Following Hadrian

Tells the story of the most powerful man on earth in the early part of the second century. The man who built Hadrian's Wall, the Pantheon in Rome, and, for himself, a nine hundred-room villa at Tivoli. Hadrian was a great but flawed Roman Emperor, an intellectual and patron of the arts but he was also melancholy, volatile and utterly ruthless. Elizabeth Speller tells the story of the most powerful man on earth in the early part of the second century. The man who built Hadrian's Wall, the Pantheon in Rome, and, for himself, a nine hundred-room villa at Tivoli. Hadrian was a great but flawed Roman Emperor, an intellectual and patron of the arts but he was also melancholy, volatile and utterly ruthless. 'Wonderful and entrancing ... Anyone interested in the ancient world will want to read this book.' Literary Review'Following Hadrian offers a clear-headed and accessible narrative of Hadrian's wandering reign, informed and enlivened by some of the best modern work on the politics of the Roman Empire - which she manages to cast much more elegantly than most professional ancient historians themselves.' Mary Beard, TLS