Note 038 Dion (1. lxix. p. 1249) affirms the whole to have been a fiction, on the authority of his father who being governor of the province where Trajan died, had very good opportunities of sifting this mysterious transaction. Yet Dodwell (Praelect. Camden. xvii.) has maintained that Hadrian was called to thc certain hope of the empire during the lifetime of Trajan.

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Note to Chapter 3 of DECLINE & FALL by Gibbon