In the first scholarly biography of Hadrian (76-138 A.D.) since
Bernard Henderson's 1923 work, German historian Birley examines the
personal life and cultural and state achievements of the emperor
who Hellenized and consolidated the Roman Empire. Drawing on the
Historia Agusta and other Latin sources, Birley traces the life of
Hadrian, a Roman of senatorial rank and Spanish origin whose career
rose with that of his uncle Trajan. Trajan spent much of his time
with his legions at the frontier, and Hadrian himself headed
several legions. After Trajan became emperor, Hadrian assisted his
uncle in the conquest of the Dacians, after which the Roman Empire
expanded to its greatest breadth, and married Trajan's
granddaughter, Vibia Sabina. Significantly for his future role as a
promoter of Greek culture, Hadrian served as archon of Athens and
was put in command of the army of Syria and adopted as Trajan's
heir shortly before the emperor's death. Birley shows that Hadrian
himself was both peripatetic and vigorous as ruler in consolidating
his position around the empire, developing his eponymous wall in
Britain, negotiating a peace with the Parthians, and putting down
rebellions in Judaea (occasioned by his own unsuccessful attempt to
Hellenize the Jews). Deeply interested in Greek architecture and
culture, he became personally involved in massive building projects
and wrote poetry, some of which has survived. Birley also traces
Hadrian's celebrated homosexual relationship with the youth
Antinous: When the boy died after falling into the Nile in 130
A.D., Hadrian became disconsolate. A person of mercurial character,
he died after a long illness, hated by many but having left a
remarkable stamp on the culture and character of the empire. An
excellent, and long overdue, biography of one of the greatest and
most accomplished of the Roman emperors. (Kirkus Reviews)
Hadrian's reign (AD 117-138) was a watershed in the history of the Roman Empire. Hadrian abandoned his predecessor Trajan's eastern conquests - Mesopotamia and Armenia - trimmed down the lands beyond the lower Danube, and constructed new demarcation lines in Germany, North Africa, and most famously Hadrian's Wall in Britain, to delimit the empire.
The emperor Hadrian, a strange and baffling figure to his contemporaries, had a many-sided personality. Insatiably ambitious, and a passionate Philhellene, he promoted the 'Greek Renaissance' extravagantly. But his attempt to Hellenize the Jews, including the outlawing of circumcision, had disastrous consequences, and his 'Greek' love of the beautiful Bithynian boy Antinous ended in tragedy.
No comprehensive account of Hadrian's life and reign has been attempted for over seventy years. In Hadrian: The Restless Emperor, Anthony Birley brings together the new evidence from inscriptions and papyri, and up-to-date and in-depth examination of the work of other scholars on aspects of Hadrian's reign and policies such as the Jewish war, the coinage, Hadrian's building programme in Rome, Athens and Tivoli, and his relationship with his favourite, Antinous, to provide a thorough and fascinating account of the private and public life of a man who, though hated when he died, left an indelible mark on the Roman Empire.
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