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Memoirs of Hadrian

An ageing emperor writes to his heir, taking the measure of a life spent building. The map holds the monuments Hadrian left standing in Rome: the Pantheon he rebuilt and the great drum of his own mausoleum by the Tiber. It reaches east to his villa at Tibur and, on his memory's longer excursions, to the Athens he adorned and the Nile where Antinous drowned.

Hadrian

The Pantheon

Rome

Among the works the emperor counts as his own is the great round temple to all the gods, which he raised again from Agrippa's ruined original and left crowned with its open eye to the sky. It still stands, close to whole, in the heart of the old city.

The rebuilding of Rome under Hadrian

explicit The Pantheon is a named, still-standing monument; Hadrian rebuilt it early in his reign and kept his predecessor Agrippa's name on the front. These are the coordinates of the building on the Piazza della Rotonda.

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Hadrian

Temple of Venus and Roma

Rome

The emperor, an amateur architect proud of his own hand, sets the largest temple in the city on the ridge between the Forum and the amphitheatre, its two shrines built back to back for the goddess of the city and the goddess of love. Its brick vaults survive on the Via Sacra.

The rebuilding of Rome under Hadrian

explicit A named monument on the Velian Hill above the Forum, its ruins still visible beside the Colosseum. Hadrian drew the plans himself; these are the coordinates of the surviving platform.

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Hadrian

Hadrian's Mausoleum (Castel Sant'Angelo)

Rome

Looking toward his own death, the emperor thinks of the drum-shaped tomb he has ordered raised on the far bank of the river, where his ashes and those of his line will lie. Popes later turned it into a fortress; it endures above the Tiber as Castel Sant'Angelo.

Hadrian's tomb by the Tiber

explicit The Mausoleum of Hadrian, the cylindrical tomb he built for himself by the Tiber, still stands as Castel Sant'Angelo. These are the coordinates of the monument.

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