Hadrian
Hadrian
76 C.E.–138 C.E.
Emperor
Patron of Monuments.
Publius Aelius Hadrianus (Hadrian) was emperor from 117 to 38 c.e. He became the ward of the emperor Trajan at his father's death. He held a number of important military and civic posts including the governorship of Syria until Trajan's death in 117. Trajan had designated Hadrian as his successor on his deathbed. An important aspect of Hadrian's reign was his extensive travel throughout the Roman Empire, literally from one end (Britain) to the other (Syria). His reasons for years of travel combined the need for inspection tours and a desire to show himself as the ruler to the far-flung provinces. His importance to the architectural history of Rome includes the completion of the Pantheon in Rome, the temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, his imposing tomb in Rome (the Castel San Angelo), and his imperial villa at Tivoli.
sources
Michael Grant, "Hadrian," in The Roman Emperors (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1985).
J. J. Pollitt, The Art of Greece 1400–31 B.C. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1965): ix–x.