Hadrian

Hadrian was born on 24 January in the year when Vespasian was consul for the seventh time, AD 76, and was brought up as a ward of Trajan, whom he succeeded (Historia Augusta, Hadrian 1.3–4). He ruled for almost twenty-one years and died at sixty-two (Cassius Dio, Roman History 69.23). Cassius Dio says that he founded Aelia Capitolina on the site of Jerusalem, that this brought on a Jewish revolt, and that his generals crushed it (Cassius Dio, Roman History 69.12–14). See the Bar Kokhba Revolt and Aelia Capitolina.

Justin Martyr appends to his Apology a letter of Hadrian to a provincial governor, whom Eusebius names as Minucius Fundanus, proconsul of Asia. It rules that Christians are to be punished only if an accuser proves in court that they have broken the law, and that false accusers are themselves to be punished (Justin, First Apology 68) (Eusebius, Church History 4.8–9). Eusebius also says that Quadratus and Aristides addressed defences of the faith to him (Eusebius, Church History 4.3).