Marcus Aurelius consulted the
Senate on all state business and regularly attended its sessions.
=Marcus Aurelius.=--Marcus Aurelius has been termed the Philosopher on
the Throne. He governed from a sense of duty, against his disposition,
for he loved solitude; and yet he spent his life in administration and
the command of armies. His private journal (his "Thoughts") exhibits
the character of the Stoic--virtuous, austere, separated from the
world, and yet mild and good. "The best form of vengeance on the
wicked is not to imitate them; the gods themselves do good to evil
men; it is your privilege to act like the gods."
=Conquests of the Antonines.=--The emperors of the first century had
continued the course of conquest; they had subjected the Britons of
England, the Germans on the left bank of the Rhine, and in the
provinces had reduced several countries which till then had retained
their kings--Mauretania, Thrace, Cappadocia. The Rhine, the Danube,
and the Euphrates were the limits of the empire.
The emperors of the second century were almost all generals; they had
the opportunity of waging numerous wars to repel the hostile peoples
who sought to invade the empire.
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