[Sidenote:—­32—­] Marcus went to Athens, where after being initiated into the mysteries he bestowed honors upon the Athenians and gave teachers to all men in Athens, for every species of knowledge, these teachers to receive an annual salary.  On his return to Rome he made an address to the people; and while he was saying, among other things, that he had been absent many years, they cried out:  “Eight!” and indicated this also with their hands, in order that they might receive an equal number of gold pieces for a banquet.  He smiled and himself uttered the word “Eight.”  After that he distributed to them two hundred denarii apiece, more than they had ever received before.—­In addition to doing this, he forgave all persons all their debts to the imperial and to the public treasury for a space of forty-six years, outside of the sixteen granted by Hadrian.  And all the documents relating to these debts he ordered burned in the Forum. [Sidenote:  A.D. 177 (a.u. 930)]—­He gave money to many cities, one of them being Smyrna, that had suffered terribly by an earthquake; he also assigned the duty of building up this place to an ex-praetor of senatorial rank.  Therefore I am surprised at the censures even now passed upon him to the effect that he was not a man of large calibre.  For, whereas in ordinary matters he was really quite frugal, he never demurred at a single necessary expenditure (though, as I have said, [Footnote:  The reference here made by Dio may very possibly be to a passage reproduced by Zonaras (XII, 1), regarding the authenticity of which Boissevain is nevertheless somewhat doubtful.  For the sake of completeness a translation is here given ([Greek:  oumaen [Lacuna] ebiasato]): 

“Yet he was not thereby induced to secure money from the subject nations.  On one occasion, indeed, with wars impending, he had come short for funds and still did not devise any new tax nor endure to ask money from any one.  Instead, he exposed in the Forum all the heirlooms of the palace, even down to this or that piece of finery belonging to his wife, and solicited their purchase by any person so disposed.  This brought him a store of coin, which he distributed to the soldiers.  By success in the war he gained many times the amount in question, and he issued a proclamation to the effect than any one so disposed among the purchasers of the imperial property might return the article purchased and receive its value.  Some did so, but the majority declined.  And nobody was compelled to restore any object thus acquired.”]

he hurt no one by levies), and he necessarily laid out very large sums beyond the ordinary requirements.