Hadrian's Walls

-117 AD- anyway, so Hadrian was now emperor of Rome.
   -During this time there was starting to be cracks in the empire.
      -Rebellion in Dacia (the Dacian Wars), northern Britannia, and Judea. 
-The Second Judean-Roman War (AKA the Kitos War; 115-117 AD) was especially brutal.
   -During the first Jewish-Roman War (AKA the Great Revolt; 66-73 AD) many Jews fled the kingdom because the Romans were killing and/or enslaving everyone.
      -Many of these Jews fled into different parts of the Roman empire, but they refused to assimilate into these new societies they found themselves living in.
         -The Jews came to be increasingly feared and marginalized in their societies. 
         -Because this situation, it finally reached a head in 117 AD when a dude named Lukuas (AKA Andreas) started a rebellion in the province of Crete and Cyrenaica in 115 AD by proclaiming himself "King of the Jews" and declaring war on the Roman Empire.
            -During his rebellion he led his followers to destroy many Roman temples and government buildings, and executed all of the non-Jews they could find.  His revolt then spread to Aegyptus, Cyprus, and Mesopotamia. 
               -Additionally, part of Alexandria in Aegyptus was burned to the ground.
               -In Cyprus, up to 200,000 non-Jews were slaughtered.
            -During this time Trajan was emperor; he ended up dispatching the Praetorian prefect Marcius Turbo to quell the rebellion, and while this was relatively easy in Cyprus, it wasn't until after Trajan died that he was able to finally get Aegyptus under control.
               -Lukuas then fled to the city of Lod (AKA "Lydda" in Greek) in Judea, where he and his rebels were besieged by a Roman army led by Lucius Quietus (governor of Judea), who was ultimately successful in finally quelling the rebellion and executing Lukuas and his rebel army. 
                  -After this, Quietus was actually dismissed as prefect because Hadrian thought he was getting too powerful.
   -Because the situation was getting so out of control in the East, Hadrian decided to double down in provinces like Judea and give up on trying to hold Mesopotamia, which he saw as a waste of resources when the other neighboring provinces were so unstable.
      -As for Cyrenaica, the province was so depopulated that Hadrian had to set up a recolonization project later, and Jewish immigrants were also permanently banned from Cyprus.
-Because of his decision to withdraw Roman forces from the provinces of Mesopotamia, Hadrian also allowed for Parthamaspates, the puppet ruler (who had been installed by Trajan) of Parthia, to be driven off by Sanatruces II, who was then enthroned as the rightful king of Parthia around 117 AD.
   -During this time Hadrian also recalled the legions in Germania back over to the Roman side of the Danube River.
      -All of these withdrawals really pissed off the Senate, and it could be argued that there was a religious aspect to this outrage as well- the Romans worshiped Terminus, the god of boundaries, and believed in the sacredness of boundary markers. 
         -So, to intentionally abandon these boundary markers may have been seen as disgraceful to the gods.
-118 AD- Hadrian had four ex-consuls killed (allegedly).
   -These ex-consuls were: Cornelius Palma (former governor of Syria); Publius Celsus (former member of Trajan's inner circle who was kicked out on suspicion of treason); Lucius Quietus; Avidius Nigrinus (governor of Dacia).
   -It is believed that this was based on intelligence provided by the prefect Attianus, who claimed that these ex-consuls were conspiring to murder Hadrian and stage a coup.
      -They were executed without a trial and their deaths shocked the elites.  To make matters worse, either Hadrian or Attianus had forced the Senate to sign off on these executions/murders, making them accomplices. 
         -Everyone began to fear that Hadrian was turning into another Domitian; no one believed in these trumped-up charges.  Hadrian was now scorned in Rome by his fellow elites.
   -Anyway, Hadrian knew that everyone now hated him and that this put him at risk of fomenting a legit conspiracy against him, so he began to make a serious effort to try and salvage his reputation.
      -He claimed that he had nothing to do with the murders and blamed everything on Attianus, and had Attianus removed as prefect.
         -He also encouraged everyone to come visit him in person in the palace and began to make himself as visible as possible in public.
-Hadrian also implemented some financial reforms, such as fines, monetary penalties, etc.
   -Any money going to the government now went directly into the imperial treasury (and not into imperial or senatorial accounts).  He also cancelled all debts involving loans taken out in the past 15 years.  He even went so far as to have all the records publicly burned!  Of course, the people loved him for this.
-However, despite Hadrian's reforms and cleaned-up image, he never truly won over the Senate, but they still did manage to trust him to an extent. 
   -Hadrian also kicked off his reign with a ton of games- gladiatorial matches, chariot races, wild animal-hunting spectacles, etc.
-Hadrian also traveled more than any other emperor had or would in the history of the empire. 
   -Spent roughly half his reign traveling.  He also spent a lot of time in his private villa outside Rome, and this trend would continue as future emperors would eventually tend to spend less and less time in the city of Rome itself.
-121 AD- Hadrian's first grand tour of the western half of the empire.
   -The legions in Germania had kind of fallen by the wayside in terms of of attention since most of the action was taking place in the East, so Hadrian wanted to to shift some of the focus back onto these legions.  He also wanted to make additional updates to the Limes Germanicus.  However, it's important to note that Hadrian's priority was defense; he wasn't interested in expanding across the Rhine.
      -Often walked alongside the legions and hung out with them; he was NEVER carried in a litter.  He also often wore simple clothes and stayed in spartan lodgings. 
         -This really boosted troop morale. 
-122 AD- Hadrian visits Britannia.
   -There had been a bunch of uprisings and revolts after Trajan died in 117 AD, so Hadrian's solution was to build a giant-ass 70-mile wall in the north.  However, the purpose of the wall was not meant to "wall off" the barbarians from Roman territory, but rather to cut in half the territory of the Brigantes (Celtic tribe of northern Britannia).
      -This allowed for the Romans to manage the territory much more easily and establish influence among the locals as towns would inevitably spring up around the garrisons. 
-122-123 AD- Hadrian went to Gaul and Iberia and chilled there for awhile.
-Spring 123 AD- went south to the provinces of Mauretania Tingitana and Mauretania Caesariensis. 
   -There had been a rebellion by some of the local Mauri (the Roman word for the Berbers of the province of Mauretania) and Hadrian set up a network of forts and ditches ("limes") to fortify the provinces.
   -Hadrian then went east to the city of Cyrene in the province of Crete and Cyrenaica (and then maybe went to Alexandria, but this is unclear).  Also, the city of Cyrene had recently been pretty fucked up by the Jewish revolts, so while he was there Hadrian pledged to rebuild the city.
-Summer 123 AD- Hadrian arrives in the city of Antioch (modern-day Antakya, Turkey) in Syria.  He was there because he wanted to meet with Osroes I (current king of Parthia), as the Parthians were once again becoming increasingly belligerent.
   -Through diplomacy they were able to work out a deal- the Euphrates River would serve as the border between Parthia and Rome. 
   -Hadrian then toured through the rest of Asia Minor.
      -During this time in Asia Minor, during his stop in the city of Claudiopulus (modern-day Bolu, Turkey) in the province of Bithynia and Pontus, Hadrian apparently met a beautiful male youth named Antinous (when and where they met exactly is still unknown, however) who would quickly become his lover and would travel with Hadrian and shit during his travels.
-Hadrian's travels and stops at every major city were a big deal because no emperor had ever really done that before.  Additionally, pretty much every city he stopped at was improved soon after he left.
-Sometime between 123-124 AD, Hadrian went to Athens.
   -He had really wanted to get there in time in order to participate in the Eleusinian Mysteries, a mystical initiation rite into the Greek cult of Demeter and Persephone based out of the city of Eleusis (approximately 10 miles NW of Athens).
      -Highly possible that these rites involved psychedelic drugs (including possibly ergot, shrooms, opioids, or even DMT!).
         -Augustus himself had even participated back in the day.
   -During his time in Athens, Hadrian had made plans to transform the city into a cultural powerhouse once again, as he really loved Greek culture and hated to see that it had kind of become a backwater.
      -While the Athenians appreciated Hadrian's good will, they were also annoyed at the idea of Rome "making Athens great again".
-125 AD- Hadrian had been out of Rome for four years at this point, so he knew it was time to return home (even though he probably just wanted to stay in Athens forever).
   -However, in order to still enjoy Greek culture back home, Hadrian ordered the construction of the Villa Adriana ("Hadrian's Villa" in English) outside of the town of Tibur (modern-day Tivoli, Italy), located approximately 20 miles outside of Rome, which he styled to his liking.
   -After passing through Sicily, Hadrian finally arrived in Rome.
      -There, he surveyed a bunch of the construction that he had ordered to be built or remodeled, including the newly-renovated Pantheon!