Facial Reconstructions of Hadrian & Antinous, with History | Royalty Now

hey everyone and welcome back to royalty now where we recreate famous figures from the past and talk about their history today's subject is emperor hadrian one of the most gifted men that rome ever produced and although he was the third of rome's quote five good emperors he was the first emperor who really moved beyond the stereotype of good and bad his reign had a shaky beginning a glorious middle and a tragic conclusion we also have a bonus recreation of his deified lover antonis so let's go ahead and get started [Music] was born on the 24th of january 76 a.d in italica which is the first roman settlement in present-day spain and the first roman city outside of italy hadrian's mother damidia paulina of gades was a wealthy noblewoman from one of the wealthiest cities in the empire his father publius elios adriano's offer was a wealthy and distinguished roman soldier and senator who had been born and raised in italica but whose family was well established in italy in fact the future emperor of rome trajan was actually hadrian's father's cousin so they were a very well-connected family in circumstances that aren't very clear both of hadrian's parents died in 86 a.d that left the entirety of the family's inheritance falling on a ten-year-old boy [Music] this event would ultimately steer the direction of hadrian's life since he was so young when his parents died he had to become a ward and he became the ward of vasilius atianos and the future emperor trajan he would be tutored extensively in various subjects but he was really really fond of learning about greek literature and learning the greek language so much so that they gave him the nickname little greek and this fondness for greek culture would steer his entire emperorship later on during the 90s a.d as trajan was beginning to gain real power in rome he called on hadrian to the city to begin his career a move that showed his blatant favor towards hadrian he would become a military tribune under emperor nerva and was selected to inform trajan that he had been adopted as nervous successor in 98 ad when emperor nerva died hadrian personally rode out before the official convoy to warn trajan just in case there would be any trouble with the succession before trajan no emperor had ever been born outside of italy this act would gain hadrian further favor from trajan and it was from then on that he became trajan's favorite for an heir by 101 hadrian was rising in power he was elected as a liaison between trajan and the senate reading the emperor's speeches which he most likely wrote himself and he would go on to be known as an incredible public speaker hadrian was doing everything right but that same year hadrian was arranged to marry vibia sabina something that he himself was incredibly unenthusiastic about the marriage was most likely arranged by trajan's wife platina who was an incredibly intelligent influential woman and she'd always been really fond of hadrian if hadrian did indeed become trajan's successor which she believed her family would be able to keep its social and political influence now looking back if hadrian had known how important this would end up being in his life he might have had a better outlook on the marriage from the very beginning unfortunately hadrian was in no real way loving to his wife something that can be understood when we begin to find out more about hadrian's sexuality as his life progresses the rumors of hadrian's coldness and their failure to produce a child begin other rumors about hadrian whatever it was his marriage and treatment of vibia line up perfectly with the souring of trajan's favor of hadrian and although early on it was clear to most that hadrian was favored to be trajan's successor years would pass and assurance would turn to ambiguity strangely nothing is really known about the next 10 years of his life except that he became arkhan of athens and was even elected to become an athenian citizen something that would have made his younger self incredibly proud trajan through his military campaigns and incredible skill at disarming his enemies would go on to become arguably rome's greatest emperor expanding rome to its greatest size but in 117 a.d trajan would suddenly fall ill during a campaign on his way back to italy lying on his deathbed it was clear that it was finally time for him to name an heir so trajan was presented with the papers to officially adopt hadrian but when the official adoption document was eventually presented the senate was shocked to see that it was not signed by trajan but his wife platina instead who had her own stake in the matter this led some to believe that she was the ultimate mastermind behind the succession no matter who was truly named it may have been hadrian all along but the issue of the papers has never been truly resolved and some historians say that platina is the only reason for hadrian's succession either way hadrian did not allow for the adoption papers to carry much weight he very quickly secured the support of the army and along after that came the senate's endorsement and although there were still some loose strings adrian is now the emperor of rome at its absolute zenith but he wasn't in rome to celebrate instead he remained in syria and he was suppressing revolts that had broken out under trajan's rule of military expansionism and he would remain in the east for some time during this time hadrian's matters in rome were trusted to his long-time guardian acelius atianus attiano soon reported that he had discovered a plot against hadrian's life acting swiftly four leading senators had been hunted down and killed without a trial the men included long-time rivals of hadrian and the only other men who had a claim as trajan's successor when hadrian finally did make it back to rome he was welcomed by the people with open arms but the senate was furious hadrian claimed no fault in the matter stating that atianus had acted on his own hadrian would retire his longtime guardian from public life and although his relationship with the senate would never be repaired his legitimacy was no longer questioned one of the first things that hadrian did was to realize that the empire was being stretched far too thin in direct opposition to everything trajan stood for and possibly out of spite he would abandon trajan's conquest and instead form a policy of peace through strength he shifted his focus to art and architecture he rebuilt the pantheon to what we know today and he began construction on his own giant villa which would be styled exclusively in the greek and egyptian styles after three years in rome hadrian decided that he wanted to see the empire through his own eyes and he would end up spending more than half his reign outside of italy his first stop was the farthest west he could go britannia rome had been fighting a war with the caledonians in britannia for over a hundred years adrian decided that he would end the conflict once and for all he ordered the construction of a wall spanning near the border of what is now england and scotland it was made 73 miles wide and 12 feet tall in order to separate romans from barbarians for good [Music] it was the first time that an emperor had defined what was and was not rome and hadrian's wall still stands to this day over the next couple of years hadrian would travel all over the empire not for war but for peace he would settle minor disputes he negotiated peace with local leaders he would fund building projects in places that had been ravaged by war or natural disaster and he supported the idea of communities ruling with their own customs and laws rather than just imposing roman ones this would create the feeling in the empire that hadrian was a protector of rome all of rome elio saricitis a highly respected greek orator would later write that hadrian extended over his subjects a protecting hand raising them as one helps fallen men on their feet in late 123 while visiting what is now turkey hadrian would meet a young man named antonis and both of their lives would change forever according to lambert the usually focused hadrian felt an immediate kinship to the young antonus nothing is really known about them this early except that antonus was quickly recruited by hadrian to become a page and he was sent to rome for training soon after hadrian would not see antonis for two years after this traveling through athens and greece after three years away hadrian would finally arrive back in rome the following three years would be spent mostly at his villa in tivoli during this time antonis would become hadrian's personal favorite and soon after a romantic relationship would start between the two according to lambert hadrian believed antonis to be intelligent and wise beyond his years and also describes antineus as the one person to have connected most profoundly with hadrian something that no one before had been able to do by 128 hadrian would leave rome once again only this time he'd have antennas by his side he would not return for seven years the trip was almost certainly a way for hadrian to show the empire off to antonis they would visit hadrian's beloved athens twice spending a year there alone they would travel through asia see jerusalem and arrive in egypt once in egypt they visited alexander the great's tomb and they were known to have all night parties this may have been the happiest that hadrian had ever been finally himself with a man that he loved on october 22nd 130 hadrian antonis and their party were participating in the festival of the nile in egypt tragically shortly after the party antony's body was found floating in the river in hadrian's own account he says that antones fell in and drowned little is known about what happened or what caused his death there's many theories about what this could have been including murder and unfortunately we're never likely to know but what is known is that emperor hadrian was earth-shatteringly devastated by the news author royson lambert says the way that hadrian took the boy on his travels he kept him close to him at moments of spiritual moral or physical exaltation and after his death surrounded himself with his images showing an obsessive craving for his presence a mystical religious need for his companionship the grieving hadrian had antonus deified immediately and ordered a city be built on the bank of the nile near where he drowned in his honor a cult grew quickly around hadrian's lever and spread throughout the provinces and it's actually estimated that there were once over two thousand statues of antennas with his worship rising in popularity over the next two hundred years at one point the worship of antennas even rivaled the then new religion of christianity [Music] grief would change him completely and i don't believe he ever recovered from anthony's death fully in 132 a jewish revolt started that led to heavy roman losses and while he was previously known for his policies of peace hadrian did not negotiate and he did not speak for peace he ordered a full-out war on jerusalem by the time the rebellion was put down three years later 580 000 jews had been killed along with 50 towns destroyed and almost a thousand villages being burned to the ground hadrian would spend his final bitter years in rome his unhappy marriage to sabina left no children and with that no heir not wanting to repeat trajan's failure to name an heir hadrian would go on to name three antonino's pious was chosen to become emperor but only under the condition that he adopted two young men to become his successor lucius verus and marcus aurelius both of the boys would go on to rule the empire together marcus would then go on to be the last of the five good emperors and one of the best emperors that rome had ever seen emperor hadrian died on july 10 138 surrounded by statues and images of his one true love antonis so let's go ahead and talk about hadrian's appearance and a bit about his lover antonis appearance as well both of these men have very famous faces meaning there were dozens of statues of hadrian and hundreds if not thousands created of antonus remarkably each man looks really consistent throughout his own lifetime it's really easy to tell what hadrian looked like each statue looks just like him there are of course some stylizations to be aware of as with all roman and greek statues as we mentioned in history hadrian had a massive fondness for greek culture and he kind of ordered these artistic portrayals of him to include a full head of curly hair and a full curly beard and these were kind of meant to evoke the energy of the great greek philosophers he admired so much in the case of antonus although he was surely a really good-looking person during his life the greek idealism can be seen on many of his statues they're almost too perfect in the case of both men we don't have too much to go on in terms of hair or eye color pigmentary analysis of some sculptures of hadrian give him dark hair and gray eyes but we don't have much for antonus one source described his hair as kind of almost purple i'm guessing that meant something that was either very very black or maybe dark with a bit of red so i did have to use a bit of artistic interpretation in these images but let's go ahead and take a look at the recreations now [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you all so much for watching please drop your suggestions for future subjects in the comments below it was such a pleasure talking history with you today and we'll see you for the next video [Music] you

Channel: Royalty Now Studios

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Keywords: real face of, what historical figures would look like, true face of, true faces of, real faces of historical figures, true faces of historical figures, what historical figures would look like today, royalty now, roylaty now, hadrian, antinous, hadrian and antinous, what did hadrian look like, what did hadrian really look like, hadrian facts, hadrian documentary, antinous documentary, what did antinous look like, antinous god, hadrian gay, hadrian homosexual, gay history

Id: EfIob0hAolE

Length: 16min 35sec (995 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 19 2022