Following Hadrian Quotes

“The Romans learned what European armies were to discover hundreds of years later: that the best-trained and best-equipped fighting force in the world might come to grief against partisans fighting on their own territory and for a cause for which they would willingly sacrifice themselves and their families.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“Think not lightly, therefore, O Hadrian, of what I am saying. Boast not that you alone have encircled the world in your travels, for it is only the moon and stars that really make the journey around it. Moreover, do not think of yourself as beautiful and great and rich and the ruler of the inhabited world. Know you not that, being a man, you were born to be Life’s plaything, helpless in the hands of fortune and destiny, sometimes exalted, sometimes humbled lower than the grave. Will you not be able to learn what life is, Hadrian, in the light of many examples? Consider how rich with his golden nails was the king of the Lydians. Great as a commander of armies was the king of the Danaans, Agamemnon; daring and hardy was Alexander, king of the Macedonians. Heracles was fearless, the Cyclops wild and untamed, Odysseus shrewd and subtle, and Achilles beautiful to look upon. If fortune took away from these men the distinctions that were peculiarly their own, how much more likely is she to take them away from you?”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“Hadrian’s successor Antoninus Pius ruled for twenty-three years, nor did he undertake any expedition other than the visiting of his estates in Campania, averring that the entourage of an emperor, even one over frugal, was a burdensome thing to the provinces. SCRIPTOTES HISTORIAE AUGUSTAE, ANTONINUS PIUS, 7. 4–12.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“Like a helpless maiden from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Antinous, pursued by a proto-god – Hadrian – slipped into a river and was transformed. His life became incidental; his death in the waters of the Nile and his resurrection as a god, as a star, as (possibly) saviour of Hadrian, as the inspiration of a city, was his whole story. He gazed out implacably over the empire; still gazes, passively, in art collections throughout the Western world, a Galatea turned to stone. The mystery of Antinous will always be more powerful in his absence than it could ever have been in his presence. But if one attempts to examine the story more closely, to move behind the placid beauty, behind the unforgettable image, Antinous starts to slip away.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“For the powerful aesthete whose interests turned upon beautiful men, Antinous might merely have stood generically as a human representative of the beautiful things which Hadrian could acquire and discard at will.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“The connections to the legend of Osiris – and indeed to Christianity – were curious, with the echo of the creation of a new god, and the circumstances of Antinous’ death also echoed the superficial but alluring themes of popular Greek myths. There was Hylas, companion of Heracles and the Argonauts, who was drowned by adoring water nymphs who drew him into the spring where he had been sent to fetch water. There was Narcissus, who under Aphrodite’s curse was fatally entranced by his own reflection in the surface of a pool. Antinous the god joined the company of beautiful boys with powerful, if capricious, protectors, who met strange, watery deaths. Antinous was a perfect divinity for the second-century world of the imagination.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“A belief in Antinous’ posthumous power seems to have exceeded even the formal declaration of his new status. Although there was greater resistance to the acceptance of an emperor’s sexual partner as a god in the more urbane society of Rome, in the Greek east Hadrian’s own philhellenism assured the new god’s absorption into the Greek pantheon from the moment the emperor decided on his deification.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“The River God circled around me as I stood shrouded in darkness and, not knowing what had happened, searched all around the hollow cloud. Twice, unwittingly, he walked around the place where the goddess had hidden me and twice he called: ‘Ho there, Arethusa! Hallo, Arethusa!’ Alas what feelings did I have then! Assuredly I was like a lamb when it hears the wolves howling around the high sheepfold, or like a hare, hiding in the branches, watching the jaws of hostile hounds, and not daring to move. Still Achelous did not depart; for he did not see any footsteps leading further on. He kept watch on the spot where the mist was. A cold sweat broke out on my limbs, when I was just trapped, and dark drops fell from my whole body. Wherever I moved my foot, a pool flowed out, moisture dripped from my hair. More quickly than I can tell of, I was changed into a stream. OVID, METAMORPHOSES, BOOK 5 (TRANS.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“Antinous has no known memorial. The waters have long closed over the truth of how he came to his premature end, and any contemplation of his life fixes disproportionately on its uncertainties and the effects of his death on his protector. There is a Roman saying which seems entirely appropriate as his epitaph: sit tibi terra levis (let the earth lie lightly upon him).”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“Animula vagula blandula Hospes comesque corporis Quae nunc abibis in loca Pallidula, rigida, nudula, Nec, et ut soles, dabis iocos. Little wandering soul, Guest and companion of my body, Where are you going to now? Away, into bare, bleak places, Never again to share a joke.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“Hadrian, for whom it was rumoured the beautiful Antinous had sacrificed himself in the hope that his lover might find health and an extended life, died on 10 July 138 CE, less than eight years after his companion.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“Augustus’ tomb, once a landmark of the city, had many subsequent incarnations as a fortress, a walled garden, a bear-baiting arena and an opera hall. Today it is derelict, inaccessible; a crumbling tumulus, inhabited by cats, at the centre of a square”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“For Hadrian, important journeys were made as the principal representative of Rome and Rome’s power. They ensured a permanent place for himself within the landscape of the empire and within history. But from the incessant nature of his travelling it can be assumed that his was probably also a personal search for an exemplary, inspiring past, a hope of revelation and a prospect of transformation. He collected things, particularly beautiful things; but he was also an almost compulsive collector of ideas and experiences. Any journey is a set within the greater journey from birth to the grave, and Hadrian was not the first to use travel as an illusion of evaded mortality.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“Today, without its exotic carapace, the exterior is a reddish brick within which the arches and buttresses that made such a feat of engineering possible are clearly visible. They have their own beauty; through such structural expertise the Pantheon has been in constant use for 1,875 years.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“In the end, the historians record rather vaguely, he pursued a course of slow suicide, embarking on a bout of massive over-indulgence which brought about first oblivion and then the death he sought – a death whose timing he had himself predicted years before.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“The emperor became increasingly vulnerable and isolated, and his personality deteriorated further. He did, however, act wisely in his second adoption, made from his sickbed, this time choosing the apparently impregnable combination of an heir and an heir-apparent. He chose two men whose virtues were evident and uncontentious: the stolid Antoninus Pius, who became, in the words of one modern historian, ‘one of the dullest figures in Roman political history’;13 and, to follow him, the worthy and bookish young Marcus Aurelius, whose Meditations are the one great surviving work of literature and philosophy by a Roman emperor.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“The greatest of these Hadrianic survivals is undoubtedly the Pantheon. A former temple, inscribed to Marcus Agrippa (the original dedicatee of the first Pantheon to be erected on this spot, which was one of two destroyed by fire), the Pantheon probably survived the demolition which was the lot of many pagan buildings at the hands of the popes because of its early re-use as a church. Built between 118 and 125 CE, it became the Church of St Mary and the Martyrs in the seventh century and is still a Christian basilica today. Inside are two great glories of ancient architecture. The vaulted roof, made of concrete poured into wooden moulds, was the greatest span of such roof ever known”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“He built public buildings in all places and without number, but he inscribed his own name on none of them except the temple of his father Trajan. At Rome he restored the Pantheon, the voting enclosure, the Basilica of Neptune, very many Temples, the forum of Augustus, the baths of Agrippa . . . Also he constructed the bridge named after himself, a tomb on the bank of the Tiber and the temple of the Bona Dea.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“A loaf of bread cost a quarter of a sesterce. So did a glass of wine.2 We know from graffiti at Pompeii that a prostitute, perhaps not a very elegant one, charged half a sesterce for her services. Entrance to the public baths was just twice that. Roman soldiers earned 1,200 sesterces a year and although there were some perks, they had to buy their own equipment. A casual labourer earned perhaps 2-3 sesterces a day – when he got work. A charity scheme to support poor children, presumably at a fairly basic level, paid between 10 and 12 sesterces a month. A lecturer in rhetoric under Vespasian received 100,000 sesterces a year and this was considered remarkable. It was a similar amount to the purchase price of a first-rate, intelligent slave in the second century, when lessening warfare had reduced the market. One foot of road cost 22 sesterces to lay and a large and elaborate tomb anything from 100,000 to half a million sesterces.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“Confiscations of estates from rich men who had fallen out of favour enriched the emperor’s personal holdings. There were rumours that less high-minded emperors than Hadrian had killed just to possess a pretty garden. By the reign of Claudius, the imperial treasury was synonymous with the treasury of Rome. Even so, there were emperors sufficiently profligate to eat into the reserves and to conceive desperate ways of refilling them; Caligula anticipated inheritances from wealthy knights by executing them.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“Not every wealthy man might choose a public life, but anyone who chose public life must be a wealthy man. Corruption, coercion and predation ensured the determined could acquire fortunes. Augustus, while still a teenager, had amassed enough money to support a private army. Ambitious men gathered the support of peers and bestowed patronage on numerous clients. Patronage, indeed, was at the heart of the whole system.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“Political life was defined by money. Having it, taking it and giving it were the principal concerns of the powerful. It was not just a matter of lavish expenditure on public shows or comfortable living in the innumerable houses that one man might possess; set amounts of capital were required for a man to become an equestrian – a knight – or a senator.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“When he started to build at Tivoli Hadrian may have been motivated by the idea of extending the much simpler villa which was already owned by Sabina’s family in a manner he considered appropriate to his new status. No doubt the design evolved over time and was very different in its final state from what had been intended at its inception. Certainly its collections were enriched by the emperor’s travels; by the time the villa’s 900 rooms were completed, it was one of the most extraordinary contributions to art and architecture that the Roman world had ever seen.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“Building was profoundly connected with two crucial elements in the dynamic of Roman society: the manipulation of popular support, and the ability to entertain lavishly. Erecting public buildings and subsidising public leisure were considered so potentially politically seductive that at various times legislation was enacted to curtail involvement in such schemes by anyone outside the imperial family.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“Martial was among many who extolled the healthy life in the country, but he, at least, retained his sense of irony. My orchard isn’t the Hesperides There’s no Massylian dragon at the gate, Nor is it King Alcinous’ estate; It’s in Nomentum, where the apple-trees, Perfectly unmolested, bear a crop So tasteless that no guard needs be kept.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“The pagan city of Aelia Capitolina endured for 250 years, finally claiming back its old name in the fourth century. In the rabbinical literature Hadrian is still referred to with the prefix ‘wicked’ and the imprecation ‘may his bones rot.’12 The Jews have endured the depredations of many enemies, but this enduring curse was directed at the apparently tolerant ruler of a relatively peaceful empire who nevertheless became the most destructive enemy the Jews had yet known.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“In Rome, the dense ruin of the Forum has a few unmistakable landmarks. Turning up a cobbled slope towards the green peace of the Palatine, the visitor immediately confronts one of them: an uncompromising, fairly well-preserved ceremonial arch. The Arch of Titus was erected posthumously to celebrate the eponymous prince’s triumphs in Judea during the reign of his father, Vespasian, and during the childhood of Hadrian. One of the relief carvings shows the removal of the sacred texts, trumpets and menorah of the Jewish Temple. They were not to return to Jerusalem for 500 years and the Temple itself was never rebuilt.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“There was an instructive contrast between the fate of Judea and the fortunes of more accommodating communities. Cooperation might bring all manner of benefits, from protection against attack to the amassing of individual fortune; nonconformity would be put down with brutal and uncompromising rigour. In the 130s the implicit was made explicit and the Jews became an object lesson in the price of disobedience.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“The huntsman of the Libyan desert, the discerning art collector, the tolerant intellectual, disappeared, and in their place Hadrian emerged as a model of Roman power responding to perceived threat with absolute ruthlessness. Generosity became irresolution, tolerance turned into suppression, pragmatism into punitively enforced proscription.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire

“During this period, as the Jews faced the very real prospect of the obliteration of their religion and culture, a charismatic rebel called Shimon ben Kosiba began to change the face of resistance. In the hundred years since one compelling sect leader – Jesus of Nazareth – had been executed, there had been a succession of messianic claimants; when one failed to deliver, or was removed by the occupying powers or by schisms within the Jews themselves, another proclaimed himself in their stead.”
― Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey through the Roman Empire