Editing Hadrian (section)

==Religious activities==
[[File:Statue of Hadrian as Pontifex Maximus, 117-138 AD, from Rome, Palazzo Nuovo, Capitoline Museums (13100265983).jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Hadrian as ''pontifex maximus'', dated 130–140 AD, from Rome, [[Palazzo Nuovo]], [[Capitoline Museums]]]]
One of Hadrian's immediate duties on accession was to seek senatorial consent for the [[Apotheosis|deification]] of his predecessor, Trajan, and any members of Trajan's family to whom he owed a debt of gratitude. Matidia Augusta, Hadrian's mother-in-law, died in December 119 and was duly deified.<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', p. 107</ref> Hadrian may have stopped at [[Nîmes|Nemausus]] during his return from [[Roman Britain|Britannia]] to oversee the completion or foundation of a [[basilica]] dedicated to his patroness Plotina. She had recently died in Rome and had been deified at Hadrian's request.<ref name="Birley, p. 145"/>

As Emperor, Hadrian was also Rome's ''[[pontifex maximus]]'', responsible for all religious affairs and the proper functioning of official religious institutions throughout the empire. His Hispano-Roman origins and marked pro-Hellenism shifted the focus of the official imperial cult from Rome to the Provinces. While his standard coin issues identified him with the traditional ''genius populi Romani'', other issues stressed his personal identification with ''Hercules Gaditanus'' (Hercules of [[Cádiz|Gades]]), and Rome's imperial protection of Greek civilisation.<ref>Gradel, Ittai, ''Emperor Worship and Roman Religion'', Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0-19-815275-2}}, pp. 194–195.</ref> He promoted [[Sagalassos]] in Greek [[Pisidia]] as the Empire's leading imperial cult centre; his exclusively Greek ''[[Panhellenion]]'' extolled Athens as the spiritual centre of Greek culture.<ref>Howgego, in Howgego, C., Heuchert, V., Burnett, A., (eds), Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces, Oxford University Press, 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-19-926526-8}}, pp. 6, 10.</ref>

Hadrian added several imperial cult centres to the existing roster, particularly in Greece, where traditional intercity rivalries were commonplace. Cities promoted as imperial cult centres drew imperial sponsorship of festivals and sacred games, and attracted tourism, trade and private investment. Local worthies and sponsors were encouraged to seek self-publicity as cult officials under the aegis of Roman rule and to foster reverence for imperial authority.<ref>Boatwright, p. 136</ref> Hadrian's rebuilding of long-established religious centres would have further underlined his respect for the glories of classical Greece&nbsp;– something well in line with contemporary antiquarian tastes.<ref name="Boatwright, p. 134"/><ref>K. W. Arafat, ''Pausanias' Greece: Ancient Artists and Roman Rulers''. Cambridge U. Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-521-55340-7}}, p. 162</ref> During Hadrian's third and last trip to the Greek East, there seems to have been an upwelling of religious fervour, focused on Hadrian himself. He was given personal cult as a deity, monuments and civic homage, according to the religious [[syncretism]] of the time.<ref>[[Marcel Le Glay]]. "Hadrien et l'Asklépieion de Pergame". In: ''Bulletin de correspondance hellénique''. Volume 100, livraison 1, 1976. pp.&nbsp;347–372. Available at [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/bch_0007-4217_1976_num_100_1_2051]. Retrieved 24 July 2015.</ref> He may have had the great [[Serapeum of Alexandria]] rebuilt, following damage sustained in 116, during the [[Diaspora revolt]].<ref name="RoweRees1956">{{cite web|url=https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:1m1914&datastreamId=POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS-DOCUMENT.PDF|author=Alan Rowe|author-link=Alan Rowe (archaeologist)|author2=B. R. Rees|author2-link=B. R. Rees|year=1956|publisher=Manchester|title=A Contribution To The Archaeology of The Western Desert: IV – The Great Serapeum Of Alexandria|access-date=10 April 2018|archive-date=16 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201216120114/https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:1m1914&datastreamId=POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS-DOCUMENT.PDF|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 136, just two years before his death, Hadrian dedicated his Temple of Venus and Roma. It was built on land he had set aside for the purpose in 121, formerly the site of Nero's [[Domus Aurea|Golden House]]. The temple was the largest in Rome and was built in a Hellenising style, more Greek than Roman. Its dedication and statuary associated the ''[[Cult (religious practice)|cultus]]'' of the traditional Roman goddess [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]], divine ancestress and protector of the Roman people, with the ''cultus'' of the goddess [[Roma (mythology)|Roma]] – herself a Greek invention, hitherto worshipped only in the provinces – to emphasise the universal nature of the empire.<ref>Mellor, R., "The Goddess Roma" in Haase, W., Temporini, H., (eds), ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt'', de Gruyter, 1991, {{ISBN|3-11-010389-3}}, pp. 960–964</ref>

===Antinous===
[[File:Hadrian and Antinous bust British Museum.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bust of Hadrian|Busts of Hadrian]] and [[Antinous]] in the British Museum]]
Hadrian had [[Antinous]] deified as [[Osiris]]-Antinous by an Egyptian priest at the ancient Temple of Ramesses II, very near the place of his death. Hadrian dedicated a new temple-city complex there, built in a Graeco-Roman style, and named it [[Antinopolis|Antinoöpolis]].<ref>Cassius Dio, LIX.11; ''Historia Augusta'', ''Hadrian''</ref> It was a proper Greek [[polis]]; it was granted an imperially subsidised alimentary scheme similar to Trajan's [[alimenta]],<ref>Tim Cornell, Kathryn Lomas, eds., ''Bread and Circuses: Euergetism and Municipal Patronage in Roman Italy''. London: Routledge, 2003, {{ISBN|0-415-14689-5}}, p. 97</ref> and its citizens were allowed intermarriage with members of the native population without loss of citizen status. Hadrian thus identified an existing native cult (to Osiris) with Roman rule.<ref>Carl F. Petry, ed. ''The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 1''. Cambridge University Press, 2008, {{ISBN|978-0-521-47137-4}}, p. 15</ref> The cult of Antinous was to become very popular in the Greek-speaking world and also found support in the West. In Hadrian's villa, statues of the [[Harmodius and Aristogeiton (sculpture)|Tyrannicides]], with a bearded Aristogeiton and a clean-shaven Harmodios, linked his favourite to the classical tradition of [[Greek love]].<ref>Elsner, Jás, ''Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph'', ''Oxford History of Art'', Oxford U.P., 1998, {{ISBN|0-19-284201-3}}, p. 176f.</ref> In the west, Antinous was identified with the Celtic sun god [[Belenos]].<ref>Williams, p. 61</ref>

Hadrian was criticised for the open intensity of his grief at Antinous's death, particularly as he had delayed the apotheosis of his own sister [[Paulina (sister of Hadrian)|Paulina]] after her death.<ref>Hadrian's "Hellenic" emotionalism finds a culturally sympathetic echo in the Homeric Achilles' mourning for his friend Patroclus: see discussion in [[Caroline Vout|Vout, Caroline]], ''Power and eroticism in Imperial Rome'', illustrated, Cambridge University Press, 2007. {{ISBN|0-521-86739-8}}, pp. 52–135.</ref> Nevertheless, his recreation of the deceased youth as a cult figure found little opposition.<ref>Craig A. Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality : Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity''. Oxford University Press: 1999, {{ISBN|978-0-19-511300-6}}, pp. 60f</ref> Though not a subject of the state-sponsored, official Roman imperial cult, Antinous offered a common focus for the emperor and his subjects, emphasising their sense of community.<ref>Marco Rizzi, p. 12</ref> Medals were struck with his effigy, and statues were erected to him in all parts of the empire, in all kinds of garb, including Egyptian dress.<ref>Elsner, ''Imperial Rome'', p. 183f.</ref> Temples were built for his worship in Bithynia and Mantineia in Arcadia. In Athens, festivals were celebrated in his honour and oracles delivered in his name. As an "international" cult figure, Antinous had enduring fame, far outlasting Hadrian's reign.<ref>see Trevor W. Thompson [https://www.academia.edu/9076863/Antinoos_The_New_God_Origen_on_Miracle_and_Belief_in_Third-Century_Egypt "Antinoos, The New God: Origen on Miracle and Belief in Third Century Egypt"] for the persistence of Antinous's cult and Christian reactions to it. Freely available. The relationship of P. Oxy. 63.4352 with Diocletian's accession is not entirely clear.</ref> Local coins with his effigy were still being struck during [[Caracalla|Caracalla's]] reign, and he was invoked in a poem to celebrate the accession of [[Diocletian]].<ref>[[Caroline Vout]], ''Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome''. Cambridge University Press; 2007, p. 89</ref>

===Christians===
Hadrian continued Trajan's policy on Christians; they should not be sought out and should only be prosecuted for specific offences, such as refusal to swear oaths.<ref>Birley, ''Restless Emperor'', pp. 127, 183.</ref> In a [[rescript]] addressed to the proconsul of Asia, [[Gaius Minicius Fundanus]], and preserved by [[Justin Martyr]], Hadrian laid down that accusers of Christians had to bear the burden of proof for their denunciations<ref>Alessandro Galimberti, "Hadrian, Eleusis, and the beginnings of Christian apologetics" in Marco Rizzi, ed., ''Hadrian and the Christians''. Berlim: De Gruyter, 2010, {{ISBN|978-3-11-022470-2}}, pp. 77f</ref> or be punished for ''calumnia'' ([[defamation]]).<ref>Robert M. Haddad, ''The Case for Christianity: St. Justin Martyr's Arguments for Religious Liberty and Judicial Justice''. Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-58979-575-4}}, p. 16</ref>