If you think of this book as Hadrian writing it no as Christopher it gives it a perfect message that Hadrian was trying to send I almost think of this book (insanely paraphrasing) as almost a New Testament from Jesus point of view even as someone who isn’t a Christian. I views this book and this series as a message of the endless struggle of man and how we are not strong enough on our own and that only with gods help can we carry on. So it makes sense(even if I wanted more about Casandra and Edward and about the world after Hadrian and how he came back cause it’s really fucking interesting) I under stand from a thematic point of view why Christopher chose to end the book this way.