HACKSHOTT
104
HADRIAN
Schick. Palestine Expl. Fund. Quarterly Statement (1892),
283-9; CoNDER AND Warren, Tke Survey of Western Palestine,
Jersualem (London, 1884), iiSO.
BABNABA.S MeiSTERMANN.
Hackshott, Thomas. See Tichborne, Thomas,
Venerable.
Hadewych (H.\dewig, Hedwig), Blessed, pri- oress of the Premonstratensian convent of Mehre (Meer), near Buderich, in Klieuisli Prussia; b. about 1150; d. 1-1 April, about the year 1200. She was a daughter of Hildegundis, with whom she founded the convent of Meer about 116.5, and whom she suc- ceeded as prioress at the convent in 1183. Her brother Herman was provost of tlie Premonstraten- sian mona.stery of Kappenl^erg, in the Diocese of Munster, from 1171-1210. She, as well as her mother and her brother, are counted among the Blessed.
SpiLBEECK, La bien/ieureuse liildegonde, cotntesse de Alctr, et ses enfants le b. Herman et la b. Hedwige de I'ordre de Prtniontri- (Brussels, 1892); Ada 6'S., .A.pril, II, 263-4; Februarj-, I, 925-7.
Michael Ott.
Hadrian, Pcblius .^Elius, Emperor of the Romans: b. 24 January, a. d. 76 at Rome; d. 16 July, 138. He married his cousin and ward, Julia Saliina, grand- niece of Trajan. He reigned from 118 to 138, devoted himself to art and science, and possessed notable
qualifications as a statesman and sol- dier. He aban- doned Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, countries that his predeces- sor had hoped to acquire perma- nently by the con- quest of the Par- thians, and con- fined his efforts to developing the Province of .■\rabia. He strengthened his amicable rela- tions with the Sen- ate Ijy various fa- vours; he remitted arrears of taxes that had been ow- ing to the treasury for fifteen years. The absolute power of the emperor reached limits never attained before. X conspiracy formed against Hadrian's life by distinguished of- ficers during one of his campaigns in jlcesia was suppressed by the senators, and the four ringleaders were executed without the emperor's knowledge. In pursuance of his political, scientific, and mili- tary interests he travelled over the Roman prov- inces during his reign, first through those in the North and the North-West, then Spain and Maure- tania, and finally the Orient and Greece, thereby as- suring the loyalty of thirty legions and raising the discipline and warlike efficiency of the Roman army to a high standard, though his policy was far-sighted and peaceful. He was commemorated on the coinage as the restorer of the pro\'inces. By protecting the boundaries in the valley of the Lower Danube, and by building many fortified places he encouraged the settlement of the province of Dacia by Roman colo- nists. In Germany he completed the palisaded ditch between the Rhine and the Danube (limes Hadriani). In Britain the legions constructed a fortified wall ex- tending from the mouth of the River T,vne to the Solway Firth {vallum Hadriani) to protect the Roman boundaries from the inroads of the Picts. This has been partially preserved. He desisted from any at-
Emperor Hadrian
^Vatican Museum)
tempt to subjugate the northern part of the island.
Numerous fortresses and military roads were built in
Africa and on the Black Sea. He built up the old
Thracian colony Uscudama into the flourishing city
of Adrianople. A description of the Pontic coasts was
written at Hadrian's request by his legate, the histor-
ian Flavins Arrianus of Nicomedia, in his "Pcriplus".
Although on his return he had lost some of his popu-
larity at Rome, he made a second tour abroad for
several years in 129, and conferred such an abundance
of benefits and gifts, particularly on Greece and Athens,
that, according to his biographer Spartianiis, this city,
where a new section called Hadrian's quarter was
built at the south-east of the old town, again became
the centre of Hellenic culture. He completed the
Olympieum that Pisistratus had begun, the largest
temple in the Grieco-Homan world.
The Greeks set up Hadrian's statue in the temple at Olympia and built the Panhellenium in the new- town in honour of Zeus Panhellenius. In the provinces of Asia Hadrian encouraged and aided the construc- tion of aqueducts, bridges, roads, and temples, and the restoration of ruined cities. By this means he sought to relieve economic distress anrl at the same time to promote his domestic policy. During an inundation of the Nile, while he was travelling through Egj-pt, his favourite, the beautiful young Antinous, a native of Bithynia, was drowned, in the year 130. The emperor caused liim to be deified. In order to prevent the recurrence of insurrections by the Jews, who in their religious schools were cherishing hopes of reviving a Jewish kingdom under the Messias, the emperor ordered the Roman troops in Jerusalem to raze the ruins left standing in that ancient city and to set up a military colony, ^Elia Capitolina. It was his wish to era<licate Judaism as such. The Jews revolted in 132 under Simon, whom they calleil Bar-Cocheba (Son of the Stars). Inside of three years Sext us Ju- lius Severus put down the rising amid terrilile destruc- tion antl bloodshed. The Jews were forbidden to set foot within the old city. In the year 134 Hadrian returned to Italy. He built a temple to Trajan in Rome, a colossal double temple to Venus and Roma, and the gigantic mausoleum on the right bank of the Tiber, which constitutes the kernel of the castle of Sant' Angelo. At his villa near Tivoli he copied the monuments and landscapes that had made the strong- est impressions on him during his travels. In order to unify jurisprudence throughout the entire empire, he ordered the pra>tor Salvius Julianus to revise and codify systematically the pra?torian edicts and the annual supplementary edicts. In the year 131 this "perpetual edict" {edictum perpctuum) obtained force of law by virtue of a decree of the senate; the same force was gi\en to the opinions of the jurisconsults in all points wherein they were agreed among them- selves, in order that the system of tlie law might con- tinue to develop. He bestowed the highest adminis- trative offices on men of knightly rank, instead of on freedmen as heretofore, and regulated the succession of these officers. During his absence from Rome he had created an efficient, salaried council, clothed with statutory authority, which was confirmed by the sen- ate, and which had the decision of all current impor- tant affairs in the administration of the empire. Ac- cording to Hadrian's wishes, the Christians were to be punished only for such offences as came under the common law. Although there was no outspoken statutory toleration of them, they were not persecuted on account of their religion. With the sanction of the senate, he adopted L. Ceionius Commodus Verus and designated him as his successor by having the title of Caesar conferred on him in 136. Because his brother-in-law, L. Julius Ursus Servianus, cherished hopes of the succession for his own youthful grandson, Fuscus Salinator, Hadrian had them both put to death. After the death of ^'erus (1 January, 138)
