248
EDUCATION OF M. AURELIUS.
of youth bordering upon manhood, in the full bloom of life,
when he was very happy. Afterwards we find him depressed,
and overwhelmed by the burdens of his office ; but he never
neglected any of his duties. We also know him as a noble
husband, and father, and as an enthusiastic disciple of his teacher,
who was infinitely his inferior. When M. Aurelius began to
perceive this, he yet returned to him, in order not to neglect
him or hurt his feelings; he caressed him, in fact, and asked
his advice, although he did not need it.
His education was very remarkable for the care with which
it was conducted, and the extent and high degree to which it
was carried. He seized upon every branch of knowledge that
was offered to him with the greatest eagerness. Cornelius
Fronto, who enjoyed the greatest reputation among the Roman
rhetoricians of the time, was his teacher in rhetoric. He in-
structed M. Aurelius in his own way, and as if he wanted to
make a rhetorician of him. The Greek, Herodes Atticus, who
was likewise one of his teachers, was more a man of the world
than the old pedantic Fronto. M. Aurclius read immensely in
the classical literature of both Greece and Rome, and was in-
satiable in acquiring knowledge. His studies up to his twen-
tieth year were directed principally to grammar, rhetoric, and
classical literature, which he made thoroughly his own. IIe
acquired the Latin language and his style in the way in which
most men at that time acquired them: he lived more with
Plautus, Ennius, and Naevius, than with Virgil and Horace.
In his twenty-second year, he became acquainted with Junius
Rusticus, a Stoic philosopher, whom he looked upon as his
guardian angel, but concerning whom we know nothing beyond
what M. Aurelius himself says of him in his first book. Zeno
himself may have been vastly inferior to Plato and AristotIe—
an opinion in which I readily join—but the Stoic philosophy
was at that time the only one of any importance. The Platonic
philosophy was in a deplorable condition, and had sunk to a
mere θaυuaτoυρyia and θeoυpγla; and although some men of
that school had great talents, yet there were but few traces of
good sense among them ; all the Platonic philosophers of this
time were nearly at the point where we afterwards find the
New-PIatonists. The Aristotelian philosophy was quite extinct.
The Stoic philosophy was always able to bring about its own
regeneration in a moi al point of view. The truly great Epic-
REIGN OF M. AURELIUS.
249
têtus had appeared among the Stoics as early as the reign of
Domitian. Epictetus’greatness cannot be disputed; and it is
impossible for any person of sound mind not to be charmed by
his works, which were edited by Arrian. The latter, too, is an
important man, both in history and philosophy, and one who
recalled the good times of ancient Greece. But the new life
which Epictetus infused into the Stoic philosophy, did not last
long; for those who until then had been attached to the doc-
trines of the Stoics, now turned to New-Platonism, and the
hearts which, while paganism was yet prevailing, were panting
for a purer atmosphere, found peace afterwards in their faith in
the Christian revelation.
The Stoic philosophy opened to M. Aurclius a completely
new world. Theletters of Fronto, which are otherwise childish
and trifling, throw an interesting light upon young M. Aurelius’
state of mind, at the time when he cast rhetoric aside and
sought happiness in philosophy: not, indeed, in its dialectic
subtleties, but in its faith in virtue and eternity. He bore the
burdens of his exalted position in the manner in which, accord-
ing to the precepts of pious men, we ought to take up our cross
and bear it patiently. Actuated by this sentiment, M. Aurelius
exerted all his powers for the good of the empire, and discharged
all his duties, ever active, no less in the military than in the
civil administration of the empire. He complains of want of
time to occupy himself with intellectual pursuits ; hut then he
consoles himself again with the thought, that he is doing his
duty and fulfilling his mission. There certainly never was a
prince so deeply and universally beloved by his people, that
is, by half the world, as M. Aurelius. Syria and Egypt alone
formed an exception ; but those countries had never seen him.
ʃn Italy, and all the western parts of the empire, he was adored
like a heaven-born ruler. At that time, men of the same age
who were mutual friends, called each other frater, and younger
persons used the term pater to their elders. The distance which
usually exists between a sovereign and his subjects did not pre-
vent Aurelius being addressed by the Bomans who knew him
as father or brother. During his whole reign, the senate felt
itself restored to its former republican dignity as sovereign ; for
the emperor looked upon himself only as the servant of the
republic, and upon the dignity of a senator as equal to his own.
This man, with all his excellencies and virtues, was not only