[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
entire meal of them. D.W.]





THE EMPEROR, Part 2.

By Georg Ebers

Volume 7.


CHAPTER V.

While Pollux and his mother, who was much grieved, waited for Euphorion's
return, and while Papias was ingratiating himself with the Emperor by
pretending still to believe that Hadrian was nothing more than Claudius
Venator, the architect, Aurelius Verus, nicknamed by the Alexandrians,
"the sham Eros" had lived through strange experiences.

In the afternoon he had visited the Empress, in the hope of persuading
her to look on at the gay doings of the people, even if incognito; but
Sabina was out of spirits, declared herself unwell, and was quite sure
that the noise of the rabble would be the death of her. Having, as she
said, so vivacious a reporter as Verus, she might spare herself from
exposing her own person to the dust and smell of the town, and the uproar
of men. As soon as Lucilla begged her husband to remember his rank and