Pollux has done his share of the work very well, and I have already devoted an hour's work to it, which has improved it.

The more humble our material, the better I shall be pleased if the work satisfies Caesar; he himself has tried his hand at sculpture." "If only Hadrian could hear that!" cried one of the painters.

"He likes to think himself a great artist--one of the foremost of our time.

It is said that he caused the life of the great architect, Apollodorus--who carried out such noble works for Trajan--to be extinguished--and why?
because formerly that illustrious man had treated the imperial bungler as a mere dabbler, and would not accept his plan for the temple of Venus at Rome." "Mere talk!" answered Pontius to this accusation.

"Apollodorus died in prison, but his incarceration had little enough to do with the Emperor's productions--excuse me, gentlemen, I must once more look through the sketches and plans." The architect went away, but Pollux continued the conversation that had been begun by saying: "Only I cannot understand how a man who practises so many arts at once as Hadrian does, and at the same time looks after the state and its government, who is a passionate huntsman and who dabbles in every kind of miscellaneous learning, contrives, when he wants to practise one particular form of art, to recall all his five senses into the nest from which he has let them fly, here, there, and everywhere.