Memoirs of Hadrian (Marguerite Yourcenar, 1951)

I don't quite know what to make of this book. Reviews were highly favorable; it seemed like a topic I'd enjoy a lot. Probably I'm missing something. I do believe one of the problems is that some of Hadrian's musings sounded like Montaigne essays, only not as compelling.

But still.

The story is quite interesting; the comments from the author about her experiences and goals with this work are fascinating. She was struck by a quote from Gustave Flaubert: "Just when the gods had ceased to be, and the Christ had not yet come, there was a unique moment in history, between Cicero and Marcus Aurelius, when man stood alone."

This led her to a multi-decade effort to write memoirs from Hadrian's perspective.

I don't know much about the various emperors, but Hadrian apparently was one of the greats. He did far more than construct a big wall in Britain. The book goes through his ascent to power, military career, loving Antinuous (in an Achilles-Patroclus sort of way) (with the Antinuous thing resulting in significant follow-through, as described here), dealing with issues in Germany, Egypt, Roman politics, etc. Ruminations on impending death; this was written as a guide of some kind to Marcus Aurelius at the time Hadrian's health was failing.

A minor note: he recognized that stretching Roman interests all the way up into the Afghanistan area would be a mistake . . .

It seems that a movie version is in the works, scheduled for release in Italy this year (2010).