A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

442 AURELIUS.
of composition and oratory under Herodes Atticus
and Cornelius Fronto, and by his close and unremitting application laid the foundation of the bad
health by which he was so much oppressed in after
life. While yet Caesar he was addressed by Justin
Martyr (Apolog. i. init.) as Verissimus " the philosopher," an epithet by which he has been commonly distinguished from that period down to the
present day, although no such title was ever publicly or formally conferred. Even after his elevation
to the purple, he felt neither reluctance nor shame
in resorting to the school of Sextus of Chaeroneia,
the descendant of Plutarch, and in listening to the
extemporaneous declamations of Hermogenes. From
his earliest youth he lived upon terms of the most
affectionate familiarity with his instructors, as we
may gather from his correspondence with Fronto
[FRONTO]; the most worthy were, through his
influence, promoted to the highest dignities; after
their death he placed their images in the chapel of
his lares, and was wont to strew flowers and offer
sacrifices on their graves. Nor was his liberality
confined to his own preceptors, for learned men in
every quarter of the world enjoyed substantial
proofs of his bounty. Philosophy was the great
object of his zeal, but the other branches of a polite
education were by no means neglected; music,
poetry, and painting, were cultivated in turn, and
the severer sciences of mathematics and law engaged no small portion of his attention. In jurisprudence especially, he laboured throughout life
with great activity, and his Constitutions are believed to have filled many volumes. These are now
all lost, but they are constantly quoted with great
respect by later writers. (See Westenberg, Dissertationes ad Constitutiones MlI. Aurelii Imperatoris,
Lug. Bat. 1736.)
With the exception of a few letters contained
in the recently discovered remains of Fronto, the
only production of Marcus which has been preserved is a volume composed in Greek, and entitled
Mcp;cou 'AvrT'ivovu Tol anroPpda'ropos rw1v d ls
EauVToJ pIsAla tI'. It is a sort of common-place
book, in which were registered from time to time
the thoughts and feelings of the author upon moral
and religious topics, together with striking maxims
extracted from the works of those who had been
most eminent for wisdom and virtue. There is no
attempt at order or arrangement, but the contents
are valuable, in so far as they illustrate the system
of self-examination enjoined by the discipline of the
Stoics, and present a genuine picture of the doubts
and difficulties and struggles of a speculative and
reflecting mind.
The education and pursuits of M. Aurelius exercised the happiest influence upon a temper and
disposition naturally calm and benevolent. He
succeeded in acquiring the boasted composure and
self-command of the disciples of the Porch, without
imbibing the harshness which they were wont to
exhibit. He was firm without being obstinate; he
steadfastly maintained his own principles without
manifesting any overweening contempt for the opinions of those who differed from himself; his justice was tempered with gentleness and mercy; his
gravity was devoid of gloom. In public life, he
sought to demonstrate practically the truth of the
Platonic maxim, ever on his lips, that those states
only could be truly happy which were governed by
philosophers, or in which the kings and rulers were
guided by the tenets of pure philosophy. In gene

AURELIUS.
ral policy, both at home and abroad, he steadily
followed in the path of his predecessor, whose
counsels he had shared for more than twenty years.
The same praise, therefore, which belongs to the
elder may fairly be imparted to the younger Antonine; and this is perhaps the most emphatic panegyric we could pronounce. No monarch was ever
more widely or more deeply beloved. The people
believed, that he had been sent down by the gods,
for a time, to bless mankind, and had now returned
to the heaven from which he descended. So universal was this conviction among persons of
every age and calling, that his apotheosis was
not, as in other cases, viewed in the light of a mere
empty form. Every one, whose means permitted,
procured a statue of the emperor. More than a
century after his decease, these images were to be
found in many mansions among the household
gods, and persons were wont to declare, that. he
had appeared to them in dreams and visions, and
revealed events which afterwards came to pass.
The great, perhaps the only, indelible stain upon
his memory is the severity with which he treated
the Christians; and his conduct in this respect was
the more remarkable, because it was not only completely at variance with his own general principles,
but was also in direct opposition to the wise and
liberal policy pursued by Hadrian and Pius. The
numerous apologies published during his reign
would alone serve to point out that the church was
surrounded by difficulties and dangers; but the
charge of positive persecution is fully established
by the martyrdom of Justin at Rome, of the venerable Polycarp, with many others, at Smyrna (167)
in the early part of his reign, and by the horrible atrocities perpetrated at Vienne and Lyons several years afterwards. (177.) It would be but a
poor defence to allege, that these excesses were
committed without the knowledge of a prince who
on all other occasions watched with such care over
the rights of his subjects in the most remote provinces. But, in so far as the proceedings in Gaul
are concerned, we have clear evidence that they
received his direct sanction; for when the Roman
governor applied for instructions, an answer was
returned, that all who confessed themselves to be
Christians should suffer death. It is probable that
his better feelings were in this instance overpowered by the violence of evil counsellors; for had he
followed the dictates of his own nature, he would
have been contented to moralise upon and lament
over what he viewed as ignorant and obstinate adherence to a vain superstition. (See Med. xi. 3.)
But this calm contempt by no means satisfied the
active hate of the crowd of real and pretended
Stoics, whom his patronage had attracted. Many
of these were bigots of the worst class, and cherished sentiments of the most malignant animosity
towards the professors of the new religion. Accustomed to regard all other sects with self-satisfied
disdain, they could ill brook the freedom with
which their follies and fallacies were now attacked
and exposed; they regarded with jealous rage a
code of morals and a spotless purity of life far superior to aught they had ever practised, or taught,
or imagined; and least of all could they forgive
the complete overthrow of their own exclusive pretensions to mental fortitude and calm endurance of
bodily suffering.
Althougli no other serious charge has been preferred against M. Aurelius, for the rumour that he