DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18096#0155
Africa under Hadrian
visited, but do not give the dates. Perhaps no historian of
modern times has more fully realised the versatile character of
this gifted Emperor, or has portrayed with more faithful colours
the Hadrian we are familiar with in bronze and marble, than
Merivale. As pictured by him, Hadrian stands before us ' in
face and figure eminently handsome. He reminds us more than
any Roman before him of what we proudly style the thorough
English gentleman, with shapely limbs and well-set head.
Refined, intelligent, an administrator rather than a statesman,
a man of taste rather than a philosopher.'1 For analytical
studies of Hadrian's career, written from two different points
of view, the more extensive work of Gregorovius2 is full of
interest, and the scholarly pages of Le Comte de Champagny3
portray in vivid colouring the many distinct phases of a re-
markable character. We learn from Dion,4 who lived in the
early part of the third century, that Hadrian ' visited more
cities than any other ruler, and to all he was beneficent. He
gave them harbours and aqueducts, corn and gold, buildings
and honours of many kinds.'5 It is not quite clear whether
Hadrian made two separate journeys into the interior of Africa,
but that he traversed the country A.D. 125 is quite certain, the
first visit having been apparently to the coast towns three years
previously.6 He appears to have moved from town to town,
grasping the most complicated matters of civil and military
administration, paying a special regard to the habits and re-
quirements of the native races, and adding to the number of
colonics and municipia, in accordance with the needs of localities.7
His artistic perception and cultured taste favoured the em-
1 Merivale, A History of the Romans under the Empire, vii. 493.
2 Ferd. Gregorovius, The Emperor Hadrian, translated by Mary Robinson
(London, 1898).
3 Le Comte de Champagny, Les Antonins, ii. 4 et seq.
4 Dion Cassius, lxix. 5.
* Spartianus, c. 13. In Africam transiit ac multum beneficiorum p7-ovinciis
Africanis attribuit.
f> Orelli, Insc7-ipt. Lat. Coll. 3564.
7 Conspicuous among the towns raised to a higher state was old Utica, hence-
forth designated Colonia Julia y£lia Hadriana Augusta Utika. According to
Spartianus, c. 20, Thense and Zama were also raised to the dignity of colonia, and
Carthage was renamed Hadrianopolis. There are many other towns mentioned as
having been favoured by Hadrian, but many of the inscriptions are scarcely legible,
and the dates uncertain.
visited, but do not give the dates. Perhaps no historian of
modern times has more fully realised the versatile character of
this gifted Emperor, or has portrayed with more faithful colours
the Hadrian we are familiar with in bronze and marble, than
Merivale. As pictured by him, Hadrian stands before us ' in
face and figure eminently handsome. He reminds us more than
any Roman before him of what we proudly style the thorough
English gentleman, with shapely limbs and well-set head.
Refined, intelligent, an administrator rather than a statesman,
a man of taste rather than a philosopher.'1 For analytical
studies of Hadrian's career, written from two different points
of view, the more extensive work of Gregorovius2 is full of
interest, and the scholarly pages of Le Comte de Champagny3
portray in vivid colouring the many distinct phases of a re-
markable character. We learn from Dion,4 who lived in the
early part of the third century, that Hadrian ' visited more
cities than any other ruler, and to all he was beneficent. He
gave them harbours and aqueducts, corn and gold, buildings
and honours of many kinds.'5 It is not quite clear whether
Hadrian made two separate journeys into the interior of Africa,
but that he traversed the country A.D. 125 is quite certain, the
first visit having been apparently to the coast towns three years
previously.6 He appears to have moved from town to town,
grasping the most complicated matters of civil and military
administration, paying a special regard to the habits and re-
quirements of the native races, and adding to the number of
colonics and municipia, in accordance with the needs of localities.7
His artistic perception and cultured taste favoured the em-
1 Merivale, A History of the Romans under the Empire, vii. 493.
2 Ferd. Gregorovius, The Emperor Hadrian, translated by Mary Robinson
(London, 1898).
3 Le Comte de Champagny, Les Antonins, ii. 4 et seq.
4 Dion Cassius, lxix. 5.
* Spartianus, c. 13. In Africam transiit ac multum beneficiorum p7-ovinciis
Africanis attribuit.
f> Orelli, Insc7-ipt. Lat. Coll. 3564.
7 Conspicuous among the towns raised to a higher state was old Utica, hence-
forth designated Colonia Julia y£lia Hadriana Augusta Utika. According to
Spartianus, c. 20, Thense and Zama were also raised to the dignity of colonia, and
Carthage was renamed Hadrianopolis. There are many other towns mentioned as
having been favoured by Hadrian, but many of the inscriptions are scarcely legible,
and the dates uncertain.