Hadria'nus
or ADRIANUS. We learn fiom the Codex Theodosianus that a person of this name held the office of Magister Officiorum in the reign of Honorius, A. D. 397 and 399 (Cod. Theod. 6. tit. 26.11; tit. 27.11). He appears to have been praefectus praetorio Italiae, A. D. 400-405 (Cod. Theod. 7. tit. 18.11 to 14; 8. tit. 2.5. tit. 5.65; 16. tit. 2.35. tit. 6.45). After an interval in which the praefecture passed into other hands we find it again held by an Hadrianus, apparently the same person as the former praefect of the name, A. D. 413-416 (Cod. Theod. 7. tit. 4.33. tit. 13.21; 15. tit. 14.13). The first of the five Epistolae of Claudian is inscribed Deprecatio ad Hadrianum Prefuectum Praetorio: but it is not known on what authority this title rests. The poet deprecates the anger of some grandee whom he had in some moment of irritation in his youth offended by some invective. Another of Claudian's poems (Epigr. xxviii. ed Burman, xxx. in some other ed.) bears the inscription De Theodoro et Hadriano. "Miallius indulget somno noctesque diesque:Insomnis Pharius sacra profana rapit.
Omnibus hoc, Italae gentes, exposcite votis,
Malls it vigilet dormiat ut Pharius." ; If this inscription can be trusted to, we may gather that Hadrian was an Egyptian. Whether the Epigram was first written, and was the offence which the Deprecatio was intended to expiate, or whether it was a fresh outbreak of poetical spite on the failure of the Deprecatio, is not ascertained. Symmachus, in his Epistolae, mentions an Hadrianus whom he calls "illustris," probably the praefect. (Cod. Theod. and Claudian, ll. cc; Symmach. Epist. 6.35, ed. Geneva, A. D. 1587, or 6.34, ed. Paris, 1604; Gothofred, Prosop. Cod. Theod; Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. vol. v.) [J.C.M]