Hadrian: The Restless EmperorHadrian'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. |
Contents
1 | |
1 A Childhood in Flavian Rome | 10 |
2 The Old dominion | 21 |
3 Military tribune | 27 |
4 Principatus et libertas | 35 |
5 The young general | 50 |
6 Archon at Athens | 58 |
7 The Parthian war | 66 |
14 A summer in Asia | 162 |
15 A year in Greece | 175 |
16 Pater patriae | 189 |
17 Africa | 203 |
18 Hadrianus Olympius | 215 |
19 Death in the Nile | 235 |
20 Athens and Jerusalem | 259 |
21 The Bitter end | 279 |
8 The new ruler | 77 |
9 Return to Rome | 93 |
10 To the German frontier | 113 |
11 Hadrians Wall | 123 |
12 A New Augustus | 142 |
13 Return to the east | 151 |
Animula vagula blandula | 301 |
Stemma | 308 |
Notes | 311 |
360 | |
373 | |
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Common terms and phrases
A.R. Birley Aelius Alexandria already Antinous Antioch Antoninus army Arrian Asia Athenian Athens Attianus Augustus Aurelius Baetica Bassus BMC III Hadrian Britain Caesar Cassius Dio Chiron Claudius coinage coins colonia command commemorated consul consulship Dacia Danube death Domitian doubt east Egypt Emperor empire Ephesus Epictetus evidently Falco Fasti Favorinus favour frontier further Fuscus governor Greek Guard Prefect Hadrian Hadrian's Wall Hadrianus 1907 Halfmann Hellenic Historia honour ibid imperial inscription Italica Jewish Jews Judaea Julius king later least legate legion letter Lusius Quietus Marcus Marius Maximus Matidia military Moesia Nepos Nerva Nigrinus Pannonia Parthian Pausanias perhaps Philostratus PIRē Pliny Plotina Plutarch Polemo presumably probably proconsul province Quadratus Quietus reign Roman Rome Sabina seems Senate senatorial Septicius Servianus Severus statue Suetonius Syme Syria Tacitus Tarraco temple Tiberius Trajan tribune Turbo Verus Vindolanda Weber Zeus