Publius Aelius Hadrianus was born on 24 January 76, in Italica (modern Santiponce, near Seville), a Roman town founded by Italic settlers in the province of Hispania Baetica during … See more

Securing power
According to the Historia Augusta, Hadrian informed the Senate of his accession in a letter as a fait … See more

Hadrian spent the final years of his life in Rome. In 134, he took an imperial salutation for the end of the Third Jewish War (which was not … See more

Hadrian enacted, through the jurist Salvius Julianus, the first attempt to codify Roman law. This was the Perpetual Edict, according to which the legal actions of praetors See more

Hadrian's first official post in Rome was as a member of the decemviri stlitibus judicandis, one among many vigintivirate offices at the lowest … See more

Hadrian was to spend more than half his reign outside Italy. Whereas previous emperors had, for the most part, relied on the reports of their … See more

Most of Hadrian's military activities were consistent with his ideology of empire as a community of mutual interest and support. He focused on … See more