A Revision of Hadrian's Portraiture
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20080411 |
|---|---|
| Authors | C VOUT (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Pages | 442-457 |
| Publication date | 2003-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | The Representation and Perception of Roman Imperial Power (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/9789004401631_034 |
| OpenAlex | W4236356767 |
| ISBN | 9789004401631 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 2 |
In the second century, Roman men did not wear beards; in second-century Greece, they did. Beards were worn by the Greek poets, philosophers, and statesmen of the past. Hadrian wore a beard in life and in his portraits because he wanted to be 'the Greekling' ."\ We all know what a Roman emperor looks like or rather we are familiar with imperial imagery. So were the ancients, until Hadrian rewrote the formula. The orthodoxy is that as the first bearded emperor and avid supporter of Greek culture, Hadrian changed the public face of Roman rule. Where does this conception come from? In part, it comes from the ancient literature. Although fairly scanty and most of it posthumous (with the third or fourth-century Augustan History and third-century Cassius Dio providing the fullest picture), this literature bears witness to a man who hunts, writes poetry, takes a young Greek lover, Antinous, and is initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries; in other words, in private, who lives like a Greek. It also claims that he was curious about other cultures, especially Egyptian (into which Antinous plugs perhaps as well as into classical), and that his favourite author was the Roman epic poet, Ennius. 2 But it is the Greek nature of the tradition that has captured the imagination. Or it is the novelty that a good emperor could be "so imbued in Greek studies that some called him 'Graeculus",.3 Sources of the same period see Nero and Domitian's Hellenic leanings as indicative of their tyranny. Hadrian somehow escapes similar venom to embody the success (even acme) of the Roman Empire. He is not a dilettante but an intellectual who harnesses the united power of Rome and Greece. 4 This turnaround in the meaning of philhellenism should not surprise us. In some ways, trying to trace the point at which Roman attitudes towards
Art · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Studies and Philology · Historical Studies on Spain · History
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |