The Olympieion: Hadrian completes a temple in Athens

The explanations distinguish finds, interpretations and open questions. Sources appear at the end of the page.

What the source says

Under "117 A.D." the Met's timeline for Greece in the first five centuries A.D. states: "The Roman emperor Hadrian (r. 117-138 A.D.) completes the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the principal monument in southeast Athens. The emperor also erects a gymnasium and a number of bathing establishments in the vicinity." Source 1.

Completion, not foundation

The verb is "completes". It implies that the temple had been begun before Hadrian, but the entry does not say when or by whom, and this article does not supply it. What Hadrian is credited with is the end of a building project and new buildings around it: a gymnasium and "a number of bathing establishments", not counted. Source 1.

What the heading dates

117 A.D. is the heading of the entry, and the same entry gives Hadrian's reign as 117-138 A.D. The heading is thus the first year of the reign, not a date of completion or dedication, which the entry does not give. The most the source supports is "during Hadrian's reign, 117-138 A.D.", well inside the site's period of Roman rule in Greece, 146 B.C.-330 A.D. Source 1.

What cannot be said from this entry

"The principal monument in southeast Athens" is the source's assessment. The entry gives no dimensions, plan or materials of the temple, does not place the gymnasium or the baths beyond "in the vicinity", and does not say whether any of them survive. A reader who wants the building itself needs the excavation and architectural publications, which were not read here.

Two temples in one city

On this site Athens has two temples in two periods: the Parthenon, which the same museum's timeline dates to 449-432 B.C., in the Classical period, and the Temple of Olympian Zeus, completed under Hadrian more than five centuries later. The article on Philippi shows another side of the same Roman period: a city reshaped as a colony, not a monument completed. Sources 2, 1.

Scope of reading: the Met timeline page "Ancient Greece, 1-500 A.D." was read on 24 October 2026, in particular its entry for 117 A.D.; for the comparison, the entry for 449-432 B.C. on the page for 1000 B.C.-1 A.D. was also read. No excavation report or architectural study of the Olympieion was read.