BOOK I
it so chanced; but by the grace of God there was no such coincidence of circumstances as was likely to put me to the test.
And that I was not brought up any longer with my grandfather's[1] concubine, and that I kept unstained the flower of my youth; and that I did not make trial of my manhood before the due time, but even postponed it.
That I was subordinated to a ruler and a father capable of ridding me of all conceit, and of bringing me to recognize that it is possible to live in a Court and yet do without body-guards and gorgeous garments and linkmen and statues and the like pomp; and that it is in such a man's power to reduce himself very nearly to the condition of a private individual and yet not on this account to be more paltry or more remiss in dealing with what the interests of the state require to be done in imperial fashion.
That it was my lot to have such a brother,[2] capable by his character of stimulating me to watchful care over myself, and at the same time delighting me by his deference[3] and affection: that my children have not been devoid of intelligence nor physically deformed. That I did not make more progress in rhetoric[4] and poetry[5] and my other studies, in which I should perhaps have been engrossed, had I felt myself making good way in them. That I lost no time in promoting my tutors to such posts of
- ↑ cp. ix. 21. After his father's death Marcus was brought up at his grandfather's house (Capit. i. 7). Capit. (v. 3) says he migrated de maternis hortis much against his will to the imperial palace when adopted by Hadrian. It is possible but not likely that "grandfather" here means Hadrian.
- ↑ L. Verus, whose character was more of a warning than an example, as Lucian Nigr. 19 calls Rome for its wickedness γυμνάσιον ἀρετῆς, see Epict. iii. 20, § 11. Marcus seems to have been genuinely fond of him, see Fronto, ad Ver. ii. 1; ad Caes. ii. 17; and cp. Aristides, Paneg. in Cyz. § 425 (Jebb).
- ↑ Capit. Vit. Ver. viii. 5.
- ↑ i. 7.
- ↑ I. 7. cp. Fronto, ad Caes. i. 8; ad Ant. i. 2 (Nab. p. 96); de Eloq. 3 (Nab. p. 150).
