The next program in the series, about the art of a new religious cult in Rome, might also cover the period of Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys. (We would like to see some art from Ys but, of course, it was all destroyed.)
Friday, 31 July 2020
Hadrian
The next program in the series, about the art of a new religious cult in Rome, might also cover the period of Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys. (We would like to see some art from Ys but, of course, it was all destroyed.)
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5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Well, I have had heard of Antinous, the favorite of Emperor Hadrian as he grew old.
And I took pains to visit the former Pantheon (now dedicated to St. Mary and all the Martyrs) during my visits to Rome. But, not alas, at one of the regularly scheduled Masses. It is an impressive monument to Roman art and engineering.
Several of the Kings of Italy were buried in the Pantheon, such as Victor Immanuel II and Umberto I. And I was interested to see, despite Italy now being a republic, Italian soldiers saluting the tomb of Victor Immanuel II.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Does "St. Mary" mean the Virgin Mary.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, the Blessed Virgin is meant. The church is informally called "Santa Maria Rotonda" by the Romans.
And besides his Wall and the Pantheon, Hadrian is also known for his Tomb in Roman (now Castel Sant Angelo) and his country Villa.
Ad astra! Sean
The "four Good Emperors' of the Antonine period were all adopted by predecessors who had no natural sons -- a common means of preserving a family name among Romans, by the way. Marcus Aurelius -did- have a sone of his body, Commodus... not a happy coincidence.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Marcus Aurelius was too good a man to be great enough to renounce his son and be content with adopting an able man as his son. That said, given that Marcus HAD a son of his body, there really wasn't much of an alternative to anyone but Commodus succeeding him as Emperor.
The real problem for Rome was not having a strong tradition of dynastic legitimacy, which would have made it easier to tolerate incompetents on the throne.
Ad astra! Sean
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