VII. 8.] THE FIRST BOOK. 57 



8. There succeeded him the first Divi fratres, the two 

 adoptive brethren, Lucius Commodus Verus, son to ^Elius 

 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 Ccesares, 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 

 che 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. 



9. But for a tablet or picture of smaller volume (not 

 presuming to speak of your Majesty that liveth), in my 



