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“As the earth is a pinpoint in infinite space, so the life of
man is a pinpoint in infinite time — a knife-edge between
eternities.” — Marcus Aurelius, MEDITATIONES
By this point the rise of Alexandria and the growth of Roman
power had overshadowed the political and economic importance of the
Greek city states. Athens was no longer the philosophical center of
the Mediterranean world. The Stoics were still being attracted to
their Stoa there, but were coming there from elsewhere. Zeno had
come to the Stoa in Athens from Citium on Cyprus, and had been
succeeded by Cleanthes from Assos in Asia Minor and Chrysippus from
Soli in Asia Minor. The Late Stoa would be entirely Roman,
featuring such names as Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. The
rich scholar Panaetius of Rhodes, who had studied under Crates the
Stoic at the library of Pergamum, became a student of Diogenes of
Sinope in Athens but then passed on to the capital city of the
Mediterranean world, Rome, where he and Scipio the Younger were at
the center of a circle of philosophical admirers. After the death
of Scipio, he had assumed leadership of the Stoic school and had
returned to the Stoa in Athens for the final two decades of his
life. His most illustrious student had been Posidonius of Apamea, a
city in northern Syria, who died during this year on the island of
Rhodes near the southwestern tip of Turkey.
50 BCE
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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who would succeed the Emperor
Antonius Pius, was born in Rome.
The Emperor Hadrian (117-138 CE) visited England and, to contain
the Highlanders (Picts), ordered the construction of Hadrian’s Wall
from the Firth of Forth to the mouth of the Clyde.
121 CE
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Aurelius ruled from 161 CE to 180 CE.
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Hyginus (138?-142 CE), a Greek philosopher from Athens, is
listed as a Papa of Rome. During his reign (140 CE) the Christian
Gnostic Church leaders Valentinus of Egypt and Cerdo of Syria came
to Rome.
The Emperor Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius and had Antonius Pius
adopt Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (age 17) and Lucius Verus. The
Emperor Hadrian died and was succeeded by Antoninus Pius.
At this point (according to the tradition) Juvenal, who had been
born (according to the tradition) in 55 CE, although aged, was
still alive:
“The precise details of the author’s life cannot be
securelyreconstructed based on presently available evidence.”
The only actual evidence is a dedicatory inscription said to
have been recovered in conjunction with the writings during the
19th Century at Aquinum:
The problem with the above is that since the Dalmatian legions
had not existed prior to 166 CE, the Junius being spoken of would
have been not the poet himself but another member of his family
bearing that name.
138 CE
...]RI·SACRVM
...]NIVS·IVVENALIS
...]
COH·[.]·DELMATARVMII·VIR·QVINQ·FLAMENDIVI·VESPASIANIVOVIT·DEDICAV[...]UESVA
PEC
CERE]RI·SACRVMD(ECIMVS) IV]NIVS·IVVENALISTRIB(VNVS)]
COH(ORTIS)·[I]·DELMATARVMII·VIR·QVINQ(VENNALIS)·FLAMENDIVI·VESPASIANIVOVIT·DEDICAV[ITQ]UESVA
PEC(VNIA)
To Ceres (this) sacred (thing)
(Decimus Junius?) Juvenalis
military tribune of the 1st cohort of the Dalmatian
(legions)
Duovir, Quinquennalis, Flamen
of the Divine Vespasian
vowed and dedicated
at his own expense
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Pius ruled from 138 CE to 161 CE.
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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was betrothed to the Emperor
Antoninus’s daughter Annia Galeria Faustina.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and the Emperor Antoninus’s daughter
Annia Galeria Faustina got married.
139 CE
145 CE
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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was given the powers indicating his
position as heir to the throne. At about this point he abandoned
rhetoric philosophy for the Stoic philosophy.
The Emperor Antoninus Pius died and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
became Emperor. He requested that the Roman Senate appoint Lucius
Aurelius Verus as his co-Emperor:
From this point until 180 CE, the Emperor Marcus Aurelius would
be recording MEDITATIONES, presumably as part of his own spiritual
discipline rather than for any sort of audience.
“As the earth is a pinpoint in infinite space, so the life of
man is a pinpoint in infinite time — a knife-edge between
eternities.” — Marcus Aurelius, MEDITATIONES
146 CE
161 CE
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Aurelius ruled from 161 CE to 180 CE.
Lucius Verus ruled from161 CE to 166 or 169 CE.
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The Parthians invaded Syria. Yet another battle involving our
favorite pushy people, the Romans: at Ctesiphon and Seleucia the
legions of Gaius Avidius Cassius defeated the Parthians, creating
the Pax Romana. During the Roman Triumph celebration after
defeating the Parthians, Commodus (5-year-old son of Emperor Marcus
Aurelius) was proclaimed a Caesar.
Soter, an Italian from the Campania, was listed as Papa of Rome
(until 174 CE). As a compromise, Easter would become firmly
established during his reign as had been previously recommended by
the Asia Minor Churches, albeit not on Nisan 14 during Passover as
they had recommended per the Jewish tradition but on the Sunday
following. Soter papa of Rome dispatched a letter with gifts to the
Corinthian Church, Dionysius papa of Corinth agreed to read his
letter at service.
Roman merchants in search of a better price for spices and silk
(then worth at least more than their weight in
166 CE
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after he grew up.
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gold) sailed east from Sri Lanka to reach south China and the
Mekong Delta. Marcus Aurelius sent an embassy to China. Meanwhile,
other Romans returning home from wars against the Sassanid Persians
introduce smallpox into Italy and a quarter of the Imperial Roman
population would die within the decade. As if that were not bad
enough, Roman soldiers and merchants also spread rubella along the
Mediterranean littoral during the 250s. Deaths from this disease in
the city of Rome alone were credibly reported at 5,000 persons per
day. These body counts are mentioned as a reminder that disease may
have hurried the collapse of late Roman civilization more than the
military invasions so gleefully described by eighteenth and
nineteenth century historians. Speaking of invasions, however,
hordes of Marcomanni and kindred tribes from Bohemia were crossing
the Danube River and attacking in Austria, locally disrupting the
Pax Romana.
GERMANY
Whatgoesaroundkeepscomingaroundandaroundandaround...
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/thumbnails/T/HDT.pdfhttp://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/explanation.pdfhttp://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/ActiveIndex.pdfIt’s
so dreary:This is of course the column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome,
which is now surmounted by a statue of St. Paul.
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The Emperor Marcus Aurelius returned to Rome from his
campaigns.
176 CE
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The Emperor Marcus Aurelius returned toward the Danube again to
continue his fighting there.
177 CE
Whatgoesaroundkeepscomingaroundandaroundandaround...
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so dreary:This is of course the column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome,
which is now surmounted by a statue of St. Paul.
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He granted his son Commodus tribunal power.
Since it was from Lyon that Christianity was spreading to the
West, Marcus Aurelius ordered torture of the Christians there.
Irenaeus of Lyon visited Rome, speaking of Lyon suffering grievous
persecution, and of the New Prophecy on Montanism started in
Phrygia.
When the Emperor Marcus Aurelius died of the plague (small
pox?), his son Commodus took over as Caesar of the Roman
Empire.
There was to be no more Pax Romana. For the following more than
a century, until 284 CE, Rome would be enduring a series of
soldier-emperors:
• 180-192 CE — Commodus• 193-211 CE — Septimus Severus• 211-217
CE — Caracalla• 253-253 CE — Aemilian• 270-275 CE — Aurelian•
276-282 CE — Probus
180 CE
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ruled from 180 CE to 192 CE.
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Dr. Samuel Johnson, who was to become the subject of James
Boswell’s THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D., actually himself wrote
a record of his own life, but in the presence of his servant
Francis Barber he had destroyed this writing. When Boswell read to
him an evaluation in the Critical Review in this year, placing
Julius Caesar’s account of his actions in one category, Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus’s reflections on his life in a second category,
and Huetius’s contexture of the times of his life in a third
category, in contradistinction to all these “journalists, temporal
and spiritual: Elias Ashmole, William Lilly, George Whitefield,
John Wesley, and a thousand other old women and fanatic writers of
memoirs and meditations” in a quite derogatory separate category,
Johnson commented that few writers have “gained any reputation by
recording their own actions.”
THE COMPLETE POETICAL WRITINGS OF J.G. HOLLAND.
Nobody ever reads this now.
Frederic May Holland’s THE REIGN OF THE STOICS. HISTORY.
RELIGION. MAXIMS OF SELF-CONTROL, SELF-CULTURE, BENEVOLENCE,
JUSTICE. PHILOSOPHY (New York, C.P. Somerby).
(I am pleased to bring you a seven part serialization of
FredericMay Holland’s 1879 book entitled THE REIGN OF THE STOICS.
HISTORY.
1777
1879
COMPLETE POETICAL WRITINGS
THE REIGN OF THE STOICS
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RELIGION. MAXIMS OF SELF-CONTROL, SELF-CULTURE, BENEVOLENCE,
JUSTICE.PHILOSOPHY (New York, C.P. Somerby). This fascinating work
focuseson the successive reigns of five Stoic-minded Roman
Emperors:Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonine Pius, and Marcus
Aurelius. Thefirst chapter looks at the history of each emperor’s
reign, andthe six remaining chapters feature Stoic maxims on a
variety oftopics, including: religion, self-control,
self-culture,benevolence, justice, and philosophy. What truly
stands out inthis book is Mr. Holland’s extensive collection of
quotes bySeneca, which is by far the largest I have ever seen in
print[over 300]. Frederic May Holland was an author and
UnitarianClergyman. He is most noted for his 1891 biography of
FredericDouglass, the famous American abolitionist and orator.
RL.)
PrefaceMuch as the Stoics have been talked about, but little
justicehas been done to either their literature or their
history.Seneca, in whom, as Macaulay says, “there is hardly a
sentencewhich might not be quoted,” is like Dion, the
“Golden-mouthed,”accessible to the English reader only in
antiquated versions,scarcely to be found in the largest libraries.
Their history hasnot, so far as I know, been fully written in any
language. Suchis the need of a book like this. Its first chapter
speaks of theplace of these philosophers in history. The next five
chaptersgive specimens of their noblest sayings about religious
truthand moral duty. These I have tried to render accurately,
thoughfreely, adding nothing, but omitting much. Of their
commonplacesand errors I have made out no list. It is enough for us
to seewhat truth Stoicism has still to teach. To show this, I
havegiven in the last chapter some of their most
characteristicdiscoveries in one of the most difficult, but
important, fieldsof human thought. Thus I hope to be of service to
the friendsof moral culture and religious progress. F.M.H. Concord,
Mass.,1879.
Chapter 1. History.During the greater part of the first
Christian century, theRoman Empire was cursed by tyranny,
profligacy and anarchy. Thenreigned Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius,
Nero, Galba, Otho,Vitellius, and Domitian. But with the latter’s
death, A.D. 96,began what Gibbon justly calls “the period in the
history of theworld during which the condition of the human race
was mosthappy.” These eighty-four years, until A.D. 180, were
passedunder the rule of five emperors, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and
thetwo Antonines, all of whom, says Gibbon, “delighted in the
imageof liberty, and were pleased with considering themselves as
theaccountable ministers of the laws.” Of the Antonines we
arefurther told that “their united reigns are possibly the
onlyperiod in which the happiness of a great people was the
soleobject of the government.” Archbishop Trench, also, in
hislectures on Plutarch, speaks of the accession of Nerva as
“theepoch of a very signal recovery and restoration, a
finalrallying of whatever energies for good the heathen
worldpossessed, and in this way a postponement of its fall (with
thetotal collapse of the old order of things), for a good deal
more
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than a century.”
One fact about these five good emperors has hitherto
escapedproper notice. They were all pupils of Stoicism. Nerva,
indeed,was banished as a Stoic by Domitian. Trajan was the
intimatefriend and frequent hearer of Dion Chrysostom, the most
popularpreacher of a philosophy whose profoundest teacher,
Epictetus,gave lessons to Hadrian, as Arrian, the successor of
Epictetus,did to Hadrian’s successor, Antoninus Pius, who filled
hispalace and offices with Stoics. And Stoicism claims as her
mostperfect product the life of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, with
whomclosed those eighty-four years of signal happiness and
goodgovernment, ever to remembered as the Reign of the Stoics.
How much of our attention this school of philosophers deservesis
shown, not only by the success of its emperors, but by theheroism
of its martyrs during the reign of terror before itsadvent to
power. Trench declares that “the Stoic porch was thelast refuge and
citadel of freedom” (Lectures, p. 92) Lecky alsotells us that “in
the Roman Empire almost every great character,almost every effort
in the cause of liberty, emanated from theranks of Stoicism.”[1]
And Champigny acknowledges that “all thatremained of austere
patriotism and liberal republicanism wasarrayed under this
banner.”[2] The pages of Tacitus show thatthe great example of Cato
was nobly imitated by other RomanStoics. Let us recall the lives of
these martyrs and emperors,and, if only for their sakes, those of
the founders of theirfaith.
And, first, of the founders: Soon after the conquest of Asia
byAlexander, Zeno came from Cyprus to Athens, where he was
soimpressed by Xenophon’s account of the teachings of Socrates asto
become a pupil under the successors of Diogenes and also ofPlato.
The destruction of Grecian independence by Philip was sorecent that
the love of liberty was still active among theAthenians. Unable to
free themselves by force of arms, they wereready to listen to a
system which told them that their freedomconsisted in purity of
thought, peace of soul, and harmony withthe will the God. Moreover,
the union of Greece and Persia underthe Macedonian Empire favored
such new views of the unity of thehuman race as opened the way for
the recognition of a new codeof duties, based on the obligation of
every individual to servethe welfare of all humanity. These two
welcome precepts ofphilanthropy and resignation Zeno mingled with
earnestexhortations to self-culture and chastity, and also
withmetaphysical and theological ideas which he found rapidly
cominginto favor, and which were among the highest achievements
ofancient thought. His stainless reputation helped to win favorfor
this new system of philosophy, which he began to teach about300
B.C., in a painted porch, from the name of which hisfollowers were
called Stoics. Of his teachings only a fewfragments remain, but his
successor, Cleanthes, has left us thelofty hymn[3] which Paul
quoted on Mars’ Hill, as well as theexample of a student who
supported himself by grinding meal andcarrying water, and never
told of it until questioned by themagistrates. Another of Zeno’s
pupils, Ariston of Chios, whencensured for exposing his ideas too
freely to all comers,
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replied, “that he could wish that Nature had given
understandingto wild beasts, that they too might be his
hearers.”[4] All theStoics showed themselves faithful successors to
Socrates bytheir zeal for elevating the common people. They held
noesoteric views, taught as publicly as they could, and, as weshall
see, readily admitted women and slaves among theirpupils.[5]
Organization or authorized statement of principlesthey had none.
All who chose to take the Stoic name taught, spokeand wrote
independently, without any restriction by sectarianismor any fear
of loss of fellowship. Stoicism soon showed itselfone of the last
and best fruits of liberty in Greece, by makingKing Cleomenes, the
worthiest successor of Leonidas, thechampion of the rights of the
poor citizens of Sparta, and herlast defender against the tyranny
of Macedon. Plutarch tells infull this story, which I speak of
mainly because it is oftensaid that this philosophy was barren of
practical results untiltransplanted to Rome.
But with him we come to the noble army of Stoic martyrs, mostof
whom were Romans. It is two thousand years since TiberiusGracchus
was murdered, because he tried to give the plebeianstheir share of
the public lands. During the last century of therepublic, every
patriotic statesman was either an admirer or afollower of
Stoicism.[6] Cicero and Brutus were among theadmirers, but of the
followers the most consistent was Cato,whose name has been the
watchword of liberty these nineteencenturies. Few of those who
repeat it think of the philosophywhich taught him
“Religiously to follow Nature’s laws,
And die with pleasure in his country’s cause;
To think he was not for himself designed,
But born to be of use to all mankind.
To him ’twas feasting hunger to repress,
And homespun garments were his costly dress.
His country was his children and his wife,
That took up all the tend’rest parts of life.
From justice’ righteous lore he never swerved,
But rigidly his honesty preserved.
On universal good his thoughts were bent,
Nor knew what gain or self-affection meant.
And while his benefits the public share,
Cato was always last in Cato’s care.”[7]
So speaks a eulogist of Stoicism. One of its most bitter
critics,Plutarch, delights to tell how faithfully the last champion
ofthe republic served her, taking care of her treasury
withunfailing vigilance; denouncing bribery on the rostrum,
whilethe bought-up voters pelted him with stones; losing his
ownelection as consul, rather than violate the laws; standing
outalone, in spite of wounds and imprisonment, against the
joint
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usurpation of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus; and, when civil
warcame, forcing his partisans to promise that no Roman city
shouldbe plundered and no Roman blood shed except in battle. By
meansof this agreement he saved the life of Cicero, and
twiceprevented the sack of Utica. And in that city he died, in
thestern way prescribed by the national sense of honor,
andpermitted but not required by his philosophy. “Nothing would
bemore erroneous,” says Merrivale, “than to suppose that this wasa
principle of the Stoics, or was the distinguishing practiceof the
sect. Suicide, in the view of their professed teachers,was barely
excusable in the last resort, when there plainlyremained no other
escape from a restraint which denied a man theobject of his
existence.”[8] Such teaching simply re-echoedpublic opinion, which
had for centuries known of no deaths moreglorious than those of
Hercules, Lucretia, Curtius, Codron andthe Decii. Here Stoicism was
peculiar only in insisting thatevery man had a post assigned to him
in life, which was not tobe deserted so long as it could be nobly
filled, and also instriving to train men to such courage and
patience as wouldenable them always to fill their posts nobly.
A death more truly stoical than Cato’s was that of the
greatlawyer Servius Sulpicius, who died from the fatigue of a
journeyto reconcile Mark Antony with the senate; giving his life
forhis country so plainly that his statue was erected in
therostrum, at the request of Cicero.
Cato’s worthiest successor, however, was his daughter Portia,who
was admitted to sit in council with the liberators atAntium.[9]
When parting with her husband for the last time, sherestrained all
emotion until overcome by a picture of Hector’sleaving Andromache.
Brutus afterward repeated the words in whichthe Trojan sends his
wife back to her spinning, and declared:“No one would say so to
Portia, for she has a mind as valiant,and as active for the good of
her country, as the best ofus.”[10]
Caesar and many of his principal adherents were Epicureans,
butAugustus sought the friendship of the Stoics, and was
withheldfrom many cruelties by the exhortations of their
philosophers.One of them consoled the empress Livia for the loss of
her sonwith signal success, all the more remarkable because
theefficacy of Stoicism is often denied, in spite of what is saidby
Tacitus, Seneca, and Dion Chrysostom about the servicesrendered by
its teachers in comforting the bereaved, as well asin strengthening
dying criminals. The next emperors, Tiberius,Caligula, Claudius,
and Nero, found their despotism opposed bythe Stoics with a courage
which often rose to martyrdom. Thus,on the failure of a conspiracy
in Illyria against Claudius,Arra, the wife of Paetus, its leader,
begged the soldiers whohad arrested her husband to take her with
him to Rome. “You wouldallow a man of his rank,” said she, “several
servants to lookafter his food, his clothes, and his sandals; but I
will doeverything alone for him.” She was refused permission,
buthastened to Rome in another vessel, and tried her best to
saveher husband’s life. She failed, and the day came when, by
theRoman law, Paetus could save his property for his children
and
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avoid the disgrace of a public execution only by what
canscarcely be called suicide. His courage failed, and she
offeredto die with him. Her son-in-law said, “Do you wish to have
yourdaughter kill herself with me, when my turn shall come?” “If
shehave lived as long and as happily with you as I with Paetus, Iam
willing,” answered Arria. Her friends wished to restrain her,but
she told them, “You cannot prevent me from dying, only fromdying
nobly.” At last they let her go to her husband. She foundhim still
holding the dagger, which he did not dare to use untilshe plunged
it into her own breast, and gave it back with thefamous words, “My
Paetus, it does not pain me.” (“Paete, nondolet.”)[11]
During the next twenty-five years her son-in-law, also a
Stoic,and named Thrasea, distinguished himself as a wise and
patrioticstatesman and an opponent to Nero. He saved the life of
asatirist whom the emperor wished to have condemned by thesenate,
left its session when Nero’s letter about his murder ofhis mother
was read aloud, and never attended after the burningof Rome. For
these and similar offenses, among which was writingthe life of
Cato, he was accused of treason and impiety. Hescorned to ask the
tyrant for mercy, or even to appear at histrial, knowing that he
could not save himself and might endangerhis family and friends.
One of them offered to veto the trial,as tribune. “This would be
useless to me, and fatal to you,”said Thrasea. “My life is
finished, and I shall not quit thecourse which I have held for so
many years. You are young, andshould take time to think how you may
best serve the state.”When the news of his sentence to death came,
he was surroundedby friends, who began to lament; but he bade them
depart insilence, lest Nero’s jealousy should fall upon them. He
rejoicedgreatly at not dragging any one else down with him. His
wife,known as the younger Arria, wished to follow his
mother’spermission and example, but he persuaded her to live for
theirdaughter’s sake. When the centurion came to tell him that
thetime had come, he opened his own veins and sprinkled the
firstdrops of blood on the ground, saying, “This libation to
Jupiter,the Liberator.”
At the same time, and for similar patriotism, were
condemnedSoranus and his daughter Servilia. At their trial she
besoughtthe senators to spare the best of fathers, for if either
wereguilty of treason, it was she alone. But Soranus
interruptedher, protested that she was innocent, and begged that he
mightdie, and she be left to live. Stoics as they were, the
lictorscould scarcely keep them from rushing into each other’s
arms.They died together.
Among the victims of the failure of Piso’s conspiracy
againstNero were several who, like the poet Lucan,
justifiedMerrivale’s statement, that “whatever there was of ardor,
ofgenerosity, of self-devotion, among the Roman youth, at this
eraof national torpor, was absorbed in the strong current
ofStoicism.” And with Lucan perished his uncle Seneca, to
whoseinfluence may be attributed the great increase in the number
ofStoics at this time--the time of the missionary labors of
theapostles. The moral and religious elevation of Seneca’s
writing
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has led some of the ancient Fathers, as well as of the
modernchampions, of the Church to suppose that he was a
Christian.That he was not is proved, not only by his wavering
doubtswhether the future state be temporary survival,
transmigration,or immediate dissolution, but by his unwavering
faith that deathis always a blessing to him who dies, and only a
necessary partof the order of nature, which has never been violated
bymiracles. Full quotations will be given in subsequent
pages,showing his belief, not only in the reign of law, but in
theimportance of intellectual culture, the folly of literallygiving
to every one that asketh, and the right of women toeducate
themselves in the highest studies. He speaks of therotundity of the
earth[12] and the causes of rainbows, meteors,thunder and
lightning, springs and inundations, snow, winds,earthquakes, and
comets, in a way which proves his right to sayfor himself: “I
follow those who have gone before me, but I allowmyself to find out
more, and to change or abandon much. Iapprove, but I do not serve.
They are not masters, but guides.Read my writings as those not of
one who knows the truth, butof one who seeks it, and seeks it
boldly, giving himself up tono man and taking no man’s
name.”[13]
He was no Cato, but as prime minister he gave the Roman
empirefive years of proverbially good government, the
QuinqueniumNeronis. His charities were famous, his labors for his
friend’simprovement diligent, and his indignation at the
gladiatorialgames outspoken.[14] He lived purely, temperately and
lovingly,and died bravely. He seems to have been too time-serving
andfond of money for the later Stoics to acknowledge him as
arepresentative of their faith, brilliantly as he taught it inhis
writings; but these weaknesses have not prevented his beingclaimed
as a convert to a Church with which he shows no sympathy.
More consistent Stoics were Cornutus, who was banished
fortelling Nero that nobody would read his poetry, and Rufus,
who,when sent for similar boldness to work in chains on a canal
atCorinth, said, “I had rather work in this ditch than hear
Nerosing at Rome.” This philosopher was wont to tell his pupils,
“Ifyou have leisure to praise me, I speak to no purpose.” Amongthem
was the lame slave-boy afterward know as Epictetus. Rufustaught the
strictest chastity, and seems to have been the firstwho denounced
the common sin of infanticide. On Nero’s death hereturned to Rome,
and risked his life trying to make peacebetween the partisans of
Vespasian and Vitellius, when otherRomans were cheering on the
soldiers as if they were gladiators.And he alone was spared when
all the other Stoics were banishedby the crafty Vespasian, by whose
orders perished Helvidius,son-in-law of Thrasea, for refusing to
give up using hissenatorial privileges.
But the last and worst persecutor of the Stoics was Domitian.He
promptly “Cleared Rome of what most shamed him.”
Among his other victims perished four authors who wrote inpraise
of Cato, Brutus, Thrasea and Helvidius. The latter’swidow, Fannia,
daughter of Thrasea and granddaughter of theelder Arria, was
banished for furnishing the materials for thememoir of her husband,
but she carried a copy with her, and lived
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to circulate it freely. Her name, with those of the two
Arrias,Helvidius, Thrasea, and their relative, the blameless
satiristPersius, show the character of one of the many Stoic
familiesin which Roman virtue survived for better days. Among the
exilesunder Domitian was Dion, surnamed Chrysostom, or
“golden-mouthed,” for his eloquence, which, together with his
earlyopposition to Stoicism, won him the favor of Vespasian, in
spiteof his having requested the restoration of the republic.
WhenDomitian mounted the throne, Dion fled for his life. He
wanderedabout in disguise, sometimes working as a gardener and
sometimesbegging his way. Poverty and danger taught him to live
thephilosophy he had ridiculed. At last the news of the murder
ofDomitian reached the banks of the Danube. The soldiers
encampedthere flew to arms, eager to march to Rome and avenge the
sonof Vespasian. The frontiers of the empire were about to be
thrownopen to the barbarians, and civil war to break forth
afresh,when a ragged beggar, who had been strolling about the
camp,sprang upon an altar and shouted, “Listen to me. I am
DionChrysostom.” The soldiers gathered to hear the famous
orator,who began with a text from Homer, telling how Ulysses
strippedoff his rags to claim his throne. Then he spoke of his
ownsufferings, the vices of Domitian, and the virtues of the
newemperor, Nerva, until all his fierce hearers were shouting
thedecisive words, “Nerva Imperator!” and the empire was safe.
Thus began the period which, as already stated, should be
calledthe Reign of the Stoics. Dion had his share of its honors,
anddistinguished himself as a governor, not only in his
nativeprovince, Asia Minor, but in Egypt. Trajan may be said to
havemade him his private chaplain. They often traveled in the
samelitter, and they rode side by side in the same triumphal
chariot,at the celebration of those Dacian victories still
commemoratedby the famous column. It was in Trajan’s palace that
Dion spokeof the duties of a monarch, bidding his imperial hearer
devotehimself to the public service and imitate the philanthropy
ofthe gods. But the golden-mouthed Stoic found an audience thathe
liked still better in the furious mob, which was turned asidefrom
driving the philosopher out of Alexandria by his
resistlesseloquence. He was wont to call himself the divine
messenger andfaithful prophet of Immortal Nature to the common
people. By himwere proclaimed three great truths, which that age
needed sadlyto hear, and heard from scarcely any one else: the
dignity oflabor, the sin of slavery, and the folly of turning
hermit.[15]
Euphrates, who, like Dion, was banished by Domitian and
returnedwith Nerva, is memorable, because, when his pupil Pliny
theYounger complained that his public duties did not leave him
timeto become a philosopher, he replied, “To serve the state
andexecute justice is the noblest part of philosophy.”[16]
So much has been said about Stoic pride that it is well
toremember what Euphrates tells of himself: “For a long time Itried
to hide my love of philosophy. And thus, when I did right,I knew
that it was not for any spectators, but for myself. Andthen there
was no danger of any disgrace coming to philosophy,but only to
myself, when I erred. People used to wonder that,much as I kept the
company of philosophers, I never wore their
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garb. And what’s the harm, I told them, if I should be known
tobe a philosopher by my actions rather than by my dress?”
These words are recorded with high praise by the ablestexpositor
of Stoicism, Epictetus. He, too, was banished fromRome, where he
had been a slave in Nero’s palace. Later he spentmany years
teaching in Nicomedia. Among his pupils was Hadrian,of whose
faults, while emperor, he speaks freely.[17] He issaid, despite his
utter poverty, to have adopted a little boywho had been left to
perish.[18] He tells us himself how hepersuaded one of his friends
not to starve himself to death. Theexample of Socrates is held up
by him as a prohibition ofsuicide. Indeed, he says that he should
tell any pupils who askedleave to kill themselves: “Wait, like men,
until God shall givethe signal and dismiss you from his service.
For the presentremain where he has placed you. Short is your
sojourn here, andeasy for those who think as you do.”[19] “Pagan
antiquity,” saysLecky, “has left us no grander example than that of
Epictetus,who, while sounding the very abyss of human misery, and
lookingforward to death as to simple decomposition, was yet so
filledwith the sense of the divine presence that his life was
onecontinued hymn to Providence.”[20] The great Stoic himself
says,“What else can I do, a lame old man, but sing hymns to
God?”[21]
But the most famous of all the Stoics banished by Domitian
wastheir first emperor, Nerva, whose noblest act was his
passingover all his own relatives and personal friends in search of
hissuccessor, and then appointing Trajan, the very man most
neededon the throne. As Dion’s friend mounted it, he gave to
thecaptain of his guards the dagger that marked the office, withthe
words, “Take this and use it: if I rule justly, for me;
ifotherwise, against me.” Trajan’s victories over the
Arabs,Parthians, and Dacians secured the safety of the empire.
Underhis strict administration of justice, Dion, Pliny, Plutarch,
andTacitus rose to the highest honors. His public spirit
builtroads, canals and bridges all over the empire; opened a
publiclibrary at Rome; attempted to drain the Pontine marshes,
muchneglected by the popes; and, best of all, founded the
firstorphan asylums in Europe, so that two or three hundred
thousandchildren were taken care of and educated,[22] as stands
stillrecorded in sculpture. For two hundred and fifty years
afterthis emperor’s death, the senators prayed for each new
sovereignthat he might be more prosperous than Augustus and more
virtuousthan Trajan (“Felicior Augusto melior Trajano”).
Centurieslater, Pope Gregory the Great, on reading how Trajan
halted hisarmy to do justice to a poor widow, was moved to pray
that thisone heathen might be delivered from the hell which held
all therest. But where such men go hell cannot be.
The third of these great rulers, Hadrian, was enough of a
Stoicto prefer the public good to his own glory. He promptly gave
upmost of the conquered territory and himself negotiated
treatieswith all his neighbors. He issued an edict checking the
workingof an unfortunate one, extorted from Trajan by the
popularhatred of the Christians. Other laws forbade that slaves
bedegraded into prostitutes or gladiators, or wantonly put todeath.
The provincials he tried to make political equals with
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Roman citizens. Lecky says that “the process of renovation,which
was begun under Augustus by the Stoic Labeo, was continuedwith
great zeal under Hadrian, and there were few departmentsinto which
the catholic and humane principles of Stoicism werenot to some
degree carried.” But Hadrian’s noblest work was hisjourney through
all his provinces. He spent fifteen years,marching on foot and
plainly clad, through the snows of Scotlandand the sands of Egypt,
hearing complaints, righting wrongs,repairing public edifices and
building new ones, with an energywhich made the senate call him the
Enricher of the World. InSpain he was attacked, when alone, by a
crazy assassin, whom hedisarmed with his own hands, protected
against his guards, andplaced under medical treatment. Two-thirds
of his reign werespent in a way that reminds us of Peter the Great,
but theclosing years showed a magnificence which is still attested
bythe famous Bridge and Castle of St. Angelo, and might fitly
becompared to
”the golden primeOf good Haroun Alraschid.”
Like the great caliph and czar, Hadrian sometimes sank
intosensuality and cruelty; one of his worst attempts at the
latterbeing made just before his death, when he was almost
insane.Antoninus, whom he had adopted as successor, concealed
thenobles sentenced to execution, so that they were supposed tohave
perished. On his own accession, he brought them alive, asif in
obedience to secret orders from Hadrian, into the senate,which at
once decreed to Antoninus the surname Pius. This wordis best
translated dutiful. Indeed, he did all the duties ofson, husband,
father, friend, citizen, and sovereign, so wellthat he alone of men
carries the record of his virtues as partof his full name in
history. Seven of his successors calledthemselves Antoninus, in
memory of a peaceful and righteousreign in which the Roman power
was at its zenith. Its spirit isfurther shown by his speech to his
wife at its beginning:“Henceforth we have no property. All belongs
to the state.” Atthe same time he declared that he would not remove
any ofHadrian’s officials unless proved unworthy. While neglecting
nopublic interests, he greatly reduced the taxes by a closeeconomy,
which he kept up, regardless of ridicule. His familywas left poor,
but his treasury rich. His laws established theright of women to
inherit property, protected the chastity ofslaves, and restrained
the cruelty of masters. Infidelity waspunished as severely in
husbands as in wives--a legalization ofthe precepts of Dion, Rufus,
and Seneca. Trajan’s orphan asylumswere kept up, and new ones for
girls founded as monuments to theempress Faustina, whom Antoninus
Pius loved so tenderly as tosay that he had rather be with her in
exile than without her onthe throne. Public lectures on rhetoric
and philosophy were alsoliberally provided for. Persecution of the
Christians wasprevented by his tolerance. He refused to annex a
foreign nationthat wished to become a province of the empire, which
he knewto be already large enough. Unnecessary wars he
avoidedcarefully, saying, “I had rather keep a single citizen
alivethan slay a thousand enemies.” Never did he willingly
shedblood. Foreign nations submitted their disputes to his
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arbitration, and his own subjects called him the Father
ofMankind.
His wall across Scotland, from the Forth to the Clyde, has
nearlyperished, but of his character there still remains
thedescription which a member, during twenty years, of both
hisfamily and his administration, wrote down for private
perusal.Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the adopted son and successor
ofAntoninus Pius, speaks with devout thanksgiving of the
latter’s“mildness of manners, firmness of purpose, scorn of
emptyhonors, freedom from impure desires, and respect for
hissubjects as his fellow-citizens. He did not seek to please
themob, but shunned flattery, considering not the popularity butthe
wisdom of his actions, yet listening gladly to opinions morecorrect
than his own. Always satisfied and cheerful, he enjoyedmoderately
what he had, but never missed what he had not. Hetook reasonable
care of his health, but was not particular aboutfood or clothing.
He treated every one as he deserved, and neverenvied even the
ablest orators or statesmen, but readily helpedthem win glory. He
was no sophist, no pedant, no mere dreamingbookworm; but an active
and practical man of the world, able totake care of himself as well
as of others.”[23]
All this is true of Marcus Aurelius himself; for the best
criticsand historians agree that he was “perhaps the most
beautifulfigure in history” (Matthew Arnold); “the purest and
gentlestspirit of all the pagan world” (Lecky); “of all the line
thenoblest and dearest (Merrivale); “the noblest soul that
everlived” (Taine); “he preserved through life not only the
mostunblemished justice, but the tenderest heart” (J. S. Mill);
“heinspires us with a better feeling to mankind” (Montesquieu);
“ifthere is any sublime virtue, it is his. I know no other man
whocombined such unaffected kindness, mildness and humility
withsuch conscientiousness and severity toward himself. We
possessinnumerable busts of him, for every Roman of his time was
anxiousto possess his portrait, and if there is anywhere an
expressionof virtue, it is in the heavenly features of Marcus
Aurelius”(Niebuhr). A sincere and scholarly clergyman of the Church
ofEngland, who has written one of our best books about the
Stoics,declares that “a nobler, a gentler, a purer, a sweeter soul,
asoul less elated by prosperity or more constant in adversity,
asoul more fitted by virtue and chastity and self-denial to
enterthe eternal peace, never passed into the presence of
itsHeavenly Father.”[24]
Marcus Aurelius was remarkable from childhood for love of
hismother, diligence in study, and truth of speech. At twelve
hebecame a Stoic, and at seventeen he was adopted as heir to
thethrone by Antoninus Pius. The news of this adoption drove himto
an outburst of tears.
Well might he weep. The forty years of peace and prosperity
whichfollowed Trajan’s victories ended as Antoninus Pius closed
hisdying eyes, with “Equanimity”[25] on his lips. Scarcely
hadMarcus Aurelius mounted the throne when the Tiber overflowed
alarge part of Rome, swept away the public granaries, and causeda
famine. At the same time the wild tribes who dwelt beyond theRhine
and Danube took up arms, and the terrible Parthians
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crossed the Euphrates, defeated the Roman army, and
overranseveral provinces. It took four years of fierce fighting
todrive them back, and at the close of the war a
pestilence,[26]which had been ravaging the East, was brought by the
returningsoldiers to Rome, where it killed so many people that it
wasalmost impossible to bury them. Galen’s skill was powerless.
Theplague was still raging when Egypt, which supplied Rome
withwheat, revolted, and there was another famine, made
morecomplete by the ravages of destructive insects in
otherprovinces. The Germans had with difficulty been kept at bay,
butnow they overran all the northern part of the empire,
andactually invaded Italy.
Warfare and disease had already thinned the ranks of thelegions,
and the imperial treasury had been emptied in takingcare of the
sick and starving. Marcus Aurelius sold the jewelscollected by
Hadrian, and everything else of value in thepalace, at public
auction, and impressed slaves, criminals, andsavages, until he had
men enough to lead, himself, against theGermans. His colleague,
whom he took with him, died by his side,but still he kept the
field. Year after year he struggled againstfamine, pestilence,
rebels, and invaders. These misfortunesfanned into flame that
continual expectation of the SecondAdvent which was universal among
the early Christians. Theypublicly declared that these were the
signs of the coming of theSon of Man and the end of the world. They
zealously inculcatedthe book of the Revelation, which predicted
that the City of theSeven Hills would perish at once before the
wrath of the Lord,and the Roman empire vanish to make way for the
reign of thesaints. They even dared to forge, in the dreaded name
of theSibyls, lying oracles, still extant, in which Marcus
Aureliuswas pointed out as the last emperor, while it was foretold
thathis armies would be routed with disgrace.[27] Meantime
theRomans had renewed their zeal for the worship of their
nationaldivinities, whose oracles now began to speak once more.
Thesedeities the apostles and church fathers called devils,
as,indeed, does John Milton. The common people thought this
suchblasphemy as accounted fully for all the national
disasters.There was a furious outcry for the enforcement of that
law ofTrajan which punished the confession of Christianity with
death.Hadrian and Antoninus Pius had neglected to carry out
thisedict. Now, in pestilence, defeat, and famine, the wrath of
thegods seemed manifest.
Marcus Aurelius did not share the popular superstition, but
heseems to have known little about the Christians, except thattheir
various sects charged each other with the worst ofiniquities, that
their worship was principally secret, that theythought little of
marriage, warlike patriotism, mental culture,or practical industry,
and that they hated the establishedreligion, and desired the
downfall of the Roman empire, as thewritings just mentioned show.
We must take care not to thinkthat the Christianity of the second
century was like thoseadvanced forms familiar to us in the
nineteenth. Polycarp, acontemporary of Marcus Aurelius, rejoiced at
hearing that someof his fellow Christians had broken in pieces a
clock that borethe signs of the Zodiac, because “in all these
monstrous demons
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is seen an art hostile to God.” Tertullian, whose Apology
waswritten at the close of that century, declares
that“schoolmasters, and all other professors of literature, are
inaffinity with manifest idolatry.”[28]
The activity with which the speedy end of the world was
preachedhad already provoked Marcus Aurelius into passing a law by
whichall those who stirred up superstitious fears were liable to
bebanished. During his absence on the Danube, A.D. 169, hesuffered
Trajan’s law to have its course against Polycarp and afew other
prominent assailants of the national religion at Rome,and in those
seven cities which had first received “the dreadApocalypse,” though
the bloodiest scenes took place in Lyons,A.D. 177, when the emperor
was in Rome. Farrar says that theshare of Marcus Aurelius in
causing persecution “was almostinfinitesimal”; and Tertullian even
calls him the protector ofthe Christians.[29] There is no reason to
believe that hewitnessed any of the executions, and it is certain
that he tooksome pains to protect people falsely accused.
Rightly does John Stuart Mill speak of this shedding ofChristian
blood under a Stoic emperor as “one of the mosttragical facts in
all history.” It was, indeed, a grievous errorof judgment; but
Marcus Aurelius was led by no worse feelingthan excessive desire
for the public safety at a time of fearfuldanger. It took fourteen
centuries more to teach any Christiancountry greater tolerance. And
in our own recent war ourgovernment thought that special
restrictions ought to be laidon liberty of speech. The proposition
that all utterance ofopinion which does not violate any one’s right
to hisreputation, or encourage the commission of any crime, should
bepermitted freely, has not yet won that unanimous assent whichit
deserves.
No one can suppose that there was any taint of persecution inthe
author of those sublime thoughts which Marcus Aurelius wroteout for
his own support, during the eight gloomy years which hespent in the
camp fighting against the Northern barbarians,while Egypt continued
in revolt, and famine and pestilence werelaying waste the empire.
This “purest and noblest book ofantiquity” (Farrar), and
“masterpiece of morals.” (MathewArnold), is full of passages like
these: “If any one can showme that I do not think or act correctly,
I will change gladly,for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever
harmed.”[30] “Itis not right that I should give myself pain, for I
have nevergiven it willingly to another.”[31] “The immortal gods
are notangry with the wicked, and why should I be, who am destined
toend so soon, and who myself also am a sinner?”[32] “It is a
greatthing to live in truth and justice, with kind feelings even
tothe lying and unjust.”[33] The best way to avenge myself is notto
become like the wicked.”[34] “He who wrongs me is my kinsmanin
unity of the spirit and divine sonship, and I cannot be angrywith
my brother.”[35] “Let me remember that men exist for eachother, and
that they do wrong unwillingly.”[36] “It ispeculiarly human to love
even those who do wrong.”[37]
The sincerity of these grand words was fully proved. In
thesummer of A.D. 175, Marcus Aurelius succeeded, after painful
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toil and much bloodshed, in closing the German war by a
greatbattle, which was turned from his defeat into his victory by
atimely thunderstorm. A false rumor that he had been routed
andslain spread far and wide, and reached Egypt, which had justbeen
re-conquered by Cassius, who had formerly won great fameagainst the
Parthians. The soldiers in Asia and Africa agreedto make this
general emperor. The army of Europe was furiousagainst the rebels,
but Marcus Aurelius showed no anger, thoughhe marched with such
promptness, vigor, and dignity againstCassius that the latter was
soon put to death by his ownadherents, who then threw down their
arms and begged for pardon.The head of the usurper was brought to
Marcus Aurelius. Herefused to look at it or at its bearers, but had
it buried withhonor. The papers of the rebel chiefs he burned
unread. Hisempress urged him to take sweeping vengeance, but he
wrote herthus: “My Faustina, your anxiety for your husband and
childrenis dutiful. But I shall spare the wife and children of
Cassius,and shall ask the senate to be humane.[38] The senators
were sosevere that he sent them a letter, saying: “Conscript
Fathers,I implore you to keep my mercy and your own unstained. I
begthat no one be put to death, but that the banished be
recalledand the fines remitted. Would that I could also bid you
raisethe dead.”[39] The senators were slow to heed him, until he
wroteagain, saying that his dear wife was dead, and the
bestconsolation they could give him was to proclaim
universalamnesty. Persecution “should be made of sterner
stuff.”
His conduct toward the Northern barbarians is fitly
representedin that stature before the Capitol which still shows
him,mounted on his war-horse, stretching out his hand to protect
hiscaptives from the fury of his own soldiers. These prisoners
hetook pains to have settled on reservations within the empire.He,
further, took advantage of the three years of peace, whichfollowed
the suppression of the last rebellion, to forbidgladiators to fight
except with blunted weapons, or rope-dancersto perform without nets
and mattresses to catch their fall.Slaves were assisted by his laws
to emancipate themselves, andregisters of births opened to prevent
free children from beingkidnapped. New orphan asylums were built in
memory of Faustina,whom such high authorities as Merrivale, Long,
Champigny,Suckau, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica[40] agree to
thinkreally as loving, modest, and faithful as she is said to
havebeen by Marcus Aurelius himself.[41]
But his most characteristic act was to make an
impartialdistribution of the lectureships in philosophy--the number
ofwhich he appears to have increased greatly--among the four
greatschools, so the Platonists, Aristotelians, and Epicureans,
werepaid for proclaiming their views, by this follower of Zeno,
asliberally as were his own fellow Stoics. This was not
becauseMarcus Aurelius did not love Stoicism,[42] but because he
lovedfreedom of thought, as no one had done before, and few have
donesince.
In A.D. 176, Marcus Aurelius took a questionable step,
promptedby fatherly fondness, and also, in all probability, by
desireto prevent any second attempt at usurpation: he shared his
title
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with his son Commodus, then but fifteen, but who, according
tothe contemporary historian Herodian, justified his
father’schoice, until he was prematurely deprived of all
parentalcontrol.
The enemies in the North had never been completely pacified,
andtheir hostilities gradually became so formidable that
MarcusAurelius saw the necessity of taking the field himself
againstthem once more. So he mustered his legions. He gave, at
therequest of his people, public lectures stating his philosophyand
religion. Then, in the fall of 178, he left Rome for thelast time.
Eighteen gloomy months he battled desperately in thewilderness,
mourning over the growing strength of thebarbarians, the rapid
decline of Roman virtue, energy, andgenius, and the renewed fury of
the pestilence, which finallyfound him ready to lay his heavy
burden down.
Long before, he had written down the exclamation, “Come
quickly,O Death! lest I, too, forget myself.”[43] Now he said to
hisfriends, “Why do you weep for me, and not rather think of
thepestilence and the common death?”[44] Thoughtful for others
tothe last, he insisted on being left to die alone. It was on
the17th of March, A.D. 180, in the twentieth year of his reign
andthe fifty-ninth of his life, that both life and reign ended,
inthe camp, then pitched near where now stands Vienna, or, as
somesay, Belgrade.
With Marcus Aurelius perished the glory of his empire and
thepopularity of his philosophy. The prevalence of slave labor
hadso far excluded the freemen from all occupations, except war
andpolitics, all over the Old World, that not only in each
stateconquered by Rome, but in Rome itself, after the
establishmentof the empire, the only avenue to fame or stimulus to
exertionleft for the citizens, in their exclusion from all
independentpolitical activity, had to be sought for in the army.
Suchleisure favored culture for a time, as was seen during
theAugustan age; but profligacy and mental torpor soon
becameprevalent, and increased rapidly in those forty years of
peacewhich, during the two reigns before that of Marcus
Aurelius,deprived the Romans of the last occupation which had been
leftthem. This degeneracy made an intellectual and
self-reliantsystem like Stoicism appear unsatisfactory. There was a
growingdemand for some religion which should appeal mainly to
theemotions. Several such religions now made crowds of
proselytes,which multiplied rapidly under the terror caused by the
frequentshocks of invasions, pestilence, and rebellion, and
thedisclosure of the weakness of the empire. Cowards could
notbecome Stoics. Meanwhile the patronage of five successive
reignshad given Stoicism a prosperity which was as fatal as that
ofPuritanism under Cromwell. Both faiths were glorified
bypersecution, but polluted by patronage, and for both of
thempollution was death. That Stoicism perished so quickly was
due,partly to the failure of its advocates to free it from
someinconsistencies and extravagances much ridiculed by
moreskeptical philosophers, but mainly to that rapid decline
inpatriotism, fortitude, and mental vigor, under the
greatcalamities which made Marcus Aurelius the last teacher of
a
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faith of which the world was no longer worthy.
NotesEuropean Morals, vol. I, p. 134, Am. Ed.
Les Antonius, vol. I, p. 53.
Another early Stoic, the astronomical poet Aratus, also givesthe
hymn referred to, and in a form still more like Paul’squotation
than that of Cleanthes.
Plutarch’s Morals, Goodwin’s Ed., vol. ii, p. 369.
Lactantius’ Institutiones Divinae, book iii, chap. xxv.
Niebuhr’s Vortrage uber Romische Geschichte, vol. iii, p.
69.
Lucan’s Pharsalia, book ii, line 380, etc.; and in
Rowe’sVersion, lines 591-612.
History of the Romans Under the Empire, vol. vii, chap. lxiv,p.
254.
Drumann’s Geschichte Roms, vol. v, p. 199.
Clough’s Plutarch, vol. v. p. 327, Am. Ed.
Pliny’s Epistles, xvi, book iii.
Libri naturalium Quaestionum, book iv, chap. xi, secs. 2 and
3.
Seneca’s Epistles, xlv, sec. 4, and Ep. lxxx, sec. 1.
Ibid., xxv, secs. 1, 2 and 3.
Champigny’s Les Antonins, vol. I, p. 418; also Otto Fahn’s
Ausder Alterthumswissenschaft, p. 51; etc.
Pliny’s Epistles, x, book i.
The Works of Epictetus, Higginson, pp. 226, 298, 368.
Martha’s les Moralistes de l’Empire Romain, p. 159.
Higginson, book i, chap.ix, secs. 16, 17; and book ii, chap.
xv,secs. 4-13, pp. 30 and 139.
European Morals, vol. I, pp. 193-4.
Higginson, book i, chap. xvi, sec. 20, p. 50.
Francke’s Geschichte Trajan’s, p. 413.
Meditations, book i, sec. 16, and book vi, sec. 30;
translatedwith the aid of Long, Merrivale, and others.
Farrar’s Seekers After God, p. 302.
When the praetorian prefect asked the watchword for the
night,the dying emperor answered, “Aequanimitas.”
Supposed to have been the small-pox.
Milman’s History of Christianity (vol. ii, pp.
165-173)translates the passages from the eighth book of the
Oracle.
Writings--On Idolatry, vol. i, chap. x, p. 154.
Writings--Apology, vol. i, chap. v, p. 64.
Meditation, book vi, sec. 21.
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Ibid., book viii, sec. 42.
Ibid., book vii, sec. 70.
Ibid., book vi, sec. 47.
Ibid., book vi, sec. 6.
Ibid., book ii, sec. 1.
Ibid., book iv, sec. 3.
Ibid., book vii, sec. 22.
Champigny’s Les Antonins, vol. iii, p. 121.
Vulcatii Gallicanus Avidius Cassius, chap. xiv, p. 304. Vol.iii,
p. 88, Ninth Ed.
Meditations, book i, sec. 17.
That he could not trifle with the truth is shown in all
hiswritings, and especially in one of his letters to his
teacher,Fronto, who had asked him to write on both sides of a
questionproposed for discussion. The young student answers, that he
isabsorbed in reading the Stoic Ariston, but is willing to let
himsleep long enough to take one side. “But to write on both
side--Ariston will never sleep long enough to suffer
that.”--Frontonis et Antonini Epistula, p. 76.
Meditations, book ix, sec. 3.
“Quid me fletis, et non magis de pestilentia et communi
mortecogitatis.” He dismissed at last his attendant with these
words:“Turn to the rising sun, for I am setting.”--Castle St.
Angelo,etc., W.W. Story, p. 18.
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Bob Pepperman Taylor has remarked, in his AMERICA’S BACHELOR
UNCLE: THOREAU AND THE AMERICAN POLITY (Lawrence KA: UP of Kansas,
1996, page 7), that “Thoreau is, on the whole, the political
thinker scholars of American political thought love to either
ignore or hate.” One of the instances which he has offered of this
is Robert Lewis Stevenson, opinioning in this year that:
Frans G. Bengtsson translated WALDEN, somewhat abridged, into
Swedish, as SKOGSLIV VID WALDEN (FOREST LIFE AT WALDEN) with a
40-page foreword offered as his Master’s thesis and pointing out
that Thoreau had been no Emerson clone: “In comparison with him
Emerson is abstract, derived and sophistic.” (An error which needs
to be pointed out in this translation is that in translating
Thoreau’s “one mile” into the Swedish “en mil,” the distance from
the shanty at Walden Pond to the town of Concord was considerably
exaggerated, as a Swedish mil amounts to six English miles.)1
1924
1. One is reminded by this of the fact that Napoleon Bonaparte
at 5'6" wasn’t all that particularly short. What made him come up
contemptibly short was first, that his height was conventionally
stated in units of French feet, which were quite a bit more lengthy
than the corresponding units of English feet back in those days
before international standardization of units of measure, plus
second, that the English had for good reason a considerable animus
against this man and his agenda and thus needed in one manner or
other to reduce him.
Marcus Aurelius found time to study virtue, and between whiles
toconduct the imperial affairs of Rome; but Thoreau is so
busyimproving himself, that he must think twice about a morning
call.
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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others,such as
extensive quotations and reproductions ofimages, this “read-only”
computer file contains a greatdeal of special work product of
Austin Meredith,copyright 2013. Access to these interim materials
willeventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup someof the
costs of preparation. My hypercontext buttoninvention which,
instead of creating a hypertext leapthrough hyperspace —resulting
in navigation problems—allows for an utter alteration of the
context withinwhich one is experiencing a specific content
alreadybeing viewed, is claimed as proprietary to AustinMeredith —
and therefore freely available for use byall. Limited permission to
copy such files, or anymaterial from such files, must be obtained
in advancein writing from the “Stack of the Artist of
Kouroo”Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Pleasecontact
the project at .
Prepared: December 7, 2013
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over untiltomorrow and
tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.”
– Remark by character “Garin Stevens”in William Faulkner’s
INTRUDER IN THE DUST
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tomorrow is such and such a date and so it began on that date in
like 8000BC? Why 8000BC, because it was the beginning of the
current interglacial -- or what?
Bearing in mind that this is America, "where everything
belongs," the primary intent of such a notice is to prevent some
person or corporate entity from misappropriating the materials and
sequestering them as property for censorship or for profit.
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30 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS MARCUS AURELIUS
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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by
ahuman. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested thatwe
pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of theshoulder
of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What thesechronological lists
are: they are research reports compiled byARRGH algorithms out of a
database of modules which we term theKouroo Contexture (this is
data mining). To respond to such arequest for information we merely
push a button.
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Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has
obviousdeficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored
inthe contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then weneed
to punch that button again and recompile the chronology —but there
is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary“writerly”
process you know and love. As the contents of thisoriginating
contexture improve, and as the programming improves,and as funding
becomes available (to date no funding whateverhas been needed in
the creation of this facility, the entireoperation being run out of
pocket change) we expect a diminishedneed to do such tweaking and
recompiling, and we fully expectto achieve a simulation of a
generous and untiring roboticresearch librarian. Onward and upward
in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge.Place requests with .
Arrgh.
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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus50 BCE121 CE138 CE139 CE145 CE146 CE161
CE166 CE176 CE177 CE180 CE177718791924