Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome

By: Anthony Everitt

Narrated by: John Curless

Acclaimed British historian Anthony Everitt delivers a compelling account of the former orphan who became Roman emperor in A.D. 117 after the death of his guardian Trajan. Hadrian strengthened Rome by ending territorial expansion and fortifying existing borders. And - except for the uprising he triggered in Judea - his strength-based diplomacy brought peace to the realm after a century of warfare.

©2009 Anthony Everitt (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Great insight to a Roman Emperor

Great listen - will listen again in the future . Bet I missed some details . Will check out more Anthony Everett books .

Loved it

Fantastic book and great narration. Lover of Roman history so this stuff is my bread and butter.

A strong bio with some head scratching oddities

Writing detailed... anything, biography, history, political commentary, on the ancient world is notoriously difficult. Our understanding has to be drawn from roughly 3% of historical record that survived to the modern day.

For that reason it's highly understandable that we have to paint chapters of Hadrian's life in shades of "most likely" or "under his mentor who we have record of." And Everitt keeps a steady hand filling in the pieces of a man for whom much of his career was spent as a supporting player before succeeding Trajan. Everitt walks a fine line between speaking with too much certainty and digressing into the speculative caveats of writing about the ancient world.

All of Everitt's Rome works must have taken considerable research, familiarity with sources, and checking in with experts. This is why I'm left rewinding the book a few times to make sure I heard correctly. Historical artifacts are described at least twice as depicting "figures holding ears of corn" which is impossible considering corn wouldn't come from the new world for over another millenia. Also a translation of a sarcastic comment about someone's "bar-fly and fast food" lifestyle chose to use the phrase "pub dweller" and word "burgers" for the food he subsists on. What?

I enjoyed the book a lot, but these little things make me question thoroughness on the bigger things.

A Biography "too tall for the height of the cella"

Everitt finishes his trilogy/triptych on the Roman Empire with this biography of Hadrian. His biography on Cicero describes the end of the Roman Republic, his biography of Augustus centers on the consolidation and expansion of Roman empirial power. The biography of Hadrian shows the peak, maturity of Roman emperial expansion.

Historically, Hadrian has always been an under-appreciated emperor, so I was glad to see his biography tackled by Everitt. It also makes sense to try and bookend Everitt's trilogy with Hadrian. However, whether it is due to the lack of abundant historical information on Hadrian (as Everitt notes himself) or due to Everitt trying too hard to make Hadrian's reign fit into his neat (1.2.3.) pattern, this biography just sags and disappoints given Everitt's claim that Hadrian "has a good claim to have been the most successful of Rome's leaders."

In the end, it feels like Everitt was trying to do too much (Bio of Hadrian, triptych of the Roman Empire, etc) with too little. It reminded me of the architect Apollodorus' critique of Hadrian's own temple of Venus and Rome, the book was simply "too tall for the height of the cella."

Not a lot Going on Here

This is Everitt's weakest effort. I found it to be boring and difficult to get through. It's still worth reading if you want to learn about Rome's history, but don't expect it to be a page turner. The narrator is solid.