conducted to the Emperor's anteroom he looked as bright and free from
care as if the future lay before him sunny and cloudless.

Hadrian now occupied the restored palace, not as an architect from Rome
but as sovereign of the world; he had shown himself to the Alexandrians
and had been received with rejoicings and an unheard-of display in his
honor. The satisfaction caused by the imperial visit was everywhere
conspicuous and often found expression in exaggerated terms; indeed the
council had passed a resolution to the effect that the month of December,
being that in which the city had had the honor of welcoming the
'Imperator,' should henceforth be called:

"Hadrianus." The Emperor had to receive one deputation after another and
to hold audience after audience, and on the following morning the
dramatic representations were to begin, the processions and games which
promised to last through many days, or--as Hadrian himself expressed it--
to rob him of at least a hundred good hours. Notwithstanding, the
monarch found time to settle all the affairs of the state, and at night
to question the stars as to the fate which awaited him and his dominions
during all the seasons of the new year now so close at hand.

The aspect of the palace at Lochias was entirely changed. In the place
of the gay little gate-house stood a large tent of gorgeous purple stuff,
in which the Emperor's body-guard was quartered, and opposite to it
another was pitched for lictors and messengers. The stables were full of
horses. Hadrian's own horse, Borysthenes, which had had too long a rest,
pawed and stamped impatiently in a separate stall, and close at hand the
Emperor's retrievers, boar-hounds and harriers were housed in hastily-
contrived yards and kennels.