RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Marcion, Marcionites Marcus Eremita
and after crushing the Marcomanni bore the cognomen Germanicus in 172, while three years later, after his expedition against the Iazygi, he termed himself Sarmaticus. In the latter year he made an expedition to Asia, returning by way of Smyrna and Athens, where he was initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries, and arrived in Rome in 176, when he celebrated a triumph over the Germans and Sarmatians. He then associated his son, Commodus, with him in the government, but in 177 both were called to Germany, and during this expedition Aurelius died, apparently of the plague.
Despite the fact that his reign was a period of almost unceasing war, Marcus Aurelius found time for literary activity. His philosophical standpoint was that of eclectic Stoicism, and the writings of Epictetus were his favorite reading; in religion he sought to avoid every form of folly, as he shunned all sophistry and pedantry in philosophy. His ideal of life and his efforts to attain it are given in his Meditations, but the extent of his knowledge of Christianity is uncertain. His view that the contempt of death manifested by the Christians was based on obstinacy was merely the general opinion of the philosophers of his period, and any apparent affinity between his Meditations and Christian thought is merely accidental and undesigned.
The position of the Church during his reign was practically what it had been under his predecessors, although local persecutions were more frequent and received encouragement in 176 by his stringent laws against superstitions and foreign religions. On the other hand he expressly confirmed Trajan's policy of pardon for all who should recant, and the tradition of his policy toward the Christians in the early Church was accordingly twofold. The older view, represented by Tertullian and Lactantius, ignores the sufferings of the Christians under the " good " emperor or refers them to the machinations of evil counselors, while the later tradition, as given by Sulpicius Severus, Chrysostom, and Orosius, brands his reign as the age of the fifth persecution. The most trustworthy records of the condition of the Church at this period are: the account of the martyrdom of Justin and his companions at Rome, written between 163 and 167; the Peregrinus Proteus of Lucian, composed shortly after 165; the letters of Dionysius of Corinth; the works of Melito of Sardis, especially his " Apology," written in the second half of the reign of Aurelius; the lost " Apologies " of Apollinaris and Miltiades, and the extant " Apology " of Athenagoras, composed in the closing years of the reign; the authentic account of the persecutions at Lyons and Vienne given by Eusebius, the most important and detailed source; the account of the martyrdom of Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonice; and scattered references to the Christians in the fragments of the older anti-Montanistic writers preserved by Eusebius, as well as in the works of Lucian, Aristides, Fronto, and Celsus. It is evident, from these sources, that the persecutions became more numerous in the latter part of the reign of Aurelius, and that the rule laid down by Trajan was not always followed, although the government sought to suppress the disorders and thus issued decrees which
the Christians construed as acts of toleration. The letter of Marcus Aurelius (usually appended to Justin Martyr's first " Apology " ; Eng. transl. in ANF, i. 187), dealing with the " thundering legion," is a forgery, though it may be based on a genuine letter. According to this the army under Marcus Aurelius was saved in the face of a vast army of Germans by answer to the prayer of the Christians in the shape of a refreshing rain which fell on the Romans but was a withering hail as it reached the Germans. The " thundering legion " long bore this title, but did not derive its name from this miracle. (A. Harnack.)
Bibliography: There is an excellent list of works in Baldwin, Dictionary, iii. 1, pp. 365-366. The editio princeps of the " Meditations " was by G. Xylander, Greek and Latin, Zurich, 1559; best ed., by T. Gataker, London, 1643, Cambridge, 1652, Eng. transl., by George Lang, London, 1880; late ed., by C. Cless, Berlin, 1900. Numerous transls. exist in English and continental languages. Among the sources are the Vita by Capitolinus; Dion Cassius, lxxi.; the letters of Marcus Cornelius Fronto (ed.
A. Mai, Milan, 1815, Rome, 1823); and the Letter of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons, cf. Eusebius, Hist, eccl., IV., xiv.— V., viii. The subject is treated in the works on the history of Rome; in those on the history of philosophy, e.g., by Ueberweg, Erdmann, and Windelband; in those on the persecutions of the Christians, in the works on the history of the early church; and in the classical dictionaries. Lives are by J. Capitolin, Paris, 1850; E. Renan, Paris, 1882, Eng. transl., London, n.d.;
B. Gabba, Milan, 1884; P. B. Watson, London, 1884. Consult further: L. M. Ripault, Histoire philosophique de Marcus Aurelius, etc., 5 vols., Paris, 1830; M. E. de Suckau, Ultude sur Marc-Aurele: sa vie et sa doctrine, Paris, 1857; A. No6l des Vergers, Essai sur Marc-Aurcle, Paris, 1860; M. Konigsbeck, De stoicismo Marci Antonini, Konigsberg, 1861; E. Zeller, Vortrage und Abhandlungen, pp. 82-177, Leipsic, 1865; A. Bodek, M. Aurelius Antonius als Freund und Zeitgenosse des Rabbi Jehuda ha- Nasi, Leipsic, 1868; F. W. Farrar, Seekers after God, London, 1891; L. Alston, Stoic and Christian in the 2nd Century. A Comparison of the ethical Teaching of Marcus Aurelius with that of contemporary and antecedent Christianity, London, 1906; Schaff, Church History, ii. 326-330.