I Have Always Loved this Poem by Hadrian

               

The book from which I take this reminds us, "The emperor Hadrian lived from AD 76 to 138. Of his writings only a few short poems and fragments survive."

Wiki has it: "Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus (January 24, 76 – July 10, 138), known as Hadrian in English, was emperor of Rome from 117 to 138 AD, as well as a Stoic and Epicurean philosopher. A member of the gens Aelia, Hadrian was the third of the "Five Good Emperors". His reign had a faltering beginning, a glorious middle, and a tragic conclusion."

Hadrian's enduring love for Antinous has been a theme taken up by many poets, especially by gay poets. The endless array of statues Hadrian had erected in so many cities throughout his empire to the memory of this young man (who drowned in the Nile according to most sources) have reappeared in numerous poems.

Here is Wiki...

"While visiting Greece in 125, he attempted to create a kind of provincial parliament to bind all the semi-autonomous former city states across all Greece and Ionia (in Asia Minor). This parliament, known as the Panhellenion, failed despite spirited efforts to instill cooperation among the Hellenes. Hadrian was especially famous for his romance with a Greek youth, Antinous. While touring Egypt, Antinous mysteriously drowned in the Nile in 130. Deeply saddened, Hadrian founded the Egyptian city of Antinopolis. Hadrian drew the whole Empire into his mourning, making Antinous the last new god of antiquity.

Hadrian died at his villa in Baiae. He was buried in a mausoleum on the western bank of the Tiber, in Rome, a building later transformed into a papal fortress, Castel Sant'Angelo. The dimensions of his mausoleum, in its original form, were deliberately designed to be slightly larger than the earlier Mausoleum of Augustus.

A strange fragment from the Roman History of Cassius Dio of uncertain context:

"After Hadrian's death there was erected to him a huge equestrian statue representing him with a four-horse chariot. It was so large that the bulkiest man could walk through the eye of each horse, yet because of the extreme height of the foundation persons passing along on the ground below believe that the horses themselves as well as Hadrian are very small."'

I love the phrase "pederastic beloved." Gee, do you think the Wiki author was a little put off by Hadrian's taste in bed buddies? Do you sense a Wiki edit from something probably even un-nicer?"

Here are some clips from When Hadrian Met Antinoos (I prefer that older spelling with the diaeresis):

"When Hadrian arrived on the Euphrates, he characteristically solved the problem through a negotiated settlement with the Parthian king (probably Chosroes). He then proceeded to check the Roman defenses before setting off West along the coast of the Black Sea. He probably spent the winter in Nicomedia, the main city of Bithynia. As Nicomedia had been hit by an earthquake only shortly prior to his stay, Hadrian was generous in providing funds for rebuilding. Thanks to his generosity he was acclaimed as the chief restorer of the province as a whole. It is more than possible that Hadrian visited Claudiopolis and there espied the beautiful Antinous, a young boy who was destined to become the emperor's eromenos — his pederastic beloved. Sources say nothing about when Hadrian met Antinous; however, there are depictions of Antinous that shows him as a young man of 20 or so. As this was shortly before Antinous's drowning in 130 Antinous would more likely have been a youth of 13 or 14. It is possible that Antinous may have been sent to Rome to be trained as page to serve the emperor and only gradually did he rise to the status of imperial favorite.

After meeting Antinous, Hadrian traveled through Anatolia. The route he took is uncertain. Various incidents are described such as his founding of a city within Mysia, Hadrianutherae, after a successful boar hunt. (The building of the city was probably little more than a mere whim — lowly populated wooded areas such as the location of the new city were already ripe for development). Some historians dispute whether Hadrian did in fact commission the city's construction at all. At about this time, plans to build a temple in Asia minor were written up. The new temple would be dedicated to Trajan and Hadrian and built with dazzling white marble."


Wiki on the literary Hadrian:

"Hadrian wrote poetry in both Latin and Greek; one of the few surviving examples is a Latin poem he reportedly composed on his deathbed (see below). He also wrote an autobiography – not, apparently, a work of great length or revelation, but designed to scotch various rumours or explain his various actions. The work is lost but was apparently used by the writer — whether Marius Maximus or someone else – on whom the Historia Augusta principally relied for its vita of Hadrian: at least, a number of statements in the vita have been identified (by Ronald Syme and others) as probably ultimately stemming from the autobiography."

(And of interest to the pogonophiles among you...)

"Another of Hadrian's contributions to the arts was the beard. The portraits of emperors up to this point were all clean shaven, idealized images of Greek athletes. Hadrian wore a beard as evidenced by all his portraits. Subsequent emperors would be portrayed with beards for more than a century and a half."

Personal tastes and character...

"Hadrian was a humanist and deeply Hellenophile in all his tastes. He favoured the doctrines of the philosophers Epictetus, Heliodorus and Favorinus and was generally considered an Epicurean, as were some of his friends such as Caius Bruttius Praesens. At home he attended to social needs. Hadrian mitigated but did not abolish slavery, had the legal code humanized and forbade torture. He built libraries, aqueducts, baths and theaters. Hadrian is considered by many historians to have been wise and just: Schiller called him "the Empire's first servant", and Edward Gibbon admired his "vast and active genius", as well as his "equity and moderation"."

Here is a small but extremely memorable work by Hadrian, often quoted. It's rather simple Latin, hence often memorized. You may recall Oppen using the first line of this poem as an epigraph for one of his poems.

It has beautiful rhythms, almost like a lullaby to sing oneself to one's final sleep. A noble humor here...typically Roman...

   Hadrian's farewell to his soul

   Animula vagula blandula,
   hospes comesque corporis,
   quae nunc abibis in loca,
   pallidula, rigida, nudula,
   nec, ut soles, dabis iocos?


Here's the textbook author's literal translation:

"Poor wandering sweet soul,
guest and companion of the body,
to what places will you now depart,
pale, stiff, naked,
and not jest (give jokes) as you are accustomed [to do]?"

I attempted to smoothe the literal translation. How about...

Oh my sweet confused soul,
body's strange visitor & friend,
where will you wander now,
ashen, frozen, bare,
& all yesterday's jokes forgotten?

or perhaps, going even further...trying to capture a bit of the Underworld...turning it creepier...

Errant little harmless thing
lived inside me, a friend,
homeless now...
frozen, maggot-white, naked,
forever gone where it
will jabber no jokes in the dark

Any poets want to attempt a translation or two of the thing? If I like the result(s) you get (or even half like them) I'll put them in a future post.