Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 1463. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $280. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

HADRIAN. 117-138 AD. AR Denarius (3.25 gm). Struck circa 134-138 AD. Laureate head right / RESTITV-TORI GALLIAE, Hadrian standing right, holding roll and raising kneeling Gallia. RIC II 324; BMCRE 878; RSC 1247. Lightly toned, good VF. ($200)

HADRIAN'S TRAVELS

Between the years 119 and 136 AD, the emperor Hadrian travelled 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 AD when Hadrian first visited the provinces of GAUL (lots 1463-4) and GERMANIA INFERIOR and SUPERIOR, territories which lay along the Rhine. 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 AD, Hadrian spent time in SPAIN (HISPANIA) (lot 1465). The families of Trajan and Hadrian, who were kinsmen, were Italian emigrants from Spain, and Hadrian's mother had been born in the town of Gades (mod. Cadíz). Though Spain was not technically a border province, its was nevertheless strategically important because it was one of Rome's chief sources of silver. In 123 AD, Hadrian travelled to the East, landing at the city of Antioch and from there touring CAPPADOCIA, PONTUS, GALATIA, BITHYNIA (lot 1466), and ASIA, where he visited Ephesus. The remainder of this first tour was spent in ACHAEA (lots 1467-8), where Hadrian visited Athens and was inducted into the Eleusinian mysteries, before returning to Rome in 126 AD.

Hadrian's second tour began in 128 AD, when he set out on a short tour of the provinces of AFRICA (lot 1469) and MAURETANIA (lot 1470). Returning for a brief stay in Rome, Hadrian then went again to the East, returning to ACHAEA and ASIA; from there he crossed through LYDIA, CARIA, PHRYGIA, LYCIA, PAMHYLIA, PISIDIA, LYCAONIA, and COMMAGENE. It was during this tour that Hadrian also visited SYRIA, PALESTINA, and EGYPT (AEGYPTUS) (lot 1471) in 130-131 AD. It was while Hadrian was on tour in Egypt that his favorite, Antinoüs, "mysteriously" drowned in the Nile. So great was the emperor's grief that he commanded a series of religious rituals to be performed in the young man's honor, and, on the site where the body was recovered, Hadrian ordered the construction of a city called Antinopolis in honor of the young man. Similarly, Hadrian's attempt to "refound" Jerusalem as the city of Aelia Capitolina and build a temple to Jupiter on the the Temple Mount sparked the revolt of Simon bar-Kochba in 132 AD. Hadrian remained in the region until 135 AD by which time the revolt had largely been suppressed. In 136 AD Hadrian returned to ITALY (ITALIA) for the last time. Increasing ill-health necessitated Hadrian's remaining close to the capital, as well as adopting Aelius and, later, Antoninus Pius as heirs to the throne.