Partially Wholesome History: Hadrian and Antinous

It’s like Horny History, but, oddly enough no one is horny.

This story went in an entirely different direction than I planned it to. I’ve been telling men history on different platforms for my own enjoyment since 2019. Occasionally I run into people who recognize me from years prior before my Facebook page took off. Here’s one of them

Having your gay lover die and being so distraught that you have him deified is such a love story. Or, at least it seems to be at the surface.

Hadrian was born in 76 CE, Antinous 111 CE. Societally being homosexual there was a lot of freedom to take a male lover. Only though, if it were under the specific masculine rules. It’s the same problem we see throughout history. Being gay is okay as long as you aren’t being penetrated.

Older Roman men often took younger lovers. It followed the same ideas of being gay being okay as long as your partner is effeminate. In this case, simply not having characteristics of a man because they are fucking boys.

Antinous’ death is fascinating. No one really knows how he died but there are a lot of theories. The most easy to dismiss being that he was killed as part of a conspiracy plot to overthrow Antinous’ political power. There’s not evidence to support this theory but sometimes you might read people speculating this.

Some people have said he died during an attempted castration. This one is unlikely. Antinous was about 19 when he died, but he still was too old. Hadrian was also vehemently against castration for all Romans. He made it illegal. This theory relies on the thought that Antinous might have wanted to retain his youthfulness for Hadrian. He was turning into a man.

Still others have said Antinous might have given his life as a human sacrifice to Hadrian. Hadrian had been sick for many years but, he was also quite opposed to human sacrifice. Again, this one is unlikely.

On the boat with them when Antinous died was another, younger, man. This has led to speculation that Antinous could have committed suicide over the loss of Hadrian’s affection.

Or, perhaps Antinous committed suicide because Hadrian loved him too much. Hadrian was supposed to like women too. He had a wife, but it’s historically widely known that he didn’t find women sexually attractive. Political adversaries were beginning to use this a reason to demean Hadrian.

Of course it could just have been an accidental drowning. Whatever the case, after his death Hadrian fell into a deep depression. He had statues built to honor Antinous. He had a city made, Antinoöpolis, in his honor. He had him declared a god.

Is this a love story, or the story of an older man manipulating a younger man in what today we would obviously see as a power imbalance? Is it a love story, or the story of an emperor forcing slave labor to erect statues, an entire city, for Antinous? Is it a love story, or was Hadrian feeling such immense guilt for Antinous’ death and his reasons for all of this are purely based on guilt?

Argue about this in the comments. ♥️