Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

cxxviii INTRODUCTION SECT.
/^intimate communion with the divine.' 1 This habit of
/ mind accommodated itself perfectly to Stoic teaching, to
/ an interpretation of the universe which (in the words of
*
averred that all earth is crammed with gods
\
^
Epictetus)
2
and spiritual powers.' Stoicism in fact provided an intelligible
theology and theocratic basis for the intricate
mechanism of sign and formula and rite, which natural
magic had gradually riveted upon a simple, scrupulous,
and superstitious folk. Dream and oracle and even
ordered coincidences of phrase become channels of
spiritual grace and revelation. 3
Philosophy and religion
clasp hands as means of reconciliation with God, and
deliverance from invisible powers of evil. With the
exception, in a sense, of Julian, whose religious revival
bordered on caricature, Marcus is the most *
god-fearing ' 4
figure in Roman history, and perhaps the only one
which can be called devout. He not only inaugurated
his campaigns with antique rites and solemn lectisternia,
but as Emperor fulfilled his desire of receiving the mystic
initiations of Eleusis. And this sense of religion pervades
his writing like an atmosphere. The tone is changed
from that of earlier Stoicism ; the pantheism is less
physical, and the language more theistic. Life is the
presence of God ;
the course of the world is the evolution
1
vi. 44 ; xii. 5 ; cf. v. 7 ; vi. 23 ; ix. 40 ; x. 36 ; xii. I.
2 Epict. 3, 13, 15.
3 i. 17 ; ix. 27.
4 vi. 30 ; cf. i. 16. Amm. Marc, notes the likeness, and re-
applies to Julian the epigram directed against M. Aurelius :
We the white bulls bid Marcus Caesar hail !
Win but one victory more, our kind will fail.