THE SCENE: Marcus Aurelius, the “philosopher emperor” shows his even-temperedness when he was urged to kill a general who was rumored to be plotting against him.
THE TEXT: I have read your letter, a worried letter rather than an imperial one and not in accordance with our times. For if the empire must be his by divine degree, we cannot slay him even if we wish. You know your great-grandfather’s saying: “No one kills his own successor.” And if this is not so, he himself of his own accord, without cruelty on our part, will fall into the toils of fate. Add that we cannot make guilty one whom no one has accused and whom, as you yourself say, the soldiers love. Moreover, in cases of treason it is natural that even those against whom it is proved seem to suffer rough justice. You yourself know what your grandfather Hadrian said: “The lot of emperors is wretched, for they cannot be believed in cases of attempted usurpation – unless they have been killed!” I have preferred, moreover, to quote the example as his rather than as Domitian’s (who is reported to have said this first); for in the case of tyrants even their good sayings do not have as much authority as they ought to have. Let him therefore keep his own ways, especially since he is a good general, and strict and brave and needed by the republic. As to what you say about taking heed for my children by his death; by all means let my children perish if Avidius Cassius should deserve to be loved more than they and if it profit the republic that Cassius rather than the children of Marcus should live.
- The Augustan History, Vulcacius Gallicanus, 4th Century AD
