Page:Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus - Volume 1 - Farquharson 1944.pdf/442

 the famous argument of the Stoics from universal consent.) Rejecting this, we may still think that they had no care for man. Then, even so, I must fulfil the demands of my reasonable nature; my duty to the Empire and to the world is to serve their advantage.

This is the fullest statement of the matter in the Meditations. It is put hypothetically and merely to exhibit the difficulties of disbelief. If faith be challenged, the refuge is in the integrity of the individual and in reasonable good will.

'''Ch. 45.''' This puts briefly the consequence of the close of ch. 44. What is the advantage there spoken of? What advantages the individual advantages the whole; what benefits one man benefits the rest. This may be said to be the principle of the humanity and natural equity which was the goal of the legislation and administration of the Antonines, and out of which came the great Roman system of public and private law.

'''Ch. 46.''' The Emperor was obliged to be present at these shows of the Amphitheatre and the Circus. Already, in his youthful correspondence, he writes to Fronto of the time taken up by attendance at the theatre. Fronto warns him of the danger of seeming ungracious by using the time for business or reading. The biographer also preserves the tradition that Marcus would dictate letters during these spectacles. It is remarkable that Marcus never censures the inhumanity of the amphitheatre, as Seneca had done with great power in the Moral Letters.

'''Ch. 47.''' The artifice of grouping in threes is noticeable. Philistion was a contemporary writer of revues. The three men of science, Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes, are well chosen; they are three of the greatest Greek mathematicians and physicists. Menippus is the Cynic satirist of the third century, well known to Romans through his influence upon Varro. Possibly Marcus had read Lucian's mordant dialogue Menippus; certainly the words 'long ago they are fallen' resemble the theme of much of Lucian's moralizing.

'''Ch. 48.''' So Spinoza says: 'he will be careful to speak of man's lack of self-restraint sparingly, but largely of man's virtue and 350