t might be _Aequanimitas_.] He himself
refrained from all offences, [and committed no faults voluntarily:] but
the offences of others, particularly those of his wife, he endured, and
neither investigated them nor punished them. In case any person did
anything good, he would praise him and use him for the service in which he
excelled, but about others he did not trouble himself, [saying: "It is
impossible for one to create such men as one wishes to have, but it is
proper to employ those in existence for that in which each of them may be
useful to the commonwealth."] That all his actions were prompted not by
pretence but by real virtue is strikingly clear. He lived fifty-eight
years, ten months, and twenty-two days, and of this time he had spent
considerable as assistant to the previous Antoninus and had himself been
emperor nineteen years and eleven days, yet from first to last he remained
the same and changed not a particle. So truly was he a good man, without
any pretence about him. [Sidenote:--35--] He was vastly helped by his
education being an expert in rhetoric and in philosophical argument. In
the one he had Cornelius Fronto and Claudius Herodes for teachers, and in
the other, Junius Rusticus and Apollonius of Nicomedea, [Footnote: Since
Apollonius was really from Chalcedon, an error may here charged to Dio's
or some one else's account.] both of whom followed Zeno's school. As a
result, great numbers pretended to engage in philosophy, in order that
they might be enriched by the emperor.

After all, however, he owed his great attainments chiefly to his natural
disposition; for even before he enjoyed the society of those men he was
unflinchingly set upon virtue. While still a boy he delighted all his
relations, who were numerous and influential and wealthy, and was loved by
all of them. This, most of all, led Hadrian to adopt him into his family,
and Marcus, for his part, did not grow haughty [but, though young and a
Caesar he dutifully played the part of servant to Antoninus through all
the latter's reign and ungrudgingly did honor to the other men of
eminence. Before going to see his father he used to greet the most worthy
men in the house near the Tiber where he lived, and in the very apartment
where he slept; and all this time, instead of wearing the attire allowed
by his rank, he went dressed as a private citizen. He visited many who
were sick and invariably met his teachers at the proper time. Dark
garments wer