The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures of the University of Chicago possesses a papyrus with the inventory number E8349, which contains the only surviving copy of Hadrian's lost autobiography. Written toward the close of his life, Hadrian's autobiography appears to have taken the form of a series of letters to Antoninus Pius. Its… Continue reading The only known copy of Hadrian’s lost autobiography in the Chicago Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures
A new slab of the Fasti Ostienses, an ancient Roman marble calendar (extant in fragmentary form) recording imperial news, magistrates and events related to the city of Ostia, the harbour city of ancient Rome, emerged during the second excavation campaign at the Forum of Porta Marina in Ostia Antica, as part of the Ostia Post… Continue reading A new fragment of the Fasti Ostienses dated to AD 128 found at Ostia Antica
In the early year of AD 121, Pompeia Plotina, the greatly respected widow of the emperor Trajan, sent Hadrian a letter asking him to help the Epicurean school in Athens solve an issue regarding the rights of succession. According to Roman law, the head of the school was obliged to appoint a new leader from… Continue reading Early AD 121 – Plotina writes to Hadrian on behalf of the Epicurean school in Athens (#Hadrian1900)
On 18 February AD 121, Titus Haterius Nepos, the prefect of Egypt, visited the Colossus of Memnon at the Theban necropolis and heard the statue sing. Nepos immortalised his encounter by inscribing his name upon the statue's right leg. In a five-line text written in Latin, Nepos attests that he heard Memnon an hour and a… Continue reading 18 February AD 121 – Titus Haterius Nepos, prefect of Egypt, visits the Memnon Colossus (#Hadrian1900)
Between the 10th of December 118 and the 9th of December 119, the river boatmen of the Rhône, the nautae Rhodanici, made an offering to their indulgentissimus princeps Hadrian (CIL XII, 1797). They erected a statue of the emperor in the town of Tournus (Tournon-sur-Rhône) between Valencia (Valence) and Vienna (Vienne) at the confluence of… Continue reading AD 119 – The boatmen of the Rhône River erect a statue in honour of Hadrian (#Hadrian1900)
One thousand nine hundred years ago, the city of Tomis, a Greek colony on the west coast of the Euxine (Black Sea), honoured Hadrian with a large bilingual inscription carved on what was probably the pedestal of a statue carrying the Emperor's effigy. The inscription (CIL III, 7539), found in two fragments in Constanța (Romania), begins… Continue reading AD 120 – The city of Tomis honours Hadrian with a bilingual inscription (#Hadrian1900)
As was the custom at the beginning of every year, annual public vows were made by all magistrates and all priestly colleges for the welfare and safety (salus) of the Emperor. Amongst the collegia inaugurating the new year with oaths were the Arval Brethren (fratres arvales), a highly exclusive priesthood revived by Augustus and centered around… Continue reading The Acts of the Arval Brethren of AD 120 (#Hadrian1900)
Lebanon is famously known for the presence of a very special kind of tree, the legendary cedar tree (cedrus libani). It is emblazoned on the national flag and is one of the most defining features of Lebanon's culture due to its long history. The country is the most densely wooded in the Middle East, and… Continue reading The forest inscriptions of Hadrian in Mount Lebanon
On 4 August AD 119, a copy of a letter written by Hadrian and addressed to Quintus Rammius Martialis, the prefect of Egypt (AD 117-19), was published in Alexandria. In his letter, Hadrian granted illegitimate children of soldiers conceived during their fathers' military service the right to inherit. The text was translated in Greek from… Continue reading 4 August AD 119 – A letter from Hadrian conferring new rights to illegitimate children of soldiers is published in Alexandria (#Hadrian1900)
After less than a year spent in Rome since his arrival in the capital as the new emperor, Hadrian journeyed into Campania, the southern region of Italy where Greek civilisation had once flourished. A passage in the Historia Augusta gives a chronological order of the events and states that the journey came after the removal… Continue reading AD 119 – Hadrian visits Campania to aid the towns by gifts and benefactions (#Hadrian1900)
