permanently charming than the ideal. It has been disputed whether
the Antinous statues are portraits or idealised works of inventive
art; and it is usually conceded that the sculptors of Hadrian's age
were not able to produce a new ideal type. Critics, therefore, like
Helbig and Overbeck, arrive at the conclusion that Antinous was one
of nature's masterpieces, modelled in bronze, marble, and granite
with almost flawless technical dexterity. Without attaching too much
weight to this kind of criticism, it is well to find the decisions
of experts in harmony with the instincts of simple observers.
Antinous is as real as any man who ever sat for his portrait to a
modern sculptor.

But who was Antinous, and what is known of him? He was a native of
Bithynium or Claudiopolis, a Greek town claiming to have been a
colony from Arcadia, which was situated near the Sangarius, in the
Roman province of Bithynia; therefore he may have had pure Hellenic
blood in his veins, or, what is more probable, his ancestry may have
been hybrid between the Greek immigrants and the native populations
of Asia Minor. Antinous was probably born in the first decade of the
second century of our era. About his youth and education we know
nothing. He first appears upon the scene of the world's history as
Hadrian's friend. Whether the Emperor met with him during his
travels in Asia Minor, whether he found him among the students of
the University at Athens, or whether the boy had been sent to Rome
in his childhood, must remain matter of the merest conjecture. We do
not even know for certain whether Antinous was free or a slave. The
report that he was one of the Emperor's pages rests upon the
testimony of Hegesippus, quoted by a Christian Father, and cannot
therefore be altogether relied upon. It receives, however, some
confirmation from the fact that Antinous is more than once
represented in the company of Hadrian and Trajan in a page's hunting
dress upon the basreliefs which adorn the Arch of Constantine. The
so-called Antinous-Castor of the Villa Albani is probably of a
similar character. Winckelmann, who adopted the tradition as
trustworthy, pointed out the similarity between the portraits of
Antinous and some lines in Phaedrus, which describe a curly-haired
_atriensis_. If Antinous took the rank of _atriensis_ in the
imperial _paedagogium_, his position would have been, to say the
least, respectable; for to these upper servants was committed the
charge