During the Augustan principate, the so-called Roman peace (Pax Romana, 30 BC) was established, which ensured 250 years of relative peace and stability to the Roman Empire. Within that period, from the arrival of Nerva to the imperial throne in 96 AD to the death of the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius in 180 AD, it was one of the happiest periods in Roman history. Historian of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon defines this period as the “reign of the five good emperors.” One of them was Emperor Hadrian, remembered as a Renaissance homo universalis of ancient Rome.
Pax Romana and imperial succession underwent significant changes during the Roman peace. With the extinction of the Julian-Claudian dynasty, whose progenitor was Julius Caesar, the right to the imperial purple ceased to be an exclusive privilege of a predetermined family of “divine” origin, although it remained hereditary in a formal-legal sense. Namely, besides Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Tiberius, this family also included the The infamous and notorious emperors Caligula and Nero whose reigns had a bloody outcome. From their rule, Rome learned a lesson; since then, the legions became a significant factor in the selection of the emperor. Those who had the support of the legions could hardly be denied the right to the throne.
After Nero, who committed suicide before being executed, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius took turns on the throne in a short period, until finally in 68 AD, the legions proclaimed soldier Vespasian as emperor. Vespasian was the first emperor who did not come from a noble background. He was succeeded by his son Titus (the conqueror of Jerusalem in 70 AD), who died young, and was then succeeded by his brother, the tyrant Domitian, who turned the Empire into a police state. The hated Domitian met a violent death, and in 96 AD, the gentle Nerva ascended the throne. Since he was already advanced in years, Nerva’s reign would be short-lived.
Before his death, Nerva adopted the military leader Trajan (the first emperor from the provinces), and since then, the custom of adoption would become a tradition. The purpose of the translation is to make it seem original, so the following translation will not be a literal word-for-word translation, but rather a rephrasing that preserves the meaning of the original text while sounding natural in English:
A system was implemented that would prevent other contenders from reaching the throne and prevent the period of crisis, anarchy, and violence that typically accompanied the struggle for power. Another advantage of such an inheritance system was that the emperor could entrust the empire to the capable hands of his chosen successor, based on their proven virtues and abilities.
Under Trajan’s rule, the Roman Empire expanded through new conquests. During the reign of Trajan’s successor, Hadrian, the borders were established, and the provinces were given equal status.
By selecting the worthy Antoninus Pius, Hadrian secured the throne for his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, who would face invasions by the Marcomanni tribes from the north during his reign. These incursions forced the emperor to spend a significant portion of his life in Roman fortresses along the Rhine and Danube frontiers, where he eventually passed away in Vindobona (Vienna). The Marcomannic invasions marked the beginning of a major migration of peoples from the north, which ultimately contributed to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The reign More precisely, the tyranny of his son Commodus will mark the beginning of the crisis of the imperial institution.
While Trajan was a soldier, Antoninus Pius was beloved for his humility, and his son Marcus Aurelius was a philosopher-emperor. As already noted, Hadrian was a Renaissance homo universalis of ancient Rome. An indefatigable traveler, a founder of cities, a reformer, a poet, an architect, and above all a Hellenophile who, to borrow the words of the emperor himself from Hadrian’s memoirs by the French writer Marguerite Yourcenar, one of the most beautiful fictionalized biographies in world literature, “thought and felt in Greek, and ruled the empire in Latin”. Truly, these words clearly depict what we know about Hadrian as a man whose psychological structure combines the pragmatism of a Roman by birth, a statesman and cosmopolitan, resolute and determined, with an affinity for the culture and wisdom of ancient Greece, whose influence could barely be glimpsed from the fiery chariots of Helios on their way westward even in Hadrian’s time.
Hadrian – from Italica to Antioch
Publius Aelius Hadrianus (Publius Aelius Hadrianus), whose ancestors come from the city of Hadria on the northeastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, was born into a distinguished patrician family in the Roman province of Hispania on January 24, 76 AD, during the turbulent decade of the reign of emperors Vespasian and Titus, Titus’ conquest of Jerusalem, the construction of the Flavian Amphitheatre (Colosseum), the second great fire in Rome, and the major eruption of Mount Vesuvius that buried Pompeii, Herculaneum, and other Roman cities. Hadrian’s (and Trajan’s) birthplace, Italica, was nestled in the south of the Iberian Peninsula in the province of Baetica (Andalusia), with its gentle landscape and warm Mediterranean climate reminiscent of Italy, from where Hadrian’s ancestors came after 205 BC when Scipio Africanus, after expelling the Carthaginians, decided to settle the area with Roman military veterans.
Hadrian would see Rome for the first time as a ten-year-old when his education, after his father’s death, was entrusted to his great-uncle Trajan. . The city of great social disparities, intrigues, and overall moral and spiritual decadence, such as Domician’s Rome, must have seemed completely opposite to Hadrian’s tranquil and secure childhood spent in Italica. Throughout his life, Hadrian’s relationship with Rome remained ambivalent. He was never inclined towards the conservative old Roman patricians who could not recognize the necessity of socio-political changes required for the survival of the Empire. The city of Rome was the centripetal force of the Empire, but Hadrian’s heart belonged to Athens, which had chosen him as archon during Trajan’s time. After five years of education in Rome, he returned to Italica, then back to Rome, where his ascent began. Hadrian gained reputation after his military service in Aquincum (now Budapest), Moesia, and northern Germany, and then held the highest magistracies in the Empire (quaestor, tribune, praetor, consul, governor).
After Trajan’s death in Antioch in 117 AD, Hadrian becomes emperor. Due to a series of unclear circumstances, Due to the circumstances surrounding his formal adoption by Trajan and the removal of other claimants to the throne, Hadrian was met with a cold reception in Rome. In order to calm the tension, the emperor granted immunity to the senators and enacted a series of laws in their favor. One of these laws included the release of all public debts to the state, as well as a number of laws promoting social welfare. By 121 AD, Hadrian embarked on a journey throughout all the provinces of the Empire, from the restless Britain to the regions encompassing Asia (between the Dardanelles and Rhodes) and from Arabia to Africa.
As a wise statesman, Hadrian set out to achieve his vision of political reforms and peace. He was not interested in expanding the empire’s territories, but rather in preserving and securing its existing borders. This required not only a military reorganization, but also the construction of a visible physical barrier, later named Hadrian’s Wall (Vallum Hadriani in Britain), which would separate the Roman world from the barbarians. In the east, a natural barrier was already present. The border was the river Euphrates. During his ten-year journey, Hadrian visited all the famous cities of the ancient world (Athens, Antioch, Ephesus, Troy, Palmyra, Petra, Jerash, Alexandria, Leptis Magna, Sabratha, Carthage…), climbed Mount Etna, sailed the Nile to the Colossi of Memnon, founded cities (Hadrianopolis, Hadrianotherae, Antinopolis), restored the tombs of Ajanta (the Greek hero under Troy), Alcibiades, and the Theban hero Epanimondas, built temples (the Temple of Zeus in Athens), baths, libraries, aqueducts…
Approaching the end of his journey and his life, in the third decade of the 2nd century, Hadrian retreated to his villa in Tibur (Tivoli), which he had begun building in 125 AD. After the adoption and death of Lucius Aelius Verus – who was supposed to be Hadrian’s successor and whom Carcopino assumes was actually the emperor’s son – Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius, the founder of the Antonine dynasty, ensuring the continuation of the “golden age.” “The end of the era” began with the reign of Nerva. With declining health, the emperor will embark on his final journey to Baiae (a town near Naples) from his villa, where he will “await death with open eyes”.
Hadrian – artist and architect
Unlike written sources that indirectly, and therefore sometimes biased, speak of Emperor Hadrian and statesman Hadrian, the buildings that he erected directly and clearly testify to Hadrian as an artist and architect, combining Roman monumentalism and technical skill with Greek design elements, which stylistically define this era as Hadrianic classicism.
While most of the emperor’s architectural achievements throughout the Empire are preserved today only in the form of archaeological remains, two structures defy time with their powerful volumes even after almost two thousand years. These are the Pantheon and the Moles Hadriani (now Castel Sant’Angelo), integral parts of the urban identity of the Eternal City.
Pantheon
On the site of the Pantheon, which was built in the Campus Martius, it There stood a Roman temple of traditional form, which was erected in the second half of the 1st century BC by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. When this temple disappeared in the second great fire of 80 AD, Emperor Hadrian had a temple dedicated to the celestial gods (the gods of the planets) built in the same location.
During the construction of the Pantheon, the inscription mentioning Mark Agrippa was preserved and incorporated into the architecture of the new portico. This inscription gave rise to various interpretations of the architecture of the Pantheon; some believed that Hadrian retained Agrippa’s porch during construction, while others believe that the entire building was created during Hadrian’s time. Even though the porch itself is discordantly connected to the circular plan of the sanctuary, its traditional architecture serves to define the function of the building, and it is also an expression of the respect that Hadrian felt for the glorious period of Augustus’ reign. The porch, originally approached by five stairs, has sixteen monolithic stones. therefore, the interior introduces a completely new quality into Roman architecture with its harmonious relationships. Namely, traditional Roman and Greek temples were until then “extroverted”, i.e. they were designed to be experienced from the outside in their proportional relationships, while the sanctuary served exclusively for the placement of the deity’s statue. Spaciousness was achieved solely in the interrelation of the columns and walls of the sanctuary. For example, Phidias’ Parthenon frieze in Athens, depicting the Panathenaic festivals, is also placed on the outer side.
The Pantheon was conceived and realized as an interior space, and the diameter of its perfect circle covered by a dome (43.3 m) is equal to its height. At the top of the dome Today, a 9-meter wide opening has been opened through which the entire building is evenly lit. The way in which the dome was constructed is yet another testament to Roman architectural genius. Composed of a series of coffered rings, the lower part (with a thickness of 6 meters) used a mixture of brick and stone, while the upper part (with a thickness of 1.8 meters) used a lighter material (tuff and volcanic rocks). The lower corpus is divided into alternating semicircular and rectangular niches with columns, in which statues of deities were placed.
The following words about the Pantheon, although written by Marguerite Yourcenar, authentically represent Hadrian’s voice: “All the deities seemed more and more mysteriously fused into one whole, infinitely diverse expressions, equal manifestations of the same force: their contradictions were only a kind of mutual agreement. The idea imposed itself on me to build a temple for all the gods, the Pantheon.”
I wanted this center of all the gods to have the shape of a terrestrial and celestial sphere, a sphere in which… Within hides the seed of eternal fire, the hollow sphere in which everything is contained. It was also the shape of those huts of our ancestors, from which smoke would ascend through the opening at the top of the oldest human hearths. The dome, constructed of hard and lightweight lava that seems to still participate in the rising flames, is connected to the sky by a large, alternating black and blue hole. This open and secret temple is conceptualized as a sundial. Hours will pass in a circle on the panels carefully polished by Greek artisans; a disc of sunlight will hang above like a golden shield; rain will create a pure puddle on the paved floor; prayers will rise like smoke to that emptiness in which we imagine the gods dwell.
Temple of Venus and Rome
The temple is dedicated to the progenitor of the Julii dynasty (Venus Genetrix) and to the city ruler of the world. Specifically, Venus is the mother of Aeneas, who, after escaping from burnt Troy, arrived in Italy after a long journey and took Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus, as his wife. With Lavinia, Aeneas had a son named Julius, whose descendants are the Julii. vci.
The exact year of construction of this temple is not known, but it is known that it was completed and consecrated in 135. The temple is surrounded by a single row of columns, ten of which are located on the narrower sides. Today, only parts of Maxentius’ reconstruction of the temple from 310 are preserved, which was done after a fire.
Hadrian’s mausoleum
The mausoleum was built after the model of Augustus’ mausoleum on the Mars Field. At the time of Hadrian’s death in 138, the building was not yet completed, so the emperor was temporarily buried in Pozzuoli, where Mark Aurelius later built a temple dedicated to the divine Hadrian on the site of Cicero’s villa.
For his final resting place, Hadrian chose the right bank of the Tiber, and he solved direct access to the mausoleum by building a bridge (Pons Aelius). The bridge was partially reconstructed at the end of the last century, while the central three arches date back to the time of the bridge’s construction.
The mausoleum was built on a square base, 10 m high, with sides measuring 84 m. The base is was lined with marble cladding, and on it was erected a rotunda with a diameter of 64 m and a height of 21 m. Above the rotunda, a earthen mound rose, on top of which there was a pedestal on which the emperor’s statue or quadriga was probably located. The sanctuary itself, where the urns with the ashes of the emperor and his wife Sabina were located, was accessed through a long spiral corridor adorned with a black and white mosaic on the floor.
The tomb was looted when Alaric plundered Rome in 410 AD, and in the 5th century, Emperor Honorius incorporated it into the defensive system of the Aurelian Walls. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it underwent significant renovations and became known as Castel Sant’Angelo.
Hadrian’s travels, roads, and the Roman peace, which ensured relatively safe travel, sparked the interest of Romans in other countries, especially Greece, of which the emperor himself was the greatest admirer. Classical Greek works were copied, but the transfer of artworks to Rome, i.e. the plundering of artworks, ceased. It was common for Hadrian’s predecessors. And in the choice of materials for construction, Hadrian breaks with tradition. While Trajan mainly used Carrara marble, Pentelic and Proconnesian marble are now being used.
Advanced technical procedures, such as drilling, are the beginning of the prosperity of marble sculpture, which gives new quality to the forms by contrasting the shiny polished surface and rich treatment of hair and beard. This kind of treatment emphasizes the play of light and shadow and softens the hardness of marble, giving warmth and vitality to the sculptures. The reliefs and statues of that time are imbued with peace and sublime dignity, as can be seen in the depiction of the deification of Empress Sabina (Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome), where she ascends to the sky on the wings of personified Eternity (Aeternitas).
Hadrian’s villa in Tivoli, with its peristyles, temples, gardens, pools, and copies of Greek sculptures (Praxiteles’ Knidian Aphrodite, Phidias’ Amazon) is a memory of his travels shaped in stone.
Once, Emperor Augustus During a speech, he said: “I was born in a city of bricks, but I leave behind a city of marble.” Hadrian was not born in the city “of marble” that Emperor Augustus left on the banks of the Tiber, but he adorned it with numerous artworks and buildings with his Renaissance spirit, among which the Pantheon is an iconic achievement in the history of architecture.
1 The Julio-Claudian dynasty ruled the Roman Empire from 49 BC to 68 AD, when Emperor Nero committed suicide after being declared a state enemy by the Senate and having his mandate revoked.