sium, with great magnificence,
and shortly afterwards embarked from Alexandria upon the Nile,
proceeding on his journey through Memphis into the Thebaid. When he
had arrived near an ancient city named Besa, on the right bank of
the river, he lost his friend. Antinous was drowned in the Nile. He
had thrown himself, it was believed, into the water; seeking thus by
a voluntary death to substitute his own life for Hadrian's, and to
avert predicted perils from the Roman Empire. What these perils
were, and whether Hadrian was ill, or whether an oracle had
threatened him with approaching calamity, we do not know. Even
supposition is at fault, because the date of the event is still
uncertain; some authorities placing Hadrian's Egyptian journey in
the year 122, and others in the year 130 A.D. Of the two dates, the
second seems the more probable. We are left to surmise that, if the
Emperor was in danger, the recent disturbances which followed a new
discovery of Apis, may have exposed him to fanatical conspiracy. The
same doubt affects an ingenious conjecture that rumours which
reached the Roman court of a new rising in Judaea had disturbed the
Emperor's mind, and led to the belief that he was on the verge of a
mysterious doom. He had pacified the Empire and established its
administration on a solid basis. Yet the revolt of the indomitable
Jews--more dreaded since the days of Titus than any other
perturbation of the imperial economy--would have been enough,
especially in Egypt, to engender general uneasiness. However this
may have been, the grief of the Emperor, intensified either by
gratitude or remorse, led to the immediate canonisation of Antinous.
The city where he died was rebuilt, and named after him. His worship
as a hero and as a god spread far and wide throughout the provinces
of the Mediterranean. A new star, which appeared about the time of
his decease, was supposed to be his soul received into the company
of the immortals. Medals were struck in his honour, and countless
works of art were produced to make his memory undying. Great cities
wore wreaths of red lotos on his feast-day in commemoration of the
manner of his death. Public games were celebrated in his honour at
the city Antinoe, and also in Arcadian Mantinea. This canonisation
may probably have taken place in the fourteenth year of Hadrian's
reign, A.D. 130.[1] Antinous continued to be worshipped until the
reign of Valentinian.

[1] Overbeck, Hausrath, and