Trajan’s easy nature and rampant popularity are well documented, but Hadrian is a much more elusive figure. He appears to have been a very difficult man to understand: The Historia Augusta chronicle wrote of him in frustration: “He was, in the same person, austere and genial, dignified and playful, dilatory and quick to act, niggardly and generous, deceitful and straightforward, cruel and merciful, and always in all things changeable.” Thanks to historians like Gibbon, he is now considered one of Rome’s Five Good Emperors (a term originally coined by Machiavelli), and certainly Hadrian was well-spoken and well-read, with a gift for organization, a formidable intellect, myriad artistic interests, a famous love of animals, and a powerful ability to charm. But despite his gifts he was one of the most unpopular emperors Rome ever had—at least during his lifetime. That unpopularity kicked off at the beginning of his reign when he first relinquished Trajan’s hard-won new provinces and then went on to purge a number of his political enemies in a series of murders. Hadrian denied all involvement in the bloodbath, but Rome remained convinced he masterminded the executions, and his reputation never recovered. The most famous fictional portrait of Hadrian is Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian, which takes a positive slant on most of his actions and portrays him as thoughtful and saintly—but I had fun exploring another possible side of his character: the man seen by his fellow Romans as a brilliant schemer smart enough to hide his innate cruelty behind an affable mask. Vix, Sabina, and Titus are all in for plenty of adventures now that their mortal enemy has become Emperor of Rome.

Special thanks to my friend Helen Shankman, who not only answered many of my questions on early Judaism, but put me in touch with Professor Steven Fine, who took time from New York’s Yeshiva University to answer the questions Helen could not. Thanks as well to Ben Kane for recommending me to RomanArmy.com, a wonderful online forum full of helpful experts on Rome’s complex military system. I was lucky enough to make the acquaintance there of Nathan Ross, Paul Elliott, Max Conzemius, and Quinton Johansen, who were kind enough to answer my questions about Vix’s legionary career and tactfully point out my mistakes.

And a final fervent thank-you to Anthony Everitt, whose splendid biography Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome has been my bible and security blanket during the entire writing process of Empress of the Seven Hills.

CHARACTERS

IMPERIAL FAMILY

*Marcus Ulpius TRAJAN, Emperor of Rome

*Empress Pompeia PLOTINA, his wife

*Publius Aelius HADRIAN, his ward

*Domitia Longina, called MARCELLA, widow of Emperor Domitian and former Empress of Rome

ROMAN SENATORS AND THEIR FAMILIES

Senator MARCUS Vibius Augustus Norbanus

CALPURNIA, his third wife

*Vibia SABINA, his daughter from his second wife

*Annia Galeria FAUSTINA, his daughter by Calpurnia

Linus and his three brothers, Marcus and Calpurnia’s sons