Will Durant --- Marcus Aurelius

you Marcus Aurelius Marcus antivirus was born in Rome in 121 the Annie I had come a century before from Tsukuba near Cordova there it seems their honesty had won them the COG nomen we're us true three months after the boy's birth his father died and he was taken into the home of his rich grandfather then consul Hadrian was a frequent visitor there he took a fancy to the boy and saw in him the stuff of kings seldom has any lad had so propitious a youth were so keenly appreciated his good fortune to the gods he wrote fifty years later I am indebted for having good grandparents good parents a good sister good teachers good kinsmen and Friends nearly everything good time struck a balance by giving him a questionable wife and a worthless son his meditations lists the virtues these people had and the lessons he received from them in modesty patience manliness abstemious Ness piety benevolence and a simplicity of life far removed from the habits of the rich the wealth surrounded him on every side never was a boy so persistently educated he was attached in boyhood to the service of temples and priests he committed to memory every word of the ancient and unintelligible liturgy and though philosophy later shook his faith it never diminished his sedulous performance of the old exacting ritual Marcus liked games and sports even Birds snaring and hunting and some efforts were made to train his body as well as his mind and character but 17 tutors in childhood are a heavy handicap for grammarians for writers one jurist and eight philosophers divided his soul among them the most famous of these teachers was M Cornelius fronto who taught him rhetoric though Marcus loved him lavished upon him all the kindnesses of an affectionate and royal pupil and exchanged with him letters of intimate charm the youth turned his back upon oratory is a vain and honest art and abandoned himself to philosophy he thanks his instructors for sparing him logic and astrology thanks diognetus the stoic for freeing him from superstition Junius rustic us for acquainting him with Epictetus and sexless of Chaeronea for teaching him to live in conformity with nature he is grateful to his brother Severus for telling him about Brutus Cato of Utica Thrace eeeh and he'll videos from him I received the idea of a state in which there is the same law for all a polity of equal rights and freedom of speech and the idea of a kingly government that most of all respects the freedom of the governed here the stoic ideal of monarchy takes possession of the throne he thanks Maximus for teaching him self-government and not to be led aside by anything cheerfulness in all circumstances and a just admixture of gentleness and dignity and to do appointed tasks without complaining it is clear that the leading philosophers of the time were priests without religion rather than meta physicians without life Marcus took them so seriously that for a time he almost ruined a naturally weak Constitution with ascetic devotions at the age of 12 he took on the rude cloak of a philosopher slept on a little straw strewn over the floor and long resisted the entreaties of his mother to use a couch he was a stoic before he became a man he offers thanks that I preserved the flower of my youth that I took not upon me to be a man before my time but rather put it off longer than I needed that I never had to do with Benedicta and afterwards when I fell into some fits of love I was soon cured to influences diverted him from professional philosophy and sanctity one was the succession of minor political offices to which he was appointed the realism of an administrator was crossed with the idealism of a meditative youth the other was his close association with Antoninus Pius he did not fret that Antoninus is longevity but continued his life of stoic simplicity philosophical study and official duties while living in the palace and serving his protracted apprenticeship and the example of his adoptive father's devotion and honesty in government became a powerful influence in his development the name by which we know him Aurelius was the clan name of Antoninus which both marcus and lucius on their adoption had taken as their own Lucius became a gay man of the world a graceful adept in the pleasures of life when in 146 Pius desired a colleague to share the government with him he named Marcus only and left to Lucius the empire of love on the death of Antoninus Marcus became sole Emperor but remembering Hadrian's wish he at once made Lucius verus his full colleague and gave him his daughter Lucilla and marriage at the outset of his reign as at the end the philosopher earned through kindness the division of rule was a bad precedent which in the heirs of Diocletian and Constantine would divide and weaken the realm Marcus asked the Senate to vote pious divine honors completed with perfect taste the temple that Pius had raised to his wife and rededicated it to Antoninus and Faustina both its ten corinthian monolithic columns are among the finest remains in the forum the portico is intact in the cellar though shorn of its marble facing has survived as the Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda he paid the Senate every courtesy and rejoiced to see that many of his Philosopher's friends had found their way into its membership all Italy and all the provinces acclaimed him as Plato's dream-come-true the philosopher was king but he had no thought of attempting a utopia like Antoninus he was a conservative radicals do not grow up in palaces he was a philosopher king in the stoic rather than the platonic sense never hope he admonished himself to realize Plato's Republic let it be sufficient that you have in some degree ameliorated mankind and do not think such improve a matter of small importance who can change the opinions of men and without a change of sentiments what can you make but reluctant slaves and hypocrites he had discovered that not all men wished to be Saints and he sadly reconciled himself to a world of corruption and wickedness the immortal God's consent for countless ages to endure without anger and even to surround with blessings so many in such evil men but thou who has so short a time to live art thou already weary he decided to rely on example rather than law he made himself in fact a public servant he carried all the burdens of administration and judgment even that part which lucious had agreed to take but was neglecting he allowed himself no luxury treated all men with simple fellowship and wore himself out by being easy of access he was not a great statesman he spent too much of the public funds in cash gifts to the people in the army gave each member of the Praetorian Guard 20,000 sesterces increased the number of those who could apply for free corn provided frequent and costly games and remitted large sums in unpaid taxes and tribute it was generosity with many precedents but unwise at a time when rebellion or war visibly threatened or was breaking out in several provinces and on far spread frontiers Marcus continued senselessly that reform of law which Hadrian had begun he increased the number of court days and reduced the length of trials he himself often sat as judge inflexible against grave offenses but usually merciful he devised legal protection for wards against dishonest guardians for debtors against creditors for Provinces against governor's he connived at the rejuvenation of the forbidden collegia legalized those associations which were chiefly burial societies made them legal persons eligible for bequests and established a fund for the interment of poor citizens he gave the alimentar the widest extension in their history after the death of his wife he created an endowment for the aid of young women a pretty bar relief shows us such girls crowding around the younger Faustina who pours wheat into their laps he abolished mixed bathing for bad extravagant remuneration to actors and gladiators restricted according to their wealth the expenditures of the cities on games required the use of foiled weapons in gladiatorial contests and did all that sanguinary custom would allow to banish death from the arena the people loved him but not his laws when he enlisted gladiators in his army for the Marco Manik Wars the populace cried out in good-humoured anger he is taking our amusement from us he wants to force us to be philosophers Rome was preparing but not quite ready to be Puritan it was his misfortune that his fame as a philosopher and the long piece under Hadrian and Antoninus encouraged rebels within and barbarians without in 160 to revolt broke out in Britain the Cateye invaded Rome in Germany and the Parthian King wolle gay seized the third declared war upon Rome Marcus chose able generals to put down the revolt in the north but he delegated to Lucius verus the major task of fighting Parthia Lucius got no farther than Antioch for there lived Panthea so beautiful and accomplished that Lucien thought all the perfections of all sculptural masterpieces had come together in her to which were added a voice of intoxicating melody fingers skilled on the lyre and a mind enriched with literature and philosophy Lucius saw her and like Gilgamesh forgot when he was born he abandoned himself to pleasure to hunting it lasted the bar Cheree while the Parthian rode into terror-stricken Syria Marcus made no comment on Lucius but sent to a vidya scash 'as second in charge in lucious's army a plan of campaign whose military excellence helped the generals own ability not only to drive the Parthian SPAC across mesopotamia but to plant the roman standards once more in solution and Joseph on this time the two cities were burned to the ground lest they serve again as basis for Parthian campaigns Lucius returned from Antioch to Rome and was awarded a triumph which he magnanimously insisted that Marcus should share Lucius brought with him the invisible victor of the war pestilence it had appeared first among the troops of Ovidius in captured solution it spread so rapidly that he withdrew his army into Mesopotamia while the Parthian rejoiced at the vengeance of their gods the retreating legions carried the plague with them to Syria Lucius took some of these soldiers to Rome to march in his triumph they infected every city through which they passed and every region of the Empire to which they were later assigned the ancient historians tell us more of its ravages than of its nature their descriptions suggest eggs antha modest typhus or possibly bubonic plague Galen thought it's similar to the disease that had wasted the Athenians under Pericles in both cases black pustules almost covered the body the victim was wracked with a hoarse cough and his breath stank rapidly it swept through Asia Minor Egypt Greece Italy and Gaul within a year 166 to 67 it had killed more men than had been lost in the war in Rome 2,000 died of it in one day including many of the aristocracy corpses were carried out of the city in heaps Marcus helpless before this intangible enemy did all he could to mitigate the evil but the medical science of his day could offer him no guidance and the epidemic ran its course until it had established an immunity or had killed all its carriers the effects were endless many localities were soda spoiled of population that they reverted to jungle or desert food production fell transport was disorganized floods destroyed great quantities of grain and famine succeeded plagued the happy he larry toss that had marked the beginning of Marcus's reign vanished men yielded to a pessimism flocked to soothsayers and Oracle's clouded the altars with incense and sacrifice and sought consolation we're alone it was offered them in the new religions of personal immortality and heavenly peace amid these domestic difficulties news came 167 that the tribes along the Danube Cateye Quay die Markham on I Gaza geez it crossed the river overwhelmed a Roman garrison of 20,000 men and were pouring unhindered into de shirisha Pannonia Noricum that some had made their way over the Alps had defeated every army sent against them were besieging aquileia near Venice were threatening Verona and were laying waste the rich fields of northern Italy never before the German tribes moved with such unity or so closely threatened Rome Marcus acted was surprising decisiveness he put away the pleasures of philosophy and determined to take the field in what he foresaw would be the most momentous of Roman wars since Hannibal he shocked Italy by enrolling policemen gladiators slaves brigands and barbarous mercenaries in two legions depleted by war and pestilence even the gods were conscripted to his purpose he bad the priests of alien faiths to offer sacrifice for Rome according to their various rights and he himself burned such hecatombs at the altars that a witch circulated a message sent him by white oxen begging him not to be too victorious if thou should stick anchor we are lost to raise war funds without levying special taxes he auctioned off in the forum the wardrobes art objects and jewels of the imperial palaces he took careful measures of Defence fortified the border towns from Gaul to the Aegean blocked the passes into Italy and bribed German and Scythian tribes to attack the invaders in the rear with energy and courage all the more admirable in a man who hated war he trained his army and disciplined strength led them through a hard campaign mapped out with strategic skill drove the besiegers from Aquileia and routed them even to the Danube until nearly all were captured or dead he understood that this action had not ended the German danger but thinking the situation safe for a time he returned with his colleague to Rome on the way Lucius died of an apoplectic stroke and gossip which like politics has no bowels of mercy whispered that Marcus had poisoned him from January to September 169 the emperor rested at home from efforts that had strained his frail body close to the breaking point he suffered from a stomach ailment that often left him too weak to talk he controlled it by eating sparingly 1 light meal a day those who knew his condition and his diet marveled at his labors in the palace and the field and could only say that he made up in resolution what he lacked in strength on several occasions he called in the most famous physician of the age Galen of Pergamum and praised him for the unpretentious remedies he prescribed perhaps a succession of domestic disappointments cooperated with political and military crises to aggravate his illness and make him old at 48 his wife Faustina whose pretty face has come down to us in many a sculptured portrait may not have relished sharing bed and board with incarnate philosophy she was a lively creature who longed for a gayer life than his sober nature could give her the talk of the town assumed her infidelity the mimes satirized him as a cuckold and even named his rivals like Antoninus with Faustina the mother Marcus said nothing instead he promoted the supposed paramours to high office gave Faustina every sign of tenderness and respect had her deified when she died 175 and thanked the gods in his meditations for so obedient and affectionate a wife no evidence exists upon which to condemn her of the 4 children that she gave him and whom he loved with a passion still warm in his letters to fronto one girl died in childhood the surviving daughter saddened by lucious's life and widowed by his death twin sons came in 161 one died at birth the other was Commodus scandalmongers called him a gladiators gift to Faustina and he strove all his life long to confirm the tale but he was a handsome and vigorous lad Marcus forgive ibly doted on him presented him to the legions in a manner symbolic of naming a successor and engaged the best teachers in Rome to fit him for rule the youth preferred to model cups dance sing hunt and fence he developed an understandable aversion to books scholars and philosophers but enjoyed the company of gladiators and athletes soon he surpassed all comrades in lying cruelty and coarse speech Marcus was too good to be great enough to discipline him or renounce him he kept on hoping that education and responsibilities would sober him and make him grow into a king the lonely Emperor emaciated beard untended eyes weary with anxiety and sleeplessness turned back from his wife and son to the tasks of government and war the assaults of the Central European tribes against the frontier had stopped only for a breathing spell in this struggle to destroy an empire and make barbarism free peace was but an armistice in 169 the Cateye invaded the Roman regions of the Upper Rhine in 170 the course I attacked belgica and another force besieged sarmizegetusa the cost of boy I crossed the Balkans into Greece and plundered the Temple of the mysteries at a lusus fourteen miles from Athens the more I or Moors invaded Spain from Africa and a new tribe the Luongo Bar died or lombards made its first appearance on the Rhine despite a hundred defeats the Fertile barbarians were growing stronger the barren Romans weaker Marcus saw that it was now a war to the death that one side must destroy the other or go under only a man schooled in the Roman and stoic sense of duty have transformed himself so completely from a mystic philosopher into a competent and successful general the philosopher remained hidden under the Imperator's Armour in the very tumult of this second mark a manic war 169 to 75 in his camp facing the kwai died on the river grana probably the grande the tributary of the Danube Marcus wrote that little book of meditations by which the world chiefly remembers him this glimpse of a frail and fallible saint pondering the problems of morality and destiny while leading a great army in a conflict on which the fate of the empire turned he is one of the most intimate pictures that time has preserved of its great men pursuing the Saar nations by day he could write with sympathy of them at night a spider when it is caught a fly thinks it has done a great deed so does one who has run down a hare or who has captured Sarmatian x' are they not all alike robbers nevertheless he fought thus our nation's the mark a man I the Quaid I the Yazoo G's through six hard years defeated them and marched his legions as far north as Bohemia it was apparently his plan to use the hercynian and Carpathian ranges as a new frontier if he had succeeded Roman civilization might have made Germany like Gaul Latin in speech and classical and heritage but at the height of his successes he was shocked to learn that a vide is Cassius after putting down a revolt in Egypt had declared himself Emperor Marcus surprised the barbarians with a hasty peace merely annexing a ten-mile strip on the north bank of the Danube and leaving strong Garrison's on the southern side he summoned his soldiers told them that he would gladly yield his place to a Vidia SIF Rome wished it promised to pardon the rebel and marched into Asia to encounter him meanwhile a Centurion killed Cassius and the rebellion collapsed Marcus passed through Asia Minor and Syria to Alexandria morning like Caesar that he had been cheated of a chance for clemency at Smyrna Alexandria and Athens he walked the streets without a guard wore the mantle of a philosopher attended the lectures of the leading teachers and joined with them in discussion speaking Greek during his stay at Athens he endowed professorships in each of the great schools of doctrine platonic Aristotelian stoic and epicurean in the fall of 76 after almost seven years of war Aurelius reached Rome and was accorded at triumph as the savior of the Empire the Emperor associated Commodus with himself in victory and now made him a lad of fifteen his colleague on the throne for the first time in nearly a century the principle of adoption was put aside and the hereditary principle was resumed Marcus knew what perils he was inviting for the Empire he chose them as a lesser evil than the civil war that Commodus and his friends would wage if he were denied the throne we must not judge him with hindsight neither did Rome anticipate the consequences of this love there the plague had burned itself out and men were beginning to be happy again the capital had suffered little from the wars which had been financed with remarkable economy and little extra taxation while battle raged on the frontiers trade flourished within and money jingled everywhere it was the height of Rome's tide and of its Emperor's popularity all the world acclaimed him as at once a soldier a sage and a saint but his triumph did not deceive him he knew that the problem of germany had not been solved convinced that further invasions could be prevented only by an active policy of extending the frontier to the mountains of bohemia he set forth with Commodus in 178 on the third mark a manic war crossing the danube he again defeated the quay died after a long and arduous campaign no resistance remained and he was about to annex the lands of the quay died the mark a man I and thus our nation's roughly Bohemia and Danube Ian Galicia as new provinces when sickness struck him down in his camp at Vindobona Vienna feeling deaths hand he called Commodus to his side and warned him to carry through the policy which was now so near fulfillment and realized the dream of Augustus by pushing the boundary of the empire to the Elba we must not merely acknowledge the resolution and tenacity of the rulers as the impartial Mommsen but must also admit that he did what right policy enjoined then he refused all further food or drink on the sixth day he rose with his last strength and presented Commodus to the army as the new emperor returning to his couch he covered his head with the sheet and soon afterward died when his body reached Rome the people had already begun to worship him as a God who for a while had consented to live on the earth the Emperor as philosopher six years before his death Marcus Aurelius sat down in his tent to formulate his thoughts on human life and destiny we cannot be sure that the taw ace Hale tone to himself was intended for the public eye probably so for even Saint Sir vane and the greatest man of action has moments of weakness in which he aspires to write a book Marcus was not an expert author most of the training that fronto had given him in latin was wasted now since he wrote in greek besides these golden thoughts were penned in the intervals of travel battles revolts and many tribulations we must forgive them for being disconnected and formless often repetitious sometimes dull the book is precious only for its contents its tenderness and candor its half-conscious revelations of a pagan Christian ancient medieval soul like most thinkers of his time Aurelius conceived philosophy not as a speculative description of infinity but as a school of virtue and a way of life he hardly bothers to make up his mind about God sometimes he talks like an agnostic acknowledging that he does not know but having made that admission he accepts the traditional faith with the simple piety of what worth is it to me he asks to live in a universe without gods or Providence he speaks of deity now in the singular now in the plural with all the indifference of Genesis he offers public prayer and sacrifice to the old divinities but in his private thought he is a pantheist deeply impressed with the order of the cosmos and the wisdom of God he has a Hindus sense of the interdependence of the world and man he marvels at the growth of the child out of a little seed the miraculous formation of organs strength mind and aspiration out of a little food he believes that if we could understand we should find in the universe the same order and creative power as in all things are implicated with one another and the bond is holy there is a common reason in all intelligent beings one god pervades all things one substance one law one truth can a clear order subsist in thee and disorder in the all he admits the difficulty of reconciling evil suffering apparently unmerited misfortune with a good Providence but we cannot judge the place of any element or event in the scheme of things unless we see the whole and who shall pretend to such total perspective it is therefore insolent and ridiculous for us to judge the world wisdom lies in recognizing our limitations in seeking to be harmonious parts of the universal order in trying to sense the mind behind the body of the world and cooperating with it willingly to one who has reached this view everything that happens happens justly ie as in the course of nature nothing that is according to nature can be evil everything natural is beautiful to him who understands all things are determined by the universal reason the inherent logic of the whole and every part must welcome cheerfully its modest role and fate equanimity the watchword of the dying Antoninus is the voluntary acceptance of the things that are assigned to thee by the nature of the whole everything harmonizes with me that harmonizes with thee o universe nothing for me is too early or too late which is in due time for thee everything is fruit to me that thy sins bring though nature from the are all things in the are all things to thee all things return [Music] knowledge is a value only as a tool of the good life what then can direct a man one thing only philosophy knocked as logic or learning but as a persistent training in moral excellence be thou a wrecked or be made erect God has given every man a guiding diamond or in her spirit his reason virtue is the life of reason these are the principles of the rational soul it traverses the whole universe and surveys its form and extends itself into the infinity of time and embraces the cyclical renewal of all things and comprehends that those who come after us will see nothing new nor have those before us seen anything more but in a manner he who is 40 years old if he has any understanding at all as seen by virtue of this uniformity all things that have been or will be Marcus thinks his premises compel him to Puritanism pleasure is neither good nor useful he renounces the flesh and all its works and talks at times like some Anthony in the thigh bayad observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are and what was yesterday a little mucus tomorrow will be a mummy or ashes the whole space of a man's life is but little and yet with what troubles it is filled and with what a wretched body it must be passed turn it inside out and see what kind of thing it is the mind must be a citadel free from bodily desires passions anger or hate it must be so absorbed in its work as hardly to notice the adversities of fortune or the Barb's of enmity every man is worth just so much as the things about which he busies himself he reluctantly concedes that there are bad men in this world the way to deal with them is to remember that they too are men the helpless victims of their own faults by the determinism of circumstance if any man has done the wrong the harm is his own it is thy duty to forgive him if the existence of evil men saddens you think of the many fine persons you have met and the many virtues that are mingled in imperfect characters good or bad all men are brothers kinsmen in one God even the ugliest barbarian is a citizen of the fatherland to which we all belong as a really as I have Rome for my country as a man the world does this seem an impracticable philosophy on the contrary nothing is so invincible as a good disposition if it be sincere a really good man is immune to misfortune for whatever evil befalls him leaves him still his own soul will this evil that has happened prevent thee from being just magnanimous temperate prudent modest free suppose that men curse thee kill thee cut the in pieces what can these things do to prevent thy mind from remaining pure wise sober and just if a man stand by a limpid pure spring and curse it the spring never ceases to send up clean water if he cast dirt into it or filth it will speedily wash them out and be unpolluted again on every occasion that brings the trouble remember to apply this principle that this is not a misfortune but that to bear it nobly is good fortune thou seest how few the things are to which if a man lays hold of he is able to live a life that flows on quietly and is like the existence of the gods Marcus's life however did not flow on quietly he had the killed Germans while writing this fifth gospel and in the end he faced death with no consolation in the son who would succeed him and no hope of happiness beyond the grave soul and body alike returned to their original elements for as the mutation and dissolution of bodies make room for other bodies doomed to die so the souls that are removed into the air after life's existence are transmuted and diffused into the seminal intelligence of the universe and make room for new souls thou hast existed as a part now L disappear in that which produced thee this to nature wills pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature and in thy journeys in content just as an olive falls when it is ripe blessing the nature that produced it and thanking the tree on which it grew six Commodus when the officer of the guard asked the dying Marcus for the watchword of the day he answered go to the Rising Sun my Sun is setting the Rising Sun was then nineteen a robust and dashing youth without inhibitions morals or fear one would have expected of him rather than of Marcus the ailing Saint a policy of war to victory or death instead he offered the enemy immediate peace they were to withdraw from the vicinity of the Danube to surrender most of their arms returned all Roman prisoners and deserters pay Rome an annual tribute of corn and persuade 13,000 of their soldiers to enlist in the Roman legions all Rome condemned him except the people his generals fumed at allowing the trapped prey to escape and fight again another day during the reign of Commodus however no trouble came from the Danube e'en tribes the young prince though no coward had seen enough of war he needed peace to enjoy Rome back in the capital he snubbed the Senate and loaded the plebs with unprecedented gifts 725 denarii I to each citizen finding no field in politics for his exuberant strength he hunted beasts on the Imperial estates and developed such skill with sword and bow that he decided to perform publicly for a time he left the palace and lived in the gladiators school he drove chariots in the races and fought in the arena against animals and men presumably the men who opposed him took care to let him win but he thought nothing of fighting unaided and before breakfast the hippopotamus an elephant and a tiger which made no distinctions for royalty he was so perfect a Bowman that with a hundred arrows he killed a hundred Tigers in one exhibition he would let a panther leap upon some condemned criminal and then slay the animal with one arrow leaving the man on her to die again he had his exploits recorded in the octa dianna and insisted on being paid out of the Treasury for each of thousand combats is a gladiator the historians upon whom we must here depend wrote like Tacitus from the viewpoint and traditions of the offended aristocracy we cannot tell how much of the Marvel's they relate our history how much our revenge we are assured that Commodus drank and gambled wasted the public funds kept a harem of three hundred women and three hundred boys and liked to vary his sex occasionally at least by using a woman's garb even at the public games tales of unbelievable cruelty are transmitted to us Commodus ordered a voter II of Bologna to amputate an arm in proof of piety forced some women devotees of Isis to beat their breasts with pine cones till they died killed men indiscriminately with his club of Hercules gathered cripples together and slew them one by one with arrows one of his mistresses Marcia was apparently a Christian for her sake we are told he pardoned some Christians who had been condemned to the Sardinian mines her devotion to him suggests that in this man described as more bestial than any beast there was some lovable element unrecorded by history like his predecessors he was aroused to the wildest ferocity by fear of assassination his aunt Lucilla formed a conspiracy to kill him he discovered it had her executed and Don proof for suspicion of participation put so many men of rank to death that soon hardly any survived who had been prominent in Marcus's reign the laters who had almost disappeared for a century returned to activity in favor and a new terror raged in Rome appointing perennis his Praetorian prefect Commodus yielded the reins of government to him and the tradition says abandoned himself to sexual dissipation perennis ruled efficiently but mercilessly he organized his own terror and had all his opponents slain the emperor suspecting that perennis planned it to replace him surrendered this second CID genus to the which reenacted its role of glowing revenge Cleander a former slave succeeded paramus 185 and surpassed him in corruption and cruelty any office might be had for a proper bribe any decision of any court could be reversed under his orders senators and knights were put to death for treason or criticism in 190 a mob besieged the villa where Commodus was staying and demanded CLE Anders death the emperor accommodated them plea Anders successor Letus after holding power for three years judged that his time had come one day he chanced upon a prescription list that contained the names of his supporters and friends and of marchia on the last day of 192 Marsha gave Commodus a cup of poison and when it worked too slowly the athlete whom he had kept to wrestle with strangled him in his bath he was a youth of 31 when Marcus died rome had reached the apex of her curve and was already touched with decay her boundaries had been extended beyond the danube into Scotland and the Sahara into the Caucasus and Russia and to the gates of Parthia she had accomplished for that confusion of peoples and faiths a unity not of language and culture but at least of economy and law she had woven it into a majestic Commonwealth within which the exchange of goods moved in unprecedented Plenty and freedom and for two centuries she had guarded the great realm from barbarian inroads and had given its security and peace all the white man's world looked to her as the center of the universe the omnipotent and eternal City never had there been such wealth such splendour or such power nevertheless amid the prosperity that made Rome brilliant in this second century all the seeds were germinating of the crisis that would ruin Italy in the third Marcus had contributed heavily to the debacle by naming Commodus his heir and by wars that centralized ever more authority in the hands of the Emperor Commodus kept in peace the prerogative assumed by Aurelius in war private and local independence initiative and pride withered as the power and functions of the state increased and the wealth of nations was drained away by a Verizon taxation to support herself multiplying bureaucracy in the endless offensives of defense the mineral wealth of Italy was diminishing pestilence and famine had taken bitter toll the system of tillage by slaves was failing governmental expenditures and doles had exhausted the Treasury and debase the currency Italian industry was losing its markets in the provinces through provincial competition and no economic Statesman appeared to make up for a languishing foreign trade by a wider distribution of buying power at home meanwhile the provinces had recovered from the exactions of sulla Pompey Caesar Cassius Brutus and Antony their ancient skills had revived their industries were flourishing their new wealth was financing science philosophy and art their sons replenished the legions their generals led them soon their armies would hold Italy at their mercy and make their generals emperors the process of conquest was finished and was to be reversed henceforth the conquered would absorb the conquerors as if conscious of these omens and problems the mind of Rome at the close of the Antonine age sank into a cultural and spiritual fatigue the practical disfranchisement of first the Assemblies and then the Senate had removed the mental stimulus that comes from free political activity and a widespread sense of Liberty and power since the prince had almost all authority the citizens left him almost all responsibilities more and more of them even in the aristocracy retired into their families and their private affairs citizens became atoms and society began to fall to pieces internally precisely when unity seemed most complete disillusionment with democracy was followed by disillusionment with monarchy the golden thoughts of Aurelius were often leaden thoughts weighted down with the suspicion Rome's problems could not be solved that the multiplying barbarians could not long be held back by a sterile and Pacific breed stoicism which had begun by preaching strength was ending by preaching resignation almost all the philosophers had made their peace with religion for 400 years stoicism had been to the upper classes a substitute for religion now the substitute was put aside and the ruling orders turned back from the books of the philosophers to the altars of the gods and yet paganism too was dying like Italy it was flushed only with governmental aid and was nearing exhaustion it had conquered philosophy but already its temple precincts heard reverently the names of invading deities the age was heavy with the resurrection of the provinces and the incredible victory of Christ

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Published: Mon Oct 23 2017