A brilliant intellectual, an outstanding commander, a successful ruler of the Roman Empire, the successor of the “best princeps” Trajan - this is how Emperor Hadrian went down in history. He sharply changed the foreign policy of his predecessor: he stopped wars of conquest and moved on to defending the borders of the Empire from the barbarians, he founded cities, erected temples and public buildings, patronized scientists, philosophers, writers, and paid special attention to the development of the economy of the Empire. But for all his enlightenment and religious tolerance, at times he was not a stranger to cruelty and unjust persecution. The biography of this extraordinary man is given by the author, Doctor of Historical Sciences, professor, against the broad background of the political, cultural and socio-economic life of the Roman Empire at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries.< /p>