Memoirs of Hadrian

There are basically two things about this book. On one hand: it is extremely well-researched, well-written, taken from decades of notes used to construct a book of a level of depth and richness which feels like it might be unparalleled in historical fiction. Maybe I don't read too much historical fiction (or for that matter non-fiction of this time), and Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy does maybe come close here, but it immediately captured and engaged me and felt overwhelmingly authentically about 2nd century Rome, and as if it were written by an elderly emperor & statesman. The story of a man, the story of a country, the story of a world that I do not know, just wonderfully portrayed.

It is also the story of love and grief in a way that I have trouble really getting around - the story of Hadrian and Antinous, his "lover," adopted at age 12 and who died before he reached 20. They say that one should not judge historical figures by morals not of the time, and I kind of just don't really believe that - context & social acceptability determines actions yes, but moral valence does still remain. On one hand, the relationship between an erastes and eromenos is something fundamentally foreign to me, on the other hand, it is just pederasty. The book invites sympathy for Hadrian, portrays the relationship in a somewhat positive light, and that kind of just sticks weirdly in the craw. It is certainly not portrayed simple and obvious and is in many ways a brilliant exploration of what that relationship might have been. And the real relationship was surely not simple: on Antinous's death, it is historical fact that Hadrian's grief incited him to establish a city and a cult whose worship of the deified Antinous lasted centuries. So there was probably something there. But I'm not convinced of the morality of this exploration without consideration of less generous interpretations of the point of view of the child Antinous. But maybe that is the project? And there is of course additional context of it getting written about and examined by Yourcenar while she was living with a woman, Grace Frick, her partner for 40 years of her life when homosexuality was likewise condemned by society at large. And Grace Frick is thanked in the book but not by name. Understanding this time I am unfamiliar with through the eyes of a time that I am unfamiliar with, and it is all just complicated.

But quite well done, I think.