ENGLISH COMMENTARY
whose son Cn. Claudius Severus married a daughter of the Emperor. If the identification is correct, it is remarkable that a statesman, whom Galen describes as an Aristotelian, should have acquainted Marcus with the political and rather doctrinaire theories of the Stoical opposition of the early Empire. Tacitus says that part of the political programme of Nerva and Trajan was 'to unite the position of supreme magistrate with liberty, objects incompatible under the first Caesars'. This ideal was taken up by the Antonines, and what Marcus states here to be the teaching of Severus is echoed in the language both of Aelius Aristides, the pagan orator, and of Athenagoras, the Christian apologist. The former speaks of the endeavour of Marcus and his colleague 'to exercise guidance and providence for their subjects, and not to be despotic rulers', and Athenagoras, presenting an address on behalf of the Christians to Marcus and his son, probably on the occasion of their visit to Athens in a.d. 176, says: 'by the wisdom of yourself and your son Commodus, individuals enjoy equality of law, cities partake in equal honour, the whole world enjoys profound peace.'
Ch. 15. Claudius Maximus, a Stoic, is mentioned again with Rusticus and Apollonius (i. 17. 5). Marcus represents him as the idealized sage, with the Stoic qualities softened by pardon and pity.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, 'This was a man.'
(Shak., Jul. Caes. v. 5.)
He may be the proconsul of Africa before whom the Latin writer Apuleius delivered the apology for his own life in which he calls him a most religious man. He and his wife Secunda are mentioned in viii. 25, after his death.
Ch. 16. This remarkable portrait of Antoninus Pius is to be compared with the shorter sketch in vi. 30. 2. Together they make one of the noblest tributes that a great man has paid to another. Without them and the familiar letters of Fronto we would know almost nothing of Antoninus, since this part of the history of Dio Cassius is absent even from the epitome of his work, and the biography is a slight thing. The method which Marcus follows is to enumerate particular traits, beginning with
