January 24, 76 - Hadrian

His reign began with the extrajudicial execution of four senior senators, an act that shadowed his relationship with Rome's ruling class for decades. What followed was a tenure defined less by conquest than by consolidation — fortified borders, administrative reform, and the violent suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judea, which resulted in mass casualties and the expulsion of the Jewish population from their homeland. The scale of that campaign, often overshadowed by his reputation as a builder and Hellenophile, is what places him in this catalog.

From Wikipedia

Hadrian ( HAY-dree-ən; born Publius Aelius Hadrianus, 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. His form of address as Roman emperor was Imperator Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus. Hadrian was born in Italica, in the present-day Andalusian province of Seville in southern Spain, an Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his gens Aelia came from the town of Hadria in central Italy. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty.

Early in his political career, Hadrian married Vibia Sabina, grandniece of the ruling emperor, Trajan, and his second cousin once removed. The marriage and Hadrian's later succession as emperor were probably promoted by Trajan's wife Pompeia Plotina. Soon after his own succession, Hadrian had four leading senators unlawfully put to death, most likely because they seemed to threaten the security of his reign; this earned him the senate's lifelong enmity. He earned further disapproval by abandoning Trajan's expansionist policies and territorial gains in Mesopotamia, Assyria, Armenia, and parts of Dacia.

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