He recently planted such a riddle on the young Marcus Verus, about which Servianus spoke. He sent young slaves to him and watched from the shelter. The young man's behavior, frankly, caused him different, contradictory thoughts.
Marcus was steadfast before the temptation, he did not give up, and if not for the betrayal of the body, perhaps, would have handled himself. But still, Augustus, the highest person of the state, must fully own his emotions. The emperor can't scream when it hurts terribly, can't cry when sad. Caesar must be like him, Hadrian, who harbored the pain of the loss of Antinous and did not show it.
He, Hadrian, knew that a lot of his opponents from the Senate and ordinary onlookers would enjoy his torment. They wanted revenge, they wanted satisfaction, because they were forced to obey orders that may seem unfair and cruel. But what did the crowd know? What did the Roman people know, mired in pleasure? And how not to enjoy the grief of Caesar, who brought grief down on the heads of others?
They did not understand that he was causing suffering not out of the whim of a capricious ruler, such as Domitian or Caligula. His steady hand expressed the will of the state, the cruel necessity that saved everyone in the end.
“But we haven't sat down yet. Please!” Hadrian invited Servianus to get down on his elbow, as they put it when they offered to lie on the bed. “I think it's sigma27 will be convenient. So, about Marcus. Yes, you're right, I difference him. But fame and nobility are not evidence that the boy will cope. The stars who patronize Rome suggest something else.”
“Who do you mean, great Caesar?”
Servianus's massive face froze. He decided that he would now hear the great mystery of the emperor Hadrian's plans, of which he had never spoken to anyone, would take shape.
The thoughts that hit Servianus made him nervous.
He, a well-known senator, was a close relative of the emperor, and the choice could fall on him. His grandson, Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus, could also be a worthy successor, as Marcus was still young, he had a fragile soul. In addition, Pedanius was the only male offspring, in one way or another associated with the family of Hadrian.
After all, who was Marcus? Just a distant relative of Empress Sabina, in the intricacies of kinship, no one could understand. And among other things, Servianus was informed by close friends as at one of the feasts in a narrow circle, Hadrian asked about possible successors, asking to identify ten suitable candidates. But at the same time, Caesar made an important remark—he offered to name only nine out of ten, for the name of the tenth is known to him. This was Lucius Servianus.