felicity of
Augustus, and the virtue of Trajan.

We may readily believe, that the father of his country hesitated whether
he ought to intrust the various and doubtful character of his kinsman
Hadrian with sovereign power. In his last moments the arts of the
empress Plotina either fixed the irresolution of Trajan, or boldly
supposed a fictitious adoption; the truth of which could not be
safely disputed, and Hadrian was peaceably acknowledged as his lawful
successor. Under his reign, as has been already mentioned, the empire
flourished in peace and prosperity. He encouraged the arts, reformed
the laws, asserted military discipline, and visited all his provinces
in person. His vast and active genius was equally suited to the most
enlarged views, and the minute details of civil policy. But the ruling
passions of his soul were curiosity and vanity. As they prevailed, and
as they were attracted by different objects, Hadrian was, by turns,
an excellent prince, a ridiculous sophist, and a jealous tyrant.
The general tenor of his conduct deserved praise for its equity and
moderation. Yet in the first days of his reign, he put to death four
consular senators, his personal enemies, and men who had been judged
worthy of empire; and the tediousness of a painful illness rendered
him, at last, peevish and cruel. The senate doubted whether they should
pronounce him a god or a tyrant; and the honors decreed to his memory
were granted to the prayers of the pious Antoninus.

The caprice of Hadrian influenced his choice of a successor. After
revolving in his mind several men of distinguished merit, whom he
esteemed and hated, he adopted AElius Verus a gay and voluptuous
nobleman, recommended by uncommon beauty to the lover of Antinous. But
whilst Hadrian was delighting himself with his own applause, and the
acclamations of the soldiers, whose consent had been secured by an
immense donative, the new Caesar was ravished from his embraces by an
untimely death. He left only one son. Hadrian commended the boy to
the gratitude of the Antonines. He was adopted by Pius; and, on the
accession of Marcus, was invested with an equal share of sovereign
power. Among the many vices of this younger Verus, he possessed
one virtue; a dutiful reverence for his wiser colleague, to whom he
willingly abandoned the ruder cares of empire. The philosophic emperor
dissembled his follies, lamented his early death, and cast a decent veil
over his memory.

As soo