James Morwood was Head of Classics at Harrow School for seventeen years. He then moved to Oxford University and took charge of the language teaching for the Classics Faculty. He retired from this role in 2003. His books include The Oxford Pocket Latin Dictionary (1994, revised edition 2005); A Latin Grammar (1999), Oxford Grammar of Classical Greek (2001), The Plays of Euripides (Bloomsbury, 2002), The Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Classical Greek (2002), Advanced Latin (Bloomsbury, 2009) and The Oxford Latin Course, College edition (2012).

• List of FiguresIntroductionChronology1. Death on the Nile2. Growing up in Rome and Spain3. Starting out4. War and peace5. Rebuilding Rome6. Hadrian’s Villa – the sunny pleasure dome and the caves of ice7. Bread and circuses – keeping the people happy8. The journeys9. Hadrian and Athens10. Antinous11. Christians and Jews12. The endBibliographyIndex

This very readable, engaging book is an excellent introduction to the emperor Hadrian ... It is detailed, covering an astonishing number of aspects of second-century Roman life; it is enlivened by humour, the author’s personal experience, and modern comparisons. Most importantly, it provides a well-rounded, enlightening picture of Hadrian and his world. It is an essential introduction to the subject and would benefit readers from high-school age to seasoned academics.