Hadrian

Editorial Reviews

• Amazon.com Review

  Although his decision to abandon the expansionist policies of his predecessors seemed to forecast the Roman Empire's decline, this evenhanded biography demonstrates that Hadrian (A.D. 76-138) was also an intelligent, energetic ruler. With equal judiciousness ancient historian Anthony R. Birley scrutinizes Hadrian's private life--including an unhappy marriage and a devoted homosexual attachment--and his public works, from Britain's monumental wall to the disastrous attempt to Hellenize his Jewish subjects. Birley makes good use of primary sources and academic monographs to create a scholarly yet accessible narrative.

• Product Description

  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.