2017 was a very special year for me as the year marked the 1900th anniversary of the accession of Hadrian to the imperial throne and the start of my Hadrian 1900 project. I travelled to 9 countries, visited 57 new archaeological sites, 21 new archaeological museums and attended 4 exhibitions. Here’s an overview of my… Continue reading My 2017 travel round-up
On 15 October 117, Hadrian crossed the Cilician Gates (Pylae Ciliciae), the most famous mountain pass through the Taurus Mountains. The new Emperor was travelling northward into Cappadocia along the Via Tauri, which runs across the mountain chain. We know from a fragment of an itinerary found in Rome that Hadrian left Antioch at the… Continue reading 15 October AD 117 – Hadrian crosses the Cilician gates and arrives in Cappadocia (#Hadrian1900)
On 12 August AD 117, Trajan's freedman and personal servant, the twenty-eight-year-old Marcus Ulpius Phaedimus, died in Selinus in Cilicia just a few days after his master and within a day of Hadrian receiving the news of Trajan's death. This coincidence only deepened the mystery surrounding the circumstances of Hadrian's adoption. Phaedimus, who had presumably… Continue reading 12 August AD 117 – A mysterious death occurs in Selinus (#Hadrian1900)
On 8 August AD 117, after a 19-year reign of military glory, Emperor Trajan died at the coastal town of Selinus in western Cilicia (present-day Gazipaşa, about 180 km to the East of Antalya on the southern coast of Turkey). According to Cassius Dio, Trajan fell seriously ill after an unsuccessful siege of the Mesopotamian… Continue reading 8 August AD 117 – Trajan dies at Selinus (#Hadrian1900)
