Author: Boatwright, Mary Taliaferro
Title: Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire
Description: Princeton, Princeton University Press, (2000). orig.cloth. 24x15cm, xviii,243 pp.. Textual illustrations.. Minor rubbing. VG. ¶ Contents: Roman Cities and Roman Power: The Roman Empire and Hadrian; The Sources; Changes of City Status and Their Impact on City Life: Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 16.13.1-9 (de Italicensibus); Changes Affecting Cities' Daily Governance and Economy; Civic Benefactions with Extramural Effects : Engineering and Architectural Donations; Athens, Smyrna, and Italica; Other Structures in Athens Associated with Hadrian; City Foundations, New and Renewed; Hadrian's Civic Benefactions and the Roman Empire ["Cities throughout the Roman Empire flourished during the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), a phenomenon that not only strengthened and legitimized Roman dominion over its possessions but also revealed Hadrian as a masterful negotiator of power relationships. In this comprehensive investigation into the vibrant urban life that existed under Hadrian's rule, Mary T. Boatwright focuses on the emperor's direct interactions with Rome's cities, exploring the many benefactions for which he was celebrated on coins and in literary works and inscriptions. Although such evidence is often as imprecise as it is laudatory, its collective analysis, undertaken for the first time together with all other related material, reveals that over 130 cities received at least one benefaction directly from Hadrian. The benefactions, mediated by members of the empire's municipal elite, touched all aspects of urban life they included imperial patronage of temples and hero tombs, engineering projects, promotion of athletic and cultural competitions, settlement of boundary disputes, and remission of

Keywords: Classical Antiquity, Emperor Hadrian, Ancient Rome, Roman Empire, Urban History, Cities Towns, Administration, ,