![]() He crossed the Danube and launched wars against the Dacians and the Sarmatians. Yourcenar takes us through the thought processes of the Emperor. We see how his predecessor, the Emperor Trajan, launched Rome on a period of expansion. The Rhine and the Danube and the deserts of Arabia and Sahara were also markers in this respect. The British are right about the importance of Hadrian’s Wall. It is a symbol if his decision that the Empire would go this far and no further. His successor, Antoninus Pius, attempted to expand the Roman Empire to the firths of Forth and Clyde, but this did not last. Hadrian’s Wall marked the boundary between peaceful prosperity and barbarism. This is an attempt to get into the mind of the Emperor who defined the limits of the Roman Empire, which lasted until its collapse in the C5th CE. What we do not know is that she has produced an accurate account of her subject. The Hadrian that Margaret Yourcenar depicts would probably have appreciated this historical irony. In this country he is known for one thing – the building of a wall between Carlisle and Newcastle, which is supposed to serve as a border between England and Scotland, although not one stone of it, not one rampart, not one fort is in Scotland. The book is probably as old as me (I do not know when it was published in French) and tells the story of the Emperor Hadrian. ![]() ![]() ![]() I was six years old when this book was first published in English. ![]()
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