Publius Aelius Hadrianus (76–138) — Roman emperor from 117, successor of Trajan, one of the "five good emperors." A philhellene, a builder (the villa at Tibur, the Pantheon, the wall in Britain), a tireless traveller through the provinces. Childless, in 138 he adopted Antoninus Pius on condition that Antoninus in turn adopt the young Marcus (and Lucius Verus) — so Hadrian set in place the whole dynastic chain that brought Marcus to power. He died at Baiae in 138.

Hadrian appears in Marcus not as kin but as a measure: if even the recent all-powerful princeps is already "nowhere," then the care for posthumous fame is empty. A standing motif of the transience of power, paired with Augustus.

• 08-05 — "soon you will be nobody and nowhere, like Hadrian and Augustus": two limiting images of power swallowed by time.
• 08-25 — "Celer buried Hadrian, then he too died": in the roll-call of mortal pairs.
• 08-31 — beside "the court of Augustus": the dying-out of whole imperial houses.
• 08-37 — Hadrian's tomb: the futility of mourning at the graves of the great.
• 10-27 — "the whole court of Hadrian" opens a series of five courts; Marcus's own dynasty is set beside Croesus.
• 04-33 — names once resonant fall out of use: power is no defence against oblivion.
• 01-04 — biographical background (Catilius Severus's disgrace under Hadrian in 138).
• 01-16 — the context of Antoninus's reign, succeeding Hadrian.