las--[Arles]--in
Gaul, but no Hellene of them all could pour forth a purer flow of the
language of Demosthenes than he. The self-reliant, keen, and vivacious
natives of the African metropolis were far more to his taste than the
Athenians; these dwelt only in, and for, the past; the Alexandrians
rejoiced in the present. Here an independent spirit still survived,
while on the shores of the Ilissus there were none but servile souls who
made a merchandise of learning, as the Alexandrians did of the products
of Africa and the treasures of India. Once when he had fallen into
disgrace with Hadrian, the Athenians had thrown down his statue, and
the favor or disfavor of the powerful weighed with him more than
intellectual greatness, valuable labors, and true merit.

Florus agreed with Favorinus on the whole, and declared that Rome must
be freed from the intellectual influence of Athens; but Favorinus did
not admit this; he opined that it was very difficult for any one who had
left youth behind him, to learn anything new, thus referring, with light
irony, to the famous work in which Florus had attempted to divide the
history of Rome into four periods, corresponding to the ages of man,
but had left out old age, and had treated only of childhood, youth, and
manhood. Favorinus reproached him with overestimating the versatility of
the Roman genius, like his friend Fronto, and underrating the Hellenic
intellect.

Florus answered the Gaulish orator in a deep voice, and with such a
grand flow of words, that the listening Emperor would have enjoyed
expressing his approbation, and could not help considering the question
as to how many cups of wine his usually placid fellow-countryman might
have taken since breakfast to be so excited. When Floras tried to prove
that under Hadrian's rule Rome had risen to the highest stage of its
manhood, his friend, Demetrius, of Alexandria, interrupted him, and
begged him to tell him something about the Emperor's person. Florus
willingly acceded to this request, and sketched a brilliant picture
of the administrative talent, the learning, and the capability of the
Emperor.

"There is only one thing," he cried eagerly, "that I cannot approve of;
he is too little at Rome, which is now the core and centre of the world.
He must need see every thing for himself, and he is always wandering
restlessly through the provinces. I should not care to change with him!"

"You have expressed the same ideas in verse,"