Image Details

David Harris/Collection Israel Museum

AN IRON MAN’S SENSITIVE SKIN. The mighty Hadrian embodied the Roman Empire at its height. Emperor from 117–138 A.D., Hadrian consolidated Rome’s power and fixed the boundaries that would mark the limits of its rule for another 300 years. He built the wall in northern England that bears his name, and in the final years of his rule he smashed a Jewish uprising in Judea and shattered its Jewish population. However ferocious, Hadrian had a skin problem. He visited baths wherever he traveled in the empire, among them Hammat-Gader.