loying the spoils of war in largesses and
remission of taxes. Averse to the extension of the empire, he still aimed
to secure its limits from hostile inroads, and was thus led to repel
invasions in Dacia and Britain. He marched at the head of his legions,
bareheaded and on foot, as far as Moesia, and in another campaign through
Gaul to the Rhine, and then crossed over to Britain, and secured the
northern frontier, by a wall sixty-eight and a half miles in length,
against the Caledonians. He then returned to Gaul, passed through Spain,
crossed the straits to Mauritania, threatened by the Moors, restored
tranquillity, and then advanced to the frontiers of Parthia. He then
returned through Asia Minor, and across the AEgean to Athens, and commenced
the splendid works with which he adorned the intellectual capital of the
empire. Before returning to Rome, he visited Carthage and Sicily.

(M1096) Five years later, he made a second progress through the empire,
which lasted ten years, with some intervals, spent in his capital,
residing chiefly at Athens, constructing great architectural works, and
holding converse with philosophers and scholars. During this period he
visited Alexandria, whose schools were rivaled only by those of Athens,
studying the fantastic philosophy of the Gnostics, and probably examining
the Christian system. He ascended the Nile as far as Thebes, and then
repaired to Antioch, and returned to Rome through Asia Minor. In his
progress, he not merely informed himself of the condition of the empire,
but corrected abuses, and made the Roman rule tolerable.

(M1097) His remaining years were spent at Rome, diligently administrating
the affairs of his vast government, founding libraries and schools, and
decorating his capital with magnificent structures. His temple of Venus at
Rome was the largest ever erected in the city, and his mausoleum, stripped
of its ornaments, now forms the Castle of St. Angelo. Next to the
Coliseum, it was the grandest architectural monument in Rome. He also
built a villa at Tivoli, whose remains are among the most interesting
which seventeen centuries have preserved.

This good emperor made a noble choice for his successor, Titus Aurelius
Antonius, and soon after died childless, A.D. 138, after a peaceful reign
of twenty-one years, in which, says Merivale, "he reconciled, with eminent
success, things hitherto found irreconcilable: a contented army and a
peaceful frontier; an abundant tr