Fragments of an Emperor’s Religious Policy: The case of Hadrian

Abstract

Neither the concept of “imperial policy” nor of “religion” are easily applied to antiq­uity. Yet the activities of Roman emperors often did have consequences for religious activity, and their behaviour was not neces­sarily chaotic or random. Hadrian provides a good case for examining how religious activity was incorporated into ancient biog­raphy and historical writing, and how it was related to other fields of imperial conduct. A good deal is recorded about Hadrian’s conduct of religious offices, his building projects and his engagement with older tradition, Roman and foreign. The dossier of testimonia does reveals some consist­encies in his behaviour but these seem to derive less from policy than from habits of thought and action. Many of his actions can be interpreted as conventional, even if sometimes performed on an unconvention­al scale. Hadrian certainly exercised agency, and he had particular dispositions as a rul­er. But religious policy seems an anachro­nistic term to apply to his conduct.