ABSTRACT
The route to Athens meant a journey south along the Via Appia, then across to Beneventum and on to Brundisium (Brindisi). From 109 or 110 onwards major road-building was under way, on a Via Nova Traiana to the great south-eastern port. The man in charge of the project was Pompeius Falco, now married to Sosia Polla, daughter of Hadrian’s friend Senecio (probably not Falco’s first wife). Hadrian, it may be guessed, will have called on Falco in the course of his journey. Whether he had much company for this trip is a matter of guesswork. He presumably took Sabina with him, and a considerable household. Some like-minded friends may have joined him. But of known friends, his contemporaries who were senators, Platorius Nepos and Aemilius Papus, were probably pursuing their careers, being a stage or two behind Hadrian in the cursus honorum. His two equestrian friends were probably also both holding office, Claudius Livianus as Guard Prefect – with Hadrian’s former guardian Acilius Attianus by now his colleague, it may be conjectured – and Marcius Turbo as a tribune in the Rome garrison and then as procurator of the main gladiatorial training-school. For his stay at Athens and for stops on the way, he had no doubt made arrangements about accommodation in advance. Sosius Senecio would have been well placed to give advice and introductions, and at Athens itself Hadrian probably had a host who had invited him. 1
