who brought to Titianus the news of the
sovereign's death. Hadrian had given him his freedom before he died and
had left him a handsome legacy.

The prefect gave him a piece of land to farm and continued in friendly
relations with his Christian neighbor and his pretty daughter, who grew
up among her father's co-religionists.

When Titianus had told his wife the melancholy news he added solemnly:

"A great sovereign is dead. The pettinesses which disfigured the man
Hadrian will be forgotten by posterity, for the ruler Hadrian was one of
those men whom Fate sets in the places they belong to, and who, true to
their duty, struggle indefatigably to the end. With wise moderation he
was so far master of himself as to bridle his ambition and to defy the
blame and prejudice of all the Romans. The hardest, and perhaps the
wisest, resolution of his life was to abandon the provinces which it
would have exhausted the power of the Empire to retain. He travelled over
every portion of his dominion within the limits he himself had set to it,
shrinking from neither frost nor heat, and he tried to be as thoroughly
acquainted with every portion of it as if the Empire were a small estate
he had inherited. His duties as a sovereign forced him to travel, and his
love of travel lightened the duty. He was possessed by a real passion to
understand and learn everything. Even the Incomprehensible set no limits
to his thirst for knowledge, but ever striving to see farther and to dig
deeper than is possible to the mind of man, he wasted a great part of his
mighty powers in trying to snatch aside the curtain which hides the
destinies of the future. No one ever worked at so many secondary
occupations as he, and yet no former Emperor ever kept his eye so
unerringly fixed on the main task of his life, the consolidation and
maintenance of the strength of the state and the improvement and
prosperity of its citizens."

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR THE EMPEROR, COMPLETE:

A well-to-do man always gets a higher price than a poor one
Avoid all useless anxiety
Dried merry-thought bone of a fowl
Enjoy the present day
Facts are differently reflected in different minds
Happiness is only the threshold to misery
Have not yet learned not to be astonished
Have lived to feel such profound contempt for the world
I must either rest or begin upon something new
Idleness had long since grown to be the occupa