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Ancient Mediterranean + Europe
Course: Ancient Mediterranean + Europe > Unit 9
Lesson 8: Middle empire- The Pantheon
- The Pantheon
- Pantheon
- Bronze head from a statue of the Emperor Hadrian
- Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli: A virtual tour
- Hadrian, The imperial palace, Tivoli
- Maritime Theatre at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli
- Rome's layered history: the Castel Sant'Angelo
- Pair of Centaurs Fighting Cats of Prey from Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli
- Hadrian, Building the wall
- Hadrian’s Wall
- Empire: Medea Sarcophagus
- Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius
- Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius
- Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius
- The importance of the archaeological findspot: The Lullingstone Busts
- Julia Domna’s Portraits
- The Arch of Septimius Severus, portal to ancient Rome
- The Severan Tondo: Damnatio Memoriae in ancient Rome
- Damnatio memoriae—Roman sanctions against memory
- Baths of Caracalla
- Severan marble plan (Forma Urbis Romae)
- Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus
- Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus
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Bronze head from a statue of the Emperor Hadrian
Hadrian (reigned 117-138 C.E.), once a tribune (staff officer) in three different legions of the Roman army and commander of a legion in one of Trajan’s wars, was often shown in military uniform. He was clearly keen to project the image of an ever-ready soldier, but other conclusions have been drawn from his surviving statues.
Fixing the Empire's borders
When Hadrian inherited the Roman Empire, his predecessor, Trajan’s military campaigns had over-stretched it. Rebellions against Roman rule raged in several provinces and the empire was in serious danger. He ruthlessly put down rebellions and strengthened his borders. He built defensive barriers in Germany and Northern Africa.
Rome’s first emperor, Augustus (reigned 27 B.C.E.– 14 C.E.), had also suffered severe military setbacks, and took the decision to stop expanding the empire. In Hadrian’s early reign Augustus was an important role model. He had a portrait of him on his signet ring and kept a small bronze bust of him among the images of the household gods in his bedroom.
Like Augustus before him, Hadrian began to fix the limits of the territory that Rome could control. He withdrew his army from Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, where a serious insurgency had broken out, and abandoned the newly conquered provinces of Armenia and Assyria, as well as other parts of the empire.
Hadrian's travels
Hadrian is also famous as the emperor who built the eighty-mile-long wall across Britain, from the Solway Firth to the River Tyne at Wallsend: "to separate the barbarians from the Romans" in the words of his biographer. This head comes from a statue of Hadrian that probably stood in Roman London in a public space such as a forum. It would have been one and a quarter times life-size.
This statue may have been put up to commemorate Hadrian's visit to Britain in 122 C.E.; Hadrian travelled very extensively throughout the Empire, and imperial visits generally gave rise to program of rebuilding and beautification of cities. There are many known marble statues of him, but this example made in bronze is a rare survival.
Born in Rome but of Spanish descent, Hadrian was adopted by the emperor Trajan as his successor. Having served with distinction on the Danube and as governor of Syria, Hadrian never lost his fascination with the empire and its frontiers.
At Tivoli, to the east of Rome, he built an enormous palace, a microcosm of all the different places he had visited. He was an enthusiastic public builder, and perhaps his most celebrated building is the Pantheon, the best preserved Roman building in the world. Hadrian's Wall is a good example of his devotion to Rome's frontiers and the boundaries he established were retained for nearly three hundred years.
A lover of culture
Hadrian was the first Roman emperor to wear a full beard. This has usually been seen as a mark of his devotion to Greece and Greek culture.
Hadrian openly displayed his love of Greek culture. Some of the senate scornfully referred to him as Graeculus ("the Greekling"). Beards had been a marker of Greek identity since classical times, whereas a clean-shaven look was considered more Roman. However, in the decades before Hadrian became emperor, beards had come to be worn by wealthy young Romans and seem to have been particularly prevalent in the military. Furthermore, one literary source, the Historia Augusta, claims that Hadrian wore a beard to hide blemishes on his face.
Hadrian fell seriously ill, perhaps with a form of dropsy (swelling caused by excess fluid), and retired to the seaside resort of Baiae on the bay of Naples, where he died in 138 C.E.
The image of the Roman Emperor
The cult of the Emperor combined religious and political elements and was a vital factor in Roman military and civil administration. Deceased rulers were often deified, and though the living Emperor, who was the state's chief priest, was not himself worshipped as a god, his "numen," the spirit of his power and authority, was.
The image of the ruler and information about his achievements was spread primarily through coinage. In addition, statues and busts, in stone and bronze and occasionally even precious metal, were placed in a variety of official and public settings. They varied in size: colossal, life-size and smaller. Such images symbolized the power of the state and the essential unity of the Empire.
As well as the political importance of representations of the Emperor, his physical appearance and that of his consort and family were familiar to people throughout the Empire. This influenced fashion and such representations can assist the modern archaeologist and art-historian. For example, beards became fashionable after the accession of Hadrian, and the hairstyles of Empresses and other Imperial women may be seen in private portraiture and decorative art, even in remote provinces such as Britain.
© Trustees of the British Museum
Want to join the conversation?
- Why are you choosing to use the terms B.C.E and C.E instead of BC and AD?(4 votes)
- Great question. Please see our short article, "Common questions about dates" in our Art History Basics section: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-history-basics/beginners-art-history/a/common-questions-about-dates(13 votes)
- So Hadrian reigned until 138 but died in 134. Interesting.... How did he manage that?(8 votes)
- This article mentions neither Hadrian's homosexuality nor his relationship with Antinous. This is a huge oversight.(0 votes)
- What do his sexual preferences have to do with what he did as an emperor?(14 votes)
- Where was the statue of Hadrian (from which the bronze head came )?(2 votes)
- The original Bronze may have stood in the Roman London, a public space such as a forum in Britain. This bronze probably commemorated his visit there in 122 BCE. Many marble copies would have been in public spaces throughout the Roman Empire.(3 votes)
- How do we know that this torso from Cyrene at the picture belongs to Hadrian? From the place of finding?(2 votes)
- There is a long scholarship on this question. In short, scholars have identified that torso as being Hadrian based on comparisons to other torsos from elsewhere in the Mediterranean.(3 votes)
- "Hadrian was the first Roman emperor to wear a full beard. This has usually been seen as a mark of his devotion to Greece and Greek culture."
Is this definition of "FULL beard" different from my understanding? It looks trimmed to me...mind you any facial hair at all is quite a radical shift from his contemporaries, but still this statue is not sporting a FULL beard!(1 vote)- I believe they are referring to the appearance that he hasn't shaven any part of his face, like shaving into a goatee, or mustache like we would now. He has a full beard in the sense that he does not edit where the hair grows, only how LONG it actually grows.(5 votes)
- I've always been under the impression that the Historia Augusta was more or less not to be trusted as noncontemporary propaganda. Does it deserve more credit than that?(2 votes)
- yes it does because it is a mark of history and a famous person(0 votes)
- Why does such an old artifact have an impact on society today?(1 vote)
- The Emperor Hadrian was one of the few rulers of our ancient
Roome who are not much interested to add more territories of
influence into the Empire, although that we were control much
of the ancient world from the Atlantic ocean in the west, to the
Erytharean Sea or the modern day Indic ocean through
Eriteria and somalia, until the greatest conqueres by the
emperor Trajan in Mesopotamia , Asyria, and Persia . So Why did Hadrian are
so learly about the foreign influence, but at the same time he were building a
luxurious palaces and monumentals in the heart of the city?(0 votes) - Make it a little more interesting(0 votes)