Arch of Hadrian

In front of you stands one of the most outspoken gateways of the ancient world. The Athenians raised it around AD 131 or 132 in honour of Emperor Hadrian, Greece's great admirer, to coincide with the consecration of the neighbouring Temple of Olympian Zeus, which he himself had completed.

1Two sentences, two cities

The arch closed no city wall: it marked a symbolic boundary between old Athens and the new quarter growing to the east. And it says so plainly. On the side facing the Acropolis, the Greek inscription reads: “This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus.” On the opposite side comes the reply: “This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus.” Rarely has an emperor signed his work so bluntly.

2The temple that took seven centuries

Behind the arch rise the columns of the Olympieion. The tyrant family of the Peisistratids began it in the 6th century BC, it was left unfinished for generations, and only Hadrian completed it, more than six hundred years later. It had more than a hundred Corinthian columns, each about seventeen metres tall; fifteen still stand today, and another has lain on the ground since a storm brought it down in 1852.

This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus.

3What to look for

• The inscriptions above the central opening, on the architrave: one on each face.
• The upper storey, with its columns and central pediment, which may once have framed statues.
• The fallen column of the Olympieion, its drums lying in a row like dominoes.