Summer AD 124 – Hadrian tours Asia (part 1), visits Cyzicus and Troy and hunts a she-bear (#Hadrian1900) FOLLOWING HADRIAN

Within the late spring of AD 124, Hadrian departed from Thrace (see here) and travelled again to Asia Minor, this time to the Roman province of Asia. He was accompanied by the sophist Polemon (Marcus Antonius Polemo) and his “troopers and carriages.” The imperial social gathering’s first vacation spot was the peninsula of Cyzicus on the southern shore of the Propontis in historical Mysia earlier than persevering with their journey as far south as Ephesus.

Cyzicus, like Nicaea and Nicomedia, was hit by a strong earthquake, inflicting extreme harm (see here). In response, Hadrian applied large-scale restoration and beautification measures within the metropolis, together with establishing a temple devoted to himself and paving the Agora with marble (Chronicon Paschale 475.10). As Hadrian entered the province, he was greeted by town’s dignitaries and the proconsul, his pal Q. Pompeius Falco, who was approaching the top of his time period in workplace. Falco, a navy man who served as consul in 108, had already loved a protracted profession when he assumed the proconsulship of Asia in 123/4. He took up this submit after being transferred to Britannia in 117 (CIL X, 6321). 

The province of Asia, established following Rome’s annexation of the Attalid Kingdom in 133 BC, consisted of the territories of Mysia, the Troad, Lydia, Ionia, Phrygia, and Caria in Western Asia Minor. It was one of many wealthiest within the Empire and remained peaceable for many of the Imperial interval. Asia contained a whole lot of largely self-governing Greek city-states lining the Asiatic coast of the Propontis, the Hellespont and the Aegean. They competed vigorously with one another for standing and affect by interesting to the Imperial authorities for favours. One of many objects of these ambitions was the privilege to deal with a provincial temple of the imperial cult. A union of cities known as the koinon represented the province, with ambassadors assembly yearly in an meeting, the place they selected issues which affected all of the cities.

By the point of Augustus, the province was ruled by a Roman governor who had his headquarters in Ephesus however travelled to numerous cities, intervening in native politics and funds if needed. Augustus’ reforms improved the financial system and initiated a time of peace and prosperity that will final till the third century AD. The primary princeps additionally allowed the koinon of Asia to construct a temple devoted to him and the goddess Roma in Pergamon. Though no archaeological proof of this temple has but been discovered, it seems on town’s coinage with a Corinthian façade on a stepped crepis within the Greek fashion and was presumably standing by 19 BC. This temple was to be the primary in a sequence of provincial temples for the emperor’s cult. When the province was subsequently permitted to ascertain a second provincial temple in AD 26, this time for Tiberius, Livia and the Senate, eleven cities competed for the privilege (Tacitus, Annals 4.55-56). The Senate listened to the arguments of the important thing cities and narrowed it right down to Sardis and Smyrna, finally assigning the temple to Smyrna.

A couple of a long time later, underneath Nero, the imperial cult in Asia turned institutionalised by designating cities that housed a provincial temple as neokoroi (‘temple wardens’). Quite a few inscriptions on stones and cash publicly promoted the satisfaction of cities that held a neokorate. The title neokoros first appeared on a coin issued at Ephesus underneath Nero through the proconsulship of M. Acilius Aviola in 65-66 (RPC I, 2626), and the primary inscription appeared through the time of Domitian in 85 on the scene of the Ephesus theatre (Ephesos 274). The three main cities of Asia, Pergamon, Ephesus and Smyrna, finally acquired a couple of neokoria.

Hadrian granted Ephesus its second neokoria within the early 130s throughout his third go to to town. The primary quotation of the title ‘twice neokoros’ for Ephesus is discovered on an inscribed base of a statue dated to 132, arrange by chief monks of Asia in Ephesus within the Olympieion in Athens (IG II2 3297). Throughout this journey in Asia, Hadrian, underneath the affect of Polemon, gave the second neokoria to Smyrna in Ionia. Nevertheless, the provincial temple to Hadrian was to realize the title neokoros for Cyzicus in Mysia for the primary time. Hadrian turned the primary emperor to grant three neokorates in the identical koinon of Asia.

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Cyzicus was one of the vital affluent cities of Asia Minor throughout classical antiquity and was significantly engaging to the Romans. Known as the “noble metropolis” by the Roman historian Florus, town boasted a citadel, harbour, partitions, and marble towers, incomes it the title of the “glory of Asia” (Flor. 1.11.13). In keeping with literary sources, Cyzicus was based round 680 BC by a gaggle of Greek colonists from town of Miletus, making it one of many oldest Greek settlements within the area. Nevertheless, the references to King Kyzikos, a Thessalian migrant who Jason by chance killed within the legend of Argonauts, indicate that the historical past of town could return to as early because the Late Bronze Age.

The southern and western elements of town had been located on low floor on the base of the Acropolis hill. In keeping with epigraphic proof, Cyzicus had a theatre, a market (Agora), a bouleuterion, a Doric colonnade (stoa), and a temple devoted to Athena Polias. The city was surrounded by robust granite partitions constructed and reconstructed over a few years. Exterior the partitions, north of town, stood an amphitheatre relationship again to the 2nd century AD and a very important monument, a temple devoted to Hadrian, town’s most essential construction.

The exceptionally giant amphitheatre was located within the valley on either side of the sloping hills beneath the Acropolis. Its elliptical form could be traced from the few pilasters and arches rising from the thickly wooded slopes of the previous cavea. A small stream flew via the constructing, presumably to be used in naumachiae (naval spectacular shows) and for the cleaning of the sector. The amphitheatre was oval and surrounded by two tiers of arcading. There have been initially thirty-two vomitorii (entrances). The central axis measured round 140 meters. Hadrianic inscriptions discovered among the many ruins of the amphitheatre have allowed its relationship within the reign of Hadrian.

Cyzicus skilled frequent earthquakes, with fifteen such occurrences between AD 29 and 1887. This included an earthquake throughout Hadrian’s reign round 120. In keeping with John Malalas, the earthquake caught Hadrian’s consideration and prompted the Emperor to assist town (Malalas 11.16). The Chronicon Paschale, a chronicle of world occasions as much as about 630, states that Hadrian based a temple there and paved a market with marble (Chronicon Paschale 475.10).

Literary sources doc the temple’s historical past and total character. The Byzantine chronicler John Malalas referred to the monument as “a really giant temple, one of many wonders,” adorned with a large bust of Hadrian on the roof and a marble stele inscribed “of Divine Hadrian”. Cassius Dio described it as “the biggest and most lovely of all temples,” noting that “typically, the main points had been extra to be puzzled at than praised” (Dio 70.4.1–2). Anthony Birley means that the temple of Hadrian was initially constructed by the kings of Pergamon within the 2nd century BC and devoted to Zeus. Nevertheless, no proof from the excavation helps such an early origin. The foundations of the Cyzicus temple are totally Roman, with vaulted substructures fabricated from cement and agglomerate (Burrell, 2002 & 2004).

The Temple stood within the western a part of town, going through east. It was a large constructing with eight columns on the entrance (octastyle) and fifteen or seventeen on the edges. It belonged to the Corinthian order and was comparable in dimension to the Artemision in Ephesus or the Temple of Apollo at Didyma, measuring 120 metres in size and 50 metres in width. The sixty columns surrounding the central a part of the temple had been over 2 metres in diameter and greater than 21 metres excessive. The temple was adorned with the biggest Corinthian capitals ever sculpted. One in all these capitals, measuring 2.5 meters in top, 1.9 meters in diameter, and weighing 20 tons, was unearthed in 2013. Nevertheless, in depth archaeological analysis persistently results in new proposals for its structure. To today, there’s nonetheless no settlement on the temple’s design.

The Temple of Hadrian was possible nonetheless underneath building when it was destroyed by an earthquake close to the top of Antoninus Pius’ reign (Cass. Dio 70.4.1). It was lastly accomplished and devoted in 166 or 167, and the orator Aelius Aristides gave a panegyric (speech) in Cyzicus to have fun its restoration (Oration 27). Aristides praised the temple extensively, emphasising its immense dimension, claiming it was “equal to the mountains” and so colossal that sailors now not wanted beacon fires to information them to Cyzicus. Nicetas of Heraclea, an Eleventh-century clergyman and author, even in contrast the temple to the Seven Wonders. An nameless listing from the twelfth or thirteenth century additionally ranks the temple because the eighteenth amongst thirty lovely and worthy issues to see (Codex Vaticanus graecus 989).

You [Cyzicenes] have inscribed upon it [the temple] the title of one of the best emperor as much as that point, your work has been accomplished in these occasions, whose lot once more has been the fairest of the honest and for which most justly would so nice a thank providing be erected to the gods, since it isn’t simple to discover a larger. Aelius Aristides, Orations 27 (part 22)

Cyriacus of Ancona, an Italian traveller and antiquarian, visited the positioning of Cyzicus in 1431 and reported that thirty-one of its columns had been nonetheless standing (half of the unique whole). Nevertheless, the sumptuous destroy was getting used as a stone quarry for close by Bursa. Fifty-four years later, solely twenty-six columns stood, and by the nineteenth century, the Temple’s superstructure was gone. Cyriacus of Ancona created detailed sketches of what remained of the Temple, which helped the archaeologists recognise the fragment of the Temple among the many ruins and restore the plan of the constructing, along with the reverses of cash displaying the Temple (RPC IV.2, 11185). With the brand new Temple that Hadrian allowed to be constructed for his cult, Cyzicus was granted the position of neokoros, temple warden of the imperial cult, becoming a member of Pergamon, Ephesus and Smyrna.

Cyzicus acquired additional indicators of imperial favour. Town was renamed Hadriane, and athletic competitions known as Hadriania had been initiated by which Aelius Aristides participated. Writing greater than 300 years after Hadrian’s reign and the consecration of his temple, the church historian Socrates of Constantinople affirms that the folks of Cyzicus thought of Hadrian’ the thirteenth god’ and worshipped Antinous with heroic honours (Socr. hist. eccl 3,23). Moreover, Hadrian later acquired the title Olympios, a reputation related to Zeus. He was honoured with statues and praised as ‘saviour and founder’.

As a result of its dimension, Asia, the ‘land of 5 hundred cities’, because the province was described, was divided into smaller administrative items known as “conventus.” Within the early 2nd century AD, there have been 14 of those, together with Cyzicus. Through the reign of Hadrian, the cash in Cyzicus had been issued with photographs together with Demeter, Cybele, Pluto and Proserpina, Heracles, Asclepius, Zeus, Tyche and the Hero Kyzicos, quite a lot of motifs (dolphin, oak wreath, jug, torch, galley) and the legends ΚΥ/ΖΙ or ΚΥΖΙΚΗΝΩΝ (RPC III 1498–1521). Cyzicus additionally issued cash for Sabina and Antinous, who was worshipped with heroic honours after his dying. A single coin reveals the Bithynian boy depicted because the hero Kyzikos, founding father of Cyzicus (RPC III, 1528).

The close by cities of Apollonia advert Rhyndacum and Miletopolis additionally benefited from Hadrian’s presence within the space. Each cities known as him ‘Saviour and Founder’, revealing their gratitude (IMT LApollon/Milet 2363 & IMT LApollon/Milet 2195). Hadrian is credited with establishing or reconstructing a stoa in a fragmentary inscribed frieze from Apollonia, probably after the most important earthquake of AD 120 (IMT LApollon/Milet 2361). The blocks of this inscription, adorned with garlanded bucrania, could be seen reused inside the Byzantine fortification partitions of town (Gülbay, 2016).

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After visiting Cyzicus, Hadrian travelled west alongside the coast and crossed the River Granicus, which allowed him to go to the positioning of Alexander’s first main victory. He then continued to Parium, the place Augustus had established a colony. On municipal cash of this era, town seems as Colonia Gemella Iulia Hadriana Pariana (within the type of the abbreviation C G I H P) with a reverse depicting a male determine, recognized as a colony founder, ploughing (RPC III, 1542), a reference to the grant of latest land attributed to Parium throughout the straits by Hadrian (Boatwright, 2000). In gratitude, Parium erected a number of dedications to Hadrian within the metropolis itself, naming Hadrian as “Jupiter Olympius, the founding father of town” (conditor coloniae).

The historical past of Parium begins on the finish of the eighth century BC after its colonisation, although the traditional sources don’t agree on who colonised town. Pausanias claims that Parium was colonised by Erythrai (Paus. 9.27.1), whereas Eustathios states Thasos colonised it, and Strabo mentions that it was colonised by Paros (Strabo 10.5.7), but in addition notes the involvement of Miletos and Erythrai (Strabo 13.1.14). The title of Parium (or Parion) was additionally a topic of debate. Town’s title could have three attainable origins. It might have been named after the island of Paros or after Parios, the son of both Iason or Demetria from Erythrai. One other chance is that it was named after Paris, the well-known prince of Troy.

Town was well-known for its nice inventive works by famend Greek sculptors. The primary of those masterpieces was the bronze statue of Herakles made by the early Fifth-century BC sculptor Hegesias of Athens (Pliny, NH 34.78). The opposite two famend works of sculpture had been the marble statue of Eros by well-known Athenian sculptor Praxiteles and a bronze statue of the Trojan prince Paris by the Greek sculptor Euphranor from the Isthmos close to Corinth, a piece praised by Pliny the Elder (34.77-78). Its replica on Roman cash of Parium from the reign of Antonine Pius to Aemilian, roughly from AD 140 to 253, additionally reveals its famousness.

To him [Praxiteles] belongs, furthermore, one other Cupid, which is bare, at Parium, a colony on the Propontis, a piece that matches the Venus of Cnidus in its renown, in addition to within the outrageous therapy which it suffered. For Alcetas, a person from Rhodes, fell in love with it and left the same mark of his ardour upon it.” Pliny, NH 36.22 (translation taken from the Loeb version).

Parium loved enviable prosperity due to its port. It turned a part of the dominion of Pergamon underneath the Attalid dynasty and later got here underneath Roman management in 133 BC. Below Augustus, it thrived as a Roman colony. One of many metropolis’s notable monuments was a colossal altar of Apollo constructed by the architect Hermokreon. Strabo, the one supply of details about this monument, talked about that it was positioned between Parium and Priapos and had a size of 1 stadium, 187m (Strabo 13.1.13).

The primary systematic excavations started in 2005 to uncover the historic and archaeological heritage of Parium. Important work is being carried out in six completely different areas of the traditional metropolis and has revealed constructions like a theatre, an odeon, an agora with outlets and two Roman tub complexes. Excavations within the southern necropolis revealed over 100 graves relationship from the sixth century BC to the 4th century BC. Sarcophagi, cist graves, picket coffins, and historical artefacts had been discovered within the space. In 2017, historical toys from the Hellenistic Interval had been found inside tombs belonging to kids, who had been believed to have been buried with the toys to accompany them on their journey to the afterlife.

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Hadrian then went to the neighbouring Troad, alongside the primary coastal highway that seems to have been repaired in preparation for the Emperor’s arrival. One Roman milestone dated to Hadrian’s eighth tribunician time period (AD 124/125) has been discovered close to Alexandria Troas (CIL III 466). This highway ran from Cyzicus via Ilium (Troy), Alexandria Troas, Adramyttium and Pergamon, finally reaching Smyrna and Ephesus. Pushed by his ardour for Homer, Hadrian felt compelled to go to Troy and the graves of the Homeric heroes. At Rhoeteum, Hadrian reconstructed the tomb of the Greek hero Ajax.

The 2nd/third century AD sophist Philostratus reported that the unique tomb of Ajax stood on the seashore and had been washed away by the ocean, revealing bones of gigantic dimension, allegedly almost 5m in top (Philostr. 8.1). Hadrian reinterred the bones in a wholly new tumulus effectively above sea stage with a statue of Ajax mounted on prime. Pausanias, too, feedback on seeing the person bones of an enormous man (Paus. 1.35.3-5). Hadrian additionally wrote an epigram on Hector’s tomb telling the hero that the famed metropolis of Ilium lives on with its warlike inhabitants (Anth. Pal. 9.387). Notably, the Trojan hero seems on the reverse of cash from town in Hadrian’s reign (RPC III, 1571).

Hear now, my pal. I had a grandfather who knew many of the issues you don’t consider. He used to say that the tomb of Ajax was destroyed by the ocean close to which it lies, and that bones appeared in it of an individual eleven cubits tall. He additionally mentioned that upon his arrival at Troy the emperor Hadrian embraced and kissed among the bones, wrapped them up, and restored the current tomb of Ajax” Philostratus, On Heroes 8.1

The tumulus of Ajax is likely one of the heroes’ graves that has been recognized nearly with certainty. An oil lamp of Hadrianic date was found within the fill above the vaulted entrance, and the development approach suggests it dates again to the 2nd century AD. Within the late 18th century, the tumulus was described as having inside it an outer round vaulted passage, 3.5 m in width, related to a central stone tower by a community of radiating partitions. It had a diameter of greater than 11 m and a top of 5 m (Körpe & Rose, 2017).

Hadrian’s go to to Troy marked the start of a brand new golden period for the ancestral residence of the Romans, with restore, renovation, and rebuilding happening all through the Decrease Metropolis. Presumably stimulated by the Emperor’s go to, the restoration and enlargement of two buildings had been initiated within the Agora of Ilium: the Odeon and the bathtub/gymnasium straight in entrance of it. The Odeon, probably initially an Augustan constructing, was embellished with an opulent two-storey scaenae frons (stage constructing) ornamented with a mixture of colored columns within the Ionic order and statues (Riorden, 2006).

One extant remaining Imperial statue from the Odeon reveals Hadrian in navy costume. The statue, excavated from the collapse of the scaenae frons in 1993, would have adorned the centre of the higher storey. This small theatre-like construction, used for musical performances and poetry recitations, maybe served as a spot to current Hadrian’s poem about Hector. The seating capability was someplace between 1700 and 2100 spectators.

The statue of Hadrian discovered within the Odeon (now within the Troy Museum) is a big archaeological discovery highlighting the ties between Ilium and Rome and acknowledging Ilium’s privileged standing. The statue, believed to be constituted of marble, is barely larger-than-life and reveals the Emperor in navy costume sporting a paludamentum draped over the left shoulder and arm. The cuirass is adorned with a gorgoneion on the breastplate. The statue was in all probability commissioned by an area aristocrat, a girl named Aristonoe, who reportedly paid for the stage constructing and its sculptural ornament. As much as seven different statues would have adorned the scaenae frons of the Troy Odeon, probably of Hadrian’s spouse, Sabina, and different members of the Imperial household.

The Odeon seems to have been designed alongside the restoration and growth of the Augustan tub advanced, which was now equipped with water channelled from a supply within the mountainous inside of the Troad by way of a brand new aqueduct. Between 20 and 30 km lengthy, this aqueduct consisted of terracotta pipelines, an underground channel with a masonry cowl, and a number of other bridges. Essentially the most notable characteristic of the aqueduct is a tall, 87-m-long two-tier bridge that spans the Kemerdere Valley, about 11 km east of Troy. The engineers chosen the narrowest level within the valley for the aqueduct to cross to the northwest facet.

Throughout Hadrian’s reign, Ilium expanded its vary of Homeric and legendary coin sorts to incorporate Hector (RPC III, 1571) and Ganymede (RPC III, 1572), in addition to Aeneas, leaving Troy with Ascanius and Anchises with a miniature Lupercal (wolf left suckling twins) in exergue, which tied collectively the 2 key episodes in Roman legend (RPC III, 1570).

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Advancing in the direction of the south alongside the coast, Hadrian visited Alexandria Troas, a metropolis based by Alexander’s generals in 310 BC and known as Antigonia (Strabo, 13.1.26). It later turned a affluent colony of Roman troopers, initially named Colonia Iulia (Alexandria) Troas underneath Julius Caesar and Colonia Augusta Troadensis, when Augustus refounded the Roman colony and introduced extra colonists. Alexandria had two synthetic harbours and various arable land, and due to its strategic geographical place, it turned the area’s industrial hub. Because the chief port within the Troad, town thrived throughout Roman occasions and was exempted from all import and export taxes.

Strabo referred to Alexandria Troas as “one of many notable cities” of the Empire (Strabo 13.1.26). The remaining archaeological proof means that it was as soon as a big metropolis, doubtlessly with a inhabitants of round 90,000 at its peak, 30,000 for the hinterland, and maybe as much as twice that quantity within the urbs itself. With its public buildings and harbour, town lined an space of about 390 hectares with an roughly 7.1 kilometre-long metropolis wall.

Hadrian generously supported this important Roman colony, as evidenced by a votive inscription by which the residents honoured Hadrian because the colony’s restorer (restitutor coloniae) of their metropolis and the Olympieion at Athens “due to his many advantages each to people and to town at giant” (CIL III 7282). The Olympieion reportedly contained 129 bronze statues of Hadrian devoted by varied cities and thus functioned as a centre for the imperial cult. Three of these statues had been devoted by cities within the Troad or on the Troad: Alexandria Troas, Abydos (IG 3.472), and Sestos (IG 3.484).

Philostratus stories that town acquired its first aqueduct in 135 when Herodes Atticus, as “corrector of the free cities of Asia”, realised that the colony lacked considerable, free-flowing water. The younger Herodes urged the Emperor to allow him to spend 3,000,000 drachmae on a water provide. The associated fee really exceeded the permitted price range significantly and ran to 7,000,000. Hadrian expressed his disapproval to Herodes’ father, after which he replied: “Don’t, o Emperor, permit your self to be irritated on account of so trifling a sum. For the quantity spent in extra of the three million, I hereby current to my son, and my son will current it to the city.” (Philostr. soph. 548).

Atticus’s large-scale tasks in Alexandria Troas additionally concerned constructing a nymphaeum and a formidable bath-gymnasium advanced. The ruins of the baths survive. Nevertheless, the related aqueduct, initially 8-9 km lengthy, has been broken as a result of it was simply accessible as a supply of constructing stone. Nineteenth-century drawings present recurrently spaced piers operating about one kilometre from Alexandria Troas east towards Mount Ida.

In 2003, three inscribed letters from Hadrian to the associations (Synod) of Dionysus artists had been found in Alexandria Troas. Dated to the yr 134, these letters take care of the brand new measures applied by Hadrian to manage Greek festivals. For instance, he restricted their lengths to not more than 40 days, created a brand new calendar of the primary festivals, beginning with the Olympian competition, and gave the collaborating skilled artists and athletes new rights (see here).

I’ve set the start from the Olympian contests, since this contest is historical and positively probably the most prestigious of the Greek ones. After the Olympian contests shall be the Isthmian contests, and after the Isthmian the Hadrianeian, in order that the competition begins on the subsequent day after the competition at Eleusis ends, and that is by Athenian reckoning the primary day of Maimakterion. There shall be forty days for the Hadrianeian contests, and the competition in Tarentum shall be held after the Hadrianeian contests within the month of January, with the Capitolian contests, as they’ve been accomplished to this point, previous the contests in Neapolis. Then the Actian contests will happen, starting 9 days earlier than the kalends of October, and ending inside forty days.

Alexandria Troas was recognized for its important granite quarries. One in all these gray granite quarries of Marmor Troadense (Yedi Taşlar) is positioned 8 km south-southeast of the harbour of Alexandria Troas (to the place the finished columns had been transported). Columns fabricated from this rock had been extensively used as constructing stones in historical occasions and might be discovered all through the Mediterranean area. They’ve been found at varied websites, reminiscent of Palmyra and Baalbeck within the east and Arles and Tarragona within the west. Moreover, giant sections of those columns had been utilized in Asia Minor, for instance, within the Agoras of Smyrna, Ephesus, and Italy, in places like Rome, Ravenna, and Aquileia. The Yedi Taşlar quarry comprises some sixty columns and column fragments of varied sizes at completely different levels of completion. Some columns had been prepared for transport, whereas others had been partially prepared and nonetheless related to the bedrock. They common 11.5 metres in size and 1.70 metres in diameter at their prime.

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The subsequent a part of the journey was devoted to exploring Mysia’s wooded mountainous hinterland and searching. Hadrian was a terrific lover of the hunt, and he was so happy with killing a she-bear that he established a city known as Hadrianotherae (Αδριανού Θήραι), which means actually ‘Hadrian’s Hunts’, on the spot of his profitable hunt. Town later honoured its founder by minting bronze cash, one depicting the Emperor on horseback about to throw a spear at a fleeing bear and the opposite with the pinnacle of the slain animal. The top of the she-bear additionally seems on a coin of Antinous (RPC III, 1631) with the legend ΑΝΤΙΝΟΟϹ ΗΡΩϹ ΑΓΑΘΟϹ (Antinous Noble Hero).

Hadrianotherae stood on the highway from Cyzicus to Pergamon, about its center level. Its website has consequently lengthy been positioned within the neighbourhood of recent Balıkesir. The encompassing panorama was characterised by rugged mountains, the valley of the Caicus River, and dense forests stuffed with wildlife and served as a helpful timber useful resource.

… and in a single locality he [Hadrian] based a city known as Hadrianotherae,​ as a result of as soon as he had hunted efficiently there and killed a bear. HA Hadr. 20.13

He [Hadrian] is alleged to have been keen about searching. Certainly, he broke his collar-bone at this pursuit and got here close to getting his leg maimed; and to a metropolis that he based in Mysia he gave the title of Hadrianotherae. Dio Cassius 69.10.2

Bears had been widespread in Asia Minor, and the realm of Mysia was a standard provider of those predators for circus video games. The area’s affiliation with Hadrian’s searching actions was so robust that at close by Stratonicea-Hadrianopolis, the Emperor was worshipped as Zeus Kynegesios (Zeus the Hunter). The folks erected a monument out of gratitude for Hadrian’s dedication to their safety between 130 and 138 (IMT Kaïkos 935).

The Emperor in all probability stayed in Stratonicea whereas travelling via Mysia’s higher Caicus (Kaikos) Valley. He granted the place the standing of a metropolis and the title Hadrianopolis. A bronze coin from Stratonicea-Hadrianopolis portrays a laureate Hadrian accompanied by the title Ἁδριανὸς Κτίστης (Hadrian the founder), whereas the reverse depicts Zeus (RPC III, 1780). The epithet refers back to the metropolis’s re-foundation, which now bore the double title Stratonicea-Hadrianopolis. A letter from the Emperor to town in 127 refers back to the current basis of town underneath its double title (IGR 4.1156). Later, in 131, the Emperor was to ascertain two extra cities within the fertile plains of Mysia: Hadriania, positioned between the Macestus and Rhyndacus Rivers, and Hadriani on the foot of Mount Olympus.

Hadrian’s subsequent go to would in all probability have been to Pergamon, though Birley notes there isn’t a specific file of his presence there in 124. Nevertheless, he couldn’t have been on this a part of Asia with out visiting the as soon as centre of the Attalid kingdom (Birley, 1997). There was a lot for him to see and admire at Pergamon, particularly its celebrated shrines of Zeus, Athena, and Asclepius. Hadrian possible started his formidable remodelling of the sanctuary of Asclepius presently, in addition to the provincial temple devoted to Trajan.

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Sources & references:

• Birley, A.R. (1997). Hadrian The Stressed Emperor, London, Roman Imperial Biographies pp. 162-166
• Boatwright, M.T. (2000). Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire, Princeton
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• Yavuz, Vural. (2014). Vintage quarries of marmor troadense (NW Turkey): Insights from subject mapping and absolute relationship. TURKISH JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES. 23. 495-512. 10.3906/yer-1404-2.