This rigor of filial
duty illustrates a feature of Roman life; for such was the sanctity of
law, that a father created by legal fiction was in all respects treated
with the same veneration and affection, as a father who claimed upon the
most unquestioned footing of natural right. Such, however, is the
universal baseness of courts, that even this scrupulous and minute
attention to his duties, did not protect Marcus from the injurious
insinuations of whisperers. There were not wanting persons who endeavored
to turn to account the general circumstances in the situation of the
Caesar, which pointed him out to the jealousy of the emperor. But these
being no more than what adhere necessarily to the case of every heir
_as_ such, and meeting fortunately with no more proneness to
suspicion in the temper of the Augustus than they did with countenance in
the conduct of the Caesar, made so little impression, that at length these
malicious efforts died away, from mere defect of encouragement.
The most interesting political crisis in the reign of Marcus was the war
in Germany with the Marcomanni, concurrently with pestilence in Rome.
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