MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. mar'kils a-rill-us, often called simply MARcus AURELIUS, a distinguished Roman, and accord ing to Canon Farrar °the noblest of pagan em perors" : b. Rome, 29 April 121 A.D. ' d. Vindo bona,— the modern Vienna — 17 March 180 A.D. He was descended from an illustrious line which tradition declared extended to the good Numa, the second king of Rome. In the de scendant Marcus were certainly to be found, with a great increment of many centuries of noble life, all the virtues of his illustrious an cestor. Doubtless the cruel persecutions of the infamous emperors who preceded Hadrian ac count for the fact that the ancestors of Aurelius left the imperial city and found safety in His pania Bxtica, where, in a town called Succubo not far from the present city of Cordova—the emperor's great-grandfather, Annius Verus, was horn. From Spain also came the family of the Emperor Hadrian, who was an intimate friend of Annius Verus. The death of the father of Marcus Aurelius when the lad was of tender years led to his adoption by his grandfather and subsequently by Antoninus Pius. By Antoninus he was subsequently named as joint heir to the imperial dignity with Corrnnodus, the son of &limo Cesar, who had previously been adopted by Hadrian. From his earliest youth Marcus was distinguished for his sincerity and truthful ness. "Hadrian's bad and sinful habits left him," says Niebuhr, °when he gazed on the sweetness .of that innocent child. Punning on the boy's paternal name of Verus, he called him Verissimus, 'the most true.' 2 Among the many statues of Marcus extant is one represent ing him at the tender age of eight years offering sacrifice. He was even then a priest of Mars. It was the hand of Marcus alone that threw the crown so carefully and skilfully that it invari ably alighted upon the head of the statue of the The entire ritual he knew by heart The great Emperor Antoninus Pius lived in the most simple and unostentatious mariner, yet even this did not satisfy the exacting, lofty spirit of Mar cus. At 12 years of age he began to practise all the austerities of Stoicism and became a ver itable ascetic. He ate most sparingly; slept little, and when he did so it was upon a bed of boards. Only the repeated entreaties of his mother induced him to spread a few skins upon his couch. His health was seriously affected for a time; and it was, perhaps, to this extreme privation that his subsequent feebleness war largely due. His education was of the highest order of excellence. His tutors, like. Nero's, were the most distinguished teachers of the age; but unlike Nero, the lad was in every way worthy of his instructors, His letters to his dearly beloved teacher, Ftvnito, are still extant, and in a very striking and charming way they illustrate the extreme simplicity of life in the imperial household in the villa of Antoninns Pius at Lorium by the sea. They also indicate the lad's deep devotion to his studies and the sincerity of his love for his relatives and friends. When his predecessor and adoptive father, Antoninus, felt the approach of death, be gave to the tribune who asked him for the watchword for the night, the reply ity? directed that the golden statue of •For tune" that always stood in the emperor's cham ber should be transferred to that of Marcus Aurelius, and then turned his face and passed away as peacefully as if he had fallen asleep. The watchword of the father became the life word of the son, who pronounced upon that father, in the 'Meditations,' one of the noblest eulogies ever written. It woukl be impossible here to detail even briefly all the manifold pub lic services rendered by Marcus Aurelius to the empire during his reign of 20 years. Among his good works were these: the establishment, upon eternal foundation, of the noble fabric of the civil law — the prototype and basis of Jus tinian's task; the founding of schools for the education of poor children; the endowment of hospitals and homes for orphans of both sexes; the creation of trust companies to receive and distribute legacies and endowments; the just government of the provinces; the complete re form of the system of collecting taxes; the abo lition of the cruelty of the criminal laws and the mitigation of sentences unnecessarily se vere; the regulation of gladiatorial exhibitions; the diminution of the absolute pow& possessed by fathers over their childten and of masters over their slaves; the adinission of women to equal rights to succession to property from their children; the rigid suppression of 'spies and in formers; and the adoption of the principle that merit, as distinguished from rank or polit cal friendship, alone justified promotion in the public service. But the greatest reform was the reform in the imperial dignity itself, as exem plified in the life and character of the emperor. It is this fact which gives to the 'Meditations' their distinctive value. The infinite charm, the tenderness and sweetness of their moral, teach ings, and their broad humanity, are chiefly note worthy because the emperor himself practised hi his daily life the principles of which he speaks, and because tenderness and sweetness, patience and pity, suffused his daily conduct and perme ated his actions. The horrible cruelties of the
reigns of Nero and Domitian seethed only awful dreams under the benignant rule of Marcus Au relius. It is not surprising that-the deification of a deceased emperor, usually regarded by Sen ate and people as a hollow mockery, became a veritable fact upon the death of Marcus Aure lius. He was not regarded in any sense as mortal. All men said he had but returned to his heavenly place among the immortal 'gods. As 'his body passed, in the pontp of an imperial funeral, to its last resting-place, the tomb of Hadrian,—the modern Castle of Saint Angelo at Rome,— thousands invoked the divine bless ing of Antoninus. His memory was sacredly cherished. His portrait was preserved as an in spiration in innumerable homes. His statue was alnipst universally given an honored place among the household gods. And all this con tinued during successive generations of men, Marcus Aurelius has been censured for /wo acts: the first, the massacre of the Christians which took place during his reign; the second, the selection of his son, Commodus, as his suc cessor. In extenuation of his persecution of the followers of Christianity, it has been alleged in his behalf that he was deceived by evil ooun who to him. the conduct of the Christians to him. 'This. excuse impinges upon his wisdom as a ruler and 'his admittedly wide knowledge of the conditions of the empire. It is further urged that when we take into consid eration the environment of the emperor, no just cause for condemnation of his course remains. He imbibed a bitter prejudice against the new religion from his bekived friend and instructor, Fronto. In the writings of Epictetus, whom he greatly revered, he found severe condemnation of the Christians as fanatics. With such a pro-, found natural bias, it is urged, it is no wonder that he was led to regard the new creed with aversion. But the reason of his course is to be found rather in his deep-rooted attachment to the heathen beliefs of his ancestors and of the empire. It was rather 'his fear that the ancient, cult, bound up, as it seemed in the 'character of Roman rule, was seriously menaced by the prog ress of Christianity, •which actuated him tq the severe and bloody measures he took to root out a dangerous rival. He regarded Christianity as' a *pernicious sect,* a ((secret conspiracy') against the empire, an *Immotal superstition,* whose' poison was eating into the social life, and him self as the conservator of the ettipite,iattd: its traditions. ' Therefore some extenuation tmight, be conceded to such fierce zeal in perseeuing the Christians in almost any other emperor than Marcus Aurelius. But there is a glaring incort sistency in his character in the adoption of so cruel and monstrous a course by one whoa, ap pears otherwise so admirable. In this signal he is as bloody and heartless as a Domitian, a Nero or a Caligula; in all other things merciful, in this pitiless; in his general administration, just and humane; in this, laxly unjust and even vindictive. Whatsoever may be urged in his defense, this relentless per secution of the Christians is a dark blot on his fame. Whatever extenuating circumstances may seem to condone it, his policy in • this in stance was utterly inconsistent with his general character.
His first edict against the Christians was published in 177. Multitudes perished in the fierce persecutions which followed. Notable amongst the victims were Saint Polycarp in Smyrna and Saint Cecilia at Rome. The man ner in which they were tortured before 'being relieved from sufferings by death was more be fitting a savage chief than a civilized ruler.
Of the appointment of Commodus as' his successor, it may be said that the paternal heart hoped against hope for filial excellence. Mar cus Aurelius believed, as clearly appears from many passages in the 'Meditations,' that men did not do evil willingly, but through ignorance; and that when the exceeding beauty of good ness had been fully disclosed to them, the de pravity of evil conduct would appear no less clearly. The emperor who, when the head of his rebellious general was brought to him, grieved because that general had not lived to be forgiven; the ruler who burned unread all treasonable correspondence, would not, nay, could not believe in the existence of such an inhuman monster as Commodus proved himself to be. The appointment of Commodus was a calamity, of the most terrific character; but it testifies in trumpet tones to the nobility of the emperor's heart, the, sincerity of his own belief in the triumph of right and justice. Compare Farrar, 'Seekers after God' (1868) ; Renan,
Aurae' (1881) ; Pater, (Marius the Epicurean' ; Arnold, M.,
in Criticism' (First Series, New York 1883) ;