SOURCE: Birley, Anthony R. “Epilogue: Animula vagula blandula.” In Hadrian: The Restless Emperor, pp. 301-07. London: Routledge, 1997.

In the following essay, Birley summarizes Hadrian's accomplishments and reviews his reputation.

animula vagula blandula, hospes comesque corporis, quo nunc abibis? in loca pallidula rigida nubila— nec ut soles dabis iocos. 

Few short poems can have generated so many verse translations and such copious academic debate as these five lines—a mere nineteen words—of the dying Hadrian, quoted in the Historia Augusta. Even their authenticity has been questioned. But that, at least, seems to have been settled, with the observation that the quality is evidently ‘beyond the powers of the author of the HA’. There is also dispute over the meaning: in particular, whether the adjectives in the fourth line go with the animula or with the loca, and how the third line should be punctuated. The text here given...