The year AD 126 opened under the consulships of Marcus Annius Verus and Gaius Eggius Ambibulus, marking the formal beginning of the civic year in Rome. Over the following months, several changes in office occurred, reflecting the customary rotation of consular appointments and Hadrian’s continued efforts to honour both established figures and loyal supporters within… Continue reading AD 126 – Hadrian spends the year in Rome and dedicates the Templum Divorum (#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)
Learn about how Hadrian created the Pantheon as we know it today from the ruins of previous temples built by Marcus Agrippa and Domitian. A guest post by Context Travel Tours. Hadrian - the great unifier of the Roman Empire, the admirer of Athens, the architect, the poet, the visionary. As one of Rome’s most… Continue reading Guest post: How Hadrian helped rebuild the Pantheon
This month's sculptures from Hadrian's Villa are a pair of marble herms whose heads are traditionally identified as Tragedy and Comedy. According to the Italian archaeologist Giovanni Battista Visconti, both herms were found in 1735 by the owner of the Villa, Giuseppe Fede, near the entrance of the Greek Theatre. They were acquired in 1777… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: Herms of Tragedy and Comedy
During a recent trip to Rome, I paid a long overdue visit to the Centrale Montemartini, an annexe of the Capitoline Museums located on the Via Ostiense just beyond Porta San Paolo. Centrale Montemartini was Rome's first electrical power station when it opened in 1912, and was later converted into a museum of ancient Roman… Continue reading When in Rome… a visit to the Centrale Montemartini
This month's sculpture from Hadrian's Villa is a marble head of Hypnos, the Greek god of Sleep. Hypnos is represented as a young man with wings attached to his temples (now lost). The head must have been part of a full-length statue showing Hypnos running forwards, holding poppies and a vessel from which he presumably… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: Marble head of Hypnos
On a recent trip to Italy, I visited the Archaeological Area of Minturnae, a little-known but impressive archaeological site along the Appian Way. Minturnae was originally an Auruncian city (of which no archaeological traces have been found), one of the three towns of the Aurunci which allied themselves with the Samnites and made war against… Continue reading Exploring Minturnae, a forgotten ancient city on the Appian Way
The temple dedicated to the Venus of Knidos is a small circular temple with doric columns situated in the Temple Valley at Hadrian's Villa. It belongs to the second building phase of the villa, between AD 125-134. The circular plan of the central structure, the use of the Doric order, and the discovery of a… Continue reading Picture of the day: The circular temple dedicated to the Venus of Knidos, Hadrian’s Villa (Tivoli, Italy)
