August 8 - Hadrian becomes Roman Emperor

He's been one of my favourite Roman Emperors, ever since I visited the "Limes" near Frankfurt as a six year old and first heard about him.

On August 8, 117 AD Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus, better known as Hadrian, succeeded Trajan as Roman Emperor, and began one of the more peaceful and stable periods in Roman history.

Hadrian was born in Southern Spain, a distant relative of the childless Trajan, in whose house he grew up, and who in later years adopted him.
Under Trajan�s patronage, Hadrian embarked a successful career in the Imperial Roman civil administration and military, serving in various positions all over the Empire, from the German frontiers to the Syrian borders. On Trajan�s death in August 117, Hadrian was the only serious candidate for his succession and he was proclaimed Emperor by the Senate in Rome, and far more important by the Army, which he was leading on a campaign in Syria at the time.
Hadrian�s reign stood in distinctive contrast to that of Trajan, under whose rule and after his years of almost continuous campaigning the Roman Empire had reached its largest territorial extent. Hadrian pursued not so much a policy of conquest, but of stabilization of the territorial gains his predecessors had made. Believing the logistic abilities of the Empire overstretched, he returned areas east of the Euphrates back to Parthians and set out to secure the long borders of the vast empire. Under his rule the frontiers along the Rhine and Danube, the �Limes� were extended and further fortified, and the famous �Hadrian�s Wall� was built in Northern England, to protect the Roman province from the Picts.
The absence of major wars, administrative reforms and improvements in the public infrastructure of the Empire under Hadrian permitted a period of stability and prosperity, a "golden era" of the Roman Empire.
Hadrian was also a fervent admirer of Greek culture, art and philosophy, having served as a public official in Athens for a couple of years. Of the many works of arts he commissioned, the sculptures which mourned his Greek lover Antinous, who had drowned in the Nile in 130, are possibly the best known.
Hadrian died in 138 and was buried in a mausoleum in Rome, the famous "Castel d�Angelo" that later in the 14th century was fortified by the Popes.



Emperor Hadrian


What else happened on this day?

1815 Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena, in the South Atlantic, to where he had been exiled.

1879    Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary hero in the fight against the Dictator Porfirio Diaz was born in Morelos state, Mexico.

1974 President Richard Nixon (�Tricky Dicky�) announces on American television that he is to resign from office, being threatened with impeachment because of his involvement in the Watergate affair.

Full list:

Wikipedia

Was he Greek Cyriot or Turkish Cypriot?

Another influence of Hadrian is that he broughts beards into style for Emperors. 

LOL It would have been more nifty had it been able to keep out the Saxons invading from the southeast.