Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

v MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS cxliii
Galen loved Rome too well to attend him on the
Danube, and no poet or man of letters has told the\
story of his Marcomannic wars. Even the solace and /
companionship of books was missing. 1 The sur-
roundings and associates of war were harsh and
uncongenial, 2
yet his presence was necessary with the
legions. In the home affections, on which he had
most leaned, the hand of bereavement had pressed
heavily ; of five sons, death had spared only Commodus,
and in 176 his spirit was broken by the death of
Faustina. It must have taxed all his fortitude to
stand out 'life's remainder,' 3 waiting
for the 'retreat
to sound,' with powers at the last stage of exhaustion. N
The Thoughts are the cry of isolation that escaped him, ^
as 'Among the Quad!,' and 'At CarnuntumJ* he bore /
the load of Empire and the solitude of power. Nerves
/
and digestion under long strain had quite worn out, so
that he scarcely ate or slept. Theriac a sedative
drug had, Galen tells us, become almost his food ;
and Julian introduces him among the Caesars, as
1
very grave, his eyes and features drawn somewhat with
hard toils, and his body luminous and transparent
with abstemiousness from food.' 'Death is rest': |
'
depart then with serenity serene as he who gives thee J
thy discharge.' 5
The impressive pathos, which attaches to this
convinced presentiment of death, is more than personal.
1
ii. 2, 3 ; iii. 14 iv. ; 30 ; and perhaps viii. 8.
2 ii. i ; v. 10 ; viii. 44 ; ix. 3, 27, 29, 30, 34 ; x. I, 8, 9, 13, 36.
3 iii. 4 ; iv. 31 ; x. 15 ; xi. 16 ; xii. 3.
4
Subscription to Books I. and II.
5 vi. 28 ; xii. 36.
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