He would stay at an imperial lodge outside the city, a place surrounded by sea and equipped well enough to please ordinary huntsmen of either kind, but not to the satisfaction of Isaac. He would rise early in the morning and continue hunting till late evening. With this constant throwing of spears at bears and hogs, and with the repeated strain on his right arm, he caught a chill in his side. At the time the trouble was not especially obvious, but on the following day he had fever, with fits of shivering.**215
The Emperor’s Illness
74. I, knowing nothing of this, went out to see him and pay my respects as usual. He greeted me lying on a bed. A small bodyguard stood near and there was also present his chief physician. After greeting me he remarked, with a cheerful look, ‘You come at an opportune moment’, and promptly gave me his hand to feel his pulse, for he knew that besides my other activities I had also practised medicine. I recognized the illness from which he was suffering, but made no immediate comment. Instead, I turned to the aforementioned doctor.
‘In your opinion,’ I said, ‘what sort of fever is this?’ In a somewhat loud voice, so that the emperor might hear, he replied, ‘Ephemeral. But if it does not pass off today, there is no cause for surprise. The fever sometimes takes that form as well — the name “ephemeral” is deceptive.’ ‘Well,’ said I, ‘I do not exactly agree with your diagnosis. The artery pulsation tells me it will be a three days fever. However, let us hope your Dodonian cauldron**216 is right and my Delphic tripod wrong. Probably it will be wrong, for my own studies have not been advanced enough for me to play the oracle.’
75. Well, the third day arrived and the critical stage of the illness had already run on past the normal period. It proved that one of us was a skilled physician, and it also proved that my calculations were not quite accurate. Afterwards some not very solid food was prepared for the emperor, but before he had time to taste it a sudden violent fever assailed him.
They do say that Cato,**217 when he was in a fever or suffering from some other illness, used to remain completely motionless and still, resting until the attack passed and the state of his health took a change for the better. Isaac, however, unlike Cato, kept altering the position of his body and twisting about. His breathing was quicker, and laboured. Nature gave him no respite whatever. Then at last he did get some rest, he thought of returning to the palace.
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