Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey
Sabina Augusta (ca. 85-ca. 137), wife of the emperor Hadrian (reigned 117-38), accumulated more public honors in Rome and the provinces than any imperial woman had enjoyed since the first empress, Augustus' wife Livia. Indeed, Sabina is the first woman whose image features on a regular and continuous series of coins minted at Rome. She was the most travelled and visible empress to date. Hadrian also deified his wife upon her death.

In synthesizing the textual and massive material evidence for the empress, T. Corey Brennan traces the development of Sabina's partnership with her husband and shows the vital importance of the empress for Hadrian's own aspirations. Furthermore, the book argues that Hadrian meant for Sabina to play a key role in promoting the public character of his rule, and details how the emperor's exaltation of his wife served to enhance his own claims to divinity. Yet the sparse literary sources on Sabina instead put the worst light on the dynamics of her marriage.

Brennan fully explores the various, and overwhelmingly negative, notions this empress stirred up in historiography, from antiquity through the modern era; and against the material record proposes a new and nuanced understanding of her formal role. This biographical study sheds new light not just on its subject but also more widely on Hadrian-including the vexed question of that emperor's relationship with his apparent lover Antinoös-and indeed Rome's imperial women as a group.
1127545797
Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey
Sabina Augusta (ca. 85-ca. 137), wife of the emperor Hadrian (reigned 117-38), accumulated more public honors in Rome and the provinces than any imperial woman had enjoyed since the first empress, Augustus' wife Livia. Indeed, Sabina is the first woman whose image features on a regular and continuous series of coins minted at Rome. She was the most travelled and visible empress to date. Hadrian also deified his wife upon her death.

In synthesizing the textual and massive material evidence for the empress, T. Corey Brennan traces the development of Sabina's partnership with her husband and shows the vital importance of the empress for Hadrian's own aspirations. Furthermore, the book argues that Hadrian meant for Sabina to play a key role in promoting the public character of his rule, and details how the emperor's exaltation of his wife served to enhance his own claims to divinity. Yet the sparse literary sources on Sabina instead put the worst light on the dynamics of her marriage.

Brennan fully explores the various, and overwhelmingly negative, notions this empress stirred up in historiography, from antiquity through the modern era; and against the material record proposes a new and nuanced understanding of her formal role. This biographical study sheds new light not just on its subject but also more widely on Hadrian-including the vexed question of that emperor's relationship with his apparent lover Antinoös-and indeed Rome's imperial women as a group.
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Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey

Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey

by T. Corey Brennan
Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey

Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey

by T. Corey Brennan

Hardcover

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Overview

Sabina Augusta (ca. 85-ca. 137), wife of the emperor Hadrian (reigned 117-38), accumulated more public honors in Rome and the provinces than any imperial woman had enjoyed since the first empress, Augustus' wife Livia. Indeed, Sabina is the first woman whose image features on a regular and continuous series of coins minted at Rome. She was the most travelled and visible empress to date. Hadrian also deified his wife upon her death.

In synthesizing the textual and massive material evidence for the empress, T. Corey Brennan traces the development of Sabina's partnership with her husband and shows the vital importance of the empress for Hadrian's own aspirations. Furthermore, the book argues that Hadrian meant for Sabina to play a key role in promoting the public character of his rule, and details how the emperor's exaltation of his wife served to enhance his own claims to divinity. Yet the sparse literary sources on Sabina instead put the worst light on the dynamics of her marriage.

Brennan fully explores the various, and overwhelmingly negative, notions this empress stirred up in historiography, from antiquity through the modern era; and against the material record proposes a new and nuanced understanding of her formal role. This biographical study sheds new light not just on its subject but also more widely on Hadrian-including the vexed question of that emperor's relationship with his apparent lover Antinoös-and indeed Rome's imperial women as a group.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780190250997
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 04/11/2018
Series: Women in Antiquity
Pages: 328
Product dimensions: 9.30(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

T. Corey Brennan is Associate Professor, Department of Classics, at Rutgers University.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABBREVIATIONS AND NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS iv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I. "EMPRESS" AT ROME
CHAPTER II. TRAJAN AND THE IMPERIAL HOUSE
CHAPTER III. SABINA'S PERSONAL HISTORY
CHAPTER IV. HADRIAN'S PERSONALITY
CHAPTER V. HADRIAN'S RELATIONSHIPS
CHAPTER VI. SABINA AUGUSTA
CHAPTER VII. THE JOURNEY TO EGYPT
CHAPTER VIII. EGYPT AND THE JOURNEY HOME
CHAPTER IX. FINAL YEARS IN ROME
CHAPTER X. SABINA'S DEATH AND DEIFICATION
CHAPTER XI. EPILOGUE
APPENDIX I. SABINA ON THE COINS OF ROME
APPENDIX II. SCULPTURAL PORTRAITS OF SABINA
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ILLUSTRATIONS
INDEX
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