Hadrian (76–138) was one of the most successful emperors in the history of ancient Rome. His twenty-one-year reign marked the high-water points of the empire’s geographic size and military might, and it was a period of relative peace and prosperity. Hadrian was also a sponsor of the arts who rebuilt the Pantheon of Rome—a landmark of architectural history that still stands today.
Born in the Roman province of Spain, Hadrian was the son of a senator. His father died in 85, when Hadrian was ten, and he was raised by the future emperor Trajan (53–117). Hadrian held a variety of imperial offices; fought in Germany, Syria, and Dacia (present-day Romania); and was designated Trajan’s heir in the emperor’s will.
Hadrian’s experiences fighting in the provinces gave him a firsthand look at the empire’s weaknesses. After becoming emperor, he gave up territory that he considered indefensible and embarked on a program of building fortifications to protect the rest. Hadrian’s Wall, a stone fortification that stretches across northern England and is still mostly intact, was one of his most famous projects.
In Rome, he sponsored the reconstruction of the Pantheon to replace an earlier temple that had been destroyed by fire. The Pantheon, a huge, domed temple dedicated to all the Roman gods, has been in continuous use since then, and it provided architectural inspiration for the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, among many other buildings. Hadrian was also interested in and tolerant of non-Roman peoples within the empire, as well as an advocate of Greek culture.
For the most part, Hadrian’s reign was peaceful. But he is also remembered as a tyrant for crushing a Jewish revolt in 135, killing hundreds of thousands of Jews. Historian Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) described the balance of violence and prosperity that characterized his rule: “The terror of the Roman arms,” he wrote with understatement, “added weight and dignity to the moderation of the emperors.”
Hadrian died in 138 and was succeeded by his adoptive son, Antoninus Pius (86–161).
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- Although the boundary shifted slightly over the centuries, for most of its length Hadrian’s Wall is only a few miles from the present-day border between England and Scotland.
- Hadrian was a mountain climber who ascended two of the best-known peaks in his empire, Mount Etna in Sicily and Jabal Agra in Syria.
- As a child, the future emperor was nicknamed Graeculus (“Little Greek”) for his fondness for Greek literature.
