Adriano and Antinoo. Memory of a love

Text by Adriano C., volunteer of the Gionata project

Flaubert wrote: "Cantami of the odorous evening in which hears / get up from the golden boat of Adriano / The rice of Antinoo and to appease your thirst Lambisti / The waters and with desire you look at / the perfect body of the young man from the lips of pomegranate". Publio Elio Traiano Adriano, known simply as Adriano (Latin: Publius ælius Traianus Hadrianus; Italica 24/1/76 - Baia 10/7/138), as you know was a Roman emperor who reigned from 117 until his death. His empire was characterized by tolerance, efficiency and splendor of the arts and philosophy. He himself studied the Greek culture of which he was a great fans.

On Adriano's birth, sources do not agree: some claim that he was born in Rome where his father was performing important public functions, others that Adriano was born in Italica, 7 km from Seville, in Bethica; His family was originally from the Picena city of Hadria, the current Atri, but settled in Italica immediately after his foundation by Scipio the African. The father, Publio Elio Adriano Afro, was learned with Trajan. The mother, Domizia Paolina, was originally from Cadiz. His parents died when Adriano was only nine years old. The sentimental link with a Greek young man is well known: Antinoo.

Antinoo was born in a Greek family inhabitant in the Roman province of Bitinia, an area located in the north-west of Türkiye today. A version reports that Antinoo joined the emperor following when Adriano passed through Bitinia, around the year 124 AD, and soon became his young lover, accompanying him in most of his travels inside the empire. Another version says that instead Adriano made the most beautiful young man who was there, Antinoo was chosen throughout the empire. Many believe that their relationship has followed the classic model of Greek homosexual love.
In 130, during a trip to Egypt, Antinoo mysteriously fell into the Nile and died. Many doubts were raised on his death but the question will remain dark forever and it cannot be excluded that it was suicide or murder.

It seems that Antinoo himself and a priest had implemented a ritual suicide, a sort of sacrifice to the gods to protect Hadrian's life. Antinoo was divinized after the death by the emperor and a city entitled to his name (anti -anti) was erected in Egypt in the same place where he was drowned. Adriano's passion and depth of the love were shown in busts and statues found everywhere in Europe, who represent a boy with a melancholy charm, characterized by a round face with full cheeks without any hair, sensual lips, and thick hair in large Moved locks that cover the ears.
Depicted in numerous sculptures (in the guise of many deities, such as Dionysus and Ermes) and on coins, it is also mentioned in epigraphic sources. An obelisk with inscriptions in hieroglyphic characters, dedicated to him, was found in the sixteenth century and subsequently raised in Rome on the Pincio by Pope Pius VII.
Antinoo was commemorated by Adriano also with the attribution of the stars to the south of the constellation of L'Aquila who since then took the name of Antinous.

Animula Vagula Blandula (Adriano)

Small lost and sweet soul
companion and guest of the body
now you would take advantage of going into colorless places,
ardui and bare
where you will no longer have the usual leisures.
A moment still
let's look together the family banks
the things that we will certainly never see again.
We try to enter death with open eyes.

Adriano died in his residence as A pulmonary edema bay, at 62 years like the predecessor Trajan.

Cassio Dione brings back to a song of the "Roman history": "After Adriano's death, he was erected a huge equestrian monument that represented him on a quadriga. It was so great that a high stature man could have walking in an eye of the horses, but, due to the exaggerated height of the base, passers -by had the impression that the horses and Adriano were very small. »

In reality it is not certain that the funeral monument was started after the death of the emperor and most likely it was started by Adriano in 135 and, after his death, completed by the successor officially adopted before dying, Antonino Pio. The structure was, over the centuries, repeatedly transformed and today it is one of the most famous monuments of the capital: Castel Sant'Angelo, who is in fact also called Mole Adriana.
The fact is that the death of the beautiful lover of the emperor remains one of the most impenetrable mysteries in human history. As I said, dozens of hypotheses were made on this death and I reported higher those "official" narrated in the chronicles and in the writings that have come to our day.
I remain somewhat skeptical about the actual evaluation of our ancient reporters. The fact is that the very strong link that united the two characters, was certainly not well seen by the court and the politicians of the time. First of all, a very important fact must also be remembered: Adriano was regularly married even if with a facade wedding.

Vibia Sabina was just twelve when she married the emperor. He was the daughter of Lucio Vibio Sabino and Matidia and therefore grandson of the emperor Trajan who had adopted his husband, making him become legitimate heir of the empire. Their union did not bear fruit and was "overshadowed" by the figure of Antinoo. During the nefarious journey in which Antinoo lost his life, the legitimate consort was following the imperial caravan, and therefore present on the crime scene.
It was hardly she was the executor of the murder, an empress would not have dirty her hands with such a terrible crime. But it may have been the principal of the assassin hand. But in an imperial court the jealousies and grudges multiply dismissed.
There may have been someone who feared that Adriano would recognize his lover as his successor to the throne and thought it well to take reparative measures before this happened. In short, the hypotheses are many and all plausible. Here you can find an interesting investigation.

The fact is that this murderer obtained the glorification of the young lover of the emperor, who went down to the history and the pomp of the greatest museums in the world, so much so that he was one of the most depicted characters of humanity.
In the splendid imperial villa at the gates of Tivoli, Villa Adriana precisely, we can visit the temple dedicated to him after death. The building, one of the most recent to be discovered, was intended for the perpetual memory of the Greek young man. The grandeur of the construction, according to the reconstructions of scholars, show us the excellent taste of Adriano for art and architecture, and eternally remember his great love for this lover lost at a very young age.