Antinoüs of Bithynia

Verum Vitam

Antinous, truly lived, truly died, and was deified, of this we can be sure. His sculpted images housed in the great museums of the world stand as vivid testimony to a veritable and extraordinary life. Each of them, and there are hundreds, in various states of preservation, retain the unmistakable impression of what he really looked like. No matter what one may think of him, or Hadrian, or the very idea of men becoming gods, Antinous lived, and became a God, sanctified by the ancient rites of Rome and Egypt. His temples were built in every corner of the Empire, and his sacraments were performed by an ordered priesthood, and received by true believers for more than three hundred years, if not longer. Only the coming of Christianity ended his worship, as it did all the cults of the ancient gods. The deification of Antinous has everything in common with the Catholic concept of Sainthood, that mortals by heroic actions or blessedness could obtain immortality, like angels who once lived. All that was needed was sanctification by the representative of these gods on Earth, for Catholics the Pope, for Pagans the Emperor, both of whom are called Pontifex Maximus.

Antinous was born in Claudiopolis, a city in the Roman province of Bithynia, in the year 111 A.D. or the thirteenth year of the reign of Trajan (98-117 A.D.) He was of humble parentage, his father perhaps held a position of prestige in the city. Claudiopolis, now the city of Bolu in modern Turkey, was situated at a major crossroads of the highway that led from Greece to Syria. Almost all land transport coming from the rich cities of the east, or from Europe passed through Claudiopolis. Antinous was therefore born in the right place and at the right time to be found by the only Emperor to personally travel by land to every corner of the Empire.

Hadrian toured Greece, Asia Minor and the Danube in the year 123 A.D., he would surely have passed through Claudiopolis, and it is during this tour that he most likely found the thirteen year old Antinous. Exactly how is unknown, all attempts to portray the event are just elegant poetry. Margaret Youcenour in her Memoirs of Hadrian gives us the Emperor surrounded by the noble youth of the city with a quiet, mysterious boy at the back of the crowd, listlessly gazing into a fountain. A scene in which Socrates would have been comforted. What ever may have been, Hadrian was overcome by Antinous. The event seems to have occurred in June of the year 123.

From Claudiopolis, Antinous was taken to Rome, presumable not by force, but most enigmatically with the good will of his parents. This was a time far removed from our present abhorrence both of Homosexuality and of Pederasty. To be chosen by the Emperor for explicit reasons was seen not as shameful but as a wonderful opportunity for advancement. The Platonic concept of love for boys with the aim of their education and furtherance was prevalent, acceptable and encouraged. Antinous was lifted up from the obscurity of his birth and sent to the extravagance of the greatest metropolis of the time, and installed in the Paedagogium, a finishing school for boys. Officially designed to prepare the most promising youth of the day for positions in the government, it had an alternate purpose as a training school for the male concubines of the rich who preferred polished, educated, well mannered boys to ruffians, of which they had many. Antinous found himself surrounded by the finest boys of his day, from all around the Empire, beauties of extraordinary grace of whom he was the star. There they were educated in Latin, Literature, Philosophy, Mathematics, and most importantly physical training. It was essentially a place for Antinous to become exposed to the grandeur of the Roman court into which he would soon find his place.

Though of Humble background, it is plain to see that Antinous was no ordinary boy. He must have possessed a penetrating mind, a depth of feeling, or that certain magnitude of soul that draws both the wise and the simple inexorably to him. He was captivating enough to forever change the Emperor of Rome. Hadrian was of course no ordinary Emperor, his wide record of accomplishments is proof enough. To capture him required divine qualities, beauty alone was insufficient, and there were certainly many rivals in his youth-loving court who might even have surpassed Antinous in this regard. If his beauty was combined with a profoundness of mind unlike anything in Rome, one can begin to see where the broad intelligence of Hadrian might have been intrigued. But this can only have been the beginning, like any love affair, there is a moment of love-at-first-sight that either dissipates like drunkenness, or intensifies as the petals slowly open, revealing an ever-deepening transportation. This can only have been the case, the circumstances of Hadrian and Antinous's love must have been above and beyond the usual story of Emperor and favorite. Had Antinous been female, we might have had another Justinian and Theodora.

Antinous is mostly unknown, like a myth or a legend, his own words have vanished, whether because they were ignored, or perhaps destroyed, lost, or covered in dust and decay, one can never know. That he was not a saint in the canonical sense is immediately apparent, there are no tales of miraculous deeds, nothing resembling charity, not a single austerity during the course of his life. His first virtue, his most overpowering, the one of which we can be certain, is that he is among the most beautiful and perfect of all creations. He is a beauty that transcends the stone into which it was invested by inspired ancient sculptors. This is his power and his virtue, this is why he deserves to be understood as a god.

He came to flower during the spring of the most glorious period of western civilization, a golden age known as the reign of the Antonines. The subjugation of the ancient world was accomplished, almost simultaneously with the birth of Antinous, during the wars of the Spanish born Emperor Trajan. His chosen successor Hadrian preferred to improve the interior of the civilized world over further vainglorious conquests. His public works and monuments are among the only remnants of the greatest and most lasting culture the western world has ever known. But until recently, these massive efforts have been almost completely ignored because of two actions which Christian moralists have viewed as completely detrimental to his character, both religious and even to our modern minds radical and shocking. The first was Antinous, and the second the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersal of the Jews.

Hadrian

Publius Aelius Hadrianus was born in Spain, he rose to power through the influence of his guardian the Emperor Trajan, and through his own military excellence. He was a superb leader who gained the love of his legions and led them to victory beyond the Danube, but this was just the shadow of his genius. A lover of Greek culture, Hadrian was drawn to the arts and sciences, and to the peaceful commerce which the successors of Alexander had maintained in the Middle East. He was a believer in the Universal Polis that Greek philosophy had engendered. Unlike the majority of Roman Emperors, he was not fascinated by the opulence of the capital; rather he was more interested in the lives of the millions who toiled under the Roman rule. No other Emperor traveled as extensively. Only Hadrian endeavored to visit every province, to see His Empire, to know his people, to worship the many gods of the many nations over which he ruled. He was genuinely and personally concerned with their well being, with improving their lives by tangible means. Building cities, aqueducts, baths, theaters, libraries, temples, and roads that stand as victories against the barbarians far more noble than blood spilled in the forests of Germany. He negotiated a lasting peace with the Persians and built a wall across Britain to control the Pictish tribesman. Historians, always more interested in war than peace, have condemned this wall as evidence of the declining vigor of the Roman Legions. Hadrian was no coward afraid of defeat, but neither was he a butcher thirsty for blood and personal glory. A general, a diplomat, an artist, an architect, a financier, a scholar, a poet, a philosopher, an athlete, a priest, a mystic, a traveler, a lover, by our modern standards he was a world leader of legendary stature. His marriage was to a relative of Trajan's, thereby sealing the ties of blood, but there was little love between Sabina and Hadrian, their relationship being mostly a calculated transaction that satisfied for both parties the obligations of a proper Roman citizen, and Emperor. Hadrian was free to pursue the interests of a voraciously romantic heart. Such a mind, for twenty years in full control of every aspect of the known world, so intimately knowledgeable of its intricacies, it's vicious ethnic, national, and religious rivalries always rumbling just under the surface, threatening at every moment and in every corner to pull the Empire apart. The world had for the first time in the History of civilization, a leader who had personally seen each of it's parts, walked upon as much of it's land as he could possibly reach. A man who had looked into the faces and cultures of it's people in their natural state, and had endeavored to know them, to learn from them all that they presented. But he did not come entirely as a student, the philosopher God-King also came to teach. He assumed with full vigor his role as Pontifex Maximus, highest priest of all religions. The builder of the Pantheon taught that all gods, all creeds were one, but his first loyalty was to the ancestral Gods of the Romans, those beings that subdued the Earth and gave him the voice to speak its laws. He was truly pantheistic, and endeavored to bring harmony of faith to the discordance that was building to a fury within the souls of his people. To this end he found himself fascinated by the very origin of the Roman faith, not Greece but Phrygia, once known as Ileum, the land of Troy. The poet Virgil gave voice to the rising legend that the Gods of Rome had come with Aeneus as he escaped the burning of Troy. A claim that may indeed hold the seed of truth. If I fly into praise of Hadrian it is because I am astonished that for so long such a man as this, among the greatest and certainly one of the most beneficial of all humans who have ever walked the Earth, has been so much ignored because of his detractors. Because of what they call his shame, and really for no other reason.

Hadrian returned to Rome in the year 125, Antinous was with him. Homosexuality among the Romans and especially the Greeks was common and acceptably practiced, but rarely with the open frankness that Hadrian suddenly assumes. These are believed to be among the greatest years of Hadrian's reign and the most pivotal, there were no great wars, the efforts of humanity were devoted to construction, social and economic commerce, peaceful development of learning, an age of temple building, and the foundation of cities. The great conquests of Trajan were not envied, Hadrian pursued no further victories and turned instead to the defense of the Roman frontier. The effects of his boundary remain with us even today. Not just as crumbling walls, but in the lasting effect upon people to this day. Where the legions stopped, so too did all that was Rome, her language and her blood.

In this loving administration Hadrian was accompanied by the presence of Antinous. He was an adornment to the majesty of the Empire in the eyes of the provincial delegations. He stood in the presence of Kings and Barbarian chiefs. He stood by the side of the most high in the great temples of the world. He overheard the secret treaties that brought life and death. The great Pantheon of Rome was completed, Antinous may have been present, his wreathed head covered by the folds of a priest's toga. Perhaps he held an incense brazier as Hadrian chanted the rite of benediction beneath the dome built for the glory of all the gods. Antinous was for the Emperor's pleasure, visual, sexual, mental and athletic, especially for the diversion of the hunt. He made Hadrian feel young and vigorous. Antinous has been compared to the beauty, loyalty, and strength of one of Hadrian's hunting dogs, and his presence in the court is indeed approximate to the life span of a hound. In remembering the Phrygian birth of Antinous, we must recall the tragedy of another Phrygian hunter that, if we are to believe the eloquence of Ovid, took place on these same slopes of Mt. Ida from which Antinous sprang, the story of Adonis whom Venus loved. In the art of all these Phrygian dying boys, one always sees a small dog at the heels of his young master.

This is the period in which the first images of Antinous began to be carved in stone. Adding to the catalogue of Hadrianic virtues, we discover his passion for art of classical Greece. He encouraged their preservation and patronized their furtherance. Even if all his architectural works had been destroyed, we would still have his legacy in stone. Other Emperors, other Kings have had consorts and favorites, but of how many of these do we retain perfect images? The museums of the world hold hundreds of likenesses of Antinous, each an almost perfect copy of so perfect a face and body, beautiful even by our modern standards. One can even say that there are more images of Antinous than of any other ancient person, no matter how great, how famous, how heroic, only Augustus Caesar can rival him. He is a classification of art unto himself. Even the casual, untrained observer is startled to find such profound similarity between so many different statues and busts. Those smashed by disaster, time, or iconoclastic fury still retain his features. Even those where the sculptor's hand failed, those that for obvious or subtle reasons cannot compare to that small brotherhood of Antinoine masterpieces, even those brutalized and devastated are still of the same face, the same unmistakable person. There can be no doubt that these vestiges in marble that have survived the wars of men, and the storms of the Earth are the true face of Antinous from Bithynia. What sets his school of sculpture apart from all the carvings of time is that when first seen no one cares to know the identity of the artist, or is distracted by the imperfections, or even considers the circumstance of it's creation, but only sees the model. That he is portrayed as Bacchus, or Hermes does not raise our eyes to these gods. That his nose is cracked, and an outstretched arm is missing does not disfigure him, we see beyond these centuries of blows. We only want to look into the eyes and gaze upon the naked flesh of Antinous, who can only be compared to the photographic models of our own time, among whom he would find a place. At a distance of nearly nineteen hundred years, the same face could still cover magazines; another distinction of his peculiar fashion is that he is timeless. Antinous is the first male supermodel.

The blissful measures of an Emperor in love with a teenage boy are not what makes this story extraordinary, it is what occurred at his time of death that lifts Antinous up beyond the fate of mortals. The Imperial court returned to Greece in the early autumn of the year 128. Antinous was now the acknowledged and proudly displayed favorite. It is this peregrination that forms the pinnacle of Antinous life, and for all that can be known, it may have been the beginning and end of his love affair with Hadrian. To quote Mr. Royston Lambert, whose book is the definitive codex of our time on Antinous:

"No one could than have foreseen how momentous and extraordinary this great second journey was to prove: how it would last at least four and perhaps six years; how the status of Athens in the Greek world would be transformed; how the Greeks themselves would generate a fever-pitch of self-consciousness and exultation resulting in unprecedented unity; How the most bloodthirsty war of the reign would be almost intentionally ignited; how two of the group now entering the Greek east as mortals would soon be elevated among it's gods; how all the splendor and elation of this tour would be marred by inextricable aberrations, tragedy, grief, and breakdown and how, throughout, in one way or another, it was to be haunted by the unwelcome specter or deliberately provoked challenge of death."

Almost immediately, outside of Athens, at the sanctuary of Eleusis, the tenor of this voyage finds it's mystical charge. People had flocked from around the world to observe the Mysteries of Eleusis, which portrayed in ceremony the death and rebirth of Persephone, with the mourning and triumphant return of her mother Demeter, Goddess of the Earth to fruition. The ceremony had two sides, one public, the other enacted only for certain initiates through a series of steps. Much of what was done and said has been forever lost due to it's carefully guarded secrecy. Millions experienced it, but no one broke their vow of silence, it was a life-altering ritual of mystery. Hadrian who had already been initiated to the first levels, preceded to observe the highest reaches of whatever mystery of life was preserved by the priesthood. Antinous also underwent Initiation. As important as any other aspect of his short and dazzling life, is this moment of revelation. To what extent did Antinous identify with the dark Persephone, deified in the darkest sense, by Hades? Had the entourage moved through Athens at any other season, they would not have attended these mysteries, Antinous would not have obtained his consecration from the underworld, and his death would may not have had such radical results. We can only imagine that the priests knew that they were in the presence of Gods, or that Persephone herself, knowing the future, might have spoken to Antinous with directness, telling him of the stars to which he would soon be united. This was the final miracle of the ancient gods of our fathers, within the next few hundred years they would fall silent. Antinous left Eleusis with a secret blessing that may have prepared him for his assumption into the Nile.

"Beautiful indeed is the Mystery given us by the blessed gods: death is for mortals no longer an evil, but a blessing."

-Inscription found at Eleusis

The Greeks however, recognizing that here was their savior, did not hesitate to proclaim with openness, that Hadrian was the living Zeus, on whose shoulders the well fair of the world depended. Leaving Greece and sailing for Asia Minor in the summer of 129, Hadrian was greeted by the rich and populous cities, which had so much benefited from him. It was perhaps in these circumstances that Antinous returned to Claudiopolis, in the brilliant light of Hadrian's court. Seated close to the Emperor, magnificently attired, groomed and mannered, in the very blossom of his beauty and radiance. Word must have spread to every ear, all eyes were on him. This image, as the entourage departed south along its journey, of the young demigod, beside the golden eagle, would remain the foundation of his lasting creed. Let us remember that Claudiopolis was visited by millions of travelers who must have heard the extraordinary story of the local boy turned God.

Proceeding through Syria and the rapidly Christianizing metropolis of Antioch, the Emperor found a cold reception, surely, in addition to other factors of policy, because of the prominence of Antinous. It became clear, as later it was to become solidified, that these regions of the East would never be fully Hellenized. The ancient cults especially Judaism and Christianity, still not entirely separated, would never submit to the basic unity of the world, viewing themselves as the chosen amongst the damned. What Hellenism had done to open the doors of cultural and ideological exchange between all peoples, Judeo-Christianity would soon counter and eventually close.

Moving on, Hadrian proceeded to Cappadocia and Armenia and reinforced his peace settlements along the Parthian border, ensuring for the rest of his reign and through the reign of his successors one of the longest periods of peace in a region that even now still seethes with animosity to the west.

At the close of the year 129, eager to explore new territory, and with only a small contingent, in which Antinous would certainly have been included, Hadrian sets out for Palmyra, and the lands then called Arabia, which we now call Jordan. And in the summer of 130, He turned back, and crossed the sacred river where Jesus was baptized, entering Israel, and the Holy city of Jerusalem.

There he engaged himself in the reconstruction of the city still partly in ruins from the war in which it was almost totally destroyed by Titus, sixty years before. The Temple had of course burnt to the ground, but was still of central holiness to the Jews, who can only have prayed there, as they do still, with a mixture of remorse, and violent bitterness. Into this environment came the man whom the Greeks had taken to calling a god, accompanied by the beautiful Antinous, in full view of his wife, who certainly accompanied him throughout the tour. What a shock for the morally and sexually repressive Jews. It can only have irritated Hadrian whose mind was more concerned with tangible ideals. With a view towards improving and civilizing the crumbled city of a people whom he considered abject barbarians, Hadrian imported a Grecian population, and even went so far as to rename the ancient city, in a sense after himself, and the God whom he had become. He called it Aelia Capitolina, in total disregard of the sentiments of the people. Consulting with the Rabbis, he even sought to reform the Jewish faith and bring it more in line with the rest of the world. He abolished circumcision without hesitation, certain that it was a cruel and barbaric practice. But further still, though the scholars are not sure if it occurred at this point or on his return from Egypt, the later seeming more likely, the most dramatic of his policies was begun. Strangely enough it is, like so much of this momentous visit, a scandal so vicious to historians of the past and even our own day that it has all but been forgotten. They dare not mention it, as though it never happened. Hadrian cleared away the rubble that remained on the Temple Mount and began construction of a Temple to Zeus. He seemed willing to force the Jews to capitulate to the unity of Rome, in a manner that Christianity would soon employ against his own faith. A war that by his own deliberate actions now loomed on the horizon, the last Jewish war until modern times.

The Jewish War

A short description of the war which soon transpired, though departing from the line of chronology, seems to be appropriate. Returning From Egypt, Hadrian found all of Israel in an uproar. A new, and this time military prophet had risen amid the outrage at the desecration of the Temple. Bar Kochba, whose name means "the star" led a revolt against the tyranny of the Empire. He was considered to be the Messiah that Jesus had failed to be, a king who came with the sword. The entire populous rose to his side. Hadrian found that his effort to civilize the Jews, or rather Hellenize them had completely failed. Absorbed by a grief that shall soon be related, all patience was lost, and the crueler side of the eagle came forth. He sent in his legions, and through the course of perhaps five years, systematically decimated the country. Bar Kochba was defeated and killed, what little of Jerusalem remained was completely destroyed, the population ordered to leave. Any Jew who even tried to look upon the Holy city from afar would be executed. This was the beginning of the dispersal of Israel to all the corners of the world. It was also both the birth of Christianity as we know it, effecting the separation of the Jewish and Gentile churches. For the first time, as Eusebius tells us, the "Bishops of the Circumcision" were replaced by Roman Bishops. Yet even Christianity was not immune, being still considered part of Judaism. The Shrine of the Holy Sepulcher was also destroyed, and a Temple to Venus built over it. This Temple stood until the time of Constantine when it too was overthrown. But even today, stones from the enclosure wall can still be seen. Hadrian seems to be all about walls. St. Jerome tells us that even in his time, a garden of Adonis was planted in Bethlehem on the site of the Nativity.

Certain now that they would never join him, and perhaps thinking of the cohesion of the whole, he attempted to totally eradicate their culture, as might have easily been accomplished with any other nation. But He underestimated the tenacity of their faith. No longer a barbaric race confined to a dry and inhospitable corner of the world, the Jews spread to every corner of the Empire, especially the rich metropolises. There, still retaining connections with their far-flung families, a network of trade began, that over the centuries would become among the most powerful in the entire world. During the middle ages, this strength began to assert it's self. Not subject to the Christian aversion for money changing, the Jews soon took possession of this segment of society, and then went further. Now we find the Jewish nation installed in the financial, communications, entertainment, medical, and scientific centers of a rapidly unifying world. To this chosen people, the very heart of civilization seems to be entrusted, as though they are priests of a worldwide Temple, hidden behind a veil of mystery that only they can behold. Some have called it a conspiracy, the coming of the Antichrist, but truly, whatever spirit flew from the Temple at its destruction, soon invested in the Jews all the promise of what Hadrian hoped for, a unified world at peace. It is interesting to consider that because of Hadrian's madness and cruelty, and certainly because of his insane grief at the death of Antinous, the stability of our modern world was insured by the Jews.

The Death of Antinous

Returning now to the voyage of the Emperor, we find that what began as a glorious tour of the majesty of Rome, and the glory of a world at peace, rapidly degenerated into a tragic tale. Leaving Jerusalem behind, still under the façade of calm, the entourage made it's way through Sinai and into Egypt. Arriving in August of 130. The great city of Alexandria, most populous in the world, overflowing with wealth, and home of the Museion, the great library and university. The greatest minds in the ancient world gathered here to learn and dispute. Here the body of Alexander the Great was preserved and revered. Egypt was a land of religion, with thousands of temples to thousands upon thousands of gods. The new gods of Greece, and the ancient gods of Egypt mixed with Jews and Christians in the constant battle for understanding. Because of their total dependence on the Nile, there was always great need for divine intervention. When the life-giving floods came there was joy, exultation and insane orgiastic feasts. But when the waters failed, there was complete fear and devastation, the gods were supplicated on hands and knees. Into a country, "religious to excess," came the gods Hadrian and Antinous. It was Hadrian's first visit, and as Pharaoh his reception must have been a demonstration of all the ceremony and grandeur that the Egyptians could display. The intelligencia came to teach, and found themselves learning from their ruler. He was not, as was all the ignorant populace, over-awed and dazzled by the degrees and credentials of the Doctors of the Museion. But it was a city defined by philosophical controversy. Two great radical teachers were present during the time of his visit, the Gnostic Patriarchs, Carpocrates, and Valentinus himself, who would later move to Rome during the reign of Antoninus Pius, found a school, and nearly become Pope of the Catholic church. This was the Alexandria which Hadrian and Antinous found. Darkening the glory of this first visit by the Roman Pharaoh, which would be among the last, was that for two years the Nile had failed to inundate the fields in the annual floods. An atmosphere of death and disaster for the entire Empire, which depended on Egyptian wheat, loomed over everything.