res are the most conspicuously
preserved in the repositories of ancient art, as his name is the most
honorably enshrined on the pages of history--the noblest and most august
type of the ancient rulers of the world, far transcending any Jewish king
in the severity of his virtues, and the elevation of his soul. His life
was modeled on the strictest discipline of the stoical philosophy, of
which he was the brightest ornament. He was nearly forty years of age on
the death of his father-in-law, although for twenty-three years he had sat
side by side with him on the tribunals of the State. His reign, therefore,
was virtually a long one, and he was devoted to all the duties which his
station imposed. He was great as ruler, as he was profound as a
philosopher.

(M1100) It was under his illustrious reign that the barbarians formed a
general union for the invasion of the Roman world, and struck the first of
those fatal blows under which the empire finally succumbed. We have but
little information of the long contest with Germans, Sarmatians,
Marcomanni, Quadi, and Alani, on the banks of the Danube, who were pressed
forward by the Scythian tribes. They were repelled, indeed, but they soon
after advanced, with renovated forces, when the empire was weakened by the
miserable emperors who succeeded Aurelius. And although this great prince
commemorated his victory over the barbarians by a column similar to that
of Trajan, still they were far from being subdued, and a disgraceful
peace, which followed his death, shows that they were exceedingly
formidable. He died at Sirmium, or Vindobona (Vienna), exhausted by
incessant wars and the cares of State, A.D. 180, in the fifty-ninth year
of his age, and twentieth of his reign. The concurrent testimony of
historians represents this emperor as the loftiest character that ever
wielded a sceptre among the nations of antiquity, although we can not
forget that he was a persecutor of the Christians.

(M1101) His son, Commodus, succeeded him, and the thirteen years of his
inglorious reign are summed up in conflicts with the Moors, Dacians, and
Germans. Skillful generals, by their successes, warded off the attacks of
barbarians, but the character and rule of the emperor resembled that of
Nero and Domitian. He was weak, cruel, pleasure-seeking, and dissolute.
His time was divided between private vices and disgraceful public
exhibitions. He fought as a gladiator more than seven hundred times, and
agai