On this day ante diem VI idus quinctilias (July, 10th) in 138 A.D., Hadrian died after a heart failure at Baiae on the Bay of Naples.
He lived 62 years, 5 months, 17 days. He reigned for 20 years, 11 months.
Bust of Hadrian, 135-138 AD, from Itálica, Archaeological Museum, Seville
© Carole Raddato
Hadrian spent the last moments of his life dictating verses addressed to his soul. According to the Historia Augusta, Hadrian composed the following poem shortly before his death:
Animula, vagula, blandula
Hospes comesque corporis
Quae nunc abibis in loca
Pallidula, rigida, nudula,
Nec, ut soles, dabis iocos.
—P. Aelius Hadrianus Imp. (138)
These five lines defied translation. Nobody knows what they mean, yet there have been forty three translations from the best English-speaking poets. Anthony R. Birley writes: “Few short poems can have generated so many verse translations and such copious academic debate as these five lines—a mere nineteen words—of the dying Hadrian, quoted in the Historia Augusta.” Among all the attemps, here is my favorite translation:
Oh, loving Soul, my own so tenderly,
My life’s companion and my body’s guest,
To what new realms, poor flutterer, wilt thou fly?
Cheerless, disrobed, and cold in thy lone quest,
Hushed thy sweet fancies, mute thy wonted jest.
—D. Johnston
But it is Marguerite Yourcenar’s version that I find the most moving:
“Little soul, gentle and drifting, guest and companion of my body, now you will dwell below in pallid places, stark and bare; there you will abandon your play of yore. But one moment still, let us gaze together on these familiar shores, on these objects which doubtless we shall not see again….Let us try, if we can, to enter into death with open eyes…”
—Marguerite Yourcenar ”Memoirs of Hadrian”
Statue of Marguerite Yourcenar, Hadrian’s Villa, Tivoli
© Carole Raddato
Hadrian was buried first at Puteoli, near Baiae, on an estate which had once belonged to Cicero. Upon completion of the Tomb of Hadrian in Rome in 139 by his successor Antoninus Pius, Hadrian’s ashes were placed together with those of his wife Vibia Sabina and his first adopted son in his mausoleum.
Mausoleum of Hadrian (Castel S. Angelo), Rome
© Carole Raddato
Hadrian died an unpopular man with the Senate and it was only with the intervention of Antonius, who was later given the title “Pius”, that Hadrian was deified in 139. A great temple in the Campus Martius was built to his memory in the early 140s.
Bust of Hadrian, Musei Capitolini, Rome
© Carole Raddato
For almost 21 years Hadrian had ruled over one of the greatest empires the world had ever seen and the legacy of his reign is still with us today.
