Hadrian’s Gate and ›New Athens‹

Abstract

Original title: Das hadrianische Bogentor und ›Neuathen‹

Since Antiquity, the inscriptions on Hadrian’s Gate in Athens have encouraged inferences that still preoccupy scholars today. A prominent role has been played in particular by the literary sources that mention the inscriptions, suggesting that the arch spanned an ancient city wall and that a Hadrianic foundation lay outside this old boundary. But neither the existence of a city wall prior to Themistocles nor an expansion of the city under Hadrian can be demonstrated. Hadrian’s Gate served a variety of purposes: since it was erected in the immediate vicinity of the Olympieion over the processional way, it acquired not only cultic significance, but also the function of an honorific monument, as was comparatively common for honorific arches of eastern extraction, the typology of which the monument recalls. The puzzling inscriptions on the arch evoke the extremely important foundation tradition of the city by drawing analogies between Hadrian and Theseus and by comparing Hadrian’s achievements to those of Athens’ mythical founder. The inscriptions honoured the new ktistes, who with his Panhellenic idea and building activity permitted Athens to enjoy pre-eminence in the Greek community as it blossomed under the protection of domestic peace.