, 2011, ISBN978-90-04-20363-1, pp. 46f
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
Jump up^Carcopino Jérôme. « L’hérédité dynastique chez les Antonins ». Revue des Études Anciennes. Tome 51, 1949, no.3–4. pp. 262–321.
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, ISBN978-1-4000-6662-9.
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, ISBN84-95555-80-8, p. 611
Jump up^Richard P. Saller, Personal Patronage Under the Early Empire. Cambridge University Press: 2002, ISBN0-521-23300-3, p. 140
Jump up^Richard A. Bauman, Crime and Punishment in Ancient Rome. London: Routledge, 2002, ISBN0-203-42858-7, p. 83
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
Jump up^Christopher J. Fuhrmann, Policing the Roman Empire: Soldiers, Administration, and Public Order. Oxford University Press, 2012, ISBN978-0-19-973784-0, p. 153
Jump up^Rose Mary Sheldon, Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome: Trust in the Gods But Verify. London: Routledge, 2004, ISBN0-7146-5480-9, p. 253
Jump up^András Mócsy, Pannonia and Upper Moesia (Routledge Revivals): A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire, Routledge, 2014 Hadrian
Jump up^Paul Veyne, » Humanitas: Romans and non-Romans ». In Andrea Giardina, ed., The Romans, University of Chicago Press: 1993, ISBN0-226-29049-2, p. 364
Jump up^Simon Goldhill, Being Greek Under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire. Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 12 ISBN0-521-66317-2
Jump up^Larry Joseph Kreitzer, Striking New Images: Roman Imperial Coinage and the New Testament World. Sheffield: A & C Black, 1996, ISBN1-85075-623-6, pp. 194ff
Jump up^Jason König, Katerina Oikonomopoulou, Greg Woolf, eds. Ancient Libraries. Cambridge U. Press: 2013, ISBN978-1-107-01256-1, page 251
Jump up^Anthony Everitt, Hadrian and the triumph of Rome.
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, ISBN0-520-20377-1, page 141
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
Jump up^Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 175–7
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
Jump up^Brenda Longfellow, Roman Imperialism and Civic Patronage: Form, Meaning and Ideology in Monumental Fountain Complexes. Cambridge U. Press: 2011, ISBN978-0-521-19493-8, p. 120
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
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, ISBN978-90-04-17357-6, pp. 216f
Jump up^Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis, Truly Beyond Wonders: Aelius Aristides and the Cult of Asklepios. OUP : 2010, ISBN978-0-19-956190-2, p. 171
Jump up^Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 177–80
Jump up^Clifford Ando, Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, ISBN978-0-520-22067-6
Jump up^Cassius Dio, LIX.11; Historia Augusta, Hadrian
Jump up^Tim Cornell, Dr Kathryn Lomas, eds., Bread and Circuses: Euergetism and Municipal Patronage in Roman Italy. London: Routledge, 2003, ISBN0-415-14689-5, p. 97
Jump up^Carl F. Petry, ed. The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN978-0-521-47137-4, p. 15
Jump up^Anthony Kaldellis, Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical TraditionCambridge U. Press, 2008, ISBN978-0-521-87688-9, p. 38
Jump up^Fernando A. Marín Valdés, Plutarco y el arte de la Atenas hegemónica. Universidad de Oviedo: 2008, ISBN978-84-8317-659-7, p. 76
Jump up^A. J. S. Spawforth, Greece and the Augustan Cultural Revolution. Cambridge University Press: 2011, ISBN978-1-107-01211-0, p. 262
Jump up^Nathanael J. Andrade, Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World. Cambridge University Press, 2013, ISBN978-1-107-01205-9, p. 176
Jump up^Georg Simmel, Sociology: Inquiries into the Construction of Social Forms. Leiden: Brill, 2009, ISBN978-90-04-17321-7, p. 288
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.
Jump up^Nathanael J. Andrade, Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World, Cambridge University Press, 2013, ISBN978-1-107-01205-9, page 177
Jump up^Andrew M. Smith II, Roman Palmyra: Identity, Community, and State Formation. Oxford University Press: 2013, ISBN978-0-19-986110-1, page 25; Robert K. Sherk, The Roman Empire: Augustus to Hadrian. Cambridge University Press:1988, ISBN0-521-33887-5, page 190
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, ISBN978-90-04-20363-1, pages 104/105
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 ISBN978-0-521-76652-4, page 96
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, ISBN978-3-11-022470-2, pages 89/91
Jump up^Cf a project devised earlier by Hellenized Jewish intellectuals such as Philo: see Rizzi, Hadrian and the Christians, 4
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, ISBN978-3-11-019497-5, page 197
Jump up^Peter Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand. Tübingen 1981, pages 29–50.
Jump up^Chronicle of Jerome, s.v. Hadrian. See: [7] See also Yigael Yadin, Bar-Kokhba, Random House New York 1971, pp. 22, 258
Jump up^Alexander Zephyr, Rabbi Akiva, Bar Kokhba Revolt, and the Ten Tribes of Israel. Bloomington: iUniverse, 2013, ISBN978-1-4917-1256-6
Jump up^Schäfer, Peter (1998). Judeophobia: Attitudes Toward the Jews in the Ancient World. Harvard University Press. pp. 103–105. ISBN978-0-674-04321-3. 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.
Jump up^Mackay, Christopher. Ancient Rome a Military and Political History: 230
Jump up^Peter Schäfer, The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Second Jewish Revolt Against Rome Mohr Siebeck, 2003 p. 68
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
Jump up^Shaye Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, Third Edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press,2014, ISBN978-0-664-23904-6, pp. 25–26
Jump up^Peter Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand, Tübingen 1981, pp. 29–50
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).
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[…]
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, ISBN978-90-04-21534-4, page 529, footnote 42
Jump up^Epiphanius, Treatise on Weights and Measures – Syriac Version (ed. James Elmer Dean), University of Chicago Press, c1935, p. 30
Jump up^Anna Collar, Religious Networks in the Roman Empire. Cambridge University Press: 2013, ISBN978-1-107-04344-2, pp. 248-249
Jump up^Geza Vermes, Who’s Who in the Age of Jesus, Penguin: 2006, no ISBN given, entry « Hadrian »
Jump up^Ronald Syme, « Journeys of Hadrian » (1988), pp. 164–9
Jump up^Ronald Syme, « Journeys Of Hadrian ». Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 73 (1988) 159–170. Available at [8]. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
Jump up^Mellor, R., « The Goddess Roma » in Haase, W., Temporini, H., (eds), Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt, de Gruyter, 1991, ISBN3-11-010389-3, pp. 960-964
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, ISBN978-3-05-004898-7, pages 26/27
Jump up^Olivier Hekster, Emperors and Ancestors: Roman Rulers and the Constraints of Tradition. Oxford U. Press: 2015, ISBN978-0-19-873682-0, pages 140/142
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.
Jump up^Albino Garzetti, From Tiberius to the Antonines : A History of the Roman Empire AD 14–192. London: Routledge, 2014, p. 699
Jump up^Cizek, « L’éloge de Caius Avidius Nigrinus »
Jump up^András Mócsy, Pannonia and Upper Moesia (Routledge Revivals): A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire. London: Routledge, 2014, ISBN978-0-415-74582-6, p. 102
^ Jump up to:abThe 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
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, ISBN978-0-306-81916-2, p. 84
Jump up^Samuel Ball Platner, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Cambridge University Press: 2015, ISBN978-1-108-08324-9, page 250
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, ISBN978-3-89971-685-6, p. 259
Jump up^Clifford Ando, Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, ISBN0-520-22067-6, p. 330
Jump up^Albino Garzetti, From Tiberius to the Antonines (Routledge Revivals): A History of the Roman Empire AD 14-192. London: Routledge, 2014, ISBN978-1-138-01920-1, p. 381
Jump up^This partial withdrawal was probably supervised by the governor of Moesia Quintus Pompeius Falco; see Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 84 & 86.
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
Jump up^Julian Bennett, Trajan-Optimus Priceps. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001, ISBN0-253-21435-1, p. 165
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
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, ISBN0-8078-2852-1, p. 183
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, ISBN0-8018-2158-4, p. 123
Jump up^Fronto: Selected Letters. Edited by Caillan Davenport & Jenifer Manley, London: AC & Black, 2014, ISBN978-1-78093-442-6, pp. 184f
Jump up^Laura Jansen, The Roman Paratext: Frame, Texts, Readers, Cambridge University Press, 2014, ISBN978-1-107-02436-6 p. 66
Jump up^Kathleen Kuiper (Editor), Ancient Rome: From Romulus and Remus to the Visigoth Invasion, New York: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2010, ISBN978-1-61530-207-9p. 133
Jump up^A. Arthur Schiller, Roman Law: Mechanisms of Development, Walter de Gruyter: 1978, ISBN90-279-7744-5 p. 471
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)
Jump up^Marcel Morabito, Les realités de l’esclavage d’après Le Digeste. Paris: Presses Univ. Franche-C omté, 1981, ISBN978-2-251-60254-7, p. 230
Jump up^Donald G. Kyle, Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome. London: Routledge, 2012, ISBN0-415-09678-2;William Linn Westermann, The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1955, p. 115
Jump up^Digest 48.18.21; quoted by Q.F. Robinson, Penal Practice and Penal Policy in Ancient Rome. Abingdon: Routledge, 2007ISBN978-0-415-41651-1, p.107
Jump up^Judith Perkins, Roman Imperial Identities in the Early Christian Era. Abingdon: Routledge, 2009, ISBN978-0-415-39744-5
Jump up^Christopher J. Fuhrmann, Policing the Roman Empire: Soldiers, Administration, and Public Order. Oxford University Press, 2012, ISBN978-0-19-973784-0, p. 102
Jump up^Digest, 48.8.4.2, quoted by Paul Du Plessis, Borkowski’s Textbook on Roman Law. Oxford University Press, 2015, ISBN978-0-19-957488-9, p. 95
Jump up^Gradel, Ittai, Emperor Worship and Roman Religion, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN0-19-815275-2, pp. 194-5.
Jump up^Howgego, in Howgego, C., Heuchert, V., Burnett, A., (eds), Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces, Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN978-0-19-926526-8, pp. 6, 10.
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. ISBN0-521-86739-8, pp. 52–135.
Jump up^Craig A. Williams, Roman Homosexuality : Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity. Oxford University Press: 1999, ISBN978-0-19-511300-6, pp. 60f
Jump up^Caroline Vout, Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome. Cambridge University Press; 2007, p. 89
Jump up^Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 127 and 183.
Jump up^Alessandro Galimberti, « Hadrian, Eleusis, and the beginnings of Christian apologetics » in Marco Rizzi, ed., Hadrian and the Christians. Berlim: De Gruyter, 2010, ISBN978-3-11-022470-2, pp. 77f
Jump up^Robert M. Haddad, The Case for Christianity: St. Justin Martyr’s Arguments for Religious Liberty and Judicial Justice. Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010, ISBN978-1-58979-575-4, p. 16
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.
Jump up^Ilan Vit-Suzan, Architectural Heritage Revisited: A Holistic Engagement of its Tangible and Intangible Constituents . Farnham: Ashgate, 2014, ISBN978-1-4724-2062-6, p. 20
Jump up^Robin Lane Fox, The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian. Philadelphia: Basic Books, 2006, ISBN978-0-465-02497-1, p.578
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, ISBN3-412-10505-8, p.225
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, ISBN978-0-8014-4396-1, p. 177
Jump up^Historia Augusta, Hadrian Dio 25.9; Antony Birley, p. 301
Jump up^« Wytse Keulen, Eloquence rules: the ambiguous image of Hadrian in Fronto’s correspondence ». [10] Retrieved February 20, 2015
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
Jump up^Edward Togo Salmon,A History of the Roman World from 30 B.C. to A.D. 138. London: Routledge, 2004, ISBN0-415-04504-5, pp. 314f
Jump up^Victoria Emma Pagán, A Companion to Tacitus. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, 2012, ISBN978-1-4051-9032-9, page 1
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
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, ISBN978-90-04-15671-5, p.60
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
Jump up^Danèel den Hengst, Emperors and Historiography: Collected Essays on the Literature of the Roman Empire. Leiden: Brill, 2010, ISBN978-90-04-17438-2, p. 93
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, ISBN978-0521263351, p. 132
Jump up^Mary Taliaferro Boatwright, Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire. Princeton University Press, 2002, pp.20/26
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.
Jump up^Thomas E. Jenkins, Antiquity Now: The Classical World in the Contemporary American Imagination. Cambridge University Press: 2015, ISBN978-0-521-19626-0, paget121
Jump up^A’haron Oppenheimer, Between Rome and Babylon: Studies in Jewish Leadership and Society.Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005, ISBN3-16-148514-9, page 199
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
Jump up^The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian. New York: Basic Books, 2006, ISBN978-0-465-02497-1, page 4
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. ISBN0-19-814494-6.
Further reading
Danziger, Danny; Purcell, Nicholas (2006). Hadrian’s empire : when Rome ruled the world. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN0-340-83361-0.
Everitt, Anthony (2009). Hadrian and the triumph of Rome. New York: Random House. ISBN978-1-4000-6662-9.
Gray, William Dodge (1919). « A Study of the life of Hadrian Prior to His Accession ». Smith College Studies in History. 4: 151–209.
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。
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Giacobbe Giusti 
