Everyone knows about Hadrian's most famous legacy in Britain – the eponymous, 73-mile-long wall he had built between England and Scotland following his first tour of the country in AD 121 – but few other facts about the Roman emperor (117 -138AD) have become common knowledge. The BM's major summer exhibition seeks to redress this by examining through 180 exhibits, include the museum's bronze head of Hadrian, the complex life of this leader. A ruthless military man who was also devoted to his young male lover, Antinous, he showed tolerance for other cultures and took a great interest in architecture, commissioning buildings including the Pantheon in Rome.
