58 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 



Photii Eciogae ^ion of Ariian as an historiographer, and of the style of his 



de Rebus post 



Alexandr. ges- compositions : otv^g ovhvos Twv api(TTa (TUVTU^UfJievcov i<rTOgias Ssure- 



tis. 



gog, X. T. X. 



Of the Libellus de Venatione, the treatise on Coursing, I 

 have ah'eady made mention ; and shall merely add, what is in 

 some degree pertinent to the subject, that there seems to have 

 been a strong similarity of taste between Hadrian and our 

 author. The Emperor, like his prefect, was not only inti- 

 Eutrcpii mately conversant with Greek and Latin hterature, " facundis- 

 simus Latino sermone, Grgeco eruditissimus," but also pas- 

 sionately fond of the chase. While living in his native town 

 of Italica in Spain, Spartian tells us, he bore the title of Grge- 

 culus, and was, at the same time, " venandi usque ad reprehen- 

 sionem studiosus — equos et canes sic amavit, ut eis sepulchra 

 constitueret. " To such a height did he carry this regard, that, 

 according to Xiphilin, he graced a monument to the memory of 

 his beloved hunter Borysthenes, with an inscription written by 

 his own pen : 



Borysthenes Alanus 

 Caesareus Veredus, &c. 



For all which unbounded affection for the brute creation, the 

 De Remediis reader may remember, he incurs the severity of Petrarch's 

 xixii. ' * satire in the dialogue " de Venatu et Aucupio." 



Whether the similarity of Arrian's rural diversions to those 

 of Hadrian in early life, co-operated with other causes to his 

 elevation by so capricious and eccentric a patron, must ever 

 remain doubtful. He is not mentioned by name in the bio- 

 graphy of Hadrian by Spartian : where it is stated, in general 

 terms only, of this singular Emperor, that he was on terms of 

 familiar intimacy with Epictetus, Heliodorus, and all gramma- 

 rians, rhetoricians, &c. Of his acquaintance with the eminent 

 men of his capital there can be no doubt, and his roving dispo- 



