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HADRIAN - Empire And Conflict - BIOGRAPHY

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« on: July 23, 2008, 09:05:13 am »



Realism and grandeur ... sculptures in
Hadrian: Empire and Conflict

Photograph: Felix Clay









                                       Hadrian: Empire and Conflict - British Museum, London
 





Jonathan Jones
The Guardian,
Wednesday July 23, 2008
Article history

Roman art has had poor press since the 18th century. In the days of the Renaissance, when Europeans kindled modern culture by reviving the heritage of classical antiquity, no one was too worried whether statues dug up in the cluttered soil of Rome were Greek or Roman. But as soon as scholars such as JJ Winckelmann identified periods and styles, it became conventional to see Roman art as a poor pastiche of ancient Greek originals. This terrific exhibition rights a wrong and puts paid to a cliche. It shows that Roman art abounds in humanity, character and life.

The empire strikes back.



Hadrian: Empire and Conflict British Museum, London Starts July 24 Until October 26

Details:

020-7323 8181 britishmuseum.com



The first things that hold you are portraits of the emperor Hadrian as a young man with sideburns, before he grew the beard that became his personal style; the show teems with portraits of this man. In comparing them, you start to glimpse the human behind the stone. But it's not just the emperor who comes to life. A bronze figure of Hadrian in armour, from Israel, stands near cases that display the relics of Jewish rebels his army crushed. Hadrian has a violent battle scene on his breastplate; in the cases are Jewish refugees' door keys, kept in expectation that they would soon be going home. The modern echoes are eerie. Yet this is just one part of the show's world of olive oil magnates, bricklayers and Dionysian revellers.

A fantastic marble faun from Hadrian's Tivoli villa gives a glimpse of the sensual excess of Roman life. But most haunting of all is the face of Hadrian's male lover, Antinous, sculpted on statues of gods and heroes - through which the emperor mourned his companion - including a vast, yet achingly erotic head of a Bacchic divinity.

So many exhibitions talk big then give you a few casts and copies and wall texts. This show delivers: it is an archaeological treasury whose beauty is the result of exceptional loans of some of the supreme works of Roman art from the Capitoline and Vatican museums in Rome, the Louvre in Paris, and new archaeological finds such as a colossus of Hadrian, excavated recently in Turkey. There are handwritten letters from the Jewish rebel leader Simon Bar Kokhba, and a papyrus fragment on which is written the Alexandrian poet Pankrates's celebration of a lion hunt where Hadrian deliberately missed his own shot, in order "to test to the full the sureness of aim/ Of his beauteous Antinous".

The Romans lived as if history were a book that concerned them - they displayed their flaws and crimes as proof that they belonged on its pages. The darkest stories and judgments on them are to be found in their own histories: see this, then read the Annals of Tacitus. This exhibition has the realism and the grandeur you find in Tacitus.

Under the blue dome of the Victorian Reading Room inspired by Hadrian's architectural masterpiece, the Pantheon, Roman art at long last gets its triumph.

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« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2008, 09:33:51 am »



HADRIAN'S BUST

Musei Capitolini, Roma








                                         Imperator Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus




 

Reign August 10, 117 – July 10, 138

Full name Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus

Born 24 January 76(76-01-24)
Rome or Italica

Died July 10, 138 (aged 62)
 Baiae

Buried
1) Puteoli
2) Gardens of Domitia (Rome)
3) Hadrian's Mausoleum (Rome)

Predecessor Trajan

Successor Antoninus Pius

Consort to Vibia Sabina

Issue
Lucius Aelius,
Antoninus Pius
(both adoptive)

Dynasty Nervan-Antonine

Father Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer

Mother Domitia Paulina
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« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2008, 10:08:12 am »










Early life



Though there was a late tradition that Hadrian was born in Italica located in the province called Hispania Baetica (the southernmost Roman province in the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal), he himself stated in his autobiography, now lost, that he was born in Rome on 24 January 76 of a family originally Italian but Hispanian for many generations. However, this might just be a political stunt to show he was Roman in every way.

His father was Hispanian Roman Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer, who as a senator of praetorian rank would spend much of his time in Rome.  Hadrian’s forefathers came from Hadria, modern Atri, an ancient town of Picenum in Italy, but the family had settled in Italica in Hispania Baetica soon after its founding by Scipio Africanus. Afer was
a paternal cousin of the future Emperor Trajan.

His mother was Domitia Paulina who came from Gades (Cádiz). Paulina was a daughter of a distinguished Hispanian Roman Senatorial family. Hadrian’s elder sister and only sibling was Aelia Domitia Paulina, his niece was Julia Serviana Paulina and his great-nephew was Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator. His parents died in 85/86 when Hadrian was nine, and the boy then became a ward of both Trajan and Publius Acilius Attianus (who was later Trajan’s Praetorian Prefect).  Hadrian was schooled in various subjects particular to young aristocrats of the day, and was so fond of learning Greek literature that he was nicknamed Graeculus ("Little Greek").

Hadrian visited Italica when he was 14 and enlisted in the army there, but was recalled by Trajan who thereafter looked after his development. He never returned to Italica although it was later made a colonia in his honour. His first military service was as a tribune of the Legio II Adiutrix. Later, he was to be transferred to the Legio I Minervia in Germany. When Nerva died in 98, Hadrian rushed to inform Trajan personally. He later became legate of a legion in Upper Pannonia and eventually governor of said province. He was also archon in Athens for a brief time, and was elected an Athenian citizen.

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

Hadrian 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 Hadrian do anything of note. However when the governor of Syria had to be sent to sort out renewed troubles in Dacia, Hadrian was appointed as a replacement, giving him an independent command. 

Trajan, seriously ill by that time, decided to return to Rome while Hadrian remained in Syria to guard the Roman rear. Trajan only got as far as Selinus before he became too ill to go further. While Hadrian may have been the obvious choice as successor, he had never been adopted as Trajan's heir. As Trajan lay dying, nursed by his wife, Plotina (a supporter of Hadrian), he at last adopted Hadrian as heir. Then he died.

Allegations that the order of events was the other way round have never quite been resolved.
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« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2008, 10:13:04 am »



Marble statue of Emperor Hadrian
(Istanbul Archeological Museum).









Securing power



 
Hadrian 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). The rumor of a falsified document of adoption carried little weight — Hadrian's legitimacy arose from the endorsement of the Senate
and the Syrian armies.

Hadrian did not at first go to Rome — he was busy sorting out the East and suppressing the Jewish revolt that had broken out under Trajan, then moving on to sort out the Danube frontier. Instead, Attianus, Hadrian's 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 Hadrian was not in Rome at the time, he 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.
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« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2008, 10:16:01 am »









Hadrian and the military


 
Extent of the Roman Empire under Hadrian.Despite his own great stature as a military administrator, Hadrian's reign was marked by a general lack of major military conflicts, apart from the Second Roman-Jewish War. He 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 Hadrian succeeded in negotiating a peace.

The peace policy was strengthened by the **** 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, Hadrian established intensive drill routines, and personally inspected the armies.

Although his coins showed military images almost as often as peaceful ones, Hadrian's policy was peace through strength, even threat.
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« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2008, 10:18:37 am »










The Second Roman-Jewish War



Further information:
Bar Kokhba revolt

In 130, Hadrian visited the ruins of Jerusalem left after the First Roman-Jewish War of 66–73. He promised to rebuild the city, but planning it as a pagan metropolis to be called Aelia Capitolina. A
new pagan temple on the ruins of the Second Temple was to be dedicated to Jupiter.

In addition, Hadrian abolished circumcision (brit milah), which he, as an avid Hellenist, viewed as mutilation.  A Roman coin inscribed Aelia Capitolina was issued in 132. Hadrian's policies triggered the massive Jewish uprising (132–135), led by Bar Kokhba and Akiba ben Joseph. Following the outbreak of the revolt, Hadrian called his general Sextus Julius Severus from Britain, and troops were brought from as far as the Danube. Roman losses were very heavy, and it is believed that an entire legion, the XXII Deiotariana was destroyed.  Roman losses were so heavy that Hadrian's report to the Roman Snate omitted the customary salutation "I and the legions are well" .

Hadrian's army eventually defeated the revolt however. According to Cassius Dio, during the war 580,000 Jews were killed, 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed. After the end of the war, Hadrian continued the religious persecution of Jews, according to the Babylonian Talmud. He attempted to root out Judaism, which he saw as the cause of continuous rebellions, prohibited the Torah law, the Hebrew calendar and executed Judaic scholars. The sacred scroll was ceremoniously burned on the Temple Mount. At the former Temple sanctuary, he installed two statues, one of Jupiter, another of himself. In an attempt to erase any memory of Judea, he removed the name off the map and replaced it with Syria Palaestina, after the Philistines, the ancient enemies of the Jews.

He reestablished Jerusalem as the Roman pagan polis of Aelia Capitolina, and Jews were forbidden from entering it. 
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« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2008, 10:26:29 am »



Castel Sant'Angelo, the ancient Hadrian Mausoleum.







Cultural pursuits and patronage
 


Castel Sant'Angelo, the ancient Hadrian Mausoleum.Hadrian has been described, by Ronald Syme among
others, as the most versatile of all the Roman Emperors. He also liked to display a knowledge of all intellectual and artistic fields. Above all, Hadrian 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 Villa d'Este. In Rome, the Pantheon, originally built by Agrippa but destroyed by fire in 80, was rebuilt under Hadrian in the domed form it retains to this day. It is among the best preserved of Rome's ancient buildings and was highly influential to a many of the great architects of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods.

From well before his reign, Hadrian displayed a keen interest in architecture, 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 Trajan, predecessor to Hadrian, 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.

It is rumored that once Hadrian succeeded Trajan to become emperor, he had Apollodorus exiled and later put to death. It is very possible that this later story was a later attempt to defame his character, as Hadrian, though popular among a great many across the empire, was not universally admired, either in his lifetime or afterward.
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« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2008, 10:30:52 am »



Hadrian, wreathed and in Greek dress
offers a sprig of laurel to Apollo.

Marble, from the temple of Apollo
at Cyrene, ca. 117–125.







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). He also wrote an autobiography – not, apparently, a work of great length or revelation, but designed to scotch various rumours or explain his various actions. The work is lost but was apparently used by the writer — whether Marius Maximus or someone else – on whom the Historia Augusta principally relied for its vita of Hadrian: at least, a number of statements in the vita have been identified (by Ronald Syme and others) as probably ultimately stemming from the autobiography.

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

Hadrian was a humanist and deeply Hellenophile in all his tastes. He favoured the doctrines of the philosophers Epictetus, Heliodorus and Favorinus and was generally considered an Epicurean, as were some of his friends such as Caius Bruttius Praesens. At home he attended to social needs. Hadrian mitigated but did not abolish slavery, had the legal code humanized and forbade torture. He built libraries, aqueducts, baths and theaters. Hadrian is considered by many historians to have been wise and just: Schiller called him "the Empire's first servant", and Edward Gibbon admired his "vast and active genius", as well as his "equity and moderation".

While visiting Greece in 125, he 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.

Hadrian was especially famous for his romance with a Greek youth, Antinous, whom he met in Bythinia in 124 when the boy was thirteen or fourteen. While touring Egypt in 130, Antinous mysteriously drowned in the Nile. Deeply saddened, Hadrian founded the Egyptian city of Antinopolis. Hadrian drew the whole Empire into his mourning, making Antinous the last new god of antiquity.

Hadrian died at his villa in Baiae. He 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 his mausoleum, in its original form, were deliberately designed to be slightly larger than the earlier Mausoleum of Augustus.

According to Cassius Dio a gigantic equestrian statue was erected to Hadrian after his death. "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."
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« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2008, 10:35:41 am »



This aureus by Hadrian celebrates the games
held in honor of the 874th birthday of Rome.






                                                           Hadrian's travels





Purpose
 


This aureus by Hadrian celebrates the games held in honor of the 874th birthday of Rome.The Stoic-Epicurean Emperor traveled broadly, inspecting and correcting the legions in the field. Even prior to becoming emperor, he had traveled abroad with the Roman military, giving him much experience in the matter. More than half his 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 traveled through Greece and was condemned for his self indulgence. Hadrian, by contrast, traveled as a fundamental part of his governing, and made this clear to the Roman senate and the people. He was able to do this because at Rome he 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 he also employed a secret police force, the frumentarii, to exert control and influence in case anything should go wrong while he journeyed abroad.

Hadrian's visits were marked by handouts which often contained instructions for the construction of new public buildings. Hadrian 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 his journeys; commissioning new structures, projects and settlements. His almost evangelical belief in Greek culture strengthened his views: like many emperors before him, Hadrian's will was almost always obeyed. His traveling court was large, including administrators and likely architects and builders. The burden on the areas he passed through were sometimes great. While his 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.

Hadrian's first tour came in 121 and was initially aimed at covering his back to allow himself the freedom to concern himself with his general cultural aims. He 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, he journeyed across the sea to Britannia.
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« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2008, 10:39:19 am »



Hadrian's Wall, a fortification in
Northern England
(viewed from Vercovicium)







Britannia
 


Prior to Hadrian's arrival on Great Britain there had been a major rebellion in Britannia, spanning roughly two years (119–121).[17] It was here where he initiated the building of Hadrian's Wall during 122. The wall was built chiefly to safeguard the frontier province of Britannia, by preventing future small scale invasions and unwanted immigration from the northern country of Caledonia (now modern day Scotland).

Caledonia was inhabited by tribes known to the Romans as Caledonians. Hadrian realized that the Caledonians would refuse to cohabitate with the Romans. He 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, he decided instead on building a wall. Unlike the Germanic limes, built of wood palisades, the lack of suitable wood in the area required a stone construction. Hadrian is perhaps most famous for the construction of this wall whose ruins still span many miles and to date bear his name. In many ways it represents Hadrian's will to improve and develop within the Empire, rather than waging wars and conquering.

Under him, a shrine was erected in York to Britain as a Goddess, and coins were struck which introduced a female figure as the personification of Britain, labeled BRITANNIA.   

By the end of 122 he had concluded his visit to Britannia, and from there headed south by sea to Mauretania.
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« Reply #10 on: July 23, 2008, 10:42:52 am »









Parthia and Anatolia



In 123, he arrived in Mauretania where he 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 Hadrian quickly headed eastwards. On his journey east it is known that at some point he visited Cyrene during which he 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 his journey East. Cyrene had already benefited from his generosity when he in 119 had provided funds for the rebuilding of public buildings destroyed in the recent Jewish revolt.

 
Hadrian's Gate, in Antalya, southern Turkey was built to honour Hadrian who visited the city in 130 AD.When Hadrian arrived on the Euphrates, he characteristically solved the problem through a negotiated settlement with the Parthian king Osroes I. He then proceeded to check the Roman defenses before setting off West along the coast of the Black Sea.  He probably spent the winter in Nicomedia, the main city of Bithynia. As Nicomedia had been hit by an earthquake only shortly prior to his stay, Hadrian was generous in providing funds for rebuilding. Thanks to his generosity he was acclaimed as the chief restorer of the province as a whole. It is more than possible that Hadrian 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, Hadrian traveled through Anatolia. The route he took is uncertain. Various incidents are described such as his 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 wooded areas such as the location of the new city were already ripe for development). Some historians dispute whether Hadrian 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 Hadrian and built with dazzling white marble.
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« Reply #11 on: July 23, 2008, 10:49:39 am »



Temple of Zeus in Athens







Greece
 


The climax of this tour was the destination that the hellenophile Hadrian must all along have had in mind, Greece. He 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 phyle (tribe) was added bearing his name.

During the winter he toured the Peloponnese. His exact route is uncertain, however Pausanias reports of tell-tale signs, such as temples built by Hadrian and the statue of the emperor built by the grateful citizens of Epidaurus in thanks to their "restorer". He was especially generous to Mantinea which 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.

By March 125, Hadrian had reached Athens presiding over the festival of Dionysia. The building program that Hadrian initiated was substantial. Various rulers had done work on building a temple to Olympian Zeus — it was Hadrian who ensured that the job would be finished. He also initiated the construction of several public buildings on his own whim and even organized the building of an aqueduct.
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« Reply #12 on: July 23, 2008, 10:52:51 am »



The Pantheon







Return to Italy
 


On his return to Italy, Hadrian made a detour to Sicily. Coins celebrate him as the restorer of the
island though there is no record of what he did to earn this accolade.

Back in Rome he was able to see for himself 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 him. At the beginning of March 127 Hadrian set off for a tour of Italy. Once again, historians are able to reconstruct his route by evidence of his hand-outs rather than the historical records. For instance, in that year he restored the Picentine earth goddess Cupra in the town of Cupra Maritima. At some unspecified time he improved the drainage of the Fucine lake. Less welcome than such largesse was his 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 Hadrian.

Hadrian fell ill around this time, though the nature of his sickness is not known. Whatever the illness was, 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 and his speech to the troops survives to this day.

Hadrian returned to Italy in the summer of 128 but his stay was brief before setting off on another tour that would last three years.
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« Reply #13 on: July 23, 2008, 10:56:25 am »



ANTINOUS








Greece and Asia



In September 128 Hadrian again attended the Eleusinian mysteries.

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 round Amphictyonic League based in Delphi but he by now had decided on something far grander. His 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 — Hadrian set off for Ephesus.

In October 130, while Hadrian and his entourage were sailing on the Nile, Antinous drowned, for unknown reasons, though accident, suicide, murder or religious sacrifice have all been postulated.

The emperor was grief struck. He 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).
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« Reply #14 on: July 23, 2008, 10:59:09 am »












Greece, Palestine, Illyricum



Hadrian’s movements subsequent to the founding of Antinoöpolis on October 30, 130 are obscure.

Whether or not he returned to Rome, he spent the winter of 131–32 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 he took the field in person against the rebels with his army in 133; he then returned to Rome, probably in that year and almost certainly (judging again from inscriptions) via Illyricum.
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