[Sidenote:—­16—­] Hadrian completed the Olympieum in Athens, in which his own statue also stands, and consecrated there a serpent, which was brought from India.  He also presided at the Dionysia, the greatest office within the gift of the people, and arrayed in the local costume carried it through brilliantly.  He allowed the Greeks, too, to build his sepulchre (called the Panellenium), and instituted a series of games to be connected with it; and he granted to the Athenians large sums of money, annual corn distribution, and the whole of Cephallenia.—­Among various laws that he enacted was one to the effect that no senator, either personally or through the medium of another, should have any tax farmed out to him. [Sidenote:  A.D. 135 (a.u. 888)] After he had come to Rome, the crowd at a spectacle shouted their request for the emancipation of a certain charioteer:  but he replied by means of a writing on a board:  “It is not right for you either to ask me to free another’s slave or to force his master to do so.”

[Sidenote:—­17—­] He now began to be sick, having suffered even before this from blood gushing from his nostrils:  this flow now grew very much more copious, so that he despaired of his life.  Consequently, he appointed as Caesar for the Romans Lucius Commodus, although this man frequently vomited blood. [Sidenote:  A.D. 136 (a.u. 889)] Servianus and his grandson Fuscus, the former a nonagenarian and the latter eighteen years of age, were put to death on the ground that they were displeased at this action.  Servianus before being executed asked for fire, and as he offered incense he exclaimed:  “That I am guilty of no wrong, ye; O Gods, are well aware:  and as for Hadrian I pray only this, that he may desire to die and not be able.”  And, indeed, Hadrian did come to his end only after often praying that he might expire and often feeling a desire to kill himself.  There is in existence also a letter of his which lays stress on this very matter, showing what a dreadful thing it is for a man to desire to die and not be able.  This Servianus had been by Hadrian deemed capable of filling the imperial office.  He had once at a banquet told his friends to name for him ten men who were competent to be sole rulers, and then after a moment’s pause, had added:  “I want to know nine:  I have one already, Servianus.”

[Sidenote:—­18—­] Other excellent men, also, had come to light during that period, of whom the most distinguished were Turbo and Similis, who, indeed, were honored with statues.

Turbo was a man of great qualities as a general, who had become prefect (or commander of the Pretorians).  He committed no act of luxury or haughtiness, but lived like one of the multitude:  the entire day he spent in proximity to the palace and often he would go there even shortly before midnight, when some of the others were beginning to sleep.  A characteristic anecdote is that which brings in the name of Cornelius Fronto, at this time reputed to be the foremost Roman advocate in lawsuits.  One evening very late he was returning home from dinner and ascertained from a man whose counsel he had promised to be that Turbo was holding court.  Accordingly, just as he was, in his dress for dinner, he went into his courtroom and greeted him not with the morning salutation, I wish you joy, but with that belonging to the evening, I trust your health continues good.