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THE PANTHEON/Agrippa & Hadrian Biographies

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Bianca
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« Reply #45 on: March 25, 2008, 08:00:01 pm »









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 #46 on: March 25, 2008, 08:06:51 pm »



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 #47 on: March 25, 2008, 08:10:34 pm »



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 #48 on: March 25, 2008, 08:15:42 pm »







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 #49 on: March 25, 2008, 08:17:07 pm »









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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« Reply #50 on: March 25, 2008, 08:18:12 pm »









                                                              Final years





Succession
 


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

About this time, suffering from poor health, he turned to the problem of the succession.

In 136 he 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 Gaius 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 January 1, 138.

Following Aelius’s death Hadrian 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 Hadrian) and as proconsul of Asia. On 25 February 138 Antoninus received tribunician power and imperium. Moreover, to ensure the future of the dynasty, Hadrian 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 Hadrian’s close friend; Annius was already betrothed to Aelius Caesar’s daughter Ceionia Fabia).

Hadrian’s precise intentions in this arrangement are debatable. Though the consensus is that he wanted Annius Verus (who would later become the Emperor Marcus Aurelius) to succeed Antoninus, it has also been argued that he actually intended Ceionius Commodus, the son of his 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 Hadrian himself was a part.

It may well not have been Hadrian, but rather Antoninus Pius — who was Annius Verus’s uncle – who advanced the latter to the principal position. The fact that Annius would divorce Ceionia Fabia and re-marry 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.

The ancient sources present Hadrian's last few years as marked by conflict and unhappiness.

The adoption of Aelius Caesar proved unpopular, not least with Hadrian's 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, Hadrian ordered that both be put to death.

Servianus is reported to have prayed before his execution that Hadrian would "long for death but be unable to die".

The prayer was fulfilled; as Hadrian suffered from his final, protracted illness, he had to be prevented from suicide on several occasions.
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« Reply #51 on: March 25, 2008, 08:24:32 pm »









Death



Hadrian died in 138 on the tenth day of July, in his villa at Baiae at age 62.

However, the man who had spent so much of his life traveling had not yet reached his journey's end.

He was buried first at Puteoli, near Baiae, on an estate which 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 the 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. Antoninus also had him deified in 139 and given a temple on the Campus Martius.
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« Reply #52 on: March 25, 2008, 08:31:21 pm »








                                                       Poem by Hadrian





According to the Historia Augusta Hadrian composed shortly before his death the following poem:



Animula, vagula, blandula
Hospes comesque corporis
Quae nunc abibis in loca
Pallidula, rigida, nudula,
Nec, ut soles, dabis iocos...
 
P. Aelius Hadrianus Imp.



Little soul, roamer and charmer
Body's guest and companion
Who soon will depart to places
Darkish, chilly and misty
An end to all your jokes...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian
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« Reply #53 on: March 25, 2008, 08:37:00 pm »









                                         M A R C U S   V E S P A S I A N U S   A G R I P P A





Place of birth Unknown

Place of death Campania

Allegiance Roman Empire

Years of service 45 BC – 12 BC

Rank General

Commands Roman army






BATTLES/WARS



Caesar's civil war

Battle of Munda

Battle of Mutina

Battle of Philippi

Battle of Actium
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« Reply #54 on: March 25, 2008, 08:44:23 pm »









Agrippa was born in 64–62 BC[1] in an uncertain location. His father was Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa.

He had an elder brother whose name was also Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa, and a sister named Vipsania Polla. The family had not been prominent in Roman public life.

However, Agrippa was about the same age as Octavius (the future emperor Augustus), and the two were educated together and became close friends. Despite Agrippa's association with the family of Julius Caesar, his elder brother chose another side in the civil wars of the 40s BC, fighting under Cato against Caesar in Africa. When Cato's forces were defeated, Agrippa's brother was taken prisoner but freed after Octavius interceded on his behalf.

It is not known whether Agrippa fought against his brother in Africa, but he probably served in
Caesar's campaign of 46–45 BC against Gnaeus Pompeius, which culminated in the Battle of Munda.

At any rate, Caesar regarded him highly enough to send him with Octavius in 45 BC to study in Apollonia with the Macedonian legions, while Caesar consolidated his power in Rome.

It was in the fourth month of their stay in Apollonia that the news of Julius Caesar's assassination in March 44 BC reached them. Despite the advice of Agrippa and another friend, Quintus Salvidienus Rufus, that he march on Rome with the troops from Macedonia, Octavius decided to sail to Italy with
a small retinue.

After his arrival, he learnt that Caesar had adopted him as his legal heir. (Octavius now took over Caesar's name, but is referred to by modern historians as "Octavian" during this period.)
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« Reply #55 on: March 25, 2008, 08:47:09 pm »



Marble bust

The Louvre,
Paris







After Octavian's return to Rome, he and his supporters realized they needed the support of legions.

Agrippa helped Octavian to levy troops in Campania. Once Octavian had his legions, he made a pact with Mark Antony and Lepidus, legally established in 43 BC as the Second Triumvirate. Octavian and his consular colleague Quintus Pedius arranged for Caesar's assassins to be prosecuted in their absence, and Agrippa was entrusted with the case against Gaius Cassius Longinus.  It may have been in the same year that Agrippa began his political career, holding the position of Tribune of the Plebs, which granted him entry to the Senate.

 
In 42 BC, Agrippa probably fought alongside Octavian and Antony in the Battle of Philippi. After their return to Rome, he played a major role in Octavian's war against Lucius Antonius and Fulvia Antonia, respectively the brother and wife of Mark Antony, which began in 41 BC and ended in the capture of Perusia in 40 BC.

However, Salvidienus remained Octavian's main general at this time.

After the Perusine war, Octavian departed for Gaul, leaving Agrippa as urban praetor in Rome with instructions
to defend Italy against Sextus Pompeius, an opponent of the Triumvirate who was now occupying Sicily. In July 40, while Agrippa was occupied with the Ludi Apollinares that were the praetor's responsibility, Sextus began a raid in southern Italy. Agrippa advanced on him, forcing him to withdraw.

However, the Triumvirate proved unstable, and in August 40 Antony sided with Sextus in a joint invasion of Italy. Agrippa's success in retaking Sipontum from Antony helped bring an end to the conflict.

Agrippa was among the intermediaries through whom Antony and Octavian agreed once more upon peace.
During the discussions Octavian learned that Salvidienus had offered to betray him to Antony, with the result
that Salvidienus was executed or committed suicide. Agrippa was now Octavian's leading general.
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« Reply #56 on: March 25, 2008, 08:52:32 pm »



Agrippa depicted in a relief of the "Altar of Peace," the ARA PACIS.






In 39 or 38 BC, Octavian appointed Agrippa governor of Transalpine Gaul, where in 38 he put down a rising of the Aquitanians. He also fought the Germanic tribes, becoming the first Roman general to cross the Rhine after Julius Caesar. He was summoned back to Rome by Octavian to assume the consulship for 37 BC.

He was well below the usual minimum age of 43, but Octavian had suffered a humiliating naval defeat against Sextus Pompey and needed his friend to oversee the preparations for further warfare. Agrippa refused the offer of a triumph for his exploits in Gaul – on the grounds, says Dio, that he thought it improper to celebrate during a time of trouble for Octavian.

Since Sextus Pompeius had command of the sea on the coasts of Italy, Agrippa's first care was to provide a safe harbor for his ships. He accomplished this by cutting through the strips of land which separated the Lacus Lucrinus from the sea, thus forming an outer harbor, while joining the lake Avernus to the Lucrinus to serve as an inner harbor.  The new harbor-complex was named Portus Julius in Octavian's honour.  Agrippa was also responsible for technological improvements, including larger ships and an improved form of grappling hook.  About this time, he married Caecilia Pomponia Attica, daughter of Cicero's friend Titus Pomponius Atticus.

In 36 BC Octavian and Agrippa set sail against Sextus. The fleet was badly damaged by storms and had to withdraw; Agrippa was left in charge of the second attempt. Thanks to superior technology and training, Agrippa and his men won decisive victories at Mylae and Naulochus, destroying all but seventeen of Sextus' ships and compelling most of his forces to surrender. Octavian, with his power increased, forced the triumvir Lepidus into retirement and entered Rome in triumph.

Agrippa received the unprecedented honor of a naval crown decorated with the beaks of ships; as Dio remarks, this was

                                      "a decoration given to nobody before or since".
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« Reply #57 on: March 25, 2008, 08:58:35 pm »



Hadrian's Pantheon was built to Agrippa's design. It bears the legend

                                               M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT

which means Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, built during his third consulate
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« Reply #58 on: March 25, 2008, 09:06:59 pm »









Agrippa participated in smaller military campaigns in 35 and 34 BC, but by the autumn of 34 he had returned to Rome.

He rapidly set out on a campaign of public repairs and improvements, including renovation of the aqueduct known as the Aqua Marcia and an extension of its pipes to cover more of the city.

Through his actions after being elected in 33 BC as one of the aediles (officials responsible for
Rome's buildings and festivals), the streets were repaired and the sewers were cleaned out, while lavish public spectacles were put on.

Agrippa signalized his tenure of office by effecting great improvements in the city of Rome, restoring and building aqueducts, enlarging and cleansing the Cloaca Maxima, constructing baths and porticos, and laying out gardens. He also gave a stimulus to the public exhibition of works of art.

It was unusual for an ex-consul to hold the lower-ranking position of aedile, but Agrippa's success
bore out this break with tradition. As emperor, Augustus would later boast that "he had found the city of brick but left it of marble", thanks in part to the great services provided by Agrippa under his reign.

Agrippa's father-in-law Atticus, suffering from a serious illness, committed suicide in 32 BC. According to Atticus' friend and biographer Cornelius Nepos, this decision was a cause of serious grief to Agrippa.

Agrippa was again called away to take command of the fleet when the war with Antony and Cleopatra broke out. He captured the strategically important city of Methone at the southwest of the Pelo-
ponnese, then sailed north, raiding the Greek coast and capturing Corcyra (modern Corfu).
Octavian then brought his forces to Corcyra, occupying it as a naval base.  Antony drew up his ships and troops at Actium, where Octavian moved to meet him. Agrippa meanwhile defeated Antony's supporter Quintus Nasidius in a naval battle at Patrae.

Dio relates that as Agrippa moved to join Octavian near Actium, he encountered Gaius Sosius, one of Antony's lieutenants, who was making a surprise attack on the squadron of Lucius Tarius, a supporter of Octavian. Agrippa's unexpected arrival turned the battle around.

As the decisive battle approached, according to Dio, Octavian received intelligence that Antony
and Cleopatra planned to break past his naval blockade and escape. At first he wished to allow the flagships past, arguing that he could overtake them with his lighter vessels and that the other opposing ships would surrender when they saw their leaders' cowardice. Agrippa objected that Antony's ships, although larger, could outrun Octavian's if they hoisted sails, and that Octavian ought to fight now because Antony's fleet had just been struck by storms. Octavian followed his friend's advice.

On September 2 31 BC, the Battle of Actium was fought. Octavian's victory, which gave him the mastery of Rome and the empire of the world, was mainly due to Agrippa.

As a token of signal regard, Octavian bestowed upon him the hand of his niece Claudia Marcella Major in 28 BC. He also served a second consulship with Octavian the same year. In 27 BC, Agrippa held a third consulship with Octavian, and in that year, the senate also bestowed upon Octavian the imperial title of Augustus.

In commemoration of the Battle of Actium, Agrippa built and dedicated the building that served as the Roman Pantheon before its destruction in 80. Emperor Hadrian used Agrippa's design to build his own Pantheon, which survives in Rome.

The inscription of the later building, which was built around 125, preserves the text of the inscription from Agrippa's building during his third consulship. The years following his third consulship, Agrippa spent in Gaul, reforming the provincial administration and taxation system, along with building an effective road system and aqueducts.
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« Reply #59 on: March 25, 2008, 09:08:01 pm »



The theatre at Merida, Spain; it was promoted by Agrippa, built between 16 and 15 BC.
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