I, Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus (January 24 76 – July 10 138), known as Hadrian in English, was Roman emperor from 117 – 138, and a member of the gens Aelia. I was the third of the “Five Good Emperors.” My reign had a faltering beginning, a glorious middle, and a tragic conclusion.

I was born in Seville, Spain to a well-established family which had originated in Picenum in Italy and had subsequently settled in Italica, Hispania Baetica (originally Hispania Ulterior). I was a distant relative of my predecessor Trajan being a grandson of Trajan’s father’s sister. Trajan never officially designated a successor, but, according to his wife, Plotina, Trajan named me emperor immediately before his death. However, Trajan’s wife was well-disposed toward me, and I may well have owed his succession to her.

Early Life

I was born in Seville, Spain and was the son of Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer, a cousin of Trajan, from Italica in Hispania Baetica. My mother was Domitia Paulina of Gades. My sister was Domitia Paulina the Younger. After my father died (probably in 85) I became the ward of Acilius Attianus and the future Emperor Trajan. I was schooled in various subjects particular to young aristocrats of the day, and I was so fond of learning Greek literature that I was nicknamed Graeculus (”Little Greek”).

I enlisted in the army some time in the reign of Domitian. My first service was as a tribune of the Legio II Adiutrix. Later, I was to be transferred to the Legio I Minervia in Germany. When Nerva died in 98, I rushed to inform Trajan personally. I later became legate of a legion in Upper Pannonia and eventually governor of said province. I was also archon in Athens for a brief time, and was elected an Athenian citizen.

I was active in the wars against the Dacians (as legate of the V Macedonica) and reputedly won awards from Trajan for my successes. Due to an absence of military action in my reign, my military skill is not well attested, however my keen interest and knowledge of the army and my demonstrated skill of administration show possible strategic talent.

I joined Trajan’s expedition against Parthia as a legate on Trajan’s staff. Neither during the initial victorious phase, nor during the second phase of the war when rebellion swept Mesopotamia did I do anything of note. However when the governor of Syria had to be sent to sort out renewed troubles in Dacia, I was appointed as a replacement, giving me an independent command. By now Trajan was seriously ill and he decided to return to Rome while I remained in Syria to guard the Roman rear. Trajan only got as far as Selinus before he became too ill to go further. I, however much I was the obvious successor had still not been adopted as Trajan’s heir. As Trajan lay dying, nursed by his wife, Plotina (a supporter of I), he at last adopted me as heir. Then he died. Allegations that the order of events was the other way round have never quite been resolved.

Securing Power

I quickly secured the support of the legions – one potential opponent, Lusius Quietus, was instantly dismissed. The Senate’s endorsement followed when possibly falsified papers of adoption from Trajan were presented (although he had been the ward of Trajan growing up). Nevertheless, this rumor of a falsified document of adoption carried little weight. The real source of my legitimacy arose from the endorsement of the armies of Syria and the Senate ratification. It is speculated that Trajan’s wife Plotina forged the papers, as historical documents show she was quite fond of me.

I did not at first go to Rome. I had my hands tied sorting out the East and suppressing the Jewish revolt that had broken out under Trajan – then moving to sort out the Danube frontier. Instead, Attianus, my former guardian, was put in charge in Rome. There he “discovered” a plot involving four leading Senators including Lusius Quietus and demanded of the Senate their deaths. There was no question of a trial – they were hunted down and killed out of hand. Because I was not in Rome at the time, I was able to claim that Attianus had acted on his own initiative. According to Elizabeth Speller the real reason for their deaths was that they were Trajan’s men.

The Military

Despite my own great stature as a military administrator, my reign was marked by a general lack of major military conflicts. I surrendered Trajan’s conquests in Mesopotamia, considering them to be indefensible. There was almost a war with Parthia around 121, but the threat was averted when I succeeded in negotiating a peace. My anti-Jewish persecutions in Judea led to the massive Jewish uprising (132 – 135) led by Bar Kokhba and Rabbi Akiva. My army eventually defeated the revolt and continued the religious persecution of Jews, according to the Babylonian Talmud.

The peace policy was strengthened by the erection of permanent fortifications along the empire’s borders (limites, sl. limes). The most famous of these is the massive “Hadrian’s Wall” in Great Britain, and the Danube and Rhine borders were strengthened with a series of mostly wooden fortifications, forts, outposts and watchtowers, the latter specifically improving communications and local area security. To maintain morale and keep the troops from getting restive, I established intensive drill routines, and personally inspected the armies. Although my coins showed military images almost as often as peaceful ones, my policy was peace through strength, even threat.

Cultural Pursuits and Patronage

Above all, I patronized the arts: “Hadrian’s Villa” at Tibur (Tivoli) was the greatest Roman example of an Alexandrian garden, recreating a sacred landscape, lost in large part to the despoliation of the ruins by the Cardinal d’Este who had much of the marble removed to build his gardens. In Rome, the Pantheon built by Agrippa was enriched under I and took the form in which it remains to this day.

I took my architectural designs very seriously but it seems no one else did. Apollodorus of Damascus, architect of the Forum of Trajan, dismissed my designs. When Trajan, my predecessor , consults Apollodorus about an architectural problem, I interrupted to give advice to which Apollodorus replies, “Go away and draw your pumpkins. You know nothing about these problems.” The pumpkins referred to my drawings of domes like the Serapeum in his Villa. Once I succeeded Trajan to become emperor, I had Apollodorus exiled and later put to death. It is very possible that this latter story was a later attempt to defame my character, though popular among a great many across the empire, was not universally admired, both in my lifetime and afterward.

Another one of my contributions to the arts was the beard. The portraits of emperors up to this point were all clean shaven, idealized images of Greek athletes. I wore a beard as evidenced by all my portraits. Subsequent emperors would be portrayed with beards for more than a century and a half.

I was a humanist and deeply Hellenophile in all of my tastes. While visiting Greece in 125 I attempted to create a kind of provincial parliament to bind all the semi-autonomous former city states across all Greece and Ionia (in Asia Minor). This parliament, known as the Panhellenion, failed despite spirited efforts to instill cooperation among the Hellenes. I was especially famous for my love relationship with a Greek youth, Antinous. While touring Egypt, Antinous mysteriously drowned in the Nile in 130. Deeply saddened, I founded the Egyptian city of Antinopolis. I drew the whole Empire into his mourning, making Antinous the last new god of antiquity.

I died at my villa in Baiae. I was buried in a mausoleum on the western bank of the Tiber, in Rome, a building later transformed into a papal fortress, Castel Sant’Angelo. The dimensions of my mausoleum, in its original form, were deliberately designed to be slightly larger than the earlier Mausoleum of Augustus.

A strange fragment from the Roman History of Dio Cassius of uncertain context:

“After Hadrian’s death there was erected to him a huge equestrian statue representing him with a four-horse chariot. It was so large that the bulkiest man could walk through the eye of each horse, yet because of the extreme height of the foundation persons passing along on the ground below believe that the horses themselves as well as Hadrian are very small.”

My Travels

Much of my reign was spent travelling. Even prior to becoming emperor, I had travelled abroad with the Roman military, giving me much experience in the matter. More than half of my reign was spent outside of Italy. Other emperors often left Rome to simply go to war, returning soon after conflicts concluded. A previous emperor, Nero, once travelled through Greece and was condemned for his self indulgence. I, by contrast, travelled as a fundamental part of my governing, and made this clear to the Roman senate and the people. I was able to do this because at Rome I possessed a loyal supporter within the upper echelons of Roman society, a military veteran by the name of Marcius Turbo. Also, there are hints within certain sources that I also employed a secret police force, the frumentarii, to exert control and influence in case anything should go wrong while I journeyed abroad.

My visits were marked by handouts which often contained instructions for the construction of new public buildings. I was willful of strengthening the Empire from within through improved infrastructure, as opposed to conquering or annexing perceived enemies. This was often the purpose of my journeys; commissioning new structures and projects and settlements. My almost evangelical belief in Greek culture strengthened my views: like many emperors before me, my will was almost always obeyed. My traveling court was large, including administrators and likely architects and builders. The burden on the areas I passed through were sometimes great. While my arrival usually brought some benefits it is possible that those who had to carry the burden were of different class to those who reaped the benefits. For example, huge amounts of provisions were requisitioned during his visit to Egypt, this suggests that the burden on the mainly subsistence farmers must have been intolerable, causing some measure of starvation and hardship. At the same time, as in later times all the way through the European Renaissance, kings were welcomed into their cities or lands, and the financial burden was completely on them, and only indirectly on the poorer class.

My first tour came in 121 and was initially aimed at covering my back to allow myself the freedom to concern myself with his general cultural aims. I traveled north, towards Germania and inspected the Rhine-Danube frontier, allocating funds to improve the defenses. However it was a voyage to the Empire’s very frontiers that represented his perhaps most significant visit; upon hearing of a recent revolt, I journeyed across the sea to Britannia.

Britannia

Prior to my arrival on Great Britain there had been a major rebellion in Britannia, spanning roughly two years (119 – 121). It was here I initiated the building of “Hadrian’s Wall” during 122. The wall was built chiefly to safeguard the frontier province of Britannia, by preventing future possible invasions from the northern country of Caledonia (now modern day Scotland). Caledonia was inhabited by tribes known to the Romans as Caledonians. I realized that the Caledonians would refuse to cohabitate with the Romans. I also was aware that although Caledonia was valuable, the harsh terrain and highlands made its conquest costly and unprofitable for the Empire at large. Thus, I decided instead on building a wall. I am perhaps most famous for the construction of this wall whose ruins still span many miles and to date bear my name. In many ways it represents my will to improve and develop within the Empire, rather than waging wars and conquering. By the end of 122 I had concluded my visit to Britannia, and from there headed south by sea to Mauretania.

Parthia and Anatolia

In 123 I arrived in Mauretania where I personally led a campaign against local rebels. However this visit was to be short, as reports came through that the Eastern nation of Parthia was again preparing for war, as a result I quickly headed eastwards. On my journey east it is known that at some point I visited Cyrene during which I personally made available funds for the training of the young men of well bred families for the Roman military. This might well have been a stop off during my journey East. Cyrene had already benefited from my generosity when I ,in 119, had provided funds for the rebuilding of public buildings destroyed in the recent Jewish revolt.

When I arrived on the Euphrates, I characteristically solved the problem through a negotiated settlement with the Parthian king (probably Chosroes). I then proceeded to check the Roman defenses before setting off West along the coast of the Black Sea. I probably spent the winter in Nicomedia, the main city of Bithynia. As Nicomedia had been hit by an earthquake only shortly prior to my stay, I was generous in providing funds for rebuilding. Thanks to my generosity I was acclaimed as the chief restorer of the province as a whole. It is more than possible that I visited Claudiopolis and there espied the beautiful Antinous, a young boy who was destined to become the emperor’s eromenos – his pederastic beloved. Sources say nothing about when Hadrian met Antinous, however, there are depictions of Antinous that shows him as a young man of 20 or so. As this was shortly before Antinous’s drowning in 130 Antinous would more likely have been a youth of 13 or 14. It is possible that Antinous may have been sent to Rome to be trained as page to serve the emperor and only gradually did he rise to the status of imperial favorite.

After meeting Antinous, I traveled through Anatolia. The route I took is uncertain. Various incidents are described such as I founding of a city within Mysia, Hadrianutherae, after a successful boar hunt. (The building of the city was probably little more than a mere whim – lowly populated wooden areas such as the location of the new city were already ripe for development). Some historians dispute whether I did in fact commission the city’s construction at all. At about this time, plans to build a temple in Asia minor were written up. The new temple would be dedicated to Trajan and I and built with dazzling white marble.

Greece

The climax of this tour was the destination that I must all along have had in mind, Greece. I arrived in the autumn of 124 in time to participate in the Eleusinian Mysteries. By tradition at one stage in the ceremony the initiates were supposed to carry arms but this was waived to avoid any risk to the emperor among them. At the Athenians’ request he conducted a revision of their constitution – among other things a new tribe was added bearing my name.

During the winter I toured the Peloponnese. My exact route is uncertain, however Pausanias reports of tell-tale signs, such as temples built by me and the statue of the emperor built by the grateful citizens of Epidaurus in thanks to their “restorer”. I was especially generous to Mantinea which supports the theory that Antinous was in fact already my lover because of the strong link between Mantinea and Antinous’s home in Bithynia.

March of 125

I had reached Athens presiding over the festival of Dionysia. The building program that I initiated was substantial. Various rulers had done work on building a temple to Olympian Zeus – it was I who ensured that the job would be finished. I also initiated the construction of several public buildings on my own whim and even organized the building of an aqueduct.

Return to Italy

On my return to Italy, I made a detour to Sicily. Coins celebrate me as the restorer of the island though there is no record of what I did to earn this accolade.

Back in Rome I was able to see for myself the completed work of rebuilding the Pantheon. Also completed by then was “Hadrian’s villa” nearby at Tibur – a pleasant retreat by the Sabine Hills for whenever Rome became too much for me. At the beginning of March 127 I set off for a tour of Italy. Once again, historians are able to reconstruct my route by evidence of my hand-outs rather than the historical records. For instance, in that year I restored the Picentine earth goddess Cupra in the town of Cupra Maritima. At some unspecified time I improved the drainage of the Fucine lake. Less welcome than such largess was my decision to divide Italy into 4 regions under imperial legates with consular rank. Being effectively reduced to the status of mere provinces did not go down well and this innovation did not long outlive me.

I fell ill around this time, though the nature of my sickness is not known. Whatever the illness was, it did not stop me from setting off in the spring of 128 to visit Africa. My arrival began with the good omen of rain ending a drought. Along with my usual role as benefactor and restorer I found time to inspect the troops and my speech to the troops survives to this day.

I returned to Italy in the summer of 128 but my stay was brief before setting off on another tour that would last three years.

Greece and Asia

In September of 128 I again attended the Eleusinian mysteries. This time my visit to Greece seems to have concentrated on Athens and Sparta – the two ancient rivals for dominance of Greece. I had played with the idea of focusing his Greek revival round Amphictyonic League based in Delphi but I by now had decided on something far grander. My new Panhellenion was going to be a council that would bring together Greek cities wherever they might be found. The meeting place was to be the new temple to Zeus in Athens. Having set in motion the preparations – deciding whose claim to be a Greek city was genuine would in itself take time – I set off for Ephesus.

In October 130, while me and my entourage were sailing on the Nile, Antinous drowned, for unknown reasons, though accident, suicide, murder or religious sacrifice have all been postulated. I was griefstruck. I ordered Antinous deified, and cities were named after the boy, medals struck with his effigy, and statues erected to him in all parts of the empire. Temples were built for his worship in Bithynia, Mantineia in Arcadia, and Athens, festivals celebrated in his honour and oracles delivered in his name. The city of Antinoöpolis or Antinoe was founded on the ruins of Besa where he died (Dio Cassius lix. 11; Spartianus, Hadrian).

Greece, Palestine, Illyricum

My movements subsequent to the founding of Antinoöpolis on 30 October 130 are obscure. Whether or not I returned to Rome, I spent the winter of 131-2 in Athens and probably remained in Greece or further East because of the Jewish rebellion which broke out in 132. Inscriptions make it clear that I took the field in person against the rebels with my army in 133; I then returned to Rome, probably in that year and almost certainly (judging again from inscriptions) via Illyricum.

Last Years and Succession

I spent the final years of my life at Rome. In 134 I took an Imperial salutation for the end of the Jewish War (which was not actually concluded until the following year). In 136 I dedicated a new Temple of “Venus and Rome” on the former site of Nero’s Golden House.

About this time, suffering from poor health, I turned to the problem of the succession. In 136 I adopted one of the ordinary consuls of that year, Lucius Ceionius Commodus, who took the name Lucius Aelius Caesar. He was both the stepson and son-in-law of Avidius Nigrinus, one of the “four consulars” executed in 118, but was himself in delicate health. Granted tribunician power and the governorship of Pannonia, Aelius Caesar held a further consulship in 137, but died on 1 January 138.

Following Aelius’s death I next adopted Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus (the future emperor Antoninus Pius), who had served as one of the four imperial legates of Italy (a post created by myself) and as proconsul of Asia. On 25 February 138 Antoninus received tribunician power and imperium. Moreover, to ensure the future of the dynasty, I required Antoninus to adopt both Lucius Ceionius Commodus (son of the deceased Aelius Caesar) and Marcus Annius Verus (who was the grandson of an influential senator of the same name who had been my close friend; Annius was already betrothed to Aelius Caesar’s daughter). My precise intentions in this arrangement are debatable. Though the consensus is that I wanted Annius Verus (who would later become the Emperor Marcus Aurelius) to succeed Antoninus, it has also been argued that I actually intended Ceionius Commodus, the son of my own adopted son, to succeed, but was constrained to show favour simultaneously to Annius Verus because of his strong connections to the Hispano-Narbonensian nexus of senatorial families of which I myself was a part. It may well have been Antoninus Pius – who was Annius Verus’s uncle – rather than I who advanced the latter to the principal position. 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.

The ancient sources present my last few years as marked by conflict and unhappiness. The adoption of Aelius Caesar proved unpopular, not least with my brother-in-law Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus and Servianus’ grandson Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator. Servianus, though now far too old, had stood in line of succession at the beginning of the reign; Fuscus is said to have had designs on the imperial power for himself, and in 137 he may have attempted a coup in which his grandfather was implicated. Whatever the truth, I ordered both their deaths. Servianus is reported to have prayed before his execution that I would “long for death but be unable to die”. The prayer was fulfilled; as I suffered from my final, protracted illness, I had to be prevented from suicide on several occasions.

Death

I died in 138 on the tenth day of July, in my villa at Baiae at age 62. But me the man who had spent so much of my life travelling had not yet reached my journey’s end. I was buried first at Puteoli, near Baiae, on an estate which had once belonged to Cicero. Soon after, my remains were transferred to Rome and buried in the Gardens of Domitia, close by the almost-complete mausoleum. Upon the completion of the “Tomb of Hadrian” in Rome in 139 by my successor Antoninus Pius, my body was cremated, and my ashes were placed there together with those of my wife Vibia Sabina and my first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who also died in 138. He was deified in 139.