Religion and Literature in Hadrian's Policy

Abstract

More than twenty years ago Restovtzeff stated that the emperor Hadrian's reign, in spite of all that had been written about it, fully deserved a fresh monograph1). The remark still holds good, notwithstanding the many studies, even extensive works, which have been devoted to this ruler since. Whenever Rostovtzeff's suggestion is followed Hadrian's religious policy will no doubt form an essential part of the new work. Recently discovered material (papyri and inscriptions) presents a number of problems which will have to be considered together with the literary evidence of the Vita Hadriani and Cassius Dio, to mention no more than the principal sources. The emperor's personality and his outlook on contemporary religious trends cannot well be left out of consideration, no matter how precarious the examination or how doubtful the result. His personal views in matters of religion cannot be successfully approached unless his religious policy has first been conscientiously examined. The student will have to take his chance of falling a victim to political camouflage and devices on the part of the emperor himself; there is simply no alternative. Those who endeavour to reconstruct Hadrian's religion directly from his own statements, scant as they are, arrive at diametrically opposite results. Even so, they show that the road to such a reconstruction via the study of his religious policy, circuitous though it maybe, is less liable to produce unfounded or arbitrary decisions. By way of introduction I submit the following examples of rash conclusions drawn from some of Hadrian's owrn statements on matters of