Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome
Anthony Everitt

Hadrian had a thrilling life in which he brought a century of disorder and costly warfare to a peaceful conclusion. He was brave and astute – despite his sometimes prickly behaviour – as well as an accomplished huntsman, poet and student of philosophy.

            He ended Rome’s territorial expansion, which had become strategically and economically untenable, by fortifying her boundaries (the many famed Walls of Hadrian), and he effectively ‘Hellenized’ Rome by anointing Athens the empire’s cultural centre, thereby making Greek learning and art vastly more prominent in Roman life.

Less successful in the long run was his crushing of the Jewish Revolt, which planted the seeds of the present-day discord in the Middle East.

            Everitt illuminates Hadrian’s private life, including his marriage to Sabina – a loveless, frequently unhappy bond that bore no heirs – and his enduring yet doomed relationship with the true love of his life, Antinous, a beautiful young Bithynian man.

            Despite his tremendous legacy – including a virtual ‘marble biography’ of still-standing buildings, Hadrian is considered one of Rome’s more enigmatic emperors. Everitt’s researches throw new light on one of the most important personalities of the ancient word.