by
Damien F. Mackey
“Even Athens may have reflected with complacency on the loss of her liberty,
while
she revered a second Pericles in Hadrian”.
James Bowling Mozley
Some Commonalities
The
famous beard
We read about it, for instance, in the
book, Rethinking Revolutions Through Ancient
Greece (ed. Simon
Goldhill, Robin Osborne):
But if
Hadrian's beard is not that of a philosopher, what are we to make of it? Susan
Walker has recently refined her answer to this question to describe the beard
‘as worn in the style of Pericles’. …. Pericles’ short, curly beard and
moustache put her on safer ground art-historically than those who favour a
philosophical reading ….
Historiographically
it lends him an identity that complements his building in Athens. But the more
one pursues the implications of this hypothesis, the more one is made to doubt
it. If one reads Plutarch to get a sense of Pericles’ reputation under Hadrian,
one encounters an icon whose physical appearance is similar to Pisistratus. ….
In some ways this is eminently suitable: Pisistratus is a prolific builder in
Athens and inaugurates the Olympeion that Hadrian is to finish. …. But were
Hadrian attempting to instigate a revolution, there is danger in even the
slightest whiff of tyranny. Rest-assured, there is little additional evidence
to support a Pericles-Hadrian parallel, at least not compared to stronger
associations with a bearded Zeus or Jupiter ….
[End of quote]
Eleusinian
mysteries
Under Pericles
http://www.e-telescope.gr/en/mystery/the-eleusinian-mysteries
The Eleusinian mysteries
attracted many initiates in Athens from about the seventh century BC, and the
epics of Homer prove that, even that early, Greeks believed that the Eleusinian
rites granted the initiates happiness after death. The citizens of Athens
adopted the Mysteries of Eleusis as a feature of the state cult, then, at the
time of Pericles, other Greek cities were admitted and later everyone who could
speak Greek and had shed no blood or had subsequently been purified. ….
Under Peisistratus
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peisistratus
Since religion was closely interwoven with the structure
of the Greek polis,
or city-state, many of [Peisistratus’] steps were
religious reforms. He brought the great shrine of Demeter at Eleusis under
state control and constructed the first major Hall of the Mysteries
(Telesterion) for the annual rites of initiation into the cult. Many local
cults of Attica were either moved to the city or had branch shrines there.
Artemis, for instance, continued to be worshiped at Brauron, but now there was
also a shrine to Artemis on the Acropolis.
Above all, Athena now became the
main deity to be revered by all Athenian citizens. Peisistratus constructed an
entry gate (Propylaea) on the Acropolis and perhaps built an old Parthenon
under the temple that now stands on the crest of the Acropolis. Many sculptured
fragments of limestone from Peisistratid buildings have been found on the
Acropolis, and the foundations of a major, unfinished temple can still be seen.
….
Under Hadrian
http://romeartlover.tripod.com/Eleusi.html
Emperor
Hadrian was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries; he and his
successors Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus all protected
the shrine and contributed to its embellishment ….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian
In September 128 [sic], Hadrian attended the Eleusinian
mysteries again. This time his visit to Greece seems to have concentrated on
Athens and Sparta – the
two ancient rivals for dominance of Greece. Hadrian had played with the idea of
focusing his Greek revival around the Amphictyonic League based in Delphi, but by
now he had decided on something far grander.
Panhellenion
and Olympeion
“The Panhellenion was devised with a view to associating the Roman Emperor
with the protection of Greek culture and of the "liberties" of
Greece – in this case, urban self-government. It allowed Hadrian to appear
as the fictive heir to Pericles, who supposedly had convened a previous Panhellenic Congress …”.
Peisistratus
Rethinking Revolutions Through Ancient
Greece: “Pisistratus
is a prolific builder in Athens and inaugurates the Olympeion that Hadrian is
to finish”.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/olympieion/olympianzeus.html
Dedicated
to Olympian Zeus, the Olympieion was situated on the bank of the river
Ilissus southeast of the Acropolis. It was built on the site of an ancient
Doric temple, the foundation of which had been laid out by the tyrant
Pisistratus, but construction was abandoned several decades later in 510 BC
when his son Hippias, whose rule had become increasingly despotic, was expelled
from Athens and a democracy established (he would return twenty years later
with the Persians at Marathon, Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, VI.54ff).
Aristotle cites the temple and the pyramids of Egypt as examples of how rulers
subdue their populations by engaging them in such grandiose projects. Kept poor
and preoccupied with hard work, there was not the time to conspire (Politics,
V.11). Over three centuries later, in 174 BC, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (king of
Syria and the "vile person" of Daniel 11:21) commissioned the Roman
architect Cossutius to begin work again on the same ground plan. He did so
"with great skill and taste," says Vitruvius, constructing a temple
"of large dimensions, and of the Corinthian order and proportions" (On
Architecture, VII, Pref.15, 17). Of all the works of Antiochus, the Temple
of Jupiter Olympius or Olympian (as the Romans called it) was the "only
one in the world, the plan of which was suitable to the greatness of the
deity" (Livy, History of Rome, XLI.20). But when the king died a
decade later, the temple still was "left half finished" (Strabo, Geography,
IX.1.17), although it extended at least to the architrave of the columns still
standing at the southeastern corner. ….
Pericles
http://erenow.com/biographies/hadrian-and-the-triumph-of-rome/24.html
Plutarch writes that Pericles “introduced a bill to the
effect that all Hellenes wheresoever resident in Europe or in Asia, small and
large cities alike, should be invited to send deputies to a council at Athens.”
The aim was to discuss matters of common interest—restoration of the temples
the Persians had burned down, payment of vows to the gods for the great
deliverance, and clearing the seas of pirates. ….
Hadrian
http://erenow.com/biographies/hadrian-and-the-triumph-of-rome/24.html
More than half a
millennium later [sic] Hadrian picked it up where it had fallen. During his
previous visit, his attention had been caught by the synedrion, or
council, at Delphi for the Amphictyonic League, but it did not include enough
Greek cities. He decided to launch a new Panhellenion along Periclean lines. As
before, a grandly refurbished Athens was to be the headquarters and Greek
cities would be invited to send delegates to an inaugural assembly. Member
communities had to prove their Greekness, both culturally and in genetic
descent, although in practice some bogus pedigrees were accepted.
The enterprise had
a somewhat antiquarian character. So far as we can tell from the fragmentary
surviving evidence, Hadrian aimed at roughly the same catchment area as
Pericles had done—in essence, the basin of the Ionian Sea. Italy and Sicily
were excluded once again, and there was no representation of Greek settlements
in Egypt, Syria, or Anatolia. The emperor made a point of visiting Sparta,
presumably to ensure that it did not stay away as it had done in the fifth
century.
A renaissance of
old glories was reflected in the development of archaized language; so, for
example, Spartan young men (epheboi) suddenly took on an antiquated
Doric dialect in their dedications to Artemis Orthia, a patron goddess of the
city. It seems clear that one of the purposes of Hadrian’s policy was to
recruit the past to influence and to help define and improve the decadent
present.
Hadrian began to
call himself the “Olympian,” echoing the example of Pericles as well as
reflecting the completion of the Olympieion, the vast temple to Olympian Zeus.
He was soon widely known throughout the Hellenic eastern provinces as
“Hadrianos Sebastos Olumpios,” Sebastos being the Greek word for
Augustus, or indeed “Hadrianos Sebastos Zeus Olumpios.”
What did the
Panhellenion actually do? It administered its own affairs, managed its shrine
not far from the Roman Agora and offices, and promoted a quadrennial festival.
It also assessed qualifications for membership. But Hadrian was careful to give
it no freestanding political powers. All important decisions were referred to
him for approval. Rather, the focus was cultural and religious, and a
connection was forged with the Eleusinian Mysteries. In essence, the task was
to build spiritual and intellectual links among the cities of the Greek world,
and to foster a sense of community. The Panhellenion also furthered the careers
of delegates, who were usually leading members of Greek elites (but not
necessarily Roman citizens), and created an international “old-boy network” of
friends who advanced one another’s interests. ….
Ronnie Leslie will, for his part, describe the emperor Hadrian as “a new
Pericles” in his article “Hadrian’s Second Jewish Revolt: Political or
Religious?”
Ronnie Leslie
writes:
…. Right from the start Hadrian
made it clear that he was his own man in his administration of the empire; he
resumed the policy of the early emperors, dedicating his time to maintaining
peace throughout the empire.
However, this policy did not
last long; one of his very first decisions was the abandonment of the eastern
territories which Trajan had just conquered during his last campaign. Such a withdrawal, and the surrender of
territory for which the Roman army had just paid for in blood, would hardly
have been popular. Hadrian may be
sharply contrasted with his predecessor Trajan, who owed his elevation to his
successful wars in the Rhine region.
After Trajan’s death, Hadrian called upon the eastern armies; however,
the troops were demoralized by Trajan’s death, which in turn acted as a signal
to Rome’s enemies in every province.
….
Hadrian spent the better part
of his reign away from the capital exploring every province of the empire. ….
On his travels he grew deeply devoted to Greek studies, so much so that some
Romans called him the little Greekling. …. Throughout his twenty-one year
reign, Hadrian’s infinity for Greek culture are seen throughout his
administration as well as religious ideology.
He had been so fascinated by the culture of Greece that he introduced
Greek customs and even grew a beard which was traditionally Greek. ….
Furthermore, his court assumed more and more a Hellenic characteristic. He was constantly surrounded by Greek
playwrights and sophists; his favorite was Antinous … with whom he had become
acquainted with in Asia Minor and brought to Rome. He seemed to have viewed himself as a new
Pericles; thus, most of his attention of the empire was exclusively focused on
the east, particularly Athens. ….
[End of
quote]
Then there is this one,
“Pericles and Athens”: https://erenow.com/ancient/the-classical-world-an-epic-history-from-homer-to-hadrian/15.html
“From the 450s until 429 the most famous Athenian
politician was Pericles, so much so that this era is often known nowadays as
the age of ‘Periclean Athens’. The Emperor Hadrian was well aware of Pericles’
example. Among his special favours for Athens, Hadrian may even have modelled
his ‘Panhellenic’ role for the city on a project which biographers had ascribed
to Pericles himself”.
And also this one, a supposed “renaissance of old glories”:
https://erenow.com/biographies/hadrian-and-the-triumph-of-rome/24.html
…. Plutarch writes
that Pericles “introduced a bill to the effect that all Hellenes wheresoever
resident in Europe or in Asia, small and large cities alike, should be invited
to send deputies to a council at Athens.”
The aim was to
discuss matters of common interest—restoration of the temples the Persians had
burned down, payment of vows to the gods for the great deliverance, and
clearing the seas of pirates. The Greek colonies of Sicily and Italy were not
invited, for they had not been directly involved in the war. Nothing came of
the project owing to opposition from the Spartans, then the great military
rival of Athens. Pericles let the idea drop.
More than half a
millennium later Hadrian picked it up where it had fallen. During his previous
visit, his attention had been caught by the synedrion, or council, at
Delphi for the Amphictyonic League, but it did not include enough Greek cities.
He decided to launch a new Panhellenion along Periclean lines. As before, a
grandly refurbished Athens was to be the headquarters and Greek cities would be
invited to send delegates to an inaugural assembly. Member communities had to
prove their Greekness, both culturally and in genetic descent, although in
practice some bogus pedigrees were accepted.
The enterprise had
a somewhat antiquarian character. So far as we can tell from the fragmentary
surviving evidence, Hadrian aimed at roughly the same catchment area as
Pericles had done—in essence, the basin of the Ionian Sea. Italy and Sicily
were excluded once again, and there was no representation of Greek settlements
in Egypt, Syria, or Anatolia. The emperor made a point of visiting Sparta,
presumably to ensure that it did not stay away as it had done in the fifth
century.
A renaissance of
old glories was reflected in the development of archaized language; so, for
example, Spartan young men (epheboi) suddenly took on an antiquated
Doric dialect in their dedications to Artemis Orthia, a patron goddess of the
city. It seems clear that one of the purposes of Hadrian’s policy was to
recruit the past to influence and to help define and improve the decadent
present.
Hadrian began to
call himself the “Olympian,” echoing the example of Pericles as well as
reflecting the completion of the Olympieion, the vast temple to Olympian Zeus.
He was soon widely known throughout the Hellenic eastern provinces as
“Hadrianos Sebastos Olumpios,” Sebastos being the Greek word for
Augustus, or indeed “Hadrianos Sebastos Zeus Olumpios.” ….
See also my
article:
No comments:
Post a Comment