The
agitation of the public mind was intense; and prophets arose, as since
under corresponding circumstances in Christian countries, who announced
the approaching dissolution of the world. The purse of Marcus was open, as
usual, to the distresses of his subjects. But it was chiefly for the
expense of funerals that his aid was claimed. In this way he alleviated
the domestic calamities of his capital, or expressed his sympathy with the
sufferers, where alleviation was beyond his power; whilst, by the energy
of his movements and his personal presence on the Danube, he soon
dissipated those anxieties of Rome which pointed in a foreign direction.
The war, however, had been a dreadful one, and had excited such just fears
in the most experienced heads of the State, that, happening in its
outbreak to coincide with a Parthian war, it was skilfully protracted
until the entire thunders of Rome, and the undivided energies of her
supreme captains, could be concentrated upon this single point. Both
[Footnote: Marcus had been associated, as Caesar and as emperor, with the
son of the late beautiful Verus, who is usually mentioned by the same
name.
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