Chroniclers speak of Hadrian’s muscular physique, but what really catches the  eye is his bearded face. He was the first emperor who made long facial hair fashionable. Some say that the reason for that was the need to hide his unattractiveness, others that it was done to imitate Greek fashion, which the emperor greatly admired.

Hadrian, just as his predecessor on the imperial throne – Trajan, came from Spain, from a well-known Roman family, through his aunt related to the aforementioned emperor. His interests concentrated mainly on Greek literature and art, although as was fit for a well-bred Roman, he had to display qualities of a soldier and climb the rungs of a political and military career. After the death of his father, who orphaned him when the boy was ten years old, he was cared for by the emperor. In the year 100 A.D. he married his own relative – Vibia Sabina, but the marriage did not yield any children. After the death of Trajan he was adopted (adopted emperors) by his wife Pompeia Plotina and without any great obstacles he assumed the imperial throne at the age of 41.

His constant absence and long-lasting voyages around the provinces, where the emperor supervised and disciplined the legions, introduced legal reforms, established new cities, funded roads and aqueducts, but also extensively traveled around Greece, to which he felt a special connection, quickly raised the ire of the Roman populace. He was fascinated by foreign cultures, religions and traditions and he did not attempt to hide this fact. He was also criticized in Rome due to his politics. Discontent was caused by removing Roman legions from the territory of Armenia and Mesopotamia, which was understood as step back from the policy of conquest implemented by Trajan. Hadrian’s political strategy was completely different. His predecessor was an emperor-soldier, who desired to extend the borders of the empire as far as possible. He, on the other hand, was an administrator wanting to unify and consolidate all the provinces. He did not push for war. The only war which he conducted was directed against the insurgents in Jerusalem in 132 A.D. and it brought about the destruction of the city and exile of its Jewish population.

Another reason for Hadrian’s criticism was his relationship with a beautiful, thirty years his junior youth from Bithynia, named Antinous. And it was not homosexualism itself that was criticized, since Hadrian who cultivated Greek habits, always surrounded himself with young boys, but rather emotions which surrounded this relationship. After the mysterious death of Antinous, during the emperor’s journey to Egypt, the exaggerated, almost ostentatious mourning, which lasted for months, and which was greater than other showed by Hadrian even in the face of the death of his family members, raised disgust. The outrage was even stronger, as the emperor ordered the deification and cult of the youth.

Despite constant voyages, Hadrian did not forget about Rome – he built splendid structures and carried out restorations of those built during the reign of Emperor Octavius Augustus, whose spiritual inheritor he considered himself to be. And just as Augustus had done previously, Hadrian created a monumental mausoleum, in which he was to be buried. Several buildings remain in Rome from the time of his reign. In recent years, special attention is enjoyed by the so-called Hadrian’s Auditorium near Trajan’s Forum, which was discovered during archeological works on a new metro line. It was a two-story building designed for cultural meetings. Here lessons of rhetoric took place, poetry was recited and literary works were read and reviewed. The building was destroyed during an earthquake in the IX century, and later was part of a hospital which belonged to the Church of Santa Maria di Loreto, built here in the XVII century. However, Hadrian’s imagination was most of all filled with the idea to create a palace complex with a surface area of 150 hectares near Rome – in Tivoli.

The emperor’s last years were marked by a serious illness – historians do not agree as to what was its cause. Some suspect problems with the circulatory system, others tuberculosis. Several times he attempted to end the suffering caused by the illness by committing suicide, yet it did not weaken the emperor’s vigilance and suspicion towards his family. On his deathbed he condemned his brother-in-law and the grandson of his sister to death, suspecting him of wanting to assume the throne after his death. A few years before his death, Hadrian left Rome and went to his summer residence in Baiae. Before leaving he named his successor – another “adopted” emperor – Antoninus Pius.

A year after Hadrian’s death, his ashes were laid to rest in a monumental tomb, which is today known as the Castle of the Holy Angel (Castel Sant’Angelo). Despite, vengeful resistance of the senators, thanks to his successor Hadrian was deified. Antoninus Pius also erected a temple to the divine Hadrian, of which the remains can today be seen in the center of the city (Hadrianeum), as well as numerous statues and busts, spread all over the empire.

Buildings created in Rome at Hadrian’s initiative:

• The temple of Venus and Roma at Forum Romanum (134)
• Hadrian’s Mausoleum (139) – today rebuilt as the Castle of the Holy Angel
• Bridge connecting the mausoleum with the city - Ponte Elio (today Ponte Sant’Angelo)
• Reconstruction of the Pantheon, destroyed during a fire (125)
• Temple of Trajan, funded behind the buildings of the library at Trajan’s Forum (today nonexistent)
• Hadrian’s Auditorium (123)