116. Bust of Hadrian, Roman, Imperial style,

c. 117-138 C.E. Marble. Museo Nazionale Romano,

Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome.

 

 

Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus), Roman emperor 117-138 B.C.E., was born on January 24, 76 C.E. at Italica in Hispania Bactica (according to others, at Rome), where his ancestors, originally from Hadria in Picenum, had been settled since the time of the Scipios. At the age of fifteen he began a military career, and he quickly moved up the ranks, thanks to his closeness with Trajan, the current emperor, who named Hadrian his successor just before his death.

He was without doubt one of the most capable emperors who ever occupied the throne, and devoted his great and varied talents to the interests of the state. One of his chief objects was the abolition of distinctions between the provinces and the mother country, finally carried out by Caracalla, while at the same time he did not neglect reforms that were urgently called for in Italy. Provincial governors were kept under strict supervision; extortion was practically unheard of; special officials were instituted for the control of the finances; and the emperors interest in provincial affairs was shown by his personal assumption of various municipal offices. New towns were founded and old ones restored; new streets were laid out, and aqueducts, temples and magnificent buildings constructed. In Italy, many changes were made. For example, the administration of the postal service throughout the empire was taken over by the state, and municipal officials were relieved from the burden of maintaining the imperial posts. Human regulations as to the treatment of slaves were strictly enforced, the master was forbidden to put his slave to death, but was obliged to bring him before a court of Justine; if he ill-treated him it was a penal offence. The sale of slaves for immoral or gladiatorial purposes was forbidden. The public baths were kept under strict supervision; the toga was ordered to be worn in public by senators and equites on solemn occasions; extravagant banquets were prohibited; rules were made to prevent the congestion of traffic in the streets. In military matters Hadrian was a strict disciplinarian, but his generosity and readiness to share their hardships endeared him to the soldiers. He effected a material and moral improvement in the conditions of service and mode of life. Among the magnificent buildings erected by Hadrian, the most impressive are the following: in Rome, the temples of Venus and Roma; his splendid mausoleum, which formed the groundwork of the Castel Sant’Angelo; and the pantheon of Agrippa.

Hadrian was fond of the society of learned men—poets, scholars, rhetoricians and philosophers—whom he alternately humoured and ridiculed. In painting, sculpture and music he considered himself the equal of specialists. He was a man of considerable intellectual attainments, of prodigious memory, master of both Latin and Greek, and wrote prose and verse with equal facility.

The character of Hadrian exhibits a mass of contradictions, well summed up by Spartianus: “He was grave and gay, affable and dignified, cruel and gentle, mean and generous, eager for fame yet not vain, impulsive and cautious, secretive and open. He hated eminent qualities in others, but gathered around him the most distinguished men of the state; at one time affectionate toward his friends, at another he mistrusted and put them to death. In fact, he was only consistent in his inconsistency. Although he endeavoured to win the popular favour, he was more feared than loved. A man of unnatural passions and grossly superstitious, he was an ardent lover of nature. But, with all his faults, he devoted himself so indefatigably to the service of the state, that the period of his reign could be characterised as a “golden age.”