MARCUS AURELIUS.

Shannon News, 12 May 1925, Page 4

MARCUS AURELIUS.

W.E.A. LECTURE. At this . week’s meeting 01 the W.E.A. the subject was Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher, who reigned from 160 to 180 A.D. The lecturer (Mr A. Ernest Mander) began by giving an account of the changes that had come over the Roman world during the previous century—that is, since the period with which he was dealing l&st W66k. “But the most important change that had come over the Roman world (said the lecturerV was a change that is very difficult to describe. It was a change in the spirit of the empire: or to put it in another way, it was the sort of change that you see m a New Zealand landscape towards Ihe end of summer. “That, really, gives you the keynote to the state of the Roman world near the end of the second Century: it’s the end of the Roman summer, the end of the summer of Greco -.Roman civilisation.” , „ . Peace, Prosperity and Security. Gibbon says that “if 1 a man were called upon to fix the period in the history of mankind during which the human race was most. happy and prosperous, he would without hesitation name this period.” Commerce is flourishing. There is free trade, a single currency, the standard Roman Law, and one great administative service covering the whole empire, Law and order are maintained; and life, from the Severn to the Tigris, is safe, orderly and, it seems, tolerably easy, The provinces are garrisoned, the frontiers are guarded, by the Roman legions (now ‘Roman’ only in name); and Greco-Roman culture has spread itself over the whole of this world around the Mediterranean Sea. In this, the heyday of her prosperity, there is an improvement of morals, an increase of humanity, a softening of manners, a growth of refinement, good taste and a sense of decency in, at any rate, the “comfortable classes. ’ Even the gladiatorial shows are going out of favour, except with the city rabble. And there is a growing feeling that even slaves ought to be treated kindly and allowed to earn tbelr freedom. Except among .the millionaires af 'the top and the degenerate people of the underworld at the bottom, life in the empire has become serene, orderly and conventional. During the second Century we are conscious of a sense of delicious calm, security, prosperity and certainty, stealing quietly over the whole Roman world. Things don’t ’happen’ nowadays in Rome: nothing startling ever happens now. Things just 'go on.’ Life just goes on ... . and on . . . , The Three Philosophies. Mr Mander then gave a brief account of the three systems of philosophy which then held sway over the minds of people of the educated classes These philosophies had been taken over from the Greeks of the Hellenistic Age. First, there was the Epicurean philosophy. Epicurus was a Greek thinker who had lived at Athens soon after the time of Alexander. He concluded that Pleasure was the only real good in life, and Pain the only evil. Life therefore ought to be devoted solely to the pursuit of pleasure. The Romans took this philosophy and misinterpreted it, making it justify the indulgence of every sensual appetite and passion. Epicurus himself had taught that the highest and most exquisite pleasure was to be found only in moderation and restraint. Bu( with the Romans, Epicureanism came to" mean: Let us eat, drink and be merry, for to-morroy we die.’ Another school was that of the

Cynics. The best-known of the original Cynics was Diogenes, who had lived at Corinth in the tima of Alexander. The Cynics looked at life, ai death, at the universe ,at man and all his works and said (with the writer of Ecclesiastes) “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” So they had a profound contempt for wealth, pomp power and - place; for art, literature religion and science. At the best it was no more to them than a mere “game of chess, devised to pass a tedious hour.” The third philosophy was that of the Stoics, the followers of Zeno. good life, said the Stoic, is life that subdues all the sentiments, all the emotions, all the feelings. Life should be guided by the cold light of Reason, and by that alone. Above all, man should be prepared to submit to Fate —to accept whatever comes, good fortune or ill, without any sign of either joy or grief. The Significance of This.

“Now (said Mr Mander), it is a commonplace with students of history, that the prevailing philosophy and religion in any society at any given time, can be understood as the reflection upon men’s minds of prevailing conditions. And it is theretorv no mere chance coincidence that these arc the philosophies than now appeal lo the most thoughtful and sensitive minds in the Roman world.

“You would “ not find any philosophies like these making a wide appeal in the Spring-time of a civilisation. The springtime in the history of a civilisation, when life is fresh and vigorous, and all the future is opening-up before men; —it is like the springtime in the life of the individual like his bright .optimistic, unsophisticated youth. “But now in Roman history we have reached a time which, as I have said is like ‘The end of the Roman Summer. And so the philosophies that now prevail are such as reflect the weariness, the disillusionment, the sophistication of the age. They are the answers of philosophy to the spirit of a world that has lost its hope, its freshness and its youth. “But again I want to remind you that Rome is still at the very height of her prosperity. There is no apparent sign of the crumbling of the empire and of civilisation. Indeed, it will be more than a century yet before the first signs of approaching doom appear. But it is this age that sees the Roman world in the very heyday of peace, plenty and prosperity which is the age that sees all the finer spirits of the Roman world coming to the conclusion that, after all, nothing matters! In the balmy warmth and placid life of Rome in the Second Century, men seem to have lost all ‘interest’ —in everything. Marcus Aurelius.

“In more ways than one,” Mr Mander continued —“Marcus Aurelius symbolises this, the spirit of his age. He was born in A.D. was largely of .Spanish (Kelt-Iberian) blood. The nephew of the Emperor Antoninus, he was presently adopted as heir to the Imperial throne. In A.D. 161 he became Emperor. ”1 am not going to give you even

an outline of the story of his life. I need only say that during a reign of 19 years, this man, who loved peace, was compelled to devote himself to war. 3eyond the frontiers, beyond the Rhine and the Danube, the Teutonic tribes were rapidly , growing, and they were continually trying to cross the frontiers and obtain room for expansion inside the Roman Empire. So the legions, commanded by the Emperor, were continually engaged in frontier wars. “Marcus Aurelius was a gentle, earnest, saintly man; but his life was indeed an unhappy one. Hip , wife, Faustina, to whom he was almost absurdly devoted, turned out to be a wicked, intriguing morally-abandoned woman. Ali the Emperor’s affection and hope and ambition then centred upon his son—and that son, Commodus, grew up to be a vicious, cruel, dissolute he T er-do-well. The Imperial service, the bureaucracy, was forgetting its old-time traditions, and becoming rotten with graft and corruption. And finally there were these continual wars on the frontier that involved so much anxious thought, and so many years of hard campaigning. for the unhappy Emperor. The . Stoic Emperor.

“But Aurelius,, was a stoic. This gentle, saintly, but sadly disappointed and dillusioned man found refuge from all the troubles and sorrows of life in the Stoic philosophy. He, went through life, wearily but dutifully, sick-at-heart, but bravely trying to conceal his profound unhappiness behind a fixed, wan smile. He read and re-read the works of Epictetus (a slave who had lived a century earlier) and found that they soothed his mind and gave him strength to go on. .“It is (said the lecturer) a very striking picture-—that of the weary, 'lieart-siclc Emperor of the Roman World taking a poor humble, badlytreated slave for his master; finding so much in common with him; and fully accepting that slave’s philosophy. “Marcus Aurelius is best known to us through his private note-book, in which he- jotted down the thoughts he found comforting.” Mr. Mander then quoted some characteristic extracts from these Meditations. The Meditations. "Nothing can be said really to harm a man —unless it makes,him a worse man than he was.

“Willingly give yourself up to Fate, and let her weave your life into whatever pattern she pleases.” “Think of those who have managed to hold on to life until old age. What more have they gained than those who have died young?” “One man, when he has done a good turn t-o another, is anxious to set it down to his account as a favour conferred and a debt owing. Another man,' having done a service to his fellow, thinks no more about it. He is like a vine that has produced grapes, 1 and is satisfied to have produced his proper fruit.” “Train yourself not to be surprised when foolish persons act in foolisi ways.” , “When you want a real pleasure, think of the various good qualities in your friends. Think of the energy of one, the modesty of another, the i generosity of a third, and some other good quality in a fourth.” “When you are vexed or grieved about anything, console yourself by remembering that after all life is very short and will soon be over.” “Remember that we suffer more through our own anger and vexation than through whatever it is that make us angry or vexed. “It is within our power to find peace and quiet and freedom from the troubles of life by retreating into the Inner Sanctuary, the kingdom of our own ’Mind.’ A “Good” Emperor.

It was with such thoughts as these that the gentle, earnest, heavy-hearted Emperor consoled himself amid the hardships and anxieties of the frontier wars': in his painful disillusionment about liis wife; in his bitter dis/appoinltment witfh his son; in the weary work of attending to affairs of State and trying to check the corruption of the Imperial Service. Certainly he was a “good” man; but whether he can be rightly called a. “good Emperor” is doubtful. He lacked that strain of hardness that seems to be essential for a real master of men. He was almost too kindly, too benevolent, too tolerant, to be an

efficient ruler. Though he was grieved, sorely grieved, by the misdeeds of his generals and administrative officials, yet he could not bring himself

to punish them. During the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the bureaucracy and the army both became very slack. There was a serious loosening o f , discipline among the officials and soldiers —upon whose discipline and efficiency the whole Empire depended. His own son, Commodus, was the spoilt, child of a father who was too prone to “make allowances,” to ready to close his eyes to unpleasant facts and become, as we say, ‘philosophical” about them. Aurelius was too pathetically eager to see only the, best in everybody—too anxious to avoid setting himself up as a judge over other men’s actions. Tlie End of Summer.

After describing the supreme blunder of Aurelius in nominating his son, Commodus, as his successor, Mr. Mander said that we can date the decline of Rome roughly from the death of Marcus Aurelius. ISO A.D.

1 has been a glorious Summer—a long, hot, brilliant, gorgeous summertime. But now the sun grows pale and the noonday shadows long-then. Now the leaves are fading and beginning to fall. And now, at the close of this soft and balmy summer, the first touch of autumn is felt. And now the first chill breath of the approaching winter blows in a sudden icy gust across tho Roman world.’’

In ‘'The Kingdom of the Future” There’ll be naught of grief and pain. All mankind will thrill with rapture And the sick grow strong agafln. Ml our ills and aches will vanish, And the anguish \Ve endure, When our coughs and colds we banish With Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure.*