SOURCE: Henderson, Bernard W. “‘Rest after Toil’.” In The Life and Principate of the Emperor Hadrian A.D. 76-138, pp. 235-46. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1923.

In the following excerpt, Henderson examines Hadrian's leisure activities and evaluates his contribution to literature.

1. Relaxation

So the day drew towards evening.

Hadrian had returned from Egypt to Rome in a.d. 131. The Jewish rebellion had called him again to the East for a brief time two years later. Except for this interlude he quitted home no more during his last seven years of life.

His Imperial work, other than the routine of administration from Rome, was ended. He had well earned some period of rest before night came. Far away in the savage north the German, eternal and immemorial foe of Italy, lurked in his black forests, held off from the south land, in spite of covetous dreaming, by the defences which...