Roman emperor Publius Aelius Hadrianus, better known as Hadrian, was BOTD in 76. Born in Italica in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica (now modern-day Seville in Spain), his father was a senator who died when he was a child. Hadrian was raised in Italica by his father’s cousin Trajan, receiving military training and progressing through the ranks of the Roman Army. When Trajan was made Emperor in 97, Hadrian joined the governing circles of the empire, promoted to quaestor in 101 and praetor in 106, demonstrating exceptional military leadership. He joined the consulate in 108, spending the next decade in Greece. Trajan named Hadrian his successor in 117, dying later that year. Hadrian returned to Rome and married Trajan’s great-niece Sabina Augusta, remaining there for three years before undertaking the first of several tours of the empire. As Emperor, he abandoned attempts to conquer new territory, preferring to invest in stable and defensible borders, notably the construction of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England. An admirer of Greek culture, he promoted Athens as the cultural capital of the empire in an attempt to unite his racially diverse subjects. He promoted a renaissance in pan-Hellenistic building, reconstructing the Pantheon, commissioning temples dedicated to Zeus, Venus and Roma, and building himself a lavish villa in Tivoli. He fell passionately in love with a pretty young Greek adolescent Antinoüs, who became his lover and favourite, accompanying him and Sabina on state tours. In 130, during a tour of Egypt, Antinoüs accidentally drowned in the Nile. Devastated, Hadrian founded the city of Antinoöpolis near the site of Antinoüs’ death, erected statues across the Empire celebrating his beauty and eventually elevated him to god-like status. In 138, he appointed the senator Antoninus as his successor, and retreated to the seaside resort of Baiae in Naples, where he died in 137. His body was returned to Rome for burial in a custom-built mausoleum (now the Castel Sant’Angelo). Now considered one of the greatest emperors in Ancient Rome, his and Antinoüs’ images were frequently reproduced during the 18th and 19th century, serving as a subtle nod to the host’s homosexuality when displayed in private homes.