Hadrian and Antinous essays

Hadrian and Antinous essays There were many relationships that changed the course of history forever. Most have one thing in common, one in a high position being influenced by their significant other. The effect of Cleopatra on Antony, Josephine on Napoleon, and Ann Boleyn on Henry the Eighth changed the world forever. Yet to Rome, the effect of Antinous on Hadrian was just as important. Hadrian loved Antinous and for this he ruined his legacy as a great emperor. Little is known about how Hadrian came to know Antinous. It is rumored that Antinous was taken from Claudiopolis during one of Hadrians tours in 123 AD. Antinouss age is also unknown, at the time of his introduction to Hadrian he was said to be around eleven or twelve. Unfortunately, little is also known about the way he was taken. No one is sure if it was by force or went willingly, but he soon became the Emperors favorite and was never considered a slave. Yet again, little is known about when Antinous became the Emperors favorite, but it is guessed to have been sometime between the Emperors return to Italy in 125 and his next trip to Greece in 128, this being the first trip where Antinous accompanied as favorite. It is important to remember the time period this relationship took place and acknowledge the system of pederasty that existed. It was primarily a Hellenic system in which favored Hadrian because of his love for all things Greek. In old Greece, the love of a man for a boy was considered to be the purest from of love(). Women were considered inferior and lust for one was a dirty thing only necessary for childbirth. The boy in these relationships in known as the eromenos, and thought to be in the early teens. The older male was known as the erastes, and was usually between the ages of twenty and forty. The relationship usually lasted from puberty till the young teen started to grow facial hair in the late teens to early ...