ABSTRACT
A student on the high road of the history of the Early Roman Empire may not be detained for long over the following story:
(The Emperor Hadrian) used to hate those who attained preeminence in any particular field. And so he tried to destroy two sophists, Favorinus of Gaul and Dionysius of Miletus; his main ploy was to promote their rivals, who were worth very little or nothing. Dionysius is then said to have told Avidius Heliodorus, the Imperial secretary, ‘Caesar has the power to grant you money and honour, but not to make you an orator.’ And Favorinus, who was about to go to court before the emperor over the tax exemption he was claiming in Gaul, suspected that he would not only lose but be insulted as well. So he came into the court-room but said only this: ‘My teacher appeared to me last night in a dream and told me to serve my country; for I have a duty to the land of my birth as well as myself.’ (Cassius Dio LXIX.iii.3–6)
