Sabina’s adventures are not recorded by history, but what is recorded is a deep hostility between her and her husband. Hadrian, openly homosexual, married her for political ends but found her “moody and difficult.” In return, Sabina remarked publicly that she would never bear him children because they would harm the human race. The historical Sabina managed to travel a great deal, inviting herself along on most of her husband’s wanderings, so she must have had some taste for adventure. Her level of freedom might be unusual, but it was not unheard of: Roman women had as much liberty as their husbands or fathers allowed them to have, and despite the traditional image of an iron-handed paterfamilias, ancient Rome had plenty of doting fathers (Cicero was notoriously indulgent to his daughter) and lenient husbands. Many Roman women traveled extensively in the provinces, bringing up their children in the Empire’s wild places while their husbands ruled as provincial governors or served in provincial military outposts, and the occasional adventurous woman got to see a military campaign firsthand. Emperor Augustus’s granddaughter Agrippina the Elder famously accompanied her husband’s army throughout all his wars, and I decided Sabina (and Mirah) might easily do the same. Sabina’s interest in good works would have been a traditional occupation for a well-connected woman; record exists of the huge contribution she made to Trajan’s alimenta scheme supporting Roman orphans. It’s not known if Sabina had affairs outside her barren marriage, but Hadrian later notoriously reprimanded and dismissed several men for being “too informal” with his wife—including one career soldier in the Praetorian Guard. We have no way of knowing if such a charge means Sabina took lovers or simply had a gift for informality in her friendships.