Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

iv STOICISM IN HISTORY xcv
almost inarticulate fury of indignation which it could
stir in the breasts of the young and chivalrous ;
the life of
Epictetus proves how it laid hold of the conscience of
the slave and the freedman, as well as the high-born
and the cultured. The death of Arria the elder, with
its superb finale, the salon of the younger Arria, the
voluntary suicide of Paulina, the teaching of Musonius
Rufus, and the writings of Seneca, show how Stoicism
had won to itself that which was bravest and gentlest
in the womanhood of Rome. The women of this day
are the precursors of Lucilla, mother of Marcus
Antoninus. In the judgment of the people, to which
Tacitus is an impartial witness, the Stoics were, through-
out this crisis, identified with all that was left of courage
and integrity in public life. When silence was the last
form of protest left, in the provinces and in the army,
the official journal was scanned to see ' what Thrasea had
refused to doj and in his person Nero '
sought to murder
virtue herself.'
By Nero, by Vespasian, by Domitian, Stoics were
honourably singled out for exile, for proscription, and
for death. Musonius Rufus stedfastly bore exile in Gyara
and penal servitude in Greece ; Rubellius Plauttis,
Seneca, Thrasea Paetus, Helvidius Priscus, Rusticus, and
Senecio, all sealed their testimony with their blood.
When in the last years of Domitian a caitiff Senate
decreed the burning of the books of Arulenus Rusticus
and Herennius Senecio, 'they thought,' writes Tacitus,
himself ex-praetor to the tyrant, 'that in that flame
they were extinguishing the voice of Rome, the freedom
of the Senate, the conscience of the race, that in