Dimensions
142 x 224 x 33mm
The biography of the second-century Roman Emperor, Hadrian.
Hadrian, the great, but flawed, Roman Emperor, was an inveterate traveller, intellectual and patron of the arts. He determined to make his mark on posterity and left an unparalleled legacy of beautiful new cities and buildings throughout his vast empire and, or course, in Rome. Much of his inspiring architecture remains for today's travellers to marvel at, although some have disappeared without trace and are now the stuff of legend.
But Hadrian was also melancholy, volatile and utterly ruthless. He treated his wife with contempt and devoted himself to a beautiful boy whose sinister death, while they travelled in Egypt, plunged Hadrian into despair; it changed his personality for ever and affected his ability to rule. Within two years, the man who had been one of the most peace-loving of emperors plunged his empire into a terrible, ill-judged three-year war against Judea.
Classicist Elizabeth Speller tells the story of the most powerful man on earth in the early second century against a background of his travels and intrigues. A man who had commissioned a dazzling construction program, from Hadrian's Wall in Britain and the extraordinary Pantheon in Rome to his 900-room villa at Tivoli, works which represent the central themes of his rule: military domination, religious tolerance and an extravagant lifestyle.
Soundly based on original sources and archaeology, this compelling book throws new light on Hadrian the man and the atmosphere of his turbulent times.
