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Dr Beaker, Head of Geography (acting) is celebrating Latin 'week' by discussing the map of the Roman Empire, and, below, the ancient Winds and compass directions.
Doctor Beaker decided the best way to talk about the different provinces of the Roman Empire was through the journeys of the Emperor Hadrian. Born in 76 AD, near Grenada, he reigned from 117 to 138. He was the third of the so-called ‘Five Good Emperors’, a phrase coined by Machiavelli. (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Aurelius) Nerva stabilised, Trajan conquered, Hadrian travelled. He spent far more time travelling in the provinces than in Rome. You can see he went virtually everywhere. For more detailed maps, go to Following Hadrian.
Here is an itinerary of his travels in the East. (map below on mobile) You can test yourself in Hadrian's Eastern Travels Map Quiz
Hadrian was in Syria when he was proclaimed emperor. After reversing Trajan’s expansionist foreign policy he heard of trouble in Moesia.
117 Left Antioch (he would return in 122/123) and marched to Tarsus, the Apostle Paul’s neighbourhood.
He left the coast behind, heading North till he reached Ankyra, capital of the Modern Turkish Republic.
117 -18 Arrived in Nicomedia, capital of Bithynia and Pontus, where he celebrated New Year.
118 headed north for Moesia, where he restored peace through negotiation. The Roxolani king gave the Emperor an Alanic hunting horse.
118 Hadrian followed the Danube upstream to Pannonia, which he had governed in 106. A Batavian soldier showed off by swimming across the Danube in full armour.
118 Trajan had built a stone bridge to march his troops into Dacia. H. dismantled it to prevent the Dacians marching the other way.
Hadrian didn’t return to the East until 123 when he cut short his travels around Spain on hearing about trouble in Parthia.
123 He stopped off in Cyrenica where he personally paid for the training of local youths into the Roman Army.
123 He reached the Euphrates and personally negotiated a settlement with Parthian King Osroes.
123/124 Returned to Nicomedia and provided funds for relief after recent earthquake. Acclaimed as ‘restorer of the province’.
124 Went on a successful boar hunt and founded Hadrianutherae, not far from Troy in N.W. Turkey.
Arrived in Greece in autumn 124 and took part in Eleusiian mysteries, near Athens, whose constitution he reviewed at their request.
124/125 He refused to intervene in dispute between the Athenian government and olive oil producers. It’s not all fun and games being emperor!
The Peloponnese: Among other notable acts he improved the water supply to Argos, which Homer had called ‘thirsty Argos’.
Hadrian returns east in 128.
128 He attended Eleusian mysteries again.
128 He plans Panhellenic League.
130 He arrived in Egypt in August 130. Restored Pompey’s tomb.
130 He and Antinous ent on a lion hunt in the desert.
130 Antinous drowned in the Nile in mysterious circumstances.
130 He visited the Colossus of Memnon, a giant Pharaonic statue said to show the blessing of the gods by heralding the dawn. Some theorise cracks in the stone made a noise when warmed by the sun. Hadrian heard the statue.
130-32 Back in Greece Hadrian plays on the legacy of Pericles by inaugurating his Panhellenic League. Some cities in Asia Minor weren’t really interested. There were few political advantages for them.
H. visits Palymyra and bestowed his benefits on it, as did Islamic state recently.
133 H. personally led his troops for one among many battles in the incredibly bitter Third Jewish War. Cassius Dio says 500, 000 Jews died. Hadrian enacted his revenge on the Jews by changing the province’s name from Judea to Palestina and Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina. The Jews didn’t revolt again.
Hadrian also travelled in the West. We know far less about this journey. (map below on mobile) After reading you can test yourself in Hadrian's Western Travels Map Quiz
121 In Lugdunum He fixed the forum and theatre.
122 He inspected the Rhine frontier.
122 In Britain he inspected the beginning of the wall that was to bear his name.
122 On his way back from Britain he sacks Suetonius for an over-familiarity with the empress.
122 In Nimes the horse that the King of the Roxolani had given him died in a hunting accident.
122 In Nimes he hears of the death of Trajan’s wife Plotina who had been his patron. He dedicates a basilica to her.
He personally commands troops to suppress a minor rebellion in Mauretania.
128 On a short trip to Africa he inspects troops near Carthage. His speech survives.
Looking at maps made Dr Beaker think about winds and compass directions. The Romans used Greek names for winds as well as their own. He especially likes Vergil book 2 lines 415-420. The eternal poet is describing Aiax and the Atridae (Menelaus and Agammemnon) assaulting the capitol of Troy, and compares them to the winds:
adversi rupto ceu quondam turbine venti/ confligunt, Zephyrusque Notusque et laetus Eurus
as the winds clash together in a tornado, Zephyr, Notus and happy Eurus.
He's describing a tornado, which usually happen in Summer. Perhaps that's why he doesn't mention the North Wind. Dr Beaker has made a map quiz on the classical winds: Classical Winds Map Quiz .