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{{Short description|Roman emperor from 117 to 138}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2019}} 
{{Infobox Roman emperor
| name         = Hadrian
| image        = München SMAEK 2019-03-23n.jpg
| image_size   = 
| alt          = Bust of Hadrian
| caption      = Bust of Hadrian, {{circa|130}}
| succession   = [[Roman emperor]]
| reign        = 11 August 117 – 10 July 138
| predecessor  = [[Trajan]]
| successor    = [[Antoninus Pius]]
| birth_name   = Publius Aelius Hadrianus
| birth_date   = 24 January 76
| birth_place  = [[Italica]], [[Hispania Baetica]], Roman Empire (present-day [[Santiponce]], [[Spain]])
| death_date   = 10 July 138 (aged 62)
| death_place  = [[Baiae]], [[Roman Italy|Italia]], Roman Empire
| burial_place = {{ublist|list_style=list-style: decimal inside;|[[Puteoli]]|[[Gardens of Domitia]]|[[Castel Sant'Angelo|Hadrian's Mausoleum]]}}
| spouse       = [[Vibia Sabina]]
| issue        = {{ubl|[[Lucius Aelius Caesar]]|[[Antoninus Pius]]}}
| issue-type   = Adoptive children
| regnal name  = Imperator Caesar Trajanus Hadrianus Augustus<ref>Salmon, 333</ref>
| dynasty      = [[Nerva–Antonine dynasty|Nerva–Antonine]]
| father       = {{ubl|[[Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer]]|[[Trajan]] (adoptive)}}
| mother       = [[Domitia Paulina Major]]
| religion     = [[Hellenistic religion]]
}}
{{Nerva–Antonine dynasty|image=[[File:INC-1842-a Ауреус Адриан ок. 119-122 гг. (аверс).png|150px]]|caption=Aureus of Hadrian}}

'''Hadrian''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|eɪ|d|r|i|ən}} {{respell|HAY|dree|ən}}; born '''Publius Aelius Hadrianus''', 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was [[Roman emperor]] from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in [[Italica]], in the present-day [[Andalusia|Andalusian]] province of [[Province of Seville|Seville]] in southern Spain, an [[Italic peoples|Italic settlement]] in [[Hispania Baetica]]; his [[Aelia gens|gens Aelia]] came from the town of [[Atri, Abruzzo|Hadria]] in eastern Italy. He was a member of the [[Nerva–Antonine dynasty]].

Early in his political career, Hadrian married [[Vibia Sabina]], [[grandniece]] of the ruling emperor, [[Trajan]], and his second cousin once removed. The marriage and Hadrian's later succession as emperor were probably promoted by Trajan's wife [[Pompeia Plotina]]. Soon after his own succession, Hadrian had four leading senators unlawfully put to death, probably because they seemed to threaten the security of his reign; this earned him the senate's lifelong enmity. He earned further disapproval by abandoning Trajan's expansionist policies and territorial gains in [[Mesopotamia (Roman province)|Mesopotamia]], [[Assyria (Roman province)|Assyria]], [[Roman Armenia|Armenia]], and parts of [[Roman Dacia|Dacia]]. Hadrian preferred to invest in the development of stable, defensible borders and the unification of the Roman empire's disparate peoples and subjects. He was a promoter of [[philhellenism]].

Hadrian energetically pursued his own Imperial ideals and personal interests. He visited almost every province of the Empire, and indulged a preference for direct intervention in imperial and provincial affairs, especially building projects. He is particularly known for building [[Hadrian's Wall]], which marked the northern limit of [[Roman Britain|Britannia]]. In Rome itself, he rebuilt the [[Pantheon, Rome|Pantheon]] and constructed the vast [[Temple of Venus and Roma]]. In Egypt, he may have rebuilt the [[Serapeum of Alexandria]]. As an ardent admirer of Greek culture, he promoted Athens as the cultural capital of the Empire. His intense relationship with Greek youth [[Antinous]] and the latter's untimely death led Hadrian to establish a widespread, popular cult. Late in Hadrian's reign, he suppressed the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]], which he saw as a failure of his universal project and philhellenic ideal.

Hadrian's last years were marred by chronic illness. His marriage had been both unhappy and childless. In 138, he adopted [[Antoninus Pius]] and nominated him as a successor, on condition that Antoninus adopt [[Marcus Aurelius]] and [[Lucius Verus]] as his own heirs. Hadrian died the same year at [[Baiae]], and Antoninus had him [[Imperial cult (ancient Rome)|deified]], despite opposition from the Senate. Later historians counted him as one of Rome's so-called "[[Five Good Emperors]]", and as a benevolent autocrat.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=enA0q6165sQC&dq=hadrian+benevolent+autocrat&pg=PT38 | title=Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome | isbn=978-1-58836-896-6 | last1=Everitt | first1=Anthony | date=September 2009 | publisher=Random House Publishing }}</ref> His own Senate found him remote and authoritarian. He has been described as enigmatic and contradictory, with a capacity for both great personal generosity and extreme cruelty and driven by insatiable curiosity, conceit, and ambition.<ref>Ando, Clifford "Hadrian: The Restless Emperor by Anthony R. Birley", ''[[Phoenix (journal)|Phoenix]]'', 52 (1998), pp.&nbsp;183–185. {{JSTOR|1088268}}.</ref>

==Early life==
[[File:Attica_06-13_Athens_24_Arch_of_Hadrian.jpg|thumb|[[Arch of Hadrian (Athens)|Hadrian's Arch]] in central [[Athens]], Greece.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kouremenos |first=Anna |date=2022 |title="The City of Hadrian and not of Theseus": a cultural history of Hadrian's Arch |url=https://www.academia.edu/43746490 |website=Academia.edu}}</ref>
Hadrian's admiration for Greece materialised in such projects ordered during his reign]]
Publius Aelius Hadrianus was born on 24 January 76, in [[Italica]] (modern [[Santiponce]], near [[Seville]]), a Roman town founded by Italic settlers in the province of [[Hispania Baetica]] during the [[Second Punic War]] at the initiative of [[Scipio Africanus]]; Hadrian's branch of the [[Aelia gens]]  came from Hadria (modern [[Atri, Italy|Atri]]), an ancient town in the [[Picenum]] region of Italia, the source of the name ''Hadrianus''. One Roman biographer claims instead that Hadrian was born in [[Rome]], but this view is held by a minority of scholars.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Mary T. Boatwright|editor1-last=Barrett|editor1-first=Anthony|title=Lives of the Caesars|date=2008|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|isbn=978-1-4051-2755-4|page=159|chapter=From Domitian to Hadrian}}</ref><ref>Alicia M. Canto, [https://www.academia.edu/1082511/It%C3%A1lica_sedes_natalis_de_Adriano._31_textos_hist%C3%B3ricos_y_argumentos_para_una_secular_pol%C3%A9mica_2004_ Itálica, ''sedes natalis'' de Adriano. 31 textos históricos y argumentos para una secular polémica], ''Athenaeum'' XCII/2, 2004, 367–408.</ref><ref>Ronald Syme, "Hadrian and Italica" (''Journal of Roman Studies'', LIV, 1964; pp.{{nbsp}}142–149) supports the position that Rome was Hadrian's birthplace. Canto argues that among the ancient sources, only the [[Historia Augusta]], ''Vita Hadriani'' 2,4, claims this. 25 other sources, including Hadrian's horoscope, state that he was born in Italica. See 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'', Walter de Gruyter, 2005, p. 49 {{ISBN|978-3-11-018545-4}}: Cramer, FH., ''Astrology in Roman Law and Politics'', Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, 37, Philadelphia, 1954 (reprinted 1996), 162–178, footnotes 121b, 122 ''et al.,''[https://books.google.com/books?id=zv0UAAAAIAAJ Googlebooks preview] O.{{nbsp}}Neugebauer and H.{{nbsp}}B. Van Hoesen, "Greek Horoscopes" ''Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society,'' 48, 76, Philadelphia, 1959, pp. 80–90, 91, and footnote 19, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kEgnLpm06zQC googlebooks preview of 1987 edition]</ref>

Hadrian's father was [[Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer]], a [[Roman Senate|senator]] of [[praetor]]ian rank, born and raised in Italica. Hadrian's mother was [[Domitia Paulina]], daughter of a distinguished Roman senatorial family based in Gades ([[Cádiz]]).<ref name="Royston Lambert-31">Royston Lambert, ''Beloved And God'', pp.{{nbsp}}31–32.</ref> His only sibling was an elder sister, [[Aelia Domitia Paulina]]. His [[wet nurse]] was the slave Germana, probably of Germanic origin, to whom he was devoted throughout his life. He later freed her, and she ultimately outlived him, as shown by her funerary inscription, which was found at [[Hadrian's Villa]] at [[Tivoli, Lazio|Tivoli]].<ref>''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]]'' VI 10909 ([Text http://www.edr-edr.it/edr_programmi/res_complex_comune.php?do=book&id_nr=EDR131420&partId=1] on the Epigraphic Database Roma)</ref>{{sfn|Morwood|2013|pp=5 & 43}}{{sfn|Opper|2008|p=34}} Hadrian's great-nephew, [[Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator (consul 118)|Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator]], from [[Barcelona|Barcino]] (Barcelona) would become Hadrian's colleague as co-consul in 118. As a senator, Hadrian's father would have spent much of his time in Rome.<ref>On the numerous senatorial families from Spain residing at Rome and its vicinity around the time of Hadrian's birth see R.&nbsp;Syme, 'Spaniards at Tivoli', in ''Roman Papers IV'' (Oxford, 1988), pp.{{nbsp}}96–114. Hadrian went on to build an Imperial villa at Tivoli (Tibur)</ref> In terms of his later career, Hadrian's most significant family connection was to [[Trajan]], his father's [[first cousin]], who was also of senatorial stock and a native of Italica. Although they were considered to be, in the words of [[Aurelius Victor]], ''advenae'' ("aliens", people "from the outside"), both Trajan and Hadrian were of Italic lineage and belonged to the upper class of Roman society. One author has proposed to consider them part of the "[[gens Ulpia|Ulpio]]-[[gens Aelia|Aelian]] dynasty".<ref>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</ref>

Hadrian's parents died in 86 when he was ten years old. He and his sister became wards of Trajan and [[Publius Acilius Attianus]] (who later became Trajan's [[Praetorian prefect]]).<ref name="Royston Lambert-31"/> Hadrian was physically active and enjoyed hunting; when he was 14, Trajan called him to Rome and arranged his further [[Education in ancient Rome|education]] in subjects appropriate to a young Roman [[Aristocracy|aristocrat]].<ref>Anthony Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 24–26</ref> Hadrian's enthusiasm for [[Ancient Greek literature|Greek literature]] and culture earned him the nickname ''Graeculus'' ("Greekling"), intended as a form of "mild mockery".<ref>Anthony Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 16–17</ref>

==Public service==
Hadrian's first official post in Rome was as a member of the ''[[decemviri stlitibus judicandis]]'', one among many [[vigintisexviri|vigintivirate]] offices at the lowest level of the ''[[cursus honorum]]'' ("course of honours") that could lead to higher office and a senatorial career. He then served as a [[military tribune]], first with the [[Legio II Adiutrix|Legio{{nbsp}}II ''Adiutrix'']] in 95, then with the [[Legio V Macedonica]]. During Hadrian's second stint as tribune, the frail and aged reigning emperor [[Nerva]] adopted Trajan as his heir; Hadrian was dispatched to give Trajan the news – or most probably was one of many emissaries charged with this same commission.<ref>Anthony Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', p.{{nbsp}}37</ref> Then Hadrian was transferred to [[Legio XXII Primigenia]] and a third tribunate.<ref>John D. Grainger, ''Nerva and the Roman Succession Crisis of AD 96–99''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2004, {{ISBN|0-415-34958-3}}, p. 109</ref> 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.<ref>Thorsten Opper, ''The Emperor Hadrian''. British Museum Press, 2008, p.{{snds}}39</ref><ref>Jörg Fündling, ''Kommentar zur Vita Hadriani der Historia Augusta'' (= Antiquitas. Reihe 4: Beiträge zur Historia-Augusta-Forschung, Serie 3: Kommentare, Bände 4.1 und 4.2). Habelt, Bonn 2006, {{ISBN|3-7749-3390-1}}, p.&nbsp;351.</ref> 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.<ref>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.&nbsp;P.: 2000, {{ISBN|0-521-26335-2}}, p.&nbsp;133.</ref>

In 101, Hadrian was back in Rome; 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&nbsp;– 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.<ref>Anthony Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', p.{{nbsp}}54</ref> His next post was as ''ab actis senatus'', keeping the Senate's records.<ref>Boatwright, in Barrett, p. 158</ref> 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]].<ref>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</ref> During the [[Second Dacian War]], Hadrian was in Trajan's personal service again. He was released to serve as [[legatus|legate]] of [[Legio I Minervia]], then as governor of [[Pannonia Inferior|Lower Pannonia]] in 107, tasked with "holding back the [[Sarmatians]]".<ref name="Bowman, 133">Bowman, p. 133</ref><ref>Anthony Everitt, 2013, Chapter XI: "holding back the Sarmatians" may simply have meant maintaining and patrolling the border.</ref> Between 107 and 108, Hadrian defeated an invasion of Roman-controlled [[Banat]] and [[Oltenia]] by the [[Iazyges]].{{sfn|Giurescu|Fischer-Galaţi|1998|p=39}}{{sfn|Mócsy|2014|p=94}}{{sfn|Bârcă|2013|p=19}} The exact terms of the peace treaty are not known. It is believed the Romans kept Oltenia in exchange for some form of concession, likely involving a one-time tribute payment.{{sfn|Mócsy|2014|p=94}} The Iazyges also took possession of Banat around this time, which may have been part of the treaty.{{sfn|Mócsy|2014|p=101}}

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).<ref>The inscription in footnote 1</ref> The Athenians awarded him a statue with an inscription in the [[Theatre of Dionysus]] ([[Inscriptiones Graecae|IG]] II2 3286) offering a detailed account of his ''cursus honorum'' thus far.<ref>The Athenian inscription confirms and expands the one in ''Historia Augusta''; see John Bodel, ed., ''Epigraphic Evidence: Ancient History From Inscriptions''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2006, {{ISBN|0-415-11623-6}}, p. 89</ref><ref>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: ''[[Decemviri|decemvir stlitibus iudicandis]]/ sevir [[turma]]e equitum Romanorum/ [[Praefectus urbi|praefectus Urbi]] feriarum Latinarum/ [[military tribune|tribunus militum]] legionis&nbsp;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/ [[tribune|tribunus plebis]] (105)/ [[praetor]] (106)/ [[legatus legionis]] I Minerviae Piae Fidelis (106, in Germania Inferior)/ [[legatus]] Augusti pro praetore Pannoniae Inferioris (107)/ [[suffect consul|consul suffectus]] (108)/ [[Epulones|septemvir epulonum]] (before 112)/ [[sodalis Augustalis]] (before 112)/ archon Athenis (112/13)''.

He also held office as ''legatus [[Syria (Roman province)|Syriae]]'' (117): see H.{{nbsp}}W. Benario in [http://www.roman-emperors.org/hadrian.htm Roman-emperors.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110408201312/http://www.roman-emperors.org/hadrian.htm |date=8 April 2011 }}</ref> Thereafter, no more is heard of him until [[Trajan's Parthian campaign]]. It is possible that he remained in Greece until his recall to the imperial retinue,<ref name="Bowman, 133"/> when he joined Trajan's expedition against [[Parthian Empire|Parthia]] as a legate.<ref>Anthony Birley, ''Hadrian the Restless Emperor'', p.{{nbsp}}68</ref> When the governor of [[Syria (Roman province)|Syria]] was sent to deal with renewed troubles in Dacia, Hadrian was appointed his replacement, with independent command.<ref>Anthony Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', p.{{nbsp}}75</ref> Trajan became seriously ill, and took ship for Rome, while Hadrian remained in Syria, ''de facto'' general commander of the Eastern Roman army.<ref>Karl Strobel: ''Kaiser Traian. Eine Epoche der Weltgeschichte''. Regensburg: 2010, p. 401.</ref> Trajan got as far as the coastal city of [[Gazipaşa|Selinus]], in [[Cilicia]], and died there on 8 August 117; he would be regarded as one of Rome's most admired, popular and best emperors.

===Relationship with Trajan and his family===
Around the time of his quaestorship, in 100 or 101, Hadrian had married Trajan's seventeen- or eighteen-year-old grandniece, [[Vibia Sabina]], his second cousin once removed. Trajan himself seems to have been less than enthusiastic about the marriage, and with good reason, as the couple's relationship would prove to be scandalously poor.<ref>Robert H. Allen, ''The Classical Origins of Modern Homophobia'', Jefferson: Mcfarland, 2006, {{ISBN|978-0-7864-2349-1}}, p.{{nbsp}}120</ref> The marriage might have been arranged by Trajan's empress, Plotina. This highly cultured, influential woman shared many of Hadrian's values and interests, including the idea of the Roman Empire as a commonwealth with an underlying Hellenic culture.<ref>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 [http://campus.usal.es/~revistas_trabajo/index.php/0213-2052/article/viewFile/6224/6238]. Retrieved 11 January 2017</ref> If Hadrian were to be appointed Trajan's successor, Plotina and her extended family could retain their social profile and political influence after Trajan's death.<ref>Plotina may have sought to avoid the fate of her contemporary, former empress [[Domitia Longina]], who had fallen into social and political oblivion: see François Chausson, "Variétés Généalogiques IV:Cohésion, Collusions, Collisions: Une Autre Dynastie Antonine", in Giorgio Bonamente, Hartwin Brandt, eds., ''Historiae Augustae Colloquium Bambergense''. Bari: Edipuglia, 2007, {{ISBN|978-88-7228-492-6}}, p. 143</ref> Hadrian could also count on the support of his mother-in-law, [[Salonia Matidia]], who was the daughter of Trajan's beloved sister [[Ulpia Marciana]].<ref>Marasco, p. 375</ref><ref>Tracy Jennings, "A Man Among Gods: Evaluating the Significance of Hadrian's Acts of Deification." ''Journal of Undergraduate Research'': 54. Available at [http://www3.nd.edu/~ujournal/wp-content/uploads/Full-Print-Edition-with-cover_09-10.pdf#page=62] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416045613/http://www3.nd.edu/~ujournal/wp-content/uploads/Full-Print-Edition-with-cover_09-10.pdf|date=16 April 2017}}. Accessed 15 April 2017</ref> When Ulpia Marciana died in 112, Trajan had her [[Imperial cult (ancient Rome)|deified]], and made Salonia Matidia an ''[[Augustus (title)#Feminine equivalent|Augusta]]''.<ref>This made Hadrian the first senator in history to have an ''Augusta'' as his mother-in-law, something that his contemporaries could not fail to notice: see Christer Brun, "Matidia die Jüngere", IN Anne Kolb, ed., ''Augustae. Machtbewusste Frauen am römischen Kaiserhof?: Herrschaftsstrukturen und Herrschaftspraxis II. Akten der Tagung in Zürich 18–20. 9. 2008''. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2010, {{ISBN|978-3-05-004898-7}}, p.{{nbsp}}230</ref>

[[File:(Toulouse) Buste de Trajan type dit 'des Decennalia' - Musée Saint-Raymond, Ra 58 b.jpg|thumb|upright|Bust of Emperor [[Trajan]]; [[Musée Saint-Raymond]], Toulouse]]
Hadrian's personal relationship with [[Trajan]] was complex and may have been difficult. Hadrian seems to have sought influence over Trajan, or Trajan's decisions, through cultivation of the latter's boy favourites; this gave rise to some unexplained quarrel, around the time of Hadrian's marriage to Sabina.<ref>Thorsten Opper, ''Hadrian: Empire and Conflict''. Harvard University Press, 2008, p. 170</ref><ref>David L. Balch, Carolyn Osiek, eds., ''Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue''. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003, {{ISBN|0-8028-3986-X}}, p.{{nbsp}}301</ref> Late in Trajan's reign, Hadrian failed to achieve a senior consulship, being only suffect consul for 108;<ref>Anthony R Birley, ''Hadrian: The Restless Emperor'', p.{{nbsp}}54</ref> this gave him parity of status with other members of the senatorial nobility,<ref>Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, Dominic Rathbone, eds., ''The Cambridge Ancient History'', XI, p. 133</ref> but no particular distinction befitting an heir designate.<ref>Mackay, Christopher. ''Ancient Rome: a Military and Political History''. Cambridge U. Press: 2007, {{ISBN|0-521-80918-5}}, p.{{nbsp}}229</ref> Had Trajan wished it, he could have promoted his protege to [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] rank and its privileges, which included opportunities for a fast track to consulship without prior experience as tribune; he chose not to.<ref>Fündling, 335</ref> While Hadrian seems to have been granted the office of tribune of the plebs a year or so younger than was customary, he had to leave Dacia, and Trajan, to take up the appointment; Trajan might simply have wanted him out of the way.<ref>Gabriele Marasco, ed., ''Political Autobiographies and Memoirs in Antiquity: A Brill Companion''. Leiden: Brill, 2011, {{ISBN|978-90-04-18299-8}}, p.{{nbsp}}375</ref> The ''[[Historia Augusta]]'' describes Trajan's gift to Hadrian of a diamond ring that Trajan himself had received from [[Nerva]], which "encouraged [Hadrian's] hopes of succeeding to the throne".<ref>''Historia Augusta'', ''Life of Hadrian'', 3.7</ref><ref>In 23 BC [[Augustus]] handed a similar ring to his heir apparent, [[Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa|Agrippa]]: see Judith Lynn Sebesta, [[Larissa Bonfante]], eds., ''The World of Roman Costume''. University of Wisconsin Press, 1994, p.&nbsp;78</ref> While Trajan actively promoted Hadrian's advancement, he did so with caution.<ref>Fündling, 351</ref>

===Succession===
Failure to nominate an heir could invite chaotic, destructive wresting of power by a succession of competing claimants – a civil war. Too early a nomination could be seen as an abdication and reduce the chance for an orderly transmission of power.<ref>Fündling, 384; Strobel, 401.</ref> 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;<ref>John Richardson, "The Roman Mind and the power of fiction" IN Lewis Ayres, Ian Gray Kidd, eds. ''The Passionate Intellect: Essays on the Transformation of Classical Traditions : Presented to Professor I.G. Kidd''. New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1995, {{ISBN|1-56000-210-7}}, p. 128</ref> but when an adoption document was eventually presented, it was signed not by Trajan but by Plotina.<ref>Birley, Anthony, Hadrian, the restless emperor, London / New York 1997, pp 77f, based on Dio and the Historia Augusta; Elizabeth Speller, p. 25</ref> That Hadrian was still in Syria was 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.<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', p. 80</ref> Ancient sources are divided on the legitimacy of Hadrian's adoption: [[Cassius Dio]] saw it as bogus and the ''[[Historia Augusta]]'' writer as genuine.<ref>Stephan Brassloff, "Die Rechtsfrage bei der Adoption Hadrians". ''Hermes'' 49. Bd., H. 4 (Sep. 1914), pp. 590–601</ref> An [[aureus]] minted early in Hadrian's reign represents the official position; it presents Hadrian as Trajan's "[[Caesar (title)|Caesar]]" (Trajan's heir designate).<ref>The coin legend runs HADRIANO TRAIANO CAESARI; see Burnett, Andrew, The early coinage of Hadrian and the deified Trajan at Rome and Alexandria, American Journal of Numismatics 20, 2008, pp 459–477; see also 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; For the portrait type of Hadrian on his early coins of 117AD with a partial beard showing his chin free of a beard see Pangerl, Andreas, Hadrian’s First and Second Imperial Portrait Types of 117–118 AD; Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte 71, 2021, pp. 171–184</ref>

==Emperor (117)==
===Securing power===
[[File:Roman Empire 125.png|thumb|upright=1.5|The Roman Empire in 125, under the rule of Hadrian]]
According to the ''Historia Augusta'', Hadrian informed the Senate of his accession in a letter as a ''fait accompli'', explaining 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".<ref>''Historia Augusta'', Life of Hadrian, 6.2</ref> The new emperor rewarded the legions' loyalty with the customary [[Donativum|bonus]], and the Senate endorsed the acclamation. Various public ceremonies were organised on Hadrian's behalf, celebrating his "divine election" by all the gods, whose community now included Trajan, deified at Hadrian's request.<ref>Egyptian papyri tell of one such ceremony between 117 and 118; see Michael Peppard, ''The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in Its Social and Political Context''. Oxford U. Press, 2011, {{ISBN|978-0-19-975370-3}}, pp. 72f</ref>

Hadrian remained in the east for a while, suppressing [[Kitos War|the Jewish revolt that had broken out under Trajan]]. He relieved Judea's governor, the outstanding Moorish general [[Lusius Quietus]], of his personal guard of Moorish auxiliaries;<ref>Royston Lambert, p. 34</ref><ref>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 10 June 2015. Available at [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/bude_0004-5527_1980_num_1_3_1078]</ref> 
then he moved on to quell disturbances along the [[Danube]] frontier. In Rome, Hadrian's former guardian and current [[praetorian prefect]], Attianus, claimed to have uncovered a conspiracy involving Lusius Quietus and three other leading senators, Lucius Publilius Celsus, Aulus Cornelius Palma Frontonianus and Gaius Avidius Nigrinus.<ref name="Elizabeth Speller">Elizabeth Speller.</ref> There was no public trial for the four&nbsp;– they were tried ''in absentia'', hunted down and killed.<ref name="Elizabeth Speller"/> Hadrian claimed that Attianus had acted on his own initiative, and rewarded him with senatorial status and consular rank; then pensioned him off, no later than 120.<ref>It is likely that Hadrian found Attianus' ambition suspect. Attianus was likely dead, or executed, by the end of Hadrian's reign; see Françoise Des Boscs-Plateaux, Un parti hispanique à Rome?: ascension des élites hispaniques et pouvoir politique d'Auguste à Hadrien, 27 av. J.-C.-138 ap. J.-C. Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2005, {{ISBN|84-95555-80-8}}, p. 611</ref> Hadrian assured the senate that henceforth their ancient right to prosecute and judge their own would be respected.

The reasons for these four executions remain obscure. Official recognition of Hadrian as a legitimate heir may have come too late to dissuade other potential claimants.<ref>Opper, ''Hadrian: Empire and Conflict'', 55</ref> Hadrian's greatest rivals were Trajan's closest friends, the most experienced and senior members of the imperial council;<ref>John Antony Crook, ''Consilium Principis: Imperial Councils and Counsellors from Augustus to Diocletian''. Cambridge University Press: 1955, pp. 54f</ref> any of them might have been a legitimate competitor for the imperial office (''capaces imperii'');<ref>Marasco, p. 377</ref> and any of them might have supported Trajan's expansionist policies, which Hadrian intended to change.<ref>[[Michel Christol]] & D.&nbsp;Nony, ''Rome et son Empire''. Paris: Hachette, 2003, {{ISBN|2-01-145542-1}}, p. 158</ref> One of their number was [[Aulus Cornelius Palma Frontonianus|Aulus Cornelius Palma]] who as a former conqueror of [[Arabia (province)|Arabia Nabatea]] would have retained a stake in the East.<ref>Hadrien Bru, ''Le pouvoir impérial dans les provinces syriennes: Représentations et célébrations d'Auguste à Constantin''. Leiden: Brill, 2011, {{ISBN|978-90-04-20363-1}}, pp. 46f</ref> 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.<ref>Carcopino Jérôme. "L'hérédité dynastique chez les Antonins". ''Revue des Études Anciennes''. Tome 51, 1949, no.3–4. pp. 262–321.</ref> 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. He was probably Hadrian's chief rival for the throne; a senator of the 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.<ref>Cizek, "L'éloge de Caius Avidius Nigrinus"</ref><ref>Nigrinus' ambiguous relationship with Hadrian would have consequences late in Hadrian's reign, when he had to plan his own succession; see Anthony Everitt, ''Hadrian and the triumph of Rome''. New York: Random House, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-4000-6662-9}}.</ref>
[[File:Hadrianus coin - 119.jpg|thumb|left|A [[denarius]] of Hadrian issued in 119 AD for his third [[Roman consul|consulship]]. The legends read as: HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS / LIBERALITAS AVG. CO[N]S III, P. P.]]
Soon after, in 125, Hadrian appointed [[Quintus Marcius Turbo]] as his Praetorian Prefect.<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', p. 91</ref> Turbo was his close friend, a leading figure of the equestrian order, a senior court judge and a [[Procurator (Roman)|procurator]].<ref>Christol & Nony, p. 158</ref><ref>Richard P. Saller, ''Personal Patronage Under the Early Empire''. Cambridge University Press: 2002, {{ISBN|0-521-23300-3}}, p. 140</ref> As Hadrian also forbade equestrians to try cases against senators,<ref>Richard A. Bauman, ''Crime and Punishment in Ancient Rome''. London: Routledge, 2002, {{ISBN|0-203-42858-7}}, p. 83</ref> the Senate retained full legal authority over its members; it also remained the highest court of appeal, and formal appeals to the emperor regarding its decisions were forbidden.<ref>[[Digest (Roman law)|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 (June 1926), pp. 753–766</ref> If this was an attempt to repair the damage done by Attianus, with or without Hadrian's full knowledge, it was not enough; Hadrian's reputation and relationship with his Senate were irredeemably soured, for the rest of his reign.<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', p. 88</ref> Some sources describe Hadrian's occasional recourse to a network of informers, the ''[[frumentarii]]'',<ref>Christopher J. Fuhrmann, ''Policing the Roman Empire: Soldiers, Administration, and Public Order''. Oxford University Press, 2012, {{ISBN|978-0-19-973784-0}}, p. 153</ref> to discreetly investigate persons of high social standing, including senators and his close friends.<ref>Rose Mary Sheldon, ''Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome: Trust in the Gods But Verify''. London: Routledge, 2004, {{ISBN|0-7146-5480-9}}, p. 253</ref>

==Travels==
[[File:Hadrian Greek BM Sc1381.jpg|thumb|upright|This 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.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Kennedy |first1=Maev |title=How Victorian restorers faked the clothes that seemed to show Hadrian's softer side |website=[[The Guardian]] |date=9 June 2008 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/jun/09/heritage.art |access-date=9 June 2008}}</ref><br />[[British Museum]], London]]
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 civilised peoples and a common Hellenic culture under Roman supervision.<ref>Paul Veyne, ''Le Pain et le Cirque'', Paris: Seuil, 1976, {{ISBN|2-02-004507-9}}, p. 655</ref> He supported the creation of provincial towns ([[Municipium|municipia]]), semi-autonomous urban communities with their own customs and laws, rather than the imposition of new Roman [[Roman colony|colonies]] with Roman constitutions.<ref>András Mócsy, ''Pannonia and Upper Moesia (Routledge Revivals): A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire'', Routledge, 2014 {{page}}</ref>

A cosmopolitan, ecumenical intent is evident in coin issues of Hadrian's later reign, showing the emperor "raising up" the personifications of various provinces.<ref>Paul Veyne, " ''Humanitas'': Romans and non-Romans". In Andrea Giardina, ed., ''The Romans'', University of Chicago Press: 1993, {{ISBN|0-226-29049-2}}, p. 364</ref> [[Aelius Aristides]] would later write that Hadrian "extended over his subjects a protecting hand, raising them as one helps fallen men on their feet".<ref name="Christol & Nony, 159">Christol & Nony, p. 159</ref> 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 eastern provinces, and to some extent in the west, Nero had enjoyed popular support; claims of his imminent [[Nero Redivivus legend|return or rebirth]] emerged almost immediately after his death. Hadrian may have consciously exploited these positive, popular connections during his own travels.<ref>Larry Joseph Kreitzer, ''Striking New Images: Roman Imperial Coinage and the New Testament World''. Sheffield: A & C Black, 1996, {{ISBN|1-85075-623-6}}, pp. 194ff</ref> In the ''Historia Augusta'', Hadrian is described as "a little too much Greek", too cosmopolitan for a Roman emperor.<ref>Simon Goldhill, ''Being Greek Under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire''. Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 12 {{ISBN|0-521-66317-2}}</ref>

===Britannia and the West (122)===
{{main|Hadrian's Wall}}

[[File:Milecastle 39 on Hadrian's Wall.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|left|[[Hadrian's Wall]], the Roman frontier fortification in northern England, looking east. [[Milecastle 39]] is in the foreground. Scotland lies to the north, or left.]]
Prior to Hadrian's arrival in [[Roman Britain|Britannia]], the province had suffered a major rebellion from 118 to 119.<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', p. 123</ref> 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.<ref>Opper, p. 79</ref> Coin legends of 119–120 attest that [[Quintus Pompeius Falco]] was sent to restore order. In 122 Hadrian initiated the construction of a wall "to separate Romans from barbarians".<ref>''Scriptores Historiae Augustae'', Hadrian, xi, 2</ref> The idea that the wall was built in order to deal with an actual threat or its resurgence, however, is probable but nevertheless conjectural.<ref>Nick Hodgson, ''Hadrian's Wall: Archaeology and history at the limit of Rome's empire''. Ramsbury: Crowood Press, 2017, {{ISBN|978-0-7-1982-159-2}}</ref> A general desire to cease the Empire's extension may have been the determining motive. Reduction of defence costs may also have played a role, as the Wall deterred attacks on Roman territory at a lower cost than a massed border army,<ref>Patrick le&nbsp;Roux, ''Le haut-Empire romain en Occident d'Auguste aux Sévères''. Paris: Seuil, 1998, {{ISBN|2-02-025932-X}}, p. 396</ref> and controlled cross-border trade and immigration.<ref name="Breeze">Breeze, David J., and Brian Dobson, "Hadrian's Wall: Some Problems", ''Britannia'', Vol. 3, (1972), pp. 182–208</ref> A shrine was erected in York to Britannia as the divine [[National personification|personification of Britain]]; coins were struck, bearing her image, identified as Britannia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.24carat.co.uk/britanniaframe.html |title=Britannia on British Coins|publisher=Chard|access-date=25 June 2006}}</ref> By the end of 122, Hadrian had concluded his visit to Britannia. He never saw the finished [[Hadrian's Wall|wall that bears his name]].

Hadrian appears to have continued through southern Gaul. At [[Nîmes|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.<ref name="Birley, p. 145">Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', p. 145</ref> At around this time, Hadrian dismissed his secretary ''[[ab epistulis]]'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Potter |first1=David S. |author-link=David S. Potter |title=The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180–395 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7HKFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA77 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2014 |page=77 |isbn=9781134694778}}</ref> the biographer [[Suetonius]], for "excessive familiarity" towards the empress.<ref>Jason König, Katerina Oikonomopoulou, Greg Woolf, eds. ''Ancient Libraries''. Cambridge U. Press: 2013, {{ISBN|978-1-107-01256-1}}, p. 251</ref> Marcius Turbo's colleague as praetorian prefect, [[Gaius Septicius Clarus]], was dismissed for the same alleged reason, perhaps a pretext to remove him from office.<ref>Anthony Everitt, ''Hadrian and the triumph of Rome''.</ref> Hadrian spent the winter of 122/123 at [[Tarraco]], in Spain, where he restored the Temple of [[Augustus]].<ref>William E. Mierse, ''Temples and Towns in Roman Iberia: The Social and Architectural Dynamics of Sanctuary Designs from the Third Century B.C. to the Third Century A.D.''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009, {{ISBN|0-520-20377-1}}, p. 141</ref>

===Africa, Parthia (123)===
In 123, Hadrian crossed the Mediterranean to [[Mauretania]], where he personally led a minor campaign against local rebels.<ref>Royston Lambert, pp. 41–2</ref> The visit was cut short by reports of war preparations by Parthia; Hadrian quickly headed eastwards. At some point, he visited [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]], where he personally funded the training of young men from well-bred families for the Roman military. Cyrene had benefited earlier in Hadrian's reign (in 119) from his restoration of public buildings destroyed during the earlier, Trajanic Jewish revolt.<ref>Anthony Birley, pp. 151–152, 176–180</ref> Birley describes this kind of investment as "characteristic of Hadrian".<ref>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, {{ISBN|0-391-04155-X}}, p. 410</ref>

=== Anatolia; Antinous (123–124)===
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.<ref>Anthony Birley, pp. 153–165</ref> 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.<ref name="Anthony Birley, pp. 157–8">Anthony Birley, pp. 157–158</ref>

[[File:Bust of Antinous (2). 2nd cent. A.D (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|[[Bust of Antinous (NAMA)|Bust of Antinous]] from [[Patras]], [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]]]]

It is possible that Hadrian visited [[Claudiopolis (Bithynia)|Claudiopolis]] and saw the beautiful [[Antinous]], a young man of humble birth who became Hadrian's lover. Literary and epigraphic sources say nothing of 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.<ref name="Anthony Birley, pp. 157–8"/> 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.<ref>Royston Lambert, pp. 60–61</ref> The actual historical detail of their relationship is mostly unknown.<ref>Opper, ''Hadrian: Empire and Conflict'', p. 171</ref>

With or without Antinous, Hadrian travelled through [[Anatolia]]. Various traditions suggest his presence at particular locations and allege his foundation of a city within Mysia, [[Balıkesir|Hadrianutherae]], after a successful boar hunt. At about this time, plans to complete the Temple of Zeus in [[Cyzicus]], begun by the kings of [[Attalid dynasty|Pergamon]], were put into practice. The temple received a colossal statue of Hadrian. Cyzicus, [[Pergamon]], [[Smyrna]], [[Ephesus]] and [[Sardes]] were promoted as regional centres for the [[Imperial cult (ancient Rome)|imperial cult]] ([[neocorate|''neocoros'']]).<ref>Anthony Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 164–167</ref>

===Greece (124–125)===

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<ref>Anna Kouremenos and Giorgos Mitropoulos 2024. Romans at Besa : New Light on an Athenian Deme in the Imperial Period. In The Classical Quarterly. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/classical-quarterly/article/romans-at-besa-new-light-on-an-athenian-deme-in-the-imperial-period/91041B0F1ADCF24D12B8BC3037740300</ref> and an {{transliteration|grc|archonate}};<ref>Anna Kouremenos 2022. ''The Province of Achaea in the 2nd century CE: The Past Present''. London: Routledge {{ISBN|1032014857}}</ref> at the Athenians' request, he revised their constitution&nbsp;– among other things, he added a new [[phyle]] (tribe), which was named after him.<ref>Anthony Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 175–177</ref> 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 [[Ecclesia (ancient Athens)|Assembly]] and [[Boule (ancient Greece)|Council]], who had imposed production quotas on oil producers;<ref>Kaja Harter-Uibopuu, "Hadrian and the Athenian Oil Law", in O.M. Van Nijf&nbsp;– R.&nbsp;Alston (ed.), ''Feeding the Ancient Greek city''. Groningen – Royal Holloway Studies on the Greek City after the Classical Age, vol.&nbsp;1, Louvain 2008, pp. 127–141</ref> yet he granted an imperial subsidy for the Athenian grain supply.<ref>Brenda Longfellow, ''Roman Imperialism and Civic Patronage: Form, Meaning and Ideology in Monumental Fountain Complexes''. Cambridge U. Press: 2011, {{ISBN|978-0-521-19493-8}}, p. 120</ref> Hadrian created two [[Trust law|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]].<ref>Verhoogen Violette. Review of Graindor (Paul). ''Athènes sous Hadrien'', ''Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire'', 1935, vol.&nbsp;14, no.&nbsp;3, pp.&nbsp;926–931. Available at [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rbph_0035-0818_1935_num_14_3_1541_t1_0926_0000_2]. Retrieved 20 June 2015</ref> Generally Hadrian preferred that Greek notables, including priests of the imperial cult, focus on more essential and durable provisions, especially [[Munera (ancient Rome)|''munera'']] such as aqueducts and public fountains ([[Nymphaeum|''nymphaea'']]).<ref>Mark Golden, ''Greek Sport and Social Status'', University of Texas Press, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-292-71869-2}}, p. 88</ref> Athens was given two ''nymphaea''; one brought water from Mount Parnes to the [[Ancient Agora of Athens|Athenia Agora]] via a complex, challenging and ambitious system of aqueduct tunnels and reservoirs, to be constructed over several years.<ref name="auto">Anthony Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 182–184</ref> Several were given to Argos, to remedy a water-shortage so severe and so long-standing that "thirsty Argos" featured in Homeric epic.<ref>Cynthia Kosso, Anne Scott, eds., ''The Nature and Function of Water, Baths, Bathing, and Hygiene from Antiquity Through the Renaissance''. Leiden: Brill, 2009, {{ISBN|978-90-04-17357-6}}, pp. 216f</ref>

[[File:L'Olympieion (Athènes) (30776483926).jpg|thumb|The [[Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens]], completed under Emperor Hadrian in 131]]
During that winter, Hadrian toured the [[Peloponnese]]. His exact route is uncertain, but it took in [[Epidaurus]]; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] describes temples built there by Hadrian, and his statue&nbsp;– in [[heroic nudity]]&nbsp;– erected by its citizens<ref>[[Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis]], ''Truly Beyond Wonders: Aelius Aristides and the Cult of Asklepios''. OUP : 2010, {{ISBN|978-0-19-956190-2}}, p. 171</ref> in thanks to their "restorer". Antinous and Hadrian may have already been lovers at this time; Hadrian showed particular generosity to [[Mantinea]], which shared ancient, mythic, politically useful links with Antinous' home at Bithynia. He restored Mantinea's Temple of [[Poseidon|Poseidon Hippios]],<ref>Anthony Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 177–180</ref><ref>David S. Potter,''The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180–395''. London: Routledge, 2014, {{ISBN|978-0-415-84054-5}}, p. 44</ref> and according to Pausanias, restored the city's original, classical name. It had been renamed Antigoneia since Hellenistic times, after the Macedonian King [[Antigonus III Doson]]. Hadrian also rebuilt the ancient shrines of [[Abae]] and [[Megara]], and the [[Heraion of Argos]].<ref name="Boatwright, p. 134">Boatwright, p. 134</ref><ref>K. W. Arafat, ''Pausanias' Greece: Ancient Artists and Roman Rulers''. Cambridge U. Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-521-55340-7}}, pp. 162, 185</ref>

During his tour of the Peloponnese, Hadrian persuaded the [[Sparta]]n grandee Eurycles Herculanus&nbsp;– leader of the [[Euryclids|Euryclid]] family that had ruled Sparta since Augustus' day&nbsp;– to enter the Senate, alongside the Athenian grandee [[Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes (suffect consul 133)|Herodes Atticus the Elder]]. The two aristocrats would be the first from "Old Greece" to enter the Roman Senate, as representatives of Sparta and Athens, traditional rivals and "great powers" of the Classical Age.<ref>Birley, [http://uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa/zpe/downloads/1997/116pdf/116209.pdf "Hadrian and Greek Senators"], ''[[Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik]]'' 116 (1997), pp. 209–245. Retrieved 23 July 2015</ref> This was an important step in overcoming Greek notables' reluctance to take part in Roman political life.<ref>Christol & Nony, p. 203</ref> In March 125, Hadrian presided at the Athenian festival of [[Dionysia]], wearing Athenian dress. The [[Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens|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.<ref name="auto"/>

===Return to Italy and trip to Africa (126–128)===
{{multiple image
|total_width=400
|image1=1651 - Archaeological Museum, Athens - Hadrian - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 11 2009.jpg
|caption1=Colossal [[Roman portraiture|portrait bust]] of the emperor Hadrian with a [[Civic Crown|wreath of oak leaves]] (AD 117–138); [[Pentelic marble]], found in [[Athens]], [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]]
|image2=Emperor Hadrian Louvre Ma3131.jpg
|caption2=Hadrian in armour, wearing the [[gorgoneion]] on his [[breastplate]]; [[Roman sculpture|marble, Roman artwork]], c. 127–128 AD, from [[Heraklion]], [[Crete]], now in the [[Louvre]], Paris
}}

On his return to Italy, Hadrian made a detour to [[Sicily]]. Coins celebrate him as the restorer of the island.<ref name="AnthonyBirley-191">Anthony Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 191–200</ref> 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.<ref name="AnthonyBirley-191"/> He restored the shrine of [[Cupra (goddess)|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 Italian cases from the courts of Rome.<ref>J. Declareuil, ''Rome the Law-Giver'', London: Routledge, 2013, {{ISBN|0-415-15613-0}}, p. 72</ref> Having Italy effectively reduced to the status of a group of mere provinces did not go down well with the Roman Senate,<ref>Clifford Ando, ''Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, {{ISBN|978-0-520-22067-6}}</ref> and the innovation did not long outlive Hadrian's reign.<ref name="AnthonyBirley-191"/>

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 coincided with the good omen of rain, which ended a drought. Along with his usual role as benefactor and restorer, he found time to inspect the troops; his speech to them survives.<ref>Royston Lambert, pp. 71–72</ref> 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.<ref>Anthony Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 213–214</ref>

===Greece, Asia, and Egypt (128–130); Antinous's death===
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 League]] based 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&nbsp;– deciding whose claim to be a Greek city was genuine would take time&nbsp;– Hadrian set off for Ephesus.<ref>Anthony Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 215–120</ref> From Greece, Hadrian proceeded by way of Asia to Egypt, probably conveyed across the Aegean with his entourage by an Ephesian merchant, Lucius Erastus. Hadrian later sent a letter to the Council of Ephesus, supporting Erastus as a worthy candidate for town councillor and offering to pay the requisite fee.<ref>Boatwright, p. 81</ref>
[[File:Agilkia Hadriantor 03.jpg|thumb|The Gateway of Hadrian in [[Philae]]]]
Hadrian arrived in Egypt before the Egyptian New Year on 29 August 130.<ref>{{cite thesis|last1=Foertmeyer |first1=Victoria Anne |type=PhD|title=Tourism in Graeco-Roman Egypt |date=1989 |publisher=Princeton|pages=107–108}}</ref> He opened his stay in Egypt by restoring [[Pompey the Great]]'s tomb at [[Pelusium]],<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', p. 235</ref> offering sacrifice to him as a [[Greek hero cult|hero]] and composing an [[epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] for the tomb. As Pompey was universally acknowledged as responsible for establishing Rome's power in the east, this restoration was probably linked to a need to reaffirm Roman Eastern hegemony following social unrest there during Trajan's late reign.<ref>Boatwright, p. 142</ref> Hadrian and Antinous held a lion hunt in the Libyan desert; a poem on the subject by the Greek Pankrates is the earliest evidence that they travelled together.<ref>Opper, ''Hadrian: Empire and Conflict'', p. 173</ref>

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:
{{blockquote|text=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&nbsp;– 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.<ref>''Historia Augusta'' (c.&nbsp;395) Hadr. 14.5–7</ref>}}

Hadrian founded the city of [[Antinopolis|Antinoöpolis]] in Antinous' honour on 30 October 130. He then continued down the Nile to [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]], where his visit to the [[Colossi of Memnon]] on 20 and 21 November was commemorated by four epigrams inscribed by [[Julia Balbilla]]. After that, he headed north, reaching the [[Fayyum]] at the beginning of December.<ref>Foertmeyer, pp. 107–108</ref>

=== Greece and the East (130–132) ===
[[File:Hadrian Arc Pan.jpg|thumb|left|[[Arch of Hadrian (Jerash)|Arch of Hadrian]] in [[Jerash]], [[Transjordan (region)|Transjordan]], built to honour Hadrian's visit in 130]]
Hadrian's movements after his journey down the Nile 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 focused on the [[Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens|Athenian Temple to Olympian Zeus]]. As local conflicts had led to the failure of the previous scheme for a Hellenic association centered on Delphi, Hadrian decided instead for a grand league of all Greek cities.<ref>Cortes Copete Juan Manuel. "El fracaso del primer proyecto panhelénico de Adriano".''Dialogues d'histoire ancienne'', vol. 25, n°2, 1999. pp. 91–112. Available at [https://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1999_num_25_2_1540] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603180028/https://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1999_num_25_2_1540|date=3 June 2018}}. Retrieved 3 January 2019</ref> 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.<ref>Boatwright, p. 150</ref><ref>Anthony Kaldellis, ''Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition''. Cambridge University Press, 2008, {{ISBN|978-0-521-87688-9}}, p. 38</ref> Hadrian saw himself as protector of Greek culture and the "liberties" of Greece&nbsp;– 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&nbsp;– such a Congress is mentioned only in Pericles' [[Parallel Lives|biography]] by [[Plutarch]], who respected Rome's imperial order.<ref>Fernando A. Marín Valdés, ''Plutarco y el arte de la Atenas hegemónica''. Universidad de Oviedo: 2008, {{ISBN|978-84-8317-659-7}}, p. 76</ref>

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.<ref>A. J. S. Spawforth, ''Greece and the Augustan Cultural Revolution''. Cambridge University Press: 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-107-01211-0}}, p. 262</ref> Hadrian's notion of Hellenism was narrow and deliberately archaising; he defined "Greekness" in terms of classical roots, rather than a broader, Hellenistic culture.<ref>Nathanael J. Andrade, ''Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World''. Cambridge University Press, 2013, {{ISBN|978-1-107-01205-9}}, p. 176</ref> Some cities with a dubious claim to Greekness, however – such as [[Side, Turkey|Side]] – were acknowledged as fully Hellenic.<ref>Domingo Plácido, ed. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ujrILWn4moQC&pg=PA462 La construcción ideológica de la ciudadanía: identidades culturales y sociedad en el mundo griego antiguo]''. Madrid: Editorial Complutense, 2006, {{ISBN|84-7491-790-5}}, p. 462</ref> The German sociologist [[Georg Simmel]] remarked that the Panhellenion was based on "games, commemorations, preservation of an ideal, an entirely non-political Hellenism".<ref>Georg Simmel, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=xanf54U8qz4C&pg=PA288 Sociology: Inquiries into the Construction of Social Forms]''. Leiden: Brill, 2009, {{ISBN|978-90-04-17321-7}}, p. 288</ref>

Hadrian bestowed honorific titles on many regional centres.<ref>Nathanael J. Andrade, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=y6IaBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA177 Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World]'', Cambridge University Press, 2013, {{ISBN|978-1-107-01205-9}}, p. 177</ref> [[Palmyra]] received a state visit and was given the civic name Hadriana Palmyra.<ref>Andrew M. Smith II, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=h5cMho6zFckC&pg=PA25 Roman Palmyra: Identity, Community, and State Formation]''. Oxford University Press, 2013, {{ISBN|978-0-19-986110-1}}, p. 25; Robert K. Sherk, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=blVB5qsbnwIC&pg=PA190 The Roman Empire: Augustus to Hadrian]''. Cambridge University Press, 1988, {{ISBN|0-521-33887-5}}, p. 190</ref> 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.<ref>Hadrien Bru, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lqoDjiVL5GgC&pg=PA104 Le pouvoir impérial dans les provinces syriennes: Représentations et célébrations d'Auguste à Constantin (31 av. J.-C.-337 ap. J.-C.)]''. Leiden: Brill, 2011, {{ISBN|978-90-04-20363-1}}, pp. 104–105</ref>

Hadrian had spent the winter of 131–32 in Athens, where he dedicated the now-completed [[Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens|Temple of Olympian Zeus]],<ref>Laura Salah Nasrallah, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=UkA3EX8WZMIC&pg=PA96 Christian Responses to Roman Art and Architecture: The Second-Century Church Amid the Spaces of Empire]''. Cambridge University Press, 2010 {{ISBN|978-0-521-76652-4}}, p. 96</ref> At some time in 132, he headed East, to Judaea.

===Third Roman–Jewish War (132–136)===
{{Main|Bar Kokhba revolt}}

[[File:Hadrian visit to Judea.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Coinage minted to mark Hadrian's visit to Judea. The legends read as: HADRIANVS AVG. CO[N]S. III, P. P. / ADVENTVI (arrival) AVG. IVDAEAE – S. C.]]

{{multiple image
| image1            = Bronze statue of Hadrian, found at the Camp of the Sixth Roman Legion in Tel Shalem, 117–138 AD, Israel Museum, Jerusalem (15646103181).jpg
| total_width       = 350px
| caption1          = Statue of Hadrian unearthed at Tel Shalem commemorating Roman military victory over [[Simon bar Kokhba]], displayed at the [[Israel Museum]], Jerusalem
| image2            = Statue of Hadrian in Caesarea.jpg
| caption2          = [[Porphyry (geology)|Porphyry]] statue of Hadrian discovered in [[Caesarea Maritima|Caesarea]], Israel
}}

====Background, causes====
In [[Roman Judaea]], Hadrian visited [[Jerusalem]], which was still in ruins after the [[First Jewish–Roman War]] of 66–73. He may have planned to rebuild Jerusalem as a [[Colonia (Roman)|colonia]] as [[Vespasian]] had done with [[Caesarea Maritima]]&nbsp;– with various honorific and fiscal privileges. The non-Roman population had no obligation to participate in Roman religious rituals but was 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.<ref>Giovanni Battista Bazzana, "The Bar Kokhba Revolt and Hadrian's religious policy", IN Marco Rizzi, ed., '' Hadrian and the Christians''. Berlim: De Gruyter, 2010, {{ISBN|978-3-11-022470-2}}, pp. 89–91</ref> It has been speculated that Hadrian intended to assimilate the [[Temple in Jerusalem]] to the traditional civic-religious [[Roman imperial cult]]; such assimilations had long been commonplace practice in Greece and in other provinces, and on the whole, had been successful.<ref>Bazzana, 98</ref><ref>Cf a project devised earlier by Hellenized Jewish intellectuals such as [[Philo]]: see Rizzi, ''Hadrian and the Christians'', 4</ref>

The [[Samaritans]] had already integrated their religious rites with Hellenistic ones.<ref>Emmanuel Friedheim, "Some notes about the Samaritans and the Rabbinic Class at Crossroads". In Menachem Mor, Friedrich V. Reiterer, eds., '' Samaritans&nbsp;– Past and Present: Current Studies''. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010, {{ISBN|978-3-11-019497-5}}, p. 197.</ref> Strict Jewish [[monotheism]] proved more resistant to imperial cajoling, and then to imperial demands.<ref name=":0">[[Peter Schäfer]] (1981), ''Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand'' (in German), Tübingen, pp. 29–50.</ref>

A tradition based on the ''Historia Augusta'' suggests that the revolt was spurred by Hadrian's abolition of [[History of male circumcision#Male circumcision in the Greco-Roman world|circumcision]] (''[[brit milah]]'');<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Peter Schäfer|Schäfer, Peter]] |title= Judeophobia: Attitudes Toward the Jews in the Ancient World |publisher= Harvard University Press |year= 1998 |pages= 103–105 |quote = [...] 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 prohibit 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. |isbn= 978-0-674-04321-3 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=8jIhYBwkO80C |access-date= 1 February 2014}}</ref> which as a [[Philhellenism|Hellenist]] he viewed as [[mutilation]].<ref name=Mackay>Mackay, Christopher. ''Ancient Rome a Military and Political History'': 230</ref> 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.<ref>Peter Schäfer (2003), ''The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Second Jewish Revolt Against Rome'', Mohr Siebeck, p. 68.</ref><ref>Peter Schäfer (2003), ''The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World: The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest''. Routledge, p. 146.</ref><ref>[[Augustan History|Historia Augusta]], ''Hadrian'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Hadrian/1*.html#14.2 14.2].</ref> 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 [[Solomon's Temple|First Temple]] had been after the [[Babylonian captivity|Babylonian exile]].<ref>Shaye Cohen (2013), ''From the Maccabees to the Mishnah'', 3rd edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, pp. 25–26, {{ISBN|978-0-664-23904-6}}.</ref>

====Revolt====
A massive anti-Hellenistic and anti-Roman Jewish uprising broke out, led by [[Simon bar Kokhba]].<ref name="Jerome">Chronicle of Jerome, s.v. Hadrian. See: [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_chronicle_03_part2.htm] See also [[Yigael Yadin]] (1971), ''Bar-Kokhba'', New York: Random House, pp. 22, 258.</ref> Given the fragmentary nature of the existing evidence, it is impossible to ascertain an exact date for the beginning of the uprising. It probably began between summer and fall of 132.<ref>Steven T. Katz, ed (1984). ''The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period''. Cambridge University Press, pp. 11–112, {{ISBN|978-0-521-77248-8}}.</ref>

The Roman governor [[Quintus Tineius Rufus (consul 127)|Tineius (Tynius) Rufus]] asked for an army to crush the resistance; bar Kokhba punished any Jew who refused to join his ranks.<ref name=Jerome/> According to [[Justin Martyr]] and [[Eusebius of Caesarea|Eusebius]], that had to do mostly with Christian converts, who opposed bar Kokhba's messianic claims.<ref>Alexander Zephyr (2013), ''Rabbi Akiva, Bar Kokhba Revolt, and the Ten Tribes of Israel''. Bloomington: iUniverse, {{ISBN|978-1-4917-1256-6}}.</ref>

The Romans were overwhelmed by the organised ferocity of the uprising.<ref name=":0"/> Hadrian called his general [[Sextus Julius Severus]] from [[Roman Britain|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.<ref>Possibly the [[Legio XXII Deiotariana|XXII Deiotariana]], which according to epigraphy did not outlast Hadrian's reign; see [https://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/xxii_deiotariana.html livius.org account] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317020539/http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/xxii_deiotariana.html |date=17 March 2015 }}; 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).</ref> Hadrian's report on the war to the [[Roman Senate]] omitted the customary salutation, "If you and your children are in health, it is well; I and the legions are in health."<ref>Cassius Dio 69, 14.3 {{cite book |title= Roman History |quote= 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[...]}}</ref>

The rebellion was quashed by 135. According to [[Cassius Dio]].<ref name=DioRH>''Dio's Roman History'' (trans. Earnest Cary), vol. 8 (books 61–70), London: [[Loeb Classical Library]] 1925, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/diosromanhistory08cassuoft#page/448/mode/2up 449]–[https://archive.org/stream/diosromanhistory08cassuoft#page/450/mode/2up 451].</ref> [[Betar (fortress)|Beitar]], a fortified city {{convert|10|km|mi}} southwest of Jerusalem, fell after a three-and-a-half-year siege.<ref name=DRS11>Daniel R. Schwartz, Zeev Weiss, eds. (2011), ''Was 70 CE a Watershed in Jewish History?: On Jews and Judaism before and after the Destruction of the Second Temple''. Leiden: Brill, {{ISBN|978-90-04-21534-4}}, p. 529, footnote 42.</ref>

====Aftermath; persecutions====
[[File:0 Monument honoraire d’Hadrien - L'empereur accueilli par la déesse Rome (2).JPG|thumb|upright=1.4|Relief from an honorary monument of Hadrian (detail), showing the emperor being greeted by the [[Roma (mythology)|goddess Roma]] and the [[Genius (mythology)|Genii]] of [[Roman Senate|the Senate]] and the Roman People; marble, Roman artwork, 2nd century AD, [[Capitoline Museums]], Vatican City]]

Roman war operations in Judea left some 580,000 Jews dead and 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed.<ref name=DioRH/>

An unknown proportion of the population was enslaved. The extent of punitive measures against the Jewish population remains a matter of debate.<ref name=DRS11/>

Hadrian renamed Judea province [[Syria Palaestina]]. He renamed Jerusalem [[Aelia Capitolina]] after himself and [[Jupiter Capitolinus]] and had the city rebuilt in Greek style. According to Epiphanius, Hadrian appointed [[Aquila of Sinope|Aquila from Sinope]] in Pontus as "overseer of the work of building the city", since he was related to him by marriage.<ref>Epiphanius, "On Weights and Measures" §14: Hadrian's Journey to the East and the Rebuilding of Jerusalem, Renan Baker, ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'', Bd. 182 (2012), pp. 157–167. Published by: Rudolf Habelt GmbH, available through JSTOR (subscription required, accessed 25 March 2012).</ref> Hadrian is said to have placed the city's main [[Roman Forum|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")<ref>Ken Dowden, ''Zeus''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2006, {{ISBN|0-415-30502-0}}, p. 58.</ref> on [[Mount Gerizim]].<ref>Anna Collar (2013), ''Religious Networks in the Roman Empire''. Cambridge University Press, pp. 248–249, {{ISBN|978-1-107-04344-2}}.</ref> The bloody repression of the revolt ended Jewish political independence from the Roman imperial order.<ref>Geza Vermes (2006), ''Who's Who in the Age of Jesus'', entry "Hadrian", Penguin, {{ISBN|0140515658}}.</ref>

====Hadrian's itinerary====
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&nbsp;– judging from inscriptions&nbsp;– via [[Illyria|Illyricum]].<ref>Ronald Syme (1988), "Journeys of Hadrian", pp. 164–169.</ref>

==Final years==
[[File:Mars Venus Louvre Ma1009.jpg|thumb|upright|imperial group as [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]] and [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]]; the male figure is a portrait of Hadrian, the female figure was perhaps reworked [[Roman portraiture|into a portrait]] of [[Lucilla|Annia Lucilla]]; [[Roman sculpture|marble, Roman artwork]], c. 120–140 AD, reworked c. 170–175 AD]]
Hadrian spent the final years of his life in Rome. In 134, he took an imperial [[salutation]] for the end of the Third 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.<ref>Ronald Syme, "Journeys Of Hadrian". ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' 73 (1988) 159–170. Available at [http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa/zpe/downloads/1988/073pdf/073159.pdf]. Retrieved 20 January 2017.</ref>

[[Vibia Sabina|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.<ref>''Historia Augusta'', Life of Hadrian, 10.3</ref> That gave credence, after Sabina's death, to the common belief that Hadrian had her poisoned.<ref>''Historia Augusta'', Life of Hadrian, 23.9</ref> In keeping with well-established imperial propriety, Sabina – who had been made an ''Augusta'' sometime around 128<ref>Anne Kolb, ''Augustae. Machtbewusste Frauen am römischen Kaiserhof?: Herrschaftsstrukturen und Herrschaftspraxis II. Akten der Tagung in Zürich 18–20. 9. 2008''. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2010, {{ISBN|978-3-05-004898-7}}, pp. 26-27</ref> – was deified not long after her death.<ref>Olivier Hekster, ''Emperors and Ancestors: Roman Rulers and the Constraints of Tradition''. Oxford U. Press: 2015, {{ISBN|978-0-19-873682-0}}, pp. 140–142</ref>

===Arranging the succession===
[[File:Bronze Hadrien Louvre Br4547.jpg|thumb|upright|Posthumous portrait of Hadrian; bronze, Roman artwork, c. 140 AD, perhaps from [[Roman Egypt]], [[Louvre]], Paris]]
Hadrian's marriage to Sabina had been childless. Suffering from poor health, Hadrian turned to the issue of succession. In 136, he adopted one of the ordinary [[Roman consul|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. His health was delicate, and his reputation apparently more that "of a voluptuous, well-educated great lord than that of a leader".<ref>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 [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/jds_0021-8103_1958_num_1_1_3244]. Retrieved 12 June 2015.</ref> Various modern attempts have been made to explain Hadrian's choice: [[Jerome Carcopino]] proposes that Aelius was Hadrian's natural son.<ref>Albino Garzetti, ''From Tiberius to the Antonines : A History of the Roman Empire AD 14–192''. London: Routledge, 2014, p. 699</ref> 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.<ref name="Christol & Nony, 159"/> Aelius acquitted himself honourably as joint governor of [[Pannonia Superior]] and [[Pannonia Inferior]];<ref>András Mócsy, ''Pannonia and Upper Moesia (Routledge Revivals): A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire''. London: Routledge, 2014, {{ISBN|978-0-415-74582-6}}, p. 102</ref> he held a further consulship in 137 but died on 1 January 138.<ref>Anthony Birley, pp. 289–292.</ref>

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 (Roman province)|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 [[Marcus Annius Verus (grandfather of Marcus Aurelius)|of the same name]] who had been Hadrian's close friend); Annius was already betrothed to Aelius Caesar's daughter [[Ceionia Fabia]].<ref name="Anthony Birley 1967 p. 601">The adoptions: Anthony Birley, pp. 294–295; T.D. Barnes, 'Hadrian and Lucius Verus', ''Journal of Roman Studies'' (1967), Ronald Syme, ''Tacitus'', p.&nbsp;601. Antoninus as a legate of Italy: Anthony Birley, p.&nbsp;199</ref><ref>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 favour to the grandson in order to count on the grandfather's support; for an account of the various familial and marital alliances involved, see Des Boscs-Plateaux, pp. 241, 311, 477, 577; see also Frank McLynn,''Marcus Aurelius: A Life''. New York: Da Capo, 2010, {{ISBN|978-0-306-81916-2}}, p. 84</ref> It may not have been Hadrian, but rather Antoninus Pius&nbsp;– Annius Verus's uncle&nbsp;– 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.<ref name="Anthony Birley 1967 p. 601"/>

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 d'état|coup]] in which his grandfather was implicated; Hadrian ordered that both be put to death.<ref>Anthony Birley, pp. 291–292</ref> Servianus is reported to have [[last words|prayed before his execution]] that Hadrian would "long for death but be unable to die".<ref>Dio [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/69*.html#17.2 69.17.2]</ref> During his final, protracted illness, Hadrian was prevented from suicide on several occasions.<ref>Anthony Birley, p. 297</ref>

===Death===
[[File:Chateau-saint-ange-tibre.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|left|The [[Castel Sant'Angelo]] by the [[River Tiber]] in Rome, commissioned by Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family]]
Hadrian died in the year 138 on 10 July, in his [[Roman villa|villa]] at [[Baiae]] at the age of 62, having reigned for 21 years.<ref>Anthony Birley, p. 300</ref> [[Dio Cassius]] and the ''[[Historia Augusta]]'' record details of his failing health; some modern sources interpret the ear-creases on later portrayals (such as the [[Townley Hadrian]]) as signs of [[coronary artery disease]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cruse|first=Audrey|date=22 December 2009|title=The Emperor Hadrian (fl. AD 117–138) and Medicine|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1258/jmb.2009.009057|journal=Journal of Medical Biography|language=en|volume=17|issue=4|pages=241–243|doi=10.1258/jmb.2009.009057|pmid=20029087|s2cid=33084298|issn=0967-7720|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

He was buried 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 to the almost-complete mausoleum. Upon completion of the [[Castel Sant'Angelo|Mausoleum of Hadrian]] in Rome in 139 by his successor Antoninus Pius, his body was cremated. His ashes were placed there together with those of his wife [[Vibia Sabina]] and his first adopted son, [[Lucius Aelius Caesar]], who also died in 138. The Senate had been reluctant to grant Hadrian divine honours; but Antoninus persuaded them by threatening to refuse the position of Emperor.<ref name="Salmon, 816">Salmon, 816</ref><ref>Dio [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/70*.html#1.1 70.1.1]</ref> Hadrian was given a [[temple of Hadrian|temple]] on the [[Campus Martius]], ornamented with reliefs representing the provinces.<ref>Samuel Ball Platner, ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome''. Cambridge University Press: 2015, {{ISBN|978-1-108-08324-9}}, p. 250</ref> The Senate awarded Antoninus the title of "Pius", in recognition of his filial piety in pressing for the [[deification]] of Hadrian, his adoptive father.<ref name="Salmon, 816"/> At the same time, perhaps in reflection of the senate's ill will towards Hadrian, commemorative coinage honouring his deification was kept to a minimum.<ref>Christian Bechtold, ''Gott und Gestirn als Präsenzformen des toten Kaisers: Apotheose und Katasterismos in der politischen Kommunikation der römischen Kaiserzeit und ihre Anknüpfungspunkte im Hellenismus''.V&R unipress GmbH: 2011, {{ISBN|978-3-89971-685-6}}, p. 259</ref>

== Military activities ==
[[File:Statua di Adriano, Antalya, Turchia.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Statue of Hadrian in military garb, wearing the [[civic crown]] and [[muscle cuirass]], from [[Antalya]], Turkey]]

Most of Hadrian's military activities were consistent with his ideology of empire as a community of mutual interest and support. He focused on protection from external and internal threats; on "raising" existing provinces rather than the aggressive acquisition of wealth and territory through subjugation of "foreign" peoples that had characterised the early empire.<ref>Clifford Ando, ''Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-520-22067-6}}, p. 330</ref> Hadrian's policy shift was part of a trend towards the slowing down of the empire's expansion, such expansion being not closed after him, but a significant step in that direction, given the empire's overstretching.<ref>Patrick Le Roux, ''Le Haut Empire Romain en Occident, d'Auguste aux Sévères''. Paris: Seuil, 1998, {{ISBN|2-02-025932-X}}, p. 56</ref> While the empire as a whole benefited from this, military careerists resented the loss of opportunities.

The 4th-century historian Aurelius Victor saw Hadrian's withdrawal from Trajan's territorial gains in [[Mesopotamia]] as a jealous belittlement of Trajan's achievements (''Traiani gloriae invidens'').<ref>W. Den Boer, ''Some Minor Roman Historians'', Leiden: Brill, 1972, {{ISBN|90-04-03545-1}}, p. 41</ref> More likely, an expansionist policy was no longer sustainable; 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.<ref>[[Yann Le Bohec]], ''The Imperial Roman Army''. London: Routledge, 2013, {{ISBN|0-415-22295-8}}, p. 55</ref> Trajan himself may have thought his gains in Mesopotamia indefensible and abandoned them shortly before his death.<ref>Albino Garzetti, ''From Tiberius to the Antonines (Routledge Revivals): A History of the Roman Empire AD 14–192''. London: Routledge, 2014, {{ISBN|978-1-138-01920-1}}, p. 381</ref> Hadrian granted parts of Dacia to the [[Roxolani]] Sarmatians; their king, Rasparaganus, received Roman citizenship, client king status, and possibly an increased subsidy.<ref>The partial withdrawal was probably supervised by the governor of Moesia [[Quintus Pompeius Falco]]; see Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 84, 86.</ref> Hadrian's presence on the Dacian front is mere conjecture, but Dacia was included in his coin series with allegories of the provinces.<ref>[[Eutropius (historian)|Eutropius]]'s 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</ref> A controlled partial withdrawal of troops from the Dacian plains would have been less costly than maintaining several Roman cavalry units and a supporting network of fortifications.<ref>Julian Bennett, ''Trajan-Optimus Priceps''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001, {{ISBN|0-253-21435-1}}, p. 165</ref>

Hadrian retained control over [[Osroene]] through the client king [[Parthamaspates of Parthia|Parthamaspates]], who had once served as Trajan's client king of Parthia;<ref>Opper, ''Empire and Conflict'', p. 67</ref> and around 123, Hadrian negotiated a peace treaty with the now-independent Parthia (according to the ''Historia Augusta'', disputed).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Doležal |first=Stanislav |date=2017 |title=Did Hadrian Ever Meet a Parthian King? |url=https://www.academia.edu/33969517 |journal=AUC Philologica |volume=2017 |issue=2 |pages=111–125 |doi=10.14712/24646830.2017.16 |issn=2464-6830|doi-access=free }}</ref> Late in his reign (135), the [[Alans|Alani]] attacked Roman [[Cappadocia (Roman province)|Cappadocia]] with the covert support of [[Pharasmanes II of Iberia|Pharasmanes]], the king of Caucasian [[Kingdom of Iberia|Iberia]]. The attack was repulsed by Hadrian's governor, the historian [[Arrian]],<ref>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</ref> who subsequently installed a Roman "adviser" in Iberia.<ref>Austin & Rankov, p. 30</ref> Arrian kept Hadrian well-informed on matters 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 that was intended to offer relevant information in case a Roman intervention was needed.<ref>Fergus Millar, ''Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Volume 2: Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire''. The University of North Carolina Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-8078-2852-1}}, p. 183</ref>
[[File:Sardonyx cameo depicting Hadrian being crowned by Oikoumene (personification of the inhabited world) in a chariot pulled by eagles, originally made for Claudius around 50 AD and the head later reworked into a portrait of Hadrian, Altes.jpg|thumb|Sardonyx cameo depicting Hadrian being crowned by Roma in a chariot pulled by eagles as ''ruler of the world''. Possibly made for [[Claudius]] around 50 CE with the head being reworked into a portrait of Hadrian, [[Altes Museum]]]]
Hadrian also developed permanent fortifications and military posts along the empire's borders (''limites'', [[Grammatical number|sl.]] ''limes'') to support his policy of stability, peace and preparedness. That helped keep the military usefully occupied in times of peace; his wall across Britannia was built by ordinary troops. A series of mostly wooden [[fortifications]], forts, [[outpost (military)|outposts]] and [[watchtower (fortification)|watchtowers]] strengthened the Danube and [[Rhine]] borders. Troops practised intensive, regular [[Exhibition drill|drill]] routines. Although his coins showed military images almost as often as peaceful ones, Hadrian's policy was [[peace through strength]], even threat,<ref>Elizabeth Speller, p. 69</ref> 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.<ref>Opper, p. 85</ref> Fronto, by contrast, claimed that Hadrian preferred war games to actual war and enjoyed "giving eloquent speeches to the armies"&nbsp;– 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]].<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 209–212</ref>

Faced with a shortage of legionary recruits from Italy and other Romanised provinces, Hadrian systematised the use of less costly [[Numerus (Roman military unit)|''numeri'']]&nbsp;– 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.<ref>Luttvak, Edward N. ''The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third'', Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979, {{ISBN|0-8018-2158-4}}, p. 123</ref><ref>Christol & Nony, p. 180</ref> Hadrian is also credited with introducing units of heavy cavalry ([[cataphracts]]) into the Roman army.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yglkwD7pKV8C&q=emperor+Hadrian++cataphracts&pg=PA263|title=The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors– Google Knihy |date= 11 December 2012|access-date=3 September 2016|isbn=978-1-78076-060-5|last1=Baumer |first1=Christoph |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref> Fronto later blamed Hadrian for declining standards in the Roman army of his own time.<ref>''Fronto: Selected Letters''. Edited by Caillan Davenport & Jenifer Manley, London: AC & Black, 2014, {{ISBN|978-1-78093-442-6}}, pp. 184f</ref>

==Legal and social reforms==
[[File:Bust of Emperor Hadrian. Roman 117-138 CE. Probably From Rome, Italy. Formerly in the Townley Collection. Now housed in the British Museum, London.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bust of Hadrian|Bust of Emperor Hadrian]], Roman, 117–138 CE. Probably from Rome, Italy. Formerly in the [[Charles Townley|Townley Collection]], now housed in the [[British Museum]], London]]
Hadrian enacted, through the jurist [[Salvius Julianus]], the first attempt to codify Roman law. This was the [[Praetor's Edict|Perpetual Edict]], according to which the legal actions of [[praetor]]s became fixed statutes and, as such, could no longer be subjected to personal interpretation or change by any magistrate other than the Emperor.<ref>Laura Jansen, ''The Roman Paratext: Frame, Texts, Readers'', Cambridge University Press, 2014, {{ISBN|978-1-107-02436-6}} p. 66</ref><ref>Kathleen Kuiper (Editor), ''Ancient Rome: From Romulus and Remus to the Visigoth Invasion'', New York: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-61530-207-9}} p. 133</ref> 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.<ref>A. Arthur Schiller, ''Roman Law: Mechanisms of Development'', Walter de Gruyter: 1978, {{ISBN|90-279-7744-5}} p. 471</ref> Its members were mostly drawn from the equestrian class, replacing the earlier freedmen of the imperial household.<ref name="Salmon, 812">Salmon, 812</ref><ref>R.V. Nind Hopkins, ''Life of Alexander Severus'', CUP Archive, p. 110</ref> This innovation marked the superseding of surviving Republican institutions by an openly autocratic political system.<ref>Adolf Berger, ''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, Volume 43'', Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1968, {{ISBN|0-87169-435-2}} p. 650</ref> 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.<ref name="Salmon, 812"/> 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.<ref>Salmon, 813</ref>

Hadrian codified the customary legal privileges of the wealthiest, most influential, 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 ([[Law of majestas|maiestas]]), beheading was the worst punishment that the law could inflict on ''honestiores''; the ''humiliores'' might suffer crucifixion, burning, or [[Damnatio ad bestias|condemnation to the beasts in the arena]].<ref>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, {{JSTOR|650001}}</ref>

[[File:Portrait bust of the emperor Hadrian. 2nd cent. A.D.jpg|thumb|right|Bust of Hadrian from Athens, {{circa}} 130 AD, [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]]]]

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 [[decurion (administrative)|decurion]]s, 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, almost all citizens below those ranks – the vast majority of the Empire's population – counted as ''humiliores'', with low citizen status, high tax obligations and limited rights. 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.<ref>Westermann, 109</ref> 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.<ref>Marcel Morabito, ''Les Réalités de l'esclavage d'après Le Digeste''. Paris: Presses Univ. Franche-C omté, 1981, {{ISBN|978-2-251-60254-7}}, p. 230</ref> Masters were forbidden to sell slaves to a gladiator trainer ([[lanista]]) or to a [[Procuring (prostitution)|procurer]], except as legally justified punishment.<ref>Donald G. Kyle, ''Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome''. London: Routledge, 2012, {{ISBN|0-415-09678-2}}; William Linn Westermann, ''The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity''. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1955, p. 115</ref> Hadrian also forbade torture of free defendants and witnesses.<ref>[[Digest (Roman law)|Digest]] 48.18.21; quoted by Q.F. Robinson, ''Penal Practice and Penal Policy in Ancient Rome''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2007{{ISBN|978-0-415-41651-1}}, p. 107</ref><ref>[[Judith Perkins]], ''Roman Imperial Identities in the Early Christian Era''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-415-39744-5}}</ref> He abolished [[ergastula]], private prisons for slaves in which kidnapped free men had sometimes been illegally detained.<ref>Christopher J. Fuhrmann, ''Policing the Roman Empire: Soldiers, Administration, and Public Order''. Oxford University Press, 2012, {{ISBN|978-0-19-973784-0}}, p. 102</ref>

Hadrian issued a general [[rescript]], imposing a ban on castration, performed on freedman or slave, voluntarily or not, on pain of death for both the performer and the patient.<ref>''Digest'', 48.8.4.2, quoted by Paul Du Plessis, ''Borkowski's Textbook on Roman Law''. Oxford University Press, 2015, {{ISBN|978-0-19-957488-9}}, p. 95</ref> Under the ''[[Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis]]'', castration was placed on a par with conspiracy to murder and punished accordingly.<ref>Peter Schäfer, ''Judeophobia'', 104.</ref> 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 theatres and public baths; to discourage idleness, the latter were not allowed to open until 2:00 in the afternoon, "except for medical reasons."<ref>Garzetti, p. 411</ref>

==Religious activities==
[[File:Statue of Hadrian as Pontifex Maximus, 117-138 AD, from Rome, Palazzo Nuovo, Capitoline Museums (13100265983).jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Hadrian as ''pontifex maximus'', dated 130–140 AD, from Rome, [[Palazzo Nuovo]], [[Capitoline Museums]]]]
One of Hadrian's immediate duties on accession was to seek senatorial consent for the [[Apotheosis|deification]] of his predecessor, Trajan, and any members of Trajan's family to whom he owed a debt of gratitude. Matidia Augusta, Hadrian's mother-in-law, died in December 119 and was duly deified.<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', p. 107</ref> Hadrian may have stopped at [[Nîmes|Nemausus]] during his return from [[Roman Britain|Britannia]] to oversee the completion or foundation of a [[basilica]] dedicated to his patroness Plotina. She had recently died in Rome and had been deified at Hadrian's request.<ref name="Birley, p. 145"/>

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 identified him with the traditional ''genius populi Romani'', other issues stressed his personal identification with ''Hercules Gaditanus'' (Hercules of [[Cádiz|Gades]]), and Rome's imperial protection of Greek civilisation.<ref>Gradel, Ittai, ''Emperor Worship and Roman Religion'', Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0-19-815275-2}}, pp. 194–195.</ref> He promoted [[Sagalassos]] in Greek [[Pisidia]] as the Empire's leading imperial cult centre; his exclusively Greek ''[[Panhellenion]]'' extolled Athens as the spiritual centre of Greek culture.<ref>Howgego, in Howgego, C., Heuchert, V., Burnett, A., (eds), Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces, Oxford University Press, 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-19-926526-8}}, pp. 6, 10.</ref>

Hadrian added several imperial cult centres to the existing roster, particularly in Greece, where traditional intercity rivalries were commonplace. Cities promoted as imperial cult centres drew imperial sponsorship of festivals and sacred games, and attracted tourism, trade and private investment. Local worthies and sponsors were encouraged to seek self-publicity as cult officials under the aegis of Roman rule and to foster reverence for imperial authority.<ref>Boatwright, p. 136</ref> Hadrian's rebuilding of long-established religious centres would have further underlined his respect for the glories of classical Greece&nbsp;– something well in line with contemporary antiquarian tastes.<ref name="Boatwright, p. 134"/><ref>K. W. Arafat, ''Pausanias' Greece: Ancient Artists and Roman Rulers''. Cambridge U. Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-521-55340-7}}, p. 162</ref> During Hadrian's third and last trip to the Greek East, there seems to have been an upwelling of religious fervour, focused on Hadrian himself. He was given personal cult as a deity, monuments and civic homage, according to the religious [[syncretism]] of the time.<ref>[[Marcel Le Glay]]. "Hadrien et l'Asklépieion de Pergame". In: ''Bulletin de correspondance hellénique''. Volume 100, livraison 1, 1976. pp.&nbsp;347–372. Available at [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/bch_0007-4217_1976_num_100_1_2051]. Retrieved 24 July 2015.</ref> He may have had the great [[Serapeum of Alexandria]] rebuilt, following damage sustained in 116, during the [[Diaspora revolt]].<ref name="RoweRees1956">{{cite web|url=https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:1m1914&datastreamId=POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS-DOCUMENT.PDF|author=Alan Rowe|author-link=Alan Rowe (archaeologist)|author2=B. R. Rees|author2-link=B. R. Rees|year=1956|publisher=Manchester|title=A Contribution To The Archaeology of The Western Desert: IV – The Great Serapeum Of Alexandria|access-date=10 April 2018|archive-date=16 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201216120114/https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:1m1914&datastreamId=POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS-DOCUMENT.PDF|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 136, just two years before his death, Hadrian dedicated his Temple of Venus and Roma. It was built on land he had set aside for the purpose in 121, formerly the site of Nero's [[Domus Aurea|Golden House]]. The temple was the largest in Rome and was built in a Hellenising style, more Greek than Roman. Its dedication and statuary associated the ''[[Cult (religious practice)|cultus]]'' of the traditional Roman goddess [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]], divine ancestress and protector of the Roman people, with the ''cultus'' of the goddess [[Roma (mythology)|Roma]] – herself a Greek invention, hitherto worshipped only in the provinces – to emphasise the universal nature of the empire.<ref>Mellor, R., "The Goddess Roma" in Haase, W., Temporini, H., (eds), ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt'', de Gruyter, 1991, {{ISBN|3-11-010389-3}}, pp. 960–964</ref>

===Antinous===
[[File:Hadrian and Antinous bust British Museum.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bust of Hadrian|Busts of Hadrian]] and [[Antinous]] in the British Museum]]
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|Antinoöpolis]].<ref>Cassius Dio, LIX.11; ''Historia Augusta'', ''Hadrian''</ref> It was a proper Greek [[polis]]; it was granted an imperially subsidised alimentary scheme similar to Trajan's [[alimenta]],<ref>Tim Cornell, Kathryn Lomas, eds., ''Bread and Circuses: Euergetism and Municipal Patronage in Roman Italy''. London: Routledge, 2003, {{ISBN|0-415-14689-5}}, p. 97</ref> 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.<ref>Carl F. Petry, ed. ''The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 1''. Cambridge University Press, 2008, {{ISBN|978-0-521-47137-4}}, p. 15</ref> 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 [[Harmodius and Aristogeiton (sculpture)|Tyrannicides]], with a bearded Aristogeiton and a clean-shaven Harmodios, linked his favourite to the classical tradition of [[Greek love]].<ref>Elsner, Jás, ''Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph'', ''Oxford History of Art'', Oxford U.P., 1998, {{ISBN|0-19-284201-3}}, p. 176f.</ref> In the west, Antinous was identified with the Celtic sun god [[Belenos]].<ref>Williams, p. 61</ref>

Hadrian was criticised for the open intensity of his grief at Antinous's death, particularly as he had delayed the apotheosis of his own sister [[Paulina (sister of Hadrian)|Paulina]] after her death.<ref>Hadrian's "Hellenic" emotionalism finds a culturally sympathetic echo in the Homeric Achilles' mourning for his friend Patroclus: see discussion in [[Caroline Vout|Vout, Caroline]], ''Power and eroticism in Imperial Rome'', illustrated, Cambridge University Press, 2007. {{ISBN|0-521-86739-8}}, pp. 52–135.</ref> Nevertheless, his recreation of the deceased youth as a cult figure found little opposition.<ref>Craig A. Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality : Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity''. Oxford University Press: 1999, {{ISBN|978-0-19-511300-6}}, pp. 60f</ref> Though not a subject of the state-sponsored, official Roman imperial cult, Antinous offered a common focus for the emperor and his subjects, emphasising their sense of community.<ref>Marco Rizzi, p. 12</ref> Medals were struck with his effigy, and statues were erected to him in all parts of the empire, in all kinds of garb, including Egyptian dress.<ref>Elsner, ''Imperial Rome'', p. 183f.</ref> 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. As an "international" cult figure, Antinous had enduring fame, far outlasting Hadrian's reign.<ref>see Trevor W. Thompson [https://www.academia.edu/9076863/Antinoos_The_New_God_Origen_on_Miracle_and_Belief_in_Third-Century_Egypt "Antinoos, The New God: Origen on Miracle and Belief in Third Century Egypt"] for the persistence of Antinous's cult and Christian reactions to it. Freely available. The relationship of P. Oxy. 63.4352 with Diocletian's accession is not entirely clear.</ref> Local coins with his effigy were still being struck during [[Caracalla|Caracalla's]] reign, and he was invoked in a poem to celebrate the accession of [[Diocletian]].<ref>[[Caroline Vout]], ''Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome''. Cambridge University Press; 2007, p. 89</ref>

===Christians===
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.<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 127, 183.</ref> In a [[rescript]] addressed to the proconsul of Asia, [[Gaius Minicius Fundanus]], and preserved by [[Justin Martyr]], Hadrian laid down that accusers of Christians had to bear the burden of proof for their denunciations<ref>Alessandro Galimberti, "Hadrian, Eleusis, and the beginnings of Christian apologetics" in Marco Rizzi, ed., ''Hadrian and the Christians''. Berlim: De Gruyter, 2010, {{ISBN|978-3-11-022470-2}}, pp. 77f</ref> or be punished for ''calumnia'' ([[defamation]]).<ref>Robert M. Haddad, ''The Case for Christianity: St. Justin Martyr's Arguments for Religious Liberty and Judicial Justice''. Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-58979-575-4}}, p. 16</ref>

==Personal and cultural interests==
[[File:Hadrian VaticanMuseums.jpg|thumb|Bust of Hadrian at the [[Vatican Museums]]]]
Hadrian had an abiding and enthusiastic interest in art, architecture and public works. As part of his imperial restoration program, he founded, re-founded or rebuilt many towns and cities throughout the Empire, supplying them with temples, stadiums and other public buildings. Examples in the Roman Province of [[Thrace]] include monumental developments to the [[Stadium of Philippopolis|Stadium]] and [[Odeon of Philippopolis|Odeon]] of [[Philippopolis (Thrace)|Philippopolis]] (present-day [[Plovdiv]]), the provincial capital,<ref>Martinova-Kjutova, Maya, Project BG0041, "The Ancient Stadium of Philippopolis – Preservation,
Rehabilitation and Urban Renewal", Regional Administration Plovdiv, 2011–2023, accessed 14 December 2023 [https://ancient-stadium-plovdiv.eu/?p=12&l=2]</ref> and his rebuilding and enlargement of the city of Orestias, which he renamed Hadrianopolis (modern [[Edirne]]).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Edirne | title=Edirne &#124; Turkey &#124; Britannica | date=7 March 2024 }}</ref> Several other towns and cities – including [[Roman Carthage]] – were named or renamed ''Hadrianopolis''.<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 176–180</ref> Rome's [[Pantheon, Rome|Pantheon]] (temple "to all the gods"), originally built by [[Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa|Agrippa]] and destroyed by fire in 80, was partly restored under Trajan and completed under Hadrian in its familiar domed form. [[Hadrian's Villa]] at Tibur ([[Tivoli, Italy|Tivoli]]) provides the greatest Roman equivalent of an [[Alexandria]]n garden, complete with domed [[Serapeum]], recreating a sacred landscape.<ref>It was lost in large part to despoliation by the [[Ippolito II d'Este|Cardinal d'Este]], who had much of the marble removed to build the [[Villa d'Este]] in the 16th century.</ref>

An anecdote from [[Cassius Dio]]'s history suggests Hadrian had a high opinion of his own architectural tastes and talents and took their rejection as a personal offence: at some time before his reign, his predecessor Trajan was discussing an architectural problem with [[Apollodorus of Damascus]] – architect and designer of [[Trajan's Forum]], [[Trajan's column|the Column commemorating his Dacian conquest]], and [[Trajan's Bridge|his bridge across the Danube]] – when Hadrian interrupted to offer his advice. Apollodorus gave him a scathing response: "Be off, and draw your gourds [a sarcastic reference to the domes which Hadrian apparently liked to draw]. You don't understand any of these matters." Dio claims that once Hadrian became emperor, he showed Apollodorus drawings of the gigantic [[Temple of Venus and Roma]], implying that great buildings could be created without his help. When Apollodorus pointed out the building's various insoluble problems and faults, Hadrian was enraged, sent him into exile and later put him to death on trumped-up charges.<ref>Brickstamps with [[Fasti|consular dates]] show that the Pantheon's dome was late in Trajan's reign (115), probably under Apollodorus's supervision: see Ilan Vit-Suzan, ''Architectural Heritage Revisited: A Holistic Engagement of its Tangible and Intangible Constituents '', Farnham: Ashgate, 2014, {{ISBN|978-1-4724-2062-6}}, p. 20</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/cassius_dio/69*.html|title=Cassius Dio – Epitome of Book69|website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref>

[[File:Bust Hadrian Musei Capitolini MC817 cropped.jpg|thumb|Bust of the emperor Hadrian in the [[Capitoline Museums]]]]Hadrian was a passionate hunter from a young age.<ref>''Historia Augusta'', ''Hadrian'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Hadrian/1*.html#2 2.1].</ref> In northwest Asia, he founded and dedicated a city to commemorate a she-bear he killed.<ref name="foxhadrian">Fox, Robin ''The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian'' Basic Books. 2006 p. 574</ref> In Egypt he and his beloved [[Antinous]] killed a lion. In Rome, eight reliefs featuring Hadrian in different stages of hunting decorate a building that began as a monument celebrating a kill.<ref name="foxhadrian" />

Hadrian's [[philhellenism]] may have been one reason for his adoption, like [[Nero]] before him, of the [[beard#Rome|beard]] as suited to Roman imperial dignity; [[Dio of Prusa]] had equated the growth of the beard with the Hellenic ethos.<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', p. 62</ref> Hadrian's beard may also have served to conceal his natural facial blemishes.<ref>The ''[[Historia Augusta]]'' however claims that [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Hadrian/2*.html#26.1 "he wore a full beard to cover up the natural blemishes on his face"], H.A. 26.1</ref> Before Hadrian, all emperors except Nero (who occasionally wore sideburns) had been clean-shaven, according to the fashion introduced among the Romans by [[Scipio Africanus]] (236–183 BCE). After Hadrian until the reign of [[Constantine the Great]] (r. 306–337) all adult emperors were bearded. The wearing of the  beard as an imperial fashion was subsequently revived by [[Phocas]] (r. 602–610) at the beginning of the 7th century and this fashion lasted until the end of the Byzantine Empire.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.byzantium.xronikon.com/statfirst.html |title=Byzantine first & last times |newspaper=Βυζαντινον Χρονικον |publisher=Byzantium.xronikon.com |access-date=7 November 2012|last1=Papathanassiou |first1=Manolis }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Barba |title=Barba – NumisWiki, The Collaborative Numismatics Project |work=Forum Ancient Coins |publisher=Forumancientcoins.com |access-date=7 November 2012}}</ref>

Hadrian was familiar with the rival philosophers [[Epictetus]] and [[Favorinus]], and with their works, and held an interest in [[Roman philosophy]]. During his first stay in Greece, before he became emperor, he attended lectures by Epictetus at [[Nicopolis]].<ref>Robin Lane Fox, ''The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian''. Philadelphia: Basic Books, 2006, {{ISBN|978-0-465-02497-1}}, p.{{nbsp}}578</ref> Shortly before the death of Plotina, Hadrian had granted her wish that the leadership of the [[Epicureanism|Epicurean]] School in Athens be open to a non-Roman candidate.<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 108f</ref>[[File:Aureus à l'effigie d'Hadrien.jpg|thumb|left|An [[aureus]] of Hadrian minted in 123 AD. The [[Obverse and reverse|reverse]] bears a personification of [[Aequitas|Aequitas Augusti]] or [[Moneta#Juno Moneta|Juno Moneta]]. The legends read as: IMP. CAESAR TRAIA-N. HADRIANVS AVG. / P. M., TR. P., CO[N]S. III]]During Hadrian's time as tribune of the plebs, omens and portents supposedly announced his future imperial condition.<ref>For instance, a probably bogus anecdote in ''Historia Augusta'' relates that as tribune he had lost a cloak that emperors never wore: Michael Reiche, ed., ''Antike Autobiographien: Werke, Epochen, Gattungen''. Köln: Böhlau, 2005, {{ISBN|3-412-10505-8}}, p.{{nbsp}}225</ref> 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 granduncle who was himself a skilled astrologer.<ref>[[Christiane Joost-Gaugier|Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier]], ''Measuring Heaven: Pythagoras and His Influence on Thought and Art in Antiquity and the Middle Ages''. Cornell University Press: 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-8014-4396-1}}, p.&nbsp;177</ref>

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 [[#Poem by Hadrian|below]]). Some of his Greek productions found their way into the ''[[Palatine Anthology]]''.<ref>Juan Gil & Sofía Torallas Tovar, ''Hadrianus''. Barcelona: CSIC, 2010, {{ISBN|978-84-00-09193-4}}, p. 100</ref><ref>Direct links to Hadrian's poems in the A.P. with W.R. Paton's translation at the Internet Archive 
[https://archive.org/stream/greekanthology01pato#page/474/mode/2up VI 332],
[https://archive.org/stream/greekanthology00patogoog#page/n375/mode/2up VII 674], 
[https://archive.org/stream/greekanthology03pato#page/70/mode/2up IX 137],
[https://archive.org/stream/greekanthology03pato#page/216/mode/2up IX 387]</ref> He also wrote an autobiography, which ''Historia Augusta'' says was published under the name of Hadrian's freedman [[Phlegon of Tralles]]. It was not a work of great length or revelation but designed to scotch various rumours or explain Hadrian's most controversial actions.<ref>T. J. Cornell, ed., ''The Fragments of the Roman Historians''. Oxford University Press: 2013, p. 591</ref> It is possible that this autobiography had the form of a series of open letters to [[Antoninus Pius]].<ref>Opper, ''Hadrian: Empire and Conflict'', p. 26</ref>

===Poem by Hadrian===
According to the ''[[Historia Augusta]]'', Hadrian composed the following poem shortly before his death:<ref>Historia Augusta, ''Hadrian'' Dio [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Hadrian/2*.html#25.9 25.9]; Antony Birley, p. 301</ref>

:{{lang|la|[[Animula vagula blandula]]}}
:{{lang|la|Hospes comesque corporis}}
:{{lang|la|Quae nunc abibis in loca}}
:{{lang|la|Pallidula, rigida, nudula,}}
:{{lang|la|Nec, ut soles, dabis iocos...}}

:::P. Aelius Hadrianus Imp.

:''Roving amiable little soul,''
:''Body's companion and guest,''
:''That now will leave to places''
:''Colourless, unbending, and bare''
:''Your usual distractions no more shall be there...''
:::Publius Aelius Hadrian [[Imperator]]

The poem has enjoyed remarkable popularity,<ref>see e.g.[http://coldewey.cc/post/17072720047/forty-three-translations-of-hadrians-animula Forty-three translations of Hadrian's "Animula, vagula, blandula ..." ] including translations by Henry Vaughan, A. Pope, Lord Byron.</ref><ref>A.A. Barb, [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0015587X.1950.9717969?journalCode=rfol20 "Animula, Vagula, Blandula"], Folklore, 61, 1950 : "... since [[Casaubon]] almost three and a half centuries of classical scholars have admired this poem"</ref> but uneven critical acclaim.<ref>see Note 2 in Emanuela Andreoni Fontecedro's {{JSTOR|20547373}} "Animula vagula blandula: Adriano debitore di Plutarco", Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, 1997</ref> 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".<ref>"tales autem nec multo meliores fecit et Graecos", Historia Augusta, ibidem</ref> [[T. S. Eliot]]'s poem "Animula" may have been inspired by Hadrian's, though the relationship is not unambiguous.<ref>Russell E. Murphy, [https://books.google.com/books?id=thqU29nSVgUC&pg=PA48 Critical Companion to T. S. Eliot: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work], 2007. p. 48</ref>

==Appraisals==
[[File:Busts of Hadrianus in Venice cropped.jpg|thumb|left|Bust of Emperor Hadrian]]

Hadrian has been described as the most versatile of all Roman emperors, who "adroitly concealed a mind envious, melancholy, hedonistic, and excessive with respect to his own ostentation; he simulated restraint, affability, clemency, and conversely disguised the ardor for fame with which he burned."<ref>''Varius multiplex multiformis'' in the anonymous, ancient ''[[Epitome de Caesaribus]]'', 14.6: [http://www.roman-emperors.org/epitome.htm trans. Thomas M. Banchich, Canisius College, Buffalo, New York, 2009] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108100827/http://www.roman-emperors.org/epitome.htm |date=8 November 2020 }} Retrieved 24 March 2018</ref><ref>cf Ronald Syme, among others; see Ando, footnote 172</ref> His successor [[Marcus Aurelius]], in his ''[[Meditations]]'', lists those to whom he owes a debt of gratitude; Hadrian is conspicuously absent.<ref>McLynn, 42</ref> 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&nbsp;– respectfully acknowledging your devotion towards your grandfather&nbsp;– I wanted to appease and assuage Hadrian as I would [[Mars Gradivus]] or [[Dis Pater]], rather than to love him."<ref>"Wytse Keulen, Eloquence rules: the ambiguous image of Hadrian in Fronto's correspondence". [http://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/literaryinteractions/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Eloquence-rules-working-paper1.pdf] Retrieved 20 February 2015</ref> Fronto adds, in another letter, that he kept some friendships, during Hadrian's reign, "under the risk of my life" (''cum periculo capitis'').<ref>James Uden (2010). "The Contest of Homer and Hesiod and the ambitions of Hadrian". ''[[Journal of Hellenic Studies]]'', 130 (2010), pp. 121–135. [https://open.bu.edu/bitstream/handle/2144/5437/uden_jhs_2010.pdf?sequence=1]. Accessed 16 October 2017</ref> 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 [[Constitution (Roman law)|imperial decrees]] to bypass the need for the Senate's approval.<ref>Edward Togo Salmon,''A History of the Roman World from 30 B.C. to A.D. 138''. London: Routledge, 2004, {{ISBN|0-415-04504-5}}, pp. 314f</ref> 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.<ref>Paul Veyne, ''L'Empire Gréco-Romain'', p. 40</ref> That Hadrian spent half of his reign away from Rome in constant travel probably helped to mitigate the worst of this permanently strained relationship.<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', p. 1</ref>

[[File:The emperor Hadrian, Archaeological Museum of Astros.jpg|thumb|upright=1.05|Bust of Hadrian with an Antinous-shaped gorgoneion, 2nd century AD, Museum of Astros, [[Greece]]]]

In 1503, [[Niccolò Machiavelli]], though an avowed [[republicanism|republican]], esteemed Hadrian as an ideal ''princeps'', one of Rome's [[Five Good Emperors]]. [[Friedrich Schiller]] called Hadrian "the Empire's first servant". [[Edward Gibbon]] admired his "vast and active genius" and his "equity and moderation", and considered Hadrian's era as part of the "happiest era of human history". In [[Ronald Syme|Ronald Syme's]] view, Hadrian "was a [[Führer]], a [[Duce]], a [[Caudillo]]".<ref>See also Paul Veyne, ''L'Empire Gréco-Romain'', p. 65</ref> According to Syme, [[Tacitus]]' description of the rise and accession of [[Tiberius]] is a disguised account of Hadrian's authoritarian Principate.<ref>Victoria Emma Pagán, ''A Companion to Tacitus''. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, 2012, {{ISBN|978-1-4051-9032-9}}, p. 1</ref> According, again, to Syme, Tacitus' [[Tacitus Annals|Annals]] would be a work of contemporary history, written "during Hadrian's reign and hating it".<ref>Marache, R.: R. Syme, Tacitus, 1958. In: ''Revue des Études Anciennes''. Tome 61, 1959, n°1–2. pp. 202–206. Available at [http://www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_1959_num_61_1_3617_t1_0202_0000_2]. Accessed 30 April 2017</ref>

While the balance of ancient literary opinion almost invariably compares Hadrian unfavourably to his predecessor, modern historians have sought to examine his motives, purposes and the consequences of his actions and policies.<ref>Susanne Mortensen: ''Hadrian. Eine Deutungsgeschichte''. Habelt, Bonn 2004, {{ISBN|3-7749-3229-8}}</ref> For M.A. Levi, a summing-up of Hadrian's policies should stress the [[Ecumene|ecumenical]] character of the Empire, his development of an alternate bureaucracy disconnected from the Senate and adapted to the needs of an "enlightened" [[autocracy]], and his overall defensive strategy; this would qualify him as a grand Roman political reformer, creator of an openly [[absolute monarchy]] to replace a sham senatorial republic.<ref>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 [http://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1995_num_21_1_2249]. Retrieved 19 January 2017</ref> [[Robin Lane Fox]] credits Hadrian as creator of a unified Greco-Roman cultural tradition, and as the end of this same tradition; Hadrian's attempted "restoration" of Classical culture within a non-democratic Empire drained it of substantive meaning, or, in Fox's words, "kill[ed] it with kindness".<ref>''The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian''. New York: Basic Books, 2006, {{ISBN|978-0-465-02497-1}}, p. 4</ref>

==Portraits==
[[File:Hadrian Aureus Delta Omikron.jpg|thumb|alt=Hadrian Aureus with the portrait type Delta-Omikron, Rome, 129-130AD|Hadrian Aureus with the portrait type Delta-Omikron, Rome, 129–130 AD. The legend reads as: HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS]]
Hadrian's portraiture shows him as the first Roman emperor with a beard. Most emperors after him followed his lead. 10 different portrait types are known of Hadrian. A juvenile type with curly hair, broad side burns and a light moustache (but a free chin) was shown on coins later in his life on rare aurei, but likely reflects an early portrait before he became emperor.<ref>Strack, PL, Untersuchungen zur Römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts – Teil 2 Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Hadrian, Stuttgart 1933, also Abdy RA and Mittag PF, Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC), Volume II, Part 3: From AD 117 to AD 138 – Hadrian, London 2019</ref> His first portrait type as Caesar and Augustus used on coins in Mid 117AD shows again broad sideburns merging into a strong moustache and still a free chin. The beard thus resembles beard styles popular in the 19th century like emperor [[Franz Joseph I of Austria|Franz Josef of Austria]].<ref>Pangerl, Andreas, Hadrian’s First and Second Imperial Portrait Types of 117–118 AD; Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte 71, 2021, pp 171–184</ref>

== 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.<ref>Steven H. Rutledge, "Writing Imperial Politics: The Social and Political Background" IN [[William J. Dominik]], ed;, ''Writing Politics in Imperial Rome'' Brill, 2009, {{ISBN|978-90-04-15671-5}}, p. 60</ref><ref>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</ref> As an earlier Latin source, [[Marcus Cornelius Fronto|Fronto]]'s correspondence and works attest to Hadrian's character and the internal politics of his rule.<ref>Mary Taliaferro Boatwright, ''Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire''. Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 20–26</ref> Greek authors such as [[Philostratus]] and [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] wrote shortly after Hadrian's reign, but confined their scope to the general historical framework that shaped Hadrian's decisions, especially those relating the Greek-speaking world, Greek cities and notables.<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', 160</ref> Pausanias especially wrote a lot in praise of Hadrian's benefactions to Greece in general and Athens in particular.<ref>K.W. Arafat, ''Pausanias' Greece: Ancient Artists and Roman Rulers''. Cambridge University Press:2004, {{ISBN|0-521-55340-7}}, p. 171.</ref> Political histories of Hadrian's reign come mostly from later sources, some of them written centuries after the reign itself. The early 3rd-century ''Roman History'' by [[Cassius Dio]], written in Greek, gave a general account of Hadrian's reign, but the original is lost, and what survives, aside from some fragments, is a brief, Byzantine-era abridgment by the 11th-century monk Xiphilinius, who focused on Hadrian's religious interests, the Bar Kokhba war, and little else{{snd}}mostly on Hadrian's moral qualities and his fraught relationship with the Senate.<ref>Boatwright, 20</ref> There are various other sources referred to by later commentators, such as the [[encomium]] of [[Aspasius of Byblos]], that are now completely lost. The principal source for Hadrian's life and reign is, therefore, in Latin: one of several late 4th-century imperial biographies, collectively known as the ''[[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]]''"),<ref>Paul Veyne, ''L'Empire Gréco-Romain''. Paris: Seuil, 2005, {{ISBN|2-02-057798-4}}, p.{{nbsp}}312. In the French original: ''de l'[[Alexandre Dumas]], du [[Peplum film genre|péplum]] et un peu d'Ubu Roi''.</ref> but most modern historians consider its account of Hadrian to be relatively free of outright fictions, and probably based on sound historical sources,<ref>Danèel den Hengst, ''Emperors and Historiography: Collected Essays on the Literature of the Roman Empire''. Leiden: Brill, 2010, {{ISBN|978-90-04-17438-2}}, p.&nbsp;93.</ref> principally one of a lost series of imperial biographies by the prominent 3rd-century senator [[Marius Maximus]], who covered the reigns of [[Nerva]] through to [[Elagabalus]].<ref>Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, Dominic Rathbone, eds., ''The Cambridge Ancient History', XI: the High Empire, 70–192 A.D.''Cambridge University Press, 2000, {{ISBN|978-0521263351}}, p. 132.</ref>

The first modern historian to produce a chronological account of Hadrian's life, supplementing the written sources with other epigraphical, numismatic, and archaeological evidence, was the German 19th-century medievalist [[Ferdinand Gregorovius]].<ref name="Birley 2013 7">Anthony R Birley, ''Hadrian: The Restless Emperor''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013, {{ISBN|0-415-16544-X}}, p.{{nbsp}}7.</ref> A 1907 biography by Wilhelm Weber,<ref name="Birley 2013 7"/> a German nationalist and later [[Nazi Party]] supporter, incorporates the same archaeological evidence to produce an account of Hadrian, and especially his [[Bar Kokhba revolt|Bar Kokhba war]], that has been described as ideologically loaded.<ref>Thomas E. Jenkins, ''Antiquity Now: The Classical World in the Contemporary American Imagination''. Cambridge University Press: 2015, {{ISBN|978-0-521-19626-0}}, p. 121.</ref><ref>A'haron Oppenheimer, ''Between Rome and Babylon: Studies in Jewish Leadership and Society''.Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005, {{ISBN|3-16-148514-9}}, p. 199.</ref><ref>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. B.W. Henderson's 1923 English language biography of Hadrian focuses on ancient written sources, and largely ignores or overlooks the published archaeological, epigraphic and non-literary evidence used by Weber.</ref> Epigraphical studies in the [[post-war]] period help support alternate views of Hadrian. [[Anthony Birley]]'s 1997 biography of Hadrian sums up and reflects these developments in Hadrian historiography. The French novelist [[Marguerite Yourcenar]] wrote a historical novel entitled "[[Memoirs of Hadrian]]" first published in French in 1951.

{{Nerva-Antonine family tree}}

==See also==
* ''[[Memoirs of Hadrian]]'', a 1951 semi-fictional autobiography of Hadrian, written by [[Marguerite Yourcenar]].
* [[Phallos (novella)|Phallos]], a 2004 novella in which the narrator encounters Hadrian and Antinous just before Antinous's murder and then, once more, minutes afterward, which changes the narrator's life, written by [[Samuel R. Delany]].
* [[Hadrian (opera)|''Hadrian'']], a 2018 opera based on Hadrian's life and death and his relationship with Antinous, composed by [[Rufus Wainwright]].

==Citations==
{{Reflist|25em}}

==References==

===Primary sources===
* [[Cassius Dio]] or Dio Cassius ''Roman History''. [https://archive.org/stream/diosromanhistory08cassuoft#page/424/mode/2up Greek Text and Translation by Earnest Cary] at internet archive
* Scriptores Historiae Augustae, ''[[Augustan History]]''. [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Hadrian/1*.html Latin Text] Translated by [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Hadrian/1*.html David Magie]
* [[Aurelius Victor]], ''Caesares'', XIV. Latin {{cite web|url=http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0199/__P5.HTM|title=Caesares: text – IntraText CT|publisher=Intratext.com |date=4 May 2007 |access-date=13 March 2010}}
* Anon, ''Excerpta'' of [[Aurelius Victor]]: ''[[Epitome de Caesaribus]]'', XIII. Latin {{cite web|url=http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0210/__P5.HTM|title=Epitome De Caesaribus: text – IntraText CT|publisher=Intratext.com|date=4 May 2007|access-date=13 March 2010}}
Inscriptions:
* [[Eusebius of Caesarea]], ''Church History (Book IV)'', {{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250104.htm|title=Church History|publisher=New Advent |access-date=13 March 2010}}
* Smallwood, E.M, ''Documents Illustrating the Principates of Nerva Trajan and Hadrian'', Cambridge, 1966.

===Secondary sources===
* {{cite book|last1=Bârcă|first1=Vitalie|title=Nomads of the Steppes on the Danube Frontier of the Roman Empire in the 1st Century CE. Historical Sketch and Chronological Remarks.|date=2013|publisher=Dacia|oclc=1023761641}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Barnes|first1=T. D.|year=1967|title=Hadrian and Lucius Verus|jstor=299345|journal=Journal of Roman Studies|volume=57|issue=1/2|pages=65–79|doi=10.2307/299345|s2cid=162678629 }}
* {{cite book|last1=Birley|first1=Anthony R.|title=Hadrian. The restless emperor|location=London|publisher=Routledge|year=1997|isbn=978-0-415-16544-0|url=https://archive.org/details/hadrianrestlesse00birl}}
* {{cite book |last1=Boatwright |first1=Mary Taliaferro|author1-link=Mary T. Boatwright|title=Hadrian and the city of Rome |date=1987 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, N.J. |isbn=978-0691002187}}
* {{cite book|last1=Boatwright|first1=Mary Taliaferro.|title=Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire|location=Princeton|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2000|oclc=41981932|isbn=978-0-691-04889-5}} 
* {{cite journal|last1=Canto |first1=Alicia M. |year=2004 |title=Itálica, ''patria'' y ciudad natal de Adriano (31 textos históricos y argumentos contra ''Vita Hadr''. 1, 3 |journal=Athenaeum |volume=92 |issue=2 |pages=367–408 |url=http://dobc.unipv.it/dipscant/athenaeum/athenaeum.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071015233845/http://dobc.unipv.it/dipscant/athenaeum/athenaeum.html |archive-date=15 October 2007 }}
* {{cite book|last1=Everitt|first1=Anthony|title=Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome|location=New York|publisher=Random House|year=2009|isbn=978-1-4000-6662-9}} 
* {{cite book|last1=Dobson|first1=Brian|title=Hadrian's Wall|location=London|publisher=Penguin|year=2000}}
* [[Edward Gibbon|Gibbon, Edward]], ''[[The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'', vol. I, 1776. The Online Library of Liberty {{cite web |url=http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1365&Itemid=27 |title=Online Library of Liberty – The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1 |publisher=Oll.libertyfund.org |access-date=13 March 2010 |archive-date=7 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100807084956/http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1365&Itemid=27 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite book|last1=Giurescu|first1=Dinu C.|last2=Fischer-Galaţi|first2=Stephen A.|title=Romania: a Historic Perspective|date=1998|publisher=East European Monographs|oclc=39317152}}
* {{cite book|last1= Lambert|first1=Royston|author1-link=Royston Lambert|title=Beloved and God: the story of Hadrian and Antinous|location=London|publisher=Phoenix Giants|year=1997|isbn=978-1-85799-944-0}}
* {{cite book|last=Mócsy|first=András|title=Pannonia and Upper Moesia (Routledge Revivals): A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire|year=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-75425-1}}
* {{cite book |last1=Morwood |first1=James |title=Hadrian |date=2013 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |location=London; New York |isbn=978-1849668866}}
* {{cite book |last1=Opper |first1=Thorsten |title=Hadrian: Empire and Conflict |date=2008 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=978-0674030954}}
* {{cite book|last1=Speller|first1=Elizabeth|title=Following Hadrian: a second-century journey through the Roman Empire|location=London|publisher=Review|year=2003|isbn=978-0-7472-6662-4}}
* {{cite book|last1=Syme|first1=Ronald|author-link=Ronald Syme|title=Tacitus|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|orig-year=1958|year=1997|isbn=978-0-19-814327-7}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Syme|first1=Ronald|year=1964|title=Hadrian and Italica|journal=Journal of Roman Studies|volume=LIV|issue=1–2|pages=142–49|doi=10.2307/298660|jstor=298660|s2cid=162241585 }}
* {{cite journal|last1=Syme|first1=Ronald|year=1988|title=Journeys of Hadrian|journal=Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik|volume=73|pages=159–170|url=http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa/zpe/downloads/1988/073pdf/073159.pdf|access-date=12 December 2006}} Reprinted in {{cite book|last1=Syme|first1=Ronald|title=Roman Papers VI|location=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-19-814494-6|pages=346–57}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last1=Danziger|first1=Danny|title=Hadrian's empire : when Rome ruled the world|year=2006|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|location=London|isbn=978-0-340-83361-2|author2=Purcell, Nicholas|url=https://archive.org/details/hadriansempire00dann}}
* {{cite book|last1=Everitt|first1=Anthony|title=Hadrian and the triumph of Rome|year=2009|publisher=Random House|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4000-6662-9}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Gray|first1=William Dodge|title=A Study of the life of Hadrian Prior to His Accession|journal=Smith College Studies in History|year=1919|volume=4|pages=151–209}}
* {{cite book|last1=Gregorovius|first1=Ferdinand|title=The Emperor Hadrian: A Picture of the Greco-Roman World in His Time|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D20G5zMpPfUC|year=1898|publisher=Macmillan|location=London|others=Mary E. Robinson, trans|isbn=978-0790552286}}
* {{cite book|last1=Henderson|first1=Bernard W.|title=Life and Principate of the Emperor Hadrian|location=London|publisher=Methuen|year=1923}}
* {{cite book|last1=Ish-Kishor|first1=Sulamith|title=Magnificent Hadrian: A Biography of Hadrian, Emperor of Rome|year=1935|publisher=Minton, Balch and Co|location=New York}}
* Kouremenos, Anna (2022). ''The Province of Achaea in the 2nd century CE: The Past Present''. Routledge. {{ISBN|978-1032014852}}
* {{cite book|last1=Perowne|first1=Stewart|author-link=Stewart Perowne|title=Hadrian|year=1960|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton|location=London}}

==External links==
{{External links|section|date= July 2025}}
{{Commons}}
* [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Hadrian/1*.html Historia Augusta: Life of Hadrian]
* [http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/hadrian/t.html Hadrian coinage]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07104b.htm Catholic Encyclopedia article]
* [http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/hadrian/ Major scultoric find at Sagalassos (Turkey)], 2 August 2007 (between 13 and 16 feet in height, four to five meters), with [http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/hadrian/1.html some splendid photos courtesy of the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080604174435/http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/hadrian/1.html |date=4 June 2008 }}
* [http://www.roman-emperors.org/hadrian.htm Hadrian, in De Imperatoribus Romanis, Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110408201312/http://www.roman-emperors.org/hadrian.htm |date=8 April 2011 }}

{{s-start}}
{{s-hou|[[Nervan–Antonine dynasty]]|24 January|AD 76|10 July|AD 138}}
{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Trajan]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Roman emperor]]|years=117–138}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Antoninus Pius]]}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Annia gens|Ap. Annius Trebonius Gallus]], <br />and [[Marcus Atilius Bradua|M. Atilius Bradua]] |as=Ordinary consuls}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Roman consuls|Roman suffect consul]] |years=108|regent1=[[Trebatia gens#MembersMarcus Trebatius Priscus|M. Trebatius Priscus]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Quintus Pompeius Falco|Q. Pompeius Falco]], <br />and [[Marcus Titius Lustricus Bruttianus|M. Titius Lustricus Bruttianus]]|as=Suffect consuls}}
{{s-bef|before = ''ignotus'',<br />and [[Minicia gens#Members|Gn. Minicius Faustinus]]|as=Suffect consuls}}
{{s-ttl|title = [[Roman consul]] |years = 118 |regent1=[[Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator (consul 118)|Gn. Pedanius Fuscus Salinator]] (Jan–Feb)|regent2=[[Bellicia gens#Members|Bellicius Tebanianus]] (March)|regent3=[[Gaius Ummidius Quadratus|G. Ummidius Quadratus]] (May)}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pomponia gens#Pompeii of imperial times|L. Pomponius Bassus]],<br />and [[Sabinia gens#Members|T. Sabinius Barbarus]]|as=Suffect consuls}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Pomponia gens#Pompeii of imperial times|L. Pomponius Bassus]],<br />and [[Sabinia gens#Members|T. Sabinius Barbarus]]|as=Suffect consuls}}
{{s-ttl|title = [[Roman consul]]|years = 119|regent1=[[Publius Dasumius Rusticus]] (Jan–Feb)<br />[[Aulus Platorius Nepos]] (March–April)}}
{{s-aft|after = [[Quintus Coredius Gallus Gargilius Antiquus|M. Paccius Silvanus<br />Q. Coredius Gallus Gargilius Antiquus]],<br />and [[Vibia gens#Members|Q. Vibius Gallus]]|as=Suffect consuls}}
{{s-end}}

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