or HADRIAN, Publius AElius, the Roman emperor. He was born at Rome the 24th of January, in the 76th year of Christ, A. U. C. 829. His father left him an orphan, at ten years of age, under the guardianship of Trajan, and Ceelus Tatianus a Roman knight. He began to serve very early in the armies, having been tribune of a legion before the death of Domitian. He was the person chosen by the army of Lower Moesia, to carry the news of Nerva's death to Trajan, successor to the empire. Trajan, however, conceived some prejudices against him, and Adrian perceiving that he was no favourite with the emperor, endeavoured to ingratiate himself with the empress Plotina, by which means he succeeded in obtaining for his wife, Sabina, the emperor's grand-niece and next heiress. This was probably the first step to his future advancement, and facilitated his ascent to the throne. As quaestor he accompanied Trajan in most of his expeditions, and particularly distinguished himself in the second war against the Dacians. Afterwards he was successively tribune of the people, praetor, governor... governor of Paunonia, and consul. After the siege of Atra in Arabia was raised, Trajan, who had already given him the government of Syria, left him the command of the army; and at length, when he found death approaching, it is said he adopted him. Adrian, who was then in Antiochia, as soon as he received the news thereof, and of Trajan's death, declared himself emperor, on the 11th of August, A.D. 117.

No sooner had he arrived at the imperial dignity, than he made peace with the Persians, to whom he yielded up great part of the conquests of his predecessors; and from generosity, or policy, he remitted the debts of the Roman people, which, according to the calculation of those who have reduced them to modern money, amounted to 22,500,000 golden crowns; and he burnt all the bonds and obligations relating to these debts, that the people might be under no apprehension of being called to an account for them afterwards. There are medals in commemoration of this fact, in which he is represented holding a flambeau in his hand, to set fire to all those bonds which he had made void. He went to visit all the provinces; and did not return to Rome till the year 118, when the senate decreed him a triumph and honoured him with the title of Father of his country; but he refused both, and desired that Trajan's image might triumph. No prince travelled more than Adrian; there being hardly one province in the empire which he did not visit. In 120 he went into Gaul; from thence he went over to Britain, in order to subdue the Caledonians, who were making continual incursions into the provinces. Upon his arrival they retired towards the north; he advanced, however, as far as York, where he was diverted from his intended conquest by the description some old soldiers he found there, who had served under Agricola, gave him of the country. In hopes, therefore, of keeping them quiet by enlarging their bounds, he delivered up to the Caledonians all the lands lying between the two friths and the Tyne; and, at the same time, to secure the Roman province from their future incursions, built the famous wall which still bears his name (A). Having thus settled matters in Britain, he returned to Rome, where he was honoured with the title of Restorer of Britain, as appears by some medals. He soon after went into Spain, to Mauritania, and at length into the East, where he quieted the commotions raised by the Parthians. After having visited all the provinces of Asia, he returned to Athens in 125, where he passed the winter, and was initiated in the mysteries of Eleusinian Ceres. He went from thence to Sicily, chiefly to view Mount Etna, contemplate its phenomena, and enjoy the beautiful and extensive prospect afforded from its top. He returned to Rome the beginning of the year 129; and, according to some, he went again, the same year, to Africa; and, after his return from thence, to the east. He was in Egypt in the year 132, revisited Syria the year following, returned to Athens in 134, and to Rome in 135. The persecution against the Christians was very violent under his reign; but it was at length suspended, in consequence of the representations of Quadratus bishop of Athens, and Arriades, two Christian philosophers, who presented the emperor with some books in favour of the Christian religion. He conquered the Jews; and, by way of insult, erected a temple to Jupiter on Calvary, and placed a statue of Adonis in the manger of Bethlehem; he caused also the images of Iwine to be engraven on the gates of Jerusalem. At last he was seized with a dropy, which vexed him to such a degree, that he became almost raving mad. A great number of physicians were sent for, and to the multitude of them he ascribed his death. He died at Baiae in the 63rd year of his age, having reigned 21 years. The Latin verses he addressed to his soul, which he composed a short time before his death, in a strain of tender levity, have been much criticised and have been the subject of numerous translations and imitations.

Animula vagula, blandula, Holper, comeceque corporis, Sae nunc abitis in loca Pallidula, rigida, nudula, Nec, ut soles, dabis jocos?

Ah! fleeting spirit! wand'ring fire, That long hast warm'd my tender breast, Must thou no more this frame inspire? No more a pleasing cheerful guest? Whither, ah whither art thou flying? To what dark undilover'd shore? Thou seem'st all trembling, shivering, dying, And wit and humour are no more!

POPE.

Some fragments of his Latin poetry are still extant, and there are Greek verses of his in the Anthology. He also wrote the history of his own life; to which, however, he did not choose to put his name; but that

(a) This work, though called by the Roman historians murus, which signifies a wall of stone, was only composed of earth covered with green turf. It was carried on from the Solway frith, a little west of the village of Burgh on the Sands, in as direct a line as possible, to the river Tyne on the east, at the place where the town of Newcastle now stands; so that it must have been above 60 English, and near 70 Roman miles in length. It consisted of four parts: 1. The principal agger, mound of earth, or rampart, on the brink of the ditch. 2. The ditch on the north side of the rampart. 3. Another rampart on the south side of the principal one, about five paces distant from it. 4. A large rampart on the north side of the ditch.—This last was probably the military way to the line of forts on this work: it was so to those formerly built by Agricola; and if it did not serve the same purpose in this, there must have been no military way attending it.—The fourth rampart might serve for an inner defence in case the enemy should beat them from any part of the principal rampart, or it might be designed to protect the soldiers from any sudden attack of the provincial Britons.—For many ages, this work hath been in so ruinous a condition, that it is impossible to discover its original dimensions with certainty. From their appearance, it seems probable that the principal rampart was at least 10 or 12 feet high. of Phlegon, one of his freed-men, a very learned person, was prefixed to it*. He had great wit and a retentive memory, and he distinguished himself in the various branches of literature and science. In his natural disposition he was suspicious, envious, cruel, and lascivious. In his character there was a strange composition of virtues and vices. He was affable, courteous, and liberal; but he was capricious and unsteady in his attachments, and violent in his resentment. Thus he was distrusted by his friends, and dreaded by his enemies. Antoninus his successor obtained his apotheosis; and prevented the recission of his acts, which the senate once intended.

Adrian I. Pope, ascended the papal throne, A.D. 772. He was the son of Theodore, a Roman nobleman, and possessed considerable talents for business. He maintained a steady attachment to Charlemagne, which provoked Desiderius, king of the Lombards, to invade the state of Ravenna, and to threaten Rome itself. Charlemagne rewarded his attachment, by marching with a great army to his aid; and having gained many considerable advantages over Desiderius, he visited the pope at Rome, and expressed his piety, by the humiliating ceremony of kissing each of the steps, as he ascended to the church of St Peter. The affairs of the church now claimed Adrian's particular attention: for Irene, who, in 780, assumed the regency at Constantinople, during the minority of her son Constantine, wishing to restore the worship of images, applied to Adrian for his concurrence. The pontiff readily acquiesced in her proposal for calling a council, and commissioned two legates to attend it. The first council, however, was dispersed by an insurrection of the citizens, but at the next meeting in the city of Nice, in 787, which was protected by a military force, a decree was passed for restoring the worship of images. Adrian approved the decree, but in the western church it was deemed heretical and dangerous. Charlemagne condemned the innovation, and the French and English clergy concurred in opposing it. A treatise, containing 120 heads of refutation, was circulated, as the work of Charlemagne, under the title of "The Caroline Books," in opposition to the decree of the council. This work was presented to the pope by the king's ambassador, and the pope wrote a letter to Charlemagne by way of reply. The king, and also the Gallican and English churches, retained their sentiments; and, in 794, a council was held at Frankfort on the Maine, consisting of about 300 western bishops, by which every kind of image-worship was condemned. Adrian did not live to see a termination of this contest; for after a pontificate of nearly twenty-four years, he died in 795. Adrian seems to have directed his chief attention to the embellishment of the churches, and the improvement of the city of Rome; and he was probably furnished by Charlemagne, out of the plunder of his conquests, with ample means for this purpose.

Adrian II. Pope, succeeded Nicholas I. A.D. 867. Having twice refused the dignity, i.e. accepted Adrian in the 76th year of his age, at the united request of the clergy, nobility, and people. The contest for power between the Greek and Latin churches had been very violent some years before his accession to the papal chair.

Adrian, during this contest with the eastern patriarch, was extending his authority over the kings and princes of the west. He employed his whole interest to induce Charles the Bald, who had taken possession of the kingdom of Lorraine, and who had been crowned at Rheims by the archbishop Hincmar, to relinquish it in favour of the emperor; and he even sent legates to the king, after having attempted to engage Hincmar, the clergy, and the nobility to desert him, ordering him to surrender to the emperor's right. The king was invincible; and the pope was obliged to give up the contest. He also farther interfered in the concerns of princes, by taking Charles's rebellious son Carloman, and the younger Hincmar, bishop of Laon, under the protection of the Roman see. He proceeded in this business so far, that he was under a necessity of submitting without gaining his point. Death terminated his ambitious projects and his life of inquietude, A.D. 872, after a pontificate of five years.

Adrian IV. Pope, the only Englishman who ever had the honour of sitting in the papal chair. His name was Nicholas Breakspeare; and he was born at Langley, near St Alban's, in Hertfordshire. His father having left his family, and taken the habit of the monastery of St Alban's, Nicholas was obliged to submit to the lowest offices in that house for daily support. After some time, he desired to take the habit in that monastery, but was rejected by the Abbot Richard. Upon this he resolved to try his fortune in another country, and accordingly went to Paris; where, though in very poor circumstances, he applied himself to his studies with great assiduity, and made a wonderful proficiency. But having still a strong inclination to a religious life, he left Paris, and removed to Provence; where he became a regular clerk in the monastery of St Rufus. He was not immediately allowed to take the habit; but passed some time, by way of trial, in recommending himself to the monks by a strict attention to all their commands. This behaviour, together with the beauty of his person, and prudent conversation, rendered him so acceptable to those religious, that after some time they entreated him to take the habit of the canonical order. Here he distinguished himself so much by his learning and strict observance of the monastic discipline, that upon the death of the abbot, he was chosen superior of that house; and we are told that he rebuilt the convent. Pope Eugenius III. being apprised of the great merit of Nicholas, and thinking he might be serviceable to the church in a higher station, created him cardinal-bishop of Alba in 1146. In 1148, his holiness sent him legate to Denmark and Norway; where, by his fervent preaching... Adrian, cardinal priest, of the title of St Chrysogonus, was a native of Corneto in Tuscany. Innocent VIII. sent him nuncio into Scotland and into France; and after he had been clerk and treasurer of the apostolic chamber, Pope Alexander VI., whose secretary he had been, honoured him with the cardinal's hat. His life was a continued scene of odd alterations. He narrowly escaped death the day Alexander VI. poisoned himself by mistake. Afterward he drew upon himself the hatred of Julius II., so that he was obliged to go and hide himself in the mountains of Trent. Having been recalled by Leo X., he was so ungrateful, that he engaged in a conspiracy against him. The pope pardoned his fault; but the cardinal, not caring to trust to this, made his escape, and it could never be known exactly what was become of him. He was one of the first who effectually reformed the Latin style. He studied Cicero with great success, and made many excellent observations on the propriety of the Latin tongue. The treatise he composed De Sermoni Latino, is a proof of this. He had begun a Latin translation of the Old Testament. He wrote De Vera Philosophia; this treatise was printed at Cologne 1548.

Adrian VI., Pope, was born at Utrecht in 1459. His father was not able to maintain him at school, but he got a place at Louvain, in a college in which a certain number of scholars were maintained gratis. It is reported that he used to read in the night time by the light of the lamps in the churches or streets. He made a considerable progress in all the sciences; led an exemplary life; and there never was a man less intriguing and forward than he was. He took his degree of doctor of divinity at Louvain; was soon after made canon of St Peter's, and professor of divinity at Utrecht, and then dean of St Peter's and vice-chancellor of the university. He was obliged to leave an academical life, to be tutor to the archduke Charles. This young prince made no great progress under him; however, never was a tutor more considerably rewarded; for it was by Charles V.'s credit he was raised to the papal throne. Leo X. had given him the cardinal's hat in 1517. After this pope's death, several cabals in the conclave ended in the election of Adrian, with which the people of Rome were very much displeased. He would not change his name, and in every thing he showed a great dislike for all ostentation and sensual pleasures, though such an aversion had been long ago out of date. He was very partial to Charles V., and did not enjoy much tranquility under the triple crown. He lamented much the wicked morals of the clergy, and wished to establish a reformation of manners among them. He died September 14, 1523.