Works and Other Worthy Writings (Aldine Edition)

but [they] had scarcely entered upon their office, and, having been called emperors only on the very day they assumed it, they lost the empire. For since Rome has endured more princes in sixty years than [would have been expected] for the time, it came to pass that many things, indeed varied and worthy of admiration, arose; for as the princes were advanced in age, and thus experienced in affairs and matters, they governed themselves and their subjects more diligently, whereas, in contrast, those who were held in a soft and indulgent manner in their youth—as is natural—were planning many new things, by which it came to pass that, because of the difference in age and license, they followed different pursuits and customs. We shall write down how these things were accomplished, preserving the order of the times and the princes themselves.

iThe Emperor Marcus indeed had several daughters, but two sons. One of these, the younger by birth, a mere youth, met his fate; his name was Verissimus. The other, however, whose name was Commodus, the father raised with great diligence and care, having summoned men famous for learning from every quarter, and having offered a maximum reward so that each might cultivate the son’s manners and intellect. Furthermore, when his daughters had grown up, he betrothed them to the best men from the senatorial order. For he did not believe that those who displayed a long series of ancestors or those who flaunted excessive wealth were to be chosen as his sons-in-law, but rather those who excelled in the probity of their manners, in modesty, and in the innocence of their lives. For he considered these alone to be the sure and stable goods of the soul. There was no virtue he did not greatly exercise. He was so studious of literature and antiquity that he was second to none among the Greeks and Romans in that genre. The very many things that were spoken and written by him, which have come down even to us, are proof of this. And he indeed proved himself so civil and obliging to all as a prince that he would graciously give his right hand to anyone who approached him, nor would he suffer anyone to be prevented from approaching him by his guards; and he alone among the emperors pursued the study of wisdom, not with words or the knowledge of decrees, but with the gravity of his manners and the continence of his life. By this it came to pass that that age brought forth a great abundance of wise men. For men are generally accustomed to emulate the life of their prince. Whatever, therefore, was done by him modestly and bravely, at home and abroad, and how, furthermore, he behaved himself against the barbarian nations subject to the north and the rising sun, those things have been comprised in the monuments of many most learned men. But as for the things which were seen and heard by me throughout my entire life after the death of Marcus, and also those known by experience, as one involved in public offices and imperial matters, these I have now undertaken to write down.