Hadrian ( ; born Publius Aelius Hadrianus, 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. His form of address as Roman emperor was Imperator Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus. Hadrian was born in Italica, in the present-day Andalusian province of Seville in southern Spain, an Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his gens Aelia came from the town of Hadria in central 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, most likely 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, Assyria, Armenia, and parts of 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 Britannia. In Rome itself, he rebuilt the Pantheon and constructed the vast Temple of Venus and Roma, as well as the Villa Adriana in Tivoli. 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 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. 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.Ando, Clifford "Hadrian: The Restless Emperor by Anthony R. Birley", Phoenix, 52 (1998), pp. 183–185. .
Early life
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), 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.Alicia M. Canto, Itálica, sedes natalis de Adriano. 31 textos históricos y argumentos para una secular polémica, Athenaeum XCII/2, 2004, 367–408.Ronald Syme, "Hadrian and Italica" (Journal of Roman Studies, LIV, 1964; pp.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 : 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.,Googlebooks preview O.Neugebauer and H.B. Van Hoesen, "Greek Horoscopes" Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, 48, 76, Philadelphia, 1959, pp. 80–90, 91, and footnote 19, googlebooks preview of 1987 edition
Hadrian's father was Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer, a senator of praetorian rank, born and raised in Italica. Hadrian's mother was Domitia Paulina, daughter of a distinguished Roman senatorial family based in Gades (Cádiz).Royston Lambert, Beloved And God, pp.31–32. 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.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) Hadrian's great-nephew, Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator, from 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.On the numerous senatorial families from Spain residing at Rome and its vicinity around the time of Hadrian's birth see R. Syme, 'Spaniards at Tivoli', in Roman Papers IV (Oxford, 1988), pp.96–114. Hadrian went on to build an Imperial villa at Tivoli (Tibur) 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 "Ulpio-Aelian dynasty".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
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). Hadrian was physically active and enjoyed hunting; when he was 14, Trajan called him to Rome and arranged his further education in subjects appropriate to a young Roman aristocrat.Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 24–26 Hadrian's enthusiasm for Greek literature and culture earned him the nickname Graeculus ("Greekling"), intended as a form of "mild mockery".Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, pp. 16–17
Public service Hadrian's first official post in Rome was as a member of the decemviri stlitibus judicandis, one among many vigintivirate offices at the lowest level of the cursus honorum ("course of honours") that could lead to higher office and a senatorial career. He then served as a military tribune, first with the LegioII Adiutrix in 95, then with the Legio V Macedonica. During Hadrian's second stint as tribune, the frail and aged reigning emperor Nerva adopted Trajan as his heir; Hadrian was dispatched to give Trajan the news – or most probably was one of many emissaries charged with this same commission.Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, p.37 Then Hadrian was transferred to Legio XXII Primigenia and a third tribunate.John D. Grainger, Nerva and the Roman Succession Crisis of AD 96–99. Abingdon: Routledge, 2004, , p. 109 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.Thorsten Opper, The Emperor Hadrian. British Museum Press, 2008, p.39Jörg 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, , p. 351. 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.John D. Grainger, Nerva and the Roman Succession Crisis, p. 109; Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, Dominic Rathbone, eds. The Cambridge Ancient History – XI. Cambridge U. P.: 2000, , p. 133.
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 – 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.Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, p.54 His next post was as ab actis senatus, keeping the Senate's records.Boatwright, in Barrett, p. 158 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.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 During the Second Dacian War, Hadrian was in Trajan's personal service again. He was released to serve as legate of Legio I Minervia, then as governor of Lower Pannonia in 107, tasked with "holding back the Sarmatians".Bowman, p. 133Anthony Everitt, 2013, Chapter XI: "holding back the Sarmatians" may simply have meant maintaining and patrolling the border. Between 107 and 108, Hadrian defeated an invasion of Roman-controlled Banat and Oltenia by the Iazyges. 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. The Iazyges also took possession of Banat around this time, which may have been part of the treaty.
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).The inscription in footnote 1 The Athenians awarded him a statue with an inscription in the Theatre of Dionysus (IG II2 3286) offering a detailed account of his cursus honorum thus far.The Athenian inscription confirms and expands the one in Historia Augusta; see John Bodel, ed., Epigraphic Evidence: Ancient History From Inscriptions. Abingdon: Routledge, 2006, , p. 89His career in office up to 112/113 is attested by the Athens inscription, 112 AD: CIL III, 550 = InscrAtt 3 = IG II, 3286 = Dessau 308 = IDRE 2, 365: decemvir stlitibus iudicandis/ sevir turmae equitum Romanorum/ praefectus Urbi feriarum Latinarum/ tribunus militum legionis II Adiutricis Piae Fidelis (95, in Pannonia Inferior)/ tribunus militum legionis V Macedonicae (96, in Moesia Inferior)/ tribunus militum legionis XXII Primigeniae Piae Fidelis (97, in Germania Superior)/ quaestor (101)/ ab actis senatus/ tribunus plebis (105)/ praetor (106)/ legatus legionis I Minerviae Piae Fidelis (106, in Germania Inferior)/ legatus Augusti pro praetore Pannoniae Inferioris (107)/ consul suffectus (108)/ septemvir epulonum (before 112)/ sodalis Augustalis (before 112)/ archon Athenis (112/13).