Saeculum Aureum, 153-171 Summary

After leaving Parthia, Hadrian spends his summer in Bithynia, where he passes his days listening to poetry and staying with the procurator of the province. There he meets Antinous, a charmingly aloof young man who immediately steals Hadrian's heart. Antinous is Greek, and he and the emperor are never apart thereafter. Hadrian thinks on these days as his personal golden age, without care or consideration of the pain that is to follow.

From Bithynia, Hadrian and Antinous travel to Byzantium and then to Greece. In Athens, Hadrian is inaugurated into the mysteries, becoming officially divine. He renovates the tomb of a fallen Greek general, and he holds games for the people. Athens, in a sense, has become his home. He feels comfortable enough among the people to play flute with the musicians. Here, too, Hadrian befriends Arrian, a soldier...