Hadrian and Antinous
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Name: Cassius Dio Date: 155 – 235 CE Region: Nicaea [modern Turkey] Citation: Roman History 69.11.3-4 |
Hadrian
honored Antinous by creating a city in the place where he died, and bringing
settlers to live there. He also placed statues (or rather, cult statues) of him
in nearly every corner of the Empire. Finally, he even claimed to see a comet
which was Antinous reborn, and listened desperately to his cronies who made up
stories claiming that the heavenly object was Antinous' soul rising into the
heavens, and that the comet had never previously appeared.
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καὶ οὕτω γε τὸν Ἀντίνοον... ἐτίμησεν ὡς καὶ πόλιν ἐν τῷ
χωρίῳ, ἐν ᾧ τοῦτ᾽ ἔπαθε, καὶ συνοικίσαι καὶ ὀνομάσαι ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ. καὶ ἐκείνου
ἀνδριάντας ἐν πάσῃ ὡς εἰπεῖν τῇ οἰκουμένῃ, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀγάλματα, ἀνέθηκε. καὶ
τέλος ἀστέρα τινὰ αὐτός τε ὁρᾶν ὡς καὶ τοῦ Ἀντινόου ὄντα ἔλεγε καὶ τῶν
συνόντων οἱ μυθολογούντων ἡδέως ἤκουεν ἔκ τε τῆς ψυχῆς τοῦ Ἀντινόου ὄντως τὸν
ἀστέρα γεγενῆσθαι καὶ τότε πρῶτον ἀναπεφηνέναι. |
Itaque
Antinoum, ... tanto honore affecit; ut urbem in eo loco, in quo ille
obiisset, colonis adductis conditam, ex eo nominari voluerit; statuasque ei,
el potius simulacra, in omni fere orbe terrarum dedicaverit. Denique tum ipse
quoddam se videre sidus aiebat, quod esset Antinoi; tum familiares idem
fabulose fingentes libenter audiebat, quasi scilicet ex Antinoi anima vere
sidus istud exortum esset, ac tunc primum adparuisset. Translated into Latin by Hermann Samuel Reimarus |
Cassius Dio
[Lucius Cassius Dio; 165 – 235 CE, modern Turkey] was a Roman statesman born in
Nicaea, Bithynia [modern Turkey] who wrote an 80 volume work on Roman history
that spanned from Aeneas’ flight from Troy to the rise of the emperor Severus
Alexander. Although much of his history is lost, the fragments that we do have
show rare insight into the Roman world.
