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- Read more | In the footsteps of Germanicus \u2013 a Roman General\u2019s journey to Egypt<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
No tourist, however, visited Egypt in greater style \u2013 or, I suspect, with a larger retinue of support staff \u2013 than the emperor Hadrian<\/a> in AD 130. And no imperial party left quite such a lasting mark of their visit. In fact, you can still see the poems commemorating this trip, written by one of the emperor\u2019s aristocratic fellow-travellers \u2013 a woman by the name of Julia Balbilla (more on her later). They are carved into the leg of an ancient Egyptian statue, just outside modern Luxor (ancient Thebes).<\/p>\n
It might seem like a rather upmarket version of \u2018Balbilla (and Hadrian) was here\u2019. But these poems not only document a tourist experience; they shine a light onto one of those hidden women of the Roman world<\/a>. Balbilla was not an \u2018ordinary\u2019 woman, but one of wealth, glamorous connections, and talent. All the same, she usually slips below the radar of modern historians.<\/p>\n
Hadrian\u2019s imperial inspection<\/h3>\n
Hadrian\u2019s Egyptian cruise was only one part of a much longer journey for the emperor and his entourage. He was the most travelled of all the Roman rulers \u2013 and sightseeing, in our sense of the word, was no doubt only one side of the story. He was, after all, also inspecting \u2018his\u2019 empire and visiting the far-flung troops. By the time they reached Egypt, the imperial party had already been on the road (or at sea) for two years, taking in Sicily, north Africa, Greece and Gaza \u2013 in what was more a mammoth royal \u2018progress\u2019, or a court on the move, than a quick vacation.<\/p>\n
![\"The]( "\\"The")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>The emperor Hadrian and his wife, Sabina (portrayed here as Mars and Venus in a second-century AD statue) embarked on a years-long tour of his empire (Photo By DEA\/G. DAGLI ORTI\/De Agostini via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n There must have been hundreds, if not thousands, of troops, bodyguards and administrators accompanying the Egyptian excursion, travelling on any number of boats, or following on land. (Some surviving ancient papyri record local worries about how on earth they were going to cater for this influx of officials and hangers-on, all needing billeting and feeding.) At the centre of this vast entourage were members of Hadrian\u2019s intimate circle.<\/p>\n
The holiday from hell?<\/h3>\n
His wife, Sabina, was one of them. Julia Balbilla was another, a celebrity of the Roman international \u2018jet set\u2019. The most notorious \u2013 and tragic \u2013 of them was the emperor\u2019s young boyfriend, Antinoos. In Roman terms, a married man also having a relationship with a young man was not so unusual. But there was something a bit edgier here. Antinoos drowned in mysterious circumstances in the Nile in early October 130. The question of \u2018Did he fall or was he pushed?\u2019 has never been resolved.<\/p>\n
For those in this inner circle, the death of Hadrian\u2019s boyfriend must have blighted the trip (was it \u2018the holiday from hell\u2019?). It is all too easy to imagine the atmosphere on the boats: the party tiptoeing around the grieving emperor, who was busy planning memorials to his lost love, and even starting the process of turning him into a god. You might well have thought that they would have called the whole cruise off. But they pressed on south. That was probably because Egypt\u2019s most celebrated tourist high-spot still lay ahead.<\/p>\n
![\"A]( "\\"A")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>A bust of Antinoos, the emperor Hadrian\u2019s lover. His sudden death in AD 130 cast a long shadow over the imperial tour of Egypt (Photo by Universal History Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n Hadrian\u2019s party had already visited the Great Pyramid<\/a>. What they were even keener to see was the statue on which the verses of Julia Balbilla would soon be inscribed: one of the so-called \u2018Colossi of Memnon\u2019.<\/p>\n
This 18-metre-high edifice has a long and intriguing history. It was originally constructed around 1350 BC, one of a matching pair representing the pharaoh Amenhotep III<\/a>. This made it a venerable antique, almost 1,500 years old, by the time Hadrian came to visit. But, by then, its name had been changed and it had been credited with miraculous new characteristics. In a wholesale reinterpretation, the colossus was no longer Pharaoh Amenhotep. It was now believed to represent the mythical Greek hero Memnon, a fighter in the Trojan war, the son of the goddess of the dawn.<\/p>\n
The singing statue<\/h3>\n
And what is more, it was said sometimes to make a singing noise first thing in the morning, as if greeting its mother. One explanation for this is a natural one. At some point in the first century BC, the top of the statue had been damaged, allowing water to penetrate the stone. As the temperature rose in the morning, the drying out of the water in the cracks of the sculpture might have made a hissing \u2013 or a singing \u2013 noise.<\/p>\n
Another explanation suggests that it was more of a scam. At least one ancient writer thought there might have been some boys around the back faking the sound of singing on makeshift musical instruments, to cash in on the tourist trade. Whichever is true, the statue eventually stopped singing. Either the \u2018boys around the back\u2019 found better ways to make money. Or (if you follow the natural explanation), a well-meaning repair of the statue blocked up the cracks, prevented the water getting in, and so stopped the singing.<\/p>\n
![\"The]( "\\"The")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>The Colossi of Memnon were the ultimate tourist destination of the second century AD. By the time Hadrian visited, they were already almost 1,500 years old (Photo by Bridgeman Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n But for several hundred years the singing statue was the biggest attraction in Egypt. Visitors turned up at dawn hoping that Memnon would perform for them. He couldn\u2019t be relied upon, but it was thought a wonderful sign of good luck if he did. Some of those who got lucky had their visit commemorated with an inscription carved into the statue\u2019s leg (presumably they paid local craftsmen to do the actual carving \u2013 at, I imagine, a hefty price).<\/p>\n
In one of the earliest examples, around AD 20, a Roman by the name of Servius Clemens simply recorded in Latin that he \u201cheard the voice of Memnon and gave thanks\u201d. Two centuries later, in one of the latest inscriptions, a philosopher called Falernus gave a more flowery account in Greek verse of his own experiences. \u201cWhen he saw his mother, Dawn, dressed in her saffron robe,\u201d the statue \u201cmade a sound sweeter than clear speech.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u2018Colossus of Memnon\u2019 was almost 1,500 years old, by the time Hadrian came to visit. But, by then, it had been credited with miraculous new characteristics… it was said sometimes to make a singing noise first thing in the morning, as if greeting its mother <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
It is among this group of 107 inscriptions that we find the four verses, again written in Greek, by Julia Balbilla \u2013 as well as a few lines composed by the empress Sabina herself. From these we can reconstruct what happened on the imperial visit in November AD 130. When Balbilla and Sabina first showed up at the statue, it stayed resolutely silent. In her poem entitled \u2018When on the first day we did not hear Memnon\u2019, Balbilla made the best of what might have been a PR disaster, suggesting that Memnon had only remained silent \u201cso that lovely Sabina would come back again\u201d. Indeed, they did go back. Then, probably on the next day, as another poem happily records, \u201cI Balbilla heard the divine voice of Memnon\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a poem headed \u2018When the emperor Hadrian heard Memnon\u2019, Balbilla records a successful visit by Hadrian himself, most likely on his own. \u201cSeeing Hadrian the ruler of the world,\u201d she writes, \u201cMemnon greeted him as well as he could, before he had even greeted the rays of the sun.\u201d In other words, Memnon appeared to prefer Hadrian over his own mother. And the statue went on to speak to the emperor twice more, making it \u201cclear to everyone that the gods love him\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"For]( "\\"For")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>For centuries, Roman tourists flocked to one of the Colossi of Memnon to hear it \u2018sing\u2019 \u2013 and then carved inscriptions into it, like those shown here (Photo by jackie ellis\/Alamy Stock Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n So, after a rocky start, the visit must finally have seemed like a triumph. In the more than 50 lines of Balbilla\u2019s verses, however, we learn about more than the royal party\u2019s encounter with the singing statue. Although we have little information about Balbilla from almost any other source, we can extract a surprising amount about her life and her world-view from the poems.<\/p>\n
Balbilla was the descendant on her father\u2019s side of the royal family of the eastern kingdom of Commagene, and on her mother\u2019s side of a Roman governor of the province of Egypt \u2013 and is at pains to highlight this elite ancestry within her poetry. She stresses that one grandfather, Antiochus, had been a king and that the other had been a prestigious scholar. She even calls her father and mother \u2018king\u2019 and \u2018queen\u2019, despite the fact that the effective rule of the royal house of Commagene had ended when her grandfather was ousted by the Roman emperor Vespasian.<\/p>\n
Poetic skill and antiquarian learning<\/h3>\n
There is a pride, almost a pushiness, in how Balbilla vaunts her rank. And she makes no secret of her own scholarship. Her poems feature learned and slightly pretentious references to byways of ancient myth and history. She spends four lines on the deeds of the Persian king Kambyses, who in the sixth century BC had apparently tried to demolish the statue but paid the price with his life \u2013 so providing the foil for Balbilla\u2019s piety towards Memnon.<\/p>\n
Balbilla\u2019s verses are composed in a style and language that mimics the first Greek female poet, Sappho, who lived around 600 BC on the island of Lesbos. It is almost as if a poet today were to compose perfectly in the manner of Geoffrey Chaucer<\/a>: a boast of poetic skill, rhetorical sophistication and antiquarian learning.<\/p>\n
![\"Greek]( "\\"Greek")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>Greek poet Sappho, thought to be the figure with a stylus and wax tablet in this first-century AD image, inspired the verses that Balbilla carved onto the Colossus of Memnon (Photo by Peter Horree\/Alamy Stock Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n But there was perhaps even more to it than that. By adopting Sappho\u2019s language, Balbilla was reminding her readers of the very beginning of the tradition of female poetry in which she proudly followed. And, by writing up their visits to the statue in that language, she was maybe also hinting at a closeness between herself and the empress Sabina. For Sappho was also famous for her erotic friendships with young women whom she celebrated in her poetry. (Our term \u2018Lesbian\u2019 comes from the name of Sappho\u2019s island.)<\/p>\n
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- Read more | From Sappho to It\u2019s a Sin: 9 LGBT+ histories, chosen by experts<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
All this adds vividly to our picture of Hadrian\u2019s tourist party. We can only guess at the precise relationship between Sabina and Balbilla. How close a match it was for that between Hadrian and Antinoos, no one can know. But Balbilla was certainly not some kind of junior companion on the trip, almost a lady-in-waiting to the empress. Her poems give the lie to that, parading her literary skill, scholarly expertise and her royal blood.<\/p>\n
My hunch is that she felt her own ancestry far outclassed that of the Roman emperor. Hadrian was new to power; he had been adopted by his predecessor, Trajan, from outside the circles of royalty \u2013 from a family of no inherited distinction. The blue-blooded Balbilla came from generations of a royal dynasty, which traced its lineage through king after king, back to a right-hand man of Alexander the Great<\/a>.<\/p>\n
And, thanks to her grandfather\u2019s service as governor of the province, as well as her own learned study, she probably knew a lot more about Egypt than Hadrian did. Beyond the encounter with Memnon, those were precisely the points she was trying to rub in over the course of her extraordinary poems.<\/p>\n
- Read more | From Sappho to It\u2019s a Sin: 9 LGBT+ histories, chosen by experts<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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