Hadrian Born: Emperor Who Built Rome's Borders
He spent a quarter of his reign traveling, which was not what Roman emperors did. Hadrian crossed nearly every province — Britain, Germany, North Africa, Greece, Asia Minor — inspecting the army, receiving delegations, founding cities. He built his wall across northern Britain not to stop invasions but to control the flow of people and goods. He also built the Pantheon as it stands today. He fell in love with a Greek youth named Antinous, who drowned in the Nile in 130 AD; Hadrian built a city in his memory and declared him a god. He governed Rome for twenty-one years.
January 24, 76
1950 years ago
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