Written in the form of a testamentary letter from the Emperor Hadrian to his successor, the youthful Marcus Aurelius, this work is as extraordinary for its psychological depth as for its accurate reconstruction of the second century of our era. The author describes the book as a meditation upon history, but this meditation is built upon intensive study of the personal and political life of a great and complex character as seen by himself and his contemporaries, both friends and enemies. In a prose as firm as that of the great Latin stylists of his time, Hadrian's arduous early years, his triumphs and reversals, his gradual reordering of a war-torn world are reconstructed with an imaginative insight which only years in the company of the Emperor could give.