Category: Second Century Rome

Hadrian and Antinous hunted lions together in the Libyan desert and then headed back to the Nile for a cruise southbound towards Upper Egypt. Within weeks of their arrival in Egypt, and presumably only a week or so into the Nile cruise, Antinous drowned, under mysterious circumstances. He was 19.

There’s a popular phrase: “money wins elections,” but few instances throughout history have demonstrated as clear a link between money and power as the short reign of Didius Julianus. Only a generation earlier, the position of Roman emperor had been appointed based on who the previous emperor had seen most fit to govern after his…