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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 cxxvii<br />

they seem almost prepared for a creed <strong>of</strong> pantheistic<br />

immanence. In infancy, Vaticanus urged the baby's<br />

new-born cry ; Fabulinus prompted his first word ; Cuba<br />

rocked his cot. In outgoing and incoming, Iterduca set<br />

him on his road and Domiduca gave safe return. On<br />

the farm Terminus kept his boundary, Robigo mildewed<br />

his crop, Cloacina ordered his drains, Sterquilinus gave<br />

virtue <strong>to</strong> his manure. For Rome, the Fortune or the<br />

Safety or the Majesty <strong>of</strong> the City extended and preserved<br />

the Empire ; in house and <strong>to</strong>wn, the ancestral Penates <strong>of</strong><br />

the hearth and the Lares <strong>of</strong> the streets guarded the<br />

intercourse <strong>of</strong> life ;<br />

in the individual breast, a ministering<br />

Genius shaped his destinies and responded <strong>to</strong> each mood<br />

<strong>of</strong> melancholy or <strong>of</strong> rnirth. Thus all life lay under the<br />

regimen <strong>of</strong> spiritual powers, <strong>to</strong> be propitiated or appeased<br />

by appointed observances and ritual and forms <strong>of</strong> prayer.<br />

To this punctilious and devout form <strong>of</strong> Paganism <strong>Marcus</strong><br />

was inured from childhood ; at the vintage festival he<br />

<strong>to</strong>ok his part in chant and sacrifice ; at eight years old<br />

he was admitted <strong>to</strong> the Salian priesthood ;<br />

*<br />

he was<br />

observed <strong>to</strong> perform all his sacerdotal functions with a<br />

constancy and exactness unusual at that age ; was soon<br />

a master <strong>of</strong> the sacred music; and had all the forms<br />

and liturgies by heart.' l Our earliest statue depicts him<br />

as a youth <strong>of</strong>fering incense ; and in his triumphal bas-<br />

reliefs he stands before the altar, a robed and sacrificing<br />

priest.<br />

To him '<br />

prayer and sacrifice, and all observances<br />

by which we own the presence and nearness <strong>of</strong> the<br />

gods '<br />

are '<br />

covenants and sacred ministries '<br />

admitting <strong>to</strong><br />

1 Cf. Capit. 4. In 139, he became Pontifex Maximus, Augur><br />

Quindecemvir Sacris Faciundis, Septemvir Epulonum.

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