h the favourite toys of two or three generations of
imperial collectors, now finally revised by the high connoisseurship of
the Stoic emperor himself, though destined not much longer to remain
together there. It is the repeated boast of Aurelius that he had
learned from old Antoninus Pius to maintain authority without the
constant use of guards, in a robe woven by the handmaids of his own
consort, with no processional lights or images, and "that a prince may
shrink himself almost into the figure of a private gentleman." And
yet, again as at his first sight of him, Marius was struck by the
profound religiousness of the surroundings of the imperial presence.
The effect might have been due in part to the very simplicity, the
discreet and scrupulous simplicity, of the central figure in this
splendid abode; but Marius could not forget that he saw before him not
only the head of the Roman religion, but one who might actually have
claimed something like divine worship, had he cared to do so. Though
the fantastic pretensions of Caligula had brought some contempt [215]
on that claim, which had become almost a jest under the ungainly
Claudius, yet, from Augustus downwards, a vague divinity had seemed to
surround the Caesars even in this life; and the peculiar character of
Aurelius, at once a ceremonious polytheist never forgetful of his
pontifical calling, and a philosopher whose mystic speculation
encircled him with a sort of saintly halo, had restored to his person,
without his intending it, something of that divine prerogative, or
prestige. Though he would never allow the immediate dedication of
altars to himself, yet the image of his Genius--his spirituality or
celestial counterpart--was placed among those of the deified princes of
the past; and his family, including Faustina and the young Commodus,
was spoken of as the "holy" or "divine" house. Many a Roman courtier
agreed with the barbarian chief, who, after contemplating a predecessor
of Aurelius, withdrew from his presence with the exclamation:--"I have
seen a god to-day!" The very roof of his house, rising into a pediment
or gable, like that of the sanctuary of a god, the laurels on either
side its doorway, the chaplet of oak-leaves above, seemed to designate
the place for religious veneration. And notwithstanding all this, the
household of Aurelius was singularly modest, with none of the wasteful
expense of palaces after the fashion of Lewis the Fourteenth; the
pa