Meditations, Marcus Aurelius [websites to read books for free TXT] 📗

after he became emperor. Young men who are destined for high

places are not often fortunate in those who are about them, their

companions and teachers; and I do not know any example of a young prince

having had an education which can be compared with that of M. Antoninus.

Such a body of teachers distinguished by their acquirements and their

character will hardly be collected again; and as to the pupil, we have

not had one like him since.

 

Hadrian died in July, A.D. 138, and was succeeded by Antoninus Pius. M.

Antoninus married Faustina, his cousin, the daughter of Pius, probably

about A.D. 146, for he had a daughter born in A.D. 147. He received from

his adoptive father the title of Caesar, and was associated with him in

the administration of the state. The father and the adopted son lived

together in perfect friendship and confidence. Antoninus was a dutiful

son, and the emperor Pius loved and esteemed him.

 

Antoninus Pius died A.D. 161. The Senate, it is said, urged M. Antoninus

to take the sole administration of the empire, but he associated with

himself the other adopted son of Pius, L. Ceionius Commodus, who is

generally called L. Verus. Thus Rome for the first time had two emperors.

Verus was an indolent man of pleasure, and unworthy of his station.

Antoninus however bore with him, and it is said that Verus had sense

enough to pay to his colleague the respect due to his character. A

virtuous emperor and a loose partner lived together in peace, and their

alliance was strengthened by Antoninus giving to Verus for wife his

daughter Lucilla.

 

The reign of Antoninus was first troubled by a Parthian war, in which

Verus was sent to command; but he did nothing, and the success that was

obtained by the Romans in Armenia and on the Euphrates and Tigris was due

to his generals. This Parthian war ended in A.D. 165. Aurelius and Verus

had a triumph (A.D. 166) for the victories in the East. A pestilence

followed, which carried off great numbers in Rome and Italy, and spread

to the west of Europe.

 

The north of Italy was also threatened by the rude people beyond the Alps

from the borders of Gallia to the eastern side of the Hadriatic. These

barbarians attempted to break into Italy, as the Germanic nations had

attempted near three hundred years before; and the rest of the life of

Antoninus, with some intervals, was employed in driving back the

invaders. In A.D. 169 Verus suddenly died, and Antoninus administered the

state alone.

 

During the German wars Antoninus resided for three years on the Danube at

Carnuntum. The Marcomanni were driven out of Pannonia and almost

destroyed in their retreat across the Danube; and in A.D. 174 the emperor

gained a great victory over the Quadi.

 

In A.D. 175, Avidius Cassius, a brave and skilful Roman commander who was

at the head of the troops in Asia, revolted and declared himself

Augustus. But Cassius was assassinated by some of his officers, and so

the rebellion came to an end. Antoninus showed his humanity by his

treatment of the family and the partisans of Cassius; and his letter to

the Senate, in which he recommends mercy, is extant.

 

Antoninus set out for the East on hearing of Cassius’ revolt. Though he

appears to have returned to Rome in A.D. 174, he went back to prosecute

the war against the Germans, and it is probable that he marched direct to

the East from the German war. His wife Faustina, who accompanied him into

Asia, died suddenly at the foot of the Taurus, to the great grief of her

husband. Capitolinus, who has written the life of Antoninus, and also

Dion Cassius accuse the empress of scandalous infidelity to her husband

and of abominable lewdness. But Capitolinus says that Antoninus either

knew it not or pretended not to know it. Nothing is so common as such

malicious reports in all ages, and the history of imperial Rome is full

of them. Antoninus loved his wife, and he says that she was “obedient,

affectionate, and simple.” The same scandal had been spread about

Faustina’s mother, the wife of Antoninus Pius, and yet he too was

perfectly satisfied with his wife. Antoninus Pius says after her death in

a letter to Fronto that he would rather have lived in exile with his wife

than in his palace at Rome without her. There are not many men who would

give their wives a better character than these two emperors. Capitolinus

wrote in the time of Diocletian. He may have intended to tell the truth,

but he is a poor, feeble biographer. Dion Cassius, the most malignant of

historians, always reports and perhaps he believed any scandal against

anybody.

 

Antoninus continued his journey to Syria and Egypt, and on his return to

Italy through Athens he was initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. It

was the practice of the emperor to conform to the established rites of

the age, and to perform religious ceremonies with due solemnity. We

cannot conclude from this that he was a superstitious man, though we

might perhaps do so if his book did not show that he was not. But this is

only one among many instances that a ruler’s public acts do not always

prove his real opinions. A prudent governor will not roughly oppose even

the superstitions of his people; and though he may wish that they were

wiser, he will know that he cannot make them so by offending their

prejudices.

 

Antoninus and his son Commodus entered Rome in triumph, perhaps for some

German victories, A.D. 176. In the following year Commodus was associated

with his father in the empire, and took the name of Augustus. This year

A.D. 177 is memorable in ecclesiastical history. Attalus and others were

put to death at Lyon for their adherence to the Christian religion. The

evidence of this persecution is a letter preserved by Eusebius. It

contains a very particular description of the tortures inflicted on the

Christians in Gallia, and it states that while the persecution was going

on, Attalus, a Christian and a Roman citizen, was loudly demanded by the

populace and brought into the amphitheatre; but the governor ordered him

to be reserved, with the rest who were in prison, until he had received

instructions from the emperor. Many had been tortured before the governor

thought of applying to Antoninus. The imperial rescript, says the letter,

was that the Christians should be punished, but if they would deny their

faith, they must be released. On this the work began again. The

Christians who were Roman citizens were beheaded; the rest were exposed

to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre.

 

The war on the northern frontier appears to have been uninterrupted

during the visit of Antoninus to the East, and on his return the emperor

again left Rome to oppose the barbarians. The Germanic people were

defeated in a great battle A.D. 179. During this campaign the emperor was

seized with some contagious malady, of which he died in the camp, A.D.

180, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. His son Commodus was with him.

The body, or the ashes probably, of the emperor were carried to Rome, and

he received the honor of deification. Those who could afford it had his

statue or bust; and when Capitolinus wrote, many people still had statues

of Antoninus among the Dei Penates or household deities. He was in a

manner made a saint. Commodus erected to the memory of his father the

Antonine column which is now in the Piazza Colonna at Rome. The bassi

rilievi which are placed in a spiral line round the shaft commemorate the

victories of Antoninus over the Marcomanni and the Quadi, and the

miraculous shower of rain which refreshed the Roman soldiers and

discomfited their enemies. The statue of Antoninus was placed on the

capital of the column, but it was removed at some time unknown, and a

bronze statue of St. Paul was put in the place by Pope Sixtus the fifth.

 

In order to form a proper notion of the condition of the Christians under

M. Antoninus we must go back to Trajan’s time. When the younger Pliny was

governor of Bithynia, the Christians were numerous in those parts, and

the worshippers of the old religion were falling off. The temples were

deserted, the festivals neglected, and there were no purchasers of

victims for sacrifice. Those who were interested in the maintenance of

the old religion thus found that their profits were in danger. Christians

of both sexes and of all ages were brought before the governor, who did

not know what to do with them. He could come to no other conclusion than

this, that those who confessed to be Christians and persevered in their

religion ought to be punished; if for nothing else, for their invincible

obstinacy. He found no crimes proved against the Christians, and he could

only characterize their religion as a depraved and extravagant

superstition, which might be stopped if the people were allowed the

opportunity of recanting. Pliny wrote this in a letter to Trajan. He

asked for the emperor’s directions, because he did not know what to do.

He remarks that he had never been engaged in judicial inquiries about the

Christians, and that accordingly he did not know what to inquire about or

how far to inquire and punish. This proves that it was not a new thing to

examine into a man’s profession of Christianity and to punish him for it.

Trajan’s rescript is extant. He approved of the governor’s judgment in

the matter, but he said that no search must be made after the Christians;

if a man was charged with the new religion and convicted, he must not be

punished if he affirmed that he was not a Christian and confirmed his

denial by showing his reverence to the heathen gods. He added that no

notice must be taken of anonymous informations, for such things were of

bad example. Trajan was a mild and sensible man; and both motives of

mercy and policy probably also induced him to take as little notice of

the Christians as he could, to let them live in quiet if it were

possible. Trajan’s rescript is the first legislative act of the head of

the Roman state with reference to Christianity, which is known to us. It

does not appear that the Christians were further disturbed under his

reign.

 

In the time of Hadrian it was no longer possible for the Roman government

to overlook the great increase of the Christians and the hostility of the

common sort to them. If the governors in the provinces were willing to

let them alone, they could not resist the fanaticism of the heathen

community, who looked on the Christians as atheists. The Jews too, who

were settled all over the Roman Empire, were as hostile to the Christians

as the Gentiles were. With the time of Hadrian begin the Christian

Apologies, which show plainly what the popular feeling towards the

Christians then was. A rescript of Hadrian to Minucius Fundanus, the

Proconsul of Asia, which stands at the end of Justin’s first Apology,

instructs the governor that innocent people must not be troubled, and

false accusers must not be allowed to extort money from them; the charges

against the Christians must be made in due form, and no attention must be

paid to popular clamors; when Christians were regularly prosecuted and

convicted of illegal acts, they must be punished according to their

deserts; and false accusers also must be punished. Antoninus Pius is said

to have published rescripts to the same effect. The terms of Hadrian’s

rescript seem very favorable to the Christians; but if we understand it

in this sense, that they were only to be punished