reflex influence has been even seen in Trajan's forum, in which the
chief thing was the emperor's tomb.

In Alexandria the emperor mixed freely with the professors of the
museum, asking them questions and answering theirs in return; and he
dropped his tear of pity on the tomb of the great Pompey, in the form of
a Greek epigram, though with very little point. He laid out large sums
of money in building and ornamenting the city, and the Alexandrians were
much pleased with his behaviour. Among other honours that they paid
him, they changed the name of the month December, calling it the month
Hadrian; but as they were not followed by the rest of the empire the
name soon went out of use. The emperor's patronage of philosophy was
rather at the cost of the Alexandrian museum, for he enrolled among its
paid professors men who were teaching from school to school in Italy and
Asia Minor. Thus Polemon of Laodicea, who taught oratory and philosophy
at Rome, Laodicea, and Smyrna, and had the right of a free passage for
himself and his servants in any of the public ships whenever he chose to
move from city to city for the purposes of study or teaching, had at
the same time a salary from the Alexandrian museum. Dionysius of Miletus
also received his salary as a professor in the museum while teaching
philosophy and mnemonicsat Miletus and Ephesus. Pancrates, the
Alexandrian poet, gained his salary in the museum by the easy task of a
little flattery. On Hadrian's return to Alexandria from the Thebaid, the
poet presented to him a rose-coloured lotus, a flower well known in
India, though less common in Egypt than either the blue or white lotus,
and assured him that it had sprung out of the blood of the lion slain by
his royal javelin at a lion-hunt in Libya.

[Illustration: 097.jpg ROSE-COLOURED LOTUS]

The emperor was pleased with the compliment, and gave him a place in the
museum; and Pancrates in return named the plant the lotus of Antinous.
Pancrates was a warm admirer of the mystical opinions of the Egyptians
which were then coming into note in Alexandria. He was said to have
lived underground in holy solitude or converse with the gods for
twenty-three years, and during that time to have been taught magic by
the goddess Isis, and thus to have gained the power of working miracles.
He learned to call upon the queen of darkness by her Egyptian name
Hecate, and when driving out evil spirits to speak to them in the
Egyptian language. Wh