Hadrianic Ruminations

Following up (yet again!) the RogueClassicist's leads...The Hadrian exhibit at the British Museum has occasioned plenty of commentary.  For the more scholarly side, see Mary Beard's accounts (in the Guardian, a run-down of the Emperor's life and perceptions of him; at her blog, a little myth vs. fact post).  Geography and US/UK politics prove irresistibly tempting, as, for example, Martin Kettle (the Guardian) advises Barack Obama to visit the exhibit:

You see, senator, Hadrian's predecessor Trajan had staked everything on conquering Mesopotamia, which of course is the modern Iraq. At first Trajan successfully persuaded Romans that the war was going well, but in fact the mission was overstretched and gradually his campaign was undermined by a widespread local insurgency. So when Hadrian became emperor of Rome in 117 AD, just about the first thing he did after his inauguration was to withdraw the Roman legions from Mesopotamia, Assyria and Greater Armenia. All this came as a shock to the Roman psyche, which had been nurtured on endless tales of triumph, but in the end it made much better sense to bring the boys home. It meant Hadrian was able to consolidate Rome's boundaries and concentrate on the military campaigns that truly threatened Rome's security.

Somewhat similar lessons drawn by Dominic Sandbrook (the Scotsman):

And the first thing that Hadrian did – showing the cool, decisive leadership that was to become his trademark – was to pull Roman troops out of their most recently conquered territories in what is now Iraq, where local insurgents were running riot.

Giving up on Iraq was immensely controversial, for the Romans prided themselves on their record of military victories. What Hadrian recognised – and what his successors would do well to learn – is that even the greatest empire has its limits.

Rome continues to fascinate because its sheer scale and ingenuity leave us in awe. And yet while the dazzling array of statues and artefacts brings home the stunning sweep of Roman power, Hadrian's most famous achievement – the great wall on the Scottish border – makes the point that every world power must stop somewhere.

If that makes Hadrian sound like an emperor for our times, there is more. Often seen as a kind of Roman Lib-Dem – all beard, sandals and multicultural enthusiasms – he emerges here as a master of political spin.

Despite his Spanish background, he made every effort to portray himself as a traditional Roman, striking conventional poses in statues sent all over the empire, one of them preserved here in superb condition.

Unusually for an emperor, he wore a beard – another canny bit of presentation, associated both with the army and with Hellenic philosophy, thereby appealing both to military conservatives and to the Greek speakers of the empire's booming East.

Also noteworthy:  William Napier's article (Daily Mail) focusing more on the Bar Kochba war and the Antinous story, which nevertheless doesn't quite live up to the hype of the headline:  "Emperor of the first holocaust: How the death of his male lover left Hadrian a tyrant."