that Antinous had been immolated
by the Emperor, either because a victim was needed to prolong his
life, or because some human sacrifice was required in order to
complete a dark mysterious magic rite. Dion, writing not very long
after the event, believed that Antinous had been immolated for some
such purpose with his own consent. Spartian, who wrote at the
distance of more than a century, felt uncertain about the question
of self-devotion; but Aurelius Victor, following after the interval
of another century, unhesitatingly adopted Dion's view, and gave it
a fresh colour. This opinion he summarised in a compact,
authoritative form, upon which we may perhaps found an assumption
that the belief in Antinous, as a self-devoted victim, had been
gradually growing through two centuries.

There are therefore three hypotheses to be considered. The first is
that Antinous died an accidental death by drowning; the second is,
that Antinous, in some way or another, gave his life willingly for
Hadrian's; the third is, that Hadrian ordered his immolation in the
performance of magic rites.

For the first of the three hypotheses we have the authority of
Hadrian himself, as quoted by Dion. The simple words [Greek: eis ton
Neilon ekpeson] imply no more than accidental death; and yet, if the
Emperor had believed the story of his favourite's self-devotion, it
is reasonable to suppose that he would have recorded it in his
'Memoirs.' Accepting this view of the case, we must refer the
deification of Antinous wholly to Hadrian's affection; and the tales
of his _devotio_ may have been invented partly to flatter the
Emperor's grief, partly to explain its violence to the Roman world.
This hypothesis seems, indeed, by far the most natural of the three;
and if we could strip the history of Antinous of its mysterious and
mythic elements, it is rational to believe that we should find his
death a simple accident. Yet our authorities prove that writers of
history among the ancients wavered between the two other theories of
(i) Self-Devotion and (ii) Immolation, with a bias toward the
latter. These, then, have now to be considered with some attention.
Both, it may parenthetically be observed, relieve Antinous from a
moral stigma, since in either case a pure untainted victim was
required.

If we accept the former of the two remaining hypotheses, we can
understand how love and gratitude, together with sorrow, led Hadrian
to canonise Antinous. If we acce