An ‘Evil Demiurge’. Hadrian and some neglected aspects of Hadrian's building policy at Athens

Abstract

Literary sources, historiography and post-antique fascinations underlie the eclectic image we know of the emperor Hadrian and his cultural policy. This peculiar ambiguity, seldom recognised in monumental traces, also deserves to be analysed in relation to archaeological and architectural evidence. This article, which stems from a work on mid-imperial Athens to be published in 2024, addresses the relationship between Hadrian and Athens and aspects of this emperor's building policy.