[Sidenote:—­21—­] So it was that Antoninus became emperor.  Since he was destitute of male children, Hadrian adopted for him Commodus’s son Commodus and, moreover, besides the latter, Marcus Annius Verus; for he wished to appoint those who were afterwards to be emperors for as long a time ahead as possible. (This Marcus Annius, earlier named Catilius, was a grandson of Annius Verus who had thrice been consul and prefect of the city).  And though Hadrian urged Antoninus to adopt them both, he preferred Verus on account of his kinship and his age and because he already exhibited an extremely strong cast of mind.  This led him to apply to the young man the name Verissimus, with a play upon the meaning of the Latin word.

[Sidenote:—­22—­] By certain charms and species of magic Hadrian was relieved of the water, but shortly was full of it again.  Since, therefore, he was constantly growing worse and might be said to be slowly perishing day by day, he began to long for death.  Often he would ask for poison and a sword, but no one would give them to him.  As no one would obey him, although he promised money and immunity, he sent for Mastor, an Iazygian barbarian that had become a captive, whom he had employed in hunts on account of his strength and daring.  Then, partly by threatening him and partly by making promises, he compelled the man to undertake the duty of killing him.  He drew a colored line around a spot beneath the nipple that had been shown him by Hermogenes the physician, in order that he might there be struck a finishing blow and perish painlessly.  But even this plan did not succeed, for Mastor became afraid of the project and in terror withdrew.  The emperor lamented bitterly the plight in which the disease had placed him and bitterly his powerlessness, in that he was not able to make away with himself, though he might still, even when so near death, destroy anybody else.  Finally he abandoned his careful regimen and through using unsuitable foods and drinks met his death, saying and shouting aloud the popular saying:  “Many physicians have ruined a king.”

[Sidenote:—­23—­] He had lived sixty-two years, five months and nineteen [Footnote:  Seventeen, according to the common tradition.] days, and had been emperor twenty years and eleven months.  He was buried near the river itself, close to the Aelian bridge; that was where he had prepared his tomb, for the one belonging to Augustus was full and no other body was deposited there.

This emperor was hated [by the people, in spite of his excellent reign] on account of the early and the late murders, since they had been unjustly and impiously brought about.  Yet he had so little of a bloodthirsty disposition that even in the case of some who took pains to thwart him he deemed it sufficient to write to their native lands the bare statement that they did not please him.  And if any man who had children was absolutely obliged to receive punishment, still, in proportion to the number of his children he would also lighten the penalty imposed. [Notwithstanding, the senate persisted for a long time in its refusal to vote him divine honors, and in its strictures upon some of those who had committed excesses during his reign and had been honored therefor, when they ought to have been chastised.]