Publius Aelius Hadrianus, born on 24 January 76 AD in Italica (Spain), is considered one of the greatest emperors of Roman antiquity.
He is remembered for his culture, his love of the arts and for the extraordinary buildings he left us, including the Pantheon, Hadrian's Villa and his Mausoleum, today's Castel Sant'Angelo.
According to Latin sources, far from impartial, at the end of his reign he was hated for his cruelty, and the Senate tried to oppose his deification, obtained by Antoninus Pius after much insistence.
Hadrian was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, but at the same time he proclaimed himself the keeper of Roman religious traditions. According to the Historia Augusta, he cultivated astrology and astronomy (which at the time were a single discipline), boasting of having predicted all the events of his life, even the hour of his own death.
Having lost his father, he was entrusted to Trajan, to whom he was related, and then married his niece Vibia Sabina, strengthening the family ties.
His military career began with the wars in Dacia alongside Trajan, who after the victory over the Parthians named him Caesar, making him in practice his designated successor. The empress Plotina worked to favor his succession to her husband, who adopted him on his deathbed.
The Senate did not like him, and would have preferred a more malleable character, preferably of his own choice; Hadrian's reign therefore began with a conspiracy of two senators and two generals, who were later condemned to death.
The fight for Power between the senatorial aristocracy and the princeps had already begun with Augustus and the empire itself. Hadrian reduced the power of the Senate with a series of important legislative and administrative reforms, that concentrated command in his hands. He did nothing to please the senators who tried to hinder and defame him in every way, mocking him because "he had cried like a little woman" at the death of his favorite Antinous, who drowned in the Nile in 130 AD under mysterious circumstances.
To legitimize his power, with a skillful propaganda Hadrian proclaimed himself the renovator of the glories of Rome and the ideal continuator of its founding fathers, especially Augustus. Like him, he decided to put a stop to the continuous wars of expansion, renouncing some recently conquered territories to consolidate the borders of the empire and make them safer. With this intent, it seems that he had the grandiose bridge over the Danube of Apollodorus of Damascus demolished, because it had become the main road for raids and invasions by the barbarians.
Hadrian restored or built temples and sanctuaries, amphitheaters and baths, and left Rome and the empire renewed and magnificent. The construction of the new temple of Venus and Rome was a way of reconnecting with Augustus and the gens Iulia, emphasizing the divine origins of imperial power and linking it to the Imperial Cult.
Hadrian was perfectly aware of the importance of the army to stay in power, and made generous donations upon his accession to the throne. He then made important reforms: a new regulation of military life, recruitment on a territorial and local basis, training and legal rules on the rights and duties of the army.
During his travels throughout the empire he personally verified the situations and found out problems of the legionaries; he also promoted diplomatic and cultural relations with the local aristocracies.
In this way he restored the discipline of the army that shortly thereafter, starting with the reign of Marcus Aurelius, would have had to face the barbarian invasions and great challenges.
This and much more about the Emperor Hadrian and his life are found in the first chapter of the book by Marina De Franceschini «Castel Sant’Angelo. Mausoleum of Hadrian. Architecture and Light».