Hadrian’s Travels

298, Lot: 208. Estimate $100. Sold for $280. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Hadrian. AD 117-138. Æ As (26mm, 13.05 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 134-138. Laureate and draped bust right / AEGYPTOS, Egypt reclining left, holding sistrum and resting elbow on basket of grain; at feet, ibis standing right on column . RIC II 839. VF, brown patina with some areas of red and green.

Ex Robert O. Ebert Collection.

Between the years 119 and 136, the emperor Hadrian traveled throughout the Roman Empire, visiting various provinces to take stock of his inheritance and calm the disquiet which had arisen in the later years of Trajan's reign. His travels can be divided into two major episodes. The first tour was designed to shore-up Rome's northern borders and began sometime around 119 when Hadrian first visited the provinces of Gaul and Germania Inferior and Superior. The emperor then crossed the Channel to Britannia where, during his stay, construction began on a seventy-three-mile long wall across the north of the province, known to this day as Hadrian's Wall. In 122-123, Hadrian spent time in Hispania before travelling east to Asia Minor. The remainder of this first tour was spent in the Balkans and Greece, touring such areas as Dacia and Achaea, before returning to Rome, via Sicily, in 126. Hadrian's second tour began in 128, when he set out on a short tour of the provinces of Africa and Mauretania. Returning for a brief stay in Rome, in 130 Hadrian then went again to Asia Minor, and continued into Syria, Judaea, Palestine, and, finally, Egypt. The Bar-Kochba revolt in Judaea forced Hadrian to remain in that region until 135. In 136 Hadrian returned to Italia, ending his long travels.