breakfasted without wine; in fact, most of his food was served without any accompanying beverage; and often in the midst of a meal he would turn his attention to a case at law:  later he would drive in the company of all the foremost and best men, and their eating together was the occasion for all kind of discussions.  When his friends were very ill, he would go to see them, and he used to attend their festivals, besides evincing pleasure at visiting their country seats and houses.  As might have been expected, then, he set up in his forum images for many who were dead and many still alive.  No one of his associates, moreover, displayed insolence nor sold aught that he should pronounce or perform, as the Caesarians and other attendants in the suite of emperors have made it their custom to do.

[Sidenote:—­8—­] This is a kind of preface, of a summary nature, I have been giving in regard to his character.  I shall also touch upon all the details that require mention.

The Alexandrians had been rioting and nothing would make them stop until they received a letter from Hadrian rebuking them.  So true it is that an emperor’s word has more power than force of arms.

[Sidenote:  A.D. 118 (a.u. 871)] On coming to Rome he canceled debts owing to the imperial treasury and to the public treasury of the Romans, setting a limit of sixteen years, from which and as far back as which this provision was to be observed.  On his own birthday he gave a spectacle to the people free of charge, and slaughtered numbers of wild beasts,—­one hundred lions and a like number of lionesses biting the dust on this one occasion.  Gifts, likewise, he brought about by means of balls both in the theatres and in the hippodrome, one lot for the men and one lot for the women.  Indeed, he had also commanded them to battle separately.

This, then, was what happened that year.  Euphrates the philosopher also died a death of his own choosing; and Hadrian assented to his drinking hemlock in consideration of his extreme age and sickliness. [Sidenote:—­9—­] Hadrian went from one province to another, visiting the districts and cities and observing all the garrisons and fortifications.  Some of these he removed to more desirable locations, some he abolished, and he founded some new ones.  He personally oversaw and investigated absolutely everything, not merely the usual appurtenances of camps,—­I mean weapons and engines and ditches and enclosures and palisades,—­but also the private affairs of each one, and the lives, the dwellings and the characters both of the men serving in the organization, and of the commanders themselves.  Many cases of too delicate living and equipment he harmonized with military needs and reformed in various ways.  He exercised the men in every variety of battle, honoring some and reproving others.  He taught all of them what they ought to do.  And to make sure that they should obtain benefit from observing him, he led everywhere a severe existence and walked or rode