He was
one of those few Roman emperors whom posterity truly honored with the
title of _anaimatos_ (or bloodless;) _solusque omnium prope principum
prorsus sine civili sanguine et hostili vixit_. In the whole tenor of his
life and character he was thought to resemble Numa. And Pausanias, after
remarking on his title of _Eusebaes_ (or Pius), upon the meaning and origin
of which there are several different hypotheses, closes with this
memorable tribute to his paternal qualities--_doxae de emae, kai to onoma
to te Kyros pheroito an tos presbyteros, Pater anthropon kalemenos_: _but,
in my opinion, he should also bear the name of Cyrus the elder--being
hailed as Father of the Human Race_.
A thoughtful Roman would have been apt to exclaim, _This is too good to
last_, upon finding so admirable a ruler succeeded by one still more
admirable in the person of Marcus Aurelius. From the first dawn of his
infancy this prince indicated, by his grave deportment, the philosophic
character of his mind; and at eleven years of age he professed himself a
formal devotee of philosophy in its strictest form,--assuming the garb,
and submitting to its most ascetic ordinances.
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