es, inculcated the supreme virtues of
moderation and resignation; the subjugation of corporeal desires; the
faithful performance of duty; indifference to one's own pain and
suffering, and the disregard of material luxuries. With these principles
there was, originally, in the Stoic philosophy conjoined a considerable
body of logic, cosmogony, and paradox. But in Marcus Aurelius these
doctrines no longer stain the pure current of eternal truth which ever
flowed through the history of Stoicism. It still speculated about the
immortality of the soul and the government of the universe by a
supernatural Intelligence, but on these subjects proposed no dogma and
offered no final authoritative solution. It did not forbid man to hope
for a future life, but it emphasized the duties of the present life. On
purely rational grounds it sought to show men that they should always
live nobly and heroicly, and how best to do so. It recognized the
significance of death, and attempted to teach how men could meet it
under any and all circumstances with perfect equanimity.

* * * * *

Marcus Aurelius was descended from an illustrious line which tradition
declared extended to the good Numa, the second King of Rome. In the
descendant Marcus were certainly to be found, with a great increment of
many centuries of noble life, all the virtues of his illustrious
ancestor. Doubtless the cruel persecutions of the infamous Emperors who
preceded Hadrian account for the fact that the ancestors of Aurelius
left the imperial city and found safety in Hispania Baetica, where in a
town called Succubo--not far from the present city of Cordova--the
Emperor's great-grandfather, Annius Verus, was born. From Spain also
came the family of the Emperor Hadrian, who was an intimate friend of
Annius Verus. The death of the father of Marcus Aurelius when the lad
was of tender years led to his adoption by his grandfather and
subsequently by Antoninus Pius. By Antoninus he was subsequently named
as joint heir to the Imperial dignity with Commodus, the son of Aelius
Caesar, who had previously been adopted by Hadrian.

From his earliest youth Marcus was distinguished for his sincerity and
truthfulness. His was a docile and a serious nature. "Hadrian's bad and
sinful habits left him," says Niebuhr, "when he gazed on the sweetness
of that innocent child. Punning on the boy's paternal name of _Verus_,
he called him _Verissimus_, 'the _most_ true