Hadrian "was
the third of the Five Good Emperors." He was the first
Roman Emperor to publicly say that he was gay.
***An excerpt from the article, "Hadrian
the gay emperor," by Arifa Akbar (The Independent, Jan 11, 2008):
After being made emperor AD117,
he inherited a Roman Empire in its prime, which had thrived on a policy of
endless expansion and conquest.
His first move,
within hours of coronation, was to withdraw his troops from Mesopotamia, now
Iraq, and fortify the empire's boundaries by building his eponymous wall in
northern England and others in the Danube and the Rhine valleys, ushering in a
new era of peace.
"We must not mistake
[Hadrian's] motives for pulling his troops out of Mesopotamia," Mr Opper
said. "He didn't really have a choice. It had just been conquered by his
predecessor and there was a lot of guerrilla warfare, which is eerily just like
modern times. What he did was give the empire breathing space and while he was
a very experienced military leader, we also get the impression he was very
cultured and he fostered Greek identity and made them partners in leadership."
As the
"people's king" – he travelled with his troops and ate the same
rations – he laid the foundations of the Byzantine Empire and changed the name
of Judea to create Palestine, among other legacies.
At times,
however, even Hadrian's Rome played the role of violent occupier. During a
suppression of a Jewish rebellion in Judea, Roman warriors were dispatched to
take control of the region, leading to the death of 580,000 Jews. "It was
probably as a punishment that he changed the name of Judea to Palestine,"
said Mr Opper.
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