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.