Antinous is known historically as the favorite of Emperor Hadrian.
He was a native of Bitina, Roman province of Asia Minor overlooking the Black Sea (present-day Turkey). He was graced with such extraordinary beauty that he was reproduced in countless works of marble, bronze and was even depicted on the coins of the Roman Empire.
Nothing about his life story is boring, from his birth in a foreign, distant land to his death, which according to legend was dramatic, as he drowned in the Nile in Egypt during one of the countless trips in the company of his protector.
Montesquieu even said in his Voyage d ‘Italie in 1728: “In Rome, when they see someone with a serious air and no beard, he is a consul, if he has a long beard, he’s a philosopher, and if he is a youth, he is an Antinous.“