A short time after the commencement of this war, L. Verus was suddenly cut off by an apoplexy, at Altinum, in the 39th year of his age, and the 9th of his reign. His body was conveyed to Rome ; and, though his whole life had been spent in the most beastly sensuality, he was ranked among the gods at the request of Aurelius, and honoured with all the usual rites of worship. The surviving emperor conducted the war in Germany with the utmost courage and fortitude, during the space of five years,* and not only shared with his troops in all the dangers and hardships of the field, but generously applied his own private property to defray the expellees of the expedition, and to relieve his subjects from ad ditional burdens. For this purpose he exposed to sale his gold and silver plate, the rich furniture of his pa lace, many valuable pictures and statues, and a curious collection of precious stones. lie was interrupted in the midst of his successes, by the revolt of Avidius Cas sius, who commanded in Syria, and had proclaimed himself emperor. While Aurelius was upon his march to suppress this sedition, he received information of the death of Cassius, who was slain by his own troops, or (according to some writers) in an engagement with Martins Vents, governor of Cappadocia. The emperor expressed his regret, that he had thus been deprived of an opportunity to exercise his clemency towards Cas sius, took the family of that commander under his own protection, and treated those, who had been concerned in the revolt, with the utmost lenity. He continued his route through the eastern part of the empire, visited Antioch and Alexandria, returned by Smyrna, where he had several conferences with the celebrated sophist Aristides ; arrived at Athens, where he was initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries, and where he established pub lic professors of the different sciences ; and returned to Rome after an absence of six years. He had taken with him to the east his son Commodus, and his wife Faus tina ; but the latter died suddenly in the neighbourhood of Mount Taurus. She was a woman of the most aban doned character, and addicted to the most shameless acts of lewdness ; but Aurelius was either ignorant or indifferent about her irregularities, and he lamented her death with unbecoming sorrow. At his earnest re quest, the senate declared her a goddess ; and ordain ed, that every new married pair should pay their first vows at her temple. He entered Rome in triumph with his son Commodus, and gratified the people with dona tions of money, and the exhibition of shows. Ile had publicly read lectures of philosophy in several cities of Greece and Asia, and he did the same at Rome, during the space of three days. Ile was again called from that city to oppose the Marcomanni, who had renewed the war' with great fury ; and, after combating them suc cessfully for two years, he was infected with a pestilen tial disease, which raged among his troops, and died at Vendobona, (now Vienna,) A. D. 181, in the 59th year of his age, and 19th of his reign. His death was universally and bitterly lamented throughout the em pire. He was immediately ranked among the gods, and honoured with divine worship. The man who did not possess some image or statue of him, in his house, was accounted impious ; and, above a century after his death, he was still worshipped, in most families, among their household deities.
M. Aurelius was, unquestionably, the most virtuous of the Roman emperors ; and is deservedly extolled by historians, as an example to succeeding princes. He
paid the greatest deference to the senate, undertook nothing without their advice, and never drew the pub lie money without their permission. He preserved all the rights of the people, as they had been exercised in the best times of the republic, and was often present in their assemblies, while they were left to make a free election of magistrates. In order to expedite the ad ministration of justice, he increased both the number of judges, and the days of their attendance for hearing causes. He rendered the laws peculiarly strict in the punishment of extortion and oppression; but rather re laxed their severity in other transgressions. He endea voured to restrain all cruel and bloody entertainments, and particularly ordained, that gladiators should use only blunted weapons after the manner of foils. He was the author of many other useful regulations and laws; and both by these means, and his own example, he reformed many abuses in the empire. His private life was adorned with innumerable acts of goodness ; and in his Meditations (a. work which he composed in the hurry of public business, and amidst the tumults of war) he has given the best rules, that human reason could suggest, for the practice of virtue.* His charac ter, however, is not blameless, nor was his conduct al ways consistent. His attainments in literature and phi losophy were frequently displayed, rather with the con ceit of a pedant, than with the modesty of a sage; and many of his generous sayings and benevolent actions were accompanied rather with the cold parade of a mo ralist, formed by rule, than with the feeling simplicity of true virtue. He seems to have viewed his excellen cies with a sufficient degree of complacency, and used to say, that "he had not lived, nor served the gods so ill, as to think that they would favour his enemies." His lenity was often carried to a hurtful excess. Many, who injured the public and oppressed the people, he allowed to pass unpunished; and he continued to favour, with every token of his friendship, several persons, whose conduct ought to have been marked with his de cided and avowed disapprobation. " His excessive in dulgence," says Gibbon, "to his brother, his wife, and his son, exceeded the bounds of private virtue, and be came a public injury, by the example and consequences of their vices." His deification of the two former was an outrage to common decency; and his recommenda tion of the latter as his successor, in preference to his able and virtuous son-in-law Pompeianus, was little con sistent with his professed regard for the public welfare. His conduct to the Christians also is not easily recon ciled with his general principles of action, and remains an indelible stain upon his memory. He shewed the most unreasonable prejudices against them ; allowed them to be persecuted with the utmost cruelty; and, as far as they were concerned, he laid aside at once his boasted justice as a prince, his liberality as a philoso pher, and his humanity as a man. See Gibbon's Hist. vol. i. p. 125, 135. Hist. ?ug. ?lurelius. Jul. Capit. Dio. Cassius. 1.1xxi. Entrap. 1. viii. 1. 9. Ste. Enfield's Hist. of Phil. vol. ii. p. 134. Lardner's Works, vol. vii. p. 395, 459. Crevier's Hist. Emp. vol. viii. ?inc. Univ. Hist. vol. xv. p. 200, 255. (q)