Cn ee ee eat 
Vil. 8.] | ‘THE FIRST BOOK. — <a 
8. There succeeded him the first Div? fratres, the two 
adoptive brethren, sin ec son to Allis 
Verus, who delighted much in the softer-kind of learning, 
and: was wont to call the poet Martial his Virgil; and 
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus; whereof the latter, who ob-. 
scured his colleague and survived him long, was named 
the Philosopher: who, as he excelled all the rest in 
learning, so he excelled them likewise in perfection of all 
royal virtues ; insomuch as Julianus the emperor, in his 
book intituled Cesares, being as a pasquil or satire to 
deride all his predecessors, feigned that they were all 
invited to a banquet of the gods, and Silenus the jester 
sat at the nether end of the table, and bestowed a scoff 
on every one as they came in; but when Marcus Philo- 
sophus came in, Silenus was gravelled and out of coun- 
tenance, not knowing where to carp at him; save at the - 
last he gave a glance at his patience towards his wife. 
And the virtue of this prince, continued with that of his 
predecessor, made the name of Antoninus so sacred in 
the world, that though it were extremely dishonoured 
in Commodus, Caracalla, and Heliogabalus, who all bare 
the name, yet when Alexander Severus refused the name 
because he was a stranger to the family, the senate with 
one acclamation said, Quomodo Augustus, sic et Antoninus. 
In such renown and veneration was the name of these 
two princes in those days, that they would have had it 
as a perpetual addition in all the emperors’ style. In this 
emperor’s time also the Church for the most part was 
in peace; so as in this sequence of six princes we do 
see the blessed effects of learning in sovereignty, painted 
forth in the greatest table of the world. } 
g. But for a tablet or picture of smaller volume (not 
presuming to speak of your Majesty that liveth), in my 
