Rome was deeply debauched by Hadrian’s age.
The games at which this wrestling match took place were being held in honor and in memory of Hadrian’s dead teen catamite, Antinoos, who got chomped by a hippo or something while doing some limp-wristed swimming in the Nile. The empire had peaked when his mommy faked a will attributed to Trajan and put Hadrian onto the “throne”.