Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer
40 – 86 · Generation VII · Nerva–Antonine
Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer was a Roman senator and the father of the emperor Hadrian. He was born and raised in Italica, near modern Seville, in the province of Hispania Baetica, into a wealthy family of praetorian rank. His father was the senator Publius Aelius Hadrianus Marullinus and his mother was Ulpia, whose brother Marcus Ulpius Traianus was the father of the future emperor Trajan. Trajan and his sister Ulpia Marciana were therefore Afer’s first cousins.
He married Domitia Paulina, from a distinguished senatorial family of Gades, the modern Cádiz. They had two children, a daughter, Aelia Domitia Paulina, born in 75, and a son, Publius Aelius Hadrianus, born in 76. Afer reached the praetorship, but he and his wife both died in 86, when their son was about ten.
The orphans were placed in the guardianship of Afer’s cousin Trajan and of the Roman officer Publius Acilius Attianus. The arrangement shaped the empire. Trajan became emperor in 98, and the boy he had raised succeeded him in 117 as Hadrian, while Attianus rose to be Trajan’s praetorian prefect.
One of 12 people of Nerva–Antonine (30–192) in this archive. The adoptive emperors: for four reigns the purple passed to a chosen heir rather than a born one.
Partners
- Married Domitia Paulina (45 – 85) in 70 — one child together
Children
- Hadrian Aelius (76 – 138)
Life
- 40 — Born
- 70 — Married Domitia
- 86 — Died
Sources
- Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer · Wikipedia
- Hadrian · Wikipedia