Nerva–Antonine dynasty

As Marius waited a second time in that little red room in the house of the chief chamberlain, curious to look once more upon its painted walls, the very place whither the assassins were said to have turned for refuge after the murder, he could all but see the figure which in its surrounding light and darkness seemed to him the most melancholy in the entire history of Rome.

He called to mind the greatness of that popularity and early promise, the stupefying height of irresponsible power from which after all only men's viler side had been clearly visible, the overthrow of reason, the seemingly irredeemable memory, and still above all the beautiful head in which the noble lines of the race of Augustus were united to, he knew not what expression of, sensibility and fineness, not theirs, and for the like of which one must pass onward to the Antonines.

Popular hatred had been careful to destroy its semblance wherever it was to be found, but one bust, in dark bronze-like basalt of a wonderful perfection of finish, preserved in the museum of the Capitol, may have seemed to some visitors there perhaps the finest extant relic of Roman art.

Had the very seal of empire upon those somber brows reflected from his mirror suggested his insane attempt upon the liberties, the dignity of men.

There is a real ideal from that family life, the protection of which had been the motive of so large a part of the religion of the Romans still surviving among them, as it survived also in Aurelius, his disposition and aims, and, spite of slanderous tongues, in the attained sweetness of his interior life.

What Marius had been permitted to see was a realization of such life higher still, and with, yes, with a more effective sanction and motive than it had ever possessed before in that fact, or series of facts, to be ascertained by those who would.

The central glory of the reign of the Antonines was that society had attained in it, though very imperfectly and for the most part by cumbrous effort of law, many of those ends to which Christianity went straight, with the sufficiency, the success of a direct and appropriate instinct.

Pagan Rome, too, had its touching charity sermons on occasion of great public distress, its charity children in long file in memory of the elder Empress Faustina, its prototype under patronage of Aesculapius, of the modern hospital for the sick on the island of St. Bartholomew.

the stupefying hide of irresponsible power from which after all only men's viler side had been clearly visible, the overthrow of reason, the seemingly irredeemable memory, and still above all the beautiful head in which the noble lines of the race of Augustus were united to, he knew not what expression of, sensibility and fineness,

not theirs, and for the like of which one must pass onward to the Antonines, Popular hatred had been careful to destroy its semblance wherever it was to be found.

But one bust, in dark

bronze-like basalt of a wonderful perfection of finish, preserved in the museum of the capital, may have seemed to some visitors there perhaps the finest

amiable in its own nature and full of a reasonable gaiety

christianity has often had its advantage of characters such as that the geniality of Antoninus Pius, like the geniality of the earth itself, had permitted the church, as being in truth no alien from that old mother earth, to expand and thrive for a season as by natural process.

And that charmed period under the Antonines, extending to the later years of the reign of Aurelius, beautiful, brief chapter of ecclesiastical history, contains as one of its motives of interest the earliest development of Christian ritual under the precedence of the Church of Rome.

again as in one of those mystical quaint visions of the shepherd of hermas the aged woman was become by degrees more and more youthful and in the third vision she was quite young

You will see men flattering, obstinate in their own will, suspecting, plotting, wishing for the death of others, repining at fortune, courting mistresses, hoarding treasure, pursuing consulships and kingdoms yet all that life is spent and gone come down to trajan's days again all is the same and again that life too is dead consider likewise the records of other times and nations and see how after their fit of eagerness all quickly fell and were resolved into the elements but most of all remember those whom you yourself have known men who were distracted about vain things men who neglected the course which suited their own nature neither holding fast to it nor finding their contentment there and herein forget not that care is to be bestowed upon any enterprise only in proportion to its proper worth for if you keep this in mind you will not be disheartened from over concern with things of less account the familiar phrases of old days are now strange and obsolete and likewise the names of such as were once much celebrated, now sound strangely in our ears.

Camillus, Caeso, Volissus, Leonatus, after them Scipio and Cato, lastly Augustus, Hadrian and Antonine, all are forgotten.

all things hasten to an end shall speedily seem old fables and then be buried in oblivion this i say of those who have shone with the brightness of their fame the rest of men as soon as they expire are unknown and forgotten what then is it to be remembered for ever a wholly empty thing for what should we be zealous for this alone, that our souls be just, our actions unselfish, our speech ever sincere, and our disposition such as may cheerfully embrace whatever happens, seeing it to be inevitable, familiar, and sprung from the same source and origin as we ourselves.

Willingly resign yourself to cloth, though, permitting her to spin her thread of what yarn she may All things are for a day, both what remembers and what is remembered.

Reverence the gods and help mankind.

Life is short, and the one fruit of it in this world is a pure mind and unselfish conduct.

Be in all things the disciple of Antonine.

Imitate his resolute constancy to rational action, his level equability.

And I think very often, I think of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

He often says that one of the greatest times to live is the time of the Antonines, you know, the time of Marcus Aurelius.

And after Marcus Aurelius, he looks at the decline really happening with Commodus.

Well, that's... 193, that's almost 300 years till the Western Empire kind of really ceases to exist as an entity.

of irresponsible power from which after all only men's viler side had been clearly visible, the overthrow of reason, the seemingly irredeemable memory, and still above all the beautiful head in which the noble lines of the race of

Augustus were united to, he knew not what expression of, sensibility and fineness, not theirs, and for the like of which one must pass onward to the Antonines, Popular hatred had been careful to destroy its semblance wherever it was to be found, but one bust, in dark bronze-like basalt of a wonderful perfection of finish, preserved in the museum of the capital, may have seemed to some visitors there perhaps the finest extant relic of Roman art.

Had the very seal of empire upon those sombre brows reflected from his mirror, suggested his insane

attempt upon the liberties, the dignity of men.

geniality of Antoninus Pius, like the geniality of the earth itself, had permitted the church, as being

in truth no alien from that old mother earth, to expand and thrive for a season as by natural process.

And that charmed period under the Antonines,

extending to the later years of the reign of Aurelius, beautiful, brief chapter of ecclesiastical history, contains as one of its motives of interest the earliest development of Christian ritual under the precedence of the Church of Rome.

For as they could not be brought under Roman rule nor tamed in any way, he thought it was better to try to shut them into their own country.

Later on an emperor called Antonine built a great wall along the line of Agricola's forts for the same purpose.

But while Julius Agricola was doing all this good work in Britain, the emperor who had sent him died, and another ruled instead.

This emperor was jealous of Agricola because he managed the people of Britain so well.

A pride which, instead of connecting him with prince or people, made him shun the one as a Caesar and forget the other as slaves.

All his pleasures were those of a lettered voluptuary, who would, as he himself said, have been more in place under Augustus or the Antonines, and modern existence, under most of its aspects, he affected to regard as barbarous.

Next to a bishop, the thing he most disliked was a courtier.

Next to a courtier, a fox-hunting country gentleman.

As Marius waited a second time in that little red room in the house of the chief chamberlain, curious to look once more upon its painted walls, the very place whither the assassins were said to have turned for refuge after the murder, he could all but see the figure which in its surrounding light and darkness seemed to him the most melancholy in the entire history of Rome.

He called to mind the greatness of that popularity and early promise, the stupefying height of irresponsible power from which after all only men's viler side had been clearly visible, the overthrow of reason, the seemingly irredeemable memory And still above all the beautiful head in which the noble lines of the race of Augustus were united to, he knew not what expression of, sensibility and fineness, not theirs, and for the like of which one must pass onward to the Antonines.

Popular hatred had been careful to destroy its semblance wherever it was to be found.

But one bust, in dark bronze-like basalt of a wonderful perfection of finish, preserved in the museum of the Capitol, may have seemed to some visitors there perhaps the finest extant relic of Roman art.

There is a real ideal from that family life, the protection of which had been the motive of so large a part of the religion of the Romans still surviving among them, as it survived also in Aurelius, his disposition and aims, and, spite of slanderous tongues, in the attained sweetness of his interior life.

What Marius had been permitted to see was a realization of such life higher still, and with, yes, with a more effective sanction and motive than it had ever possessed before in that fact, or series of facts, to be ascertained by those who would.

The central glory of the reign of the Antonines was that society had attained in it, though very imperfectly and for the most part by cumbrous effort of law, many of those ends to which Christianity went straight, with the sufficiency, the success of a direct and appropriate instinct.

Pagan Rome, too, had its touching charity sermons on occasion of great public distress, its charity children in long file in memory of the elder Empress Faustina, its prototype under patronage of Aesculapius, of the modern hospital for the sick on the island of St. Bartholomew.

my father evidently had no great opinion of my capacity

stuff child you were only a baby it had nothing to do with your capacity andrew did it on principle just as he did every perverse and wicked thing on principle when my father remonstrated andrew actually told him to his face that history tells us of only two successful institutions one the undershaft firm and the other the roman empire under the antonines That was because the Antonine emperors all adopted their successors.

Such rubbish! The Stevenages are as good as the Antonines, I hope, and you are a Stevenage.

But that was Andrew all over.

There you have the man, always clever and unanswerable when he was defending nonsense and wickedness, always awkward and sullen when he had to behave sensibly and decently.