Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

STOICISM ON THE THRONE. 20$barriers raised against them. The Parthians had beenhumbled for a time by Trajan, but were soon to showthemselves in arms once more. The Moors of Africawere on the move, and before long were sweepingover Spain with havoc and desolation in their track.The Caledonians of the far West were irritated morethan frightened by the long lines of wall and dykewhich had been built to shut them in, and their untamedfierceness was enough to make the Romantroops retire before the children of the mist. Fromthe mouth of the Dniester to where the Rhine bearsto the sea the waters of all its tributary rivers a multitudeof restless tribes with uncouth names andunknown antecedents, Teutonic, Slave, Finnish, andTartar, were roaming in hostile guise along thenorthern frontiers, and ready to burst in at everyunguarded point. ^ This was not all :earlyin hisreign great floods and famine had spread desolationthrough the centre of the Empire ;later on thesoldiers who came back from the wars in Parthiabrought with them the fatal seeds of plague, andspread them rapidly through all the countries of theWest. The famous Galen was called in to try allthat medical experience and skill could do, but hisefforts failed to check the ravages of pestilence, orbring its victims back to health. The scourge passedon with steady course from land to land, leaving atrack of panic and desolation where it stalked along.To this long list of misfortunes should be added thetreasonous disloyalty which cast a cloud of suspicion'Cf." The Age of the Antonines."