Solar Wind. Book one - страница 16

“It would be necessary!” discontentedly indicated Hadrian to the ninety-year-old interlocutor. “So, what's the joke?”

“They say that a supplicant, old and gray-haired, came to you, begging for tax relief because of crop failure, and you refused him. Then he dyed his hair…”

“I remember,” Hadrian smiled.

“Yes, he dyed his hair red and, thinking that it would be unrecognizable, reappeared. But you said you'd turned him down before.”

“Yes, yes, it's a nice joke!”

Servianus switched to a business tone.

“Caesar, a few senators are venerable and honored men I have known for a long time who want to take water from the aqueduct to their new homes. This requires the permission of the prefect, but Regin poses them all sorts of obstacles.”

Hadrian's eyes covered themselves, as if from exhaustion. He was bored. He did not like such economic disputes, where everyone fought for their benefit, everyone had a strong argument for winning the dispute. Only sufficient arguments or motive to choose someone’s side he did not have. Today, he was not like his other predecessors, whose main motive was wives and lovers, or the pursuit of pleasures. Or money, like emperor Vespasian.

He had nothing left! Just boredom. Anything that could have prompted him to choose one side or the other had gone irretrievably and nothing else was interesting. It was as if part of the soul had died with Antinous's death. And maybe the whole soul?

“Servianus,” he interrupted the old consul, “I always support the law, and the Senate is our only interpreter. As it decides, so it should be executed.”

The old consul, who listened carefully to the emperor, began to ponder who from the Senate could be relied upon to assist with this sensitive issue, as Regin also had strong support among senators. Alas, it would be difficult to win without Hadrian's direct!

“I don't care much about these issues, dear Lucius,” Hadrian continued. “I need a huge scale. I am attracted to something new, grandiose, unprecedented, like the singing colossus of Memnon in Egypt, or the temple of Athena Pallas in Greece. That's why I planned to build my tomb in such a size and in such a way that no emperor has ever built before. I have always said, better movement than contemplation, better life than sleep. Do you realize Servianus, who is the greatest emperor in the history of Rome?”

“Of course, you, Caesar. There's no doubt about that!”

After Diognetus and Andron, Marcus's training did not stall, but on the contrary, was continued by Regin with all the diligence and consistency inherent in the Romans. However, after thinking about it, Marcus's great-grandfather decided to make some changes.

Until now, the grandson studied alone, which was useful—the teacher could pay attention only to one student and only teach him and educate him. But on the other hand, such artificial isolation led to the isolation of the young man from his peers, and this, in turn, could influence the character of the future senator and consul—above Regin did not look. In addition, Marcus should have instilled an adversarial spirit from a young age.

Therefore, in order to keep company, Marcus invited a few more young men from well-known families, two from senators and from riders.

Today, they played trigon.

Although this game seemed simple and straightforward, many famous people fought in it, for example, the philosopher Seneca, art lover Maecenas, and even the emperors Caesar and Octavian Augustus. Marcus led his friends to the peristyle,