Athens was the city the Roman Emperor Hadrian loved most in the world, and he left his mark there by commissioning a bunch of new monumental public buildings for the city and its people. In this episode, Emily and Cam talk about the long and sometimes tense history of Romans building things in Athens, Hadrian’s own architectural sensibility, and some of the key structures he left behind (including the Library of Hadrian and the Temple of Olympian Zeus).

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The cover image is our own photo of the Arch of Hadrian by night!

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00:10 - Introduction

03:29 - Athens: A Brief History

  • 03:38 - The buildings of the fifth century BCE: products of the Athenian empire
  • 04:23 - Athens in the Fourth Century
  • 04:43 - Athens under Macedonian and Roman Domination
  • 05:26 - Athens and its fame as an artistic, intellectual, and religious center
  • 07:07 - Gifts from powerful rulers (and a digression on the Stoa of Attalos)


12:00 - Augustan Athens

  • 12:27 - Architecture and political messaging in Athens under the Romans
  • 14:10 - The Odeion of Agrippa and the Athenian Agora
  • 18:28 - The Temple of Rome and Augustus on the Acropolis
  • 21:08 - The Roman Agora: the Gate of Athena Archegetis


24:06 - Hadrian’s Athens

  • 24:34 - Hadrian’s architectural style
  • 25:07 - Hadrian builds a great big aqueduct
  • 26:30 - The Eridan0s River gets a makeover
  • 27:13 - North of the Acropolis: the Pantheon and the Library of Hadrian
  • 32:09 - South of the Acropolis: Hadrian’s Gymnasium and the temple of Zeus Panhellenios
  • 33:53 - South of the Acropolis: the Temple and Precinct of Olympian Zeus (and Hadrian among the gods)
  • 44:53 - The Temple of Olympian Zeus Today (featuring a story about a magic pomegranate)


48:23 - The Arch of Hadrian

51:21 - Wrap-up

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Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör Emily Jusino, PhD (Classics) and Cam Hawkins, PhD (Ancient History). Innehållet i podden är skapat av Emily Jusino, PhD (Classics) and Cam Hawkins, PhD (Ancient History) och inte av, eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.