#and with trajan and hadrian and the female family that connects them

[aradeia]

Annetta Alexandridis, “The Other Side of the Coin: The Women of the Flavian Imperial Family” in Tradition und Erneuerung: Mediale Strategien in der Zeit der Flavier, p. 223.

Why Flavian women suddenly appeared so prominently in Flavian iconography can be explained by looking at their family tree. Titus and Domitian were increasingly pressed for heirs. Titus had only a daughter Julia (and so potential grandsons) as well as his brother Domitian (who eventually succeeded him). Domitian had only his niece Julia, his wife Domitia, and the hope that either one of them could produce a son. In other words, he had no heirs. 

Hence the increasing need to prop up these two women: the dynasty’s heirs would come from them. Showcasing Julia and Domitia on coinage announced that reality to the empire (and especially to the elite). Their sons would only have the right to rule because of their mothers, because of whom their mothers connected them to. Julia and Domitia, then, were of utmost importance.

Vespasian on the other hand had two adult sons-- two suitable heirs. That’s a real luxury, by Roman imperial standards. Also, Vespasian did not inherit the empire from a family member, and his wife had died. Because his wife was an average noblewoman who had died before the family had seized power, she could not strengthen their family’s legitimacy, and nor did she provide that justifying link to rule for either her husband or their sons. Hence why she is not nearly as prominent in Flavian iconography as her granddaughter and daughter-in-law.

The more a hereditary monarchy needs heirs, the more prominent the women become (at least in propaganda). 

[lnd-hq]

HADRIAN & ANTINOUS

Years active: 123 AD--130 AD

               HADRIAN...

     Hadrian was Roman emperor from 117 to 138 CE and he is known as the third of the Five Good Emperors [Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius] who ruled justly. Born Publius Aelius Hadrianus, probably in Hispania, Hadrian is best known for his substantial building projects throughout the Roman Empire and, especially, Hadrian’s Wall in northern Britain.

              ANTINOUS...

      Not much was known of the young Antinous before he attracted the attention of the ruler of the Roman world at its zenith. He was born in the Roman province of Bithynia, which would include the Asian side of Istanbul, in modern Turkey. He was very likely not from a wealthy family--in fact, he was even said to have been a slave. However, because of his bond with Hadrian, by the end of his short life, Antinous was a household name all over the Roman Empire.

             LOVE NEVER DIES...

     After being made emperor 117 AD, Hadrian inherited a Roman Empire which had thrived on a policy of endless expansion and conquest. Although his politically arranged marriage to Vibia Sabina, the great-niece of the childless former emperor Trajan, would have played a role in laying the groundwork for his own succession, Hadrian also proved to be an able and popular administrator to the Empire. He spent 12 out of the 21 years of his reign traveling all over the empire to visit the provinces, oversee the administration and check his armies’ discipline. He was said to have been so devoted to the army that he would sleep and eat among the common soldiers. Therefore, although his regime is marked by relative peace, Hadrian is commonly depicted in military attire.

      In 123 AD, Hadrian’s travels took him to Bithynia, where he encountered Antinous for the first time. The handsome, exotic boy quickly became his favorite and was soon admitted into the Imperial court.

     Antinous was the one person who seemed to have connected most profoundly with Hadrian throughout his life. Hadrian's marriage to Sabina was unhappy, and there is no reliable evidence that he ever expressed a sexual attraction for women, in contrast to much reliable early evidence that he was sexually attracted to men. Although it was not uncommon for his predecessors to have taken gay lovers alongside a female spouse, Hadrian was unique in making his love "official" in a way that no other emperor had before him.

     Hadrian believed Antinous to be intelligent and wise, which might explain part of the attraction. Another factor was a shared love of hunting; Antinous was an excellent hunter, which was Hadrian's favorite past time. They were known to have spent much of their free time hunting wild animals, including a man-eating lion in the Libyan desert [an event in which Antinous saved Hadrian’s life].

     Hadrian is the only emperor to have traveled throughout the whole of Roman Empire, having visited every province from Brittania to Israel, and from the Danube to North Africa, several times. He enjoyed personally overseeing the administration of his government, and he was deeply interested in improving the lives of his subjects by tangible means. Hadrian was in love with the Greek ideal of civilization, and was devoted to carrying his vision of a perfect world to every corner of the Empire. So it was that in the late summer of the year 128, the Imperial Court embarked on a grand tour of the East. The Empress Sabina and her attendants were members of the entourage, but on this particular voyage, Antinous was the most favored of Hadrian's companions. Their relationship was openly and gracefully displayed before the eyes of the world.

     In late September or early October 130, Hadrian and his entourage, among them Antinous, assembled at Heliopolis to set sail upstream as part of a flotilla along the River Nile. On their journey up the Nile, they stopped at Hermopolis Magna, the primary shrine to the god Thoth. It was shortly after this, in October 130, that Antinous fell into the river and drowned. Hadrian publicly announced his death, with gossip soon spreading throughout the Empire that Antinous had been intentionally killed. The nature of Antinous's death remains a mystery to this day, and it is possible that Hadrian himself never knew.

     We do know that Hadrian’s reaction to the death of Antinous was nothing short of devastating. Hadrian founded the Holy City of Antinopolis on the bank of the river where Antinous had drowned, tracing out the major streets with his own rod in the sand. He then proceeded to do the unthinkable. As the High Priest of the Roman Religion, he declared that Antinous was a God, that he had conquered death, and risen up to dwell among the never-ending stars. Proclamations were sent out to ever corner of the world, inaugurating the religion of the new God Antinous.

     Along with commissioning thousands of statues and busts of his departed lover, Hadrian’s final dedication was naming a star after him, between the Eagle and the Zodiac.

HADRIAN is OPEN !  ANTINOUS is OPEN !