Roman Emperor Hadrian Research Paper

Hadrian was a Roman emperor who had an intriguing biographical background that after many centuries to fascinate society. Hadrian was known as the traveling emperor as he concentrated on the rebirth of the Roman Empire. He is best known for his passion for Greek art, literature, philosophy, his interest in architecture and more prominently his obsessive infatuation of an otherwise unimportant man, Antinous.

Hadrian's parent died while he was a child and Emperor Trajan and Acilius Attanus raised him. Young Hadrian grew in splendor within the walls of the imperial palace and made rapid progress in his career. With success on his side Trajan adopted Hadrian as his son and appointed him the successor of the Roman Empire. His marriage to Vibia Sabina was far from a marriage of love and the two had no children of their own. Hadrian stood at the …show more content…
Christians took on actions and sermons demonizing Hadrian and Antinous to win the public over to Christianity's conversion. Hadrian’s creation of a cult in honor of Antinous after his death was a blasphemous rival to Christianity as well. Discrimination and social stigma about relationships between two men outside the narrow set of guidelines that The Roman culture established existed in the second century. However, compared with what followed and lasted until the twentieth century, the Romans were centuries ahead of their time regarding gay social issues. Hadrian’s history not demonstrates an emperor’s psyche and intimate connection to homosexuality, but it also shines light on Christianity as a cult and its arrogance, ridicule, and resistance to evolve. Evolution and tolerance are essential for humanities progression and hypocrisy intertwined with judgment sets back the progress linked to social history and issues such as the gay rights