said Favorinus.

"Oh! a jest at supper-time. So long as I am in Alexandria and waiting
on Caesar I can make myself very comfortable every day at the 'Olympian
table' of this admirable cook."

"But how runs your poem?" asked Pancrates.

"I have forgotten it, and it deserved no better fate," replied Florus.

"But I," laughed the Gaul, "I remember the beginning. The first lines, I
think, ran thus:

"'Let others envy Caesar's lot;
To wander through Britannia's dales
And be snowed up in Scythian vales
Is Caesar's taste--I'd rather not?'"

As he heard these words Hadrian struck his fist into the palm of his
left hand, and while the feasters were hazarding guesses as to why he
was so long in coming to Alexandria, he took out the folding tablet he
was in the habit of carrying in his money-bag, and hastily wrote the
following lines on the wax face of it:

'Let others envy Florus' lot;
To wander through the shops for drink,
Or, into foolish dreaming sink
In a cook-shop, where sticky flies
Buzz round him till he shuts his eyes
Is Florus' taste--I'd rather not?'

[From verses by Hadrian and Florus, preserved in Spartianus.]

Hardly had he ended the lines, muttering them to himself with much
relish as he wrote, when the waiter showed in Pollux. The sculptor had
failed to find Antinous, and suggested that the young man had probably
gone home; he also begged that he might not be detained long at supper,
for he had met his master Papias, who had been extremely annoyed by his
long absence. Hadrian was no longer satisfied with the artist's society,
for the conversation in the next room was to him far more attractive
than that of the worthy young fellow. He himself was anxious to quit
the meal soon, for he felt restless and uneasy. Antinous could no doubt
easily find his way to Lochias, but recollections of the evil omens he
had observed in the heavens last night flitted across his soul like bats
through a festal hall, marring the pleasure on which he again tried to
concentrate it, in order to enjoy his hours of liberty.

Even Pollux was not so light-hearted as before. His long walk had made
him hungry, and he addressed himself so vigorously to the excellent
dishes which rapidly followed each other by his entertainer's orders,
and emptied the cup with such unfailing diligence, that the Emperor was
astonished: but the more he