Hadrian
(January 24, 76 - July 10, 138) Rome
Emperor
Publius Aelius Hadrianus,14th emperor of Rome, was born in Italica, Spain. He ruled from 117 to 138 A.D. In 100 AD he married Sabina.
 Orphaned at the age of ten, Publius Aelius Hadrianus was adopted by the future emperor Trajan, whose wife Plotina became especially fond of the boy and took responsibility for his personal upbriding. In 94, Trajan became emperor and designated Hadrian as his heir. Upon Trajan's death in 117, Hadrian was crowned emperor.
Hadrian proved to be one of Rome's better emperors. He instituted welfare payments for poor children, reduced taxes, codified the laws and enacted legislation against the mistreatment of slaves. Hadrian devoted himself to a building programme which left a permanent mark on Rome: to his reign belong the Pantheon, the Castel S. Angelo (built as his mausoleum) and the Temple of Venus and Rome. Near Tivoli Hadrian built a sprawling "villa" (in reality a vast complex of buildings and gardens) which was decorated with outstanding mosaics and sculptures and other works of art.
 
In 124 A.D. Hadrian met and fell in love with a pageboy named Antinous, a Greek youth of great beauty. Antinous was about fifteen years old, was born in Bithynia, a Roman province in what is now northern Turkey. Hadrian and Antinous became lovers. For six years the two were inseparable.
  In 130, Hadrian and Antinous visited Egypt, and Antinous drowned in the Nile. According to one widely believed account, a priest and mystic oracle had foreseen that Hadrian would soon become sick and that he would die. Thus Antinous deliberately sacrificed himself to let Hadrian survive in his place, believing that his death would save and restore the life of the one he loved .
There was in fact a widely held belief in the Roman Empire, of the time, that a voluntary death of one person, could save or restore the life of the one who is loved, when that death was done for love.
 October 30, 130 A.D. Antinous, took a small boat, down the river Nile. Antinous body was recovered three days later. The grief stricken Hadrian deified Antinous, but never fully adjusted to the loss. Hadrian deteriorated, both phisically and mentally, until his own death eight years later.
Statue of Antinous
deified as an Egyptian God
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