While his fame rests on his “Meditations,” as that of David rests upon his Psalms, he yet rendered great military services to the Empire.  He put down a dangerous revolt under Avidius Cassius in Asia, and did not punish the rebellious provinces.  Not one person suffered death in consequence of this rebellion.  Even the papers of Cassius, who aimed to be emperor, were burned, that a revelation of enemies might not be made,—­a signal instance of magnanimity.  Cassius, it seems, was assassinated by his own officers, which assassination Marcus Aurelius regretted, because it deprived him of granting a free pardon to a very able but dangerous man.

But the most signal service he rendered the Empire was a successful resistance to the barbarians of Germany, who had formed a general union for the invasion of the Roman world.  They threatened the security of the Empire, as the Teutons did in the time of Marius, and the Gauls and Germans in the time of Julius Caesar.  It took him twenty years to subdue these fierce warriors.  He made successive campaigns against them, as Charlemagne did against the Saxons.  It cost him the best years of his life to conquer them, which he did under difficulties as great as Julius surmounted in Gaul.  He was the savior and deliverer of his country, as much as Marius or Scipio or Julius.  The public dangers were from the West and not the East.  Yet he succeeded in erecting a barrier against barbaric inundations, so that for nearly two hundred years the Romans were not seriously molested.  There still stands in “the Eternal City” the column which commemorates his victories,—­not so beautiful as that of Trajan, which furnished the model for Napoleon’s column in the Place Vendome, but still greatly admired.  Were he not better known for his writings, he would be famous as one of the great military emperors, like Vespasian, Diocletian, and Constantine.  Perhaps he did not add to the art of war; that was perfected by Julius Caesar.  It was with the mechanism of former generals that he withstood most dangerous enemies, for in his day the legions were still well disciplined and irresistible.

The only stains on the reign of this good and great emperor—­for there were none on his character—­were in allowing the elevation of his son Commodus as his successor, and his persecution of the Christians.

In regard to the first, it was a blunder rather than a fault.  Peter the Great caused his heir to be tried and sentenced to death, because he was a sot, a liar, and a fool.  He dared not intrust the interests of his Empire to so unworthy a son; the welfare of Russia was more to him than the interest of his family.  In that respect this stern and iron man was a greater prince than Marcus Aurelius; for the law of succession was not established at Rome any more than in Russia.  There was no danger of civil war should the natural succession be set aside, as might happen in the feudal monarchies of Europe.