Marcus Aurelius and the Later Stoics - College of Stoic Philosophers

"""THE ROMAN EMPEROR" 15ministrative reform, no eventful campaigns. His warswere confined to the frontiers of the Augustan Empire,which Trajan had vainly attempted to enlarge ;andinterest us only because they seem to forebode the greatBarbarian movements of the coming centuries. Theabsolute stillness which enfolds the reign of Antoninusis certainly broken under his successor bythe din ofarms and the alarms of sedition. Avidius Cassius isthe already familiar type of ambitious provincial governorwho instigates a military pronunciamento but he;may interest us as showing that Aurelius failed to securethe allegiance of the troops, while he failed to rouse newlife and energy in the Senate. The desultory and futilecampaign in Persia (with which this mutiny was connected) merely marks the recrudescence of that eternalquarrel between East and West which in this form lastedfor seven hundred years, and produced in all that timeno lasting alteration of frontier. In internal policy Imust not forget the beneficial legislation fortKe~weakerpart of the community, which, derived from no classicalideal, depended upon a mixture of humanitarian Stoicism \and unseen Christian influences ;and to both these the /wRoman mind was peculiarly susceptible. But we maylook in vain for any important contribution to the fabricof the Roman Imperial system ; and, while respecting j^the principle of heredity, we must regret that Aureliuscould not have foreseen the abuse of power in unworthyhands, and have rendered harmless the uncontrolledcaprice of later times.8. Marcus Aurelius has thus certainly left no permanent mark upon the development of the Imperialideal. His influence upon his successors was slight.The tranquil figure of Antoninus exercised a far more