THE SAYINGS OF MARCUS
one wishes them to be, but it is our duty to utilize them,[1] such as they are, for any service in which they can be useful to the common weal.
(5) Capit. xxii. 3, 4.
Not only in military but also in civil affairs, before doing anything, he always consulted the chief men of the State. In fact this was ever a favourite saying of his: It is fairer that I should follow the advice of Friends[2] so many and so wise, than that Friends so wise and so many should follow my single will.[3]
(6) Dio, 71. 29, § 3.
So averse from all bloodshed was his disposition that, though at the people's request he allowed a lion trained to devour men to be introduced into the arena, yet he not only refused to look at it himself or to enfranchize its trainer, in spite of a persistent demonstration of the audience against him, but even had it proclaimed that the man had done nothing to deserve freedom.[4][5]
(7) Capit. xix. 8.
When it was said to Marcus Antoninus of his wife, that he should divorce her, if he did not slay her, he is reported to have said, If we dismiss the wife, let us also
- ↑ See above, ix. 42, and cp. vii. 7.
- ↑ Amici was a usual name for the Concilium, or Privy Council, of the Emperor, a body of advisers first organized by Hadrian, and they may be meant here. Of a difficult case, where his own interests were involved, Marcus says to Fronto (Ad Caes. i. 17): "Duas res animo meo carissimas secutus sum, rationem veram et sententiam tuam. Di velint, ut semper quod agam, secundo iudicio tuo agam."
- ↑ cp. Capit. xi. 10, where we are told that Marcus consulted his praefecti (i.e. praetorio) and relied especially on the jurist Scaevola. In the Digest he calls Rusticus, Volusius Maecianus and Salvius Julianus amici. A maxim of his was Blush not to be helped (Medit. vii. 7); cp. also Fronto, Ad Caes. i. 17, "post consultationem amicorum."
- ↑ Yet his bias towards the enfranchisement of slaves was notorious. See Digest, xxxviii. 4. 3: "quod videlicet favore constituit libertatis."
- ↑ The jurist Paulus (Dig. xl. 9. 17) tells us that Marcus "prohibuit ex acclamatione populi manumittere"; cp. Cod. vii. 11. 3. Fronto (Ad Caes. i. 8) seems to imply that Pius was more indulgent in this matter.
