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Page 24
[B] Alexander was a Grammaticus, a native of Phrygia. He wrote
a commentary on Homer; and the rhetorician Aristides wrote a
panegyric on Alexander in a funeral oration.
[C] M. Cornelius Fronto was a rhetorician, and in great favor
with Marcus. There are extant various letters between Marcus
and Fronto.
[D] Cinna Catulus, a Stoic philosopher.
14. From my brother[A] Severus, to love my kin, and to love truth, and
to love justice; and through him I learned to know Thrasea, Helvidius,
Cato, Dion, Brutus;[B] and from him I received the idea of a polity in
which there is the same law for all, a polity administered with regard
to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly
government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed; I
learned from him also + consistency and undeviating steadiness in my
regard for philosophy; and a disposition to do good, and to give to
others readily, and to cherish good hopes, and to believe that I am
loved by my friends; and in him I observed no concealment of his
opinions with respect to those whom he condemned, and that his friends
had no need to conjecture what he wished or did not wish, but it was
quite plain.
[A] The word brother may not be genuine. Antoninus had no
brother. It has been supposed that he may mean some cousin.
Schultz in his translation omits "brother," and says that this
Severus is probably Claudius Severus, a peripatetic.
[B] We know, from Tacitus (_Annal._ xiii., xvi. 21; and other
passages), who Thrasea and Helvidius were. Plutarch has written
the lives of the two Catos, and of Dion and Brutus. Antoninus
probably alludes to Cato of Utica, who was a Stoic.
15. From Maximus[A] I learned self-government, and not to be led aside
by anything; and cheerfulness in all circumstances, as well as in
illness; and a just admixture in the moral character of sweetness and
dignity, and to do what was set before me without complaining. I
observed that everybody believed that he thought as he spoke, and that
in all that he did he never had any bad intention; and he never showed
amazement and surprise, and was never in a hurry, and never put off
doing a thing, nor was perplexed nor dejected, nor did he ever laugh to
disguise his vexation, nor, on the other hand, was he ever passionate or
suspicious. He was accustomed to do acts of beneficence, and was ready
to forgive, and was free from all falsehood; and he presented the
appearance of a man who could not be diverted from right, rather than of
a man who had been improved. I observed, too, that no man could ever
think that he was despised by Maximus, or ever venture to think himself
a better man. He had also the art of being humorous in an agreeable
way.+
[A] Claudius Maximus was a Stoic philosopher, who was highly
esteemed also by Antoninus Pius, Marcus' predecessor. The
character of Maximus is that of a perfect man. (See viii. 25.)
16. In my father[A] I observed mildness of temper, and unchangeable
resolution in the things which he had determined after due deliberation;
and no vain-glory in those things which men call honors; and a love of
labor and perseverance; and a readiness to listen to those who had
anything to propose for the common weal; and undeviating firmness in
giving to every man according to his deserts; and a knowledge derived
from experience of the occasions for vigorous action and for remission.
And I observed that he had overcome all passion for boys; and he
considered himself no more than any other citizen;[B] and he released
his friends from all obligation to sup with him or to attend him of
necessity when he went abroad, and those who had failed to accompany
him, by reason of any urgent circumstances, always found him the same. I
observed too his habit of careful inquiry in all matters of
deliberation, and his persistency, and that he never stopped his
investigation through being satisfied with appearances which first
present themselves; and that his disposition was to keep his friends,
and not to be soon tired of them, nor yet to be extravagant in his
affection; and to be satisfied on all occasions, and cheerful; and to
foresee things a long way off, and to provide for the smallest without
display; and to check immediately popular applause and all flattery; and
to be ever watchful over the things which were necessary for the
administration of the empire, and to be a good manager of the
expenditure, and patiently to endure the blame which he got for such
conduct; and he was neither superstitious with respect to the gods, nor
did he court men by gifts or by trying to please them, or by flattering
the populace; but he showed sobriety in all things, and firmness, and
never any mean thoughts or action, nor love of novelty. And the things
which conduce in any way to the commodity of life, and of which fortune
gives an abundant supply, he used without arrogance and without excusing
himself; so that when he had them, he enjoyed them without affectation,
and when he had them not, he did not want them. No one could ever say of
him that he was either a sophist or a [home-bred] flippant slave or a
pedant; but every one acknowledged him to be a man ripe, perfect, above
flattery, able to manage his own and other men's affairs. Besides this,
he honored those who were true philosophers, and he did not reproach
those who pretended to be philosophers, nor yet was he easily led by
them. He was also easy in conversation, and he made himself agreeable
without any offensive affectation. He took a reasonable care of his
body's health, not as one who was greatly attached to life, nor out of
regard to personal appearance, nor yet in a careless way, but so that
through his own attention he very seldom stood in need of the
physician's art or of medicine or external applications. He was most
ready to give without envy to those who possessed any particular
faculty, such as that of eloquence or knowledge of the law or of morals,
or of anything else; and he gave them his help, that each might enjoy
reputation according to his deserts; and he always acted conformably to
the institutions of his country, without showing any affectation of
doing so. Further, he was not fond of change nor unsteady, but he loved
to stay in the same places, and to employ himself about the same things;
and after his paroxysms of headache he came immediately fresh and
vigorous to his usual occupations. His secrets were not many, but very
few and very rare, and these only about public matters; and he showed
prudence and economy in the exhibition of the public spectacles and the
construction of public buildings, his donations to the people, and in
such things, for he was a man who looked to what ought to be done, not
to the reputation which is got by a man's acts. He did not take the bath
at unseasonable hours; he was not fond of building houses, nor curious
about what he ate, nor about the texture and color of his clothes, nor
about the beauty of his slaves.[C] His dress came from Lorium, his villa
on the coast, and from Lanuvium generally.[D] We know how he behaved to
the toll-collector at Tusculum who asked his pardon; and such was all
his behavior. There was in him nothing harsh, nor implacable, nor
violent, nor, as one may say, anything carried to the sweating point;
but he examined all things severally, as if he had abundance of time,
and without confusion, in an orderly way, vigorously and consistently.
And that might be applied to him which is recorded of Socrates,[E] that
he was able both to abstain from, and to enjoy, those things which many
are too weak to abstain from, and cannot enjoy without excess. But to be
strong enough both to bear the one and to be sober in the other is the
mark of a man who has a perfect and invincible soul, such as he showed
in the illness of Maximus.
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