Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

cxxiv INTRODUCTION SECT.
among competing claims, 1 reserve of leisure 2 for purposes
of self-examination and recreation of the inner life.
Leisure as well as labour, thought as well as action, 3 de-
portment 4 as well as motive, are scrupulously moralised.
Although
these finer sensibilities attest the humanis-
ing influences of Hellenic culture and good taste, Greek
draperies and accent do not obscure the Roman heredity
and type. In some sense indeed he is 'the last of the
Romans,' the final specimen and representative of the
political traditions of Rome. The Western Empire will
indeed, largely by acquired momentum and inertia, still
last out two centuries, but its few good Emperors will
be soldiers of fortune or versatile Orientals. The blood
of Marcus was of Spanish and Italian stock, trained
in the best traditions of Roman administration. His
grandfather, Annius Verus, was Prefect of the City, and
three times held the Consulship ;
the earliest of Marcus'
remembrances was the impression of his dignified official
suavity. 5 His father's career 6 was cut short during his
tenure of the prastorship. Upon the mother's side,
grandfather and great-grandfather 7 were both twice
Consul, and from a child he was at home among the
best Patrician circles. The Emperor Hadrian, with
playful pleasantry, would call him as a little boy Verissimus
8 instead of Verus. He learned his principles of
1 iv. 24.
2 Cf. e.g. i. 12 ; ii. 5, 7 ; iv. 3, 24 ; vi. II ; viii. 51.
3 i. 3 ; iii. 4.
5 i. i.
4 vii. 24, 37, 60; xi. 15.
6 i. 2.
7 Calvisius Tullus, and Catilius Severus, referred to i. 4.
8 Dio Cass. 69, 21 ; but so too on medal, and in dedication of
Justin's First Apology.