Thoughts Of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (best self help books to read .txt) π
Father, Annius Verus, Died While He Was Praetor. His Mother Was Domitia
Calvilla, Also Named Lucilla. The Emperor T. Antoninus Pius Married
Annia Galeria Faustina, The Sister Of Annius Verus, And Was Consequently
The Uncle Of M. Antoninus. When Hadrian Adopted Antoninus Pius And
Declared Him His Successor In The Empire, Antoninus Pius Adopted Both L.
Ceionius Commodus, The Son Of Aelius Caesar, And M. Antoninus, Whose
Original Name Was M. Annius Verus. Antoninus Then Took The Name Of M.
Aelius Aurelius Verus, To Which Was Added The Title Of Caesar In A.D.
139: The Name Aelius Belonged To Hadrian's Family, And Aurelius Was The
Name Of Antoninus Pius. When M. Antoninus Became Augustus, He Dropped
The Name Of Verus And Took The Name Of Antoninus. Accordingly He Is
Generally Named M. Aurelius Antoninus, Or Simply M. Antoninus.
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Christians In Gallia, And It States That While The Persecution Was Going
On, Attalus, A Christian And A Roman Citizen, Was Loudly Demanded By The
Populace And Brought Into The Amphitheatre; But The Governor Ordered Him
To Be Reserved, With The Rest Who Were In Prison, Until He Had Received
Instructions From The Emperor. Many Had Been Tortured Before The
Governor Thought Of Applying To Antoninus. The Imperial Rescript, Says
The Letter, Was That The Christians Should Be Punished, But If They
Would Deny Their Faith, They Must Be Released. On This The Work Began
Again. The Christians Who Were Roman Citizens Were Beheaded; The Rest
Were Exposed To The Wild Beasts In The Amphitheatre. Some Modern Writers
On Ecclesiastical History, When They Use This Letter, Say Nothing Of The
Wonderful Stories Of The Martyrs' Sufferings. Sanctus, As The Letter
Says, Was Burnt With Plates Of Hot Iron Till His Body Was One Sore And
Had Lost All Human Form; But On Being Put To The Rack He Recovered His
Former Appearance Under The Torture, Which Was Thus A Cure Instead Of A
Punishment. He Was Afterwards Torn By Beasts, And Placed On An Iron
Chair And Roasted. He Died At Last.
The Letter Is One Piece Of Evidence. The Writer, Whoever He Was That
Wrote In The Name Of The Gallic Christians, Is Our Evidence Both For The
Ordinary And The Extraordinary Circumstances Of The Story, And We Cannot
Accept His Evidence For One Part And Reject The Other. We Often Receive
Small Evidence As A Proof Of A Thing We Believe To Be Within The Limits
Of Probability Or Possibility, And We Reject Exactly The Same Evidence,
When The Thing To Which It Refers Appears Very Improbable Or Impossible.
But This Is A False Method Of Inquiry, Though It Is Followed By Some
Modern Writers, Who Select What They Like From A Story And Reject The
Rest Of The Evidence; Or If They Do Not Reject It, They Dishonestly
Suppress It. A Man Can Only Act Consistently By Accepting All This
Letter Or Rejecting It All, And We Cannot Blame Him For Either. But He
Who Rejects It May Still Admit That Such A Letter May Be Founded On Real
Facts; And He Would Make This Admission As The Most Probable Way Of
Accounting For The Existence Of The Letter; But If, As He Would Suppose,
The Writer Has Stated Some Things Falsely, He Cannot Tell What Part Of
His Story Is Worthy Of Credit.
Story 1 (Biographical Sketch Of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) Pg 5The War On The Northern Frontier Appears To Have Been Uninterrupted
During The Visit Of Antoninus To The East, And On His Return The Emperor
Again Left Rome To Oppose The Barbarians. The Germanic People Were
Defeated In A Great Battle A.D. 179. During This Campaign The Emperor
Was Seized With Some Contagious Malady, Of Which He Died In The Camp At
Sirmium (Mitrovitz), On The Save, In Lower Pannonia, But At Vindebona
(Vienna), According To Other Authorities, On The 17th Of March, A.D.
180, In The Fifty-Ninth Year Of His Age. His Son Commodus Was With Him.
The Body, Or The Ashes Probably, Of The Emperor Were Carried To Rome,
And He Received The Honor Of Deification. Those Who Could Afford It Had
His Statue Or Bust; And When Capitolinus Wrote, Many People Still Had
Statues Of Antoninus Among The Dei Penates Or Household Deities. He Was
In A Manner Made A Saint. Commodus Erected To The Memory Of His Father
The Antonine Column Which Is Now In The Piazza Colonna At Rome. The
_Bassi Rilievi_ Which Are Placed In A Spiral Line Round The Shaft
Commemorate The Victories Of Antoninus Over The Marcomanni And The
Quadi, And The Miraculous Shower Of Rain Which Refreshed The Roman
Soldiers And Discomfited Their Enemies. The Statue Of Antoninus Was
Placed On The Capital Of The Column, But It Was Removed At Some Time
Unknown, And A Bronze Statue Of St. Paul Was Put In The Place By Pope
Sixtus The Fifth.
The Historical Evidence For The Times Of Antoninus Is Very Defective,
And Some Of That Which Remains Is Not Credible. The Most Curious Is The
Story About The Miracle Which Happened In A.D. 174, During The War With
The Quadi. The Roman Army Was In Danger Of Perishing By Thirst, But A
Sudden Storm Drenched Them With Rain, While It Discharged Fire And Hail
On Their Enemies, And The Romans Gained A Great Victory. All The
Authorities Which Speak Of The Battle Speak Also Of The Miracle. The
Gentile Writers Assign It To Their Gods, And The Christians To The
Intercession Of The Christian Legion In The Emperor's Army. To Confirm
The Christian Statement It Is Added That The Emperor Gave The Title Of
Thundering To This Legion; But Dacier And Others, Who Maintain The
Christian Report Of The Miracle, Admit That This Title Of Thundering Or
Lightning Was Not Given To This Legion Because The Quadi Were Struck
With Lightning, But Because There Was A Figure Of Lightning On Their
Shields, And That This Title Of The Legion Existed In The Time Of
Augustus.
Scaliger Also Had Observed That The Legion Was Called Thundering
([Greek: Keraunobolos], Or [Greek: Keraunophoros]) Before The Reign Of
Antoninus. We Learn This From Dion Cassius (Lib. 55, C. 23, And The Note
Of Reimarus), Who Enumerates All The Legions Of Augustus' Time. The Name
Thundering Of Lightning Also Occurs On An Inscription Of The Reign Of
Trajan, Which Was Found At Trieste. Eusebius (V. 5), When He Relates The
Miracle, Quotes Apolinarius, Bishop Of Hierapolis, As Authority For This
Name Being Given To The Legion Melitene By The Emperor In Consequence Of
The Success Which He Obtained Through Their Prayers; From Which We May
Estimate The Value Of Apolinarius' Testimony. Eusebius Does Not Say In
What Book Of Apolinarius The Statement Occurs. Dion Says That The
Thundering Legion Was Stationed In Cappadocia In The Time Of Augustus.
Valesius Also Observes That In The Notitia Of The Imperium Romanum There
Is Mentioned Under The Commander Of Armenia The Praefectura Of The
Twelfth Legion Named "Thundering Melitene;" And This Position In Armenia
Will Agree With What Dion Says Of Its Position In Cappadocia.
Story 1 (Biographical Sketch Of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) Pg 6Accordingly Valesius Concludes That Melitene Was Not The Name Of The
Legion, But Of The Town In Which It Was Stationed. Melitene Was Also The
Name Of The District In Which This Town Was Situated. The Legions Did
Not, He Says, Take Their Name From The Place Where They Were On Duty,
But From The Country In Which They Were Raised, And Therefore What
Eusebius Says About The Melitene Does Not Seem Probable To Him. Yet
Valesius, On The Authority Of Apolinarius And Tertullian, Believed That
The Miracle Was Worked Through The Prayers Of The Christian Soldiers In
The Emperor's Army. Rufinus Does Not Give The Name Of Melitene To This
Legion, Says Valesius, And Probably He Purposely Omitted It, Because He
Knew That Melitene Was The Name Of A Town In Armenia Minor, Where The
Legion Was Stationed In His Time.
The Emperor, It Is Said, Made A Report Of His Victory To The Senate,
Which We May Believe, For Such Was The Practice; But We Do Not Know What
He Said In His Letter, For It Is Not Extant. Dacier Assumes That The
Emperor's Letter Was Purposely Destroyed By The Senate Or The Enemies Of
Christianity, That So Honorable A Testimony To The Christians And Their
Religion Might Not Be Perpetuated. The Critic Has However Not Seen That
He Contradicts Himself When He Tells Us The Purport Of The Letter, For
He Says That It Was Destroyed, And Even Eusebius Could Not Find It. But
There Does Exist A Letter In Greek Addressed By Antoninus To The Roman
People And The Sacred Senate After This Memorable Victory. It Is
Sometimes Printed After Justin's First Apology, But It Is Totally
Unconnected With The Apologies. This Letter Is One Of The Most Stupid
Forgeries Of The Many Which Exist, And It Cannot Be Possibly Founded
Even On The Genuine Report Of Antoninus To The Senate. If It Were
Genuine, It Would Free The Emperor From The Charge Of Persecuting Men
Because They Were Christians, For He Says In This False Letter That If A
Man Accuse Another Only Of Being A Christian, And The Accused Confess,
And There Is Nothing Else Against Him, He Must Be Set Free; With This
Monstrous Addition, Made By A Man Inconceivably Ignorant, That The
Informer Must Be Burnt Alive.[A]
[A] Eusebius (V. 5) Quotes Tertullian's Apology To The Roman
Senate In Confirmation Of The Story. Tertullian, He Says,
Writes That Letters Of The Emperor Were Extant, In Which He
Declares That His Army Was Saved By The Prayers Of The
Christians; And That He "Threatened To Punish With Death Those
Who Ventured To Accuse Us." It Is Possible That The Forged
Letter Which Is Now Extant May Be One Of Those Which Tertullian
Had Seen, For He Uses The Plural Number, "Letters." A Great
Deal Has Been Written About This Miracle Of The Thundering
Legion, And More Than Is Worth Reading. There Is A Dissertation
On This Supposed Miracle In Moyle's Works, London, 1726.
During The Time Of Antoninus Pius And Marcus Antoninus There Appeared
The First Apology Of Justinus, And Under M. Antoninus The Oration Of
Tatian Against The Greeks, Which Was A Fierce Attack On The Established
Religions; The Address Of Athenagoras To M. Antoninus On Behalf Of The
Christians, And The Apology Of Melito, Bishop Of Sardes, Also Addressed
To The Emperor, And That Of Apolinarius. The First Apology Of Justinus
Is Addressed To T. Antoninus Pius And His Two Adopted Sons, M. Antoninus
And L. Verus; But We Do Not Know Whether They Read It.[A] The Second
Apology Of Justinus Is Entitled "To The Roman Senate;" But This
Superscription Is From Some Copyist. In The First Chapter Justinus
Story 1 (Biographical Sketch Of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) Pg 7Addresses The Romans. In The Second Chapter He Speaks Of An Affair That
Had Recently Happened In The Time Of M. Antoninus And L,. Verus, As It
Seems; And He Also Directly Addresses The Emperor, Saying Of A Certain
Woman, "She Addressed A Petition To Thee, The Emperor, And Thou Didst
Grant The Petition." In Other Passages The Writer Addresses The Two
Emperors, From Which We
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