HADRIAN Publius Aelius Hadrianus August 11, 117 - July 10, 1 - Lot 232

HADRIAN Publius Aelius Hadrianus August 11, 117 - July 10, 138 HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P. His bust draped to left. R/. The Nile recumbent right, half-naked, holding a cornucopia leaning on a rock from which water gushes and surrounded by reeds. ♦ Cohen 1499 /100 frs or ; RIC 314 ; Calicó 1165 Aureus struck in Rome in 134 - 138 (7.28 g). Very rare. Beautiful portrait. Very handsome/T.B. On a long journey across his empire, Hadrian passed through Egypt in 130-131, accompanied by a large entourage including his wife Sabina and her young protégé and lover, the handsome Bithynian Antinous. On October 30, 130, during a cruise on the Nile, Antinous fell overboard and drowned, plunging the emperor into immense grief. The incident is shrouded in mystery, with some gossip suggesting that the young man had sacrificed himself in a strange ritual to restore Hadrian's failing health. However he died, Hadrian ordered that Antinous be deified and worshipped as a god, not by the Senate or the Roman people, but by the Greek inhabitants of the Empire, who had a more sympathetic view of their emperor's "forbidden love". Hadrian finally returned from his travels around 132 and retired to his lavishly decorated villa in Tivoli, where Egypt and the Nile were of particular importance. Hadrian, the 15th Roman emperor, was born on January 24, 76 in Spain near Seville and died on July 10, 138. He belonged to the Antonine dynasty. He succeeded Trajan in August 117 and reigned until his death in 138. A literate emperor, poet and philosopher with a peaceful reputation, he broke with the expansionist policy of his predecessor, setting about pacifying and structuring the Empire administratively, while consolidating its borders. Remarkably intelligent, gifted in the arts, war, sports and hunting, he loved to travel. Intellectual, curious, a jack-of-all-trades, highly cultured and with a phenomenal memory, he nevertheless had a few faults: vain, egotistical, shady, cruel... He led the empire to its apogee.