Portraits In Fiddles

[no dialogue] >> dr. lanham: well, goodmorning and good monday morning to all of you and thank you forcoming this morning as we continue our serieson studying the ancient civilization of greece. there are only two more daysof opportunities for you to be here and elsewhere. check your program, there aremore, in fact there is one more presentation immediatelyfollowing this session that is a

reschedule from last week. we have a great programfeaturing dr. young here, and we are anxiously awaiting that, buti am going to ask dr. wahby to introduce him. >> dr. wahby: thank you all forcoming to this session in the last week of our futuristiclook through ancient lenses. this year we are looking atthrough ancient greece, last year we looked at, or throughancient egypt and already people are asking meabout what next year.

we are contemplating is it rome,is it babylonian, it is what, i don't know yet, but ithink i'll keep it a secret. today we are in for a treat. our speaker dr. hadrian, sorrynot hadrian you confused me, dr. bailey young; he is young andgrowing younger by the day. fifteen years ago when icame here, for my first year at eastern, i thought i'd be hereone year and i'd leave, and it seems i've stuck here and theylove me and i love them, and it's a wonderful place to be.

bailey was one of the firstpeople i met on campus, and he has a welcoming spirit. it was so important to me atthat time, when i didn't know almost anybody, but it was oneof the first that i met. we had some common thingsregarding digging and playing in the sand, the clay, and findingold things, ancient things. he expressed that to me, knowingthat i come from egypt, and we talked about at that time, goingdigging in egypt, but i think that didn't happen yet.

well, to introduce him reallywell, i couldn't find a better person than his chair, andhis chair is comfortable. please, anita shelton... >> dr. anita shelton: well, it'smy pleasure to introduce my good friend andcolleague, bailey young. i can say that in the historydepartment, which is known around campus for its quality inboth teaching and scholarships. i think of the facultyas scholar teachers. dr. young is truly distinguishedand has been acknowledged as

such by last year's name ofhim, selection of him, as eiu's distinguished faculty,for the year. everything that has accumulatedover his lifetime and career to earn him that, i can't possiblecover it today, but i give you our distinguished facultyperson, dr. bailey young. >> dr. young: not yetextinguished... alright i had some...i am goingto apologize because, let's see, i had problems with getting mycomputer infected when i was doing the powerpointon saturday,

and where did we go there? that's not where we want to be,that's where we want to be. >> dr. wahby: i willtake your microphone, because this one would work. >> dr. young:this one works fine. i don't need tohold the microphone. anyway, so i wasn't able tocomplete the powerpoint and they just managed to clean mycomputer this morning, and i was able to add a couple of slidesvery quickly, so i'll fumble

around a bit perhaps. we have here perhaps, we shouldput the lights down a bit, you can see better; the evervictorious, it is august of ad 117 and it's a very hot day. we are in what is now iraq. the ever-victorioustrajan, the fifteenth emperor of rome lay dying. only the year before, he hadstood triumphantly yet the head of the persian gulf, oops, therewe go, and that is what we want.

here, you all know wherethe persian gulf is... the first roman general everto humble the parthian enemy by driving him fromhis own capitol. as he looked out over the watersto the east, he was thinking of the great alexander, hisrole model, the king of the macedonians and the stratego. of all the greeks who fourcenturies earlier had destroyed persia's empire, in these samelands, and pushed on east, towards the end of the world, oras far as the fabulous india.

if only he could follow in 15years, trajan had emulated alexander by his policy ofexpanding frontiers by bold military aggression. the rich and powerful daciankingdom, north of the danube, had fallen before his attacks,winning him triumphal honors, whose stone and bronze monumentswe may still admire today, in rome and elsewhere. now persia's heir parthia,which had so often in the past-threatened rome'sinterests in the

greek speakingeastern provinces. parthia had even defeatedroman armies and ultimate shame carried off roman standards andeagles, now parthia's own corps provinces of mesopotamia,were about to become rome's eastern frontier. for 15 years, trajan, theoutsider, would thrust his way into the elite circles of italyfrom a colonial family and distance spain. the first non-italian ever to beraised to the purple; trajan had

survived the old tradition ofmilitary glory and pushed rome's frontiers farther thanever before or ever again. in may, 116 in mighty babylon,where alexander had died, trajan offered sacrifice to theshade of the world conqueror, officially a god. word came of the senate decree,bestowing on him the title, parthecus, in advance ofthe triumph that would await his return. the historian is entitled towonder however, did the

victorious general realize eventhen at that moment of boasting his glory anddispatches to the senate? did he realize how fragile washis achievement as he felt his own growing weakness andbegan to withdraw westwards? did the sound administrator notunderstand how thinly stretched were his troops, how vulnerableto counter attack his over extended resources, for bad newswas reaching the emperor? a serious revolt had broken outamong the jews in palestine, the recently subdued barbarians indacia, abetted by the dangerous

scythians and throned the newdanubian province into turmoil. trajan ordered one of his mosttrusted lieutenants the governor of syria, the core province ofthe roman east to deal with dacia, and to replace him in thekey post in antioch, he named the young cousin with whom hehad over the years and off and on relationship. publius, alias, padrianus, ourpadrian, this move was a clue that cheered padrian's friendsand alarmed his foes, a clue that at long last the childlessemperor would follow old roman

precedence and adopthis cousin as his heir. unless he died first... the events of early august, 117offer conspiracy fans then and now, a matter for a field day. trajan seems to have thought hewas being slowly poisoned at least that rumor was recordedlater by dioceses, the great greek historian whowas also a senator. the imperial party got as faras the city of salinas, in cappadocia, the essentialcare-givers to the ailing

emperor, where the noble empressplotina, and trajan's neth matedia, both women were firmsupporters of hadrian who was married tomatidia's daughter sabina. on august 9, messengers arrivedin antioch bearing official letters confirming tohadrian that trajan had formally adopted him. he was now caesar, the title ofthe presumptive emperor while awaiting endorsementsfrom the senate. trajan was probably already deadat that moment, for on august

11, official news of thedeceased reached the syrian capital and the legionsat once acclaimed their commander emporador. hadrian moved quicklyand decisively. within days, perhaps hours, ofthis notice, he issued orders that the new provinces eastof the euphrates macedonia, cappadocia, well, not all ofcappadocia, armenia, anyway, greater armenia, wereto be evacuated. he set off to meet the imperialladies with the trajan's ashes,

put them on a ship to rome, nodoubt with a private message for the all-powerful pretorianprefect, antonius, on whom he knew he could count. hadrian knew too, that hehad very dangerous enemies. high-ranking senators, andkey players in the aggressive policies of trajan, men wewould call hawks today. who would be outraged by thechanges he was planning, we could call hadrian a dove. they would stop atnothing to stop him.

one of them commanded the forcesputting down the jewish revolt, lucius quietus, a moreishprince, as well as a roman general; he had his ownguard of devoted tribesmen. quietus was quickly stripped ofhis command, and of his guard, and ordered back to italy. moving through asia minor, tosee for himself what had to be done to save the situation atdacia, trajan met with avidius nigrinus among the noblest ofromans and most trusted of hadrian's commanders.

the story told in a later sourcehas it that hadrian narrowly escaped death in an ambush thatnigrinus set for him during an animal hunt. whatever really happened,hadrian's enemies will talk, and say it was all a frame up. nigrinus was sent home to italywhere he too, where he and lucius quietus, and two otherhigh-ranking ex-consular figures were soon condemned for treasonby the senate and executed. it is clear that the senateacted only under extreme

pressure from the praetorianprefect antinous, the man with all the military muscle in rome. hadrian was still faraway taking decision measures in dacia. here too he abandoned some,though not all of trajan's conquests, made peace with themost dangerous scythian king, changing this enemy into aroman citizen and ally. when he finally reached rome onthe 9th of july, 118, almost a year after trajan's death, hesought to soothe the senators

outraged by the executions. antinous had overreachedhe said in a speech that amounts to an apology. he, antonius dismissed nothinglike this will happen again. were they mollified, thesefamously conservative of old romans by this young provincialupstart, hadrian was 42, whom many had dismissed for yearsas that little greekling, greculous. look at himhe wears a beard... perhaps they weren't, but forall his polite deference to the

senate, it was clearwhere the power lay. the point was soon made by anew coin that depicted the old emperor, now officially a god,clean shaven in the good old roman tradition, shaking handswith his adopted heir and successor, thebearded greekling. hadrian firmly deniedthat he intended to make important changes. unlike modern americans theancient romans hated the idea of change, but the beard was thefashion clue that he did indeed

have a new agenda forthe empire, albeit. one grounded in a veryold, complex, and ambiguous relationship, romans andgreeks, greeks and romans. let's take a closer look at thebackground of that relationship. cats and dogs, cowboys andindians, artists and engineers, liberals and conservatives,professors and business execs, do we dare suggest on thisday in the month of november, democrats and republicans. how strongly are we drawn tothese clearly etched antimonies?

in hadrian's days, greeks andromans was a cultural polarity whose common stereotypeseveryone instantly recognized. cato the elder a prominent romanpolitician, back in the days of the republic, with a reputationfor crusty mind speaking... the vehement cons pender ofconservative values of the forefathers, cato broadcast thishighly negative stereotype. concerning those greeks, marcusmy son, let me tell you what i learned by my own experience inathens, it's ok to glance at their famous culture, but don'tgo overboard and get hooked.

take my word for it; the greeksare the most iniquitous, most untrustworthy tricky bunch. the day we buy into all theirstuff is the day we decline to degenerates likes them. this will happen all the soonerif we let their doctors have a go at us. those doctors, its all aconspiracy to murder foreigners with their so-called medicine. they win our confidence, takeour money, and kill us to boot.

cato wrote in the days whenromans having defeated their dangerous carthaginian enemy,were in the punic wars were rapidly expanding into aworld empire and starting to rule over the greeks. when they captured the greek,rich greek city of syracuse, there on sicily in 202 bc, aroman soldier came upon archimedes, the great scientistsand engineer drawing some figures in the sandwith a stick. figuring that he must be up tosome tricky mumbo-jumbo, he

killed him on the spot. a few years later, however, afederation of greek city-states fighting for independencefrom their powerful northern neighbor macedon. remember alexander? alexander is history now,but macedon is still trying to rule greece. these greeks called on theromans for help, having their own bone to pick with macedon,which had aided their enemy

carthage, the romans were happyto oblige, and bingo, macedon is soon the first roman colonyin the eastern mediterranean, otherwise known as thehellenistic world. are the greeks grateful? those tricky bastards... just because the romans are nowdemanding tribute payments for their help, and italianmerchants are all over the place, muscling into thebusiness of the greeks, these treacherous bastards riotand even murder romans.

we'll teach them a lesson, so in143 bc, a roman army spends 3 days sacking corinth, the richescity in greece, with every soldier entitled to his share oftreasures, including the people who weren't killed. many shipped to italy as slaves,a couple of generations later, it is the turn of athens to facethe sharp point of the famous roman sword. by this time, the romanshad taken over all of the eastern mediterranean.

the hellenistic king mithridatesin asia minor was making a last ditch defense and the romangeneral sulla was on his way to deal with him, pausing beforethe ancient famous city of socrates and platoaccused of complicity. the athenians sent out theirbest orators to plead, hoping that sulla will spare the city;which had once stood up to mighty persia indefense of freedom. the roman general sneers. i am not here to take a historylesson; i am here to teach

treacherous rebels a lesson. rome rules. that's the roman hardline, butat the very same time that cato was brandishing the negativestereotype, another leading roman noble scipioaemilianus was promoting a very different view. scipio was not naive about powerhis grandfather was the one who had beaten hannibal andwon the first major roman overseas colonies.

including the one in spain wherehadrian's ancestors settled. scipio realized that it wouldtake a lot more than military power and pride in theold-fashioned bootstrap virtues of the ancestor to rule acomplex multinational world. he realized it was thegreeks who had developed the intellectual and culturalskills for the job. by no means, all the greeksin rome came there as slaves, besides the doctors that catomentions, there were teachers of all kinds flocking thereto sell their expertise.

elite pro-roman families wouldsell their sons to develop positive relationshipswith the new leaders. today we call this networking. scipio developed a friendshipwith one of the brightest of these, polybius who turned hisaccess into the highest roman circles into a book that hasremained the fundamental classic of political sciencefrom that day to this. polybius analyzed the romansystem of government both to understand how this italiancity-state had become so...had

come so far so fast,and to predict what would happened next. he correctly identified thestrengths of its systems of checks and balances and in theroman loyalty to the state in the face of attack. he predicted correctly in thelong run, that rome would go on to conquer and unite theentire mediterranean world. polybius did not foresee, it istrue, that the unbridled greed and the unscrupulousdetermination of a handful of

elite families, the roman 1% orhalf of 1%, to keep all the wealth and power in their hands,would lead to bloody civil war. these same elite familieshired greek teachers, greek architects, and artistswho consulted with greek doctors ignoring cato. astrologers imported greek winesand other luxury products like silk, spices, fine glassware,brought from the east by merchants, speaking greek, evenwhen they themselves were egyptian or syrian,and arab or whatever.

ever since alexander's conquestgreek had become so much the universal language of cultureand business, that the very first roman to try his handat writing roman history, wrote it in greek. let us quote here one of theleading scholars of greek and roman culture in the worldtoday, professor greg wolfe of st. andrews university inscotland, the editor of this book, which i highlyrecommend to you. there was no rome before greece.

objects of greek manufacturehave been found in the earliest levels of the city of rome, tobe explored archeologically. it could fairly be said that theworld into which the romans first appeared, through whichthey spread, and over which they finally achieved dominion,was always a greek world. yet the relationship between theromans and the greeks did change over time, until each identityhad been remodeled largely in relation to the other. the better to appreciatehadrian's key role in this

remodeling, we need to takea closer look at how the stereotypes played out in thetensions of the crucial moment of rome's political and culturalreinvention, the transition from the republic to the empire. in contrast to the brutal sulla,whose idea of restoring order when he got control of rome, wasto post a hit list of enemies, their statesmen march juliuscicero, was determined to build the basis of civil society bytranslating the highest greek ideals into latin.

though ready to use swift andruthless force to save the state when threatened by a conspiracy,his long-term goal was to draw on greek philosophy, notably theethics, to moralize roman and personal and political behavior. though he himself perished foroffending one of the warlords in the late round of the civil war,his ideas phrased in a lucid and elegant latin quicklyrecognized as the quintessence of classical took deep root. other authors of this time,were also challenging the old

intellectual monopoly of greek,by composing latin works of such high literary quality,especially in history and poetry, that this time hasever since been regarded as a golden age. like cicero, these writers wereboth keenly aware of their depth to greece, many of them had beenthere to study as young men and proud of their ability to crafta new literature in their own language to rival it. julius caesar was not only agreat general and statesman, he

wrote a military history of hisown wars of conquest that incorporated perspectives takenfrom greek ethnographers. the great poet of good livingin the countryside, horace, acknowledge rome's debt togreece with ironic grace in his famous phrase, "captive greececonquered her savage victor, and i thank lee patterson forproviding this text. we would say, the greeksconquered the hearts and minds, but surely horace implies thatlatin poets can now take things to the next level.

the greatest of thesepoets were virgil who modeled his epic poem. the [unclear dialogue] homer'sodyssey, going back to the same old story of the trojan warthat's the greek bards, in order to want in the purestlatin verse ever written that rome's high destiny. the trojan prince anises,escaping massacre by the greeks of the fall of troy, arriving initaly, here's a prophecy that from the family line he willfound one day a great leader

will come to bring tothe world an age of gold. this of course was caesaraugustus who had now won the civil wars, wascreating the roman empire. augustus was a patron of virgil;this painting imagines virgil reading from the ennead toaugustus and his family. not a roman painting,but never mind. augustus, here the poet readingto his patron, these lines which aptly sum up what i shall callthe balanced roman view of the relationship of greece to romeas bc's switches to ad.

here are the lines... others will cast moretenderly in bronze, their breathing figures... i can well believe and bringmore life-like portraits out of marble, argue more eloquently,use the pointer to trace the paths of heaven accurately, andaccurately foretell the rising stars ok the greeks their greatartists and scientists... roman remember your strength torule earth's peoples, for your arts are to be these to pacifyto impose the rule of law, to

spare the conquered andthe crush the proud. wonderful words, high ideals,augustus saw to embody this vision, in a policycalled pax romana. shielded from danger by rome'smighty legions, the civilized world would enjoy the fruits ofpeace, the golden age, predicted by the ennead,proclaimed by horace. only in reality a bit over acentury later, when hadrian assumed power, wasthis working out? as hadrian knew, there had beensome pretty close shaves since

augustus, rebellions,conspiracies, mutinies, senators accused of treason and executed,emperors paranoid crazy, despotic and/or depraved. look at nero; let's see if wecan find nero here, there he is. wasn't enough that he fiddledplaying the lyre actually, while rome burned, acting likea greek, he though himself an artist. he actually went to greece, forthe olympic games, first emperor ever to go there, qua emperor.

it wasn't even theolympic year, but so what? i'm here, so it's the year. i am so greek, i am a tip-topathlete, watch me compete, i can't be beat. he won all the first prizes. to sober romans, this was likecato's worst nightmare coming true; so degenerate. old fashioned roman virtuecorrupted by greek wiles. the senate is cowed and gutless.

the senators with gutsgot them spilled. the legions take thingsinto their own hands, but they don't all agree. nero kills himself and nowthe generals are fighting for the purple. four emperors in one year alone,ad 69 fortunately the winner; aspasia is competent, has theright values, and restores military discipline. down to earth, senseof humor too...

thinks up a special tax onpeeing in the public toilet, you pay it with this,a bronze penny. his son, an heir objects, dad,people won't like this tax, but aspasia thrusts thepenny under his nose. does it stink? thus, spacian and trajan,clean-shaven generals have a policy we might callback to roman basics. conquering and ruling especiallywith lots of crushing the crowd, that's what real romansdo, that's our mission.

trajan particularlyas we have seen, wholly embraced the vision. expand the borders, whack thedacians, and parthians, grow the empire, grow, grow, grow, buthey, whatever happened to the pax romana? now we are back inthe summer of ad 117. we can picture the hawks likelucius quietus with his personal guards of morris tribesman,sneering rome is about projecting power, peace is forbearded wimps, now we are in the

summer of 118, lucius and hischums have apparently played their cards, lost,paid the price. that price has outraged manyin the senate who think pretty much like them. hadrian has made it to rome,alive, the senate has done what has to be done, confirming himin the imperial power, but many people aren't happy aboutit, so what happens next? well, what happens next ishadrian changes the course of the roman ship ofstate, and pleases

his own personaltastes as well. now, hadrian reigned 20 years,118 to 138 ad, historians always emphasizes two aspectsof those years. his astonishing record oftravel, there's the clean-shaven guys, lets just go on here, andokay we see the whole empire, and his resolute promotion ofgreek cultural values and a talented greeks as well. in the time we have left, i willattempt to show you that these were both features of a bold andcreative political vision, and i

will shall introduce you brieflyto the person who aroused my interest in hadrian, not aprofessional historian, but a historical novelist. let's start with alittle family background. like his cousin trajan, hadrianwas born in ad 76 during the reign of aspacian in alittle town in southern spain, probably; maybe he wasactually born in rome. his father's hometown italicawas a colony for italian veterans of the punic wars.

his mother came from the mucholder city of cades, cadiz today, which goes back to evenpre-carthaginian times, much older than rome, itself. it would be a mistake to seehadrian as a rustic spaniard comes to rome to escape hisroots and make good like west texas politicians say lyndonjohnson, striving to make it in dc or new york city. given his father's mobile andupwardly mobile career, he may have only visited italica onlyonce or twice briefly in his

life, as a kid. his whole life, he was acosmopolitan world traveler. it's likely indeed, that in hisearly childhood, he spent time in one of the quintessentialcenters of greek culture. ephesus, because he father had atop job there and early influences as we know,can be very decisive. by the time he comes into focusfor us and the sources, he is a young roman who has put on thetoga of urilis, living with relatives in rome, his parentshave now died, studying and

preparing for the first stepsinto the official career, the courses are norm. it is important to stress thatfrom the beginning the path was military rather than civil. in the 1990's he served atmilitary tribune successively in three legions on the active anddangerous danubian frontier, and the rhine. those a staff officer in theorysecond in command, he was expected to learn the ropes fromthe experienced centurions, and

those battle hardened soldiers. he developed the ability to mixeasily with common soldiers, often sharing theirhardships and their rations. even hostile sources grant thathe was most skilled at weapons and most adept atmilitary science. war and security on thefrontiers experienced along with the grunts, and the non-consthis was the first area of expertise on his cv. dramatic regime changein rome gave him

unprecedented career boost. in ad 96 the emperor domitian,hated with good reason by the elites, was murderedand replaced by the aging senator nerva. would the armies acceptor as in 69, rebel? soon it was announced that nervahad adopted as his heir, the popular general trajan, hadriancousin, and now his commander in germany as well. the armies were happy now,especially as trajan paid them a

big bonus, and begun preparinghis aggressive war again ascea. while this was happening,hadrian was given an important administrative post in rome,kestor, to build the civilian side of his cv. what's more, he married in 100,the emperors nerva had now died, and trasian was now her nieceor great-niece, sabina. there she is on that coin... there is no doubt that theasians of this match were the bride's mother,matidia and trajan's

very influential wife plotena. these ladies were to play acrucial role, as we've seen already in engineeringhadrian's succession. the marriage however,proved to be loveless. we will see that the maturehadrian found love elsewhere. hadrian was given command ofa legion in the dacian war, winning military distinction. he became governor of thenew province carved from the conquered territory, which gavehim the opportunity to hand out

jobs and build uphis personal network. his nomination as juniorcounselor of rome, following in 108 was a mark of distinction,but it was mostly an honor not real work. lavish dinner parties andnasty gossip bored him. biographer anthony birley that'shis book over there suggests that when his term of office wasup, the thirty-something seized the moment to go visit greece. or perhaps invited by another ofthe junioral counsels, one of

the richest men in thehellenistic world, who had a big house in athens. his nickname was kingphilopappas because his ancestors had been kingsin greek asia before the romans took over. what is certain is that he andhadrian developed a long-term friendship, and that by 112 theyoung roman had developed a life-long love for athensand the cultural ideals that it embodied.

let's try to imagine him now,mounting the acropolis, to visit the parthenon, as yet undamaged. only about 500 years old then... we know that he made many goodfriends and elite athenian society, for he was offeredand he accepted athenian citizenship, and in 112 ad wasappointed akon, city magistrate, a title harking back to theglorious days of the past. anthony birley thinks that atthis time, hadrian went to visit epitatus, one of the greatest ofthe stoic philosophers who lived

in a nearby city. the time was right at last forthe meeting of the minds between the roman man of action andthe greek intellectuals. from this time on, hiscontacts with them would only develop and deepen. perhaps, he had already acquiredhis greek private secretary, fleganon, who will serve him allhis live, and pass on stories after his death. hadrian the philhellene, as hisreputation is now set.

while we seen how swiftly thenew ruler moved to get the roman troops out of mesopotamia,why did i almost say iraq? soon he was dealing with themess trajan's glory hunting had left behind in dacia. why am i tempted tosay afghanistan? through a shrewd combination ofmilitary strength and diplomacy, these early episodes establishthe pattern of his reign, suggests that he already had theoutlines of an overall vision, for the whole ofthe roman world.

let me suggest a short handslogan for this policy. enough growth, let'smake it safer and better. it's hard for us to understandtoday how much political courage and resolve it took in ad 120 tochange the emphasis from war, glorious war, to pax romana. how well the young emperorunderstood the dangers is shown by his decisive early measureshis putting to death the four officials and his emphasizingcontinuity with trajan, now a god.

there's a fine balance of threatand promise in the message for many senators who shared thehostility of the dead four towards the greekling. don't cross the line andwe'll get along fine. then he set off on a tour ofthe empire traveling more extensively and systematicallythan any emperor before or after him. anthony birley points out thathe spent a good half of his 21-year reign outside of italy;his presence is attested in

almost all of the 30 oddprovinces of the empire. by contrast, his successor neveronce left italy, in a reign of the same length, so what was hedoing on all of these travels? his bold new policy was toconsolidate the long frontiers of the empire, to make it saferand we'll illustrate this with just one example. the ad went all the way up tothe northern part of england, the northern parts of the islecalled britannia had never settled down in the 70 yearssince the romans had come.

there were often rebellions,often provoked by the brutal and greedy actions of local romanofficials, and raids south by the tough tattooedwarriors called pictky. hadrian went himself to thisremote region, made this decision that a realisticsolution would be a stout wall across the narrowest part fromthe time to the soul way, and work began at once. excavations at house steads, oneof the forts have turned up actual documents from thisperiod giving precise details on

such matters as food rations,and discipline, a theme also stressed on hadrian's coinage. while we won't follow him in therest of this travels because we need to get him back to theeast and finish things up. hadrian was in no sensean anti-military figure uncomfortable with orsuspicious of military men. indeed, as we've seen the entiresuccess of his vision of an empire refocused from habitualregression to an emphasis on pax romana depended on his strengthsas a military commander

profoundly in touchwith his soldiers. especially the career men, thegrunts and the hard-bitten centurions, who were theguarantee of discipline. in this he was the worthsuccessor of the popular general emperor's trajan vespasian whohad saved what was worth saving. in hadrian's vision of empire,it was worth saving because it preserved and enhanced what wecall today civil society. at the heart of that is the richcultural heritage crafted over the centuries by the greeks.

we'll conclude today with aglimpse of the emperor in relation to athensto ancient egypt. the ancient, the seedbeds ofculture, and finally in rome, for most of the 120's hadrianwas in the hellenistic east. he visited the great historicalplaces, sparta, corinth, now rebuilt after it'slong ago punishment, and flourishing again. he added here in aqua duct,there a bath, olympia, where he did not order the games to beheld out of sequence or insist

on getting the first prizes, buthis favorite place was athens. he had been honoredas its archon, even before he was emperor. early in his reign, he andplatina, had cooperated to revive and endow a famousschool of philosophy. on this visit he had himselfinitiated into the ancient mysteries of the lucius,sacred to all greeks. under the particular care of theathenians, throughout his reign, hadrian spent lavishly to reviveand enhance the traditions

created centuries beforesocrates, plato, aristotle, the stoic and epicureanphilosophers. pericles, the ancient leader hadproclaimed athens the school of hellos, hadrian was determinedto make hellos the school and athens at it's center, theschool of the whole greco-roman world, which we can nowtalk about in those terms. his flagship project was tocomplete a colossal temple, to olympian zeus, that had beenstarted 700 years earlier by the athenian leader pisistratus.

what remains today is stillimpressive and thanks to our own professor, patterson, wehave a photo, which i may have time to show you. this was to serve as the centerof the pan helenian a new cultural association thathadrian godfathered to bring together underathens leadership. all the greeks scatteredthroughout the empire. clearly it was his intentionsthat the greeks with all the talent for art and science couldbecome full partners with what

is now fair to call thegreco-roman world civilization. hadrian also implemented thisresolve by encouraging elite greeks to embrace empiricalcareers and promoting them to high positions that could leadall the way to membership in the senate itself. one example must suffice... hadrian became friends witharian, from a distinguished greek family in nicomedia, withwhom he shared interests, both intellectual literature andphilosophy, and sporting; both

men loved to hunt. that's the philosopher epictetuswho is the master of arian, and hadrian also admired. these are pictures ofgreek philosophers, mosaics from the time. arian served in the romanmilitary under trajan and hadrian promoted himpro-consul in spain. general consul in rome, andgovernor of the key and very dangerous provinceof cappadocia.

both men were writers as well. hadrian wrote an autobiography,he unfortunately lost. we'll see a poem that hasn't atthe end, but several of arian's writings survived. he wrote a life of alexander thegreat, which is one of our principle sources. hadrian actively promoted theintegration of highly educated greek aristocrats into thegoverning elite of the empire to the dismay of crusty romantraditionalists in the senate.

from his day on, therewould be more and more of these imperial greeks. the empire as a whole benefitedgreatly from the diversity and high intellectual levelof this expanded elite. no wonder that the greathistorian edward gibbon credits hadrian as one of the greatestemperors of the golden age. now in his private lifetoo, hadrian embraced the greek sexual tradition. or one of them and that'swhen we come finally

here to his boyfriend. in this tradition, mature menaristos enjoy a special relationship with abeautiful youth, eromenos. antinos was a country lad frombithynia, in his mid-teens when he caught the emperor's eye. it's a fair guess that hetraveled with the empirical entourage over the next years. no doubt as the novelistmarguerite yoursen imagines becoming initiated intothe aleutian mysteries

along side his lover. his fame, however, comes fromthe mysterious and dramatic circumstances of his death. in ad 130, during an empiricaltour of egypt, the 20-year-old lad drowned in the nile. accident? suicide?self-sacrifice connected with magical rites? egypt is famous for that murder? from that day to this, thesubject has been much discussed

and we shall neverknow for sure. what we do know is thathadrian's grief was expressed on an epic and grandiose scale. the city a new city was to befounded on the spot where the boy died, named antonopoulos,and he was to be worshipped there as a god and elsewhere. thus, the many fine sculpturesthat we have today of this adolescent good looksderived from this moment. now this sculptural traditionshall be our cue to follow

hadrian at last home to rome,where weary of travel, he pretty much settled down inhis last years. there's a whole book devoted tohis building in rome, it's right here if you want to lookat it, but i'm not going to talk about it. let's just talk, i shouldmention the pantheon; originally built at the time ofaugustus and rebuilt with this extraordinary dome, whichi think dearly says is the greatest freestanding domein the world, from then

until the 20th century. which has inspired manyarchitects and artists, ever since. pantheon is to all the gods, notjust one god; it's a symbol of hadrian's cosmopolitan devotion. he built antipole 20 miles fromrome, when the sabine hill, a complex more than a squarekilometer with over 30 buildings, now a world heritagesite where he himself seem to have designed his own buildings.

you see here examples of thefamous maritime temple where he had created a water space andbuilt a simple house with an elegant dining room, andlibrary, symbolizing his tastes, from an epicurean tasteenjoying friendship, reading, and so forth. the konnopis pool, which yousee here, was inspired by the syrapian most famous templecomplex of egypt, blending greek with native traditions. john julius norwich thearchitecture historian calls

this a delightfulblend of sculpture, architecture, and waterworks. not only did the much-traveledemperor incorporate architectural forms anddecoration, he filled his villa with the finestworks of greek art. some of them originals fromclassical times, some copies made by artists ofhis own day... this proved to be an invaluableinvestment that bore fruit many centuries after hadrian's death.

one day in 1924, a young frenchwoman about the age of antoninas when he died, discovered thesegardens and fell in love with the mind of the man who hadconceived it and the age, which gave scope to develop it. "an age" she later wrote, "whenmen could think and express themselves in full freedom." thus began a literary projectthat matured over 30 years. she studied the sources, steepedherself in classical culture, until she felt she could speakwith her protagonist own voice,

to reimagine hislost autobiography. the memoirs of hadrian,published in 1954, proved that historical fiction then regardedby most critics as a dubious and minor genre, could be rise tothe ranks of serious literature. marguerite yourcenar'sachievement was fully recognized when in 1980 she became thefirst woman ever to be elected to the french academy. is it an irony that by this timeshe had become an american, living on an islandoff the coast of maine?

hadrian the great cosmopolitanwould have surely relished the irony, if irony it is. let us now, ourselves,attempt a futuristic act of literary imagination. an imitation of virgil, sendinghis hero aneiaus into the underworld to query the shadesof the departed about the times to come... we come upon theshade of hadrian. behold our multicultural nation.

we say unto him, our america,like your greco rome, once a far-flung empire wieldingfearful power and a stirring ideal of human freedom andcreativity, what destiny do you see for us? what consul for thesetimes, more trying perhaps even than your own? will tomorrow's election usherin another reign of gold? unlike marguerite yourcenar, ishall not attempt to channel the long departed[unclear dialogue] ruler.

i will leave you withhis last words to him. not long before he died, hadrianwrote a short poem, 19 words, address to his own soul,[unclear dialogue] little soul, little wanderer, little charmer,body's guest and companion, to what places willyou set out now? to darkling, cold and gloomyplaces, where you won't make your usual jokes... [applause] dr. wahby:very good... we have 2 minutes to noontime,and a couple of questions

if you like, or comments. any comments or questions? i have one quick onfor you if i may. can we be comfortable in saying,as you tried to tell us, that hadrian is credited for keepingthe greek tradition alive? >> dr. young: i would put iteven more strongly than that. hadrian refocusesthe greek tradition. that's one of the reasons somuch good greek stuff has come down to us today.

now some of my colleagues heremight think that that's putting it too strongly. but yes, definitely... >> dr. wahby: when you saygreek-roman, and we say it judo-christian, is thereany [unclear dialogue] in there, or no? two things two streams comingtogether and making one thing? >> dr. young: well, there'salways a complex thing and it's never a simple thing.

it's always a lot ofoverlap and ambiguity. for example, in judeo-christian,some people have remarked that jesus was a jew. later, after hadrian the greeksbecame particularly enthusiastic about christianity, and thatchanged the nature of hellenism, but that is anothercompletely different topic. yes, i think we have tohave a sense of nuance, when we use these terms. it would also be wrong to saythat hadrian was i called him a

dove at one point,as opposed to a hawk. well, that's an analogy. it's debatable, but that's whyi emphasize how strong his military credentials were. he was a strong military man,who also strongly believed in peace and civilization. >> dr. wahby: his contemporarieswould look at him as a backward looking guy who looked to thedefeat of culture we are romans now, we conquered them,literally, is he backwards, is

he traitor to the newregime, or well, order? >> dr. young: whatwould you say lee? he's is theclassical historian here. >> dr. lee patterson: yes, very,very briefly, i would say that considering his predecessor,trajan was named by the senate optimist [unclear dialogue] thebest emperor, basically because of his conquests, andthen hadrian comes along. i don't know if i would say thathe was a dove, but i would say that he had a very acutestrategic sense, and so he

understood that mesopotamia, andarmenia were over extending the roman empire, and sothat's what informed his strategic decisions. arguably dacia too, but heretained dacia because they had a lot of gold up there. that did not sit well with a lotof romans, who wanted to keep going out further and furtherand deal with those parthenians who had been a thorn in our sidefor a hundred and fifty years. in general, yeah, it did sort ofgo against the grain to withdraw

and this was not somethingthat was done, had not been done very much. it just, once or twice before,so not much of precedence for it, but it madevery strategic sense. in retrospect, that wasrecognized, but at the time, it was problematic for many locals. >> dr. young: when he died, somepeople in the senate tried to get his memory condemned. they never forgave him for beingthe kind of guy that he was.

the only reason it didn't happenwas because his successor was powerful enough to makehim a god instead. >> dr. wahby: so that was apolitical thing. politics? >> dr. young:yes, very political. trajan was a very popularemperor, with everybody, hadrian was unpopular with a lot ofpeople, although not with everybody, but a lot of what wewould call establishment people. he only survived because he wastough and there was a conspiracy against him when he was just ayear or two before he died, and

he had to put to deathhis own brother-in-law. well he had to he did anyway... >> dr. wahby: ok, very well. one quick question... latin and greek languages. how did they survive together? well, they precisely survivedbecause hadrian...not only because of hadrian, as i triedto show the tradition of appropriating greek cultureto rome is something

that goes way back. hadrian certainly encouragedthis, so that in his time, you weren't considered educatedunless you fully possessed the greek and the latin heritage andwhen that was lost, we come to the middle ages. it's not longer the ancientworld, and that's another story. >> dr. wahby: another story,another day, another session. thank you very much for coming,and we have a certificate of appreciation for ourdistinguished speaker.

he just came from europe? >> dr. young: yes, i was onmy travels, thank you alan. >> dr. wahby:thank you very much. >> dr. young: always apleasure.

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