Arch of Hadrian - Patronage

Patronage

Patronage of the arch has been attributed to either the Athenian state or to the Panhellenes, a newly formed association of all the Greek cities, based in Athens. Early scholarship held that the Athenians were responsible for its creation, on the argument that the quality of material and execution did not equal the other known buildings of Hadrian in Athens, and on the assumption that an emperor who loved Athens so much could not have been so arrogant as to put such an inscription on a structure of his own making. Two arches of the same scale and design were constructed at the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis later in the 2nd century CE and dedicated to an emperor (perhaps Marcus Aurelius) by the Panhellenes. These arches flanked the propylon into the sanctuary and stood at the ends of roads to Megara and to a harbor respectively. The southeastern arch had an inscription that read:

• ΤΟΙΝ ΘΕΟΙΝ ΚΑΙ ΤΩΙ ΑΥΤΟΚΑΤΟΡΙ ΟΙ ΠΑΝΕΝΕΣ (to the two goddesses and to the emperor, the Panhellenes).

The use of the same design to honor two emperors within the space of a few decades and a few kilometers has prompted the idea that the Panhellenes were responsible for the arches in both locations.