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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

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v MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS cxxv<br />

government from <strong>An<strong>to</strong>ninus</strong>, who was par excellence the<br />

State <strong>of</strong>ficial. The Flavian dynasty and Trajan had<br />

been Imperial Commanders -in -Chief: Hadrian, by a<br />

new conception <strong>of</strong> the Imperial function, had become<br />

the universal '<br />

Visi<strong>to</strong>r '<br />

<strong>of</strong> his immense domain, mould-<br />

ing, comprehending, and unifying the whole on broad<br />

Imperial lines. In <strong>An<strong>to</strong>ninus</strong> there emerges the new<br />

<strong>of</strong>ficial,' becoming more and more<br />

type, the Imperial '<br />

the au<strong>to</strong>cratic chief <strong>of</strong> a highly-organised bureaucracy,<br />

which through its various departments <strong>of</strong> Civil Law,<br />

Exchequer, Public Works, Police, War, Posts, and the<br />

like directed the world <strong>of</strong> provinces from Rome. In<br />

this assiduous, watchful, and highly conservative 1 school<br />

<strong>of</strong> statesmanship <strong>Marcus</strong> was nursed.<br />

In boyhood, antiquities and his<strong>to</strong>ry fascinated his<br />

attention, and constant <strong>to</strong>uches reveal the hold these<br />

subjects had upon him. The old names, 2 Camillus<br />

Caeso Volesus, have a pleasant savour <strong>of</strong> the past;<br />

among the Quadi he deplores that he may not re-read<br />

his c<br />

deeds <strong>of</strong> ancient Rome and Greece, garnered for<br />

old age '<br />

3 he founds his ;<br />

political ideals upon the<br />

patriots <strong>of</strong> Rome, Ca<strong>to</strong> and Brutus, Thrasea and<br />

Helvidius. 4 He had a reverence for old forms and<br />

<strong>of</strong>fices and usages; he treated the Senate with punctilious<br />

5<br />

respect, exhibiting a ceremonious and almost<br />

sentimental deference <strong>to</strong> prerogatives that were hardly<br />

more than titular.<br />

Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque<br />

was his reminder <strong>to</strong> generals in the field ; and if any-<br />

1<br />

i. 1 6, travTO, Kara ra irdrpLa irpdaauv.<br />

3 iii. 14.<br />

4 i. 14 ; cf. vi. 44.<br />

I<br />

2 iv. 33.<br />

5 Cf. viii. 30.

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