![]() His intense relationship with Greek youth Antinous and the latter's untimely death led Hadrian to establish a widespread cult late in his reign. He was an ardent admirer of Greece and sought to make Athens the cultural capital of the Empire, so he ordered the construction of many opulent temples there. In Egypt, he may have rebuilt the Serapeum of Alexandria. In Rome itself, he rebuilt the Pantheon and constructed the vast Temple of Venus and Roma. He encouraged military preparedness and discipline, and he fostered, designed, or personally subsidised various civil and religious institutions and building projects. He visited almost every province of the Empire, accompanied by an Imperial retinue of specialists and administrators. Hadrian energetically pursued his own Imperial ideals and personal interests. He is known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Britannia. Hadrian preferred to invest in the development of stable, defensible borders and the unification of the empire's disparate peoples. He earned further disapproval among the elite by abandoning Trajan's expansionist policies and territorial gains in Mesopotamia, Assyria, Armenia, and parts of Dacia. They had opposed Hadrian or seemed to threaten his succession, and the senate held him responsible for it and never forgave him. Rome's military and Senate approved Hadrian's succession, but four leading senators were unlawfully put to death soon after. When Trajan died, his widow claimed that he had nominated Hadrian as emperor immediately before his death. Plotina and Trajan's close friend and adviser Lucius Licinius Sura were well disposed towards Hadrian. He married Trajan's grand-niece Vibia Sabina early in his career, before Trajan became emperor and possibly at the behest of Trajan's wife Pompeia Plotina. His father was of senatorial rank and was a first cousin of Emperor Trajan. He was born Publius Aelius Hadrianus in Italica, Hispania Baetica, into a Roman Italo-Hispanic family that settled in Spain from the Italian city of Atri in Picenum. Hadrian (Latin: Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Reverse: P M TR P COS III, Aequitas standing left with scales and cornucopiae. Obverse: IMP CAESAR TRAIAN HADRIANVS AVG, laureate head right.
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