Classical Clayton

ANTINOUS: THE CREATION OF A GOD Quick quiz question: which individual from the ancient world do we have the most statues of?   Julius Caesar? Alexander the Great? Pericles?   Nope. What about that lovable megalomaniac Nero, so self-obsessed that he even toyed with re-naming Rome ‘Neropolis’?   Wrong again.   Perhaps you won’t find it too surprising that the top two places in the league table are occupied by Roman Emperors - Augustus (a man who really understood the value of propaganda) and Hadrian .   But you might be surprised to learn that the third place doesn’t go to a general, statesman or ruler, but to a boy who drowned in the River Nile at the age of eighteen and subsequently became the focus of a new religious cult – one which still has its adherents today.    Hadrian & Antinous The Emperor Hadrian spent almost half his reign travelling round the Roman Empire , aiming to visit as many provinces as possible – even barbarous and distant ones like Britannia