Note 39 — Chapter II · ON PEDICATION

“He lost, during his navigation of the Nile, his dear Antinous, and wept for him like a woman. There are sundry allegations about this Antinous; some say he was devoted to Hadrian, others point to the beauty of his shape, and to the pleasure Hadrian experienced with him. At the instance of Hadrian the Greeks placed him in the ranks of the Gods, and affirmed that he gave oracular decisions; those oracles, it is said, were composed by Hadrian himself” (Spartianus, Hadrian, ch. 14). St. Jerome says in the Hegesippus: “Antinous, a slave of the Emperor Hadrian, after whom a circus was named the Antinoian, founded also a town bearing his name (Antinoia), and established an Oracle in the temple.”