THE SCENE: The Emperor Hadrian was, by most accounts, a learned and wise ruler. However, the academics of his era did not always appreciate his involvement on topics of higher learning, as is demonstrated by the passage below.
THE TEXT: Although he was very practiced as a writer of prose and verse and very skilled in all the arts, yet he always mocked the teachers of all the arts on the grounds that he was more learned than they, despised and humiliated them. With these same professors and philosophers he often competed, taking turns to publish books or poems. Once, indeed, a word used by Favorinus was criticized by Hadrian. Favorinus yielded which provokes some very agreeable amusement. He was wrong to concede to Hadrian, his friends charged him, over a word which reputable authors had used. “You don’t give me good advice, my friends,” said Favorinus, “when you don’t allow me to believe the man who possesses 30 legions to be more learned than anyone else!”
– The Augustan History, Aelius Spartianus, 4th Century AD
