Day 28. Historical Theme You Want A Game Based On: Antinous (& Hadrian)Massive history lesso
Day 28. Historical Theme You Want A Game Based On: Antinous (& Hadrian)Massive history lesson under the cut. If you want to learn a whole lot about Antinous and why I like him so much, but you don’t like reading, there exists a video of me giving my friends a lecture about him. Play it in the background while you scroll tumblr or something.tl;dr Antinous was the really pretty boyfriend of the Roman emperor Hadrian (early 2nd century CE), and he became a god when he died and developed a huge cult following all over the Roman empire. Also I have a statue of him in my apartment because he’s my favorite historical figure ever.Antinous was born between 107 and 111 CE in the city Claudiopolis, in a region called Bithynia (now part of Turkey). His parents were slightly wealthy, but were not Roman citizens.* Around 123 CE, Hadrian, the Roman emperor at the time, met Antinous and brought him to Rome, where he received education at the imperial school for boys.*Their citizenship matters because it was illegal for a Roman citizen to sleep with another Roman citizen outside of marriage. Foreigners, however, were fair game. This quickly becomes relevant.By 128 CE, in his late teens/early twenties, Antinous had become a favorite of Hadrian’s. Hadrian was relevantly known for (1) hating his wife Sabina and (2) having many affairs with married women and adult men. Antinous and Hadrian apparently went on romantic getaways like lion-hunting trips (Antinous famously loved hunting) and stays at an Egyptian resort along the Canopic Canal.Tragically, Antinous drowned in the Nile in 130 CE under mysterious circumstances. While the official story was that a boating accident caused his death, rumors ranged from a suicide attempt (either to escape the relationship or fearing the loss of Hadrian’s affection as he grew older) to Antinous being sacrificed in a ritual designed to improve Hadrian’s health, which at the time was poor.Whatever the cause of Antinous’ death, Hadrian was inconsolable; ancient sources say he “wept like a woman” over Antinous’ body when it was pulled from the river. Within days, Hadrian had him declared a god. This had a many effects:he asked the Greeks to deify Antinous, bypassing the Roman Senate, who usually made these decisionsAntinous had no political/social connections (he was just an emperor’s boyfriend from the provinces) and deification was usually reserved for emperors and their beloved wives and family membersbasically the Senate was really offended and pissed off but they couldn’t do anything about it because Hadrian was the freakin’ emperorthe nature of Antinous’ death meant that to the Egyptians, Antinous had already become a god (people who accidentally drowned in the Nile were considered special; their bodies could only be touched by priests and their funerals were paid for by the state) so to the Egyptians, Hadrian was also honoring local customHadrian established a city (Antinoopolis) and a temple at the site where his body was retrieved. He did little to encourage Antinous’ worship, but…Antinous’ cult took off in the provinces!!!took off in a big wayhe appeared on provincial (but not Roman) currencycults & evidence of his worship spanned from Turkey to Britanniacults held ritual games (artistic, athletic, and musical competitions) to worship himhe was such a rival to Christianity that some Christian authors felt they had to denounce his worshiphe was the 3rd-most-statued person in antiquity. We have more statues of him than of anyone else except for Hadrian and Augustus.I imagine the ND game inspired by this theme could be set in Rome, Tivoli (the site of Hadrian’s personal villa), Turkey, Egypt (where Antinous died), and/or at some random location that happened to host a cult of Antinous. As part of the mystery I require an explanation of what happened to Antinous. Also, if HER could get to work solving this for real, I would give them all of my money forever.So there’s my obsession with Antinous. I just feel like he probably had a scary and weird life (being somewhat coerced into a relationship with the emperor of Rome) and I hope his afterlife is, y’know, okay. Godly, even. -- source link
Tumblr Blog : nancydrewrings.tumblr.com