The Emperor

The Emperor, Complete, by
Georg Ebers

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Title: The Emperor, Complete
Author: Georg Ebers
Release Date: October 16, 2006 [EBook #5493]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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EMPEROR, COMPLETE ***

Produced by David Widger

THE EMPEROR, Complete
By Georg Ebers
Volume 1.

Translated by Clara Bell

PREFACE.
It is now fourteen years since I planned the story related in these
volumes, the outcome of a series of lectures which I had occasion to
deliver on the period of the Roman dominion in Egypt. But the
pleasures of inventive composition were forced to give way to
scientific labors, and when I was once more at leisure to try my wings
with increase of power I felt more strongly urged to other flights. Thus
it came to pass that I did I not take the time of Hadrian for the
background of a tale till after I had dealt with the still later period of the
early monastic move in "Homo Sum." Since finishing that romance my
old wish to depict, in the form of a story, the most important epoch of
the history of that venerable nation to which I have devoted nearly a
quarter century of my life, has found its fulfilment. I have endeavored
to give a picture of the splendor of the Pharaonic times in "Uarda," of
the subjection of Egypt to the new Empire of the Persians in "An
Egyptian Princess," of the Hellenic period under the Lagides in "The
Sisters," of the Roman dominion and the early growth of Christianity in
"The Emperor," and of the anchorite spirit--in the deserts and rocks of
the Sinaitic Peninsula--in "Homo Sum." Thus the present work is the
last of which the scene will be laid in Egypt. This series of romances
will not only have introduced the reader to a knowledge of the history
of manners and culture in Egypt, but will have facilitated his
comprehension of certain dominant ideas which stirred the mind of the
Ancients. How far I may have succeeded in rendering the color of the
times I have described and in producing pictures that realize the truth, I
myself cannot venture to judge; for since even present facts are
differently reflected in different minds, this must be still more
emphatically the case with things long since past and half-forgotten.
Again and again, when historical investigation has refused to afford me
the means of resuscitating some remotely ancient scene, I have been
obliged to take counsel of imagination and remember the saying that
'the Poet must be a retrospective Seer,' and could allow my fancy to
spread her wings, while I remained her lord and knew the limits up to

which I might permit her to soar. I considered it my lawful privilege to
paint much that was pure invention, but nothing that was not possible at
the period I was representing. A due regard for such possibility has
always set the bounds to fancy's flight; wherever existing authorities
have allowed me to be exact and faithful I have always been so, and the
most distinguished of my fellow-professors in Germany, England,
France and Holland, have more than once borne witness to this. But, as
I need hardly point out, poetical and historical truth are not the same
thing; for historical truth must remain, as far as possible, unbiassed by
the subjective feeling of the writer, while poetical truth can only find
expression through the medium of the artist's fancy.
As in my last two romances, so in "The Emperor," I have added no
notes: I do this in the pleasant conviction of having won the confidence
of my readers by my historical and other labors. Nothing has
encouraged me to fresh imaginative works so much as the fact that
through these romances the branch of learning that I profess has
enlisted many disciples whose names are now mentioned with respect
among Egyptologists. Every one who is familiar with the history of
Hadrian's time will easily discern by trifling traits from what author or
from which inscription or monument the minor details have been
derived, and I do not care to interrupt the course of the narrative and so
spoil the pleasure of the larger class of readers. It would be a happiness
to me to believe that this tale deserves to be called a real work of art,
and, as such, its first function should be to charm and elevate the