The Death of the Emperor Hadrian

Bronze statue (1934) of Emperor Hadrian, Parco Adriano

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On July 10th 138 CE, the emperor Hadrian died at his villa in Baiae, a town on the Gulf of Naples, having reigned for 21 years. He was sixty-two years old. 

Hadrian died childless and the succession passed to his adopted son Antoninus Pius (r. 138-61).

Hadrian's ashes were interred in the mausoleum he'd had built in Rome, today's 
Castel Sant' Angelo. His deification led to the building of a temple in his honour, the remains of which are still standing in the centre of the Eternal City. 

In 1934, at the behest of Benito Mussolini, a modern bronze statue of Hadrian was set up in the gardens behind the Castel Sant' Angelo. 

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