Every year, the Romans celebrated their city's birthday on 21 April, the day on which, according to early traditions, Romulus founded Rome by tracing the pomerium, the sacred urban boundary separating the city (urbs) from the country (ager). The celebrations were held during the Parilia, a rural festival associated with flocks and herds, which predated Rome's… Continue reading 21 April AD 121 – Hadrian celebrates Rome’s 874th birthday with circus games (#Hadrian1900)
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)
Hadrian's deep concern with consolidating and defining the Empire started very early in his reign. Upon ascending the throne, the new emperor abandoned Trajan's newly conquered provinces beyond the Euphrates and rapidly took the opportunity to carry out his new frontier policy. He first embarked on a quick inspection of the military bases along the… Continue reading AD 120 – The army erects a wooden palisade on the German frontier (#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)
In December of the year 119, Hadrian suffered a heavy personal blow. He said farewell to his beloved mother-in-law, Salonia Matidia, who had died in her early 50s. Immediately after her death, Hadrian granted her extravagant honours. He arranged for her deification, delivered a speech of praise, turned the commemoration of her death into a… Continue reading 23 December AD 119 – Hadrian commemorates his mother-in-law, Salonia Matidia (#Hadrian1900)
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)
