Antinous was a beautiful Greek youth who became the lover of Emperor Hadrian. He was born in Bithynium-Claudiopolis, a Greek city in Bithynia. It is not known how he came to meet Hadrian and become his lover, but it is known that the two were inseperable for a period of seven years. The emperor was madly in love with him and took him along on his many imperial journeys. In 130 AD, Antinous drowned in the Nile river under mysterious circumstances. It is not known whether he was murdered, commited suicide, or sacrificed himself in a bizzare ritual. The emperor was grief-stricken and declared him a god. Many statues were made and the emperor built a temple to his beloved in his vast villa at Tivoli.