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Ancient
Antinous Documents
DIO CASSIUS
EPITOME OF BOOK 69
"In Egypt also he rebuilt the city
named henceforth for Antinous. Antinous was from Bithynium, a city of
Bithynia, which we also call Claudiopolis; he had been a favorite of the
emperor and had died in Egypt, either by falling into the Nile, as Hadrian
writes, or, as the truth is, by being offered in sacrifice. For Hadrian,
as I have stated, was always very curious and employed divinations and
incantations of all kinds. Accordingly, he honored Antinous, either because
of his love for him or because the youth had voluntarily undertaken to
die (it being necessary that a life should be surrendered freely for the
accomplishment of the ends Hadrian had in view), by building a city on
the spot where he had suffered this fate and naming it after him; and
he also set up statues, or rather sacred images, of him, practically all
over the world. Finally, he declared that he had seen a star which he
took to be that of Antinous, and gladly lent an ear to the fictitious
tales woven by his associates to the effect that the star had really come
into being from the spirit of Antinous and had then appeared for the first
time. On this account, then, he became the object of some ridicule, and
also because at the death of his sister Paulina he had not immediately
paid her any honor ..."
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