Hadrian. PUBLIUS ÆLIUS HADRIANUS, Roman emperor from 117 to 138 A.D., was born at Rome in 76. During the reign of Trajan, who was his guardian and kinsman, he filled several high offices in the state, and in his earlier life devoted himself with such ardour to the study of Greek as to earn the nickname of Græculus. He accompanied the emperor in his wars against Decebalus, where he distinguished himself by his bravery; and in 117, when Trajan set out on his return to Italy, he was left behind with the army as prefect of Syria. When the intelligence reached Antioch that Trajan had died in Cilicia on his journey home, Hadrian was proclaimed emperor by the army, August 11, 117 A.D. The state of the empire at the time was extremely critical. Insurrections had broken out in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria; Mœsia in the east and Mauritania in the west were both invaded by barbarian hordes; while the Parthians had once more asserted their independence, and won several successes over the imperial forces. Hadrian, perceiving the advantage of a peaceful policy, wisely resolved to limit the boundaries of the Roman dominion in the East, and concluded a peace with the Parthians, surrendering to them all the country beyond the Euphrates. After appeasing the Roxolani and Sarmatæ, who had made an inroad into Mœsia, he repaired to Rome, where he had been already acknowledged by the senate, established his authority by liberality towards the people, and suppressed with great severity a patrician conspiracy against his life. In the year 119, for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the state of the provinces, he commenced his celebrated journey, which he is said to have performed chiefly on foot, marching bareheaded 20 miles a day and sharing cheerfully the hard fare of the humblest soldier. He visited Gaul, Germany, Britain, where he built the famous wall extending from the Solway to the Tyne, Spain, Mauritania, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece, whence he returned to Rome after his circuit of the empire in 126 or 127 A.D., and received the title of Pater Patriæ. Hadrian spent the years 132 and 133 in Athens, which city he adorned with splendid and costly buildings. After once more visiting Syria and crushing a desperate Jewish revolt, he returned to Italy, and spent the last years of his life at Rome and at his splendid villa at Tibur. During the severe illness which carried him off, July 10, 138, at Baiae, he was subject to violent outbursts of cruelty, to which, as well as to jealousy and pleasure, he was naturally subject. After the death of Lucius Ceionius Commodus, whom he had adopted under the name of Lucius Ælius Verus, he appointed Titus Aurelius (afterwards the Emperor Antoninus Pius) his successor. During his reign the army was vigorously disciplined and reorganised, so that the barbarians were not likely to attribute Hadrian's conciliating and peaceful policy to fear or weakness. As a civil ruler he merits high praise for the just and comprehensive view he appears to have taken of his duties as a sovereign. Hence to him is attributed, more than to any other, the consolidation of the monarchical system of Rome. Hadrian also divided Italy into four parts under four consuls, to whom was entrusted the administration of justice. Hadrian had a passion for building: his most splendid edifices were the mausoleum called the Moles Hadriani, in Rome, the nucleus of the present castle of St Angelo, the Ælian bridge leading to it, and the magnificent villa at Tibur. He likewise laid the foundation of several cities, the most important of which was Adrianopolis. He was a lover of the fine arts—in the history of which, as well as of jurisprudence, his reign forms an important era—of poetry, philosophy, and rhetoric, all of which he attempted. He set a high value on Greek literature, and likewise on the cultus of Greece, and caused himself to be initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. No fragment of ancient literature has been more famous than the verses attributed to the dying Hadrian:
Animula vaga blandula
Hospes comesque corporis,
Que nunc abibis in loca?
Pallidula rigida nudula,
Nec ut soles dabis jocos.
Mr David Johnston, in his Translations, literal and free, of the dying Hadrian's Address to his Soul (privately printed, Bath, 1877), gives no fewer than 116 translations of all degrees of excellence.
Many of these have read into the poem a kind of Christian or Neoplatonist spirituality which is not really in it, its aim being rather to emphasise the miserable state of the soul as soon as it ceases to enjoy the friendly hospitality of the body. Lord Carnarvon, in vol. iv. (1884-85) of The National Review, gives versions of it by Byron, Prior, two by Pope, one by Dean Merivale, and another by himself. Of these, Prior's is undoubtedly the best, although the freest rendering; Byron's, the poorest; while the second of Pope's—the well-known 'Vital spark of heav'nly flame'—is not properly a translation at all.
See Merivale's History of the Romans under the Empire, vol. viii.; W. W. Cape's Age of the Antonines, in 'Epochs of Ancient History'; Gregorovius, Der Kaiser Hadrian (1884); and Dürr, Die Reisen des Kaisers Hadrian (1881).