The pupil and successor of Pius, the noble Marcus, was if possible more “Roman” than Pius; and his devotion to the gods of Rome was even more marked. As a boy he was famous for his accurate knowledge of ancient Roman ritual. When only eight years old he was enrolled in the College of the Salii, reciting from memory archaic liturgical forms but dimly understood in his days.[39]
Before his departure for the dangerous war with the Marcomanni, he directed that Rome should be ceremonially purified according to the ancient rites; and for seven days the images of the gods were feasted as they lay on their couches in the public streets.
But it is in his private life that the intense piety of the second Antonine emperor comes out with ever startling clearness. It was no mere State reasons which prompted Marcus to uphold the ancient cult of Rome. He evidently believed with a fervent belief in these old gods of Rome. For instance, if his dear friend and tutor Fronto was ailing, he would pray at the altars of the gods that one very dear to him might be eased of his pain.
In that exquisite volume in which in the form of private and secret memoranda he recorded his inmost thoughts and hopes,—that little volume which amid the wreckage of contemporary literary remains has come down to us intact,—again and again we meet with words telling of his trust in the loving care of the Immortals revered in the Rome of old days, but in whose existence in the later times of the Republic few seem to have believed.
Out of a host of such memoranda scattered in the pages of the Meditations we will quote two or three of his words here.
“With respect to the gods, from what I constantly experience of their power, I am convinced that they exist, and I venerate them” (xii. 28).
The whole of the first book of the Meditations is, in fact, a hymn of gratitude to the gods for their loving care of him.
“Live with the gods,” he writes (v. 2–7); “and he who does live with the gods constantly shows to them that his own soul is satisfied with the (lot) which is assigned to him.... Zeus has given to every man for his guardian and his guide a portion of himself.”
And again (v. 33), “Until that time (thy end) comes, what is sufficient? Why, what else than to venerate the gods and bless them?”
“If the gods have determined about me, and about the things which must happen to me, they have determined well, for it is not easy even to imagine a deity without forethought” (vii. 4. 4).