Egypt -- History -- 30 B.C.-640 A.D. -- Fiction; German fiction -- Translations into English; Hadrian, Emperor of Rome, 76-138 -- Fiction
Arsinoe was up betimes on the following morning; much embarrassed by all
the splendor that surrounded her, she walked up and down her room
thinking of Pollux. Then she stopped to take pleasure in her own image
displayed in a large mirror which stood on a dressing-table, and between
whiles she compared the couch, on which she lay clown again at full
length, with those in Paulina's house. Once more she felt herself a
prisoner, but this time she liked her prison, and presently, when she
heard slaves passing by her room, she flew to the door to listen, for it
was just possible that Titianus might have sent to fetch Pollux, and
would allow him to come to see her. At last a slave-woman came in,
brought her some breakfast, and desired her from Julia to go into the
garden and look at the flowers and aviaries till she should be sent for.
Early that morning the news had reached the prefect that Antinous had
sought his death in the Nile, and it had shocked him greatly, less on
account of the hapless youth than for Hadrian's sake. When he had given
the proper officials orders to announce the melancholy news and to desire
the citizens to give some public expression of their sympathy with the
Emperor's sorrow, he gave audience to the Patriarch Eumenes.
This venerable man, ever since the transactions which he had conducted--
with reference to the thanksgiving of the Christians for the safety of
the Emperor after the fire, had been one of the most esteemed friends of
Titianus and Julia. The prefect discussed with the Patriarch the
inauspicious effects that the death of the young fellow might be expected
to have on the Emperor, and as a result, on the government, although the
favorite had had no qualities of mind to distinguish him.
"Whenever Hadrian," continued Titianus, "would give his unresting brain
an hour's relaxation, and release himself from disappointment and
vexation and the severe toil and anxiety of which his life is overfull,
be would go out hunting with the bold youth or would have the handsome,
good-hearted boy into his own room. The sight of the Bithynian's beauty
delighted his eye, and how well Antinous knew how to listen to him--
silent, modest and attentive! Hadrian loved him as a son, and the poor
fellow clung to his master in return with more than a son's fidelity; his
death itself proved it. Caesar himself said to me once; "In the midst of
the turmoil of waking life, when I see Antinous a feeling comes over me
as if a beautiful dream stood incorporate before my eyes."
"Caesar's grief at losing him must indeed be great," said the Patriarch.
"And the loss will add to the gloom of his grave and brooding nature,
render his restless scheming and wandering still more capricious, and
increase his suspiciousness and irritability."
"And the circumstances under which Antinous perished," added Eumenes,
"will afford new ground for his attachment to superstitions."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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