human
This, Pontius, is really a first-rate man, said Hadrian, pointing to a tapestry hanging across the narrow end of the room.
gpt
This hanging was copied from a fruit-piece that I painted some time since, and had executed here in mosaic. Yesterday this room was not even intended for my use, thus the hanging must have been put up between our arrival and this morning. And how many other beautiful things I see around me! The whole place looks habitable, and the eye finds an abundance of objects on which it can rest with pleasure.
human
Have you examined that magnificent cushion? asked Antinous;
gpt
They are admirable works, said Hadrian.
human
Still, I would do without them with pleasure rather than miss this window. Which is the bluer, the sky or the sea? And what a delicious spring breeze fans us here, in the middle of December. Which are the more delightful to contemplate, the innumerable ships in the harbor, which communicate between this flowery land and other countries, and bless it with wealth, or the buildings which attract the eye in whichever direction it turns. It is difficult to know whether most to admire their stately dimensions or the beauty of their forms.
gpt
And what is that long, huge dyke, which connects the island with the mainland? Only look! There is a huge trireme passing under one of the wide arches, on which it is supported--and there comes another.
human
That is the great viaduct, called by the Alexandrians the Heptastadion, because it is said to be seven stadia in length; and in the upper portion it carries a stone water-course--as an elder tree has in it a vein of pith-which supplies water to the island of Pharos.
gpt
What a pity it is, said Antinous,
human
But they serve to vary the picture, replied the Emperor.
gpt
Cleopatra often dwelt in the little castle on the island with its harbor, and in that tall tower on the northern side of the peninsula, round which, just now, the blue waves are playing, while the gulls and pigeons fly happily over it--there Antony retreated after the fight of Actium.
human
To forget his disgrace!
gpt
He named it his Timonareum, because he hoped there to remain unmolested by other human beings, like the wise misanthrope of Athens. How would it be if I called Lochias my Timonareum?
human
No man need try to hide fame and greatness.
gpt
Who told you that it was shame that led Antony to hide himself in that place? asked the imperial sophist;
human
Then do you excuse his conduct?
gpt
I only seek to account for it, and never, for a moment, could allow myself to believe that shame ever prompted a single act in Antony. I-- do you suppose I could ever blush? Nay, we cease to feel shame when we have lived to feel such profound contempt for the world.
human
But why then should Marc Antony have shut himself up, in yonder sea- washed prison?
gpt
Because, to every true man, who has dissipated whole years of his life with women, jesters and flatterers, a moment comes of satiety and loathing. In such an hour he feels that of all the men under the lights of heaven, he, himself, is the only one with whom it is worth his while to commune. After Actium, this was what Antony felt, and he quitted the society of men in order to find himself for once in good company.
human
It is that, no doubt, which drives you now and again into solitude.
gpt
No doubt-but you are always allowed to follow me.
human
Then you regard me as better than others,
gpt
As more beautiful at any rate, replied Hadrian kindly.
human
Ask me some more questions.