Statue of the Emperor Hadrian

 

The Jerusalem bust is one of the finest bronze portraits to survive from antiquity. Only a few of this type of statues have been preserved in bronze, most of the surviving ones were made of marble.

This magnificent bronze statue of Hadrian was found in Tel Shalem (Israel) occupied by a detachment of the Sixth Roman Legion (Legio VI Ferrata). The fragments of this statue were found at the centre of the camp, perhaps in the Principia (the headquarter tent).

This remarkable statue was apparently used for the ritual worship of the emperor. Evidence suggests that it may have been erected in AD 132-133 to commemorate Hadrian’s personal involvement in suppressing the Bar Kokhba revolt or that it may have been set up in AD 135 to celebrate the conclusion of Hadrian’s reorganisation of Judaea into a new province named Syria-Palestina.

The statue probably portrays Hadrian in the pose of the supreme military commander greeting his troops (adlocutio) or as a conqueror .

Hadrian, also spelled Adrian, Latin in full Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, Roman Emperor (117–138 CE), was a cultivated admirer of Greek civilization and who unified and consolidated Rome’s vast empire. He was the third of the so-called Five Good Emperors.

Data

Roman period, 117-138 CE

Bronze and lead

H: 89; W: 75 cm

Israel Antiquities Authority

IAA:1975-763

Israel Museum, Jerusalem