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Emperor Hadrian was a great traveler. He spent the eight years from 119 to 127 A. D. in journeying round the Roman empire just to get acquainted with the state of the provinces. When he was in England he built the famous wall that extends from the Solway to the Tyne. He fully deserved the title “Father of his Country” which was given him on his return to Rome.
Hadrian was also a famous builder. In addition to the great Roman Wall in England he erected many beautiful and expensive structures in Athens, and a villa at Tivoli which was noted for its beauty. But his most famous building is Hadrian’s Tomb, now called Castle Sant’ Angelo, which was constructed in 130 A. D. The last vacant niche in the Tomb of Augustus was occupied, and so Hadrian determined to build one for himself and his successors, which should have no rival in the world. Hadrian died before it was finished; but Antoninus Pius, his successor, completed it and buried Hadrian there.
“Hadrian’s Tomb” is a large circular tower, 230 feet in diameter. It was originally built of Parian marble. Some time in the fifth century, however, it was converted into a fort, and when the Goths under Vitiges besieged it in 537 the defenders tore the statues from their pedestals and hurled them down upon the attackers. Two of these were found during the seventeenth century in the moat surrounding the tomb.
In 590 there was a great plague in Rome. Pope Gregory the Great was leading a procession to Saint Peter’s Cathedral to pray for deliverance from the pestilence, when it is said the Destroying Angel appeared on the summit of the Tomb of Hadrian. The angel was sheathing his sword to signify that the plague was stopped. Since that time the building has been known as the Castle Sant' Angelo.
In 610 Pope Boniface IV erected on the summit of the tomb the Chapel of St. Angelo inter Nubes in commemoration of this event. Several statues of the Archangel succeeded this. The present one was put there in 1743.
Marozia, daughter of Theodora, held the tomb as a fort in the tenth century, and had Pope John X suffocated in a dungeon. A few years later Pope Benedict VI met a similar fate at the hands of Crescenzio, son of Theodora.
In the latter part of the tenth century Crescentius, the consul, had a quarrel with the Pope and seized the fort. He held it bravely against Emperor Otto III who had marched into Rome in defense of the pope.
Emperor Hadrian was an able military leader, and a just and wise civil ruler. His full name was Publius Ælius Hadrianus, and he was born at Rome on January 24, 76 A. D. He was such an ardent student of Greek that he was nicknamed Græculus, the “Greek.” He served in the campaign against the Dacians under his uncle, Emperor Trajan. At the latter’s death he became emperor. Hadrian died at Baiæ on July 10, 138. His remains were carried to Puteoli, from which place they were afterward taken to Rome.