13.  From Catulus[D] not to be indifferent when a friend finds fault, even if he should find fault without reason, but to try to restore him to his usual disposition; and to be ready to speak well of teachers, as it is reported of Domitius and Athenodotus; and to love my children truly.

    [A] Sextus of Chaeronea, a grandson of Plutarch, or nephew, as
    some say; but more probably a grandson.

    [B] Alexander was a Grammaticus, a native of Phrygia.  He wrote
    a commentary on Homer; and the rhetorician Aristides wrote a
    panegyric on Alexander in a funeral oration.

    [C] M. Cornelius Fronto was a rhetorician, and in great favor
    with Marcus.  There are extant various letters between Marcus
    and Fronto.

    [D] Cinna Catulus, a Stoic philosopher.

14.  From my brother[A] Severus, to love my kin, and to love truth, and to love justice; and through him I learned to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dion, Brutus;[B] and from him I received the idea of a polity in which there is the same law for all, a polity administered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed; I learned from him also + consistency and undeviating steadiness in my regard for philosophy; and a disposition to do good, and to give to others readily, and to cherish good hopes, and to believe that I am loved by my friends; and in him I observed no concealment of his opinions with respect to those whom he condemned, and that his friends had no need to conjecture what he wished or did not wish, but it was quite plain.

[A] The word brother may not be genuine.  Antoninus had no brother.  It has been supposed that he may mean some cousin.  Schultz in his translation omits “brother,” and says that this Severus is probably Claudius Severus, a peripatetic.

[B] We know, from Tacitus (Annal. xiii., xvi. 21; and other passages), who Thrasea and Helvidius were.  Plutarch has written the lives of the two Catos, and of Dion and Brutus.  Antoninus probably alludes to Cato of Utica, who was a Stoic.

15.  From Maximus[A] I learned self-government, and not to be led aside by anything; and cheerfulness in all circumstances, as well as in illness; and a just admixture in the moral character of sweetness and dignity, and to do what was set before me without complaining.  I observed that everybody believed that he thought as he spoke, and that in all that he did he never had any bad intention; and he never showed amazement and surprise, and was never in a hurry, and never put off doing a thing, nor was perplexed nor dejected, nor did he ever laugh to disguise his vexation, nor, on the other hand, was he ever passionate or suspicious.  He was accustomed to do acts of beneficence, and was ready to forgive, and was free from all falsehood; and he presented the appearance of a man who could not be diverted from right, rather than of a man who had been improved.  I observed, too, that no man could ever think that he was despised by Maximus, or ever venture to think himself a better man.  He had also the art of being humorous in an agreeable way.+