Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/91

Rh ; and having no Countenance of Royal Authority to support her, she would be no longer in any Condition, to dispute Quality with the Daughter, and Widow of an Emperour.

After the Deification was over, Antoninus being Apprehensive least the Town should be infected with a worse Mortality, than that they had lately felt, by the Lewdness of those Manumis'd Slaves, who had the Ascendant over Verus in Syria; and serv'd him in his Debaucheries; he resolv'd to remove them from the Court; And to do it in a manner that might least reflect upon his Brother's Memory, He sent them off with considerable Offices into distant Countries; and thus tho' they seem'd prefer'd, they were no better than decently Banish'd : In short, he kept none of them with him but Electus, of whom he had a much better Opinion than of the rest.

The Liberty, and Disorders of the War reviv'd the old Malice of the Heathens; who taking no notice of the Emperour's Orders, began to persecute the Christians in the remoter Provinces. St. Polycarp was the first that was sacrificed; the Flames of whose Martyrdom serv'd for a sort of Beacon to light up the Persecution in Gaul and Asia. 'Tis pretended that Antoninus