Ruling in 117–138, the Roman emperor Hadrian was born in 76. He was born the colony of Italike, located in the province of Betica, not far from modern Seville. Adrian was the son of the praetor Publius Elius Adrian Afre (that is, African, this title went to his father as a reward for his service in distant Mauritania). The boy's mother was Domitia Paulina, a native of the Spanish Hades. Emperor Hadrian belonged to the aristocracy. His paternal grandfather was a member of the Senate and the husband of Aunt Trayan. This emperor, who ruled in 98–117, being Adrian's cousin uncle, became his guardian after the death of the child’s parents in 85.
Youth
The future emperor Hadrian chose a military career. He became a tribune in the legions that served in the most tense European provinces: Upper Germany, Lower Moesia and Lower Pannonia. As Trajan's right hand, Adrian accompanied him along the road to Rome when he was preparing to ascend the throne. In the capital, the military got married. Vibia Sabina, the daughter of the niece of the new emperor, became his wife.
Then Adrian became a quaestor, commanded the legion and acted as praetor during the Dacian war. For some time he was the governor in Lower Pannonia, which the emperor himself contributed to. Adrian was distinguished by good service and diligence. In 108, his administrative skills allowed him to become consul. For the empire, this was a turbulent time - the key figures of state power had to respond to many challenges of the era. With the onset of the war with Parthia, Adrian went to Syria, where he became governor in the border province.
Heir of Trajan
In 117, Adrian was elected consul for the second time. However, in the same summer Traian died and the sharp question arose about transferring power to a successor. For three days the news of the death of the sovereign remained a mystery to the masses. The elites tried to agree on who will be the new head of state. The day after the death of Trajan, his will was discovered in which he adopted Adrian and transferred him the right to the throne. The fact of the last will of the deceased was confirmed by his wife Pompey Plotinus.
Despite this, the announcement of adoption raised some doubts. Following the accession to the throne of Hadrian, even new coins were issued with a picture of his profile, on which he was titled Caesar, but not in August. However, the de facto transfer of power did take place. The decisive word was for the army, and it supported the applicant, who was well acquainted with the military. Opposition to the new ruler could have arisen in the Senate, but senators, finding themselves in actual isolation, willingly or not, but recognized the new monarch.
Peacemaker
First, the new emperor Hadrian deified his predecessor and guardian. To do this, he had to seek permission from the Senate. The rhetoric of the ruler in relation to influential nobles was specific. The autocrat treated the senators with reverence and courtesy. In fact, a non-aggression pact was concluded, initiated by Adrian himself. The emperor of Rome promised not to repress the aristocracy, if it does not interfere with the implementation of independent politics.
The desire to manage independently was not accidental. Hadrian's ideas were very different from those that Traian was guided by. The new emperor abandoned further expansion in the east. The reason for this was the large riots in Mesopotamia. Because of them, the reign of Emperor Hadrian began with the fact that he decided to put an end to the turmoil on the border. By his order, the legions stopped the war with Parthia. The buffer states between Persia and the Roman Empire remained in the hands of local vassal kings.
The policy of compromises quickly bore fruit. Unrest ceased. After the first success, Adrian turned his eyes to the banks of the Danube. Roxolans and Sarmatians began to invade the Roman state through this border river. The army defeated these nomads who came from the Black Sea steppes. In neighboring Dacia, Adrian secured the acquisition of Trajan, introducing there a new administrative system and dividing the province into three parts.
Emperor and aristocracy
Adrian spent the winter of 118 in Bithynia and Nicodemia. There he heard news of the feuds of aristocrats in the capital. The prefect of Pretoria Attianus, who was in Rome at that time, executed several influential politicians suspected of treason in the absence of the emperor. Among them was Lucius Const, whom Adrian himself had recently removed from his post as governor in Judea. Another punished was Guy Avidiy Nigrin, who was considered a possible successor to the emperor.
Upon learning of the reprisal, Adrian returned to Rome. He had to demonstrate to the Senate that he was not involved in the deaths of high-ranking officials. For this, the emperor made a sacred sacrifice, depriving Attian of his prefect pretoria position. Nevertheless, this story negatively affected the relationship between August and the Senate.
Attitude to the provinces
The energetic Adrian is the Roman emperor who was the first in a series of his predecessors and successors to travel his entire vast empire. He is deservedly considered one of the greatest travelers of antiquity. The peak of provincial trips was in 121–132. In each city, the emperor personally received citizens, recognized their problems and solved their most pressing problems.
Gaining impressions about his own country, Adrian ordered a series of coins to be issued, which included images of the centers of each Roman province. Diverse regions of the state were personified in the image of a woman. They all differed from each other, having received a unique characteristic attribute: Asian saber, Egyptian ibis, Greek games, etc.
Adrian became the first emperor to abandon the ideology that the empire was supposed to exist only for the well-being of Rome. It was he who set out to create a living organism from a huge state, an equal to which had not yet been in human history. The autocrat saw in the empire not an accumulation of conquered and captured lands, but a community in which many unique nationalities lived. Adrian's attention to affairs in the provinces did not weaken throughout his reign.
Adriana Travels
The goal of Adrian's first major trip was Gaul. The emperor visited the provinces located in the Rhine and Danube basin. Then he traveled to distant Britain. By order of Caesar in the north of the island, the construction of a long wall began, which protected the Roman possessions from the hostile Caledonians.
In 122 Adrian again visited Gaul, this time in its southern regions. In the city of Nemaus (modern Nimes), he laid the temple in honor of the recently deceased wife of Trajan Pompeii Platinum. Each time the Emperor tried to emphasize his reverence for his predecessor and his family. In Italy, where Hadrian was born, the Roman emperor visited the following winter, from where he moved to Mauritania and Africa.
In 123, relations between Rome and Parthia survived another test of strength. Fearing war, Adrian personally traveled to the east of the country. He negotiated with the Persians and defused the situation. During this voyage, the sovereign visited Palmyra and Antioch. The following year, the indefatigable Adrian came to Thrace, where he founded the city of his name Adrianople. This political and cultural center survived the empire. In the Byzantine era, it was one of its most important provincial centers. Today the city bears the Turkish name Edirne.
The emperor’s travels to Greece are curious. During one of them, Augustus personally took part in the Eleusinian Mysteries - the most important annual Hellenic religious rite dedicated to the fertility goddesses Persephone and Demeter. Also noteworthy is the emperor’s ascent to the top of Mount Etna in Sicily. Traveling through the empire, Adrian conquered several more mountains (for example, Cassius in Syria). Visited August and glorious Egypt. He reached the Colossi of Memnon - stone statues of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, who had been standing in Thebes for one and a half thousand years.
The construction of new fortifications
For the sovereign’s habits and character, it was important that Adrian was a Roman emperor, whose biography was an example of a successful military man who, after all, went into politics. Having become a sovereign, he began to often go to the army. The emperor visited and constantly controlled the troops, checking their readiness and combat skills. Since Adrian refused further Roman expansion, the legions had to completely change their own way. Deprived of aggressive campaigns, they were thrown to strengthen the border areas.
In the Adrian era, a significant number of powerful defensive structures were built along state lines. The main fortification of the empire appeared in Northern Britain. This already mentioned wall, called the wall of Hadrian, stretched from the Salt Road to Mystery and even survived to this day. It was built of turf and stone. The characteristic features of the wall were ditches in the shape of the letter V. The peace of Roman Britain was protected by massive gates and high towers, in which the best and most enduring legionnaires served. In total, about fifteen thousand people guarded the wall. To the north of it was the unconquered barbarian Caledonia.
Similar fortifications appeared in Greece and Germany. They were placed where there were no natural boundaries (for example, rivers). A continuous stretch of two hundred miles was drawn between the Danube and the Rhine. This shaft was crowned with a picket fence made of wood and surrounded by steep moats.
Army changes
Thanks to Adrian’s conservation policy, prosperous civilian settlements sprang up near the borders. They appeared next to military camps. The colonists tried to hide from the dangerous neighbors of the barbarians behind the fortress walls.
The lifestyle of the army was also changing. Now the soldiers did not just fight, but bred horses, built quarries, made uniforms, guarded and transported grain, and were engaged in animal husbandry. The legions that ceased to be transferred from province to province have significantly expanded their field of activity. Now they also solved economic problems.
All these innovations were encouraged by Adrian himself. The Roman emperor, whose photos of busts show us an impressive and thorough man in his prime, tirelessly engaged in the affairs of the army, which was the pillar of peace and prosperity of a vast state. Adrian demanded strict discipline and at the same time was able to sympathetically communicate with the soldiers. He regularly attended maneuvers, shared food and life with the legionnaires. Coming out of the military environment, the emperor aroused great sympathy among the infantry and officers. Largely due to this, during the reign of Hadrian, there was not a single soldier rebellion in the empire.
Jewish revolt
Most of the Adrian era was peaceful. The only serious war broke out in 132, already closer to the end of his reign. The Jewish uprising in Judea broke out. The reason for the riots was the construction of a Roman temple in Jerusalem. The inspiration of the uprising was Simeon Bar-Kokhba. The rebels captured Jerusalem and drove the Romans out of it. The suppression of the armed uprising took three years.
The actions of the army were periodically led by Adrian himself. The emperor of Rome was present at the fall of Jerusalem in 134. A few months after this episode, the scattered remnants of the dissatisfied were finally defeated by the legions. Repression rained down on the Jews. In particular, circumcision was forbidden to them.
Death and Heritage
Succession turned out to be the main problem Adrian faced. The Roman emperor did not have children. His relationship with his wife Vibia Sabina was pretty cool. She died in 128. Eight years later, Adrian adopted Lucius Commodus, but he died prematurely. The next official heir was Anthony Pius. To ensure the long-term succession of power in the next generations, Adrian ordered the successor to adopt Lucius Vera and Marcus Aurelius. All of them later became emperors. Adrian himself died on July 10, 138. For his repose in Rome, a mausoleum was built in advance. Today it is known as the castle of the Holy Angel.
Adrian is a Roman emperor whose birth date (January 24, 76) occurred during the heyday of pagan culture. The sovereign was the embodiment of his era. He was interested in magic, astrology and took part in religious rites. Adrian wrote several poems, loved literature and regularly talked with the best contemporary writers. He was also interested in architecture and art. During the time of Adrian, a new genre of painting inspired by Greek culture arose in the empire. He was the first of August, who began to depict in an idealized manner and with a beard.
Roman artists and sculptors were very interested in the emperor Hadrian and Antinus - the favorite and the close sovereign. This young man tragically drowned in the Nile in 130. Adrian ordered the establishment of the religious cult of Antinous, and since then he has been revered as a god.
Interesting facts about the emperor
Hadrian's architectural predilections were most clearly embodied in his own residence in the suburbs of Rome, Tibur, built among the slopes and olive groves. The emperor’s villa reflected the most diverse styles characteristic of the various provinces of the state in which he visited. Adrian surrounded himself with bold experimental architects and commissioned them to create something completely new. The result of the research was bricked concrete structures, similar to which were not found in all of Rome. So in the empire, a real revolution took place and a fashion for curved complex shapes came into being, replacing simple straight lines.
August itself was not going to limit itself to innovations only with its villa. Adrian is the Roman emperor, whose reign (117–138) fell at the peak of veneration of the ancient gods. In honor of them, the pantheon on the Champ de Mars was rebuilt . In place of the old temple, a new round-shaped building appeared. The Hadrian Pantheon was the first such facility where believers gathered.
By the will of the emperor, a temple of Roma and Venus was built near the Roman Forum. Architects erected a separate religious building in honor of Trajan ranked among the gods. In Athens, the sovereign initiated the reconstruction of the temple of Zeus. There is no doubt that Emperor Hadrian, whose biography was associated with numerous trips to the east of his country, was a true Hellenophile.