Thursday, October 17, 2019

M/M: The Emperor's Beloved: Antinous, SHA Vit. Hadr. XIV.5-7

Antinoum suum, dum per Nilum navigat, perdidit, quem muliebriter flevit. de quo varia fama est, aliis eum devotum pro Hadriano adserentibus, aliis quod et forma eius ostetat et nimia voluptas Hadriani. et Graeci quidem volente Hadriano eum consecraverunt, oracula per eum dari adserentes, quae Hadrianus ipse composuisse iactatur.

--SHA Vita Hadriani XIV.5-7


While traveling down the Nile, [The Emperor Hadrian] lost his lover Antinous and mourned him excessively. There are several rumors about how it happened. Some say that Antinous was ritually sacrificed to preserve the Emperor’s life, while others consider the youth’s beauty and the Emperor’s passion for him and think it was the result of a lover’s quarrel. The Greeks even deified the youth at the Emperor’s behest, and claim that his spirit gave oracles, but many dismiss these as being written not by Antinous but the Emperor himself. 

<Anonymous>

MAP:

Name:  ???

Date:  4th c. CE

Works:  Historia Augusta

 

REGION  UNKNOWN

Region 1: Peninsular Italy; Region 2: Western Europe; Region 3: Western Coast of Africa; Region 4: Egypt and Eastern Mediterranean; Region 5: Greece and the Balkans


BIO:

Timeline:

 Little is known about the author(s) of the Historia Augusta; even internal evidence within the text is either falsified, skewed or utterly fictitious. Although attributed to six different authors, the text was likely written by a single author living during the 4th century CE. It is a series of imperial biographies modeled after the works of Suetonius; these biographies cover the reigns of the emperors Hadrian through Carus.

 AGE OF CONFLICT

 

Early Roman Lit: through 2nd c BCE: Republican Rome: through 1st c. BCE; Golden Age: 70 BCE to 18 CE; Silver Age: 18 CE to 150 CE; Age of Conflict: 150 CE - 410 CE; Byzantine and Late Latin: after 410 CE