Plot Summary

The story of the most powerful man in the world of his time, Hadrian (76-138), who was proclaimed emperor of Rome in 117 as successor to his late great-uncle Trajan: a poet, a politician, a warrior, a builder of worlds; a man with an identifiable face but an elusive spirit; a man who traveled all his life; a man who built, legislated, loved and suffered; a believer who prepared for eternity.