Was Hadrian gay?

Question

Wasnt it considered really bad in those days to be gay

Answer 1

History adopted the 'Don't Ask - - - Don't Tell' Policy long before Bill Clinton. The answer is sorta 'yes no maybe,' Gay people have so few icons it is hard to give up a claim on one of the most brilliant if not the most brilliant Roman Emperor. But like many a Hollywood actor Hadrian never stood up and said "I'm here & I'm Queer - - - get over it."

And it was not a foul vice among Romans as certain answers might suggest. In fact ancients didn't go around tagging people 'gay' or 'straight' and any nasty whispering was that human habit of condeming people for their sexual habits whatever those habits might be - - - or perceived to be. Much as late night comics shred one celebrity for being 'queer' and another for having more than one female sex partner in their life time, so it was with Romans. Those that whisperered against Hadrian did so for a variety of reasons and the fact that Hadrian did seem to frolic with men was reason enough to say Hadrian might be gay.

Oddly enough it was the Christians who said the most, especially embellishing sordid tales when later the Christian Church ruled Europe they were eager to use Hadrian as an example of the bestial habits of the Roman Emperors, an example of the decadence of ancient Rome as opposed to the sanctified New Rome of the Catholic Church (where Priests had mistresses and fathered numerous bastard children when they weren't banging alter boys ).

Anyhow here are a few links that might help clarify things, some are blatant that Hadrian was, others more circumspect.

http://www.chariotswheels.com/html/gay/antinous.htm

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Hadrian

http://www.androphile.org/preview/Library/Biographies/Hadrian/Hadrian.htm

Peace

Answer 2

Hadrian Gay

Answer 3

The Greco/Roman ideas about homosexuality were actually an inverse of what most people believe today. They considered it something of a perversion for a man to be sexually involved with other men. However, adolescent boys were another story - Taking young boys as lovers was regarded as quite normal. Hadrian had boys as lovers, which was routine for a wealthy and powerful man of his time and culture.

Only after Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire did homosexuality come to be seen as a vice. An interesting detail is that the public baths which were common throughout the Empire in Adrian's era were sort of the equivalent of singles bars for men and boys who wanted to get together. As a result, Christians came to see bathing as a vice, and personal cleanliness was considered a sin for many centuries. Lives of saints from this era often state, as a sign of their piety, that famous saints went years or even decades without ever bathing.

Answer 4

Hadrian ( 76 CE – 138 CE ), born in Spain of provincial Roman stock, became Roman Emperor in 117, succeeding to his uncle Trajan. Hadrian’s reign was marked by a distinct will to preserve the ‘Roman Peace’ and renunciation of further conquests, though towards the end of it he was forced to lead a disastrous war caused by a revolt in the province of Judaea, afterwards Palestine. He secured the frontiers with fortifications like Hadrian’s Wall in the north of Britain and the Limes in Germany. Hadrian spent most of his time far from Rome, indefatigably travelling through all parts of the vast Empire. His aim was to give the provinces more political importance and a stronger identification with the whole state. His concern for prosperity and welfare led to thorough-going reforms in administration, jurisdiction, education, taxation and the military, including, almost for the first time, some legal protection for slaves.

Being an educated art lover, Hadrian designed himself some of the many buildings he decreed, most notably the still existent Pantheon in Rome, a bold and pioneering dome construction. His love of the Greek culture and history made Greece his favourite province, and particularly returned to Athens a touch of its gone glory, after a long stagnation and before a longer decay. The Greek tradition also afforded to Hadrian a model for his ****** inclinations. Though he doubtless had sexual relations to women too and did not think of himself as ‘homosexual’, a term unknown to the antiquity, it seems that males were more attractive to him. Certainly the person Hadrian loved most was a Greek youth named Antinous, who accompanied him about six years until the young man’s premature death in the Nile. Hadrian insisted on the deification of Antinous, though he had to know that the bestowal of such a distinction, usually reserved for deceased emperors and their family, on an obscure foreigner would not be appreciated in Rome. It was not the pederastic relationship in it itself that was offensive to the public opinion, though, but only the religious and political dimension that Hadrian gave to it.

for more info
http://www.androphile.org/preview/Library/Biographies/Hadrian/Hadrian.htm

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Answer 5

Read his biography. The best book about him is Marguerite Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian. His most famous lover was Antinous.

Answer 6

@ -Cybersharque - Elagabalus was not murdered simply for being gay. He was murdered for being a 14 year old emperor that liked to hold elaborate orgies, who liked to dress like a woman and prostitute himself out in cheap brothels, and who offered half the empire to any doctor that could give him an artificial vagina. And yes, that would have been as weird to the Romans as it is to you. Hence, why the Legionaries hacked him and his mother to pieces while they quivered together in a tent.

The Roman concept of sexuality was quite different from our Christian influenced views. For Christians, it is considered proper to treat sex as an act of nature, primarily for procreation purposes, and doing it for any other reason is a dangerous distraction at best (if you are married) and disgustingly sinful at worse (If you are not married.) It is only very recently in history when this view has changed.

For the Romans, it was more like eating: one of those activities you do that, while yes it does serve an organic purpose, in reality, is an indulged pleasure (you eat good food because it is a pleasure to eat good food.)

However, both Epicurianism and Stoicism preached restraint, as a way of separating oneself from barbarism and irrationality. Granted the lower Roman classes weren't too keen on being philosophically pure, but then again that can be said of lower classes from ANY era, including the modern one. So describing Rome as a society lost to decadence is simply false (Especially when you consider how rapidly Christianity caught on)

However, homosexuality was not as widespread in Rome as it was in other areas, and certainly not as much in Greece, where it was institutionalized. In the Roman concept of sexuality, there was the penetrated, and the penetrator. While it implied a man and woman, it was certainly not universal. But that implication applied to Romans as well: women are the ones who are penetrated, men are the ones who penetrate. So while it was not considered disgusting per se, it was looked upon as being girly if you let yourself be penetrated. Rome was an unapologically masculine culture, and a man showing any signs of feminity was considered weak and foppish.

Hadrian, while a beloved and able Emperor, always stirred controversy due to his homosexual lover and his Grecophilia ("Because true Romans favored manly Roman values over girly Greek ones!") He had a younger lover by the name of Antinous, who he loved dearly. When Antinous drowned while swimming in the Nile river (under suspicious circumstances, nonetheless), Hadrian was devastated. In his grief, Hadrian had a city erected in his name (Antinopolis) had Antinous deified, and erected numerous statues of him all over the empire.

Answer 7

It was a fairly common practice for men to have young male lovers. This has been noted in both ancient Greek & Roman cultures. When I was in Rome, I do remember one of our tour guides telling us that Hadrian did have young concubines - male and female.

Answer 8

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I read Hadrian had a thing for his male assistant who drowned in the Nile, Egypt. Of course nothing can be "proven", only strongly speculated.

Answer 9

yes,ive seen on history channel once,that he loved a young man named augustus,and when the latter drowned to death,hadrian was furious and in a bad rage for many days after that.

Answer 10

I have heard of Hadrian's ball. Apparently his gay lover chopped it off in a fit of rage, then he soaked it in vinegar. Apparently his ball is now so vast, it can be seen from outter space.

Yes, he was a brown bomber.