BOOK I
about the house in my robes, nor commit any such breach of good taste; and to write letters without affectation, like his own letter written to my mother from Sinuessa; to shew oneself ready to be reconciled to those who have lost their temper and trespassed against one, and ready to meet them halfway as soon as ever they seem to be willing to retrace their steps[1]; to read with minute care and not to be content with a superficial bird's-eye view; nor to be too quick in agreeing with every voluble talker; and to make the acquaintance of the Memoirs of Epictetus, which he supplied me with out of his own library.
8. From Apollonius,[2] self-reliance and an unequivocal determination not to leave anything to chance; and to look to nothing else even for a moment save Reason alone; and to remain ever the same, in the throes of pain, on the loss of a child,[3] during a lingering illness; and to see plainly from a living example that one and the same man can be very vehement and yet gentle: not to be impatient in instructing others; and to see in him a man who obviously counted as the least among his gifts his practical experience and facility in imparting philosophic truths; and to learn in accepting seeming favours from friends[4] not to give up our independence for such things nor take them callously as a matter of course.
9. From Sextus,[5] kindliness, and the example of a
- ↑ As Marcus in the case of Herodes, see Philost. Vit. Soph. ii. 12 (Kayser's ed. p. 243).
- ↑ cp. Fronto, ad Caes. v. 36. Capit. (Vit. Pii x. 4) and Lucian (Demonax 31) shew him in a different light, as ill-mannered and avaricious. He is mentioned as Ἀντωνίνου ἑταῖρος by Epiphanius.
- ↑ See the behaviour of Marcus on the death of M. Annius Verus, aged 7, at Praeneste in 169 (Capit. xxi. 3), and on the death of his first-born son T. Aelius Antoninus soon after birth in 147. (Corp. Inscrip. Graec. Boeckh 3176.) cp. Dio 71.34, § 5.
- ↑ cp. Fronto, ad Appian. (Nab. p. 246).
- ↑ Capit. iii. 1. He was of Chaeronea and grandson of Plutarch, cp. Suidas sub voce: "He was held in such honour by the Emperor as to act as his assessor on the bench."
