[Sidenote:—­2—­] At the time that he was declared emperor, Hadrian was in Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, of which he was governor.  In a dream just before that day he seemed to see fire descend from heaven in the midst of clear sky and wholly fair weather and fall first upon the left of his throat and then upon the right also, though it neither frightened nor injured him.  And Hadrian wrote to the senate, asking that his sovereignty be confirmed also by that body, and forbidding any measure to be voted (as was so often done) either then or thereafter that contained any special honor for him, unless he should first himself approve it.

The bones of Trajan were deposited in his column, and the so-called Parthian games continued for a number of years.  At a later date even this observance, like many others, was abolished.

Hadrian’s rule was in general most humane. [In a letter he expresses himself with the greatest degree of consideration for others and swears that he will neither do anything contrary to the public advantage nor put to death any senator, calling down destruction upon himself, if he shall transgress these principles in any way.  But] Still he was spoken against on account of some murders of excellent men that he had sanctioned in the beginning of his reign and near the end of his life.  And for this reason he came near not being enrolled among the heroes.  Those murdered at the beginning were Palma and Celsus, Nigrinus and Lusius, the first two for the alleged reason that they had conspired against him during a hunt, and the others on certain other complaints, because they had great influence, or were in a strong position as regards wealth and fame.  Hadrian felt so keenly the talk that was made about them that he defended himself and declared upon oath that he had not ordered their deaths.  Those that perished at the end of the reign were Servianus and his grandson Fuscus.

Hadrian was a pleasant man to meet and his presence shed a kind of grace.

[Sidenote:—­3—­] As for Hadrian’s family, he was a son of [a man of senatorial rank, an ex-praetor] Hadrianus, [for thus he was named].  In regard to his disposition, he was fond of literature in both languages and has left behind all kinds of prose pieces as well as compositions in verse.  His ambition was insatiable, and as a result he practiced all conceivable pursuits, even the most trivial.  He modeled and painted and declared that there was nothing in peace or in war, in imperial or in private life, of which he was not cognizant. [And this, of course, did people no harm; but his jealousy of those who excelled in any branch was terrible and] ruined many besides utterly destroying quite a few. [For,] since he desired to surpass everybody in everything, [he hated those who attained eminence in any direction.] This feeling it was which led him to undertake the overthrow of two sophists, Favorinus the Gaul and Dionysius the Milesian, [by various methods, chiefly] by stirring