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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Them. Eusebius (E.H. Iv. 18) States That The Second Apology Was
Addressed To The Successor Of Antoninus Pius, And He Names Him Antoninus
Verus, Meaning M. Antoninus. In One Passage Of This Second Apology (C.
8), Justinus, Or The Writer, Whoever He May Be, Says That Even Men Who
Followed The Stoic Doctrines, When They Ordered Their Lives According To
Ethical Reason, Were Hated And Murdered, Such As Heraclitus, Musonius In
His Own Times, And Others; For All Those Who In Any Way Labored To Live
According To Reason And Avoided Wickedness Were Always Hated; And This
Was The Effect Of The Work Of Daemons.
[A] Orosius, Vii. 14, Says That Justinus The Philosopher
Presented To Antonius Pius His Work In Defence Of The Christian
Religion, And Made Him Merciful To The Christians.
Justinus Himself Is Said To Have Been Put To Death At Rome, Because He
Refused To Sacrifice To The Gods. It Cannot Have Been In The Reign Of
Hadrian, As One Authority States; Nor In The Time Of Antoninus Pius, If
The Second Apology Was Written In The Time Of M. Antoninus; And There Is
Evidence That This Event Took Place Under M. Antoninus And L. Verus,
When Rusticus Was Praefect Of The City.[A]
[A] See The Martyrium Sanctorum Justini, &C., In The Works Of
Justinus, Ed. Otto, Vol. Ii. 559. "Junius Rusticus Praefectus
Urbi Erat Sub Imperatoribus M. Aurelio Et L. Vero, Id Quod
Liquet Ex Themistii Orat. Xxxiv Dindorf. P. 451, Et Ex Quodam
Illorum Rescripto, Dig. 49. 1. I, Β§ 2" (Otto). The Rescript
Contains The Words "Junium Rusticum Amicum Nostrum Praefectum
Urbi." The Martyrium Of Justinus And Others Is Written In
Greek. It Begins, "In The Time Of The Wicked Defenders Of
Idolatry Impious Edicts Were Published Against The Pious
Christians Both In Cities And Country Places, For The Purpose
Of Compelling Them To Make Offerings To Vain Idols. Accordingly
The Holy Men (Justinus, Chariton, A Woman Charito, Paeon,
Liberianus, And Others) Were Brought Before Rusticus, The
Praefect Of Rome."
The Martyrium Gives The Examination Of The Accused By Rusticus.
All Of Them Professed To Be Christians. Justinus Was Asked If
He Expected To Ascend Into Heaven And To Receive A Reward For
His Sufferings, If He Was Condemned To Death. He Answered That
He Did Not Expect: He Was Certain Of It. Finally, The Test Of
Obedience Was Proposed To The Prisoners; They Were Required To
Sacrifice To The Gods. All Refused, And Rusticus Pronounced The
Sentence, Which Was That Those Who Refused To Sacrifice To The
Gods And Obey The Emperor's Order Should Be Whipped And
Beheaded According To The Law. The Martyrs Were Then Led To The
Usual Place Of Execution And Beheaded. Some Of The Faithful
Secretly Carried Off The Bodies And Deposited Them In A Fit
Place.
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The Persecution In Which Polycarp Suffered At Smyrna Belongs To The Time
Of M. Antoninus. The Evidence For It Is The Letter Of The Church Of
Smyrna To The Churches Of Philomelium And The Other Christian Churches,
And It Is Preserved By Eusebius (E.H. Iv. 15). But The Critics Do Not
Agree About The Time Of Polycarp's Death, Differing In The Two Extremes
To The Amount Of Twelve Years. The Circumstances Of Polycarp's Martyrdom
Were Accompanied By Miracles, One Of Which Eusebius (Iv. 15) Has
Omitted, But It Appears In The Oldest Latin Version Of The Letter, Which
Usher Published, And It Is Supposed That This Version Was Made Not Long
After The Time Of Eusebius. The Notice At The End Of The Letter States
That It Was Transcribed By Caius From The Copy Of Irenaeus, The Disciple
Of Polycarp, Then Transcribed By Socrates At Corinth; "After Which I
Pionius Again Wrote It Out From The Copy Above Mentioned, Having
Searched It Out By The Revelation Of Polycarp, Who Directed Me To It,"
&C. The Story Of Polycarp's Martyrdom Is Embellished With Miraculous
Circumstances Which Some Modern Writers On Ecclesiastical History Take
The Liberty Of Omitting.[A]
[A] Conyers Middleton, An Inquiry Into The Miraculous Powers,
&C. P. 126. Middleton Says That Eusebius Omitted To Mention The
Dove, Which Flew Out Of Polycarp's Body, And Dodwell And
Archbishop Wake Have Done The Same. Wake Says, "I Am So Little
A Friend To Such Miracles That I Thought It Better With
Eusebius To Omit That Circumstance Than To Mention It From Bp.
Usher's Manuscript," Which Manuscript However, Says Middleton,
He Afterwards Declares To Be So Well Attested That We Need Not
Any Further Assurance Of The Truth Of It.
In Order To Form A Proper Notion Of The Condition Of The Christians
Under M. Antoninus We Must Go Back To Trajan's Time. When The Younger
Pliny Was Governor Of Bithynia, The Christians Were Numerous In Those
Parts, And The Worshipers Of The Old Religion Were Falling Off. The
Temples Were Deserted, The Festivals Neglected, And There Were No
Purchasers Of Victims For Sacrifice. Those Who Were Interested In The
Maintenance Of The Old Religion Thus Found That Their Profits Were In
Danger. Christians Of Both Sexes And All Ages Were Brought Before The
Governor Who Did Not Know What To Do With Them. He Could Come To No
Other Conclusion Than This, That Those Who Confessed To Be Christians
And Persevered In Their Religion Ought To Be Punished; If For Nothing
Else, For Their Invincible Obstinancy. He Found No Crimes Proved Against
The Christians, And He Could Only Characterize Their Religion As A
Depraved And Extravagant Superstition, Which Might Be Stopped If The
People Were Allowed The Opportunity Of Recanting. Pliny Wrote This In A
Letter To Trajan (Plinius, Ep. X. 97). He Asked For The Emperor's
Directions, Because He Did Not Know What To Do. He Remarks That He Had
Never Been Engaged In Judicial Inquiries About The Christians, And That
Accordingly He Did Not Know What To Inquire About, Or How Far To Inquire
And Punish. This Proves That It Was Not A New Thing To Examine Into A
Man's Profession Of Christianity And To Punish Him For It.[A]
[A] Orosius (Vii. 12) Speaks Of Trajan's Persecution Of The
Christians, And Of Pliny's Application To Him Having Led The
Emperor To Mitigate His Severity. The Punishment By The Mosaic
Law For Those Who Attempted To Seduce The Jews To Follow New
Gods Was Death. If A Man Was Secretly Enticed To Such New
Worship, He Must Kill The Seducer, Even If The Seducer Were
Brother, Son, Daughter, Wife, Or Friend. (Deut. Xiii.)
Story 1 (Biographical Sketch Of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) Pg 9
Trajan's Rescript Is Extant. He Approved Of The Governor's Judgment In
The Matter, But He Said That No Search Must Be Made After The
Christians; If A Man Was Charged With The New Religion And Convicted, He
Must Not Be Punished If He Affirmed That He Was Not A Christian, And
Confirmed His Denial By Showing His Reverence To The Heathen Gods. He
Added That No Notice Must Be Taken Of Anonymous Informations, For Such
Things Were Of Bad Example. Trajan Was A Mild And Sensible Man; And Both
Motives Of Mercy And Policy Probably Also Induced Him To Take As Little
Notice Of The Christians As He Could, To Let Them Live In Quiet If It
Were Possible. Trajan's Rescript Is The First Legislative Act Of The
Head Of The Roman State With Reference To Christianity, Which Is Known
To Us. It Does Not Appear That The Christians Were Further Disturbed
Under His Reign. The Martyrdom Of Ignatius By The Order Of Trajan
Himself Is Not Universally Admitted To Be An Historical Fact.[A]
[A] The Martyrium Ignatii, First Published In Latin By
Archbishop Usher, Is The Chief Evidence For The Circumstances
Of Ignatius' Death.
In The Time Of Hadrian It Was No Longer Possible For The Roman
Government To Overlook The Great Increase Of The Christians And The
Hostility Of The Common Sort To Them. If The Governors In The Provinces
Were Willing To Let Them Alone, They Could Not Resist The Fanaticism Of
The Heathen Community, Who Looked On The Christians As Atheists. The
Jews Too, Who Were Settled All Over The Roman Empire, Were As Hostile To
The Christians As The Gentiles Were.[A] With The Time Of Hadrian Begin
The Christian Apologies, Which Show Plainly What The Popular Feeling
Towards The Christians Then Was. A Rescript Of Hadrian To Minucius
Fundanus, The Proconsul Of Asia, Which Stands At The End Of Justin's
First Apology,[B] Instructs The Governor That Innocent People Must Not
Be Troubled, And False Accusers Must Not Be Allowed To Extort Money From
Them; The Charges Against The Christians Must Be Made In Due Form, And
No Attention Must Be Paid To Popular Clamors; When Christians Were
Regularly Prosecuted And Convicted Of Illegal Acts, They Must Be
Punished According To Their Deserts; And False Accusers Also Must Be
Punished. Antoninus Pius Is Said To Have Published Rescripts To The Same
Effect. The Terms Of Hadrian's Rescript Seem Very Favorable To The
Christians; But If We Understand It In This Sense, That They Were Only
To Be Punished Like Other People For Illegal Acts, It Would Have Had No
Meaning, For That Could Have Been Done Without Asking The Emperor's
Advice. The Real Purpose Of The Rescript Is That Christians Must Be
Punished If They Persisted In Their Belief, And Would Not Prove Their
Renunciation Of It By Acknowledging The Heathen Religion. This Was
Trajan's Rule, And We Have No Reason For Supposing That Hadrian Granted
More To The Christians Than Trajan Did. There Is Also Printed At The End
Of Justin's First Apology A Rescript Of Antoninus Pius To The Commune Of
([Greek: To Koinon TΓͺs Asias]), And It Is Also In Eusebius (E.H. Iv.
13). The Date Of The Rescript Is The Third Consulship Of Antoninus
Pius.[C] The Rescript Declares That The Christians--For They Are Meant,
Though The Name Christians Does Not Occur In The Rescript--Were Not To
Be Disturbed Unless They Were Attempting Something Against The Roman
Rule; And No Man Was To Be Punished Simply For Being A Christian. But
This Rescript Is Spurious. Any Man Moderately Acquainted With Roman
History Will See By The Style And Tenor That It Is A Clumsy Forgery.
[A] We Have The Evidence Of Justinus (Ad Diognetum, C. 5) To
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